uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 13; ed 9 - vs. Michigan

[Norm Peterson]

I've noticed over the years when you try to blend a bunch of new guys together, it generally takes a good ten games before they kind of figure out where the points come from and how to make those opportunities happen. This year, we had a bunch of new guys but not the luxury of a normal non-conference with a host of directional cupcakes to cut our teeth on.

 

Yeah, we lost, but we were within 4 points with 6 minutes to play against a top 20 team.

 

I think we're going to see some guys begin to appear more comfortable out there and I think we have a win or two on the horizon.

 

Heck, you're already seeing it with Yvan. He's kind of grasped some of his limitations and what not to do and he's now focusing on where he's strong and can help the team.

 

I'm not as down as some people are, but then that's kind of what I'm known for, right?

[cornfed24-7]

5 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

I'm not as down as some people are...

This. Each game I gain more optimism. My eyes are showing me they are getting better. I guess I am not sure what others expectations were for this season. I know people hate thinking that the current season is for building the team for next season. I see a nucleus of players that are just a player and some game experience away from being a pretty solid team. 

[HB]

47 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

I'm not as down as some people are, but then that's kind of what I'm known for, right?

 

Not a bad thing to be known for, Norm.   Good quality to have.    Unfortunately my realism can't be quashed.    Would rather have more of your DNA.   But I'm the 
"some people"  in your post.  

[thrasher31]

I watched zero of this game. Saw Teddy got hot and no one else could hit a shot. Might go watch it later tonight. 

[Fullbacksympathy]

1 hour ago, Norm Peterson said:

I've noticed over the years when you try to blend a bunch of new guys together, it generally takes a good ten games before they kind of figure out where the points come from and how to make those opportunities happen. This year, we had a bunch of new guys but not the luxury of a normal non-conference with a host of directional cupcakes to cut our teeth on.

 

Yeah, we lost, but we were within 4 points with 6 minutes to play against a top 20 team.

 

I think we're going to see some guys begin to appear more comfortable out there and I think we have a win or two on the horizon.

 

Heck, you're already seeing it with Yvan. He's kind of grasped some of his limitations and what not to do and he's now focusing on where he's strong and can help the team.

 

I'm not as down as some people are, but then that's kind of what I'm known for, right?

I’m not optimistic for our W/L this season, though I think Walker makes us a different team offensively.  
 

I’m extremely optimistic, however, for the trajectory of the program.  Our defense with great athletes is pretty special, and our offense has help on the way next season.  
 

We’ll be in every game this year with Walker in the rotation.  I’m not optimistic about a bunch of wins, but we’ll be competitive because of our defense.  

[basketballjones]

We give great physical effort in ways, but refuse to do the little things right and play as a team, which is part of giving great effort mentally. 
 

We don’t have enough guys who will just catch a pass, and immediately reverse it or move it. Everyone wants to be the guy to make the play off of a ball screen or something. We’re very one dimensional. You just handle our ball screens as a team, then close out comfortably. 
 

Yvan continues to leave 7-10 guaranteed points in the ether by his I inability to finish bunnies and and1 opportunities. He’s a zero-threat as a roll man on ball screens, and he’s a zero-threat as a drop down guy in the dunker spot. 
 

He played 30 minutes and Michigan’s big had 13 and 15, so it’s not like he really negated much. 
 

We have to either attempt to see if Andre can do it with the bullets flying, put Shamiel as the 5, or just wait and pray for Walker. 

I watched it quickly, but by my count Thor gave up two massive, back-breaker 3pt shots by over/late helping on a drive from the corner - which is a major no-no in big boy basketball. He’s also just not a threat to do anything offensively. 

[jason2486]

I refuse to believe that we are as bad of shooters as our percentages say. I see two major issues with our shooting, specifically from behind the three-point line.

 

1.  Too often, our guys are not catching good, in rhythm passes. Teams like Michigan and Creighton seem to always have shooters catching passes and shooting shots in rhythm, and they tend to go in more often than ours.

 

2.  We also rarely make the extra pass or two that good shooting teams tend to make. Lots of our 3-pointers seem to come with a hesitation, not very much ball movement, or are contested.

