uneblinstu's postgame chatter: Vol: 10; ed: 23 - @ Rutgers

[AuroranHusker]

This was a gutty performance to go into the RAC and come back victorious. GBR

[Norm Peterson]

Last I checked, Illinois is up 5 on Indiana with about 9 min to play.  If that score holds, we'll end the night in sole possession of 5th place in the league.  And then Indiana has a very tough finishing schedule for their last 9 games.  They'll be lucky to win 5 of them.  They still have Purdue, Michigan State, us, and Ohio State x 2 in their last 9 games.  

 

Northwestern has Michigan twice and Michigan State plus on the road at Wisconsin and Maryland.

 

Maryland has Michigan State, Purdue, and Michigan, plus road games at PBA and Northwestern (Northwestern and Maryland play twice in their final 9).

 

Penn State still has to run through the gauntlet of @ Ohio State, @ Michigan State, @ Purdue, and hosting Ohio State and Michigan before finishing up @ PBA.

 

And Wisconsin still has to face Michigan State, @ Maryland, and then hosting Michigan, Purdue, and Michigan State.

 

Those are the teams around us.

 

I'd say our chances of finishing alone in 5th place (or better) are pretty good.

[hhcmatt]

1 hour ago, 49r said:

Lots of nail biters in that list though.  4 games pretty much a pick-em.  Three of them are on the road so we're gonna need a lot of luck to do better than 1-3 in them.

 

That Wisconsin one on 1 day rest will be brutal.

We have 8 days! to prep for Minnesota on a Tuesday following them having to travel to Ann Arbor on Saturday and get their teeth kicked in. 

[hhcmatt]

58 minutes ago, The Polish Rifle said:

99.5% of our scoring tonight from 4 guys. A wins a win but need some other guys to step up.

 

Iowa and their tissue soft defense should help get us going again.

[Huskerpapa]

20 minutes ago, throwback said:

Think about this:

• Rutgers misses a dunk in the first half - ends up getting a 3-pt play on the possession
• Rutgers misses a dunk in the second half - ends up throwing in a long 2 at the shot clock buzzer on the possession
• We get a huge break when officials overturn a call at the last media time out to allow us to maintain possession - then we proceed to throw the ball away on the in-bounds pass and give up a layup

That's 7 utterly fluky pts by Rutgers where it looked like we had received 3 big breaks. In past years we lose that game 100 times out of 100 with fluky breaks like that going against us, especially 7 pts worth.

 

Our defensive play right now is unreal, especially the complete reversal we've had in our 3-pt defense vs last season. And it's only gotten better in league play. Nothing is coming easy against us.

 

Keep playing that kind of D down the stretch, and we will be very happy with how this season ends.

I don't believe they overturned a call.  Isaiah went to the floor with the rebound, and Glynn called a quick timeout.  So it looked like it would be Rutgers ball as they had the arrow on a jump ball.  But instead, the timeout saved the possession for us.

[PimpMario]

11 minutes ago, hhcdimes said:

 

That Wisconsin one on 1 day rest will be brutal.

We have 8 days! to prep for Minnesota on a Tuesday following them having to travel to Ann Arbor on Saturday and get their teeth kicked in. 

 

I don't know if the announcers were blowing it out of proportion but yeah, 4 games in 8 days or whatever seems really rough.

[AuroranHusker]

1 minute ago, PimpMario said:

 

I don't know if the announcers were blowing it out of proportion but yeah, 4 games in 8 days or whatever seems really rough.

 

And three of 'em are ON THE ROAD, and two of those roadies are with a one-day prep!!!

[PimpMario]

1 minute ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

And three of 'em are ON THE ROAD, and two of those roadies are with a one-day prep!!!

 

And one was in Jersey and, the air is Jersey sucks.

[TZAHL]

Just got done watching the game on DVR. Didn’t know the outcome as usual so pretty gut wrenching W!  Wish we could shoot the 3 better on the road. At least early in games.  Our great defensive play has kept us in the last two games. Observations:

 

1. Yes, the team has forgiven Jordy but if he is going to play weak defense and turnover the ball and half his shots are basically turnovers he shouldn’t play. Zebras don’t change their stripes. Miles needs to quit playing him like he wants to keep him here. Tanner or Duby could have been much better tonight. Jordy needs to earn minutes. His play in the first half earned none so he shouldn’t have  been put in the game half two. 

