Redout you are LOCO, but I love it. Here's my thinking either this team has turned the corner from years past and wins on the raod or is a team of years past and lays another egg after a great W.
The lack of an inside presense without Diaz(even as much as I enjoy kicking the guy) will hurt this team severely. KSU will sit back in a zone and say ok NU and you sharpshooting 3 points shooters beat us, and this is a bad scenario. I think Almeida will give it a try and after 5 minutes of PT he will be done. An ankle injury on that frame will be no where near ready.
KSU is a classic example of a team NU should beat. They are a mess, in total disarray, and everyone is questioning their heart and effort. These are always the games that seems to trip NU up. KSU is a mess, in disarray, and probably have given up, but they are still quite talented. My whole thought process about this Husker squad probably hinges on this game, IF and that is a big IF, Diaz plays. A win without him, I'll probably dance down the street in this weather naked, a loss without him equals a pass on my part.
It is way to funny that this game depends so much on a kid I am the first to throw under the bus.
You are correct, it's a VERY bad scenario. I believe NU is right around 320th in the nation in 3 pt percentage. I'll give you a minute to reread that number and think about what that means. Yeah, that bad.
Without Diaz, I believe there are two ways Nebraska can still win:
1 Transition. Jeter, Richardson and Walker are going to have to run the court like madmen. FORTUNATELY (and IMO this really is huge) NU's big men suck at rebounding, so not having a big man in the game should not affect the ability to transition. Most of the transition points have come from a steal or a guard grabbing a board, so the transition game should not suffer much w/o Diaz or Almeida playing.
2 Drake and Bear (and probably McCray): it's time to show you're legit. If any of these guys can catch fire, they just may be able to hit 4 or 5 3's and be the difference in the game.
The great thing about these two scenarios is if NU can get up early, these both get much easier. There's no doubt that even if KSU hasn't quit yet, if they get down early at least a few of their guys will start let up. Suddenly transition points are more likely because of a lack of hustle from KSU in transition D as well as sloppy turnovers. Similarly, if NU is up and one of our guys is hot, he'll continue to find shots because there's no way Frank will find 5 guys to put on the floor committed to going all out to shut anyone down.
I can tell I'm nervous about this game because I'm getting long-winded and apparently trying to talk myself into believing this can be done. All the torture of the past tells me not to get excited, but something about this team just seems different. Still I just can't quite let myself fully believe they'll get it done.
