Nebraska Basketball will have to be strong in these areas if they want to beat TCU. What an exciting couple of weeks it has been for Nebraska Basketball. After many people counted them out from the get-go, the Cornhuskers proved that March Madness is a great term to describe college basketball postseason play. From a thrilling Senior Day victory to an opening win in the NIT Tournament in front of a raucous crowd, this Nebraska Basketball team is showing that they do not have any quit in them. They will certainly need to show that resilience again on Sunday when they take on the top-seeded team in the entire NIT in TCU. Both teams played well in their last games. Nebraska Basketball defeated Butler by a slim 80-76 margin, while TCU rolled past Sam Houston State by a 82-69 margin. Nebraska Basketball needs to be mindful of a couple of things as they take on the Horned Frogs. First, they have tremendous scoring ability. Junior guard Desmond Bane led the team in the 2018-19 regular season with 15.2 points per contest. In his last game against Sam Houston State in the opening round of the tournament, Bane played well. He finished the game with 13 points and was on the verge of a double-double, adding nine rebounds as well. He also chipped in with three assists, proving himself to be a versatile player. Secondly, TCU has proven to be effective on the glass as well. One player that can take care of the rebounding duties is junior forward JD Miller. On the season, he averaged 6.6 rebounds per contest, and in the game against Sam Houston State, the senior from Dallas, Texas came up big. In 31 minutes, he recorded 15 points and eight rebounds. He also managed to swipe three steals as he proved to be a Swiss Army knife of sorts for the Horned Frogs. He will have to fill that role again if they want to win against a Nebraska Basketball team that has been surging as of late. Game Information NIT Game 2 : Nebraska vs. TCU When: 8:30 PM CST Where: Schollmaier Arena, Fort Worth, TX TV: ESPNU Stream: NCAA.com Key to the Game If Nebraska Basketball wants to win, they need to show resiliency. Not only do they need to show resiliency, they need to play as a team, just like they did against Butler. James Palmer wasn’t the only one who had a good night in front of a rocking Pinnacle Bank Arena. Isaiah Roby scored 28 points while Glynn Watson Jr. had 17 of his own. Tanner Borchardt and Roby proved to be monsters on the glass as they came up with seven and eight rebounds respectively. Against the top team in the entire tournament, they need to band together and play team basketball. Hero ball will not win this game. Isolated shots will not win this game. Playing together will win this game. The resiliency part will come into play if they fall behind. Again, TCU is not some pushover team. They are the top team in the tournament for a reason and they have a bunch of weapons at their disposal. They need to show heart and fight throughout the entirety of the game and not just for certain stretches. Even in the NIT, we are getting to the part of March where any team can beat you on any given night and any team is a tough matchup no matter the venue, the seeding, or the players on the roster. They have done a great job of showing fight over these past couple of weeks, seeming to rally around head coach Tim Miles as speculation continues to grow regarding his job status.<doc-sep>Trending: TCU has gone 9-12 after a 12-1 start. Last season, the Horned Frogs started 12-0 before finishing 9-12. Two years ago, an 11-1 start was followed by an 8-14 finish to the regular season before TCU won the NIT. The Horned Frogs have had trouble when picking on teams their own size after nonconference play. Forecasting: On paper, these are evenly matched teams. Nebraska is 48th in the NET while TCU is 52nd. The Huskers are 43rd in KenPom while TCU is 49th. TCU's strength of schedule is 45th while Nebraska's is 47th. Both spent time in the top 25 early in the season before late-season slides sent them tumbling. Both have fewer than 10 scholarship players available. Could be another tight one.<doc-sep>After an emotional win in Lincoln against Butler on Wednesday, the Huskers moved on in the NIT to take on the TCU Horned Frogs, a one seed in this tournament. It would be a tall task for Tim Miles and company, but they have shown lately they can play above their paltry record. James Palmer Jr. needed on 22 points to break the all-time Huskers scoring record. TCU jumped out to a fast 10-4 lead, but a 8-2 run fueled by Thorir Thorbjarnarson and Glynn Watson, Jr. put the Huskers up 14-12 with under 13 minutes to go in the first half. It would go back and forth until the teams were knotted up at 19 with nine to go. That’s when TCU jumped out on a 14-4 run to take a ten-point lead with four minutes to go. Up to this point, Palmer had not scored and he would finish the first half without any points, missing all ten of his shots. The Huskers tried to nip their way back in the first half behind Nebraska boys Tanner Borchardt and Johnny Trueblood, but lady luck kept looking TCU’s way. See: shot at the end of the first half, where a TCU player grabbed a miss and threw it behind his head to give the Horned Frogs an eight-point lead at halftime. The seocnd half started with Palmer finally getting on the board with a three-pointer, cutting the lead to five. TCU answered, and proceeded to get three more after tha, pushing the lead to 11. Palmer would can two more three in the first