Edited December 26, 2020 by jason2486

[Husker Hoops Penitent]

Unless Walker is, as a contributor to this board said, "a miracle", we can file this in the ocean-size cabinet of sad, embarrassing and hopeless NU basketball seasons. My guess is nothing good will happen and the season will bleed out as it always does. Many of us know what two blowout losses to start the conference season portends- absolutely no chance of having a good season.

 

I'm wondering if NU wins one conference game this season. Friends, we are currently on a 0-19 streak in conference. 

 

 

[millerhusker]

36 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

We give great physical effort in ways, but refuse to do the little things right and play as a team, which is part of giving great effort mentally. 
 

We don’t have enough guys who will just catch a pass, and immediately reverse it or move it. Everyone wants to be the guy to make the play off of a ball screen or something. We’re very one dimensional. You just handle our ball screens as a team, then close out comfortably. 
 

Yvan continues to leave 7-10 guaranteed points in the ether by his I inability to finish bunnies and and1 opportunities. He’s a zero-threat as a roll man on ball screens, and he’s a zero-threat as a drop down guy in the dunker spot. 
 

He played 30 minutes and Michigan’s big had 13 and 15, so it’s not like he really negated much. 
 

We have to either attempt to see if Andre can do it with the bullets flying, put Shamiel as the 5, or just wait and pray for Walker. 

I watched it quickly, but by my count Thor gave up two massive, back-breaker 3pt shots by over/late helping on a drive from the corner - which is a major no-no in big boy basketball. He’s also just not a threat to do anything offensively. 

Everything in this post, and other posts, indicates that we just don’t have enough above average basketball players yet. So I went back and looked at the roster of Miles’ most talented team (I actually thought the 17-18 team was better than the 13-14 tourney team) and checked their recruiting rankings. I was surprised to see just how much talent was on that roster. 7 guys on that team were Rivals 150 recruits. Before Glynn Watson, I don’t believe we had ever had a Rivals ranked player at Nebraska. 
Isaac Copeland - #23 (5*)

Anton Gill - #50 (4*)

Glynn Watson - #82 (4*)

James Palmer - #99 (4*)

Thomas Allen - #103 (4*)

Isaiah Roby - #113 (4*)

Jordy Tshimanga - #150 (3*)

 

Watson was a third year starting point guard, Gill was in his third year at Nebraska, Palmer had sat out the year before, Roby and Jordy were in the rotation the year before as freshmen and Copeland had been in Lincoln for half a year. 

Our team this year has two Rivals 150 players and two more are coming next year. 
Bryce McGowens - #23 (5*)

Dalano Banton - #80 (4*)

Trey McGowens - #83 (4*)

Wilhem Breidenbach - #132 (3*)

 

Hopefully most of our core guys come back next year. More help is on the way. Keep building, not rebuilding, from here on out. 

[huskerbill85]

We just cant shoot outside with consistency. 

[hhcscott]

12 hours ago, Jacob Padilla said:

 

Nebraska only took 20 3s, and a few of Teddy's were desperation shots late in the clock after they failed to create anything else.

 

Nebraska shot 18-44 (40.9%) inside the arc including 10-24 on layups and 1-2 on dunks per the live stats. The Huskers missed their first 10 2-point shots of the second half. And a lot of the time when Dalano tried to create off the bounce he ended up taking really hard in-between shots, most of which he missed (6-14 inside the arc). 

 

It's not as simple as "stop shooting 3s and take more 2s." They're not good at 2s either right now, and they're obviously not good at the free-throw line either.

We agree on Banton's shooting. He made a couple of nice moves to the basket early, but then made poor choices when his moves weren't strong.

My feeling is not "take more twos and less threes" it is, find ways to make easier scoring opportunities. Outside of screen action to free up 3-pt shooters, that is probably going to be more 2 pt shots...but what I want to see is movement that puts players moving toward the basket and passes catching them in stride/ in the shooting pocket. So many of our shots are forced (2s and 3s) because we let the defense get set and then we try to shoot over or bull rush. As somebody else said, other teams move the ball, make the extra pass, and as Bahe said...transition speed. Get some open looks, high percentage shots and build leads and confidence. But you can see the team deflate when 10 seconds into a possession, a three misses and we have to rush back to defend.

