Huskers Open B1G Action vs. Northwestern

GAME 14: NORTHWESTERN Date: Wednesday, Dec. 30 Time: 3:05 p.m. Location: Pinnacle Bank Arena Tickets: Huskers.com/Tickets NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS 2015-16 Record: 8-5 Head coach: Tim Miles Record at Nebraska: 55-54 (4th year) Career Record: 338-274 (21st year) NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS 2015-16 Record: 12-1 Head coach: Chris Collins Record at Northwestern 40-37 (3rd year) Career Record: Same BROADCAST INFO Television: ESPNU Play-by-play: Jordan Bernfield Expert Analysis: Daymeon Fishback Online: WatchESPN Radio: IMG Husker Sports Radio Network, including KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln, KXSP (590 AM) in Omaha and KRVN (880 AM) in Lexington. Play-by-play: Kent Pavelka Expert Analysis: Matt Davison Satellite Radio: Sirius-83 XM-201 Also available online at Huskers.com, on the Huskers App and TuneIn Radio

Nebraska begins Big Ten action on Wednesday afternoon, hosting Northwestern in the conference opener for both teams.

Tipoff for the matinee is slated for 3 p.m. and tickets are available for the contest by calling the NU Athletics Ticket Office at 800-8-BIGRED, visiting Huskers.com or at the Pinnacle Bank Arena box office beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU with Jordan Bernfield and Daymeon Fishback on the call. The game between the Huskers and Wildcats will also be available on the WatchESPN app and online on WatchESPN.com.

Wednesday’s contest will also air across the state on the Husker Sports Network with Kent Pavelka and Matt Davison, including KLIN 1400 AM in Lincoln, KXSP 590 AM in Omaha and KRVN 880 in Lexington and is also available on Huskers.com and the Huskers App.

The Huskers closed non-conference action with an 81-50 win over Prairie View A&M on Dec. 22. In that game, the Huskers trailed 34-33 with 17:33 left, but took over with an 18-2 run and outscored the Panthers, 47-16 the remainder of the way. Andrew White III and Shavon Shields led the Huskers with 19 points apiece while Tai Webster added 10 points and three steals off the bench.

Nebraska (8-5) has relied on its high-scoring forward duo of Shavon Shields and Andrew White III, as the pair combines for over 33 points and 11 rebounds per contest. White ranks fifth in the Big Ten in scoring at 17.1 ppg, while he is fifth in 3-pointers per game at 2.5 per game. Shields, who earned honorable-mention All-Big Ten honors in 2014, is right at his heels at 16.3 ppg and paces the Huskers in both assists (2.9 per game) and steals (1.5 per game).

Northwestern comes into Wednesday’s game with a 12-1 record after a 74-59 win over Loyola (Md.) on Sunday. In that game, Bryant McIntosh had 33 points and eight assists, as the Wildcats shot 66 percent from the field in the second half to overcome an 11-point halftime deficit. The Wildcats’ 12-1 start is their best since 1930. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
4 - Number of Big Ten schools with multiple players averaging at least 15 points per game (Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois and Indiana).

6.8 - Rebounds per game for Andrew White III over the last six contests. 

7 - Ed Morrow Jr. became the seventh different Husker to lead NU in rebounding with six caroms against Prairie View A&M. Morrow is second on the team with 21 offensive rebounds while averaging 13.6 minutes per game.

7.8 - Steals per game for the Huskers, a total which leads the Big Ten.

10 - Huskers who have recorded double-figure games in 2015-16.

19.7 - Shavon Shields’ scoring average over the past six games, as he is shooting 49 percent in that stretch. The senior is also averaging 5.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

 96 - Shavon Shields will make his 96th consecutive start on Wednesday vs. Northwestern. The 96 starts would tie him with Tyronn Lue for 10th on NU’s career starts list.

SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN
Northwestern comes to Lincoln with a 12-1 record, matching the program’s best start after 13 games in school history. The Wildcats are on a nine-game win streak since a loss to North Carolina on Nov. 23. The Wildcats are led by third-year coach Chris Collins, who spent 13 seasons at Duke under Hall of Fame Coach Mike Krzyzewski before taking the Northwestern job prior to the 2013-14 season.

The Wildcats returned all five starters from a team that went 15-17 in 2014-15, but are without a pair of starters. Vic Law suffered a season-ending shoulder injury before the opener, while Alex Olah suffered a foot injury and is out for Wednesday’s game. Olah was averaging 12.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

The Wildcats, who are averaging 79.9 points per game and shooting 39 percent from 3-point range, feature one of the Big Ten’s best backcourts in sophomore Bryant McIntosh and senior Tre Demps. McIntosh averages 16.2 points per game to rank seventh in the Big Ten in scoring and is third with 6.8 assists per game. Demps is 12th in the Big Ten in scoring at 15.2 ppg while dishing out 4.2 assists per game.

