Dear Doc Sadler

[hhcmatt]

4 hours ago, 49r said:

Or maybe Doc isn't really the defensive genius that so many of our fans think he is?

 

Doc can coach and he can especially coach defense.  Seems like the issue is how much he gets to do that these days for whatever reason(s)

[MichHusker]

Issue isnt letting up 3s as much as it has been letting up uncontested or lightly contested 3s. Dang near any average guard in college can make you pay if nobody contests. And if we are going to double every player in America, you gotta drill rotations in practice. If thats not happening, no wonder we seem to be a step or two late on rotations

[HuskerFever]

We've lost 100% of our games where we game plan to leave open the three-point shots, the other team makes their shots, and scores more points than we score. That's a fact.

[BannedAccount]

7 hours ago, pmd9 said:

I just want to know where you all, who seem to know so very much about coaching, coached or are coaching!?!? And at what level? Trev will be expecting your resume soon…

Dont be that guy....

[huskerbaseball13]

22 hours ago, CrazyforNUHOOPS said:

He’s on the bench but not responsible for the defense or lack there of. 

So he’s not responsible for the defense…..what exactly does he do then? It would seem like an odd move to have a supposed defensive guru on your staff and not let him have any input on the defensive end. 

[millerhusker]

Fred has said Doc is the defensive coordinator. And you can see him on the bench actively coaching during games. Who has the opponent scout varies each game. 

Basketball staff titles don't mean anything, even if they are supposed to. Brady Morningstar is KU's "video coordinator", but for Bill Self's purposes he's just another assistant coach. Guaranteed one of the managers or grad assistants does the video coordinating. Changing Doc's title was just a way to get Loenser on the staff. 

[kldm64]

No question that Doc is a person everyone likes but his defensive scheme needs to change.  Clearly, Doc loves to double team all over the floor and the good teams can make 2 passes out of that and get a wide open shot every time.  I like Doc as a person but have never agreed with how he coaches defense.  It's so predictable.  Not surprising at all that CU basically had shooting practice from 3's as McDermott knew exactly what our defense would do.  Sad to say but time for a change on the defensive end.  

[Chuck Taylor]

KenPom had our defense as 40 last year, which is good enough to make the tourney. It was our offense that was crap.

 

We've got 5 or 6 new guys in the rotation now, which is one problem, and I'm not sure all of our personnel is that interested in D, which is another. I'd prefer a pressuring defense, but I'm not sure Doc's blueprint is necessarily the problem.

[hhcmatt]

Am I misremembering things that last year Hoiberg spent our covid pause watching game tape (and the American Pie movies) and deciding we should focus on defense more? 

 

Doesn't it sort of track with the results on the court that we have a coach in Sadler who prefers to pack the paint (that was Bobby Lutz's MO as well) but that we also have a head coach that isn't particularly focused on defensive execution? That would explain a pack line defense with poor rotations.

 

Sadler's contract runs through April 2022 and then we'll see what happens.  To me though changing the defensive philosophy seems like addressing the effect and not the cause.

[Fullbacksympathy]

One thing I noticed more in person was Doc's transition defense hasn't been executed well at all.  If you want to give him credit for being a defensive guru, he is as good at coaching transition defense as anyone you will ever find.  

 

In the half court, like any defense we roll out, it takes effort and toughness to execute contesting and rotations.  We have good athletes on the roster, but Keon is the only one built to play defense naturally.  The rest are going to have to learn over time how much effort matters.  

 

Personally, I thought the defense against Southern was much better than it has been in any other season game.  Same with the offense.  Southern was 6/21 from three, and several of those makes were very well contested.  Offensively, Verge played very well and with good purpose, but no one could bail him out by making a wide open shot.  

[tcp]

It's weird seeing anyone bash Sadler's cred on D coaching at this point. 

What sucks is that D is probably the only thing that can save this team's season right now. They're not shooting well enough for Hoiball to work for wins against good teams. 

 

Right now, if this were Doc's team (and yeah, I know he could never recruit a roster like this), they'd be undefeated. 

 

 

[kldm64]

10 hours ago, tcp said:

It's weird seeing anyone bash Sadler's cred on D coaching at this point. 

What sucks is that D is probably the only thing that can save this team's season right now. They're not shooting well enough for Hoiball to work for wins against good teams. 

 

Right now, if this were Doc's team (and yeah, I know he could never recruit a roster like this), they'd be undefeated. 

