02/05/2014 - At Michigan Report Card

[hhcdave]

OFFENSE: F

 

Really inspiring game plan tonight on offense. Just try and do one on one moves and/or hock up quick shots.

 

Also, God forbid we don't start the game with a Walter Pitchford three. I wish somebody would go back and see NU's record when he makes the three on the first possession of the game versus when he misses.

 

Shavon Shields aint Terran Petteway. So while I'm happy we FINALLY attempted to REALLY involve him in a game, you CAN NOT DO THAT WITH HIM ONE ON ONE. He isn't athletic or good enough. You have to RUN AN OFFENSE. Shields all by himself aint gonna work in the Big 10.

 

We'll talk about this later, but AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL coaching by Miles tonight in letting this team become lazy and just play out the motions. Apparently we don't need to teach and build in year two - we can just mail it in.

 

Pathetic.

 

DEFENSE: F

 

Novel concept - try playing someone straight up?

 

The junk defense of double teaming with the big at the top absolutely KILLED US tonight. Now, I gave Miles LOTS of credit for this against Minnesota and its been effective at times, but that's because at that point, it was a complete surprise. Michigan was ready for this, as will every other Big 10 team.

 

After that, the zone was tried, and that was maybe even worse.

 

Nebraska left EVERYONE WIDE OPEN and even more bothersome, appeared to not care for a lot of the game. No adjustments made defensively to bring the defense out further. All it took was a few passes for a wide open three. Maybe not even that many. Michigan shot 50% from the field and easily could have poured in 95-100 points if they wanted to. Nebraska was awful in all facets defensively.

 

REBOUNDING: C

 

This is a "moot" grade tonight because Nebraska missed so many shots and Michigan made so many, that of course Michigan was going to out rebound NU (35-26).

 

Moving on.

 

BALL HANDLING: F

 

Nebraska showed no interest in running an actual offense tonight or passing the ball around for 20-30 seconds to find a good shot.

 

Apparently Tai Webster forgot how to dribble the basketball. In the first half, he looked like me at the gym, unable to even dribble.

 

Petteway was the worst - 4 turnovers, 1 assist, 5 points, in 31 minutes.

 

COACHING: F

 

I'm sorry but I thought Coach Miles "really liked this matchup" and "thought we had a chance to win."

 

You could have fooled me, based on his lackluster effort once the game began.

 

First of all, Miles gave up just like his players did, which can be evidenced in several different ways.

 

A. He didn't use A SINGLE TIMEOUT in the second half, and only the USE IT OR LOSE IT in the first half (and not until 16 minutes in). Apparently he wanted to get this one over as soon as possible and didn't believe that any adjustments were necessary with our potent stand around defensive game plan and our potent one pass, shot or one pass, dribble, dribble, dribble, drive, and force game plan.

 

B. He allowed young players to develop TERRIBLE habits. How does turning Nathan Hawkins into Terran Petteway benefit our offense or Hawkins? The entire second half was just catch, shoot. Catch, shoot. One pass, shoot. This is no offense at all. None. Zero. Zilch. Not a semblance of an offense. But this is okay? We're going to let our kids develop these habits and just throw away 20+ minutes of teachable game time to "get this one over with" and "go through the motions?"

 

The effort by Miles was garbage. I love the guy. But this was completely unacceptable and the most "mailed in" I've seen a coach since the final days of the Danny Nee days. We aren't going anywhere with this attitude and example being set. Watch Patrick Chambers coach - there's a guy who coaches like he wants to build a program and set an example. *** NOTE *** I hope like hell Miles is further along than where Chambers is at this point when Miles gets to that point, but I at least love how Chambers coaches on the floor.

 

I have no idea in hell what NU had in mind tonight or why its head man didn't care to even attempt to coach. Seriously, that was unacceptable.

 

OVERALL GRADE: F

 

Next time, please inform me before the game that you don't give two craps, so I don't waist two hours of my night on it. How we didn't even have a coach who appeared interested in using this to teach, work on things and set standards is beyond me.

 

PLAYER OF THE GAME: SHAVON SHIELDS

 

2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS:

 

TERRAN PETTEWAY - 11

 

SHAVON SHIELDS - 3

 

TAI WEBSTER - 2

 

WALTER PITCHFORD - 2

 

LESLEE SMITH - 2

 

DEVERELL BIGGS - 1

[Cazzie22]

Not much to say but to put this one in the rear view mirror.  We do need to estalish some type of offensive presence in the post.

[hhcmatt]

Also, God forbid we don't start the game with a Walter Pitchford three. I wish somebody would go back and see NU's record when he makes the three on the first possession of the game versus when he misses.

