Red team

[nustudent 1,324]

The thing that strikes me about the rotation and we've really never been able to say....is that I don't see anyone that is eligible that I think is incapable.   Now there are guys that may not end up being very good or don't pan out.   But to me, there's no one on the surface right now that stands out in a bad way.   And we've always traditionally had at least one if not 2, 3 or 4 of those guys.   If that continues to hold true, that is a pretty valuable x-factor in terms of depth.

[Norm Peterson 9,678]

27 minutes ago, nustudent said:

The thing that strikes me about the rotation and we've really never been able to say....is that I don't see anyone that is eligible that I think is incapable.   Now there are guys that may not end up being very good or don't pan out.   But to me, there's no one on the surface right now that stands out in a bad way.   And we've always traditionally had at least one if not 2, 3 or 4 of those guys.   If that continues to hold true, that is a pretty valuable x-factor in terms of depth.

 

How many years in the past have I lamented "if we just had a decent power forward" or "the only thing missing is a really good shooting guard" or words to that effect? It seemed like a lot of years we were just one player short, had decent quality starters at 4 out of 5 spots, but could just never seem to put it all together.

 

You look at this roster and you go by what we've been told and you think this might actually be a season where we might have 4.5 out of 5 if not 5 out of 5 spots.

 

And then I think we have some quality depth as well.

 

The question is whether we have enough good shooters that your leading scorer can have an off night and it doesn't kill you. And then, for me, I wonder how much of a step forward Yvan has taken (or if others on the roster are further along.)

 

But, yeah. I hear ya.

[hugh42 123]

11 hours ago, nustudent said:

The thing that strikes me about the rotation and we've really never been able to say....is that I don't see anyone that is eligible that I think is incapable.   Now there are guys that may not end up being very good or don't pan out.   But to me, there's no one on the surface right now that stands out in a bad way.   And we've always traditionally had at least one if not 2, 3 or 4 of those guys.   If that continues to hold true, that is a pretty valuable x-factor in terms of depth.

 

It's the most complete roster we've had since the 1990-91 season. All 11 of our scholarship players that are available to play this season appear to be capable of contributing meaningful minutes and without a big drop off in talent either. It's hard not to get excited about the potential of this team, but there are a lot of unknowns as others have said. And for next season...

[Norm Peterson 9,678]

52 minutes ago, hugh42 said:

 

It's the most complete roster we've had since the 1990-91 season. All 11 of our scholarship players that are available to play this season appear to be capable of contributing meaningful minutes and without a big drop off in talent either. It's hard not to get excited about the potential of this team, but there are a lot of unknowns as others have said. And for next season...

 

There's a part of me that looks at the roster and thinks this team looks reasonably complete and could be very competitive depending on how good some of the players are.

 

There's another part of me that remembers last year. I didn't expect last year to be great, but I sure expected it to be better than 7 wins.

 

A lot we didn't know about how good the players on last year's team would be, but there's a lot we don't know about how good the players on this year's team are.

 

I want to believe this team could be pretty good, but we could be a lot better than last year and still be pretty terrible. I think we're just going to have to play a few games before I feel like I have any sense of what to expect.

[nustudent 1,324]

56 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

There's a part of me that looks at the roster and thinks this team looks reasonably complete and could be very competitive depending on how good some of the players are.

 

There's another part of me that remembers last year. I didn't expect last year to be great, but I sure expected it to be better than 7 wins.

 

A lot we didn't know about how good the players on last year's team would be, but there's a lot we don't know about how good the players on this year's team are.

 

I want to believe this team could be pretty good, but we could be a lot better than last year and still be pretty terrible. I think we're just going to have to play a few games before I feel like I have any sense of what to expect.

I certainly didn't expect us to win 7.   I thought we'd be in the 11 or 12 range last year....so in that sense, it was a let down.   But I also was expecting Shamiel to be eligible, Jervay to pan out, Kavas to not get hurt and miss half the year and Mack not be a flake.

 

I'm not going to talk myself into thinking we are a top 4 conference team.   But I do think we will finish alot higher than 13th or 14th.