SERIES HISTORY
Nebraska and Northwestern meet for the 10th time ever on Wednesday, as the Huskers hold a 7-2 lead in a series that dates back to 1933. Nebraska is 4-0 all-time in Lincoln with a non-conference win in 1975 and Big Ten wins in Lincoln in each of the past three seasons. The Huskers have won seven of the last eight meetings dating back to 1975.

LAST MATCHUP
On a night where Shavon Shields reached 1,000 career points, Nebraska enjoyed one of its best offensive nights of the season in posting a 76-60 win over Northwestern on Feb. 3, 2015. Shields became the 26th Husker to reach the 1,000-point mark, as his two free throws with 2:57 left were part of a strong second-half effort. Shields scored seven straight points for the Huskers in the final five minutes to put the game away, finishing with 11 points and a career-high eight assists. While Shields reached a milestone, Terran Petteway and Walter Pitchford provided strong offensive nights, as the Huskers shot 63 percent. Petteway finished with a game-high 28 points, including four 3-pointers, seven rebounds and four assists, while Pitchford added 14 points.

LAST TIME OUT
Tai Webster scored six of his 10 points in an 18-2 second-half run, as Nebraska built a big early lead and lost it briefly before pulling away from Prairie View A&M, 81-50, on Dec. 22.
Webster keyed the run after Prairie View A&M erased an 18-point first-half deficit, taking a 34-33 lead after Tevin Bellinger’s jumper with 17:33 remaining. Benny Parker’s 3-pointer from the corner with 16:57 left started the run, as Nebraska turned up the defensive pressure, recording five steals and holding the Panthers without a field goal for a stretch of 5:43.

Webster, who came off the bench for the first time all season, had three of NU’s steals and six points helping Nebraska build a 51-36 lead with 12:08 remaining. Nebraska, which shot 56 percent in the second half, pulled away, using a 22-7 run to salt the game away and led by as many as 32 points in the final minutes.

Shavon Shields and Andrew White III tied for game-high honors, finishing with 19 points apiece for Nebraska, which improved to 8-5 on the season. White hit 8-of-11 shots from the field and added five rebounds. Shields did most of his damage at the line, going 9-of-10 from the charity stripe and adding four assists and five rebounds, as no Husker played more than 28 minutes.

IMPROVED OFFENSE
With the departure of three starters who are playing professionally, including two in the NBA D-League (Terran Petteway and Walter Pitchford), the biggest question entering the season was who could fill the scoring void for the Huskers. Nebraska’s newcomers have shown the ability to provide offense in the early going, as Nebraska’s 73.7 points per game is more than six points per game higher last year’s average entering Big Ten action.

• NU’s 73.7 average is the highest scoring average since the 2005-06 team averaged 74.0 points per game through the first 13 games of the season.
• Ten different Huskers have reached double figures at least once, a total which ties for second nationally, while three players (Shields, Webster and White) have also recorded 20-point efforts.
• Nebraska has two 90-point games, the first two times in Miles’ four seasons that Nebraska has scored at least 90 points in a game, and two others with at least 80 points.
• The biggest improvement has come from the 3-point line, as the Huskers were 340th in that category last season (.284) and are 118th (.356) entering the Big Ten opener.
• Four of Nebraska’s top-seven scorers are in their first year of competition as a Husker, as newcomers have accounted for 52.2 percent of NU’s total offense in the first 13 games.
• Five of NU’s newcomers have already posted double-digit efforts, including a team-high 11 by Andrew White III and five by Glynn Watson Jr.

DID YOU KNOW

• Nebraska is the only school in the country with multiple players averaging at least 16.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, as both Andrew White and Shavon Shields have reached that plateau. Entering the week, only 27 players in Division I have averaged that in 2015-16.
• Nebraska’s three games against ranked opponents ties Iowa for the most in the Big Ten entering conference action this week.
• The Huskers have four players averaging at least one steal per game, while Shavon Shields is third in the Big Ten with 1.5 steals per game.
• Nebraska’s Glynn Watson Jr. and Northwestern guard Jordan Ash were teammates at Westchester St. Joseph High School, winning the Illinois Class 3A title in 2015.

ANDREW IS WHITE HOT
Junior Andrew White III has become one of the Big Ten’s top newcomers in 2015-16. The 6-foot-7 wing is fifth in the Big Ten in scoring at 17.1 points per game, which leads all conference newcomers. He is also 14th in steals (1.4 spg) and leading the Huskers with 5.5 rebounds per game.

