After losing five of their last seven games, the Longhorns are faced with what is certainly a must-win. With four road games left in the final seven games, Texas must win every home game on the schedule to ensure they have a shot to earn of the league’s four first-round byes in the conference tournament. Fortunately for the Horns, this afternoon’s game is one that they certainly should win, against a team that is young, shorthanded, and much less talented.

Doc Sadler’s Cornhuskers have been dealing with injuries to their top players all season long. Before the year even began, Nebraska lost Christopher Niemann, a 6’11” sophomore who would have been the team’s starting center. With the loss of the team’s big man, explosive guard Toney McCray decided to try to play through an elbow injury when doctors suggested he would need surgery. After just three games, McCray realized he couldn’t play through the pain and packed it in for the year. With two of the team’s presumed starters out of the mix, Sadler has had to rely on a bunch of freshmen and JuCo transfers to get through the season.

Junior guard Lance Jeter is one of those transfers, a stocky point guard built in the mold of Byron Eaton. He played football at Cincinatti before transferring to Lincoln, and it shows in the way he can barrel through defenders. Jeter isn’t a very fast guard and he tends to dribble the air out of the ball, but without him on the floor, the Nebraska offense often looks lost. The Longhorns should easily be able to keep Jeter in front of them on defense, but should keep an eye on him beyond the arc, where he’s hitting 39% of his looks.

When Jeter isn’t manning the point, the duties typically fall to Sek Henry. Unfortunately, Henry is a defensive specialist and not a quality floor general. Pressure on Henry beyond the perimeter will often stifle the Husker offense before it can even get going. On the other side of the ball, though, the Longhorn guards are going to be frustrated by Sek all afternoon long.

Ryan Anderson is arguably an even better defender than Henry, logging nearly two steals per game. On a team with a slow pace of play, that stat speaks volumes. For the last three years, Anderson has had to play out of position thanks to a lack of post depth on the Nebraska roster. This year, the Huskers have more bodies down low, so Anderson is able to work more from the wing and attack off the dribble. Thanks to his previous experience playing down low, Anderson is able to put it in the hoop in a variety of ways, and is the team’s leading scorer.

Just behind Anderson in the scoring ranks is Jorge Brian Diaz, a redshirt freshman from Puerto Rico who has really developed nicely over the course of the year. He still makes some boneheaded mistakes and misses some point blank looks, but he seems to be adjusting to the physical post play in the Big 12. In addition to banging around down low, Diaz also has a pretty good turnaround jumper that can certainly frustrate his defender.

Also eating up minutes in the frontcourt is German-born Christian Standhardinger. Like Dogus Balbay, Standhardinger played on a foreign team with professionals, and was forced to sit out the first half of the year as a result. Since joining the roster for conference play, Standhardinger has played at a high level of intensity. He’s a scrappy player who is always hustling, and is reminiscent of OU’s Eduardo Najera in both playing style and hair style.

The third big man in the mix for Doc Sadler is freshman Brandon Ubel. At 6’10”, the Huskers are expecting big things out of the Overland Park native, but so far he has yet to impress. Ubel misses a lot of easy looks in the paint and gets pushed around pretty easily by opposing bigs. With some experience and muscle, he’s going to make an impact in future seasons, but for now he’s mostly quiet in his 16 minutes per game.

With Ubel spending more time on the bench, Quincy Hankins-Cole has recently seen more PT as a frontcourt reserve. He’s another junior-college transfer, so he gives Sadler more experience and more polished play than the freshmen sometimes do. Hankins-Cole isn’t a flashy player or a superstar-in-waiting, but he provides quality minutes down low and will earn a few points and rebounds every game.

Brandon Richardson is the team’s third-leading scorer, and has made quite a jump from his freshman year to his sophomore one. Richardson is a favorite of Coach Sadler thanks to his hard-nosed play and hustle, but he’s also a pretty good shooter and is nearly automatic from the line. He’s not going to score a ton of points, but where he’ll be noticed this afternoon is on the defensive end, as he will likely make life miserable for the Texas guards.

The biggest impact off the bench often comes from guard Eshaunte Jones, nicknamed “The Bear.” He’s hitting more than 44% of his looks behind the arc, where he’s taken 79 attempts on the year. If Nebraska manages to play their style of basketball this afternoon, Jones could be the difference an upset win or another road loss.

Keys to the game

If the Longhorns are going to win this one easily, they must dictate the speed of the game. The Cornhuskers are one of the 50 slowest teams in the country, and they try to win basketball games by limiting possessions and keeping it close with suffocating defense. If Texas can increase the number of possessions, it will magnify the difference in skill between these two offenses, and the Horns should cruise to a victory. If Nebraska manages to slow things down and keep the score in the 50- or 60-point range, it could be another close one for Texas.

As Mark Rosner reported last night, J’Covan Brown will be in the starting lineup. At the end of the Kansas game, fans saw Brown attack the rim and force the issue. They also saw him make a few turnovers down the stretch that helped scuttle a late comeback try. The Longhorns must have J’Covan play smart basketball against a very well-coached defensive team. If he is making mistakes that give Nebraska extra possessions, it plays right into their game plan.

Finally, it’s important that Dexter Pittman breaks out. This isn’t necessarily a key to the game, as Texas can still probably beat Nebraska without a big game from Big Pitt. But it’s clear that he has lost some confidence on the offensive end, and he will certainly be needed down the stretch in conference play. If Pittman can have a quality game against the Huskers, perhaps it will give him a much-needed boost for the final weeks of the season.