Nebraska Heads South To Take on Texas

Lincoln -- The Nebraska men's basketball team hits the road again this weekend when it heads to Austin to face the No. 18/16 Texas Longhorns at the Frank Erwin Center. Airtime for the ESPN+ broadcast (Fred White, play-by-play; Reid Gettys, color) will be 12:30 p.m., and it will be seen in Nebraska on Channel 10/11 in Lincoln; Cox 2 in Omaha; and KIIT in North Platte. The game can also be heard on the Pinnacle Sports Network and on Huskers.com with Randy Lee calling the action and Matt Davison adding color analysis.

The Huskers will be playing on the road for the second time in three games since starting Big 12 Conference play, and just the fourth time all year. Nebraska, which ran through the non-conference slate with a 10-1 mark including wins over teams from the SEC, Pac-10 and Conference USA, owns one road victory this season, a 17-point win over Big Ten foe Minnesota. In the Huskers first league road game, NU dropped an 89-74 contest at Iowa State. The Cyclones are the only team to score more than 70 points against the Huskers this season.

Nebraska is among the national leaders in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense, creating an intriguing matchup with the Longhorns, who are the No. 1 scoring team in the nation. Nebraska, which is averaging 72.0 ppg compared to UT's 90.0 ppg, is also among the most accurate teams in the country, ranking 17th nationally in field-goal percentage.

Following Saturday's contest against the Longhorns, Nebraska will return home to the confines of the Bob Devaney Sports Center, where it owns a 9-1 record this season. Nebraska will take on the Baylor Bears on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Tipoff is set for 7:05 p.m.

About the Huskers

Nebraska heads south for the first time this season when it travels to Austin to face the Longhorns this weekend.

NU will be looking to get back on the winning track after dropping its first two league games. Nebraska is coming off a 68-60 loss to Colorado on Wednesday in the Huskers' home conference opener. It was NU's first home loss of the season.

The Huskers played well enough on defense to get past the Buffaloes, as Nebraska allowed just 68 points on 44 percent shooting. But NU's offense was held in check by Colorado, as Nebraska hit just 40.0 percent from the floor, including just 33.3 percent in the second period. The loss also snapped NU's streak of six straight games scoring at least 70 points.

Despite the recent lackluster showing, the Huskers have been an efficient offensive unit this season. Nebraska's improvement behind its new read-and-react offensive scheme has been tremendous, as NU ranks 11th nationally in scoring margin and is 17th in field-goal percentage. The Huskers are hitting 48.4 percent from the floor through 13 games, nearly 10 percentage points better than last year at the same time.

Senior Nate Johnson leads Nebraska with 13.2 points per game on 55.9 percent shooting. Johnson was back in the starting lineup for the second time this season on Wednesday against the Buffaloes, after coming off the bench the previous 10 games. Johnson has been a spark no matter when he enters the game, giving NU its most explosive and creative scorer.

Along with Johnson, senior forward Andrew Drevo has been consistent this year, averaging 10.5 points and 4.4 rebounds. The 6-8, 250-pounder is second on the team in scoring, three-pointers made (17), assists (30) and blocked shots (11), and leads the team in steals (15).

Who's Hot?

The Huskers have played with a team-first attitude all year, and that has shown through the box scores. Nebraska has just two players averaging double figures, although six are scoring at least six points per game. Three of those six players are hitting at least 50.0 percent from the floor, with the other three hitting at least 46.0 percent.

? Senior forward Brian Conklin, one of the top three-point shooters in Nebraska history, has turned it up a notch over the past three games. Conklin's scoring average has risen to 6.2 points per game this season, despite averaging just 13.2 minutes per game off the bench.

The 6-11, 240-pounder paces Nebraska with 21 three-point field goals, just one off his total from all of last season. Conklin has been nearly flawless from behind the arc the past four games, as he has hit 11 of his last 15 three-point attempts. Conklin's hot run started on the road against Minnesota when he hit 5-of-6 attempts from downtown to pace the Huskers to a 17-point road victory.

Conklin ranks second in the league in three-point field goal percentage by hitting 52.5 percent (21-of-40) this season, and is eighth in the league standings with 1.6 treys per game.

? Senior guard Nate Johnson is the only player shooting better than Conklin from long range. The Kansas City, Kan. native has hit 10 of his last 12 attempts from three-point range since going 2-for-2 against Minnesota. Overall, he is hitting 60.0 percent (15-of-25) from three-point range to lead the league, and 55.9 percent (52-of-93) from the field. Johnson also tops the Big 12 standings in free throw percentage by hitting 39-of-44 attempts from the charity stripe this season.

Johnson is the only player to currently rank among the league's top 10 in field-goal (9th), three-point field-goal (1st) and free-throw (1st) percentage. Only three other players rank in at least two of the three categories.

