uneblinstu's Post Game Chatter: ed 7, vol 15 - Rutgers

[uneblinstu]

I've got a bunch of thoughts but for now, I'm going to keep it conceis:

 

- The gang is all back together.

- Fuller has a nose for the ball.

- With Moses and Leslee back, it changes everything for the better. That was the team I had expected to see all year. They've still got some things they're going to have to work out, but you can see how much better it will be. I know Rutgers isn't very good, but having those guys back helps in every aspect. 

 

 

 

[GATA]

That block by Tarin!!!

[Silverbacked1]

Our starters will be able to run at the end of the year just because they can get short rests during games and in practice. It was fun to see the whole band back together. Our we an NCAAteam now, don't know but if we can keep those biggin's healthy we might be able to make some kind of run.

But first the next important game this Sunday.

[Huskerpapa]

Nice win...perhaps more than a bit ugly, but nice win.  Early on we played way too soft.  Enter Moses, Fuller and Leslee.  They didn't fix all our issues, but it was certainly good to see us fully "staffed".

[Bugeaters1]

I liked the fact that Miles showed he was willing to play both bigs at te same time.

[Swan88]

They're baa-aack:

Leslee Smith, Old Testament, and the team as a whole!!!

[hhcmatt]

[hhcmatt]

Nebraska Notes

*-Nebraska held Rutgers to 34.7 percent shooting, the sixth time in the last seven games an opponent has been held under 40 percent.

*-Leslee Smith made his 2014-15 debut tonight after missing the first 14 games after suffering a torn left ACL on July 3.  Smith finished with two rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot in 13 minutes.

*-Moses Abraham returned after missing seven games with a broken hand suffered on Dec. 9. He finished with five points and three rebounds in 13 minutes

*-Terran Petteway finished with 20 points – his eighth 20-point game of the year and 20th of his career. He also finished with five assists, matching his second-best total of his career, and two blocked shots.

*-Petteway has now been in double figures in 26 straight games dating back to last season.

*-Nebraska finished with 14 assists, matching a season high.

*-Nebraska finished with nine turnovers, its second-lowest total of the year. NU has had 10 or less turnovers in each of the past three games.

*-Benny Parker matched his career high with two 3-pointers, as he had nine points, three assists and two steals.

 

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles

On getting Moses (Abraham) and (Leslee) Smith back

"I think with anything you look at the minutes with the guys. David only played 21 minutes, those other guys got 13 each. Just the fact that we didn't have to play these guys into oblivion. We could get Shavon and Terran out a couple times, without foul trouble, and just take them out to rest them and for a few minutes. I just think that is so important to what we are doing. I thought Walter was very sharp out there, he did some good things. But I think just having Moses and Leslee coming in helped so much. I didn't think they were great by any mean, but at least to come in and get their feet wet before we play a pretty tough Illinois team."

 

On multiple lineups

"Just getting everybody in and just cycle them in. I was a little upset though because I thought we started the first 12 minutes a little soft. I think you have to credit Rutgers. I thought they were playing at a very good pace. They are very comfortable, and you cannot let a good offensive team to get comfortable, especially when they are going to eat up a whole bunch of clock. I think just having that depth back and just figuring out who goes where because Nick (Fuller) is playing a little bit too. It is a little bit of a rediscovery mode and that is the way it goes."

 

On team minutes

"Now you have a little teeth as a coach. You can threaten them. If you don't play better, guess what? That guy wants to play."

 

On Nick Fuller's performance

"Nick did a good job. He needs to work on his communication. He had about three errors where he was involved with another player and he did not communicate what was going on and so we had a scoring error. That has to get cleaned up immediately. He has a lot of things going in his mind, but had four points and four rebounds including a couple offensive boards. His activity level was better, and I think we are better with him."

 

On David and Benny's performance

"Everybody kind of defers to Walter, Shavon and Terran and rightfully so. But at the same time, Benny looked like he had great rhythm. Benny can make those shots. He practices hard to make those shots. He can do it in games and I think that is nice to see. I think David just playing less minutes is really important for him."

