uneblinstu's postgame chatter: Vol: 10; ed: 30 - Indiana

[hhcmatt]

Postgame Notes 
*-Nebraska improved to 12-5 in Big Ten Conference play. The Huskers’ 12 conference victories tie the school record, as Nebraska also won 12 Big Eight Conference games during the 1965-66 season and 12 Missouri Valley Conference wins during the 1915-16 campaign.

*-The Huskers notched their 21st win of the regular season, marking only the third time in program history that Nebraska has won more than 20 games in a regular season.

*-Nebraska improved to 15-1 at Pinnacle Bank Arena this season, marking just the sixth time in school history a Husker team has won 15 or more home games. The 15 wins also ties a building record set during the 2013-14 season.

*-NU forced 19 Indiana turnovers, tying the Hoosiers’ season high. Indiana also committed 19 turnovers in their season opener against Indiana State.

*-Nebraska scored 26 points off Indiana turnovers, the Huskers’ highest point total in that category during Big Ten play this season.

*-Nebraska’s 19 offensive rebounds was its highest total since grabbing 20 against North Texas on Nov. 13.

*-Nebraska finishes the regular season 8-0 in either zero or one-day preps, including 4-0 in Big Ten action.

*-Jordy Tshimanga’s nine rebounds is his highest total in Big Ten play this year. He had eight in the win over Iowa on Jan. 27.

*-James Palmer Jr. finished with 15 points, his 28th double figure game of the season, while Isaac Copeland reached double figures for the 21st time with 13 points.

*-Evan Taylor tied his season high in both rebounds (seven) and blocks (two), numbers he had done twice this season

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles
Opening Statement
“I thought it was interesting for our guys. I thought the first half we were really jittery. Again, you could see that we shot 15 threes and no free throws, which is not like us. At half-time they talked about playing with confidence, this that and that and the other thing. I am like guys ‘nobody’s game has changed in the three weeks. You know, what has changed is the circumstances. But, you should embrace that.’ That is kind of what an upstart has to do, they have to win a game like this to gain that confidence. Especially, when your cruising along, you’re winning, you beat Maryland even though you’re a little tight. Then, all the sudden you drop one and its like oh boy. You just can’t play like its oh boy, you have to play like its ‘I know this is going to go our way’. But, you don’t do that until you’ve earned it. And that was kind of tonight, one of those nights when I think we earned victory. I think it really helped them build that belief that we can beat anybody.”

On James Palmer Jr. and his defense 
“I thought he (James Palmer Jr.) did a very good job. I thought we did a very good job as a team chasing them off the line. We could not let them get going from three.”

On Evan Taylor
“Evan wasn’t, I didn’t think, wasn’t there the first half either but the second half when he came in, I think he made the most of his opportunity. He made some big-time steals on hustle plays, tips, deflects, rebounds, scored at the rim in transition. Evan was really outstanding in the second half when we needed him. That is a huge luxury, having a senior like that coming off the bench and be able to play extended minutes in a quality game like that.”

On the second half 
“I think the important part was to finish the game with a great defensive stretch and control the ball on offense and put them away, you know, stretch that lead out from 5 to 11 or whatever it was. That’s one of those things that, with the first half and how we played, I wasn’t sure it was going to end like that. But as we got into the game there was no doubt.”

On the best aspect of the game and the Penn State game coming up 
“Well, defense. I thought we did a great job on defense. I thought we did a good enough job on (Juwan) Morgan and on all those perimeter kids. Penn State has got as much talent as anyone in this league. They have just got a tremendous team. That game should be a high-level game.”

 On making winning plays of the game
“No doubt you feel a little bit better when you win. We did not hustle the way we needed to in the first half, but we did in the second half. We did a much better job. Everything about our game in terms of our aggressiveness and the right way to play, you could see in the stat sheet but you’ve got to look for it. As a coach, you see it as fans, you see that extra effort and it will show up in the right places.”  

Sophomore Forward Isaiah Roby 
On the team’s mindset 
“It is a must-win. Can’t lose anymore. If we want to go to the tournament, we have to build our resume. We have another big game on Sunday. Today was a big game for us to win, and then we have to make some noise in the tournament, too.”

On the defense “Yeah, yesterday in practice we really focused on defense. We didn’t really do much, it was more of a mental day. But, it was probably 70% focusing on them, not on us. The coaches did a really good job of telling us what their game plan was offensively. We were able to disrupt them, frustrate them, and get some steals and force them into some tough shots.”

