Nebraska’s 2016-17 campaign got off to a fairly rocky start early on in Sunday night’s opener vs. Sacramento State. Luckily for the Huskers, Glynn Watson was already in mid-season form.
While NU sputtered through the first 20 minutes and only led by three at halftime, Watson carried the load from the opening tip and eventually his teammates helped pick up the slack in an 83-61 victory at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
The sophomore guard matched his previous career high with 17 points in his first 14 minutes on the floor, and he ended up with a game-high 23 points, six assists, five rebounds, three steals and zero turnovers for a player efficiency rating of +32.
Four other Huskers ended up joining Watson by scoring in double figures, including 20 points and five boards by senior guard Tai Webster.
"I just tried to play aggressive and execute our game plan," Watson said. "That's basically what I was trying to do, was be aggressive and get my teammates open. I had open shots and I took them. That was basically it."
Nebraska opened the game with a 9-2 lead, but that momentum would quickly fade after a slew of missed layups, turnovers, bad box outs and overall poor offensive execution for most of the remainder of the half.
Sacramento State refused to go away and eventually tied the game at 31-31 with just over two minutes to go. An And-1 by Watson helped NU take a 36-33 lead and a little bit of breathing room going into halftime.
Watson ended up matching his career high with 17 points in just 14 minutes of action in the first half, and he served as the lone bright spot in an otherwise ugly first 20 minutes for the Huskers.
In all, Nebraska shot just 16-of-39 (41 percent) from the field, committed five turnovers, and only out-rebounded SSU 19-18.
"We knew tonight we'd get a good game out of this," head coach Tim Miles said. "We got pressed, we saw some zone, we saw some man, we saw some different looks. I was really happy with the outcome."
Some second-half adjustments seemed to give the Huskers the spark they were looking for, as they opened the half on a 22-9 run and made 10 of their first 12 shots in the process.
Nebraska eventually pushed its lead to 58-44, which was enough to get Sacramento State head coach Brian Katz fired up enough to earn a technical foul for arguing with the refs.
It certainly wasn’t pretty the rest of the way, but the Huskers did what they needed to do and led by as many 26 points before eventually closing out a 22-point victory.
"Coach got on us in the locker room, and I felt like every guy in the locker room just took it personally to take on the challenge and pick up the standard," Webster said. "Just how sluggish we were. We were giving up too many open shots and too many second chances for them.
"We didn't really turn the ball over, but we weren't really aggressive with it, either. We were just kind of letting the game come to us, and we need to be aggressive on offense."
When all was said and done NU shot a much better 57.7-percent from the field in the second half and held a 43-29 edge on the glass overall.
The Huskes won’t wait long to get back to action, as they return to face the University of Mary (N.D.) on Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. tip on Big Ten Network.
3-point play
1. Watson has grown up
Easily the most encouraging aspect of Nebraska's win was the way Watson stepped up and led the way when the rest of his team was struggling to find its rhythm. He has clearly come a long way over the past calendar year just in his overall maturity and confidence on the court, and that is going to be absolutely huge for Nebraska to have that in their floor general as the competition continues to pick up.
2. Jack McTrey might be real
So far the sample size is only two games (and just one that actually counts), but the way Jack McVeigh has been shooting from beyond the arc has been one of the most positive sights for Nebraska so far. Clearly lacking a proven 3-point shooter going into the year, McVeigh is now 5-for-10 from downtown in the last two outings, including going 3-of-5 on Sunday night. Two of his 3-pointers vs. Sacramento State came from the corner against a zone defense. If that can hold up, it will be a huge relief for the Huskers.
3. Lineups are still a work in progress
Miles clearly came into this game with a plan of experimenting with a number of different lineup combinations to help get a better idea of what groups work together and which don't. Unfortunately that helped play a role in the Huskers' rough start in the first half, as they never found their groove through the first 20 minutes. When NU came back out after halftime, it used the same lineup (Watson, Webster, McVeigh, Michael Jacobson and Ed Morrow) for the first 8:09 of the second half. It's no coincidence that was when Nebraska put the game away.
And-1
"At the beginning of the year I met with our sophomores... I told the guys, I said 'Listen, you four sophomores especially have logged more minutes than a lot of juniors in high-major basketball, and I expect you to play like veterans.' I think that's what we saw tonight. We saw a lot of development from those guys, and we saw excellent play."
- Head coach Tim Miles on the play of his sophomore class vs. SSU