 

On the first Big Ten win

"It is nice not to start 0-4, but they just keep coming at you. We have Illinois, then at Wisconsin and Minnesota, who I think is a really a good team. We are going to have a huge week next week. I am excited to get this team going and get better and better. Illinois really took apart an excellent Maryland team."

 

On this game being a fresh start

"The guys kind of look at this as, 'This is finally us.' This is finally our squad. And those guys are not even close to where they need to be. But at the same time to have that personnel out there is helpful. Moses was so hopped up he made three errors, but he will settle down and play better. But you have to give Moses credit. He got everybody Runzas.

 

On Trusting Benny

"I have the ultimate trust in Benny. I never tell him not to shoot. I always say don't hesitate. I know he is going to take smart shots. There are some other guys I need to reign in, but he is not one of them. He is a guy I believe in. I know he can make those shots. Those are great numbers. I would like to see them more often. Terran was a great facilitator too, those guys were finding him."

 

Junior Guard Terran Petteway

 On how critical it is to have a wide range of players scoring on offense

“It’s very critical. It felt like our offense was flowing a little better tonight. Guys were stepping up, coming in and making threes. Like Benny (Parker) made two 3s and others came in and gave us good buckets. Once that is happening, our offense started flowing way better.”

 

On the importance of the first Big Ten win this season

“It’s a little relief, but we still have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go where we want to go. Illinois is coming in here on Sunday and they just beat Maryland, who was 15-1. That was a good team who was ranked three or four weeks ago so we have to get ready for that game.”

 

Senior Forward Leslee Smith 

On how it felt to play in his first game since March

“It felt pretty good. There was a lot of excitement in the air. I feel normal though. I feel like I never left.  Yeah, there was a little bit of rust. I haven’t really gone up against that much size lately. In practice, I don’t really have a lot of bigs to go up against, but it is something I can adjust to.”

 

On when he knew he would play tonight

“After we lost the last away game. I told myself I was ready. I couldn’t watch my team suffer inside anymore. I had to come out and play hard defense.”

 

On why he thinks he was able to come back from the injury so quickly

“I had a pretty good start on rehab. The good thing is we attacked it early. We didn’t let the muscle deteriorate more than it could have. So we attacked it early and did rehab twice a day. I rehabbed really hard. R.J. (Pietig) is a really good trainer and he knows what he’s doing. I put a lot of work in and it put me in a position to come out and play tonight.”

 

Rutgers Head Coach Eddie Jordan

Opening Statement

"First of all, we started well, and we just sort of lost our offensive flow. Our defense was good I thought in the half court. We turned the ball over, and we missed free throws. Petteway had his way with their pick and rolls. We didn't take away his strengths--we have been pretty good executing our game plan of taking away certain strengths teams have. Tonight, we didn't do it. We got out-classed. Just one of those nights." 

 

On how the game got away from Rutgers

"We turned the ball over which hurts your defense. They get out and get some breaks, we had charges--it took away our offensive flow. We did not get into our movement offensively. We were stagnant. We did not get the juice we needed to have on offense to help out our defense. We didn't take away Petteway, his strengths were he 'snakes the pick and roll,' he splits you coming off screens. We just didn't handle him well enough." 

[hhcmatt]

If we need or want to we can now go 9-10 players deep.

It was a great feeling walking to the game after finding out Leslee and Moses would play.

It was a great feeling walking back with the win.

 

Illinois is going to be tough but I like our odds a lot better than I did this morning.

[BenJammin63]

Anyone have like a shot chart for the whole season? Would love to know our percentage on lay ups and overall just shots inside the paint. But we looked good for the most part tonight. Fuller has to be close to leading rebounder per minutes played. When Walt dedicates himself to rebounding, I think his game opens up so much more. But it was great seeing Leslee and Moses playing. Both played very cautious, Moses hardly used his injured hand for anything, And same with Leslee on putting a lot of pressure on his knee. But that's to be expected. Glad to get the W for sure.

[uneblinstu]

Nice win...perhaps more than a bit ugly, but nice win.  Early on we played way too soft.  Enter Moses, Fuller and Leslee.  They didn't fix all our issues, but it was certainly good to see us fully "staffed".