 

 

 

Doubt they would be undefeated but would probably be 4-1 with a loss to Creighton.

[Norm Peterson]

I have to stick up for Doc here.

 

As many of you know, when Doc was head coach, I used to attend a lot of the practices that were open to the public.

 

When it was his team and he was calling the shots, he preached and coached and taught and instilled that you go over the top of all ball screens so that you don't give up open threes. It's why he also drilled his bigs on the importance of hedging screens and recovering.

 

I recall Doc teams that were under-talented. I recall Doc teams that weren't great. But I don't recall Doc teams that looked like discombobulated shit on the regular.

 

I don't think this is on Doc.

[Norm Peterson]

7 minutes ago, kldm64 said:

 

Doubt they would be undefeated but would probably be 4-1 with a loss to Creighton.

 

Doc never lost to Creighton in Lincoln.

[hhcmatt]

Southern Pregame with Kent and Fred, which covered this topic

 

K: Anything you didn't like about Friday night? (Idaho St game)

F: The biggest thing was they got it going from the 3pt line and just our overall urgency on the close outs has to improve, especially when a team gets it going. Thought we did a terrific job of keeping the ball out of the paint but when a team gets going like that we have to better contest.

K: Let me ask you a little bit about that. Without Trey in the lineup, and I might be using the wrong terminology here, but it looks like a bit of a pack line defense. Is that right and do anticipate more threes out there by opponents as a result?

F: Well, we were more in our gaps than we had been, we had been getting out in the passing lines a little bit more in those first couple of games. With our best perimeter defender being out of the lineup for the next 6-8 weeks we're going to have to be in our gaps and keep teams out of the paint.  When teams get into the paint that gives them every option. When you're in that gap if gives them just that one and then you have a good stunt and a good recovery to that shooter. Give those guys credit they did hit some contested shots against us but that was after they hit a few and got confident.  So yeah, we will be in our gaps probably a bit more than we were without Trey and the makeup of our team right now.

[NUdiehard]

Quote

[Fred Hoiberg] On defense: “One hundred percent we have to be better. We did a much better job on 3s last game.

“We’re playing teams where you can’t take everything away. What we’ve done is pick one thing, and that’s try to take away their 3. It makes you play the post one-on-one a lot, so you give up points. But you can’t give up both. We did a better job against Illinois. We took away their 3, but at critical times they still made them.  

“I’ve changed my philosophy on defense. We’ve always been a shrink in there, double them. Now we’ve worked on staying home more. We can’t give up 3s on top of some guy going off inside.”

 

 

Hmmmm

 

https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/mens-basketball/shatel-fred-hoiberg-is-1-000-motivated-to-turn-nebraska-around-but-can-he-get/article_d0d96d5c-74d8-11ec-8ee6-dbe0164d5c63.html#tncms-source=login

 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by NUdiehard

[Ron Mexico]

2 hours ago, NUdiehard said:

 

Hmmmm

 

https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/mens-basketball/shatel-fred-hoiberg-is-1-000-motivated-to-turn-nebraska-around-but-can-he-get/article_d0d96d5c-74d8-11ec-8ee6-dbe0164d5c63.html#tncms-source=login

 

 

I didn't start following college basketball all that closely until '86. That is when I really started to pay attention to Nebraska Basketball.

Danny didn't really turn things around until his 5th year. I know there are reasons for that such as the transfer portal, still there was the JUCO system and 5yrs is a long time.

Since I wasn't in Nebraska at the time and Husker Basketball news was sparce where I lived in San Antonio. Can someone who was here at the time describe the general fan mood after 3 straight years of essentially losing basketball. As I recall, during that stretch we only won like 10 conference games or something close to that.

 

What if FH, is off plan by a year? For whatever reason, COVID, misses in recruiting, not getting the assistant coaches that he really wanted (Doc and Matt are 2 that he wanted, I think) he's in essence lost a year. For any new coach you essentially give them a first year pass and start to see progress in year 2. In the case of Nebraska maybe that is year 3 or 4? Year 2 however was Covid and a bit of health scare for FH when he got COVID. What if this hampered his ability to recruit the way he wanted to? Not looking to make excuses but giving the benefit of the doubt for extenuating circumstances. 

 

This is a really young team overall with about 70% of the roster being Freshman and Sophomores. With about 8/9 of them on scholarship. Contrast that with last year. Freshman class had 1 scholarship player I think and 1 sophomore transfer. 

