Nebraska Cornhuskers (9-3) vs UTEP Miners (5-5)

[hhcmatt]

Nebraska Cornhuskers (9-3) vs UTEP Miners (5-5)

Game Time 8:35 p.m CST, Saturday 12/23/2012

Huskers on TV/Radio/Internet

Television: Pay Internet at UTEP

Radio: Across the state on the IMG Husker Sports Radio Network, including KLIN (1400 AM/94.5 FM) in Lincoln, KFAB (1110 AM) in Omaha and KRVN (880 AM) in Lexington.

Play-by-play: Kent Pavelka; Color: Matt Davison

Internet Radio/Stats: Free on Huskers.com

University of Texas-El Paso Info

Mascot: Miners (Paydirt Pete)

Conference: Conference USA

School Location: El Paso, Texas

Sombrero not to wear: Orange and Blue

Last game out: Beat Arkansas Pine Bluff

Coach: Tim Floyd (3rd year)Probable Starters:

Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-3)

3-Benny Parker -5-9-Fr.- G

15-Ray Gallegos -6-2-Jr.- G

24-Dylan Talley -6-5-Sr.- G

13-Brandon Ubel -6-10-Sr.- F

32-Andre Almeida-6-11-Sr.- C

Central Michigan (6-4)

31 Cedrick Lang F 6-9 225 SO

21 John Bohannon C 6-10 210 JR

11 Jacques Streeter G 6-0 175 SR

25 Konner Tucker G 6-4 185 SR

4 Julian Washburn F 6-7 205 SO

Opposing player to watch: Julian Washburn

Washburn led the team in scoring as a true freshman last year and the 54 minutes he put in during the triple overtime indicates he's still the go-to player on this team. Washburn's brother, Chris Jr. is also on the team contributing 20+ minutes as a true freshman. The Washburn brothers are the sons of former major prospect and huge NBA bust Chris Washburn, Sr. The former 6'11" center was a potential star going #3 overall from North Carolina St. in the 80s before injuries and drugs completely derailed his career.

Opposing player to watch: Konner Tucker

Tucker is the epitome of the nomadic college basketball player of today. Originally recruited by Billy Gillespie at Kentucky, he ended up at Lon Morris Juco for his freshman year before wasting away on the Wake Forest bench for his sophomore year. With Jeff Bzdelik coming in, Tucker decided to transfer back to his home state of Texas and play for Sam Houston State. Following a redshirt year he put up 12 ppg for Sam Houston and ended up graduating. Instead of sticking with the lowly Bearkats, Tucker transferred to Tim Floyd's squad where he finally became eligible 3 games ago. He's immediately joined the starting lineup and now has put up 14 ppg so far for the Miners.

Huskers going for the Sun Belt Invitation Championship

The Huskers might want to consider purchasing the basketball hoops from UTEP as this typically offensively challenged squad put up a season high 89 points on Saturday. David Rivers had easily his best offensive output of the year and his 20 points came without a single 3. Unlike Central Michigan, UTEP actually plays defense so expect the scoring output for Nebraska to look a bit more typical.

UTEP is a deep team that constantly attacks the rim and thus generates a lot of points at the free throw line. In one less game on the year, the Miners have made (153) almost as many FTs as the Huskers (166) have attempted. Considering the officiating from Saturday, the prospect of the game being decided at the line is quite scary. Otherwise, the Miners are a rather tall team though it's doesn't necessarily lead to a rebound advantage. Last but not least, UTEP doesn't necessarily defend the 3 pt shot very well which isn't necessarily a huge advantage for the streaky Nebraska shooters.

If you dig into their 5-5 record, you'll find that UTEP is a team who has played a very tough schedule and has the potential to challenge Memphis for the conference crown. Expect this to be a lower scoring game and sadly one that could be decided by the referees. UTEP is a good team at home...a win here would be impressive.

Prediction: UTEP 59 - Nebraska 53

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[Concrete]

i'll go on a limb and predict a 68-52 UTEP win

[hhcmatt]

i'll go on a limb and predict a 68-52 UTEP win

There is no draft feature so I have to post these in the future when I write half of it at a time.

I'm also racing through these as fast as possible so I also called it the "Sun Belt Invitational"