Post Game Chatter: ed 7, vol 8 - Incarnate Word

[hhcmatt]

uneblinstu of course was unable to make it/watch so we should probably blame him

 

Incarnate Word isn't a bad school but it doesn't make the loss not embarrassing.

This was a trap game and we just fell right into it.  

[Huskerone]

It was a home game, need to protect the home court!  I thought going 18-1 last year would result in wanting to continue the home court dominance and playing with a bit more energy/urgency at home, no matter who we play.  So much for that.

[GATA]

This sucks.

[hhcmatt]

[dt14smoke]

Yes it sucks.

We are fixin to learn a lot about this team and this coaching staff.

Have major interior issues to try and cover up.

I look forward to seeing what they show us.

We will be ok and the fan base concerns me more than the team.

The team can recruit the fan base is mostly set.

[hhcmatt]

Gonna hold my breath and dig into this steamer

 

- Terran was making a huge effort to take better shots tonight. Did he take more than a couple of WTF shots? However, it seemed like he was a little too passive in the end.  It almost felt like we ran the Creighton gameplan a day late. Not sure what the heck was going on with him inbounding the ball.

- Shavon was back to being the guy who leads the team in scoring without you noticing. Hit all his FTs and pulled down 9 balls. Can't believe he got called for that foul in the end.

- Walt looked a little more put together on offense put once again looked off at the FT line. He personally gave up a ton of points when they figured out any post player could take him to the hole and had a guy just blow by him for a dunk. There is no GATA in his game.

- Benny was solid and helped us get off to a fast start tonight. Seemed pretty hesitant to shoot at the end.

- Rivers didn't have it tonight shooting.  He went to the line 3 times and went short on the first FT all three times. He's always been a lanky guy...we need him to start playing bigger. There is no next season for him.

- Nick came in and nailed a three.  He also airballed one. He took a charge. He also gave up baseline at least once, which equals no help and often a layup in our offense. It's sort of the mixed bag you might expect but I think that shooting will help us down the road.  Hopefully that nose for the ball on the boards is there and he can position himself correctly when defending faster opponents.

- Tai finally took one to the hoop.  If he does that 3 times more than he takes jump shots we're going to like his offense a lot more. Makes some awful passes...especially that one at the end of the game. I have no idea why Shavon put him in that position as one of our best FT shooters should have held onto the ball.

- Don't really recall on Jake. Missed a bunny...had a guy blow by him once for an easy layup. Gotta be ready to play because you never know when you're going to

 

I felt like we ran the sort of gameplan we should have run vs Creighton. The offense felt a little better but these guys aren't exactly defensive juggernauts. IW makes a lot of tough shots and they did tonight. However, it was all the easy layups that put us in the position to lose the game tonight and that's exactly what we did.  We had no idea how to play defense without being able to bring in Moses tonight. We'll adapt going forward but it was pretty disappointing to not see the adjustments being made.  If Craig Smith used to be the guy who made those sorts of adjustments, either Miles needs to take that on or delegate it.  The guys have been flustered at the end of both our close games. 

[hhcmatt]

Notes
*-Tonight marked the first time that Nebraska had lost consecutive home non-conference games since 2004-05
*-Incarnate Word shot 48.1 percent, which was a season high against the Huskers in 2014-15
*-Terran Petteway has been in double figures in each of the last 19 games and finished with 18 points. His five assists was the second-highest total of his career.
*-Nebraska put three players in double figures for the fourth time this season.
*-Nick Fuller scored a career high six points – the first six points of his career.
 

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles

On when he realized this could turn for the worse
"Not until we fouled the kid on the second three. Then I thought, 'Oh boy. This isn't good.' I knew they were good, and I knew Kenny (Burmeister) was good about the tempo. He had some guys that could make plays. And when we found out about Moses' injury, we knew that was going to hurt our defense. And it did. We have to be better than that."

On Moses Abraham’s injury 
"I'm not quite sure. It sounded like he hit the back of his hand on the back of the backboard. I'm not quite sure. It was in practice yesterday. That will be 2-3 weeks at least. We hope to have him back by conference play "

On Terran's in-bounds turnover 
"Well, first of all; when was the last time you saw him take it out? That is not his job. I made a mistake of not calling timeout. That is my error. At the same time, I trust my guys and we just ran an out-of- bounds play to Shavon. So there were two errors there. Well I think Terran thought he could just get it in quick and get it to Shavon quick, and we would be okay. I thought we were on the right track, but I think we lost our poise, and we certainly paid the price for it. Tarin (Smith) normally takes it out."