Today was more about getting everyone back out on the floor. They'll get more comfortable as it goes along. We played a legit 9 man rotation today. I can't remember the last time we were able to do that.

[uneblinstu]

I liked the fact that Miles showed he was willing to play both bigs at te same time.

It's the first time in, I don't know how long, that we've even been able to. Having those guys out there makes Pitchford a better defender, too. He doesn't have to take the opponents 5 as often. 

[Row6Seat10]

Got to do a better job at the free throw line. We wound up shooting only 46%, I looked up at the scoreboard at one time and it said 40%.

[HuskerActuary]

Anyone have like a shot chart for the whole season? Would love to know our percentage on lay ups and overall just shots inside the paint. But we looked good for the most part tonight. Fuller has to be close to leading rebounder per minutes played. When Walt dedicates himself to rebounding, I think his game opens up so much more. But it was great seeing Leslee and Moses playing. Both played very cautious, Moses hardly used his injured hand for anything, And same with Leslee on putting a lot of pressure on his knee. But that's to be expected. Glad to get the W for sure.

Fuller still has a pretty small sample size, but he's fifth on the team in rebounds per minute right now. Moses leads by a very wide margin.

 

Moses 0.34 rebounds per minute

Hammond 0.20

Shields 0.19

Rivers 0.18

Fuller 0.173

Pitchford 0.172

[hhcmatt]

 

Anyone have like a shot chart for the whole season? Would love to know our percentage on lay ups and overall just shots inside the paint. But we looked good for the most part tonight. Fuller has to be close to leading rebounder per minutes played. When Walt dedicates himself to rebounding, I think his game opens up so much more. But it was great seeing Leslee and Moses playing. Both played very cautious, Moses hardly used his injured hand for anything, And same with Leslee on putting a lot of pressure on his knee. But that's to be expected. Glad to get the W for sure.

Fuller still has a pretty small sample size, but he's fifth on the team in rebounds per minute right now. Moses leads by a very wide margin.

 

 

Fuller had that look last night he showed in his first exhibition game of his freshman year of having a nose for the ball....good times!

[Huskerpapa]

- After the first minute he played, I thought Fuller looked like a basketball player.  Once the nerves escaped, he played solid ball.  Then again later, he was open for a 3 in the corner, TP got him the ball, and he dropped it...again, he appeared over anxious.  The more he plays, the better he should play.  He certainly has some very visible weaknesses, but what he showed me last night was that he had pretty good basketball IQ.  He seemed to get to the right place at the right time.  Good to see.

- TP did a very nice distributing the ball and playing defense tonight.  He was struggling with his touch/feel on the offensive side.  You could sense it in his body language.  Even when he made a shot, he seemed surprised.

- Shavon had a rather pedestrian game by his standards.  But his shot is looking very good right now.  I hate it when he hesitates, then ends up rushing or forcing a move.  That gets him into more and more trouble.

- Walt played well and with a lot of passion.  He (and a couple others) need to understand there is a line that can't be crossed with the officials.  I am still not quite sure what he did to earn his technical, but it didn't appear that Coach Miles or Walt for that matter, argued the call.

- It was nice to see Leslee and Moses back.  They will get into better game shape...and when they do, we should play better and better.  Are they saviors...no...but they play a valuable role and that role has suffered in their collective absences.

- Glue l and Glue ll (David and Benny) did their thing last night.  As their minutes drop off to 20 to 25 minutes each per game, their productivity should actually rise.  Great to see David hit that early 12 footer and Benny bang down the 3's.  We certainly need that out of them.

- TSmith was active.  I love it when he penetrates the middle.  He has wonderful touch on that tear-drop shot and the kid can distribute the rock.  He was extremely active on defense as well. 

- This was an ugly win, but it is difficult to look like a prom queen against Rutgers.  Their style gives rise to a grind it out game.  Talent won out and we pulled it out pretty easily.

- Man, I thought the Rutgers coach made contact with that ref last night.  He went nuts.  The reaction of the ref appeared to be recoiled fear.  If he did make contact...he may have a problem or two to deal with.