On perimeter defense 
“That was the number one priority. When you have got a guy like (Robert) Johnson, he made nine (3-pointers) last game. That had got to be a number one emphasis. It was our goal to slow him down, slow down their point guard (Devonte Green), and we did a pretty good job of that.”

Junior Guard James Palmer Jr. 
On first-half shooting  
“I (thought) we were getting to the rim in the first half too.”

Senior Guard Evan Taylor 
On tonight’s game vs. Illinois  
“I think we got stops. In the Illinois game, we allowed them to get second shots. Tonight, we got stops.”

Junior Guard Glynn Watson Jr.  
On playing aggressive  “I just came out with the same mindset and be aggressive. Coach Miles wants me to be aggressive. My teammates want me to be aggressive, so that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller

Opening Statement 
“Good win by Nebraska. I thought they really finished the game, last eight minutes the right way. We had a really hard time all night taking care of the ball, and we’re slow to second shots. [We] played hard and had some guys do some really good things. I thought we were right there for a good portion of the game, but you can’t do that on the road. (They had) 19 second shots, (we had) 19 turnovers, just not going to get it done. So disappointed, but we’ve got a quick turnaround for our home finale against Ohio State. We have to get ready for that but we’re going to have to be a lot better.”

On the unforced turnovers 
“Just a lack of toughness, lack of confidence. I don’t know what it was, maybe the road environment scared them a little bit, I’m not sure. But some of the plays just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Coming out of halftime trying to get it regrouped, we had four more turnovers right away so we couldn’t take care of it tonight. Give their defense credit. I’m sure they had a lot to do with it, but there were some unforced ones that made no sense.”

On sophomore Devonte Green’s inconsistency late in the season 
“He’s been consistent. He’s just played probably his best game of the season at Iowa. He had not a great night tonight. We’ll need him, obviously, to be a lot better against Ohio State.”

On freshman Justin Smith’s play 
“Played well, played well. [He] was all over the glass, did a great job finishing some dump-downs. I thought defensively for the most part [he] did a really good job of doing what we asked him to do. He guarded the ball probably as well as he’s guarded it all year. I thought he played, for him, another really good game. I think if you look at his numbers here the last three or four games, I think he’s given us an added dimension. So it’s good to see him finish strong down the stretch and I thought he looked the part out there tonight.”

On how he thought his team handled junior James Palmer Jr. “He’s a good player. I thought for the most part we just tried to make him earn everything. I don’t think he had a whole lot of easy ones. If he did, it was off of our turnovers in transition. I think in the half court, I thought Rob in particular did a good job keeping him front. Our team kind of contained the paint for the most part. It’s hard, though. It’s hard to contain him. He’s big, he’s strong, he can score and he’s probably a first team all-conference player.”

[B-town hoopsfan]

29 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

I disagree.  Isaiah has some of the best post moves on the team.

Let me rephrase norm as you have a good point I think roby can finish with both hands as well as hit jumpers outta the post. But he currently has no concept or just doesn’t have the body to get post position. N probably 75 percent of post play is position and foot work IMO 

[khoock]

10 hours ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

Absolutely love Evan Taylor. I know some who sit around me don’t, and are quite vocal about it, but he is our lunch pail leader, who has made numerous energizer-Benny type plays that part go unnoticed. Agreed, he will be hard to replace.

Taylor is seriously Benny Parker plus 7 inches imo.

[hhcmatt]

22 minutes ago, hhcdimes said:

 

Are the conference tourney games considered not the regular season?  I didn't take those wins out of any seasons

 

 

[hhcmatt]

43 minutes ago, hhcdimes said:

Wins (Season)

 

1. 1990-91 - 26 (NCAA)

2. 1982-83 - 22 (NIT)

2. 1977-78 - 22 (NIT)

2. 1919-20 - 22

5. 2017-18 - 21

5. 1995-96 - 21 (NIT)

5. 1986-87 - 21 (NIT)

 

Wins (Not including post season)

1. 1990-91 - 24

2. 1919-20 - 22

3. 2017-18 - 21

 

 

Fixed

[hhcmatt]

 

[Swan88]

Check out the number of views, likes and retweets on this ESPN tweet:

 

 

[cjbowbros]

2 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

I disagree.  Isaiah has some of the best post moves on the team.

One thing that he could improve in is on-ball defense. He's okay at this point and plays great team defense but the opposing teams stretch 4-5 usually destroys us and he should be able to guard guys like that at some point. That's an off-season thing though.

[Fullbacksympathy]

Great team win against a solid foe.  Once again, we have a lot of talent, and it tends to separate itself in the last 7-8 minutes against decent competition.  Another testament of TM's recruiting.

