uneblinstu's post game chatter: ed 3, vol 15 - Wisconsin

[uneblinstu]

I don't have time to post many thoughts tonight.  Perhaps I'll come back later and add them in.  I think the effort was closer to what Miles wants, but just not enough to get it done tonight.  A little better decision making and we might have been singing a different tune.  

[Huskerpapa]

Wisconsin is not a very good team.  I know they lost their PG, but sheesh, they simply were not athletic and did not shoot well whatsoever.  They were physical and had size...but man, Wisconsin will be in the battle for the bottom third of our league.  Our effort was much better today, but we wore out.  The physical play was nice, but it took its toll.

- We missed Andre tonight.  The officials let the game go physical, it would have been nice to have him in there.

- Much like last year, Brandon played hard, played smart, and did some nice things.  But he was asked to do much...not his fault, but he was up against it today.

- David Rivers should have had more minutes.  He was a relief valve.  Perhaps he played more minutes than I thought...

- Benny did okay, but he is still limited.  You can still see that he has injury issues.

- Shavon did fine in his first start.  Wasn't looking much too score, but played good defense.

- Dylan is a very nice complementary player, but like Brandon, he is asked to do too much...although there isn't a choice.  He can look good, but then soooo ugly.  But hey, it is the cards that are dealt to us this year.

- Ray looked good today.  Perhaps he missed his share of shots, but he did fine on both ends of the court.  Again, we need so much from him, it is almost impossible for him to meet or exceed those expectations.

 

We all know it is going to be a long year.  It is really important for this team to NOT simply play it out.  We can win a few, but the team needs effort like today, plus red hot shooting.  We also need Andre back

[atskooc]

I was a bit frustrated with the lack of urgency in the final two minutes.  We're within striking distance with under 2:30 to play and still walking the ball up the floor.  That rubbed me the wrong way. 

[doc1394]

My few thoughts are a bit more negative after this game. 

 

1) Seems like Coach Miles is a better recruiter than on-court coach. 

2)Talley is forcing up way to many shots, and he is not making very many of them.  Other than the first 3 buckets, he didn't make much the rest of the game. Missed the front end of a crucial one-and-one too. 

3)One more big man would have turned this game our way in my opinion. 80% of our shots were jumpers, so we had very little balance.  Got to at least give Vucetic a chance. 

[HuskerFever]

Seems like Coach Miles is a better recruiter than on-court coach. 

 

Miles doesn't have his players in yet. I don't know if I, personally, would be able to make that statement or not. Doc and Miles' playing styles are completely different, ergo, this is happening:

 

[49r]

Yeah, I don't think criticisms of coach are warranted either.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say keeping this game close with the guys he has to work with this year speaks well of his ability to manage the game.

[HB]

My few thoughts are a bit more negative after this game. 

 

1) Seems like Coach Miles is a better recruiter than on-court coach. 

2)Talley is forcing up way to many shots, and he is not making very many of them.  Other than the first 3 buckets, he didn't make much the rest of the game. Missed the front end of a crucial one-and-one too. 

3)One more big man would have turned this game our way in my opinion. 80% of our shots were jumpers, so we had very little balance.  Got to at least give Vucetic a chance. 

 

Couldn't disagree more with #1.  Beating Tulane, USC, Valpo, and functioning at all out there with who he has to put out on the floor is amazing.  While it's an obvious struggle, it looks better than I thought it would.  The few returning guys we have have improved and are better players than they were before.  I love the way Miles' teams defend.  Today we ran good plays out of almost every time out.  Made a few; Ubel didn't get the roll on the huge one toward the end but it was a nice call in the time out.

 

I suspect if someone would have said before the season that we not only had to play with what we have on the roster, but we would play a conference game without Almeida, the backup point guard would play with a torn patellar tendon, and the starting point guard (who is a 5'8" true freshman and can't shoot) would play over 30 minutes with a lingering MCL sprain, and we were tied with a Big 10 team with 3 minutes to go, that someone would have said "This guy must be able to coach". 

[hugh42]

"Wisconsin is not a very good team.  I know they lost their PG, but sheesh, they simply were not athletic...."

 

I agree with you, yet they were able to beat our guys off the dribble.

"- David Rivers should have had more minutes."

I agree with this as well.  David appears fairly confident in his game and has been knocking down open looks as of late.

[HuskerBB]

My few thoughts are a bit more negative after this game. 

 

1) Seems like Coach Miles is a better recruiter than on-court coach. 

2)Talley is forcing up way to many shots, and he is not making very many of them.  Other than the first 3 buckets, he didn't make much the rest of the game. Missed the front end of a crucial one-and-one too. 

3)One more big man would have turned this game our way in my opinion. 80% of our shots were jumpers, so we had very little balance.  Got to at least give Vucetic a chance. 

 

Couldn't disagree more with #1.  Beating Tulane, USC, Valpo, and functioning at all out there with who he has to put out on the floor is amazing.  While it's an obvious struggle, it looks better than I thought it would.  The few returning guys we have have improved and are better players than they were before.  I love the way Miles' teams defend.  Today we ran good plays out of almost every time out.  Made a few; Ubel didn't get the roll on the huge one toward the end but it was a nice call in the time out.

