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uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 12; ed 2 - Southern Utah


uneblinstu

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I will say this again in the post game thread. But why keep playing Cheatham and Kavas?

 

1. This season isnt going anywhere 

2. They havent been effective so far

3. Akol, Samari, and Shamiel (when eligible) will be with the program much longer. Let them develop and get live reps in the system

3. This staff doesn't really like to recruit grad transfers anyway so who cares if you sour that pipeline

 

Once again, i know its not fair to Cheatham and Kavas. But think about how beneficial 10-15 min a game for a whole season would be for Akol and Samari.

Edited by khoock
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11 out of 52 on 3 pointers through the 1st two games, that explains a lot. When outside shooting is yer calling card  (in theory) and you don’t have any reliable Big to dump it down into on the block, this is what it looks like. Our shooting HAS to improve & I hope we give more minutes to the Frosh, Eisley-Curtis-Arop...

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2 hours ago, hskr4life said:


Kent on the radio made it sound like a heck of a play that just wasn’t executed.  I didn’t see it though.

 

 It was a pretty amazing play and I want to watch it again.

Essentially we had two players cross each other and set picks at the top of the key, forming a door jam in their zone. Cam drove through the opening and I think just threw the pass too far up for a cutting Green. 

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3 hours ago, MichHusker said:

If any coach in Nebraska history deserves a year or two to build a program without criticism, it’s Fred Hoiberg. This team was never going to win 20 games and it might be tough to win 10. Year 3 will be the year. Sucks to be patient when football blows too but it will be worth it. 

 

No one is above criticism...it's more about Hoiberg doesn't really need to worry about his job security in order to build this team the way he wants.

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20 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

 It was a pretty amazing play and I want to watch it again.

Essentially we had two players cross each other and set picks at the top of the key, forming a door jam in their zone. Cam drove through the opening and I think just threw the pass too far up for a cutting Green. 

 

Cyclone fans remember fondly what a genius Hoiberg is when it comes to inbounds plays.

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1 hour ago, khoock said:

I will say this again in the post game thread. But why keep playing Cheatham and Kavas?

 

Pretty sure it was Cheatham guarding Morgan at the end with the game on the line. Says a lot about what they think about him because often Morgan looked like the best player on the court today.

It's going to be a lost season but it's way too early to start playing guys just because they're younger. Seems probable that Stevenson will be in the rotation immediately after he is eligible. Is Curtis ready to guard a power forward because that is where he needs to be if he's taking time away from Cheatham/Kavas. I think Arop is physically capable but it pretty much speaks volumes for where he's at that he's not playing right now.

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Hoiberg went 3-13 his first year and 16-16 overall. Theres talent on this team the bigs are just so green its gonna take awhile. Getting Walker next year IMO will be huge no pun intended. 

 

Gonna have to change my expectations thought we could be an NIT team this year, instead I wont be focusing on wins and losses as much and more so individual players growth. Hoiberg is still the man this team could win 2 games all year and I would still believe that. 

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1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Pretty sure it was Cheatham guarding Morgan at the end with the game on the line. Says a lot about what they think about him because often Morgan looked like the best player on the court today.

It's going to be a lost season but it's way too early to start playing guys just because they're younger. Seems probable that Stevenson will be in the rotation immediately after he is eligible. Is Curtis ready to guard a power forward because that is where he needs to be if he's taking time away from Cheatham/Kavas. I think Arop is physically capable but it pretty much speaks volumes for where he's at that he's not playing right now.

First, thank you for adding information about the defensive assignments. I was unable to attend or listen so those things often go unnoticed when studying the box scores.

 

But im thinking more towards when Shamiel is eligible (sorry if that wasnt clear). So I dont think Samari Curtis would be guarding the opposing teams 4. He would still be playing the role he is in now. And we would be replacing Cheatham/Kavas with Stevenson/Arop at the 4.

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When Southern Utah went into the zone in the second half it absolutely killed us. 70% of the time we took threes at which we are horrible at shooting and the other 30% of the time when we penetrated the zone we got makable shots or free throws almost every time.

 

Our missed threes were almost all absolute bricks...no chance of going in but Hoiberg is a master at teaching the art of shooting so I have hope. 

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I've written this before, but it bears repeating.

 

I covered the Miami Hurricanes just shortly after they re-booted their program in the mid-'80s. Bill Foster came from Clemson and was given a year to build a roster and let the players work together in practices and scrimmages. 

