Scouting report

[GreenBat]

The contest against UAPB will be the fourth consecutive home contest for the Huskers and the first of three games

in six days this week. Following the matchup with the Golden Lions, NU makes a quick turnaround with a game

against North Texas at the Devaney Center on Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. The matchup will be the fourth in series

history between the Huskers and Mean Green, but the first meeting since 1989. NU is 3-0 in the series overall.

Entering the season, Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said that the thought the Huskers would be a solid

shooting team. Through the first three games of the season, Sadler's prediction has been an understatement.

According to ESPN.com, the Huskers' rank second in the nation in field-goal percentage (through Nov. 24) by hitting

59.7 percent (77-of-129) from the field. The Huskers have hit at least 55.0 percent from the

floor in each of their first three games to open the season. That is the longest stretch by a Nebraska squad since the

1991-92 team connected on 55.2, 55.2 and 63.4 percent against Wisconsin, Texas A&M and Eastern Washington,

respectively.

Freshman guard Ryan Anderson has led the way in the early contests as the Seattle, Wash., native has hit 72.7 percent (16-of-22) of his shots from the field to rank 17th nationally, including 12 of his last 14 over the past two games. Anderson led the Big 12 in field-goal percentage entering the weekend, while teammate Aleks Maric ranked third in the league and 27th in the nation by hitting 71.4 percent (25-of-35) from the floor. Overall, five of the six Huskers with at least 10 shot attempts this season have hit at least 50.0 percent from the field.

First-year coach Doc Sadler stresses the importance of taking the first good shot available on each possession and the Huskers have taken that to heart in the second half of games early this season. Through three contests, Nebraska has hit 65.5 percent (38-of-58) from the field after the intermission while averaging 37.3 points per game, a nine-point advantage over their opponents on the scoreboard. Nebraska's improved second-half shooting has been even more evident from long range as the Huskers have hit 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) of their 3-point attempts in the second period. In contrast, Nebraska has connected on just 7-of-21 (33.3 percent) 3-point attempts in the opening stanza.

The Husker who has made the most strides after the break so far has been guard Jamel White, who has hit 6-of-11 attempts (54.5 percent) from the floor and 8-of-11 free throw attempts (72.7 percent) after halftime. In the first half, White has hit 5-of-15 (33.3 percent) from the field and had just six free throw attempts (five made).

Nebraska

Pos. Name Yr. Ht. Wt, PPG RPG

C Aleks Maric Jr. 6-11 270 19.7 8.3

G Ryan Anderson Fr. 6-4 195 12.7 7.7

G Sek Henry Fr. 6-3 180 7.7 4.0

G Jamel White So. 6-3 190 12.7 4.0

G Charles Richardson Jr.Sr. 5-9 165 9.0 5.7

North Texas

Pos. Name Yr. Ht. Wt, PPG RPG

C Keith Wooden Jr. 6-9 245 7.0 4.4

F Harold Stewart So. 6-8 195 4.2 5.0

F Rich Young Sr. 6-5 205 8.0 4.8

G Calvin Watson Sr. 6-5 215 15.0 5.2

G Ben Bell Jr. 6-3 170 4.8 3.8

Junior Aleks Maric was named the Big 12 Player of the Week on Monday, Nov. 20, following his performance in the Huskers' first two games of the season. He averaged 23.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game while hitting 65.5 percent (19-of-29) from the floor.

He posted 29 points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes against Nebraska-Omaha in the Huskers' first regular-season game. He hit 11 field goals on a career-high 18 attempts and missed his second career 30-point contest by just one point.

On Nov. 18, Maric posted 17 points and nine rebounds to lead the Huskers to a 12-point victory against Creighton. Maric was saddled with foul trouble in the first half and played just nine minutes, but came on to play 19 minutes in the second period when he recorded 15 points and eight boards.

[untwillrise]

This is a very winable game for us. Like I have said before our weakness is a good postman and they don't have that. If we don't get rattled play our game and take care of the ball we will going away.

[UNTLifer]

This is a very winable game for us. Like I have said before our weakness is a good postman and they don't have that.

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Nebraska

Pos. Name Yr. Ht. Wt, PPG RPG

C Aleks Maric Jr. 6-11 270 19.7 8.3

Edited November 27, 2006 by UNTLifer

[untwillrise]

He is not athletic i should have said. He has played very bad competion so far besides creighton which as no one big.

Edited November 27, 2006 by untwillrise

[Buford_Julep]

This will be a very difficult game for NT.

This is a contract game. In football it is called a "body bag" game. The idea is NT gets a big paycheck and Nebraska gets an easy win. The game will be officiated by Big 12 refs. Let's hope the refs will call a fair game. Let's hope they can forget who is signing their paychecks, who reviews their performance and who has the power to fire them for making undesirable calls. Let's hope the refs can ignore the fact that the higher the Big 12 RPI is the more prestigious and lucrative their job becomes.

Nebraska drew 9,412 fans when they played Division II Lubbock Christian. Our guys will find out what a home court crowd advantage really is.

Last season the Sun Belt was unable to win a single contract game. This season NT already has won one contract game win over Charlotte. So it's not impossible. WKU's win over Georgia was not a contract game. WKU, with a large fan base, somehow negotiated a home and home with Georgia.