 

I suspect if someone would have said before the season that we not only had to play with what we have on the roster, but we would play without Almeida, the backup point guard would play with a torn patellar tendon, and the starting point guard (who is a 5'8" true freshman and can't shoot) would play over 30 minutes with a lingering MCL sprain, and we were tied with a Big 10 team wtih 3 minutes to go, that someone would have said "This guy must be able to coach". 

I agree.  Just watching I think we seem to be much more organized offensively than we have been for a long time.  We are getting decent shots but we don't have guys who can make shots - or even more so make plays off the offense.  Ubel has got to grow very tired of running pick and roll plays with Talley and neve seeing the ball no matter how open he gets.  I like a lot of things about Talley but we are putting him in a position to do things (i.e. see the floor and make passes) that he does not really have the ability (or the desire?) to do.

[basketballjones]

I was a bit frustrated with the lack of urgency in the final two minutes.  We're within striking distance with under 2:30 to play and still walking the ball up the floor.  That rubbed me the wrong way. 

The play and coaching after the 3:00 minute mark was.... questionable. To say the least.

[basketballjones]

My few thoughts are a bit more negative after this game. 

 

1) Seems like Coach Miles is a better recruiter than on-court coach. 

I don't think that is fair necessarily. Although I understand your sentiments.  I thought the late game management was questionable, for sure. However, we were two check-outs and a made shot away from everyone thinking Miles is a great late game coach.  So who knows! I'm willing to wait and see until he's got his dudes in. 

[Cheap Seat Perspective]

Not that I'm faulting or saying Coach Miles' on court coaching ability is poor, because there's a lot more that goes into it, and who knows how much of his playbook he has even opened up this year so far, and I know these aren't his players.

 

It just seems to me Coach Miles is getting a pass on what people harped about in Doc's offense, because it's his first year. Personally I would like to see more ball movement and less dribbling and standing around. There were parts of the game where we were just over dribbling and way too much standing around. It doesn't look like players are making hard cuts, and everything just seems out of whack and slow. 

 

For instance there was a couple times where one of our guys would catch it on the wing and would have to hold the ball and wait for a screen to take place, instead of it all being a fluid offense. 

 

I'm not saying this is completely Coach Miles' fault, but I was just hoping the offense would look a little more fluid this far into the season, this is just a little gripe of mine, but in all other facets of the program Coach Miles has done great, and I feel like, we will improve offensively with time and better players coming in. 

[Swan88]

Here are a few statistics that tell the tale of the game:

1.  At halftime, we were shooting 40.9%--and the game was tied. 

2.  In the second half, we shot 33.3%.

3.  Only six Huskers played more than 8 minutes in the game.  Of those six, one had only 16 minutes, while one player had 40 minutes, another 38 minutes, another 36 minutes and two had 31 each.

[Silverbacked1]

This is just what I think, but we are trying to run this new off. with old players.

 

If you look it seems that the new players do less of the dribbling and walk it up ( well Benny is some times told to)

 

But I like how it looks when the younger guys are running it.  I would like to see just returns on the floor together once to see how things would look.  Like Benny, Shavon, David, Ray and either Sergei or Mike to just see how they would do.

 

I also think that coach Miles sees that we do need to burn some clock like we did with Doc to help us have a chance.

[HuskerPower #nato73]

I have not posted too much on games this year, because I don't want to rip on players that I like that have been asked to do more than they are capable of.  Here are my thoughts on the Wisconsin game:

 

1) Not sure Wisconsin is ever a team you want to play when hosting a recruit.  They uglify a basketball game and we joined right in.

 

2) I used to not worry too much about the small group of fans that inexplicably chose to leave early.  This time it pissed me off.  The environment was poor and the crowd was lame.  It was a close conference game.  Stay to the end and make some noise.  It did not make Nebraska look like a good/fun place to play for a visitor.

 

3) Miles is tip-toeing a line all year of trying to win some games and building for the future.  I think he is doing it well.  Sure you want Vucetic to see more time, but I don't think it does us any good in the building process to go 1-17 in the conference.

 

4) The way to score in today's basketball is to either straight out beat your man or command help and then kick to a shooter.  We do not have anyone that has the quickness and driving skills yet to command help and we have one streaky shooter.   Sometimes our best option is Ubel taking his man one on one with the nice set of post moves he has developed.  Several times yesterday Wisconsin stopped one on one drives to the basket with ease. 

 

The shooters and drivers to make the motion offense work are coming and I think young guys like Shields have the potential to develop into better slashers.

[hhcmatt]

3) Miles is tip-toeing a line all year of trying to win some games and building for the future.  I think he is doing it well.  Sure you want Vucetic to see more time, but I don't think it does us any good in the building process to go 1-17 in the conference.

 

Andre could have played today.  

Miles thought he wouldn't be mobile enough.  

I'm sure that's the same sort of reasoning behind Vucitec not playing.

 

At this point it's tough to give Vucitec minutes because that might not help you win this year.

Miles has committed to trying to win 8 conference games and will keep shooting for that goal until it can't happen.

The last thing you want to do is lose a team when you don't have anyone else to replace them.

Given the way that Michigan destroyed Iowa yesterday I'm sure Vucitec will be seeing some playing time against Michigan.