On the season, Johnson, who has started just two games, leads NU with 13.2 points in 24.0 minutes per game. He has had at least a share of the scoring lead NU's last four games. Johnson also adds 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.

? Junior forward John Turek hit 6-of-9 field-goal attempts against Colorado, and shared team-high scoring honors (13 points). Turek has hit 46.7 percent from the floor this year and averages 9.6 points, the third-highest average on the team. Turek leads the team and ranks ninth in the conference in blocked shots with 1.6 per game (19 total). He is tied for 15th in the league (with UT's Brad Buckman) in rebounding with 7.0 boards per game.

? Freshman Charles Richardson Jr. leads the squad with 39 assists (3.0 apg). He has recorded 13 assists with no turnovers in the past four games to rank ninth in the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2-to-1).

Scouting the Longhorns

The Texas Longhorns enter Saturday's matchup against the Huskers with a 10-2 overall record and 1-0 mark in league play. UT has won its last five contests overall, including an overtime buzzer-beater at Providence and a 94-81 home win over No. 3 Wake Forest. UT's only losses have come to top 10 teams, when it fell to Arizona, 91-83, and Duke, 89-61.

In Austin, the Longhorns own a 9-0 record this season, and are on a 24-game home winning streak since last season, the fourth-longest current streak in the country. The last home game loss for UT came on Feb. 20, 2002, when Oklahoma State won 85-80.

UT has been dominant on the offensive end of the court this season. The Longhorns are averaging 90.0 points per game to rank first nationally in scoring average. UT has also won by an average of 19.4 points per game to rank eighth in scoring margin.

Texas has five players averaging at least nine points per game, including three with double figures. Freshman forward P.J. Tucker leads the way, as the three-time Big 12 Conference Newcomer of the Week honoree averages 15.4 points in just 22.8 minutes per game. The rookie leads the league and ranks fourth nationally in field-goal percentage by hitting 65.4 percent (70-107) from the floor, and is pulling down 7.5 rebounds per contest to rank 11th in the conference.

Along with Tucker, senior guard Brandon Mouton is averaging 13.5 points while senior forward Brian Boddicker has come off the bench to average 10.7 points and 5.6 rebounds. Senior forward James Thomas has seen his number slip this season with the emergence of Tucker, but still offers a powerful inside presence with 6.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.

Junior guard Kenny Thomas, a transfer from Baylor, leads Texas with 27 three-pointers, as the Longhorns are shooting 36.1 percent from three-point range. Overall, UT is hitting 46.6 percent from the floor as a team this season, although without Tucker and junior guard Edgar Moreno (63.8 percent; 30-of-47), the rest of the Longhorns have combined to hit just 42.4 percent.

Moreno leads the team with 51 assists to go with his 6.2 points per game, while senior guard Royal Ivey has added 50 assists and 9.8 points per contest. Sophomore Brad Buckman adds 9.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and has recorded a team-high 19 blocked shots.

The Longhorns are coached by Rick Barnes (Lenoir-Rhyne, 1977), who is in his sixth season at Texas and 17th season as a head coach. Barnes, who led Texas to the Final Four last season and the Sweet 16 in 2002, owns a 328-186 career record and a 126-52 mark with the Longhorns. His teams have qualified for the NCAA Tournament 11 times (three at Providence; three at Clemson; five at UT), and have advanced past the first round three times in five tries with the Longhorns.

Series History

Texas leads in the short series by a 10-4 mark. The only shorter conference series for the Huskers are with Texas A&M (NU leads 8-3) and Baylor (NU leads 8-5).

The first seven meetings were non-conference tilts before Nebraska and Texas meet as part of the Big 12 in 1996-97. NU and Texas played twice that season, as the season opener was already scheduled as a non-conference game. The teams have also met once in the postseason, when Texas defeated NU 67-48 in the 1978 NIT, just the Huskers' second-ever postseason appearance. The Longhorns went on to win the NIT title that season.

NU is 2-5 against Texas in Big 12 play. The Longhorns have won the past two meetings and five of the last six overall. The lone win for Nebraska in that stretch came in 2000-01, when NU knocked off the 22nd-ranked Longhorns in Lincoln, 80-67. That win was Coach Collier's first Big 12 Conference victory at Nebraska, and was the first of three times NU has defeated a ranked team under Collier. The win in 2001 marked the second time NU had defeated a ranked Longhorn squads, as the Huskers took out No. 23 UT 79-67 in Lincoln in conference play in 1997.

The Huskers will be looking for their first-ever victory in Austin, as the Longhorns own a 7-0 record at home vs. NU.

The last time the teams met in Austin, UT won 77-66 after pulling away late in the game behind a 17-5 run. NU led 41-31 early in the second period and was up 61-55 on a Jake Muhleisen three-pointer, one of 15 treys by the Huskers, with 6:40 to play. The Longhorns continued to chip away at NU's advantage and took the lead for good with just under five minutes remaining.