Brooks: Desperate Times For Desperate Teams

BOULDER - It might qualify as the first round of the "Desperation Classic."

Nebraska visits Colorado Wednesday night (8 p.m., FSN Rocky Mountain), and for the Cornhuskers and Buffaloes, the race to escape the Big 12 Conference's depths is well underway.

The Buffs have settled to the bottom in Jeff Bzdelik's first two seasons as coach. No one wants a three-peat.

"This game's very important . . . a must-win game," senior guard Dwight Thorne II said Monday. "Every game you play you want to win, but this is one where our team is struggling right now and this is our home court. We've been pretty good here (9-1)."

With the first month of the conference schedule dwindling, a pair of teams - CU (1-4) and Iowa State (1-3) - has a single league win and one team - Nebraska (0-4) - is winless.

If the Huskers can visualize the roof of the Coors Events Center bearing a large Red Cross, Thorne wants the image erased: "We can't allow teams to come in here and get well or gain confidence on us. Like (former) coach (Ricardo) Patton used to say, 'This ain't the hospital.' "

The Huskers' four-game losing streak to open league play matches their longest since the Big 12 opened for business in 1996.

Overall, the Cornhuskers are 12-7 following a 70-53 loss on Saturday at Missouri. The Buffs are a game above .500 (10-9) overall, and with their well-documented road woes - a 32-game conference road losing streak with a Saturday trip to Iowa State looming - winning at home against lower tier Big 12 opponents becomes mandatory.

"Our players know they're so close," Bzdelik said on the Big 12 coaches' teleconference before ticking off the customary items on his to-do list - finish defensive possessions, eliminate put-backs and second-chance baskets, take more charges . . .

"We need to learn how to close out," he continued. "How do you do that? Hit timely shots, make timely stops . . . there are little things keeping us from big wins. We're still a young team with only one senior, so hopefully our younger players understand that."

Bzdelik was uncertain Monday about the status of freshman Keegan Hornbuckle and junior Marcus Relphorde for Wednesday night's game.

Hornbuckle (right shoulder injury) didn't play in Saturday's 67-63 loss at Texas A&M, while Relphorde (bruised hip) had limited court time. He played 20 minutes, collecting five rebounds and making two steals and one assist - but no points.

Relatively speaking, the Buffs and Huskers might wage an epic battle on the boards - but it wouldn't exactly be in the heavyweight division. Nebraska is No. 11 in the Big 12 in rebounding (32.2 a game), CU is last (28.7).

"Rebounding has been our arch nemesis," Thorne said. "When Brian Davis (Texas A&M forward) got the rebound over me, it might have been a foul but it was a big bucket in the game. We have to find a way to even up that rebound margin and everything else will take care of its self."

Davis' rebound and subsequent slam - Thorne was sent rolling into the basket standard on the play by the 6-foot-9 Davis - broke a 59-59 tie in the final half minute. CU couldn't recover.

Bzdelik wasn't sympathetic to the no-call theory on Davis' key put-back. Reiterating the "fine line between winning and losing," he said his players must continue to work on boxing out.

"There's no excuse for us not to do that," he said. "I don't care about height . . . we have to do a better job there. There were at least half a dozen plays (at Texas A&M) where we didn't put bodies on people and seemed to want to spectate."

The Buffs have outrebounded their opposition in only five of their 19 games this season, the last time coming against Colorado Christian - and that was 11 games ago.

They were out-boarded 38-28 at Texas A&M. The Huskers fared slightly better against the Tigers, who finished with a 33-28 rebounding edge.

In perhaps the key statistical category, Nebraska offers a study in opposites. Coach Doc Sadler's fourth Cornhuskers team is last in the Big 12 in scoring offense (67.4 points), but first in scoring defense (60.4.).

Only one of his players - 6-foot-4 senior guard Ryan Anderson - is a double-figure scorer. He's averaging 10.8 points, and at 8.1 rebounds a game he also leads the Huskers in that area.

Against Missouri, Nebraska shot only 40.9 percent (18-of-44) from the field, and Anderson was limited to five points. Sek Henry, a 6-4 senior guard, scored 15 on 5-of-8 shooting from the field.

Also, the Huskers are 10th in the league in free-throw shooting (64.7 percent). But much like Bzdelik addressing rebounding, Sadler noted, "The only thing to do is continue to work on it.

"I've always said out-of-bounds plays and free throws are like special teams in football. If there was any special (fix) to it, people would have figured it out a long time ago."

Despite having lost three straight and five of the last seven, Thorne believes the Buffs are holding together well: "I think so . . . we went through this last year. Right now, it's early, but we're going through it again.

"We've still got nine games left. I think as long as we continue to get better in practice and the games and stay together as a group, we'll be OK."

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU