Huskers no match for No. 18 Auburn in 99-68 defeat

ATLANTA - A nightmare week for Nebraska was punctuated with a 99-68 blowout loss to No. 18 Auburn at the Holiday Hoopsgiving event at State Farm Arena on Saturday.

Coming off a 35-point loss to Michigan in their Big Ten home opener on Tuesday night and fighting through a run of illness that spread through the team, the Huskers were dominated by the Tigers in every sense.

An 8-7 deficit after the first six minutes quickly turned into a 20-point margin after AU broke the game open with a 22-4 run. Nebraska fell behind by as many as 23 points late in the first half and never came within 14 the rest of the game.

Nebraska shot just 12-of-23 on layups and committed a season-high 20 turnovers, which Auburn converted into 30 points. The Tigers scored 48 points in the paint and held a 27-4 edge in fast-break points.

The game was competitive to start, but then Nebraska missed nine of 10 shots and didn’t make a field goal for nearly six minutes.

The avalanche continued as a layup by KD Johnson made it 42-19 with 3:45 left in the first half for Auburn’s largest lead yet.

The Huskers showed some life with a quick 7-0 run that trimmed a 21-point deficit down to 55-41 early in the second half. But eight straight points from Wendell Green Jr. - including a heat-check 35-foot 3-pointer - put the Tigers back up 68-47 with 11:24 to go.

It only got worse from there, as that turned into an 18-1 Auburn run capped by a layup by Walker Kessler that made it a 30-point margin with eight minutes still to play.

Derrick Walker posted his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds while also tying season bests in assists (4), steals (2), and blocks (2). C.J. Wilcher added a career-high 17 points off the bench, while Bryce McGowens scored 14.

Heralded freshman Jabari Smith led Auburn with a game-high 21 points while Green hit four 3-pointers and finished with 19 points. The Tigers shot 51.3 percent from the field and 45.2 percent on 3-pointers (14-of-31) while assisting on 26 of their 39 made baskets.

1. Where do you even start?

Nebraska basketball is an absolute mess right now.

In getting absolutely blasted in two straight games this week, all of the Huskers’ warts were exposed in the worst way. Now, they’re an extremely flawed team and appear to have zero confidence.

During pre-game warmups, the body language around the coaches and players looked like a group that expected to lose and lose big. It felt like NU had already resigned to defeat.

The game certainly played out that way, as the Huskers had no answer for anything Auburn did on either end of the floor. As soon as the Tigers went on their first run, NU’s players started hanging their heads.

Hoiberg used every timeout in the first and second halves, yet nothing he or his staff said did much of anything to solve the problems.

We’re 11 games into the 2021-22 season, and it feels like Nebraska has already checked out. That’s a serious problem for Hoiberg.

2. The offense has to change

To be fair, Nebraska wasn’t even able to hold a full practice between the Michigan loss and Saturday because of travel and players missing time with illnesses.

But considering what we’ve seen over the first 11 games, the Huskers cannot continue to do the same things with the basketball and expect to be successful.

Once again, NU struggled with its 3-point shooting, going 7-of-22 from behind the arc and 2-for-10 in the first half. Nebraska has now missed 42 of its past 51 threes going back to the Michigan game, shooting a combined 21 percent from deep in the past two losses.

The Huskers also turned it over 20 times and had four scoring droughts of at least three minutes, including two that went more than five minutes.

Hoiberg originally planned to make some schematic changes offensively in the two days before playing Auburn, but the inability to practice due to illness put those plans on hold.

Before NU returns to action against Kansas State next Saturday, there better be some significant wrinkles made on offense.

3. CJ Wilcher was a bright spot

There wasn’t much at all for Nebraska to feel good about as it walked off the State Farm Arena floor, but Wilcher’s bounce-back performance was at least somewhat of a bright spot.

The second-year freshman guard had been NU’s most consistent 3-point shooter to start the season, hitting better than 42-percent from behind the arc over the first seven games.

But Wilcher suddenly went ice cold in the Huskers’ first road game at North Carolina State, where he went 1-of-8 from the field and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts.

That slump carried over into the next two games at Indiana and vs. Michigan, where he shot a combined 2-for-12 and was 1-of-9 on threes.

Saturday was a much better showing for the former Xavier transfer, as he set a career-high with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting vs. Auburn, including going 4-of-6 from 3-point range.