uneblinstu's post game chatter: ed 6, vol 16: @ Purdue

[uneblinstu]

- DVR didn't record like I asked it to, so I missed the first hal of the first half. That was really frustrating. First play I saw was Tai's dish to Smith.  That was sick. So, I don't know what happened before that. 

- I heard some things about sloppiness, poor shot selection, solid play by Webster, ball movement.  I don't know.  I didn't get to see it.

- Thought they played pretty well from what I saw. Had an answer for just about everything Purdue had.

- On that last possiession of the first half, I don't have a problem with Biggs when he can get to the rim like that, but he MUST finish. Must, must, must. I like what he did the possession before, recognizing Hammons was out and taking it right at the heart of the Purdue D.  More of that, just finish.

- Thought the offense was a little stagnant in the middle of the second half.  Thought they picked it up when Biggs came back in.

- Purdue a little sloppy in the second half as well.

- Petteway a bit out of sorts today but better when he attacked the rim. Loosened up a bit the end of the half.

- Zone was pretty effective.

- How the eff was that a charge?

- Not sure I'd call it a breakout game for Tai, but this was his best game yet, at least since FGCU.

- Hammons is a beast.

- Couple of big misses by Shields on the line.

- Critical turnovers down the stretch.

- No field goals from the 7:16 mark to Petteway's lay up with 43.9 left. Why is this a continual problem? That was the only FG in that time and a single FT was the only other point. 

- That stretch with two turnovers, two missed FT's  an air-ball and missed rebound off the miss killed this team. 

- 0-4 for the third year in a row. Ugh... I like that this team continues to fight, but these two were winnable games. It's going to be so tough to win vs. Ohio State. Some winnable games come after that, but it would have been really great to win these past two. I think these guys will continue to get after it, but it's likely to get worse before it gets better.

[49r]

+1 uneb.  Couldn't have said it better myself.

[HuskerFever]

Even if we won 2/3 of our remaining games, we would end up at 17-13 (9-9). It will be interesting to see how our players deal with the adversity and try to finish out this season strong.

[nuled2dance]

Amen

[huskerbaseball13]

Shields is 9-37 the last five games......I think it's time Rivers gets another shot.  Tai played much better this game IMO.  Nothing special on the stat sheet but a better game by him. 

[Lincoln Gopher]

Hammons did play well today, but he has been very inconsistent this year, takes games off at times.

[throwback]

NU's switch to the zone defense early in the 2nd half really frustrated Purdue and allowed NU to surge to the lead. NU was down 48-44 and went primarily zone from there with 12-1/2 min left. We ended up going +7 over the next 6 minutes, getting quite a few runouts off turnovers. Once PU stopped turning the ball over vs the zone though, our struggles/poor decisions in the half court offense rose up again, primarily whenever Hammons was in the game.

 

And we should have been +9 or +10 - that call vs Biggs was beyond horrible. When I saw the ref waving it off I thought, he can't possibly be calling that on the floor can he? Never in a million years did I expect him to throw his hand behind his head as well. Not only was the defender still moving, but he had his arms nowhere near vertical. Would have given us a 49-48 lead with the and one.

 

When you consider Smith seemed set on a bucket in the first half & Shields appeared to draw a charge vs Hammons in the first half on the play where he was shaken up, but Smith was called for a foul & Shields got a no call, the call vs Biggs was even worse. With the new block-charge rules, I could understand those two that went against NU's defenders in the first half, but the one vs Biggs wasn't even close.

 

Still it was our poor shot selection and quick shots that killed us ultimately. The first half was a disaster in terms of half court offense, yet PU played poorly enough to let us stay in the game. NU never really got into a rhythm offensively, outside of that flurry of turnovers PU had vs the NU zone, when most of NU's points came in transition. 

[kldm64]

Lots of people on this board have been calling for Biggs to start ahead of Webster but how about Biggs start ahead of Gallegos.  He just seems to disappear in games and only takes one shot the entire second half and it was not a good one.  I like the backcourt of having Biggs and Webster in at the same time. 

 

This was a team we were better than and we still can't get a win.  This season continues to get more frustrating with every game.  Good teams find a way to win and bad teams find ways to lose.  You aren't going to win many games with the scoring droughts we go on.  Just riduculous.

