There was not much suspense in either Nebraska basketball opener Monday. The women beat San Jose State, 81-54, at noon. A few hours later, the men beat Le Moyne, 106-64.
Those are the kinds of scores you expect from season openers against overmatched opponents, so the margins themselves are not particularly interesting. What matters more is how Nebraska got there, because both teams spent the preseason talking about specific areas they wanted to improve.
For Amy Williams, that meant defense, rebounding and becoming less dependent on simply outscoring people. For Fred Hoiberg, it meant figuring out a deeper rotation, getting his new point guard comfortable and finding the offensive flow that had been harder to see during a deliberately difficult exhibition schedule.
What did Monday tell us? Let’s take a look.