 

2. When we got up 7 Palmer made some horrific decisions.  Lots of guys made some bad decisions. The game got fast when we no longer needed it to be. Yes, those are daggers if they go in, but from what we’ve shown on the road that was not what we needed at the time. 

 

3.  The officiating I felt was consistent. If you’ve never officiated you should try it. There is a shortage. Awful call on Palmer charge but I saw many worse on Monday and usually they even out. Glad these guys got the obvious charge down the stretch right that the guys on Monday missed. 

 

4. All of our road games are going to be like pulling teeth. It’s hard to watch, it makes you drink, you want to turn the channel but as of right now this is who we are.  We make silly decisions at times and can’t hit shots and play pretty damn hard. Fill up your glass, root them on , and be ready to yell at the TV because these are important minutes.  I’d rather go through the agony of ugly wins/ close losses than have the indifferent feeling much of the past 15 years has been filled with. 

 

5. I really thought we would be switching a lot of ball screens because that’s what we’ve done the last couple of games and the Rutgers lineup would have allowed us to do so. We didn’t which cost us a few, but the defensive game plan seemed to be on point as we didn’t rotate back to the screener until the ball handler picked up his dribble. Seemed to throw their timing off quite a bit and we ended up with dead dribbles late into possessions. Good job defensive game planner.  Being unpredictable and versatile can be huge. 

[Navin R. Johnson]

I'm seeing a common theme: Opposing coach at half "hit the #$@!&#$ offensive boards!" Opposing team in the second half hits the #$@!&#$ offensive boards. I guess it's just the way it's going to be with this group but they have been able to overcome it so far. Like many have said, a win is a win!

[HuskerCager]

2 hours ago, nustudent said:

Big to avoid the bad loss.   Borchardt needs more time than Duby and Jordy

Depends on who we are playing, don't you think?  Would agree that Rutgers as an opponent would call for more Borchardt.

[colhusker]

Ugly win but will take the road win.  At some point the inability to box out and rebound will get us beat.  It could have tonight but we fought through it and got a win.  Beat the ChickenHawks

 

[TourneyBound]

Truly believe that was our hardest road game left on our schedule!!! 

 

Just win out boys!!

[HolyBobpilgrimage]

4 hours ago, throwback said:

Think about this:

• Rutgers misses a dunk in the first half - ends up getting a 3-pt play on the possession
• Rutgers misses a dunk in the second half - ends up throwing in a long 2 at the shot clock buzzer on the possession
• We get a huge break when officials overturn a call at the last media time out to allow us to maintain possession - then we proceed to throw the ball away on the in-bounds pass and give up a layup

That's 7 utterly fluky pts by Rutgers where it looked like we had received 3 big breaks. In past years we lose that game 100 times out of 100 with fluky breaks like that going against us, especially 7 pts worth.

 

Our defensive play right now is unreal, especially the complete reversal we've had in our 3-pt defense vs last season. And it's only gotten better in league play. Nothing is coming easy against us.

 

Keep playing that kind of D down the stretch, and we will be very happy with how this season ends.

?? this is great. I agree 1000%.

[brfrad]

2 hours ago, ConkintheCorner said:

Truly believe that was our hardest road game left on our schedule!!! 

 

Just win out boys!!

I'd say Wisconsin.  1 day off, and 4th game in 8 days.

[nustudent]

8 hours ago, HuskerCager said:

Depends on who we are playing, don't you think?  Would agree that Rutgers as an opponent would call for more Borchardt.

Not really.   I think depending on who we play dictates how many minutes the 3-headed monster plays.  

 

But I'll take Borchardt all day long over the others.   Borchardt at least knows his role and isn't going to hurt the team by trying to do too much.   He knows he's a role player.  I'll take that over a guy who forces 3 ugly hooks, 2 turnovers and has 3 fouls when his alarm clock goes off in the morning.