One factor in NT's favor is Nebraska has just one senior and one junior that play. The rest of their squad are Soph's and Freshmen. The bad news is Nebraska signed six Rivals 3-star recruits in 2005 and 4 more in 2006. To put that in perspective NT has three three-star recruits on this year's roster Davis,Wooden and Edwards. Stewart was rated two-star and the rest of the team was unrated by rivals. Next season NT will have Roderick Flemming, a four-star recruit.

[chrisfisher]

This will be a very difficult game for NT. This is a contract game. In football it is called a "body bag" game. The idea is NT gets a big paycheck and Nebraska gets an easy win.

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I hope that the Mean Green breaks this contract with a win (and a check!) North Texas is fast becoming a very pesky team for our "privileged" foes that believe we are a guaranteed win. I'm sure the other schools wish we'd just lie down and lose, like any respectable SBC team does Actually, the SBC is looking much better this season with numerous big OOC wins.

[untwillrise]

i never did care how rivals rates Highschool players. As you can see by the many upsets in college basketball this year the experts don't now anything. UNT will win this game or scare the hell out of Nebraska.

There will be a hell of alot of people at the game which is good because it will prepare us for the WKU game. I think they will thrive in that enviromen because thats when they are at the best, runing, pressing, pressure D, shooting threes. With the crowd Nebraska will try to force things to blow us out but will be mistaken with our team talent level.

[Buford_Julep]

I may have gone too far talking about refs. I respect the integrity and honesty of NCAA BB refs.

But this is America, and if you check any ethics code you will find condemnation of any conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest.

[chrisfisher]

I may have gone too far talking about refs. I respect the integrity and honesty of NCAA BB refs.

But this is America, and if you check any ethics code you will find condemnation of  any conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest.

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Making our 2 point shots above 50%, and shooting 40% or higher on 3 points shots will solve most any difficulty.

[Buford_Julep]

I love the spirit and optimism you guys bring to this board. Keep it up.

[CMJ]

I'm really looking forward to this game. The Huskers shoot a really high FG percentage which concerns me greatly, but I DO think we seem to match up okay against them.

[sports88guy]

i have seen Ryan Anderson play alot in high school, and last year while watching him play in the state tournament he was really easy to get off his game. when he wasnt getting what he wanted he would pout and be off his game, i hope we can get some defensive pressure on him so we can get him off his game

[untwillrise]

On the Huskers home page they have the game as being on FSN MW. Does any one have any insight because i looked at the FSN page and they dont have it on and on my direct TV guide its not on either. i realy hope they show it.

Lets go UNT 6-1*!

[mwynn05]

On the Huskers home page they have the game as being on FSN MW. Does any one have any insight because i looked at the FSN page and they dont have it on and on my direct TV guide its not on either. i realy hope they show it.

Lets go UNT 6-1*!

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There shouldnt be a "*" next to our loss..losses are what happen when you get out played doesn't matter if that shot was off in time or not they probably would have won in OT if we kept playing like we had that night

[Stan R]

they probably would have won in OT if we kept playing like we had that night

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Since I was actually at this game (I think I'm in a minority here) I agree. I don't think it would have been close in OT. UTA had all of the momentum at the end there.

[mwynn05]

Since I was actually at this game (I think I'm in a minority here) I agree.  I don't think it would have been close in OT.  UTA had all of the momentum at the end there.

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I was there also....we were lucky to be as close as we were...it just makes us look bad that we keep complaining about a loss...ITS A LOSS get over it quit putting astrisks next to it make us look like sore losers...its our own fault we don't have a replay monitor

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Since I was actually at this game (I think I'm in a minority here) I agree.  I don't think it would have been close in OT.  UTA had all of the momentum at the end there.

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I disagree. We had all the momentum in the closing minutes thats how we closed the gap to bring us to a tie. You can never predict what would have happened in overtime that is why I list our record as 5-0-1 because technically we never lost or won that game and neither did UTA. Officially we lost but technically it was a tie.

[untwillrise]

What are ya'll talkin about we had all the momentum. Even though we were playing terrible we came back from about 9 and tied it up on that huge shot by KD. We would have blown them out in OT.

I put the * not because we would have won but because we did not loose.

[UNT_92_Fan]

we sure didnt loose!

[chrisfisher]

Since I was actually at this game (I think I'm in a minority here) I agree.  I don't think it would have been close in OT.  UTA had all of the momentum at the end there.

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Funny, I thought we had the momentum. In fact we were battling back from a many point deficit to take the lead with a minute or two left. To be honest though, I don't care for this asterisk stuff. It makes us look like sore losers, and I hope it stops. It was a hard loss to stomach, but a loss nonetheless.

[chrisfisher]

One other thing I want to point out about the UTA game. I hope this doesn't define our style of play this season. Last season, we'd often get down by 15-20 points and either (1) win the game in the final minutes or (2) fall just short of a comeback. Either way I really hope that we do not allow teams to get huge leads in our games.

Edited November 28, 2006 by chrisfisher

[untwillrise]

Being a sore looser would say that we should have won that game or that UTA is subpar compared to us. Can't i just point out that we lost to an after the buzzer shot.

[Zeke]

Where did the educational system go wrong?

[untwillrise]

Where did the educational system go wrong?

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When teachers started sleeping with their students.

I wish it went wrong when i was in school.

[chrisfisher]

Being a sore looser would say that we should have won that game or that UTA is subpar compared to us. Can't i just point out that we lost to an after the buzzer shot.

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that's what a sore loser would say