The Huskers were completely dominated, out played and out coached by Penn State, 89-72 on Wednesday night, dropping their record to 17-10 and 7-9 in conference play.
From tipoff, it was clear that the Huskers we’re not ready to play against Penn State, committing six turnovers in the first 3 minutes and 22 seconds of game time.
This is not the first time that the Huskers looked like they didn’t belong in a big road game, despite defeating the Northwestern Wildcats by 4 last Sunday, Nebraska trailed the Wildcats by 20 in the second half.
Both offensively and defensively, it was a total disaster for the Huskers.
Many times, the Huskers were able to drive the ball into the paint, but consistently found themselves passing it out to the corner, searching for a three.
Yes, the Nittany Lions had good height in their lineup, but it looked to be more like a physical issue more than anything, Penn State was far and away more physical than Nebraska.
Last years Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Ace Baldwin Jr. proved troublesome for the Huskers, tying his season high in steals with 6.
For the Huskers, Andrew Morgan was the most efficient player for the Huskers, shooting 8-8 from the field and finishing 18 points.
Connor Essegian lead the team in scoring with 20 points on 4-9 shooting from three, while Brice Williams added 17 points and 5 assists.
NCAA Tournament Worries?
This loss isn’t going to necessarily hurt the Huskers, but it hurts them in the fact that their schedule is very difficult from here on out.
#12 Michigan comes to PBA on Monday night and Minnesota will be here next Saturday.
After that, the Huskers will hit the road to take on Ohio State, a far more difficult road game than Penn State or Northwestern was, while finishing off their season against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Senior Day.
The Hawkeyes saw two of their starters in Josh Dix and Payton Sandfort reach 30 points or more in their January matchup with the Huskers, while combining for 13 threes.
It has been a struggle for the Huskers defending the three as of late, and Dix and Sandfort are not the players you want to face with a struggling defense.
The magic number still may be two, but a 17 point road loss to the last placed team in the Big Ten Conference is going to affect the Huskers resume probably more than we though it would.
As of now, this Huskers team is safely in the NCAA tournament, their resume is simply too strong to be left out if the season were to end today, but that only puts more emphasis on these remaining five regular season games.