 

In short, they had a whole year to do that — Hoiberg threw together almost an entire roster in a month.

 

THIS IS LIKE STARTING A PROGRAM FROM SCRATCH, but without the proper lead-in time. You're not going to be any good doing that unless you're Calipari or Krzyzewski recruiting a roster of one-and-done sure-fire NBA players. And even then it takes time for those teams to reach some sort of cohesion.

 

We'll get there, and I'm guessing we'll look a lot different in February than we do now. We just may not win more than a handful of games between now and then. There are no one-and-done players, unless you count Cheatham and Kavas.

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I hate losing, but I saw some encouraging things today. I thought S. Utah was better than UC Riverside. The Martin kid was a legit player who could help many power 6 teams. They returned four starters and they had some nice pieces. The biggest positives were Cam and Cross. Cam showed the ability to take over a game during a stretch of the second half where we needed someone to step up. When he gets more game experience and improves his shot, he will be tough to handle. With better offensive options on the court in his supporting cast, he'll be even more dangerous. Cross was also solid. He  battled and showed some real talents on the offensive end. He can put it on the floor and he showed he can score in the post. Again, with experience and work in the weight room, he's gonna be a steal. 

 

Most of our production came from guys who have now played only 2 division 1 games. We will take our lumps this year, but I saw objective improvement from game 1 to game 2. I haven't seen Stevenson play, but I gotta think he is going to be a major contributor and will help out in guarding guys like Martin and giving us another viable offensive option. He will no doubt be better than what we're playing at the 4 right now. Poor Kavas has a terrible time guarding people, and I don't see him getting major minutes down the road unless he starts lighting it up from 3. 

 

With Banton and Walker next year, we will take a step forward. And I'm sure Matt A. has a transfer or two in his sights, so more help will likely be on the way. i will embrace the suck for now and will trust that Fred will take us to another level in the not so distant future. 

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12 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Pretty sure it was Cheatham guarding Morgan at the end with the game on the line. Says a lot about what they think about him because often Morgan looked like the best player on the court today.

It's going to be a lost season but it's way too early to start playing guys just because they're younger. Seems probable that Stevenson will be in the rotation immediately after he is eligible. Is Curtis ready to guard a power forward because that is where he needs to be if he's taking time away from Cheatham/Kavas. I think Arop is physically capable but it pretty much speaks volumes for where he's at that he's not playing right now.

Agree, I think the coaching staff likes Cheatham. He's an easy target when we're playing so poorly, but his resume is pretty impressive. I know he's coming off an injury but this guy is talented. Highly ranked recruit, started at Marquette. I'd think he'd be a good player on a functional team, but he might not look like it on a dysfunctional one.

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Post Game Notes from UNL

 

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg

On the contest

I thought our guys really went out and competed today. I thought we got off to a great start. We challenged them the last few days to put that last frustrating loss behind us, and they responded with great energy. I thought we had a good play drawn up at the end, but unfortunately just didn’t finish it. The competitive spirit of this group was where it needed to be today, and it’s something we can build on.

 

On Kevin Cross’ performance

Look at what Kevin did today, I thought he was one of the best players on the floor for us. He was finishing, he’s got a good feel in the middle of that zone. We felt Kevin was the guy to have out there. I’ll say this about Kevin, he’s really bought into getting his body right so he could play sustained minutes tonight.

 

On how Cam Mack facilitated the game

He had a stretch where he was just incredible. He completely took over the game and that’s what he’s capable of doing. He’s got great speed and instincts. He’s got good pace to get a guy on his hip and make the right play. To go out there in his second game at this level and almost put a triple-double on the board is pretty impressive.

 

On getting better

If we continue to take steps, the results will take care of themselves. That’s the biggest thing for our group right now, to continue to go out there and battle. I’m proud of the way they went out there and battled and fought. [SUU] is a good team. They’re long, they’re athletic and look like a lot of Big Ten teams will. Now that we’ve seen that length, hopefully we’ll be better next time we see it.

 

Junior Guard Jervay Green
On the offensive struggles late in the game:

“I just think we didn’t execute. But as we go on, and we get back to the drawing boards we are going to fix all of that.”

 

On his buzzer beater to send the game into overtime

Great point guard gave me the ball. I saw the time was going down and just shot it. And made it.”

 

On how the end of regulation effected the momentum for the team:

“It’s big. Obviously the first game didn’t go how we wanted it to so for us to even come close like that it feels great. And we are a new team so we are still trying to find the rhythm of each other. I think we took a huge step forward. We are going to keep working. and we are going to get that game and we going to start winning here soon.”