On what he says to his guys from here
"I'm not trying to calm him down, I promise you that. You have to compete. You have to have a competitors’ mentality. You cannot be afraid of consequence. If you are going to be successful in life, there is some risk involved. Where is your mind? Are you worried? We all have to deal with fear, worry and doubt in this life. Everybody does. So we all have to navigate through fear, worry and doubt; they are the three biggest, de-motivators in life. If you can't handle them, you can't be successful. Or it is no fun to live with or be around. I don't know where some of our guys are mentally, but I would venture to say that there are some guys that are worried and that does not work. The aggressor always wins. We said at halftime that I thought we were tentative. I thought we were tentative on defense more than anything. I think we were just hoping this went well. Either way to be a good defensive team you have to be mean-spirited, tough-minded and competitive. I just didn't see that much out of the team at all tonight."

On Incarnate Word's Play
"He has a lot of different guys at different positions that can really score the ball and anytime you can put four scorers out there that can spread you out. I also thought their role guys did a really good job again. Traylin Farris got inside and just made a mockery of our interior defense. I think they worry you too because (Denzel) Livingston covers the back side defensively really well. He had some good steals and covers a lot of ground. They have some decent athleticism including that guard from Chicago. Walker is a unconventional player, but he is a really good player."

On dealing with the fear 
"First of all I think everybody has fear. But when you struggle I think it gets bigger, that is where you go back to your roots and you say you are going to work your hardest on whatever the teams needs you to do. That is what competitive people do to get back on track. Benny Parker after his freshman year, the kid struggled and he and I had a big discussion of where to go from here and he said, 'If you are worried about shots or playing time, you are worried about the wrong things. Just take what you can get and work your butt off.' I told him that was the best advice I have ever heard a player give anybody else in 20 years. That is what we need to do. Take what you can get, and work your butt off and good things will happen."    

Nebraska Guards Terran Petteway and Tai Webster
On initial reaction of the game
Terran: "Just gotta keep doing what we're doing and sticking to the process. Incarnate Word is a good team, but we shouldn't have lost to that team on our home floor by any means. You don't have to point the finger. You can put the blame on me. I made that last turnover. It was careless. It was a stupid play and it cost us the game. We don't have to go down the line and say who did what and who could have done better. It was all on me. 

On rallying the troops and moving forward with the team 
Tai: "I think it's time we come together and have look at ourselves. We need to talk amongst the team and come and start playing to what our identity really is. It's on us. It is not on the coaches or anything else. It's on us to come out, step up and start playing Nebraska basketball.

On Incarnate Word staying on the Huskers the whole game
Terran: "Me personally I didn't think that. I thought we had the game under control and were going to win. I knew we weren't going to come out and win by a lot. That's just not who we are. We don't come out and blow teams out."

On the rhythm of the offense 
Terran: "I guess you could say that's still a mystery or whatever, but we had a little rhythm going. Like you said, we were up 10 and they kept coming back and making those tough shots. At the end they (Incarnate Word) came out in their favor."

Tai: "I wouldn't say it's a mystery, it's more just us not playing to our ability. Me personally, I missed so many easy shots and so many careless turnovers. We, as players just need to step up. We know what we are going to get from Terran and Shavon and Walter every night and they need our help. We need to step up."

On creating pressure knowing you have to step up
Tai: "There is a little bit of pressure but at the same time it is good pressure. It's an opportunity for us to step up and help them out and get points."

On mistakes being physical or mental
Terran: "Mental. I don't think it's physical at all. I guess you could say its physical. Like you said they scored like six times in a row and we have to work on that. But it's all mental. Especially attention to detail. We have to work on that."
Tai: They were scoring exactly how the scouting  report said they would score. We need to lock in better on the scouting reports and play how the coaches are telling us to play. So it's definitely mental."

On bouncing back
Terran: "Like I said earlier, you have to stick to the process. You have to keep coming in every day and put in work. You can't change anything. Coach (Tim) Miles knows how to win and we don't. We just have to keep coming back each day and working and doing the things he tells us to do."

 

Incarnate Word Men's Basketball Coach Ken Burmeister
Opening Statement 
“Really proud of our guys. I think our president Dr. Agnese is using Division I athletics to brand a great University of the Incarnate Word. It is a great school, great campus and people across the street don't even know we exist. We have just over 8,000 students, so for us to do this is great for our program, but it might be even greater for the university in the future.” 