[huskerbaseball13]

Lots of people on this board have been calling for Biggs to start ahead of Webster but how about Biggs start ahead of Gallegos.  He just seems to disappear in games and only takes one shot the entire second half and it was not a good one.  I like the backcourt of having Biggs and Webster in at the same time. 

 

This was a team we were better than and we still can't get a win.  This season continues to get more frustrating with every game.  Good teams find a way to win and bad teams find ways to lose.  You aren't going to win many games with the scoring droughts we go on.  Just riduculous.

 

 

Not a bad thought...but my opinion on that is that even when off Gallegos demands attention from the defense every single game...every time down the court.  Webster...right now...doesnt draw the same attention.  As it stands even when not playing great Gallegos opens things up for Petteway, Biggs, and Smith who seemingly are the only other players who can currently consistently score on this team. 

[throwback]

We did see quite a bit more of Tai & Biggs together, especially when we went zone, and they were successful, so that was good to see. 

 

The problem with Biggs is at times he's a very passive on ball defender. He really struggles vs the pick and roll, whereas Gallegos gives us much more on that end. I think Coach Miles may have switched to zone more out of frustration than as a strategic decision, because Biggs gave up on a pick and roll and allowed an easy layup right before we made the switch.

 

When Gallegos is hitting shots, his defense keeps him on the floor ahead of Biggs. But when he's not getting much offensively and we need Biggs to give us a spark on offense, maybe we'll have to play more zone. Biggs was far more comfortable in that role today, and he and Tai were really good out on top of the 2-3 vs PU.

[cozrulz]

Seemed like the team kind of gave up after Shavon missed those two free throws.

[Huskerpapa]

I am frustrated, but we are growing and the light of the end of the tunnel is actually a brighter future, not a train wreck waiting to happen.  Something good will soon happen, and when that indeed occurs, I think we are going to end the season well, and springboard into a very positive future. 

 

That is my pep talk, but I will repeat, this is more than a bit frustrating.

[TheGov21]

Did anybody else think Webster was a lot more aggressive offensively attacking the basket?  Or was it me?

[colhusker]

Another frustrating finish for us.  This team just needs to learn to finish.  It's a tough hump to get over.

[ajb5856]

Did anybody else think Webster was a lot more aggressive offensively attacking the basket? Or was it me?

Yes. He was definitely more aggressive today.

[Cazzie22]

Did anybody else think Webster was a lot more aggressive offensively attacking the basket?  Or was it me?

I would like to see Tai do this every game.  He is a key to this team improving.

[Cazzie22]

It must be the old conservative coach in me but our shot selection is just awful.  

[royalfan]

 

Lots of people on this board have been calling for Biggs to start ahead of Webster but how about Biggs start ahead of Gallegos.  He just seems to disappear in games and only takes one shot the entire second half and it was not a good one.  I like the backcourt of having Biggs and Webster in at the same time. 

 

This was a team we were better than and we still can't get a win.  This season continues to get more frustrating with every game.  Good teams find a way to win and bad teams find ways to lose.  You aren't going to win many games with the scoring droughts we go on.  Just riduculous.

 

 

Not a bad thought...but my opinion on that is that even when off Gallegos demands attention from the defense every single game...every time down the court.  Webster...right now...doesnt draw the same attention.  As it stands even when not playing great Gallegos opens things up for Petteway, Biggs, and Smith who seemingly are the only other players who can currently consistently score on this team. 

 

Yeah exactly right.  We need to play Gallegos as much as he can handle and green light him and try and get him as many clean looks as he can handle. 

[bison husker]

I am frustrated, but we are growing and the light of the end of the tunnel is actually a brighter future, not a train wreck waiting to happen.  Something good will soon happen, and when that indeed occurs, I think we are going to end the season well, and springboard into a very positive future. 

 

That is my pep talk, but I will repeat, this is more than a bit frustrating.

I don't know.  We had 2 games we should have won....both UM and PU played bad and gave us chances but we can finish it off.  It's about to get bad imo.

[hskr4life]

 

I am frustrated, but we are growing and the light of the end of the tunnel is actually a brighter future, not a train wreck waiting to happen.  Something good will soon happen, and when that indeed occurs, I think we are going to end the season well, and springboard into a very positive future. 

