Nebraska (7-19)(3-16) vs. Penn St. (10-13)(7-12) Game Thread

[REDitus]

This season sure didn't turn out like I thought it would.  Still if you squint just right, it's better than last year.   The good thing is we got some guys coming back to blend with some good recruits and hopefully they get a few more good recruits...

[KZRider]

  On 3/11/2021 at 4:42 AM, HB said:

Also didn’t play defense the second half, among other glaring problems.   First 3 minutes of the second half wasn’t on the refs.  It was us. 

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Agree with this entirely but the refs let PSU play much more aggressively than we were allowed to throughout the 2nd half. Even Bardo as the B1G color guy commented on it multiple times and he is not averse to letting players be physical. Four things come to mind. I apologize for not knowing exactly when they occurred:

 

1 - The near mid-court collision between Thor and the PSU player while both were going after the ball. How is that called a foul Thor instead of the PSU player. Admittedly, it is a toss up call and probably should have been a no call. But it goes against us. Why?

2 - When TM and the PSU player both go to the floor and the PSU player lands ON TM. TM is laying there with his hand up in obvious pain. He is NOT trying to hold the PSU player. If anyone committed a foul it was the PSU player. A no call would have again been my preference but the call goes against Huskers and the play puts TM out of the game for a crucial part of the game. Bardo started to comment and swallowed his mic.

3 - Harrar is allowed to push and pull our guys all night long including a play late in the game on where TM has position to at least try for a rebound and Harrar -- from behind him -- pulls TM out of the way. Another PSU player get the rebound and put back. On our side Derek gets called for a foul for putting an arm up and into Harrar's chest -- a thing basketball players do ALL THE TIME -- and Derek gets hit with a foul. Bardo actually said that didn't look like a foul on Derek.

4 - Derek (I think) comes to the top of the key to receive a pass and #15 for PSU lays on his back and swatting at the ball from behind. No call.

 

I know refs are human and miss things. And I know that if we had shot the ball better (esp. Lat) we still would have won the game. We lost the game because PSU played better in the 2nd half. But the way the refs called the game helped PSU to a significant extent. PSU was allowed to be VERY aggressive and physical. We were not. It made a difference.

Edited March 11, 2021 by KZRider

[jason2486]

  On 3/11/2021 at 4:01 PM, KZRider said:

Agree with this entirely but the refs let PSU play much more aggressively than we were allowed to throughout the 2nd half. Even Bardo as the B1G color guy commented on it multiple times and he is not averse to letting players be physical. Four things come to mind. I apologize for not knowing exactly when they occurred:

 

1 - The near mid-court collision between Thor and the PSU player while both were going after the ball. How is that called a foul Thor instead of the PSU player. Admittedly, it is a toss up call and probably should have been a no call. But it goes against us. Why?

2 - When TM and the PSU player both go to the floor and the PSU player lands ON TM. TM is laying there with his hand up in obvious pain. He is NOT trying to hold the PSU player. If anyone committed a foul it was the PSU player. A no call would have again been my preference but the call goes against Huskers and the play puts TM out of the game for a crucial part of the game. Bardo started to comment and swallowed his mic.

3 - Harrar is allowed to push and pull our guys all night long including a play late in the game on where TM has position to at least try for a rebound and Harrar -- from behind him -- pulls TM out of the way. Another PSU player get the rebound and put back. On our side Derek gets called for a foul for putting an arm up and into Harrar's chest -- a thing basketball players do ALL THE TIME -- and Derek gets hit with a foul. Bardo actually said that didn't look like a foul on Derek.

4 - Derek (I think) comes to the top of the key to receive a pass and #15 for PSU lays on his back and swatting at the ball from behind. No call.

 

I know refs are human and miss things. And I know that if we had shot the ball better (esp. Lat) we still would have won the game. We lost the game because PSU played better in the 2nd half. But the way the refs called the game helped PSU to a significant extent. PSU was allowed to be VERY aggressive and physical. We were not. It made a difference.

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Not to mention the play where Thor chases after a loose ball with one arm being pulled behind his back for about 20 feet. That crew of refs should never be allowed to ref basketball again. 

[B-town hoopsfan]

  On 3/12/2021 at 12:29 AM, jason2486 said:

Not to mention the play where Thor chases after a loose ball with one arm being pulled behind his back for about 20 feet. That crew of refs should never be allowed to ref basketball again. 

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This was an amazingly bad call as a foul occured for like ten consecutive seconds and no call

[49r]

 

[Red Don]

No need to stop there! 

[Nebrasketballer]

  On 3/11/2021 at 4:46 AM, brfrad said:

I think a full season will help.  A couple things that hurt.  We missed out on 5 winnable games.  Of course, last year, we lost those winnable games.  We have a good chance to build some momentum.  The Covid lay-off did not help.  I felt our offense had turned the corner just before the shutdown.  Our defense left something to be desired.  Maybe the lay-off got us focused on that end, or maybe we got some things figured out.  I would say my goal for next year would be 15 wins and 6 conference wins.  Anything less, I will start worrying if it's ever going to get done here.

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I think a few of the biggest factors to the lack of wins this season were:

 

1) Roster composed almost entirely of players that had no game experience playing together coming into the season

 

2) Big Ten clearly the strongest conference in college basketball, to the level of being historically strong, which makes it difficult for a team that hasn't learned how to play together yet, and this was exacerbated by the fact that the nonconference was cut short, so they were almost immediately thrown into the fire of the Big Ten gauntlet

 

3) Derrick Walker being suspended for the first half of the season was a huge impact. This team looked much much better once he got back into the lineup and even more so once his game conditioning caught up with the rest of the team.