NU men’s basketball scores record 90 points on TCU

Daily Nebraskan

Even though the Nebraska Cornhuskers scored more points on Saturday than they had in any game since 2006, coach Doc Sadler was upset with his team’s defense after a 90-77 win over Texas Christian.

Sadler said he felt that TCU dictated the tempo and that his team took too long to meet the Horned Frogs’ level of play.

An early first half switch to full-court pressure slowed down TCU, forcing the Horned Frogs to put more thought into bringing the ball upcourt and preventing the open jumpshots that were occurring earlier in the game.

The full-court switch wasn’t planned, but Sadler wanted to see some tenacity from his team.

“I have got to find a way to get this team aggressive instead of sitting back on their heels and waiting for things to happen,” Sadler said. “We have to go after people.”

The Huskers’ pressure defense got after the Horned Frogs, resulting in 18 turnovers. Nebraska was able to convert those mistakes into 23 points.

Offensively, the Huskers found a way to give Jorge Brian Diaz the ball often. Diaz did his part, converting on nine of 10 attempts and scoring 22 points. The lanky 6-11 center gave the Huskers the inside presence they lacked in a loss to Saint Louis last week.

With Diaz inside, the Nebraska guards were able to rotate the ball around the top of the key and pull the TCU players away from basket, before dumping it inside for an easy Diaz layup.

Diaz wasn’t in the starting lineup because he missed Thursday’s practice after taking a shot to the mouth against Saint Louis on Wednesday night.

“It was great to have him back,” Sadler said. “He played really well.”

Brandon Richardson was the player who took Diaz’s spot in the lineup and finished with 15 points. Sadler wanted to get the sophomore guard into the game because of his energy. The guard rewarded his coach with four steals.

Despite the good play by Diaz and Richardson, no player had a day quite like Sek Henry’s.

The senior finished with 11 points but added 11 assists to make him the first Husker to record a double-double since 2007. He came close to a triple-double with seven rebounds. Henry said he just wanted to shake off the team’s performance in Saint Louis. He said that he and fellow senior Ryan Anderson did a better job of leading the team on Saturday, something that the two of them will work on throughout the season.

“A lot of times, Ryan (Anderson) and I don’t say anything,” Henry said. “We just try to lead by example, just by going hard, but you need to communicate with your teammates and show them what they need to do or tell them what they need to do.”

Henry didn’t want to revel in the win, instead he said he was happy to get it, but the game still showed that the Huskers have a lot to work on.

“I still think we have to do better defensively,” Henry said. “They did score 77 points.”

He said TCU’s post players did a good job in transition, opening themselves up for better looks. Sadler concurred and wasn’t happy about it.

“We gave up 27 points in transition,” Sadler said. “I think that is an all-time high.”

Sadler said people will look at Nebraska’s 90 points as improvement, but the coach doesn’t care about the highest offensive output in his four-year tenure. He said he knows his team can score, but right now, he doesn’t know whether they can defend.

“I think the frustrating and scary thing is to know how hard we worked on defense and that is all we got,” Sadler said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. There is not going to be any game that isn’t going to be new for us. That is where we are at.”

michaelschaefer@dailynebraskan.com