Cornhuskers hope to get most out of rare road trip
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Freshman Cookie Miller points out one of the benefits of playing road games.
“No class,” he said, grinning.
If that’s Miller’s lone excuse for missing school, he should have near perfect attendance this semester.
Wednesday's game at Western Kentucky marks the Nebraska men’s basketball team’s first and only midweek trip until conference play begins.
Too bad Miller wasn’t on the team last season.
That’s when the Huskers traveled a mind-boggling 15,400 miles in the month of December alone, with visits to Oregon, Hawaii, New Jersey and Florida.
By contrast, tonight’s game is Nebraska’s only trip outside state lines during a 66-day stretch to start the season. The Huskers won’t play another true road game for 41 days — a Jan. 15 game at Colorado.
Miller’s philosophy, though, is pretty simple.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re at,” the freshman point guard said, “you’ve got to play basketball.”
That’s something the Huskers admittedly didn’t do in their last road game. Or, at least, not well. They fell behind by 27 points in the first half of a 74-62 loss at Creighton on Nov. 24.
“Hopefully we’ve improved a little bit, but going on the road’s always different,” Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said. “I don’t think anybody knows year-to-year how their teams are going to play on the road until they get out there.”
Nebraska (5-1) has won two games since the Creighton loss, including Sunday’s impressive 62-47 victory over Arizona State in the Big 12-Pac 10 Hardwood series.
“We grew up after that Creighton game,” Miller said. “We came together a lot.”
Miller, who scored a career-high 19 points in the loss to the Bluejays, said he didn’t know what to expect in a road game.
Now, he does.
“You’ve got to be mentally focused,” he said. “First 5 or 10 minutes, you’ve got to match their intensity. Just distribute the ball, don’t try to do things you’re not capable of doing.”
Nebraska defeated Western Kentucky 82-71 last season in Lincoln. The Huskers are the first team from the Big 12 Conference to visit Diddle Arena since Kansas State did in 1994 as a member of the Big Eight. WKU is 5-13 all-time against Big 12 teams.
The Hilltoppers (5-2) have lost two straight, including a 64-61 loss at Northern Arizona on a three-pointer with less than a second remaining. Their other loss came by three points to Gonzaga, currently ranked No. 17.
Senior guard Courtney Lee averages 22.1 points to lead WKU. Last season, former Husker Jamel While had an admirable performance against Lee, who committed nine turnovers and scored 11 points.
Tonight, look for Ade Dagunduro to stick on Lee, Sadler said. Dagunduro is coming off his own strong defensive showing against ASU freshman James Harden, who had seven turnovers and eight points.
Sadler said he’s been pleased with his team’s defensive play, particularly its recent improvement in defensive rebounding.
He stressed strong defense and patience on offense as keys to winning on the road.
“Even Sunday’s game, I thought we took some quick shots, but you can get away with that at home,” Sadler said. “Defensively is where you can take a team out, maybe control the crowd a little bit better, maybe the officiating.
“But if you’re going to get into an up-and-down game on the road, you better have a lot better players, I don’t care who you’re playing against. I don’t know of a team all year that we can just go out and do that against.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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