 

Interesting:  this season has had several B-level grade games where we win because of our talent.  That hasn't happened since the 90s.  Until this season, it has typically taken an A-A+ game to beat anyone in conference, and a B grade was either a tossup against bottom feeders or a blowout against good teams.  We brought our B game to Purdue and OSU and were close to winning both.  It's a great sign.  

 

If we manage hit our A game on Sunday, watch the hell out in post season.  

 

 

[nustudent]

11 minutes ago, cjbowbros said:

One thing that he could improve in is on-ball defense. He's okay at this point and plays great team defense but the opposing teams stretch 4-5 usually destroys us and he should be able to guard guys like that at some point. That's an off-season thing though.

He could improve.  But he’s playing out of position guarding the 5.   

[Handy Johnson]

13 hours ago, colhusker said:

Agree on Taylor, kid is just solid

With Gill & Taylor gone next year does Jack move back into the rotation or does Xavier or Nana step up? Points to ponder for another day...

[Norm Peterson]

14 minutes ago, nustudent said:

He could improve.  But he’s playing out of position guarding the 5.   

 

He's better at post D than Michael Jacobson was.

[uneblinstu]

Basketball still has positions?

[royalfan]

A few random takes in no particular order.

 

1.  Indiana played really good half court defense IMO.  At least against our team.  The did a great job of clogging up driving lines, and making us shoot from outside.  Yes, we jacked up a lot of threes in the first half.  To a large extent that is what was there.  It always seemed uncomfortable to get it inside, especially via the drive.  Palmer was not able to do very many Palmer things tonight, and that is a credit to Indiana D.  It was fortunate that we were able to get multiple transition baskets in the second half.  Had that not been the case, we very well may have lost.   Indiana is a pretty good team right now. 

 

2.  I was really nervous when we were down 4, and still had Palmer and Copeland on the bench.  I was calling for the horses to come back in before it was too late.  And then Mr. Taylor had what very well may have been a season saving three point play to cut it to to a much more comfortable one point deficit.  

 

3.  It is good to hear that those huge Indiana treys to keep coming back at us were caused by communication errors.  Communication errors that were caused by them not being able to hear each other because the crowd was too loud.  Trust me, if the crowd is that loud it will typically result in very good things for us.  

 

4. We really need Watson to take a breathe and make some shots.  If he does, we are so much better.  

 

5.  Not a huge deal, but I think Miles needs to be just a touch smarter when he is using Gill versus Taylor.  To me, Taylor should be starting.  We need Gill in the game, when we have one or two of our primary scoring options on the bench.  That is when we can live with him gunning threes.  Taylor makes us a much better defensive team, and we have plenty of scoring out there with our starting group.  I like him in there then a little more.  Again, not a big deal, just my preference.  

 

6.  We really need to work on some inbounds stuff when we have the ball along the baseline by our hoop.  Just tossing long passes in to someone that are not easy, is not good enough.  Other teams are looking to score off a set in those spots against us.  We are merely hoping to get the ball in somehow.  I am afraid this is going to bite us in the ass at a key moment, if we don't improve it.  

 

 

 

[CrazyforNUHOOPS]

3 hours ago, hhcdimes said:

 

Are the conference tourney games considered not the regular season?  I didn't take those wins out of any seasons

I don’t consider conference tournaments to be the regular season. 

 

Edit: I replied before reading the rest of thread and see you got an answer via Twitter. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by CrazyforNUHOOPS

[throwback]

25 minutes ago, royalfan said:

 

2.  I was really nervous when we were down 4, and still had Palmer and Copeland on the bench.  I was calling for the horses to come back in before it was too late.  And then Mr. Taylor had what very well may have been a season saving three point play to cut it to to a much more comfortable one point deficit.  

 

I was doing the same thing - was really nervous when both Palmer & Cope were sitting there. But Taylor's  play bought us a few extra minutes, which was huge. That stretch won the game for us, I felt, because it could've gotten sideways on us in a hurry.

 

And I loved what Jordy brought last night - not scoring, but when IU was getting putback after putback early in the 2nd half, he came in and reset the balance on the glass. Big night for him on the boards.

 

Thought the roof was coming off the building when Glynn had that putback - nice to see him hit a couple of shots elsewhere as well. Hopefully he builds on it. We need him.

 

I know Morgan & Johnson still had relatively good scoring nights - more than half (29) total IU points - but I thought our defense on those two was really good. They had to work hard for their points, and either of those two guys could go for 30 in a game really easily.