• White is one of the Big Ten’s top 3-point shooters, ranking fifth in 3-pointers per game (2.5) while shooting 41.6 percent from long range.
• White has been in double figures in 11 of NU’s 13 games, including a trio of 20-point efforts.
• He has been in double figures in each of the Huskers’ last seven contests dating back to Nov. 28.
• White recorded his first career 30-point effort against Abilene Christian on Dec. 5, finishing with 30 points, including 14-of-16 from the foul line, seven rebounds and four steals.
• He has two double-doubles on the year, posting them against Creighton (28 points and 10 rebounds) and Samford (17 points and 11 rebounds).
• He made an impressive debut against Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 14, totaling 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in just 16 minutes. It was the most points by a Husker making his debut since Andre Almeida’s 20-point effort in his debut in 2010-11.
• White looks to continue a trend of high-impact transfers under Miles who have gone on to first-team all-conference honors, including Terran Petteway (2014) at NU and Andy Ogide (2011) and Wes Eikmeier (2012) during Miles’ tenure at Colorado State. White was ranked as one of 20 Impact Transfers by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports prio­r to the start of the season.

SHIELDS IS HUSKERS' JACK OF ALL TRADES
For the first time since 2007, Nebraska returns a 1,000-point scorer to the lineup, as Shavon Shields now has 1,339 points to rank 12th on NU’s career scoring list. Shields has jumped from 24th to 12th during non-conference action

On the season, the 6-foot-7 senior is averaging 16.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Shields ranks sixth in the Big Ten in scoring and third in steals. He is first or second on the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals.

• Shields is one of only 10 players nationally averaging 16.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 2.75 apg and 1.5 spg, a list that also features Kris Dunn of Providence, Ben Simmons of LSU, Malcolm Hill of Illinois and Gary Payton III of Oregon State.
• He has reached double figures in 11 of NU’s 13 games, including a season-high 28-point, five-rebound effort against No. 21 Miami on Dec. 1.
• Shields has four 20-point games, including a 25-point effort against Samford on Dec. 29 and 21 points against Delaware State (Nov. 19) and Abilene Christian (Dec. 5).
• He turned in a strong performance against Rhode Island with 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in the 70-67 win.
• Shields has 66 career games in double figures, including 18 career 20-point performances and a pair of 30-point efforts. He scored a career-high 35 against Omaha (11/25/14) and had 33 points against Illinois (2/14/14). Shields is one of just 14 players in school history with multiple 30-point games
• Shields is just the second player in school history to be a three-year captain and is a returning first-team Academic All-American. In 2014, he was also one of 16 national finalists across all of Division I athletics for the 2014 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award.

As a junior, he may have been one of the most underrated players in the Big Ten, as the 6-foot-7 wing averaged 15.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He led NU in rebounding for the second straight year and was second on the team in both scoring and assists. He ranked among the Big Ten leaders in scoring (ninth), rebounding (14th) and free throw percentage (.827, fifth).

• Shields was one of only three players from a power conference to average 15.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in 2014-15, joining National Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin) and Tyrone Wallace (Cal).
• Shavon is also a nominee for the Senior Class Award and the NABC Good Works Team and is active in the community. That should be no surprise as his father, Will, is a former NFL Man of the Year for his efforts in the Kansas City Community. The elder Shields was enshrined into the NFL Hall of Fame last August and was already a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

TAI’S TAKING CHARGE
Junior Tai Webster enters Big Ten action playing some of the best basketball of his career. The 6-foot-4 guard has averaged 11.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game over the last 10 games after averaging just 3.0 points in NU’s first three games. Throughout the year, Webster has been exceptional defensively averaging 1.2 steals per game and limiting opposing guards with his combination of size and speed.

• Webster has been in double figures six times in his last 10 games after reaching it a total of seven times in his first two seasons.
• Webster had 10 points, three steals and two assists in 21 minutes off the bench against Prairie View A&M.
• He had 15 points and three assists at Creighton on Dec. 9.
• Webster scored all 10 of his points in the second half against Abilene Christian on Dec. 1 while adding five boards and a pair of blocked shots.
• Webster earned all-tournament honors at the Barclays Center Classic in November, averaging 19.5 points on 56 percent shooting and 5.0 rebounds per game against No. 24 Cincinnati and Tennessee.
• He enjoyed his breakout performance in the loss to No. 24 Cincinnati on Nov. 27, posting career highs in points (21) and rebounds (eight) while battling a stomach virus that kept him out of shootaround earlier that day. One day later against Tennessee, he added 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting against Tennessee.