uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 14; ed 15 - at Michigan State

[uneblinstu]

Too much going on to claim I watched every possession closely, but I did like a lot of what I saw at times. 

 

• Walker continues to do yeoman's work. He's turned into a bull. I wish we had more than Andre and Lat in the front court to support him. Losing Breidenbach really hurts here.
• McGowens was getting downhill early. MSU did a good job on him later and I think it really got in his head. Didn't really do much after he got chased down from behind.
• NU again went cold after a hot start from 3. 
• I continue to like what I see from Wilcher. They ran some really pretty sets to get him some looks and he knocked them down. I think he's going to be a really, really good player if he sticks around through the end of his eligibility.
• If NU plays with the energy and effort the last couple of games, they'll find several wins the rest of the year. Decision making and execution needs to get better, though.

 

[HuskerFever]

[basketballjones]

Man…. We’re not completely THAT far off from some of these guys. 

[TourneyBound]

Just a horrible 2nd half by McGowens. Thought he started off good in 1st half but man he was awful in 2nd half.  
 

[basketballjones]

How does Izzo get top 150 4 stars to stay around and become complete dawgs?

[brfrad]

1 minute ago, ConkintheCorner said:

Just a horrible 2nd half by McGowens. Thought he started off good in 1st half but man he was awful in 2nd half.  
 

He settled far too much.  Took bad shots.  Needs to be aggressive.  9 2's and 7 3's not his game.  He had 13 2's and 6 3's against OSU.  I think he needs to be about 14 2's and 3 3's.

[Navin R. Johnson]

Thought we competed pretty well.  We looked good when State was turning the ball over. Although we did force some of those. Second half the shots didn't fall and we reverted back to our old bad habits.  Not a terrible performance on the road against the number ten team in the nation.

[brfrad]

1 minute ago, basketballjones said:

How does Izzo get top 150 4 stars to stay around and become complete dawgs?

Because he has about 9 or 10 of those to take your spot if you don't.  

[throwback]

Not sure these will come off as positive comments, but they are. I swear.

 

I feel more confident we wont go 0-20 in the league. We'll steal a few games after Trey gets back and has a couple of games under his belt.

 

Effort pretty good 2 games in a row. Still not near MSU's level, but way different than we put forth most of December.

 

Walker was impressive again tonight. That dude has been a very pleasant surprise.

 

And we covered!

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by throwback

[colhusker]

1 minute ago, throwback said:

Not sure these will come off as positive comments, but they are. I swear.

 

I feel more confident we wont go 0-20 in the league. We'll steal a few games after Trey gets back and has a couple of games under his belt.

 

Effort pretty good 2 games in a row. Still not near MSU's level, but way different than we put forth most of December.

 

Walker was impressive again tonight. That dude has been a very pleasant surprise.

 

Agree on Walker, the one bright spot, he just needs help.

[twinswingohuskers]

can I change my prediction on games we win in the big to 1 or 2

[thrasher31]

Overall not a bad performance I thought. Gabe brown was a difference maker all night. Played competitive and that's better than if you had asked me last night. 

 

-Walker forced Bingham out of the game by constantly going at him. Wished they had attacked marble or Sissoko more at the rim, but forcing Bingham out helped open that up

-tale of two halves for Bryce. First half thought he was controlled and picked his spots well. Second half he tried to force it too much with passes, but I'll say he was a net positive today

-I thought lakes gave them good minutes in the ones he played. With how much lat is struggling, I might look his way more often. 

-Verge is starting off big ten play with two straight meh games. He'll have an opportunity to get back on track against Geo baker, but today wasn't his night. 

-keisei was kinda hunted I thought today, which led to the switch of CJ, who I thought played decent defense. 

 

OSU was a good game for the team, but I thought today showed me the same if not more. Adding Trey back will help on defense and ball handling responsibilities, which will help the overall team performance.

 

Onto Rutgers. I'm half thinking they can win that if this team shows up. But it's never a guarantee they do

 

[hhcmatt]

Michigan St isn't trying to force turnovers and we had 15 tonight. Cut that down to 8-9 and maybe we're in spitting distance.

In the grand scheme of things an encouraging 12 point loss I guess.

[jason2486]

We are improving, but we need more than 1 reliable guy (Walker is a freaking beast). Bryce is making Palmer and Petteway look like efficient scorers. Also, I'm hoping that we can keep most of these guys for next year. We gotta start getting a more stable roster or we can expect more of what we've got these 3 years under FH.