[hskr4life]

1 hour ago, Husker Hoops Penitent said:

Many of us know what two blowout losses to start the conference season portends- absolutely no chance of having a good season.

 

 

 

I can remember a time in the not too distant past when we had a new group of really solid players and we started conference 0-4... we ended up dancing.  So there is some chance.

[tcp]

1 hour ago, millerhusker said:

Everything in this post, and other posts, indicates that we just don’t have enough above average basketball players yet. So I went back and looked at the roster of Miles’ most talented team (I actually thought the 17-18 team was better than the 13-14 tourney team) and checked their recruiting rankings. I was surprised to see just how much talent was on that roster. 7 guys on that team were Rivals 150 recruits. Before Glynn Watson, I don’t believe we had ever had a Rivals ranked player at Nebraska. 
Isaac Copeland - #23 (5*)

Anton Gill - #50 (4*)

Glynn Watson - #82 (4*)

James Palmer - #99 (4*)

Thomas Allen - #103 (4*)

Isaiah Roby - #113 (4*)

Jordy Tshimanga - #150 (3*)

 

Watson was a third year starting point guard, Gill was in his third year at Nebraska, Palmer had sat out the year before, Roby and Jordy were in the rotation the year before as freshmen and Copeland had been in Lincoln for half a year. 

Our team this year has two Rivals 150 players and two more are coming next year. 
Bryce McGowens - #23 (5*)

Dalano Banton - #80 (4*)

Trey McGowens - #83 (4*)

Wilhem Breidenbach - #132 (3*)

 

Hopefully most of our core guys come back next year. More help is on the way. Keep building, not rebuilding, from here on out. 

 

which is what cost Timmeh his job and made his tenure so maddening. He had talent. We had three marginal NBA guys on a roster for two full seasons, just 2-3 years ago. And bupkis. 

 

It was a worse situation than the '96 team in terms of high-end underachieving. 

 

This won't be a fast process, because the league we're in is as tough as there is. I'm keeping my expectations tempered to match that reality. 

 

 

[basketballjones]

5 hours ago, millerhusker said:

Everything in this post, and other posts, indicates that we just don’t have enough above average basketball players yet. So I went back and looked at the roster of Miles’ most talented team (I actually thought the 17-18 team was better than the 13-14 tourney team) and checked their recruiting rankings. I was surprised to see just how much talent was on that roster. 7 guys on that team were Rivals 150 recruits. Before Glynn Watson, I don’t believe we had ever had a Rivals ranked player at Nebraska. 
Isaac Copeland - #23 (5*)

Anton Gill - #50 (4*)

Glynn Watson - #82 (4*)

James Palmer - #99 (4*)

Thomas Allen - #103 (4*)

Isaiah Roby - #113 (4*)

Jordy Tshimanga - #150 (3*)

 

Watson was a third year starting point guard, Gill was in his third year at Nebraska, Palmer had sat out the year before, Roby and Jordy were in the rotation the year before as freshmen and Copeland had been in Lincoln for half a year. 

Our team this year has two Rivals 150 players and two more are coming next year. 
Bryce McGowens - #23 (5*)

Dalano Banton - #80 (4*)

Trey McGowens - #83 (4*)

Wilhem Breidenbach - #132 (3*)

 

Hopefully most of our core guys come back next year. More help is on the way. Keep building, not rebuilding, from here on out. 

I don’t think any part, whatsoever, of my post mentioned talent. Literally nothing we are having a problem with - outside of Yvan’s role - is a talent issue. 

[HB]

13 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

I don’t think any part, whatsoever, of my post mentioned talent. Literally nothing we are having a problem with - outside of Yvan’s role - is a talent issue. 

i hesitate to weigh in since you’re a coach and all—but I’d say a whole lot of what is going on is a talent issue.   As in, we don’t have as much as the rest of the teams in the league.  

[basketballjones]

6 hours ago, Husker Hoops Penitent said:

Unless Walker is, as a contributor to this board said, "a miracle", we can file this in the ocean-size cabinet of sad, embarrassing and hopeless NU basketball seasons. My guess is nothing good will happen and the season will bleed out as it always does. Many of us know what two blowout losses to start the conference season portends- absolutely no chance of having a good season.

