For the second time in the last three games, Kansas was held under a point per possession. Unlike the Michigan game however, this one came down to the opponent more than missing shots. This surprised me before I looked it up, but Nebraska is the 13th best defensive team in the country this year. And what's more they are the 3rd best in terms of two point defense. Kansas's defense is better than the Huskers' on a PPP basis, but far worse in terms of two point defense.
So offensively we certainly weren't very good, but defensively we were pretty good. Nebraska put up just a 38.5% eFG, and they shot less than 40% from two. Our defense forced Nebraska to turn it over just slightly more than their season average, but we turned it over on close to a 4th of our possessions. Not good. Though we shot 33% from three, our 37.5% from three on the season is still good, though I wish we got some more of our points from three (about 25%, 223rd in the country). But regardless, there isn't much to say about yesterday's game other than the fact that we just plain didn't play well and are pretty lucky to come away with a win.
- Marcus Morris had another good game, putting up a 16 and 11 with a 72.2% eFG.
- Speaking of good games, Tyrel Reed also had 16 and had 3 rebounds and 3 assists to go with it. He also didn't turn it over once. Reed went 4-7 from three and I think he's starting to find his stroke a bit.
- Thomas Robinson only played 15 minutes, but his presence turned the game around in the second half, highlighted by a pair of three point play opportunities. He had 9 points on 4-6 shooting (all from two), 5 rebounds and 3 blocks.
- Saw a lot of panning of Tyshawn, and while he didn't have the greatest game, it wasn't terrible either. He made his only 3, and played good defense: Nebraska's starting guards had eFGs of 50% and 16.6% respectively. It wasn't his best game, but for some reason every bad moment that Tyshawn has gets magnified.
- Josh Selby, on the other hand, was awful. He played only 13 minutes, very few of them in the second half, and turned it over 4 times, while only making 1 of his 4 shots from the field (1-2, 0-2). I don't think this team needs Selby to be at his best to make a Final Four run, but having him play like this doesn't help.
- Brady didn't score, but he found ways to impact the game in other ways, dishing out 3 assists, grabbing a steal, 2 rebounds and even blocking a shot. He played pretty good defense and I think really settled the game down for Kansas in the second half.
- Markieff had just 7 and 7 in 23 minutes of play, hampered by foul trouble the whole time. He was 3-5 from two, but missed both his threes and is now 9-26 from beyond the arc this year.