- I also wanted to comment on the crowd...they got going when the team got going.  There are going to be games where the crowd needs to incite the team...BUT THAT BEING SAID...I was kind of surprised by the rather good turn out.  Especially given the students were not yet back.  That was one tough night to be out in the elements.  (And a final beef)...rather than sit in their cars, perhaps it would be benefical for the police to be outside of their cars directing traffic post game.  Perhaps they are in some locations.  But we had better post-game traffic control at the BOB then we have at the Vault....just saying.

[HB]

Did anyone see what Tarin did at the end of the first half to earn Coach Miles' displeasure?  Coach rode Tarin hard all the way to the tunnel.   I was guilty of texting while (not) watching, so I missed the last couple of sequences.

[hhcmatt]

- I also wanted to comment on the crowd...they got going when the team got going.  There are going to be games where the crowd needs to incite the team...BUT THAT BEING SAID...I was kind of surprised by the rather good turn out.  Especially given the students were not yet back.  That was one tough night to be out in the elements.  (And a final beef)...rather than sit in their cars, perhaps it would be benefical for the police to be outside of their cars directing traffic post game.  Perhaps they are in some locations.  But we had better post-game traffic control at the BOB then we have at the Vault....just saying.

 

There were several times where the crowd was standing for a game against Rutgers with relatively few students.  It was a pleasant surprise. I'll have to keep track more in my mind put perhaps 8 pm crowds will tend to be better than 6 pm.  We had 11k+ show up which was great with the weather and just thinking about where we were two years ago. 

[hhcmatt]

- Walt played well and with a lot of passion.  He (and a couple others) need to understand there is a line that can't be crossed with the officials.  I am still not quite sure what he did to earn his technical, but it didn't appear that Coach Miles or Walt for that matter, argued the call.

 

I believe he slapped the ball out of the guy's hand. Honestly Walt has seemed like Pedro Cerrano from Major League II this year at points so him being feisty every once and a while works for me.

[throwback]

- After the first minute he played, I thought Fuller looked like a basketball player.  Once the nerves escaped, he played solid ball.  Then again later, he was open for a 3 in the corner, TP got him the ball, and he dropped it...again, he appeared over anxious.  The more he plays, the better he should play.  He certainly has some very visible weaknesses, but what he showed me last night was that he had pretty good basketball IQ.  He seemed to get to the right place at the right time.  Good to see.

 

This is a good observation, and I think really explains why Smith & Fuller have taken Webster's minutes. Watching Tai closely the past several games, it just seems like doesn't have a good feel for the game on the offensive end, whereas Fuller & Smith do. It's little things with Tai, like how when he dribbles he just doesn't seem to use the dribble effectively - he doesn't create space for himself, instead seems to dribble into a spot where he makes it easier for the defense. And when Tai makes a pass, it's rarely on the money where the receiver can make an immediate move. It's often at the knees or lower or wide of the mark. Not necessarily a turnover, but it stagnates the offense.

 

And his shot still looks as if he's trying to guide it, rather than just letting it fly. To me, those are just signs that he still doesn't have a good feel for the offensive end, or he's playing so nervously that he's almost paralyzed by fear rather than allowing muscle memory to take hold. Hard to know whether he can fix these items at this point in his career, but he's going to have to do it in practice primarily. I can't see Webster getting many minutes going forward with the 2 big guys back and with Fuller & Smith playing well. Hopefully he takes this as a challenge to work on those little things.

