Tshimanga not practicing, future at NU remains unclear

As Nebraska took the court on Sunday for its second practice since an overtime loss at Penn State, sophomore center Jordy Tshimanga was again nowhere to be found.

Since approaching head coach Tim Miles on Thursday - the day NU was scheduled to leave for State College, Pa. - about his desire to transfer due to frustrations over his season and role on the team, Tshimanga has now missed one game and the past two practices.

Miles gave the latest update on Sunday on where Tshimanga - who had started the first 18 games this season - stood regarding his future with the Huskers.

“I expect to meet Jordy Tshimanga at some point today or tomorrow and just get more clarification as to where he’s at,” Miles said. “Really, that’s all I can tell you for now. When this all irons itself out, we’ll be able to kind of complete the picture for you.”

Before Nebraska took on Penn State, Miles said on his pre-game radio show that he didn’t think the situation with Tshimanga would be a major distraction for the rest of his team.

After the Huskers were able to erase a 16-point second-half deficit before eventually falling in overtime to the Nittany Lions, Miles said he still didn't think the issue was something that would overly impact the players once they stepped on the court.

“I don’t think so,” Miles said. “Why we came out slow against Penn State? I’m not positive if that had an effect or not. It could’ve, but I wouldn’t say largely that it had a huge impact. Once you’re in the game and you’re in the battle, you just kind of take it as it goes.

“But I haven’t seen a lot of distraction that way. Probably more for the coaches than anybody.”

That said, Miles admitted he was blindsided by the potential transfer request of a player he had stuck with and supported all season despite a significant regression in his performance.

“I was really stunned,” Miles said. “We’ll see, though. I have not had a face-to-face with him since, so I look forward to sitting down with him again and seeing what’s going on. I know he’s incredibly frustrated with just everything, and he’s feeling like he’s not playing well. We’ve just got to see where he’s at.

“I’m a guy that if he needs to go, then I’m going support him, because I don’t have any ill will for a guy like Jordy. He’s a sweetheart. He lights people’s eyes up. He and (Isaiah) Roby, and get so many emails about those two guys and how they are in the airport or meeting a young kid at a tailgating thing or whatever it might be.”

As if the turbulence created by Tshimanga's situation wasn't rough enough, Miles came under more fire after Nebraska's loss at Penn State for his decision to sit leading scorer James Palmer for all but seven minutes in the second half and all of overtime.

Palmer had clearly struggled all night, shooting just 1-of-9 from the field for a season-low five points, and Miles said that also included some defensive mistakes that only compounded his poor outing.

Add all of that to the fact that the Huskers made their second-half comeback without Palmer on the floor, he had no regrets about keeping the standout junior on the bench even when the game was on the line.

“I took him out earlier in the game for about 45 seconds and then put him back in because he’d made a couple errors," Miles said. "Any time a guy goes down and makes an offensive error, or a couple of them, coupled with a defensive error, and we’re on the road, I usually want to get their attention.

"So we’ll either call a timeout or we’ll sub and just talk, really. I’ll say, ‘Here’s the issue, here’s what’s got to be solved, and it’s got to be solved now, all right? Next dead ball you’re going in for this guy.’ I just felt like even in the second half we were always missing on a defensive assignment or missing an easy shot. And quite frankly, we were making a run with other guys, so I just ran with them.”

While plenty of fans still question the decision to sit your best scorer and a player who's attempted 116 free throws this season - 54 more than any other Husker - Miles said Palmer would be back to being a key piece in NU's starting lineup next time out vs. Illinois on Monday.

“James is a go-to guy for us," Miles said. "I’m going to roll him out there and expect him to play great against Illinois and Michigan for us this week. It was just a tough night.”