Game Day Essentials: Game #6 vs Marist

Marist

Head Coach: Mike Maker
Location: Town of Poughkeepsie, New York (SE corner)
Conference: Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

Nickname: Red Foxes
Mascot: Red Fox
Last time out: Lost to Press Virginia
Typical Rotation Depth: 8+
Line: Nebraska by 11.5
4 Factors

Tempo: Average

Style: 2-3 zone defense,  lots of 3s, generates FTs

Impress your friends fact: Marist is in that league that has Iona, Monmouth, and Niagra

Impress your friends fact: This is the first time Marist and Nebraska have faced each other

Impress your friends fact: HP Field House, the ESPN/Disney synergy arena at Disney World is less than 35 miles away from UCF's campus

Injuries:

Nebraska: Thomas Allen: Probable

Allen is playing but he doesn't appear to be 100%

Player to watch:  Brian Parker

Marist has 4 guys in double figures but the Jr PG leads the team in points and easily in FT attempts. Expect Evan Taylor to be matched up on Parker at some point, potentially to start the game.

The Skinny: Welcome to the loser's bracket of the tourney.  The Huskers haven't managed to beat anyone of note yet this year but have yet to suffer the embarrassment of losing to a lower tier opponent.  While most of their games have been close this year, this is a winless Marist squad that hasn't won more than 10 games since 2014.  Thus, it possible we can out-talent this group playing poorly, hopefully we will not have to. Given that we should win both the rebound and turnover war, we certainly won't have to outshoot them. 

Marist will present a thus far unique challenge as they run quite a bit of 2-3 zone which tends to be especially difficult for teams with shooting problems. The silver lining here is that the Huskers will have an opportunity to work on running a zone offense and shooting against a lesser opponent. On offense, the Red Foxes are hunting for 3s by first penetrating into the lane except their not a very good shooting team. Eliminating those drves (anf fouls generated) should take priority unless the Red Foxes get hot.

Thus far we've been in a pattern of bad game followed by good. We're due for a good game here.

Prediction: Nebraska 83 - Marist 70