Bober takes advantage of playing time
Nikki Bober has played as many minutes for the Nebraska women’s basketball team in the last three games than she did all of her freshman year last season.
And just because the injured Kelsey Griffin plans to return when the Huskers start Big 12 Conference action a week from today, be careful thinking that Bober is automatically headed back to more pine time.
“When we start some Big 12 competition and we start seeing bigger kids, real, true post players ... she has a chance to match up,” NU coach Connie Yori said of the 6-foot-4 center.
Bober has appeared in all 13 games this season. With Griffin sitting out the last three to allow a cracked rib to heal, Bober has played 16, 13 and 14 minutes — her three-highest totals of the season. During that span, she’s hit seven of eight shots and pulled down eight rebounds.
Griffin will be out again tonight, when Nebraska plays its final non-league game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Considering the Lady Golden Lions feature a pair of 6-2 posts, Bober ought to get another chance to audition for Big 12 minutes.
“There’s definitely some bigger post players in the Big 12 that it’s going to be a lot more physical down low, so that’ll give me a lot more time to work defensively down there — which is probably better than my perimeter defense,” said Bober, laughing.
No, the kid from Murdock isn’t blessed with an abundance of quickness. She has, according to Yori, dropped about 15 pounds and gotten herself in better shape than a year ago, when she saw limited action in just nine games.
Bober’s also got something going on positive “upstairs.”
“She’s really a smart player. I’m confident putting her in, because she’s not going to make a lot of mistakes,” Yori said. “She’s going to communicate well. She’s going to help our team defense. She’s going to help us offensively, because she’s a pretty decent passer.”
Ask any of the Husker interior players, and they’ll tell you scoring on Bober can be a real bear.
“She comes to practice with the mentality of ‘Whether I’m sore, sick or hurt, I’m going to practice hard,’” said 6-2 sophomore Cory Montgomery. “She has that very competitive nature to her, and she’s gotten a lot better.”
Even the 6-2 All-Big 12 Conference forward Griffin struggles against Bober.
“Kelsey has had a hard time scoring against her,” Yori acknowledged. “She’s hard to get around.
“Against really quick kids, it’s going to be harder for her, but when she plays against a kid that’s a bigger, more low-post dominant, she can match up.”
Bober will try and help the Huskers post their 11th win tonight. What’s so significant about that is that it would mark the first time since the 1997-98 and 98-99 seasons that NU had post at least 11 regular-season non-conference wins in back-to-back years.
This season, the Huskers are knocking at that door even though Griffin has played hurt, or not at all, while two other players — guards Kala Kuhlmann and Nicole Neals — also have missed time.
Despite being shorthanded and having only two players on the roster with more than one-year’s experience prior to this season, Nebraska has averaged 80.4 points while shooting 50.5 percent in their seven home games. They’ve also held opponents to a combined 35.4 percent accuracy and owned an average rebounding margin of plus-9.1 in those contests.
“Two main things about this team: We’re really competitive and we play for each other,” Bober said. “So when one of us goes down, it just makes the rest of us want to pick up that slack that much more.
“I think that helps to maybe overcome a lot of our youth and inexperience. We still make some of those youth mistakes, too much. But I think the fact that we want to do it for each other makes us work that much harder to get it done.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
And just because the injured Kelsey Griffin plans to return when the Huskers start Big 12 Conference action a week from today, be careful thinking that Bober is automatically headed back to more pine time.
“When we start some Big 12 competition and we start seeing bigger kids, real, true post players ... she has a chance to match up,” NU coach Connie Yori said of the 6-foot-4 center.
Bober has appeared in all 13 games this season. With Griffin sitting out the last three to allow a cracked rib to heal, Bober has played 16, 13 and 14 minutes — her three-highest totals of the season. During that span, she’s hit seven of eight shots and pulled down eight rebounds.
Griffin will be out again tonight, when Nebraska plays its final non-league game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Considering the Lady Golden Lions feature a pair of 6-2 posts, Bober ought to get another chance to audition for Big 12 minutes.
“There’s definitely some bigger post players in the Big 12 that it’s going to be a lot more physical down low, so that’ll give me a lot more time to work defensively down there — which is probably better than my perimeter defense,” said Bober, laughing.
No, the kid from Murdock isn’t blessed with an abundance of quickness. She has, according to Yori, dropped about 15 pounds and gotten herself in better shape than a year ago, when she saw limited action in just nine games.
Bober’s also got something going on positive “upstairs.”
“She’s really a smart player. I’m confident putting her in, because she’s not going to make a lot of mistakes,” Yori said. “She’s going to communicate well. She’s going to help our team defense. She’s going to help us offensively, because she’s a pretty decent passer.”
Ask any of the Husker interior players, and they’ll tell you scoring on Bober can be a real bear.
“She comes to practice with the mentality of ‘Whether I’m sore, sick or hurt, I’m going to practice hard,’” said 6-2 sophomore Cory Montgomery. “She has that very competitive nature to her, and she’s gotten a lot better.”
Even the 6-2 All-Big 12 Conference forward Griffin struggles against Bober.
“Kelsey has had a hard time scoring against her,” Yori acknowledged. “She’s hard to get around.
“Against really quick kids, it’s going to be harder for her, but when she plays against a kid that’s a bigger, more low-post dominant, she can match up.”
Bober will try and help the Huskers post their 11th win tonight. What’s so significant about that is that it would mark the first time since the 1997-98 and 98-99 seasons that NU had post at least 11 regular-season non-conference wins in back-to-back years.
This season, the Huskers are knocking at that door even though Griffin has played hurt, or not at all, while two other players — guards Kala Kuhlmann and Nicole Neals — also have missed time.
Despite being shorthanded and having only two players on the roster with more than one-year’s experience prior to this season, Nebraska has averaged 80.4 points while shooting 50.5 percent in their seven home games. They’ve also held opponents to a combined 35.4 percent accuracy and owned an average rebounding margin of plus-9.1 in those contests.
“Two main things about this team: We’re really competitive and we play for each other,” Bober said. “So when one of us goes down, it just makes the rest of us want to pick up that slack that much more.
“I think that helps to maybe overcome a lot of our youth and inexperience. We still make some of those youth mistakes, too much. But I think the fact that we want to do it for each other makes us work that much harder to get it done.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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