Nebraska is coming off its biggest win of the season, but doesn’t expect an emotional letdown when the No. 13 Cornhuskers play at Ohio State on Monday.
The Cornhuskers (14-0, 3-0 Big Ten) defeated No. 9 Michigan State 58-56 on Friday before a raucous home crowd in a physical, fiery heavyweight matchup.
But in the Big Ten, there is little time to celebrate. The attitude afterward suggested Nebraska will still have the proverbial chip on its shoulder against the Buckeyes (10-3, 2-1).
“We’ve got a long season and we’ve got to keep the mentality of every single game we’ve got to prove that this isn’t a fluke and not just a hot streak and we can go cold,” Nebraska forward Rienk Mast said. “We’ve just got to stay poised and keep proving people wrong.
“You’ve got to stay even-keel. How do you do that? Take it one game at a time.”
The Buckeyes may be thinking of themselves in a comparable manner. They could have been counted out after trailing by 15 points late in the first half on Friday at Rutgers, but a spirited rally gave them an 80-73 victory.
Expect Ohio State to attack the Cornhuskers with star guard Bruce Thornton leading the way. He helped the Buckeyes to victory with 20 points and 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season (one was points and assists) and sixth of his four-year career.
“He just finds a way round to impact winning,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “I challenged him throughout the game. I challenged him to get some rebounds and he ends up with 10 rebounds.
“I mean, he’s the ultimate guy who cares about winning and doing whatever it takes to win. I thought he had some huge, huge plays for us while the game was in the balance in the second half and also had some big-time defense for us.”
The Buckeyes will have to find a way to contain the 6-foot-10 Mast, who made 6 of 13 3-pointers and grabbed seven rebounds (he also swatted three shots after registering just two blocks in Nebraska’s first 12 games).
One possibility to slow Mast and Pryce Sandfort is switching to a zone defense as Diebler did briefly to stop a run by Rutgers’ Tariq Francis, who scored seven points on three straight possessions. The Buckeyes were able to cool him off and gain control of the game before reverting to their usual man-to-man effectively down the stretch.
“Making the switch to zone was impactful,” Diebler said.
No matter what defense the Cornhuskers face, coach Fred Hoiberg said the key to success will be improving their inside game. Nebraska made just 4 of 11 layups and hit 5 of 20 shots inside the arc overall. The Cornhuskers made up the difference by hitting 13 of 37 (35.1%) on 3-point attempts.
“We shot 35%. Shoot, we’ll take that,” Hoiberg said. “Other than the threes, we were not very efficient. It’s kind of been the opposite lately. We’ve been pretty efficient inside the arc, so hopefully we’ll put it together and we have both once we go on the road.
“It was a great win for our program, but we’ve got to get past that and move on to Ohio State.”
