uneblinstu's Post Game Chatter: Vol 9, Ed 19 - @ Rutgers

[uneblinstu]

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

 

- I guess I under estimated how important Ed is to this team. The margin for success and failure is razor thin and him (along with Tai and Glynn) make NU really formidable. Take one of those three out and NU falls just on the other side of the razor.

- Really nice to see Jack find his shot again.

- Saw some flashes from Jordy about how high his ceiling can be.

- Horne and Roby had some pretty big defensive mistakes and they're not contributing much of anything offensively. Until they do on one end or the other, they may not play much.

- Glynn needs to stay our of foul trouble.

- That first half was as bad as I've seen in a long time. The game was lost there.

- The grind gets really serious starting now. Need to find a way to scratch and claw a couple out over the next 4-5 games. If they do that and Ed comes back, NU can still salvage something from this year. But it's starting to slip from their grasp. We always knew the margin was thin, now we're seeing just how much so. The past week was back-to-back gut punches. That can be really difficult to recover from. The mental mettle of this team and staff will be tested.

 

That's all I got for now.

Edited January 21, 2017 by uneblinstu

[Bugeaters1]

Well that is that again.

[Blindcheck]

Boy, do we miss Morrow.

[Bugeaters1]

 

[hhcmatt]

The last couple of possessions Nebraska played to not lose the game while Rutgers was playing to win.

Agree that we lost this in the first half though.

[jayschool]

It's just a game. It's just a game. It's just a game. (SCCCHHHIIIIIITTTTT!!!) It's just a game. It's just a game. It's just a game. (PHUUUUUCCCCCCC......!!!) It's just a game. (sob)

Edited January 21, 2017 by jayschool

[royalfan]

6 minutes ago, hhcdimes said:

The last couple of possessions Nebraska played to not lose the game while Rutgers was playing to win.

Agree that we lost this in the first half though.

 

Agree, the way the clock laid out, we did have our hand forced a little bit by game theory though.  There were too many possessions once we had any sort of lead where we used 15 seconds doing nothing though. 

[brfrad]

I think we tried too hard to get Watson a blow in the 2nd half.  We took him out up 7 and by the time,  we get him back in, we are up 2, or tied.  

 

Ed is a huge missing piece, especially down the stretch.   In our wins against Indiana and Maryland, he came up with some huge plays on the offensive glass.  Can't let this game, hang with us.  Need to forget about it, and continue to improve.

[brfrad]

Alright, I am not watching a basketball game until Thursday night.

[royalfan]

3 minutes ago, brfrad said:

I think we tried too hard to get Watson a blow in the 2nd half.  We took him out up 7 and by the time,  we get him back in, we are up 2, or tied.  

 

Ed is a huge missing piece, especially down the stretch.   In our wins against Indiana and Maryland, he came up with some huge plays on the offensive glass.  Can't let this game, hang with us.  Need to forget about it, and continue to improve.

 

Agree wholeheartedly on Watson.  Very easily may have cost the game. 

[brfrad]

This bottom of the roller coaster ride sucks.  I like being on the top of the ride better.

[Huskerpapa]

I am trying to figure out how we lost that game against that team.  This sucks.

[Lifetimesker]

 Up by five with a 1:40 left in the game.  You need to close this game out. Jacobson misses the front end of a 1and1. Webster dribbles the ball off his foot in our last meaningful possession of the game. Anything that could go wrong for us in the final minutes.....DID!  I don't know how many more of these games I can take! 

[49r]

I hate everything right now.


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[brfrad]

We were in the bonus with 12 minutes to go, and Rutgers had only 1 foul the rest of the half.  That's not good.

 

Coach Miles said it well.  We had 10 offensive rebounds in the 1st half, and 0 2nd chance points.  That's not good.  We ended up having 16 offensive rebounds, for 6 2nd chance points.  Rutgers with only 9 offensive rebounds for the game, but finished with 11 2nd chance points.  Rutgers, a team shooting 53% from the free throw line in Big 10 games, goes 14 for 20 from the line.  We go 8 for 9 from the line.  That is the difference in the game.

[khoock]

Such is life as a Nebrasketball fan. Sometimes all you can do is laugh.

 

On to the next one.

[The Polish Rifle]

Rutgers, Michigan, Ohio State are a combined 2-14 vs. the rest of the B1G. 3-0 against us. Not gonna get any easier from here.

[hhcmatt]

Quotes

 

Opening statement …

“Well, we have to credit Rutgers and Coach Pikiell. They really stuck with it when we got up seven and then got up five again. They just stayed with it and ended up finding a way to get their first Big Ten win. I credit our guys for hanging in there after a poor first half to fight back and take the lead, but we just made a few errors down the stretch, a couple turnovers and a couple fouls and that was the difference in the game. I thought we did a good job defensively for a long time, but we couldn’t get [Corey] Sanders under control. That was probably the story of the game.”

