Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Championship Sunday
Maryland (13-7 SU, 7-14 ATS, 4-5 B10, 38 NCAA Net Rankings) will host Nebraska (10-11 SU, 7-14 ATS, 3-7 B10, 100 NCAA Net Rankings) on Saturday at 4:30pmET from Xfinity Center.
These teams met just once last season with the Terps winning 90-74 on the road as a 1.5-point favorite.
Nebraska has never been a good fit in the Big 10 in basketball and well, they aren't a very good fit right now in football, but at least they have Big 10 Network money. The Cornhuskers have had some very good efforts in terms of beating Iowa (66-50) at home and Ohio State (63-60) at home. But they have been a mess on the road and fell at home to Northwestern 78-63 as a 2.5-point home dog on Wednesday. Keisei Tominaga led Nebraska with 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting, but they allowed a Northwestern team who also played on Monday, to shoot 52% from the field. Nebraska forced 15 turnovers, but committed 16.
Oh my, Denim Dawson. ??@D2dawsonn x @HuskerHoops pic.twitter.com/rmNZrcZDJp
— Nebraska On BTN (@NebraskaOnBTN) January 26, 2023
The Huskers were crushed on the boards 35-23 and it didn't help that they lost forward Juwan Gary (6-6, 215) for the year with a shoulder injury. The Alabama transfer was averaging 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds and was injured in their 76-50 loss to Illinois at home Jan. 10. They also lost guard Emmanuel Bandoumel (knee) for the season and he averaged 8.4 points and 4.8 rebounds.
Nebraska shoots 44.1% from the field to rank 10th in the Big 10 and allows 42.5% from the field (11th). The Huskers rank 14th and last in three-point shooting (30.2%) and eight in three-point defense (32.8%). They also rank 10th in rebounding margin at 0.5.