What an epic disaster in Evanston.
Until it wasn't.
Nebraska trailed by 20 points early in the second half to Northwestern on Sunday, but behind a wild comeback, the Huskers wound up beating the Wildcats 68-64 inside Welsh-Ryan Arena, a building that, until today, Nebraska hadn't won a basketball game in since February 2014.
The win gets Nebraska back in the win column following last Thursday's setback at home against No. 25 Maryland. The Huskers' record improves to 17-9, 7-8 B1G. Northwestern drops to 13-13, 4-11.
Here are three quick thoughts on the Husker win.
It was an epically-bad start for Nebraska
For such an important game against a Quad 1 opponent on the road that was down two starters to season-ending injuries, in a half-empty arena with an almost non-existent student section, it's mind boggling how badly the Huskers played on Sunday.
At one point, Northwestern guard Ty Berry was outscoring Nebraska's entire team 10-9. But Berry isn't the story for this first thought — the Huskers' brutally-bad first-half effort in the paint and on the boards is. They just didn't show up at all where it mattered most in the first 20 minutes.
Key words being: "first 20 minutes."
Nebraska put itself in a deep hole right away because of its inability to box out and grab rebounds. In the first half the Huskers were out-rebounded 29-11 overall and, even more eye-catching, 14-2 in offensive boards. That helped result in the Wildcats holding a 12-4 edge in second-chance points.
Nebraska trailed 36-21 at halftime. It was the Huskers' fewest points scored in a first half this season.
New half, new team? The Huskers had enough left in the tank to complete an improbable comeback
Credit to Nebraska — for such a terrible and, some would say, embarrassing, first half, the Huskers were a different team in the second.
Fred Hoiberg's team outscored Chris Collins' team 47-28 in the second half. It was a 54-all tie at the 6:05-mark and Nebraska gained its first lead of the game, 59-58, after an old-fashioned 3-point play from who other than Braxton Meah with 3:56 left.
Nebraska's last 14 points were scored by Meah and Brice Williams, who scored the final five points from the free-throw line to seal the win.
It had to have been a loud and emotional locker room at halftime judging by Hoiberg's hand
There's little room to hide these days with TV cameras everywhere. First, Rivals' Northwestern publisher, Louie Vaccher, saw this from Fred Hoiberg during a first-half timeout:
Then, coming out of the half, Hoiberg appeared to have his right hand wrapped. Obviously, the Nebraska locker room was likely filled with plenty of emotion and, let's call it motivation.
After the win, the team's X account had some fun with it:
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