Bear Jones' corner three locked down a nice victory in Los Angeles Sunday, as NU beat USC 51-48 in its first BCS non-conference road win in five years. Whatever the hell that means, since the BCS is a football thing...we thought?
Thoughts:
1. Brian Diaz and Brandon Ubel looked decent. The skills are obviously there. They can catch, move, shoot and rebound. USC's big men were obviously much stronger, but the fundamentals are in place and when they gain the needed strength, they'll be nice players.
2. Three for 11 from the FT line. Pathetic. But, that being said, there are a lot of new guys playing their first meaningful D-I minutes. Let's see how they shoot in a couple weeks. Newcomers were only three for eight. We expect improvement.
3. Only seven turnovers. This is great in any road game and is the first key in having a chance to win.
4. USC was far from Final Four material. But they have big, strong, athletic players, and a win like this can do nothing but help NU's confidence. We'll pretend we don't notice if/when the Trojans finish last in the Pac 10.
5. Ryan Anderson showed nice leadership, coming up with 14 points and going 3/3 from 3. Sek Henry's stat line looks awful, 1/7 from the field, 0/2 from the FT line, and two turnovers, but he fought and scrapped all game and showed the new players what one has to do to compete in a road game.
Most important was the play where USC somehow was granted the timeout, where Henry finally took the ball from two Trojans and had to be separated from them after the whistle. It didn't impact the score directly, but showing teammates that you won't back down from anybody, anywhere is never underrated. Just in time for next Sunday's matchup against the BlueGays in Omaha, fresh off their two-game meltdown in Orlando.
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