On where this game ranks in his career
“I think when anytime I was at Iowa we went to the Final Four twice, and to be part of that and to be help a hall of famer, Coach Olson, was pretty special. To go to Arizona—a down program, and to turn that around and recruit guys like Steve Kerr and Sean Elliott and they go to the Final Four. Then to go to UTSA and turn a down program in—that has kind of been the motto, keep turning programs around. Fortunately when you do that, you make some people unhappy and sooner than later they dispose of you and push you out the door. With new presidents and new athletic directors. We have a great president at UIW, who has a mission. We have a 28 million dollar student union going up, we have a medical center and after that is athletics—that is a lot of money for a private school. It ranks high for the university.” 

On being down by 10, what was his message to the team
“Down 10, up 10, the way we shoot 3's I don't think you are ever out of a game, and I don't think you ever have a game won because of the way we play. Our style of play is pretty open as you can see. If we pass it three times, that is probably the extent of it. Sometimes five times. That is our style, we have tried to copy Gonzaga, Butler and private institutions that have been successful in Division I. Now Butler has changed their program, they are really physical now, but they shot the ball real well and played the gap defense. We are trying to do it like that.” 

On the end of the game, fouls on three pointers, Petteway throwing the ball away
“We had the right shooters, Shawn (Johnson) the freshman, won a high school game. I saw him make 19 free throws in a row in a high school game. Really, I thought he was going to make all six, and when he didn't it was a little bit disappointing. We got the ball on the inbounds for Kyle, and he got into his legs and I don't know how he shot it, it looked like it was over the back board and he got hit pretty good, and I thought we were going to get two free throws. When the ball went in, that was happiness. Then you are always nervous on the last play, fouling or something goes wrong. We had a lot of freshmen out there. Happy to have a win, and really appreciate Nebraska playing us in front of a great crowd, great arena. You are always happier to win, but kind of our branding is we want to play a Big Ten team every year, a Big 12 team every year, and go New York and west coast. Like next year we play Purdue and Oklahoma. The following year, hopefully Michigan State and UNLV. So we really have a death penalty, because when you have the transition just like Nebraska-Omaha is going through right now, we talked to the guys about them beating Marquette. We have four years we can’t go to the tournament, it is really hard to recruit—even my son didn't want to come. He didn't want to come, he said 'dad I can't go to the postseason' it means a lot to people. We kind of bounded together and hopefully we can go to the CIT Tournament. We thought we were going last year, we beat Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and Sam Houston, and Stephen F. Austin had a tip in over us at the buzzer and Oral Roberts had a jump shot at the buzzer. We had 21 wins and beat those teams and they selected them. Hopefully this type of win can get us over the hump.”  

[faqlsr]

Reading those comments from the players, it sounds like last year's successes went to their heads.

[hhcmatt]

Do we have any senior offensive linemen who can hoop?

After watching Pitchford get owned in the paint on multiple possessions did we not consider Kye for a couple of minutes because it's not that? 

 

We're going to adjust to help down low but if we run into any team that can shoot the 3 and has a post player capable of scoring it's going to be rough.

[GATA]

It's really annoying to read that IW can put four good scorers on the floor and we only have two on our entire team.

How in the (Incarnate) World does that happen?

[BenJammin63]

Walt really really really needs to learn not to leave his feet on defense. Numerous times when he was playing defense down low, their player would just throw a shot fake, Walt jumps trying to block it, and the guy has the easiest 2 points of the night. Unless Walt makes some big big strides on defense, he is going to get eaten alive in Big 10 season.

[HB]

It's really annoying to read that IW can put four good scorers on the floor and we only have two on our entire team.

How in the (Incarnate) World does that happen?

 

In a word, recruiting. 

 

Not a lot of depth of talent in the program when Miles got here, although Shields is awesome and Benny, Rivers, and Ray have been decent.   No time to sign anybody the first spring.  Serg was a prayer and a hope, and Biggs is gone (too bad his head wasn't there because we could REALLY use his athleticism and toughness right now, and he is a guy who could create his shot--that would give us 3 options at least). The transfers helped a ton, although Walt is AWOL this year. 