 

3-pt defense was tremendous overall against a team that can really fill it up if you're Iowa have a passive defensive effort.

 

#21 was a lot of fun - #22 Sunday will be even better

Edited February 21, 2018 by throwback

[colhusker]

54 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

With Gill & Taylor gone next year does Jack move back into the rotation or does Xavier or Nana step up? Points to ponder for another day...

Good question.  I hope Nana takes a major step forward and Xavier comes in ready to go.  I like Jack and really thought he would be the spot up guy many good teams have that finds his happy spot and is deadly from there at key moments.

[hhcmatt]

39 minutes ago, CrazyforNUHOOPS said:

I don’t consider conference tournaments to be the regular season. 

 

Edit: I replied before reading the rest of thread and see you got an answer via Twitter. 

 

If one can get the official ruling, might as well! 

[ZAYWHAT!]

Question , last night Jordy hammered the shooter and Roby was no where near the foul and Roby was given the foul by the officials.   Bardo noticed this error right away on the tv broadcast.    Do our coaches see this?  Is there a way to point out to the officials this error when it happens so that it could be fixed? Or it just is what it is?  Later Roby was once again in danger of fouling out because of it.    Just curious.  

[B-town hoopsfan]

1 hour ago, Handy Johnson said:

With Gill & Taylor gone next year does Jack move back into the rotation or does Xavier or Nana step up? Points to ponder for another day...

Jack can’t gaurd other twos n threes so it is unlikely he eats up any of gill n Taylor’s minutes next year 

[AuroranHusker]

4 minutes ago, ZAYWHAT! said:

Question , last night Jordy hammered the shooter and Roby was no where near the foul and Roby was given the foul by the officials.   Bardo noticed this error right away on the tv broadcast.    Do our coaches see this?  Is there a way to point out to the officials this error when it happens so that it could be fixed? Or it just is what it is?  Later Roby was once again in danger of fouling out because of it.    Just curious.  

 

I also wondered why Roby didn't tell the coaches so they could argue the call on his behalf.... that was a critical error by the refs because Jordy had zero fouls at the time, and Zay picked up another one when he didn't foul on that particular play. That kind of stuff bugs me during a ballgame. Get that right, guys! It's not that difficult.....

[B-town hoopsfan]

5 minutes ago, ZAYWHAT! said:

Question , last night Jordy hammered the shooter and Roby was no where near the foul and Roby was given the foul by the officials.   Bardo noticed this error right away on the tv broadcast.    Do our coaches see this?  Is there a way to point out to the officials this error when it happens so that it could be fixed? Or it just is what it is?  Later Roby was once again in danger of fouling out because of it.    Just curious.  

Not much can be done about bad officiating. There were several bad calls on the huskers last night in my opinion that the zebras then compounded by making an even worse make up call in the other side of the court . That like 12 minutes run to end the first half where Indiana didn’t get called for fouls pretty much sums up whoever was reffing last night

[B-town hoopsfan]

1 hour ago, royalfan said:

 

6.  We really need to work on some inbounds stuff when we have the ball along the baseline by our hoop.  Just tossing long passes in to someone that are not easy, is not good enough.  Other teams are looking to score off a set in those spots against us.  We are merely hoping to get the ball in somehow.  I am afraid this is going to bite us in the ass at a key moment, if we don't improve it.  

 

 

 

I think the same thing during the games. Is it just me or were we actually running plays to begin the year? Like why not try some lobs to roby or some three pointer looks for allen or gill not just the grenade lob in to jordy or palmer then resetting the offense every time?  

[B-town hoopsfan]

41 minutes ago, colhusker said:

Good question.  I hope Nana takes a major step forward and Xavier comes in ready to go.

anyone closer to the program know if nana not playing this year is to do w his current level of development or is it more of having two seniors ahead of him? I always figured it was the seniors but I am just basing that off of his high school film and the fact that he spends a lot of time in the gym.

 

i can’t help but think that Xavier is gonna come in and take some minutes from Glynn. Xavier attacks the bucket hard and really seems to have a knack for getting others involved. More of a PG then a SG in my eyes 

[Art Vandalay]

One thing that has always bothered me is what a poor passing team we are. A couple people have commented on Roby being wide open on rolls numerous times. That should not be a hard pass and we are very poor at it (horrid last night). We also do a bad job of post entry IMO. Indiana was smaller and more physical preventing the drives. Would have loved to see Palmer just go to the post on Johnson and shoot over him, same with Copeland. 

 

Might have been some fatigue last night as well so hopefully we rest up come out with our A game on Sunday