[hhcmatt]

The Watson Drive 

Previously Rutgers' small ball lineup had completely collapsed on a Palmer drive to the middle of the floor. Nebraska pulled it back out and everyone has cleared out of the paint. Copeland has set up to try and slow down Corey Sanders. At this point Sanders is trying to get around Copeland and Watson with the ball is building a head of steam.

 

 

The Setup: At this point Sanders has caught up to Watson.  Deshawn Freeman has drifted down off of Copeland to follow the action. Roby is covered in the corner while the other two defenders are covering Palmer and Gill with their feet in the paint. 

 

 

The Performance: Watson pivots and switches the ball to his right hand. Sanders shifts on a dime and prepares to cover a passing/shooting Watson

 

 

The Prestige: No idea how predetermined this move was but Watson had gone back with his right hand not out of being stopped but in a hesitation move.  At this moment he's going full speed towards the basket whereas Sanders hasn't yet changed direction.  Their rim protector on the court, Candido Sa, is sucked out because Roby is a threat from out there. Freeman is moving out to cover Copeland. Freshman Geo Baker is the last line of defense and he's already committing to stopping the pass to Gill. Watson finishes an uncontested layup against one of the better defenses in the conference to seal the game.

[huskerbaseball13]

Win 2 of the next 3 which is very doable IMO and we are sitting at 8-5 in Big Ten play with four of the last five games at home.  Every team has a letdown(not sure we can afford one) so it's probably not fair to expect to go undefeated at home in Big 10 play but I think this team can do it.  So, we just need to get one more on the road to get to 12 wins. 

[Handy Johnson]

Nice win, but I cringe when I hear the Sportscasters talk about how "easy" the rest of our schedule is. We aren't good enough to just roll the ball out against teams like Indiana, Maryland etc. If we're going to get to 22+ wins there will have to be ALOT of games like last night. So take a day off boys, then roll your sleeves up and do what you need to do...

[hhcmatt]

 

[Bugeaters1]

4 hours ago, hhcdimes said:

The Watson Drive 

Previously Rutgers' small ball lineup had completely collapsed on a Palmer drive to the middle of the floor. Nebraska pulled it back out and everyone has cleared out of the paint. Copeland has set up to try and slow down Corey Sanders. At this point Sanders is trying to get around Copeland and Watson with the ball is building a head of steam.

 

 

The Setup: At this point Sanders has caught up to Watson.  Deshawn Freeman has drifted down off of Copeland to follow the action. Roby is covered in the corner while the other two defenders are covering Palmer and Gill with their feet in the paint. 

 

 

The Performance: Watson pivots and switches the ball to his right hand. Sanders shifts on a dime and prepares to cover a passing/shooting Watson

 

 

The Prestige: No idea how predetermined this move was but Watson had gone back with his right hand not out of being stopped but in a hesitation move.  At this moment he's going full speed towards the basket whereas Sanders hasn't yet changed direction.  Their rim protector on the court, Candido Sa, is sucked out because Roby is a threat from out there. Freeman is moving out to cover Copeland. Freshman Geo Baker is the last line of defense and he's already committing to stopping the pass to Gill. Watson finishes an uncontested layup against one of the better defenses in the conference to seal the game.

That was a filthy move that Watson put on Sanders.

[Huskerpapa]

...and the charge that he accepted was equally as wicked

[Huskerone]

A win is a win, I'm never going to complain about a BIG win, especially on the road.  Gritty is the word that comes to mind with this game. 

 

Any thoughts or concerns with us seemingly playing to the level of the opponent all the time?  That's great when we play Kansas and Michigan, not so much when we play Rutgers or Illinois.

 

More fun this way though, right?

[HuskerActuary]

20 minutes ago, Huskerone said:

A win is a win, I'm never going to complain about a BIG win, especially on the road.  Gritty is the word that comes to mind with this game. 

 

Any thoughts or concerns with us seemingly playing to the level of the opponent all the time?  That's great when we play Kansas and Michigan, not so much when we play Rutgers or Illinois.

 

More fun this way though, right?

Not sure last night is a great example of that. We were 2 point underdogs and we won by 6.