 

On Kevin Cross:

“Kevin played great. He played big. He’s not used to playing center. Obviously in high school, he could dribble real good so for him to even be switching that up is big and

he is doing a very good job. Hats off for him today. He came up big.”

 

Sophomore Guard Cam Mack

On taking a step forward from the last game:

“I mean I feel like we took a step forward, but when it came down to it we should have won that game. We should have just won the game. I mean we didn’t execute well (enough). I didn’t come through making my two free throws so I took the blame on that. But we just didn’t execute. That’s all it is.”

 

On Kevin Cross’ performance

“Kevin is a great player. (After the) Last game, I told him you miss shots you make some so keep shooting and stuff will come. I’m proud of him. He is a freshman so I am very proud of him. He played big minutes and caught a lot of my passes. I really appreciate him a lot.” 

 

Southern Utah Head Coach Todd Simon

Opening Statement

“It was an exciting college basketball game. Any time you get one of these two overtime deals, it’s a highly contested game with two teams who wanted to win. I thought they played really hard. Coach Hoiberg does a heck of a job, and he’s going to build this thing into a big-time winner. I was proud of our guys’ resilience. They kind of kept coming back and made some plays down the stretch.”


On how SUU responded in the second half

“We didn’t execute great in the first half. I thought we had a lot of open looks. We were a little nervous and we fired some shots that we normally make. We were a little antsy around the rim. We calmed down and did a much better job executing late in the second half and in the overtimes.”

 

On how SUU responded to the tying buzzer beater

“It was a good teaching moment for us. Our game plan was to foul, and we didn’t execute. It was a lesson learned. We’re always going to foul in that situation, and we didn’t get it done, and that’s what can happen. I was proud of our guys, to be able to buckle back down and come back out and play 10 more good minutes of basketball.”

 

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Knowing this season isn’t about wins and losses I’m trying to keep the perspective on focusing on 1. What areas can we really improve on throughout the year? 2. Which guys can be big contributors going forward on a tourney level team?

 

1. The defense improved game over game and I’m confident Doc will keep them moving in the right direction.  The shooting is my biggest concern.  How many guys would you feel confident can shoot 35%+ in conference play? It’s probably zero for me right now.  The mechanics just don’t suggest many of these guys will all of a sudden improve significantly.  Free throw percentage is a decent indicator of overall shooting ability and we have failed miserably through 2 games.  
 

2. My list right now would basically just be Mack and Yvan.  I’m not sure what the ceiling is with Yvans touch but at a minimum I think he will be a solid rotation guy by next year even with additions. Hopefully this list grows but as of now no one else has shown enough to really make me feel confident.  

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Overall, I thought we saw quite a bit of improvement compared the the first game. Wins and losses truly don’t matter to me this year. I just want to see continued improvement. 
 

A lot of little things were improved in just a few days of them watching film and practicing. I thought we set better screens,  blocked out MUCH better, helped and recovered quicker on defense. And, especially early against man defense, ran our stuff more crisply. Now I expect to see our young guys catching the ball with two hands and being strong and aware with it. We left a lot of points out on the court just by not doing those two simple things. But as a player, until you fail at doing these little things at game speed, you really don’t understand what it takes to do them correctly. It’s a different ballgame than it was in high school and junior college. Every game there will be a whole new set of learning experiences and teaching points.

 

The zone obviously threw us off. We’ll see more of that this year, especially if we can’t hit shots. I expect our zone offense to get better as players get more comfortable. 
 

Buzzy Caruthers said he believes Jervay can be one of the best defensive players in the nation eventually. I see it. He has 4 blocks and 5 steals in his first two games at this level. He’s very active. Long arms, quick feet, very physical. Seems to be tough-minded. Glad to see him step up and confidently knock down a buzzer-beater to send it into overtime.

 

Cam is fantastic. We’ll see a lot of double-doubles from him this year. Court vision, passing and speed are high level. Demeanor and body language need to get a lot better real soon though (unfortunately, not sure how fixable that is for a 21 y/o redshirt soph). Winston, Simpson and Cowan will be coming.

 

Hoiberg’s ability to get his players good looks against man or zone in ATO and end of clock situations is just incredible. We’ve seen it numerous times already. He has a brilliant basketball mind. We just gotta start converting at a higher clip. 

Edited by millerhusker
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