Box Score: Minnesota 69, Nebraska 61
Photo Showcase: Minnesota at Nebraska
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LINCOLN — It was anything but a Super Sunday for the Nebraska men’s basketball team.
The Huskers made a mess in their own building, watching a one-point halftime lead vanish when they missed 17 of their first 21 shots in the second half of a 69-61 loss to Minnesota, the ninth-place team in the Big Ten.
The setback was NU’s sixth at home this season — the most of any league team. And there wasn’t much interest.
According to World-Herald research, the crowd of 6,683 was the fifth-smallest for a conference game in the 35 years of the Devaney Center. The smallest was 6,387 against Texas A&M in 2003.
The postgame interview room was an uneasy place.
Nebraska guard Brandon Richardson, who has invested five years in the program, spoke quietly but bluntly about the lack of team play Sunday.
“When we’re together, we’re a tough ballclub and we’re tough to beat,” he said. “But when we start going our separate ways, bad things happen. Today was an example of it.”
Adding to the misery for Nebraska (11-11, 11th in the Big Ten at 3-8) was the absence of center Jorge Brian Diaz.
NU coach Doc Sadler said Diaz’s chronically sore feet have worsened, and that the 6-foot-11 junior averaging 8.6 points and 4.3 rebounds might miss the rest of the season.
Diaz has seen multiple doctors as far away as North Carolina for treatment of misaligned Achilles tendons and plantar fasciitis. Sadler said on Sunday morning that he called medical people he knows at the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets for suggestions.
“I would say it’s going to be a long shot to see Brian play anymore here this season,” Sadler said. “His feet are just killing him.
“He can’t play. He can’t walk. You can’t compete at this level with your feet killing you. He has tried hard, but emotionally he is frustrated.”
The rest of the Huskers suffered headaches while watching shot after shot after shot bound away in the second half after hitting 59.1 percent (13 of 22) the first half.
Minnesota (17-7, 5-6) is middle of the pack in the Big Ten in scoring defense and field-goal defense. But the Gophers looked like the Iron Curtain following a halftime defensive change to switching on screens and taking away backdoor cuts.
After Caleb Walker hit a shot on the first possession of the second half to put Nebraska up 35-32 with 19:32 to play, the Huskers’ next made field goals came at 14:11, 6:38 and 4:57.
By then, Minnesota had built a 10-point lead and comfortably held it to the end.
“I’m very disappointed in our toughness to grind things out today, on offense and defense,” Sadler said. “I don’t think we had the mindset you have to have in league play to know it’s going to be a tough game.
“We didn’t have it in us today. For whatever reason, I have no idea.”
Minnesota’s leading scorer was reserve guard Chip Armelin, who had 15 points and five rebounds. His season averages were 6.2 and 2.0.
The Gophers also got strong play from backup center Elliott Eliason. The redshirt freshman out of Chadron, Neb., had six points and four rebounds in 17 minutes.
Nebraska got 18 points from senior guard Bo Spencer, but 10 of those came in the final 2:41 when the game was out of hand.
The Huskers have seven Big Ten games left, four on the road. They likely will be underdogs in all but one, leading to a question if Sadler is worried about “losing his team.”
“I don’t know what ‘losing this team’ means,” he said. “Losing games or losing effort? I’m worried about losing games, for sure.
“But I think there is too much character on this team for them to quit.”
Contact the writer:
402-444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com
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