 

I'll take this quirk over the one where we used to lose every single opening tip.

Pitch is shooting 37% from 3 and 52.8% from 2 for the season....one of the better shooters for the team.  Not sure if he should be shooting more or if his FG% would start to plummet from overshooting.

[GATA]

Nitpicking, but I'd probably go with Hawkins for the player of the game because he was the closest thing we have to a positive from tonight. I love that he pulled the trigger. We desperately need more offensive threats, and at least teams will have to try and defend him unlike the 15 minutes or so we go with Parker and Menke.

[Blindcheck]

Yes,I was not impressed with coaching tonight.

You have to bench guys when they continually take horrible shots....or why would they quit taking them

I think the group I play with at the north Ymca in davenport Iowa would have run Nebraska out of the gym tonight....

[GATA]

Yes,I was not impressed with coaching tonight.

You have to bench guys when they continually take horrible shots....or why would they quit taking them

I think the group I play with at the north Ymca in davenport Iowa would have run Nebraska out of the gym tonight....

 

Hey, I live in Davenport, too!

[kldm64]

We need better guard play in the worst way.  Giving 14 minutes to Benny is way to many.  I know we need some big bodies next year but we need better guards just as badly.  I hope we can land Trey Dickerson.  We just looked completely lost tonight on both ends of the court.  Just amazing how good and then bad we can be in such a short timeframe.  This was like watching the Creighton or Ohio State games all over again.

[Milk]

Why doesn't Gallegos play that much, particularly in the 2nd half as of late?  Has anyone else noticed or am I wrong?

[MichHusker]

Thoughts from Crisler Arena

1. I knew we were in trouble when we couldn't even dribble or catch a pass to save our lives. It was horrible.

2. Michigan brought intensity right out the gate and we could not match it at all

3. The offense was so stagnant. Every movement without the ball was basically a jog.

4. We looked so lost on defense. I have never seen so many wide open shooters in my life.

5. I hope it wasn't a game plan to double down or leave Stauskas when someone else drove, because I saw it an awful lot. And while he wasn't necessarily shooting the ball, the defense was then so out of position that he was able to find the next open guy for wide open shots.

6. I was under the impression that the refs didnt really want to get booed tonight. They didn't really make any calls in our favor until we were already down 30. That being said, we didn't drive or force contact enough to make the officials make the call.

 

HORRIBLE game. hopefully the game @ MSU that Im going to doesn't end up the same way. I dont thing i will be able to handle that in person again.

[PimpMario]

Glad to see some Fs!

 

I would have gone with a Michigan player for player of the game.  Shields didn't really have a great game... although no one did so I might have given it to Hawkins.  Or maybe Kye Kurkowski.

[hhcscott]

I'm going to cast a vote for Kurkowski for honorable mention. Sweet run and reward dunk.

[royalfan]

When we go on the road we have to have a proud defense.  A warriors mentality on defense.  Not quite sure if superior tough mindedness is in Miles DNA.  That is the one concern I have with him.  You have to be extremely tough minded to win on the road in this league.  Miles needs to improve on this front and needs to keep this in mind when recruiting as well.  Will to win is something that needs to be evaluated when recruiting a little bit as well. 

[hhcdave]

Am I the only person that felt like Miles completely gave up and "mailed it in" by halftime? Maybe I'm too critical but I still, even 5 hours later, am in disbelief and upset with that second half, lack of coaching and lack of development time. We aren't anywhere near that time or good enough where we can just waist games and time to work on things, improve and grow. I saw no effort of that tonight, especially after halftime. No timeouts, no adjustments, no offensive flow (in the least), bad shots, no consequence, lazy defense, etc, etc. I might be overreacting and I still very much love Coach Miles, but I am BEYOND disappointed with him tonight.

[Huskerpapa]

We all have some days better than others.  This was a perfect storm last night in that Michigan was coming off of a loss, plus, we should have beaten them earlier this season.  So they had tremendous emotion and motivation.  That is not an excuse on how poorly we performed, rather it simply means that even if we had played perfectly, we likely would still not have won that game, and perhaps we would not have even covered the spread.

 

Going back to individual performance, I will put this on the entire coaching staff, and of course, Coach Miles is in charge.  I will not say that they mailed it in, but they certainly did not have the team prepared to play at the level necessary in this league.  I will also put it on a number of the players.  Some looked like they were okay, but the vast majority simply were running on six of the necessary eight cylinders.  Again, this cannot happen.  The same issue existed in the first half of the Indiana game. 