 

Padilla pointed out some of the teams above us earlier in this thread.   Northwestern is bad.  I think Penn St is going to fall off a lot, losing Watkins and Stevens and the drama with their coach.   I've been waiting several years for Purdue to fall apart again and think they lost quite a bit plus Hunter is out for 2 months.   Turgeon has never impressed me much, and I don't know if they have enough talent to overcome him this year.   Michigan will have talent, but not sold on Howard yet either and think they fall off a bit.   Minnesota was just okay and they lost their player.   So that right there is 6 teams that I'm not overly high on, on the surface.   Not saying we will be better than all of them.   But I can easily see us getting up to the 8th-10th spot in the conference this year before a breakout year in 2021-2022.

[49r 7,290]

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but....y'all are delusional!  

[75unlgrad 38]

I hope the media is able to get a lot of information from the two scrimmages this week.  That should tell us more about this team.

[hugh42 123]

2 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

There's a part of me that looks at the roster and thinks this team looks reasonably complete and could be very competitive depending on how good some of the players are.

 

There's another part of me that remembers last year. I didn't expect last year to be great, but I sure expected it to be better than 7 wins.

 

A lot we didn't know about how good the players on last year's team would be, but there's a lot we don't know about how good the players on this year's team are.

 

I want to believe this team could be pretty good, but we could be a lot better than last year and still be pretty terrible. I think we're just going to have to play a few games before I feel like I have any sense of what to expect.

 

Regarding last season, after losing the opener like we did and checking to see how our non-con opponents were doing early on I didn't know if we could win a game in conference play. So only winning 7 games didn't really come as a surprise. We were over matched in every conference game and we were rarely more talented than the opponent during the non-conference portion of the schedule. We had several players that weren't a good fit for the system and unfortunately some of those were guys we were counting on the most (Green and Burke in particular).

 

I've always been an optimist when it comes to Husker basketball. I just can't help it. Having said this, I think there are reasons to believe we will be substantially better this season, primarily the upgrade in talent on the roster but also a lot of these guys have something to prove. I know it remains to be seen how good this group will be, but I certainly don't think we will finish near the bottom of the standings. Of course we will have to wait and see. 

 

 

 

 

[Norm Peterson 9,678]

After last year, you're kind of reluctant to jump in with both feet until you see some actual results on the floor. But if a few certain things break our way, we could surprise some people.

 

Teddy Allen: Can his game translate to the Big Ten? And does he keep it together?

Dalano Banton: Is he for real? Is the talk justified? Is he more than just a tall distributor?

Trey McGowens: Which Trey shows up? The one who went off for 24 pts against UNC or the one who was held scoreless by Arkansas Pine-Bluff?

Lat Mayen: Is Lat a typical juco who will need a year to get up to speed? Or a guy who comes in ready for P5 play?

Yvan Oudraogo: Is his game a year older? Or will someone else take his spot in the starting lineup?

 

If enough of these don't knows break our way, we could be pretty dangerous this year.

[uneblinstu 2,478]

How do jucos that had previous power conference experience take to readjust to the D1 level vs. jucos who went there out of high school?

[LK1 1,592]

One telling difference between this roster and almost every other roster ever is Nebraska has no "hustle guys."  

 

I can't stand having a roster with "hustle guys."  All that means is we filled the spot with someone who isn't good enough to be there and has to overcome their talent deficiencies with body-sacrifice efforts every night.  That guy is always fun to watch and cheer on, but I am looking forward to admiring his efforts on an opposing team for once.  

 

The closest thing we have to that guy is Thor, but he can shoot the mess out of the ball now, so he's no longer that guy.  

 

Fred is the end of hustle guy.  

[Norm Peterson 9,678]

25 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

How do jucos that had previous power conference experience take to readjust to the D1 level vs. jucos who went there out of high school?

I assume it's a quicker reset. But we had such high hopes for Jervay Green and we all know how that turned out.

[Swan88 1,393]

Last year, we were expecting to have Shamiel Stevenson on the floor.  Those expectations were dashed at the last minute.  His presence would have been worth at least a couple more wins, presumably.

[Cazzie22 1,370]

It’s going to be difficult to gel as a team with only 5 non conference games.  Conference games bring a higher intensity and better scouting and familiarity with opponents.  A middle of the pack finish would be tremendous accomplishment.

[REDitus 95]

I know the plan for Trevor Lakes was to redshirt and contribute next year but since this is a 'free' year for seniors I wonder if we will see him in specific end of half/game situations where we would want to put all of our shooters out there.   Just a thought. 

 

Thor was our leading 3 pt shooter last year at 37.2%  Now we have...