 

On defensive set on final Rutgers possession …

“We wanted to keep him [Corey Sanders] on that side of the floor and he kind of went and tied to split it and when he picked the ball up it was low and there were guys coming at him so he just put the ball up and it goes off the backboard. It doesn’t hit the rim, and [Tai] Webster is engaged with C.J. Gettys and tips it and Corey’s momentum just takes him right there and it’s a point-blank layup. You kind of feel like it’s rebounding an air ball almost. That probably wasn’t what cost us the game. But he’s such a good athlete, he made so many other acrobatic plays that were well-contested. He really made a lot of plays tonight.”

 

On dropping another closely contested game …

“I think that’s my biggest concern is just keeping the spirts of our players up. As a coach, this is part of the business. I’ve been a head coach a long time. I don’t know this is like 21 or 22 years or whatever it is, and you go through seasons and times like this. But at the same time I know we can compete with anybody, and I know we can compete with anybody anywhere. We’ve just got to keep teaching, keep these guys believing, and come out on top because winning can really energize you. You can’t let this define you.”

 

On depth of the Big Ten …

“No doubt. Rutgers has been ahead of I think every team they’ve played. That’s what we told our guys – they will be ahead. They are a full-throttle team. They’ll pick it up, they’ll pick up their pressure, they’re going to be all over the glass. Coach [Pikiell] coaches to his personality and they are going to be full-throttle. Our job is to get them off that, and I thought we did when we were scoring the ball and I thought we did even when we were getting some stops. In the first half it felt like we should be down 20, because we hadn’t done anything. So we knew we can come back. But Sanders played really well and we did a good job on [Mike] Williams and [Deshawn] Freeman, but they still got us on the glass so you’re going to give up some of that any way. But on a day like today, Corey was really the story I think.”

 

On defending Sanders when he gets on a roll …

“I think his ability, his body control, his ability to hang in the air, take contact, and still get a shot up. From the time it leaves his hand to whatever angle he wants it looks like it’s going in. There were two or three of those plays where our kid comes back and goes ‘coach’ and I’m just like ‘that’s what he does, hang in there, stay in front of him.’ You have to credit Corey, he really was a playmaker today.”

 

On Rutgers this year compared to last season …

“Well we got them three times last year. I think they accounted for about 30 percent of our wins. Not 10, I mean 30. Here’s what you see: you see a team that plays very hard, is very well organized, that fits that Calhoun kind of mantra, big physical guys on the glass punishing. That’s Big Ten basketball, that’s what it looks like to me. That’s a Big Ten basketball team. And as they get more skill, they’re going to be even tougher.”

 

On Calhoun’s influence on the way Rutgers is coached …

“Oh yea, definitely. You see the big wings, just the way they’re on the glass and the way they’re going to put it inside. Steve did a good job assembling what he could for things, and he’s got a difference-maker. Williams is a tough player, but Sanders is a guy that can set you apart because he can go and get it against anybody. He got 17 against us at our place the first game last year in the first half, so it wasn’t like it was a big surprised, we knew he could go.”

 

 

[jayschool]

You have to give the scriptwriters credit: 

While we may all be able to predict the gut-wrenching ending of a Nebrasketball season, how we get there always has a few wrinkles.

[hhcmatt]

Would we be playing Tai and Glynn so many minutes if Anton was still in the lineup? Those guys are starting to look gassed at the end which is another way you lose in the last second.

[Huskerone]

On the plus side today, creighton just gave up a 100+ and got beat by Marquette.

 

btw, crowd did not look real into it on TV at the clink.  I wonder if the scribes will bust their chops as much as they do Husker fans at the Vault?  If the crowd was more into the game, could have willed them to the win.  Riiiiiiiiiiight.

[jason2486]

1 hour ago, jayschool said:

You have to give the scriptwriters credit: 

While we may all be able to predict the gut-wrenching ending of a Nebrasketball season, how we get there always has a few wrinkles.

I was thinking this exact thought after today's game.

[Huskerpapa]

Here is one very basic observation, you cannot miss 9 bunnies and win; and if anything, I am light with the number of missed bunnies.

[Bugeaters1]

1 hour ago, Huskerone said:

On the plus side today, creighton just gave up a 100+ and got beat by Marquette.

 

btw, crowd did not look real into it on TV at the clink.  I wonder if the scribes will bust their chops as much as they do Husker fans at the Vault?  If the crowd was more into the game, could have willed them to the win.  Riiiiiiiiiiight.

I asked Eric Olson about the quite crowd at the Clink and I haven't heard back from him.

[jimmykc]

To end this thread on a positive note, it appears we may have found our missing free throw stroke.