 

Now the good news, I do not expect the team that played last night to show up on Saturday.  Let's bring home a road win!

[HB]

None of this is lost on the coaches or the team, per the articles in the papers this morning.

[Norm Peterson]

We need better guard play in the worst way.  Giving 14 minutes to Benny is way to many.  I know we need some big bodies next year but we need better guards just as badly.  I hope we can land Trey Dickerson.  We just looked completely lost tonight on both ends of the court.  Just amazing how good and then bad we can be in such a short timeframe.  This was like watching the Creighton or Ohio State games all over again.

I started reading your post and thought you'd decided to mimic Dr. Seuss:  "Guard play/worst way;" " minutes to Benny/way to many."  But then you went "bodies next year/guards just as badly" and that didn't even come close to rhyming.

 

I think it would help the mood of the board if we adopted a new rule that the day after a big loss, all posts have to rhyme.

 

Dave, do you think you could write a rhyming report card?  Or would that just take too much time?

[hhcmatt]

Report cards in the form that rhyme

Would probably take a lot of time.

Could you would you guard a shot.

Could not, would not score a lot.

Can we win on Saturday? I do not like those games away.

[Handy Johnson]

What I find most discouraging is that we look & played scared.

[colhusker]

None of this is lost on the coaches or the team, per the articles in the papers this morning.

lol who should we put it on?

[HB]

 

None of this is lost on the coaches or the team, per the articles in the papers this morning.

lol who should we put it on?

 

 

You misunderstand my post.  I wasn't saying the coaches have no responsibility for how we played; just that the sentiments in CWG's post #14 and in some of the other posts on this thead were mentioned in the postgame comments by Miles, as set forth in the articles. In other words, they are aware of the problems.  And started working on them as soon as the final horn sounded.  I thought they were interesting and blunt comments and maybe someone can link. 

[Jadler]

Report cards in the form that rhyme

Would probably take a lot of time.

Could you would you guard a shot.

Could not, would not score a lot.

Can we win on Saturday? I do not like those games away.

Hey Dr. Dimes you forgot

One Turnover

Two Turnover

Red Brick

Blue Brick

[kldm64]

 

We need better guard play in the worst way.  Giving 14 minutes to Benny is way to many.  I know we need some big bodies next year but we need better guards just as badly.  I hope we can land Trey Dickerson.  We just looked completely lost tonight on both ends of the court.  Just amazing how good and then bad we can be in such a short timeframe.  This was like watching the Creighton or Ohio State games all over again.

I started reading your post and thought you'd decided to mimic Dr. Seuss:  "Guard play/worst way;" " minutes to Benny/way to many."  But then you went "bodies next year/guards just as badly" and that didn't even come close to rhyming.

 

I think it would help the mood of the board if we adopted a new rule that the day after a big loss, all posts have to rhyme.

 

Dave, do you think you could write a rhyming report card?  Or would that just take too much time?

 

 

We need to get Snoop Dog enrolled on this board.  He would have some great ryhmes.....snizzle

[bkamler]

Is it just me or does Miles neglect to call timeouts when it is apparent that a perfect storm is brewing? I love the guy but this has occurred in several games where if he calls timeout to stop momentum and run a set play we could ward off the onslaught.

[GoBigRed]

I will take the positive outlook: I feel much better going into Saturday's game after this outcome than I would had we battled all game and lost by 7 at the end. Our guys will play with their hair on fire on Saturday. If they don't, they wouldn't be playing college athletics. Huskers get it done on Saturday! Look for us to put forth the same effort Michigan did last night, although we probably won't shoot it as well. I will be SEVERELY disappointed if we don't play with a chip on our shoulder Saturday.

[Husker Fan]

Am I the only person that felt like Miles completely gave up and "mailed it in" by halftime? Maybe I'm too critical but I still, even 5 hours later, am in disbelief and upset with that second half, lack of coaching and lack of development time. We aren't anywhere near that time or good enough where we can just waist games and time to work on things, improve and grow. I saw no effort of that tonight, especially after halftime. No timeouts, no adjustments, no offensive flow (in the least), bad shots, no consequence, lazy defense, etc, etc. I might be overreacting and I still very much love Coach Miles, but I am BEYOND disappointed with him tonight.

Looked that way to me as well.  While Doc took some 40 point butt kickings against Kansas, Ohio St. and maybe a few more; he continued to compete and expected the same from the players.  My concern is that players will do what you let them do.  On offense that is bad shot selection and on defense that is simply not guarding.  If Miles continues to allow players to practice this way, and play that way in 40 pt. blow outs, it creates a culture of selfish play.