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Does Fred Hoiberg have faith in his team to get over the hump despite what he saw tonight? Here's his full answer to that question.
I included his quote in my gamer, but Yvan Ouedraogo - who went through the 2-18 Big Ten season last year - doesn't see much similarity between last year's team and this year's, and he also cited the work ethic and how much more they care about winning this year.
This has been the theme from both players and coaches about this team from the start. Up until today, effort has been good even if it wasn't always channeled the right way. Today was rough to see because the shooting struggles led to a complete collapse for the first time.
But let's be honest: no matter how they handled adversity they were not going to win tonight. The guys are working. Hoiberg's trying everything he can. But none of it is going to matter unless Nebraska can start making shots in games, and they definitely couldn't tonight.
Nebraska doesn't need to hit 12 3s a game or shoot 40%. At this point, it's pretty clear they don't have the personnel for that. But they do have guys that have made shots at different points in their careers, and they're all ice-cold right now and have been most of the season.
Teams don't have to respect anybody on Nebraska's roster at the 3-point line right now, and that's making it impossible for Nebraska's offense to function. They're an extra defender or two in the paint on every drive, and that won't change until Nebraska makes them pay.
It's certainly not all on the 3-point shooting, though that would help make scoring in other ways easier. But it's absolutely crushing when you execute well, get a guy the ball at the rim and end up with zero points. Guys have to finish. Those passes to YO have to be buckets.
The hope at this point is that Derrick Walker's return will change that and make those gimme buckets actually gimmes. We'll have to see on that. But Nebraska can't ever go 2-10 on layups in a half again, and almost everybody was part of that.