Assuming that we can hold onto Trey and Bryce this looks like a really good team with a mix of experience.

I'm really excited about that back court what Keita brings, in combination with Walker, Andre, Mayen and Whilhelm. 

The front court looks even better with McGowensx2, Tominaga, Wilcher. I'm also looking forward to seeing Lloyd.

The rest of the team has a lot of questions. Did FH hold back some guys intentionally ala Nee in '89-'90?

I don't know a lot about Kojenets, Dawson, Edwards, and Mcpherson.

Will FH have Trey bring the ball up or will one of the in-coming freshman take that role? Lloyd?

 

I think FH has seen the light as far as having some quality bigs to compete in the conference and that is evident with Kojenets, Andre, Wilhelm, and Keita. All 4 of them are 6'10" or taller and about 230#+. I don't think he is going to have a true bring the ball up PG and distribute. I think he really likes size in that position (almost a small forward type in size) and the off guard is his 3pt specialist ala Tominaga and Wilcher. He doesn't really care if they are undersized for the position. Bryce is his ideal small forward who can also handle bringing the ball up the court. At big forward he likes length that can shoot. At the center is where I think he has changed the most. A big body that backs up the basket and bangs under the hoop is not his ideal (I think his ideal is essentially another big forward) but he knows that in this conference that isn't going to work. From my view he has changed a bit on his "position less" basketball philosophy. Clearly Verge was brought in as a gap filler. 

 

A couple other changes...

Offense:

1. There has been a decrease in the the volume of 3's that we take in game. In the last 4 games we have taken 12,18,23 and 23. In all 4 games we have been somewhat competitive except for at Rutgers. It's not just a decrease in the volume but an improvement in the quality of 3's that we take and who takes them. Limit the number taken by both Bryce and Lat. No more fade away or step back 3's.

2. Lot less dribbling at the top of the key and more ball movement. There has been a concerted effort to get the ball down low. Would like to see more kickouts to shooters. There have been a few issues cutting to passes but that is largely a function of not doing so for the majority of the season thus far. 

I know we will lose some guys but I do not expect next season to be another roster flip.

Defense:

1. Playing a bit better team defense. We are still struggling with defending 3's. These guys have all been playing basketball long enough to figure out how ball movement progresses, and what offenses do to draw defenders away from their shooters. I think we are closer here than most think.

2. Interior defense and rebounding have also improved, even if the numbers don't show it there yet. Defensive rebounding is where we struggle the most. We give up way to many rebounds to the offensive team.

We give up a lot of assists and that is purely a function of not rotating the ball quickly enough. Maybe some of the guys are getting caught in the wash and are late leaving open shots.

I've seen an uptick in the number of turnovers but I think that is because we are passing the ball more. 

We are right around 72% FT shooting for the season.

 

Bottom line is that there has been changes. The problem is that these changes where made after the wheels had almost feel off and now we are playing catch up. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we are able to continue to improve.

 

Despite being 0-6 we are 3/4 wins away from moving from 14th place to 9th/10th place in the BIG standings.

At this point a goal should be get out of the bottom 4 of the conference. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tcp]

oneof those times I wish a necro'd thread would've stayed buried. 

 

at least I finally noticed the date of the original post. 

 

I was, like, "really? again?" 

 

 

[hhcmatt]

2 thoughts

 

1. The article from Shatel posted reflects a change in philosophy on defense dependent on the opponent. Now Doc can give advice but at the end of the day Fred makes the calls. Doc isn't even an actual assistant coach so if Fred isn't happy with how he's implementing a defense he, the head coach, could turn that over to Gates or Loenser.

 

2. Some portion(s) of recruiting, game planning, and/or execution is broken on this team; assuming that Fred is going to be here next year some change(s) in the coaching staff have to be made. Is he going to make the right one(s)?

[49r]

5 hours ago, Ron Mexico said:

I didn't start following college basketball all that closely until '86. That is when I really started to pay attention to Nebraska Basketball.

Danny didn't really turn things around until his 5th year. I know there are reasons for that such as the transfer portal, still there was the JUCO system and 5yrs is a long time.

 

Danny took his first Husker team to the NIT final four and got a young 49r hooked on Husker Hoops.

 

DAMN YOU DANNY NEE!!!  

[Huskerpapa]

Many defenses can fail or succeed depending upon the jimmies and joes that are performing.  If one player breaks down, the team breaks down.

Trust me, we have more than one player breaking down.

Of course, the coaches recruit, coach and decides who plays.