 

Tough also the next fall as everything is moved up these days and that came pretty quick.   That class is looking rough right now:  Hawkins gone (we could use him this year, he would be playing 25 minutes, bad move by him).  Tai, well, Fraschilla was wrong, this one isn't looking good.   Fuller may be OK in certain roles although the athleticism is lacking and defense well always be a problem. So not much production out of an entire class, that doesn't bode well.  And then the numbers get out of whack and we only get Hammond (project) and Moses, who actually helped us a bunch but then gets hurt.

 

So, this isn't that shocking.  You can't have 2 mediocre classes in a row and not have it show up on the court.  This team isn't very athletic, lacks bigs who can guard the interior, and doesn't have enough shooters.  The cure isn't magical coaching, it's RECRUITING.  And hopefully this fall's class is the start of good times.  Hang in there, folks.

[HB]

_{A lot of rehashing on here hits the mark, so I'll just throw out a couple more that I haven't seen or perhaps I missed:}

 

_{--Dave Rivers didn't seem into it; something is out of whack there.  While he has limitations and will always be a role player, he can give us more than he did last night.  A couple of mental errors on defense, gator-arming free throws, overall lack of energy.}

 

_{--Fuller showed some things on offense, but wow, are his feet slow and he will struggle on D.  Hopefully some of it is the foot injury}

 

_{--Not sure I have ever seen that many airballs in  a college game.  Scary.}

 

_{--Tarin Smith has a long way to go.  Makes a ton of defensive mistakes, not a reliable shooter.  I have no problem with that since he's a true freshman, but those thinking he can play 30 minutes without some bad consequences are a little optimistic.}

 

 

_{--People have rehashed the ending, and Miles acknowledged he blew it by not using the 2 timeouts he had.  I'm screaming it from the rafters (Ok, really from the Club Seats), and if I think of it, one would think a highly paid coaching staff would have.  But I also would have had Fuller in the game at that point.  Presumably, he would be a great free throw option.  it sure looked like Tai didn't want to get fouled and go to the line when he had it, right before the woeful turnover.  Fuller has size to get a pass, and you have to like his chances knocking down a free throw.  Can't have him on the bench in that situation,}

 

_{--OK, this one is a rehash, but there probably aren't strong enough adjectives to describe Walt's interior defense.  Mind-boggling inability to guard anyone in the paint.  MIles said because they didn't know Moses was going to be out, they didn't practice double teams.   Really?  That couldn't have been dealt with in the shoot-around or during the game?   But, we don't really have any options.  Hammond can't defend either right now, and there is no other size, unless those who want to give Kye a chance are right.  Need Moses back, but even then it will be a problem unless he can play more minutes than I think he can (knees and fouls)  We will have to double team or zone, and hot shooting teams will beat us.  Will need some cold shooting nights to get many Ws.} 

 

_{--Did I mention that arena was cold last night?}  

[Handy Johnson]

I have visions of Maryland Baltimore-County......... I'm sure we all heard Miles postgame: "Time to get the Big Boy pants on" & he's right , Cincinnati isn't going to come into Lincoln on Saturday and feel sorry for us.  

[hhcmatt]

unless those who want to give Kye a chance are right.  

 

I don't think Kye is stronger or more athletic than anyone else who currently plays for us. I wouldn't advocate playing him for significant minutes. However, I'm about 100% sure you'd see GATA out of him playing for a couple of minutes just in case we need a reminder of what that looks like.

[Silverbacked1]

Walt really really really needs to learn not to leave his feet on defense. Numerous times when he was playing defense down low, their player would just throw a shot fake, Walt jumps trying to block it, and the guy has the easiest 2 points of the night. Unless Walt makes some big big strides on defense, he is going to get eaten alive in Big 10 season.

Hey do you want to dish about Sunday's game or not?

[Silverbacked1]

Just to add, because we should not have let ICW still be in it at the end, but did anybody have a better angle as to the if there was actually any contact on those two three point shots. I didn't see the first one clearly, but the last one was a total WTF call right?

[hhcmatt]

OWH blog quote
 

But the real reason the Huskers are struggling, I would argue, is because THIS is who they should be. Yes, they went 8-1 in a 30-day span last season. But before that, they were 11-10. And after the Wisconsin upset, they lost unimpressively to Ohio State and Baylor.

 
Until he just quits coaching, I will never believe that a Tim Miles squad will accept the fate that the whole is only as good as the sum of it's parts.