 

I'm wondering if NU wins one conference game this season. Friends, we are currently on a 0-19 streak in conference. 

 

 

Man I thought I had taken over the role, unintentionally, of the resident @nustudent slightly-negative-but-ultimately-realist poster position.... but you are a whole another level my man. 

[basketballjones]

2 minutes ago, HB said:

i hesitate to weigh in since you’re a coach and all—but I’d say a whole lot of what is going on is a talent issue.   As in, we don’t have as much as the rest of the teams in the league.  

Don’t ever hesitate to weigh in. I’m a losing coach with only enough information to be dangerous. 
 

But I do disagree. I’ve yet to watch a game where I’ve gone, “ah yeah, just don’t have the horses to compete with these guys,” yet. Not even close. Sure, we don’t have certain horses at certain spots some teams might... but basketball is a team sport. Whole outweighs the parts (as Creighton demonstrates year in, year out against us). Sure, a 5-star center answers the majority of our questions. But if you have a baseline talent to compete, which I believe we do, those intangible things become the primary issue. 

[HB]

1 minute ago, basketballjones said:

Don’t ever hesitate to weigh in. I’m a losing coach with only enough information to be dangerous. 
 

But I do disagree. I’ve yet to watch a game where I’ve gone, “ah yeah, just don’t have the horses to compete with these guys,” yet. Not even close. Sure, we don’t have certain horses at certain spots some teams might... but basketball is a team sport. Whole outweighs the parts (as Creighton demonstrates year in, year out against us). Sure, a 5-star center answers the majority of our questions. But if you have a baseline talent to compete, which I believe we do, those intangible things become the primary issue. 

Interesting viewpoint.   I have watched more Big 10 than I usually do, and I’ve really been impressed with the talent in the league, and size , of course, which I’m lumping in with talent.    We typically have 2 guys on the floor at any time who really should be at a lower level.  I don’t see that with the other teams.  I mean, Illinois’ talent is night and day better than ours.   About 3 guys in our top 8 shouldn’t even be playing Power 5 basketball.   I agree the intangibles you mention are a problem.   But night in and night out, even if we did that stuff better, we’d be over-matched.   I truly believe we have the 14th best talent in the league.   This year, of course, in which the Big talent is off the charts.  

[basketballjones]

3 minutes ago, HB said:

Interesting viewpoint.   I have watched more Big 10 than I usually do, and I’ve really been impressed with the talent in the league, and size , of course, which I’m lumping in with talent.    We typically have 2 guys on the floor at any time who really should be at a lower level.  I don’t see that with the other teams.  I mean, Illinois’ talent is night and day better than ours.   About 3 guys in our top 8 shouldn’t even be playing Power 5 basketball.   I agree the intangibles you mention are a problem.   But night in and night out, even if we did that stuff better, we’d be over-matched.   I truly believe we have the 14th best talent in the league.   This year, of course, in which the Big talent is off the charts.  

And you might be right.

 

My bias definitely learns towards being a “this is who we have,” mindset. And I tend to overvalue the talent cause they’re what we got and it’s not changing. That’s probably why I tended to win a few games a year I definitely shouldn’t have, but ultimately have a terrible record, hahahaahahaha

[hskr4life]

37 minutes ago, HB said:

Interesting viewpoint.   I have watched more Big 10 than I usually do, and I’ve really been impressed with the talent in the league, and size , of course, which I’m lumping in with talent.    We typically have 2 guys on the floor at any time who really should be at a lower level.  I don’t see that with the other teams.  I mean, Illinois’ talent is night and day better than ours.   About 3 guys in our top 8 shouldn’t even be playing Power 5 basketball.   I agree the intangibles you mention are a problem.   But night in and night out, even if we did that stuff better, we’d be over-matched.   I truly believe we have the 14th best talent in the league.   This year, of course, in which the Big talent is off the charts.  

Just curious who you believe shouldn’t be a power 5 player.  Being a power 5 starter and a power 5 role player are two different things.

[millerhusker]

1 hour ago, basketballjones said:

I don’t think any part, whatsoever, of my post mentioned talent. Literally nothing we are having a problem with - outside of Yvan’s role - is a talent issue. 