 

Top 5

--------------

Webster 41%

Lakes  41%

Mayen  38%

Stevenson 37.5%

Thor  37.2%

 

On the cusp of top 5....

Allen  37%

 

Now this is a new year and new competition but I think we can get a good end of game 3pt lineup out there and we might want to leave Allen in there as he can create but 41% is hard to leave on the bench.   I guess like horse though he has to prove it.

Edited November 18, 2020 by REDitus

[TheKamdyMan 1,313]

43 minutes ago, REDitus said:

I know the plan for Trevor Lakes was to redshirt and contribute next year but since this is a 'free' year for seniors I wonder if we will see him in specific end of half/game situations where we would want to put all of our shooters out there.   Just a thought. 

 

 He HAS to redshirt since he's transferring up.  So we won't see him at all this year.

[millerhusker 498]

3 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

I assume it's a quicker reset. But we had such high hopes for Jervay Green and we all know how that turned out.

Guilty. Pretty sure I compared Jervay to Donovan Mitchell after watching his juco film.... To be fair, Coach Miles told us that he was a future NBA player. 

[millerhusker 498]

https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Funl.box.com%2Fs%2F1y0xdkkcsa55tm48shk355pbc8koe5x9
 

[REDitus 95]

Thanks for posting that Miller.  That was awesome. 

 

Coach Hoiberg did a really good job with that zoom and answering questions.  I love when he talks nuts&bolts with the .5 and 4 pt line etc in the play breakdown.  Thoroughly enjoyed it. 

[hugh42 123]

We are so fortunate to have Fred!!

[Bill Self's Toupee 174]

2 hours ago, millerhusker said:

https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Funl.box.com%2Fs%2F1y0xdkkcsa55tm48shk355pbc8koe5x9
 

This was great!  If you haven't checked this out yet, I stronly suggest doing so!

 

45 minutes or so of Coach Hoiberg, breaks down practice film at one point, discussed the new players.  WELL WORTH IT!!

 

Thanks for posting this!

[Norm Peterson 9,678]

On 11/19/2020 at 4:51 AM, millerhusker said:

https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Funl.box.com%2Fs%2F1y0xdkkcsa55tm48shk355pbc8koe5x9
 

Wow. Honestly? This makes me feel a lot more optimistic about the upcoming season. It looks like guys who you wouldn’t have expected to be solid shooters based on numbers put up at their last stops have really stepped up their game. The length we can put on the floor is very encouraging.
 

And that was just crazy how Lat Mayen hit 86 of 100 three-pointers in a drill followed by 83 of 100. I think we’ll be able to shoot and will certainly be able to rebound a hell of a lot better than last year.

Our defense should be better just because it looks like we have guys who care.

[millerhusker 498]

34 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Wow. Honestly? This makes me feel a lot more optimistic about the upcoming season. It looks like guys who you wouldn’t have expected to be solid shooters based on numbers put up at their last stops have really stepped up their game. The length we can put on the floor is very encouraging.
 

And that was just crazy how Lat Mayen hit 86 of 100 three-pointers in a drill followed by 83 of 100. I think we’ll be able to shoot and will certainly be able to rebound a hell of a lot better than last year.

Our defense should be better just because it looks like we have guys who care.

I watched the preseason game vs. Doane last year with a buddy of mine who's a KU fan. He made the comment, "You guys might not win 6 games this year." He was pretty close. That's essentially what Fred and Doc were trying to tell us before the season, too. We won that game by 30, but had a ton of turnovers, shooting was awful and it doesn't take long to tell if you have players who don't belong at this level (which is verified by the schools they all transferred to). 

 

Fred's attitude when talking about this team is much different than last year. We have a bunch of guys who have already proven they belong at this level. They seem to be meshing well. Only 5 more days and we'll see what it looks like when it counts. 

[Vinny 248]

That video was great. Thanks for sharing. Let’s go set some nets on fire! 

[Norm Peterson 9,678]

Most interesting statistic in Hoiberg's spiel: Lat Mayen going 86 out of 100 on shooting treys in a particular drill they ran and then following it up with 83 out of 100.

 

Second-most interesting statistic: We were in the bottom 50 teams in NCAA D1 for size last year; this year, we're in the top 50. Let that sink in a bit. From bottom 15% to top 15%. That probably strongly correlates with our bad rebounding a year ago.