11/11/2012 - Southern Report Card

DEFENSE: B

Nebraska gave up 55 points to Southern, which is "good." The Huskers also held the Jags to 40% from the field, but I was a bit concerned we forced only 12 turnovers and had just 1 steal.

Also, Nebraska quit playing defense in the final few minutes of this game. Whether that was fatigue, lack of focus or just getting beat remains to be seen.

I was fairly impressed with NU defensively against Midland (for as much as you can against an NAIA opponent), and remain positive after tonight.

REBOUNDING: B+

Nebraska did a good job of (for the most part) keeping Southern off of the offensive glass, as the Big Red allowed just six offensive rebounds.

For the game, Nebraska out boarded Southern by eight (34 to 26). Big shout outs to Ubel for his 12 boards and Dylan Talley for 7! Even David Rivers pulled down 6.

Almeida - 2 boards in 19 minutes.

BALL HANDLING: B

12 turnovers? Good against this opponent, great in the Big 10.

6 assists? Need to get that up.

As I mentioned earlier, I am very concerned about the point guard position. I think Benny Parker will be solid, but he's a freshman and an undersized one at that, playing in a physical and tough league. There are nights he will surprise us and nights where he'll really struggle - and the fact that we have nobody behind him that has any semblance of "high ceiling capability" worries me, mightily.

COACHING: B+

Coach Miles gets his first win as NU's 27th head coach. He did a nice job of keeping his rotation tight, though honestly, its not like he has any more options.

I'm a bit surprised we didn't see more of Sergej Vucetic, who only logged one minute. Perhaps he's banged up a bit? He's one kid on this roster who does have the aforementioned "high ceiling capability" so it'll be interesting to watch that as the season goes on.

Otherwise, Miles had his team ready to play - they came out crisp and hot, especially offensively. As in the first game, they struggled a bit throughout stretches of the remaining of the contest, but all in all, its a solid win.

OVERALL GRADE: B

Nothing spectacular, but nothing particularly worrying, based on my expectations for this year (3 Big 10 wins and two games over .500 in the non-con).

We have a very difficult game on Thursday against Valpo, who is picked to win the Horizon League. Hope we have a nice crowd, because this truly is a "50-50" game at this point in time.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: BRANDON UBEL

2012-2013 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS:

Brandon Ubel - 1