Game Day Essentials: Game #19 at Rutgers

Rutgers Info

Head Coach: Steve Pikiell
Location: Piscataway, NJ
Conference: B1G
Nickname: Scarlet Knights

Last time out: Lost at Indiana
Typical Rotation Depth: 10+
Line: Nebraska by 1
Tempo: Middle of the road

Style: Very Low 3pt attempt %, Low assists
4 Factors Good: Rebounding on both ends, Shooting Defense
4 Factors Bad: Shooting, holding on to the ball 

Rutgers Most frequently used lineup

Not worth posting. They swap guys in and out all the time and Corey Sanders is the only lock to play 30+ minutes.  Will be interesting to see if they try to match up with what Nebraska puts on the floor or try and outsize the Huskers.

Expected Nebraska Starting Lineup

Until Ed Morrow comes back Roby seems locked in as your starter. At that point you re-evaluate who comes out.

Miles Presser

Notes

• Had a good practice
• Rutgers has size/physicality
• Not overly concerned about the travel schedule
• Rutgers does a lot of things right. Pikell well studied, worked at UConn under Calhoon, won a lot at Stony Brook. Physical team like UConn, not all the skill in the world but guys like Corey Sanders and Mike Williams can get hot. They're one of the best rebounding teams in the country.
• Talked about the losing streak. Put ourselves into good position and it's going to be a fight every night regardless of if it's Rutgers or anyone in conference
• Only showed one clip from Ohio St game. Wasn't last game. Was a clip with 2 minutes left and we made 3 tactical errors. 
• Guys have to have the mental maturity to go down their defensive checklist and we could be 5-1 if they did
• Notes we've been out-rebouneded the 2nd half of every conference game this year. You can't play volleyball with Rutgers
• An always superstitious Miles wearing the same Muhammad Ali shirt he wore to Maryland and Indiana 

The only clip the team watched from the Ohio St game

Made a wrong assumption on Lyle, no one picked up the big man, didn't help in.

The Skinny

Rutgers is essentially a pretty good defensive team that can't shoot a lick.  Defensively they're able to guard the 3pt line aggressively as their front court height and shotblocking ability allows them to clean up when the offense penetrates into the lane.  Offensively everything is an attempt to work inside as Rutgers is Nebraska 2014-15 bad at shooting 3s. (They also don't shoot a lot of them)

Defensively, Nebraska will need to stay home in their pack and only truly pursue the guys who will take 3s for Rutgers (only the guards and lanky Fr Issa Thiam).  Expect Nebraska to really crash the boards on shots today as they try to limit 2nd chance Rutgers points vs fast break opportunities that will come when Rutgers inevitably turns the ball over.

Offensively you can draw contact on Rutgers so driving into those trees to draw contact will help the cause and the Huskers will need to capitalize by making some FTs. Rutgers will counter with some zone and whatever they've cooked up with the break so Nebraska will need to be patient in working around the ball at points.

Both teams don't figure to have great shooting days so it's really a matter of Nebraska winning the turnover battle more than Rutgers winning the rebounding battle. Expect this one to be uncomfortably close like Rutgers has done at home and look for Nebraska to pull this one out in the end.

Prediction: Nebraska 74 - Rutgers 68