 

That is my pep talk, but I will repeat, this is more than a bit frustrating.

I don't know.  We had 2 games we should have won....both UM and PU played bad and gave us chances but we can finish it off.  It's about to get bad imo.

 

Oh I dont know... I think we have to give it a few more games in order to say its about to get bad.  We just need to get that first W under our belts and see what happens.  If we have not won a game after we have Minny and Indiana at home in back to back games, then I think we can begin to worry.

[Husker4Life]

Why is it that a team with one of the best facilities and with sell out crowds not seem to be able to recruit better athletes? Unless Jacob Hammond has improved greatly from last year he will not significantly make much of a difference. I have seen both Pusica and Pinder play a couple of games and again they are not difference makers. Pinder has some athleticism but is extremely raw and Pusica is much like Gallegos. When he is hot he is hot but when he is cold he is very cold and he is not a point man. The first game I saw, Pusica had no points and yet shot the ball a lot. He had 11 the next night but he is much too slow to run the point in the Big 10. We need a DIFFERENCE MAKER and there does not seem to be one on the horizon. I sincerely hope that I am wrong for I want this team to win in the worst way. I am 75 years old and would like to see Nebraska be able to compete in this league before I reach the great beyond. We need some big bodies that can play defense and rebound and a couple of good shooters. I guess it doesn't hurt to dream but all I seem to get is nightmares.

[hhcmatt]

I yelled at the TV on that Biggs shot right before half.

It was a high percentage shot but it was one with 30 seconds left in the half and like a 1-2 second shot clock difference.

He missed it and luckily Purdue missed as well.

 

I saw ball movement today and passing that I hadn't seen all season and the 12 assists in the box score backs that up.  Towards the end of the game they were back in their "one guy trying to do it all" mode but finally this is starting to look like a team.

 

We have 14 games left to try and earn a post season bid and to prep for a NCAA bid next year.  Let's see what a week prep will do for Ohio St.

[jimmykc]

I think the rest of the season will be the be the most difficult stretch for our coaching staff to manage. To be blunt, we are not going anywhere in postseason, and at best, we can only hope to pull some upsets, and spoil someone else's year. As a high school senior I was fortunate enough to play on a team which dropped our final 16 games. I can speak from experience when I say that those at the end of the bench tend to lose focus at practice and during games. Those who are playing tend to focus on individual goals and impressing the coaches for next year rather than team play. Squads split along those lines, and bickering becomes rampant with cliques developing between the apathetic and those who have a chance to play next year. The coaches will have to work hard to maintain the team concept for the remaining games.

   On a brighter note, by reading this thread I discovered that I am not the oldest poster on HHC. Let's hoist a glass of prune juice, Husker4Life.

[hhcmatt]

   On a brighter note, by reading this thread I discovered that I am not the oldest poster on HHC. Let's hoist a glass of prune juice, Husker4Life.

 

I was about to lecture him on patience until I got to the last 3 lines.  I instead gave him a plus 1.

If you were born in the 1920s or 1930s and are posting on this board, God bless you.

 

BTW, if you were born before the 20s and are posting on the board, bring your sword and lets meet up in the Highlands this week.  #ThereCanBeOnlyOne

[Creighton Fan]

I think the rest of the season will be the be the most difficult stretch for our coaching staff to manage. To be blunt, we are not going anywhere in postseason, and at best, we can only hope to pull some upsets, and spoil someone else's year. As a high school senior I was fortunate enough to play on a team which dropped our final 16 games. I can speak from experience when I say that those at the end of the bench tend to lose focus at practice and during games. Those who are playing tend to focus on individual goals and impressing the coaches for next year rather than team play. Squads split along those lines, and bickering becomes rampant with cliques developing between the apathetic and those who have a chance to play next year. The coaches will have to work hard to maintain the team concept for the remaining games.

On a brighter note, by reading this thread I discovered that I am not the oldest poster on HHC. Let's hoist a glass of prune juice, Husker4Life.

This is scary jimmy. You know why? Becauae I think the guys are already playing somewhere between selfish and hero ball as it is!!!!!