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Guard play


Huskerpapa

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Will our backcourt be better, about the same or take a step backwards from last year?  Missing will be Tai, but holy cow, do we have an influx of talent.  Here is an article (somewhat shallow) comparing and contrasting the backcourt this year to last year.

 

https://www.btpowerhouse.com/2017/10/9/16445658/nebraska-2017-2018-basketball-preview-breaking-down-huskers-backcourt-glynn-watson-huskers

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From my observation - bigs/athleticism keeps you in games and gives you the best chance to be successful. But guards WIN games. 

So hopefully they're at least as good as last year, because I think our bigs and athleticism is better this year. Glynn should be a stud. Someone out of the Palmer/Taylor/Gill/Allen group hopefully is sufficient. 

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I think just bc of depth, we will be equally as good as last year.

 

Once Gill went down we played over half of a season with only 3 gaurds, all of which were logging heavy minutes ranging from 25-35 minutes every game.

 

This year we have one proven gaurd and some unknowns. Glynn is at the very least a good, middle of the pack Big Ten gaurd. But can he take the next step and become a top 5 PG in the league? Can Miles pull out another miraculous transformation on a transfer who didnt do much at his previous school in James Palmer? Can Gill bounce back enough to be productive at this level? How quickly does Thomas Allens talent translate to the big boy level? Will Evan Taylor be able to be more than a glue and grind player?

 

My take is we hit on 3.5 of those 5 question marks.

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Tai scored a lot last year because we asked him to and he answered the call; I think we can expect the same sort of volume out of Watson if we need it and we probably do.

 

I think Evan is up to the task of replacing the defense of Tai but Is he going to be much better than Benny Parker offensively this year?  He wasn't last year.  If you're getting good offensive production from 2 of Roby, Jordy, and IC then Evan has more of a chance of playing because we can live with 3 guys carrying the offense.

 

I spent some time re-reading up on Palmer; all the old scouting articles...3pt shooter that can also score in transition. He shot 36.5% from 3 in limited action as a freshman before shooting a putrid 27.7% in a reduced roll as a freshman. Even with the lack of playing time at Miami you can see from the numbers he has the potential to be a volume scorer if we need it. Is the shooting ability that earned him a 3/4 star rating still there? Can this guy D up any of the 2 guards in this league?

 

Beyond that you're banking on Gill being back physically and being able to score with some efficiency (team worst 35.2% eff FG last year) or Anketen being able to play good enough defense to stay on the court or having to play Allen with Watson at points.

 

I'd say this article's summary

 

Overall

There’s a lot up in the air in the Nebraska backcourt. How will Watson adjust to the lead role? How will Gill look after a significant knee injury? Can Taylor and Palmer be more than role players? And will any of those freshmen be ready to provide early contributions?

 

 

is spot on.

 

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I think it's incredibly important to have legitimate 3pt threats at the 2-3 and possibly 4 spots if at all possible.  35% and up.  

 

There isn't a player in the country who can stay in front of Watson with no help, and I think we'll learn early on just how good Allen is in pick and roll situations.  Having 3 pt threats is also going to allow Jordy to go to work one on one in the post, where he can learn to be unstoppable.  We'd also be able to run iso plays for Copeland or Roby in those scenarios.  

 

If Evan can shoot the 3 effectively, he becomes our best 2 guard option immediately, in my opinion.  If he can't spread the court on offense, I think the 2 spot is a total crapshoot between Evan and Palmer. 

 

The nicest thing of all is that these are wonderful problems to have.  I think all of the players being mentioned alongside Watson are serviceable B1G players.  

 

I just want one guy on the court at all times who wants to live outside of the 3pt line and belongs out there.  We have been desperately missing a Gallegos-type the past few seasons.  Those guys are exhausting to guard, even when they don't get the ball. 

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The article expressed concern about our ability to replace Tai Webster.

 

Tai was very good at a lot of things but he wasn't perfect.  Terrific defender, really good at driving to the basket.  Not so good at perimeter shooting and guilty of making questionable decisions a lot of times while in mid-air.

 

Fact is teams have to replace seniors all the time.  Few seniors truly leave a gaping hole in the roster when they graduate; most are replaced by underclassmen who become that guy when their turn arrives.

 

For example, Tai wasn't nearly as good his junior year. I'm guessing if we'd had this discussion a year ago and were worried about losing Shavon and Andrew White, few of us would have projected Tai stepping up as much as he did.

 

Players are almost always some degree better than they were the year before.  I doubt this year will be any exception.

 

Therefore, I think there's a high probability that, with added depth and a year interval of added experience of the returning players, we're almost certain to have a better backcourt than we did a year ago.

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Relying on underclassmen to fill out major roles though is the big issue as I see it.  We're having trouble keeping kids around long enough to become juniors and seniors and that's where you really start to see production pay off.  This is how Northwestern has been able to build a contender and how it looks like Minnesota is becoming one too.

 

For us to take that step out of the basement in the B1G, we *need* to keep this roster intact as much as humanly possible moving forward.

 

IMO.

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Improvement comes when players are pushing each other for playing time.  For the first time in a few years, we have a backcourt that are competing for the quality minutes.  As long as it isn't poor players pushing to become mediocre, which I truly do not believe is the case here, the competition should result in an improvement over last year.

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My gut tells me Glynn will be more consistent and have a great year. Last season, I think he really suffered from not having a big guy who was a serious pick-and-pop prospect. Without that option, every team hedged the crap out of our on-ball screen-and-rolls. They didn't respect Jacobsen or Morrow as a threat to step out and shoot. Glynn was often left with little or no room to operate and I think it took a toll on him as teams schemed to stop him. Hopefully, that won't be the case when Copeland is on the floor. From the hype, being able to knock down mid-range shots seems to be one of Copeland's biggest assets. One of my biggest frustrations last year was that we didn't seem to adjust to the on-ball hedge strategy. It probably would have been more effective to clear a side and let Glynn operate than to bring another defender into the mix and gum up the works. Hopefully Palmer, Allen, Jack and others will step it up and be spot up threats to keep people honest so Glynn can get some space.  

Edited by Coaches kid
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3 hours ago, Coaches kid said:

My gut tells me Glynn will be more consistent and have a great year. Last season, I think he really suffered from not having a big guy who was a serious pick-and-pop prospect. Without that option, every team hedged the crap out of our on-ball screen-and-rolls. They didn't respect Jacobsen or Morrow as a threat to step out and shoot. Glynn was often left with little or no room to operate and I think it took a toll on him as teams schemed to stop him. Hopefully, that won't be the case when Copeland is on the floor. From the hype, being able to knock down mid-range shots seems to be one of Copeland's biggest assets. One of my biggest frustrations last year was that we didn't seem to adjust to the on-ball hedge strategy. It probably would have been more effective to clear a side and let Glynn operate than to bring another defender into the mix and gum up the works. Hopefully Palmer, Allen, Jack and others will step it up and be spot up threats to keep people honest so Glynn can get some space.  

 

I agree, if IC gets as many open looks at Jacobson he might be a 20 per game scorer. Can not see that happening but should really help open the floor for Glynn and Palmer

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50 minutes ago, Art Vandalay said:

 

I agree, if IC gets as many open looks at Jacobson he might be a 20 per game scorer. Can not see that happening but should really help open the floor for Glynn and Palmer

 

He won’t get the open looks like MJ because people will actually have to guard him, which means they won’t be able to sag off and help guard other players, which means other players will be more productive. Having Isaac Copeland on the floor will make other players better. 

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