Huskers hoping Tshimanga can end early slump

Jordy Tshimanga was the last player off the Pinnacle Bank Arena court following Nebraska’s practice on Tuesday, staying late to work on his post moves with assistant coach Jim Molinari.

The 6-foot-11, 268-pound sophomore center is trying to do anything he can to snap out of a rough slump that has lasted through the Huskers’ first 12 games of the season.

Though he’s started every game, Tshimanga is only averaging 15.7 minutes per game, is shooting just 31.1 percent from the field, and has committed more fouls (38) than he’s scored points (35).

Head coach Tim Miles is obviously well aware of the former Rivals150 prospect’s struggles, but he’s still holding out hope that Tshimanga can get back to the level he was at for the final 11 games of last season.

“There’s no doubt there’s a little bit of a crisis of confidence with Jordy,” Miles said. “But he’s got such a great attitude, he’s a willing and eager learner, that he comes in ready to go every practice. He was that way today, and I’m sure he’ll be that way tomorrow for the game.”

The coaching staff is doing its best to build Tshimanga’s confidence back up in practice, and Miles said he and fellow center Duby Okeke have had great battles all year.

Miles has also been trying to get Tshimanga to focus more on taking quicker, higher-percentage shots and not trying to do everything through prolonged post moves over defenders.

As of Tuesday, Miles said he had no plans to take Tshimanga out of the starting lineup for Wednesday night’s game vs. Texas-San Antonio. However, that decision might not be much further away should Tshimanga’s slump continue.

“We’ll see how the start of the game goes tomorrow night,” Miles joked, somewhat.

Senior guard Evan Taylor, maybe the top vocal leader on the team, said he’s tried to help Tshimanga get back on track by picking him up through encouragement.

“I talked to him today before practice,” Taylor said. “He was like, ‘Some of this stuff I’m not confident in’, and I was like, ‘Just ask me, bro.’ We’re in this together. I want to see him do well just like I want to see all my teammates do well.

“Just because he’s not playing as well as everybody knows he can right now, I just tell him, ‘keep going, keep going.’ Because you never know, tomorrow could be his breakthrough game, and he could take off running from there.

“In sports, you’ve just got to keep working hard no matter what. You’re playing well, you’re playing bad, just keep working hard.”

***Miles said there was still some hangover lingering from Nebraska’s 73-72 loss to Kansas when the team returned to practice on Monday. However, he said Tuesday’s effort was much better.

“It took a while to recover, no doubt,” Miles said. “Yesterday was really sluggish, and you could see the guys were hanging their heads a little bit. The aftermath, so to speak. But I thought today was clearly better.”

***Miles said UTSA was a potent offensive team that featured a slew of scoring options and loved to turn games into shootouts. The Roadrunners currently rank 19th nationally at 86.6 points per game and lead Conference-USA in eight offensive categories.

“They play so free an easy on offense,” Miles said. “Any shot is a good shot as long as they get it up there in a hurry, and that’s scary.”

***That said, Miles said he made sure to bring up Indiana’s 20-point loss to IPFW on Monday night as an example of what happens when you take a team for granted and don’t come ready to play.

“It doesn’t matter,” Miles said. “We’ve seen it on our own floor. When you give a team some confidence and let them hang around, it’s going to be trouble.”

***Taylor said the team has been rallying around each other and staying positive since the Kansas loss, but admitted that defeat was harder to swallow than the others.

“I feel like Kansas was the biggest game in PBA history,” Taylor said. “I know ‘No Sit Sunday’ was big, but we had a chance to really put our program on the map. With that tough five-game stretch, if we could’ve got three of them…

“Everything happens for a reason, and at the end of the at you’ve just got to work. Win or lose, you’ve got to work the same.”

***With two quality wins over Boston College and Minnesota and two close losses to Creighton and Kansas, Taylor said he thinks Nebraska is capable of playing with any team on any night.

“I feel like we can beat any team in the country, and I mean that with all seriousness,” Taylor said.

***Nebraska only shot a total of 11 free throws in its losses to Creighton and Kansas, and Taylor said the Huskers had to do much better at getting to the foul line if they’re going to do well in league play.

“Free throws, especially in big games, those are free points,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to get fouled more, myself included. That opens up the floor for driving and kicking out, and just keeping the defense honest knowing that we can go to the rim and get fouled and make our free throws, that’s important.”