• I liked that Pitchford took as many 2s as 3s last night.
• Benny's offense really allowed us to take control - the back to back 3s and then the driving 3-pt play that got reversed from a charge to a block sparked the run that sealed it
• Maybe it's just my imagination and/or wishful thinking   but it sure seemed like NU's offensive spacing was so much better with the big guys back out there last night. Petteway's driving lanes seemed more open, which allowed him to get into the lane & make cleaner passes after driving - good to see his 5 assists. Perhaps the better spacing gave him better sight lines to make those passes. And the 3 that he hit off the drive from Parker late in the shot clock was pure - he's such a better shooter when he can step into it, like most guys, rather than trying to create the jump shot off the dribble or off a sideways pass. With better spacing, perhaps NU can get more of that inside-to-outside passing going, which should help the outside shooting percentages overall.
• I agree with the good observation that as Rivers and Parker's minutes drop slightly, their production should increase
• NU again did a really nice job taking the opponent's best guard out of the game - mostly Benny, but a few different guys checked Mack throughout the night
• NU's defensive rebounding was a disaster again, especially early, but I honestly think part of it was the fact that RU's shots were so bad, that they clanked awkwardly off the rim and backboard (or missed everything) often enough that the normal rebounding angles didn't apply, catching NU's defenders off guard. That certainly doesn't explain all of the rebounding problems, but it was an issue.
• Overall, a much needed win with some good signs - even if Rutgers is horrible. 

[Nighthawk]

 

- I also wanted to comment on the crowd...they got going when the team got going.  There are going to be games where the crowd needs to incite the team...BUT THAT BEING SAID...I was kind of surprised by the rather good turn out.  Especially given the students were not yet back.  That was one tough night to be out in the elements.  (And a final beef)...rather than sit in their cars, perhaps it would be benefical for the police to be outside of their cars directing traffic post game.  Perhaps they are in some locations.  But we had better post-game traffic control at the BOB then we have at the Vault....just saying.

 

There were several times where the crowd was standing for a game against Rutgers with relatively few students.  It was a pleasant surprise. I'll have to keep track more in my mind put perhaps 8 pm crowds will tend to be better than 6 pm.  We had 11k+ show up which was great with the weather and just thinking about where we were two years ago. 

 

no only the weather but you also had Jerry Seinfeld at the Lied. I'm guessing some of the Lied crowd are husker fans.

[throwback]

 

- Walt played well and with a lot of passion.  He (and a couple others) need to understand there is a line that can't be crossed with the officials.  I am still not quite sure what he did to earn his technical, but it didn't appear that Coach Miles or Walt for that matter, argued the call.

 

I believe he slapped the ball out of the guy's hand. Honestly Walt has seemed like Pedro Cerrano from Major League II this year at points so him being feisty every once and a while works for me.

 

Yeah, watching the TV replay when I got home (or at least the final 30 minutes of the replay, so glad Gardner-Webb & Radford decided to play 2 OTs  ), Walt slapped the ball out of the RU player's hands after the tie up was called & had something to say as he went to retrieve the ball. It didn't seem like a major infraction, kind of ticky-tacky. It did seem like there was some jawing a few minutes before that after an RU foul, so maybe the refs were on alert. Seemed like one of the RU players was kind of trying to calm a teammate down before Petteway shot some FTs, so maybe the refs were really looking for the next issue. 

[Handy Johnson]

I expect us to win 2 outta 3 next week, Madtown will be tough, as will the Illini on Sunday. Goldy though, Goldy is ready to pack it in for the year. Now that the Death Star is fully operational I expect this squad to become very salty, very soon...

[HuskerPower #nato73]

Walt slapped the ball but did not say anything.  Dumb move but a little ticky tack.

 

Tarin did not correctly run what Miles set up for the last play of the half and then threw it away.

 

Both Moses and Leslie (especially Leslie) set much better ball screens than Walt and Rivers.  Also because they are at least a minor threat to roll to the basket off of it and not just pop out, it totally changes the defensive approach.

 

It was better screening, better spacing and overall looking more like we could have looked all year with a healthy team and nice rotation.  One concern still will be rebounding Moses and Leslie are just okay at it and not great.  As Miles said after the game, Leslie is carrying a little more weight.  He did not elevate much before the injury.

 

I still think NCAA is a long shot.  Three bad losses, two at home might be too much.  Maybe NIT and a strong recruiting class is what we get this year. 

[jimmykc]

A few additional thoughts from my armchair view. I never realized how much Craig Robinson resembles his sister until last night. I thought he did a pretty good commentary job except for the long love-in segment with Riley. And finally Miles was able to outcoach someone. Now if he can just outcoach Groce. I also hope old Jimmy does not jinx the team now. Sunday will be the first live game I have attended since the last game at BDSC!