[kldm64]

I actually thought we play the best team basketball we had all season.  We had balanced scoring and Terran played within the offense.  Silly mistakes down the stretch were head scratching but overall, I thought we looked the best we had all year on the offensive side of the ball at least.

[Handy Johnson]

OWH blog quote

 

But the real reason the Huskers are struggling, I would argue, is because THIS is who they should be. Yes, they went 8-1 in a 30-day span last season. But before that, they were 11-10. And after the Wisconsin upset, they lost unimpressively to Ohio State and Baylor.

 

Until he just quits coaching, I will never believe that a Tim Miles squad will accept the fate that the whole is only as good as the sum of it's parts.

Revisionist sour grapes. We led that Buckeye team by 18 in the 2nd half (hardly a fluke) & that Baylor team SMOKED their next opponent that hails from up the road. Everyone just wants to pile on right now... 

[Norm Peterson]

Walt really really really needs to learn not to leave his feet on defense. Numerous times when he was playing defense down low, their player would just throw a shot fake, Walt jumps trying to block it, and the guy has the easiest 2 points of the night. Unless Walt makes some big big strides on defense, he is going to get eaten alive in Big 10 season.

A lot of the players need to learn to not leave their feet on D.

[brfrad]

I actually thought we play the best team basketball we had all season.  We had balanced scoring and Terran played within the offense.  Silly mistakes down the stretch were head scratching but overall, I thought we looked the best we had all year on the offensive side of the ball at least.

I think the last 2 games that has hurt us on the defensive end.  We seem to not trust the other player, and leave our man to help too early.  That leads to a wide open 3 point shooter.  That is why our defense has struggled.  Add to that Benny's injury, no interior defense and it makes for a recipe for disaster.

[Norm Peterson]

OK, some additional thoughts:

 

1.  Tai vs. Fuller. 

 

I think Fuller is clearly a better shooter although he totally airballed his second attempt.  However, he has no lateral quicks and can't guard the perimeter and he's too small to be a post.  He was laying off his man a couple of feet last night just so that he wouldn't get beat on penetration and so the guy just stroked one right over top of him. 

 

Tai is so much more athletic than Fuller, it's not even close.  I'd say it's more likely that Tai learns to shoot than that Nick develops quicks.  So, don't kick Tai to the curb just yet. 

 

2.  Pitchford.

 

Hey, did you see Walt seal his guy off on his right hip, get an entry pass to his left from Benny, drop step and dunk?  Holy crap, a post move!!!  See, Walt, you can do it!!!  Keep working on those, that was nice.  On the other side of the floor, you're going to be on an island from time to time defending the other post and this last game needs to be the low water mark for you.  Did you notice how the guy you were guarding dribbled clumsily to his left, then back right, then pump fake up, then under, then score?  Um, try something like that sometime.

 

3.  Hammond.

 

Not bad, actually.  He is nowhere near the stiff that Sergej was.  I liked his aggressiveness ripping down a couple of boards.  He only got credit for one, though, because Rivers got whistled for a mystery foul on Hammond's 2nd board.  He also showed some quicks and a nice little post move in the low blocks but didn't score the ball.  I doubt his defense on that clumsy dribbling kid would have been any worse than the guy who was repeatedly getting scored on.

 

4.  Benny.

 

The dude is night and day better at shooting than he was the first 2 years of his career here.  Just unbelievable.  Benny didn't hit a single three-pointer last year.  He hit 2 the year before that.  His career 3-pt percentage coming into this season was 11%.  This year, he's shooting 45.5% from 3-pt range!!!  Unreal.  It's what gives me hope that Tai will eventually get there.  Fuller will never be as athletic, but Tai could become a reasonably reliable shooter.

[hal9000]

Well with our last losses coming at the hands of Catholic institutions, clearly God is not on our side.  I think Miles needs to schedule a "Come to Jesus" meeting with his players post haste. 

[BenJammin63]

Walt really really really needs to learn not to leave his feet on defense. Numerous times when he was playing defense down low, their player would just throw a shot fake, Walt jumps trying to block it, and the guy has the easiest 2 points of the night. Unless Walt makes some big big strides on defense, he is going to get eaten alive in Big 10 season.

A lot of the players need to learn to not leave their feet on D.

I agree. Just using Walt as an example, cause he was the one that I noticed the most yesterday. But I do notice our guards, when trying to get out on the wings for D, we just jump and fly by them. If they miss, our guys are out of position to box out and get a rebound.