Poor choice of words by me by saying “everything in this post...”. There are a whole lot of things this team can improve on. And I believe we’ll get better as the year goes on and that’ll lead to some wins. But, if this team starts doing the little things and maximizes their talent, I still don’t think we’re a top half of the conference team. And that’s ok. I don’t think any of us expected to be this year. 
It’s all relative, I suppose. When I say we don’t quite have enough good players yet, I’m thinking about our roster compared to all other big ten rosters. We certainly have players who can be apart of a very good team. But we need more of them. And more are on the way. 

[jason2486]

8 hours ago, millerhusker said:

Everything in this post, and other posts, indicates that we just don’t have enough above average basketball players yet. So I went back and looked at the roster of Miles’ most talented team (I actually thought the 17-18 team was better than the 13-14 tourney team) and checked their recruiting rankings. I was surprised to see just how much talent was on that roster. 7 guys on that team were Rivals 150 recruits. Before Glynn Watson, I don’t believe we had ever had a Rivals ranked player at Nebraska. 
Isaac Copeland - #23 (5*)

Anton Gill - #50 (4*)

Glynn Watson - #82 (4*)

James Palmer - #99 (4*)

Thomas Allen - #103 (4*)

Isaiah Roby - #113 (4*)

Jordy Tshimanga - #150 (3*)

 

Watson was a third year starting point guard, Gill was in his third year at Nebraska, Palmer had sat out the year before, Roby and Jordy were in the rotation the year before as freshmen and Copeland had been in Lincoln for half a year. 

Our team this year has two Rivals 150 players and two more are coming next year. 
Bryce McGowens - #23 (5*)

Dalano Banton - #80 (4*)

Trey McGowens - #83 (4*)

Wilhem Breidenbach - #132 (3*)

 

Hopefully most of our core guys come back next year. More help is on the way. Keep building, not rebuilding, from here on out. 

 

Excellent post. The 17-18 team was our best team since the 90s IMO. We were 10 deep, and our 2nd 5 could've been a starting 5 under Sadler or Collier. Still a damn shame we got snubbed by the NCAA. I love Miles, but could you imagine Hoiberg with that roster?!

[Norm Peterson]

18 hours ago, hskr4life said:

Just curious who you believe shouldn’t be a power 5 player.  Being a power 5 starter and a power 5 role player are two different things.

 

I don't like naming names to stuff like this but look at the stat sheet for the season and see which players have eFG% way below what you'd expect for someone in their position.

 

Which of our starters would start on any other team in the league? Do we have some who wouldn't? I guess start there.

[Norm Peterson]

18 hours ago, basketballjones said:

And you might be right.

 

My bias definitely learns towards being a “this is who we have,” mindset. And I tend to overvalue the talent cause they’re what we got and it’s not changing. That’s probably why I tended to win a few games a year I definitely shouldn’t have, but ultimately have a terrible record, hahahaahahaha

 

I tend to agree with HB on this. Most of our players have some kind of glaring weakness. Our best players have some kind of hole in their game. We're forced to start either a shooting guard who is averaging less than 25% from three or a post who is averaging less than 45% from 2. And a couple of starters have weaknesses that you and I and others have been concerned are and will continue to be exposed and exploited.

 

Yeah, you see some of our possessions go down in flames because guys aren't following Hoiberg's script. But it's easy to fall into that trap when you're playing from behind all the time and you're trying to make something happen.

 

I think we're still missing a couple of shooters, but fortunately, help is on the way. But we'll have to wait until next season for that help to arrive.

[Norm Peterson]

19 hours ago, basketballjones said:

I don’t think any part, whatsoever, of my post mentioned talent. Literally nothing we are having a problem with - outside of Yvan’s role - is a talent issue. 

 

I still (somewhat reluctantly, because I don't want to put any of our other guys down) say our best hope is that Eduardo Andre develops rapidly enough to take over the starting position at center sooner rather than later, because his length is something none of our other players have and he seems to have a reasonable platform of skills to build on. I mean, he's at over 80% from the floor right now. Yeah, small sample size. Sure, he's getting looks in garbage time. But I'm not sure some of our guys could do that in a practice drill with no defenders. He looks like he has a high ceiling and it's nice that he'll be a freshman again next year.