Game Day Essentials: Game #13 vs Kennesaw St

Kennesaw St Info

Head Coach: Amir Abdur-Rahim
Location: Manhattan, KS
Conference: Big 12
Nickname: Owls

Mascot: Scrappy the Owl

Shirt not to wear: Hooter

Last time out: Lost to Samford
Line: Nebraska by 13
Typical Rotation Depth: 10+

KenPom rank: 268

Other:  

• First ever meeting between these two teams. Nebraska is 7-0 all time vs ASUN opponents
• Head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim is the brother of former NBA player Shareef Abdur-Rahim
• Kennesaw State has lost 48! consecutive road games dating back to Feb of 2018. Thanks @BjoeHusker
• Halftime: Red Panda

Player to watch: Chris Youngblood

The 6'4" wing is the Owl's leading scorer, shooting 38% from 3. Also leads the team in rebounds.

Player to watch: Terrell Burden

The lightning quick 5'10" PG has 58 FT attempts on the season, roughly what Alonzo Verge has done.

Player to watch: Spencer Rodgers

The Owl's second leading scorer is a volume shooter

Probable starters for Nebraska
1  Alonzo  Verge    G    6-3

30  Keisei Tominaga    G    6-2

5  Bryce  McGowens    G    6-7

11  Lat Mayen    F    6-9

13  Derrick Walker    F    6-9

Bench

23   Keon Edwards    G    6-7

0    C.J.  Wilcher    G    6-5

35    Eduardo Andre    F    6-11

10  Kobe Webster    G    6-0

14  Trevor Lakes    F    6-8
3   Quaran McPherson    G    6-3

33    Oleg Kojenets    F    7-0
4    Jackson Cronin    G    6-1

12    Sam Hoiberg    G    6-0
15    Chris McGraw    G    6-0
21    Jace Piatkowski    G    6-3

Out

32  Wilhelm Breidenbach    F    6-10

2  Trey  McGowens    G    6-4

The Skinny: 

Nebraska went through their 5 team gauntlet in the worst possible way: they lost the games vs middling opponents and were destroyed by better competition.  This, in addition to 2 other terrible years, has finally led to ground breaking realizations that maybe this team shouldn't shoot so many threes and maybe this team shouldn't just take any shot without consequence. It shouldn't take your home grown audibly groaning to get there, but here we are.

Kennesaw St isn't a good team.  I don't say this because I think Nebraska will waltz their way to victory; I say this because relative to all other D-1 schools this isn't a good team. Really there shouldn't be much of a chance for various Huskers to get pulled for bad shots because they should absolutely be able to shred the paint for layups or FTs. One thing that Hoiberg noted about trying to install a new offense vs Kansas St was that their ball pressure completely disrupted it; this likely won't be an issue with the Owls as that is not their style.

Nebraska wins this one. For the sake of everyone, let's hope that I'm not wrong and that it's not a struggle.

Prediction: Nebraska 83 - Kennesaw St 68