One of the last teams in the country to suffer its first loss, No. 9 Nebraska will try to get back to its winning ways when it hosts last-place Penn State in a Big Ten Conference game on Saturday afternoon in Lincoln, Neb.
Since starting 20-0, the Cornhuskers (22-4, 11-4) have dropped four of six to fall into a three-way tie for third place in the Big Ten.
The Huskers’ latest loss was a 57-52 setback Tuesday night at Iowa, which saw Nebraska post its lowest point total of the season – close to 27 points shy of the Huskers’ season average.
“We can’t hang our heads, we can’t sulk after this one,” said Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg, who had a brief altercation in the postgame handshake line when one of the Iowa students storming the court approached him. “We’ve got to find a way to regroup.”
Penn State (11-16, 2-14) lost by 85-72 Wednesday at home to Rutgers, its eighth double-digit loss in Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions also have pushed some of the league’s best, including a two-point home loss to No. 1 Michigan on Jan. 6, but slow starts have gotten in their way all season.
“If I knew it, we would keep fixing it and keep addressing it,” Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said. “Some of it is matchups. Some of it is turnovers. I really think the games where we got off to a good start and were in position to play better … is when we took care of the ball.”
Penn State turns the ball over 10 times per game in Big Ten play — which ranks in the middle of the pack — but Nebraska forces 13 turnovers per game.
Nebraska, on the other hand, struggles against physical teams. The Huskers’ inability to rebound well has been a big part of their recent struggles. Four of Nebraska’s six worst offensive rebounding games have come in losses, which leads to worse showings on the defensive end.
“We were better in the last game (against Northwestern), but in two of the last three (before that) we weren’t good,” Hoiberg said.
Nebraska junior Pryce Sandfort, who was among seven Big Ten players named to the national Naismith Trophy Late-Season Team, already has set the school’s single-season record for 3-pointers with 90. He’s shooting exactly 40% from the perimeter and the Cornhuskers as a team are shooting 35.6%, but they were just 5 of 24 at Iowa.
Penn State ranks next-to-last in league play in 3-point shooting (29.5%) and last in 3-point defense (41.2%). The Nittany Lions surrender a league-high 10.5 3-pointers per game to Big Ten foes.
The Nittany Lions missed the Big Ten Tournament last season when only 15 of 18 teams were invited. This season the entire membership will play in Chicago, but finishing in the bottom four during the regular season means needing to win six games in six days to get the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
For Nebraska, finishing in the top four would give it a bye until the quarterfinals and leave it needing only three wins to claim the title. The Cornhuskers are a lock to make the NCAA field for the second time in three seasons, but their potential seed has dipped.
Nebraska is the only power-conference school that has yet to win an NCAA Tournament game.