 

I'll end with a concerning question. We are 15 games in. What do we do well? To me, that's alarming at this point in the season.

[thrasher31]

1 minute ago, hhcmatt said:

Michigan St isn't trying to force turnovers and we had 15 tonight. Cut that down to 8-9 and maybe we're in spitting distance.

In the grand scheme of things an encouraging 12 point loss I guess.

8 of those between your two leading scorers. Kinda shocked to see walker had 4 also. I guess he got credited for a few that Gabe came down and ripped the ball on the roll

[HB]

Eduardo getting 5 fouls in 8 minutes was impressive.  Not everyone can do that.   Kesei  was awful.   Exposed tonight as a player not suited for this level.   Walker the lone bright spot.  

[brfrad]

Rotation and minutes :

 

PG Kobe 35 minutes

SG Verge 35 minutes, if he doesn't throw up wild shots

SF Bryce 35 minutes

PF Wilcher 25 minutes

C Walker 30 minutes

 

Andre 10 minutes

Lat 5 minutes

Lakes 10 minutes (Had 2 of the best boxouts I've seen this year)

Keisi 15 minutes

[brfrad]

19 minutes ago, jason2486 said:

We are improving, but we need more than 1 reliable guy (Walker is a freaking beast). Bryce is making Palmer and Petteway look like efficient scorers. Also, I'm hoping that we can keep most of these guys for next year. We gotta start getting a more stable roster or we can expect more of what we've got these 3 years under FH.

 

I'll end with a concerning question. We are 15 games in. What do we do well? To me, that's alarming at this point in the season.

Agreed 

 

Players we really need back :

 

Trey

Bryce

Walker

Keisei

Wilcher

McPherson

Andre

Wilhelm

Edwards

 

Players I expect back

 

Keisi

Wilcher

Wilhelm

McPherson

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by brfrad
Forgot Wilhelm and Edwards

[basketballjones]

38 minutes ago, brfrad said:

Because he has about 9 or 10 of those to take your spot if you don't.  

Yeah - how does he get them to expect and cherish that competition? Most guys just leave.

[BannedAccount]

14 minutes ago, jason2486 said:

We are improving, but we need more than 1 reliable guy (Walker is a freaking beast). Bryce is making Palmer and Petteway look like efficient scorers. Also, I'm hoping that we can keep most of these guys for next year. We gotta start getting a more stable roster or we can expect more of what we've got these 3 years under FH.

 

I'll end with a concerning question. We are 15 games in. What do we do well? To me, that's alarming at this point in the season.

5 conference wins and 6 power 5 wins is a tough look in year 3. Like I said before you hope to get Andre, Cj, Keon, Keisei, Wilhelm back.  Thats your core?  Kinda scary although they are young.

[brfrad]

2 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

Yeah - how does he get them to expect and cherish that competition? Most guys just leave.

All he needs is 2 or 3 to buy-in the first year.  You get 3 4 stars to play hard, and they come back, you bring in another 4 the following year.  Get 3 more to buy-in plus the 3 to continue to buy-in.  Pretty soon you have a roster of players all buying-in.

[busticket]

We saw some more of bad Verge tonight.  At least two times he skipped passing to teammates for wide open threes (Lakes and Wilcher) and instead tried (and failed) to score it himself.  
 

Bryce was Bryce.  First half was promising, but his passing can be pretty lousy, along with his shot selection.  He flashes good things too, but it’s not like he will be around next year to enjoy his growth from learning this year.

 

Man I hope Walker comes back.  He is so much better than I expected when he transferred in.

[uneblinstu]

13 minutes ago, brfrad said:

Agreed 

 

Players we really need back :

 

Trey

Bryce

Walker

Keisei

Wilcher

McPherson

Andre

 

Players I expect back

 

Keisi

Wilcher

Wilhelm I expect back. I also think McPherson will too as long as Fred comes back 

[BannedAccount]

16 minutes ago, brfrad said:

Agreed 

 

Players we really need back :

 

Trey

Bryce

Walker

Keisei

Wilcher

McPherson

Andre

Wilhelm

Edwards

 

Players I expect back

 

Keisi

Wilcher

Wilhelm

McPherson

 

Finding a true pg is an absolute must for this team next year

[BannedAccount]

2 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

Wilhelm I expect back. I also think McPherson will too as long as Fred comes back 

Its sad that there is 17 games left and this is what we have to talk about.  Life of Nebrasketball