three minutes, but for every shot, TCU could answer. Borchardt cut it to six with 17 to go, but a fast-paced TCU offense who was in a groove tonight got it right back out to ten before you could blink. For the next 15 minutes, the lead never got smaller than nine, but was never above 13. TCU was keeping Tim Miles and company at arms length. Roby fouling out and getting ejected didn’t help, but he wasn;t as on fire as he was against Butler. Horned Frogs player Alex Robinson eventually stretched the lead out to 16 by the end of the game. Just like that, the season was over. In a game that encapsulated so much of the frustrations this season brought, it was a familiar sight in what was likely Tim Miles’ last game. Palmer ended with 19 on 7-25 shooting, falling just short of that top spot. Not to ignore, Horned Frog Desmond Bane dropped 30 points in the contest. To finish off the season, one final thank you to the Husker seniors who stuck with this team through its ups and downs. Especially Glynn, who experienced his own rollercoaster ride but should leave quite the legacy here in Lincoln. It will be a busy week ahead for the future of the Nebraska basketball program, but don’t forget to take a moment to look back on the memories of this players and this coach. There was some good stuff in there. Final: TCU 88, Huskers 72<doc-sep>FORT WORTH, Texas — A season that began with aspirations of playing in front of sold-out arenas and making history ended quietly in front of a few thousand fans in an old Texas cow town. Nebraska is done playing basketball in 2018-19 after a late Sunday night loss to TCU in the second round of the NIT. The Horned Frogs’ 88-72 victory left the Huskers with a season record of 19-17, and a long list of what-ifs and could-have-beens as they head into an uncertain offseason. Seven years to the day after he was announced as Nebraska's head coach in 2012, Tim Miles said after the game that as far as he knew, his job status remained unchanged, and he expects to meet with athletic director Bill Moos sometime in the coming days. "I've talked to Bill after the games. He's been great to me — congratulations, good battle — but I have not been privy to anything (regarding my job status) at this point in time," Miles said. NU isn’t scheduled to fly back to Lincoln until Monday morning. What happens in the coming days and weeks after that remains to be seen.<doc-sep>
Nebraska’s march through the NIT continues on Sunday night as the Huskers travel to Texas to take on TCU in the second round of the tournament. The game will tip off at 8:35 p.m. CT and will be televised on ESPNU. How to Watch/Listen Television: ESPNU Stream: WATCH ESPN App Radio: Husker Sports Network Online Radio: Available online at Huskers.com, on the Huskers App and on TuneIn Radio and the TuneIn Radio App. Projected Starters Nebraska Glynn Watson Jr.: 6-foot, 180 pounds, (13.5 PPG, 4.0 RPG) James Palmer Jr.: 6-foot-6, 207 pounds, (19.7 PPG, 4.2 RPG) Thorir Thorbjarnarson: (6-6, 206): 1.8 PPG, 2.1 RPG Tanner Borchardt: 6-foot-8, 250 pounds, (2.9 PPG, 4.4 RPG) Isaiah Roby: 6-foot-8, 230 pounds, (12.1 PPG, 7.1 RPG) TCU Alex Robinson: 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, (12.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG) Desmond Bane: 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, (15.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG) Kouat Noi: 6-foot-7, 205 pounds, (13.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG) JD Miller: 6-foot-6, 195 pounds, (10.8 PPG, 6.6 RPG) Kevin Samuel: 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, (7.6 PPG, 6.9 RPG) The Matchup Nebraska hits the road for the second round of the NIT on Sunday, traveling to Fort Worth, Texas, to take on TCU. TCU is the top seed in Nebraska’s portion of the bracket, and finished off Sam Houston State in the first round of the NIT on Wednesday. The Horned Frogs finished 9-12 down the stretch after a strong start, and now only have eight scholarship players available. TCU will get up and down the floor and really try to push the pace whether it’s off a miss or a make. The Horned Frogs averaged 74.3 points per game, which ranked third in the Big 12. Nebraska could have a bit more depth against TCU. Freshman Brady Heiman, who didn’t play against Butler, has practiced leading up to Sunday’s game, and Nebraska head coach Tim Miles said that Thomas Allen could be available in an emergency against TCU. Expect Nebraska to roll with its rotation that has worked so well in the past few games, but having bodies could benefit Nebraska. TCU’s coaching staff has plenty of familiarity with Tim Miles’ style of play. TCU assistant Ryan Miller played for Miles at Northern State University, and frequently handled the scout when he coached against Miles’ teams at Colorado State. Controlling the tempo will be key for the Big Red, which is still playing short-handed. Here’s how good Johnny Trueblood has been since getting into Nebraska’s rotation late in the season: Trueblood sports a +54 plus/minus over the last four games, which spans 135 minutes of action. Prior to the Iowa game in the regular-season finale, Trueblood had played just 32 minutes all season and 61 minutes in his collegiate career. The ESPN Basketball Power Index sees a tight game on Sunday night. The outlet has TCU as a 2.3-point favorite, with a 58.8 percent win probability. If Nebraska wins, the Huskers would face Creighton in Omaha on Tuesday in a game that would be televised on ESPN.