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What will it take?


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1 hour ago, cornfed24-7 said:

Not to you in particular royal, but I want to respond to this thought because it seems a lot share it on this board. I do too for what its worth. 

Has Hoiberg ever coached an elite defense? 

 

 

I don’t think so. Personally, I am not predicting that we will have one, just stating that I feel we must have one if we are to do well in the near future. 

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5 hours ago, cornfed24-7 said:

Not to you in particular royal, but I want to respond to this thought because it seems a lot share it on this board. I do too for what its worth. 

Has Hoiberg ever coached an elite defense? 

 

 

His contract and coaching future depends upon the premise that he, or someone on his staff can!   Yet, to specifically answer the question, no.

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On 6/29/2022 at 10:49 AM, Norm Peterson said:

There's a part of me that thinks our shooters would have better looks if we had a guy inside who was offensively efficient enough to draw double teams.

 

It seems like when we're racing our arses off to close out on shooters because we had to double the opposing post, that's when we get drilled for those long 3-bombs.

 

If Keita can be that kind of offensive force inside, I think our shooters will stand a chance to light it up from outside. I think we have a couple of guys who can do it. Not nearly enough and not nearly well enough, but a couple of guys. Enough to keep us in some games.

 

In order to get out of the cellar and into the conference top ten, having a guy who can force our opponents to double him would really help.

 

In my humble opinion.

Blaise is the “X” factor, if he’s REALLY good, we have a chance to be good. If he’s just so/so we could be fighting it out at the bottom again.

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To have a successful season this year will require, at a minimum:

 

1. No major injuries.  And Griesel absolutely cannot miss more than 1 or 2 games or its season over.  There is no replacement at PG.  Honestly am already worried about the 10+ minutes he is on the bench each game getting rest, not sure how that hole is going to be filled.

 

2.  Good team chemistry with great effort and no (or very little) selfish play.  This is a big ask in today's landscape.

 

3.  Wilhelm must be a very solid player.  We know he has potential, but the limited minutes he got last year were rough.  He needs to not only "not be rough", he needs to be good/solid, and it would help if he could hit an occasional three at a decent percentage.

 

4.  Wilcher must take a step-up, preferably a significant step up.  He is the best shooter/scorer on a team that is going to have trouble scoring.  A good season from his is critical.

 

5.  It would really help if one of the true freshmen could be a solid contributor.  Most likely candidates are Lloyd or Lawrence.  Lawrence continues to be my dark horse, but question is whether his strong and athletic enough to play in the B1G as a freshman.

 

6. Keita must be a very solid player, at a minimum.  To make a jump into top 10 or Top 7, he must be a beast, or at least as close to a beast as we can expect at Nebraska.  Unfortunately this is probably too much to expect from as a raw prospect coming straight from juco off an injury.

 

 

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3 hours ago, NUdiehard said:

To have a successful season this year will require, at a minimum:

 

1. No major injuries.  And Griesel absolutely cannot miss more than 1 or 2 games or its season over.  There is no replacement at PG.  Honestly am already worried about the 10+ minutes he is on the bench each game getting rest, not sure how that hole is going to be filled.

 

2.  Good team chemistry with great effort and no (or very little) selfish play.  This is a big ask in today's landscape.

 

3.  Wilhelm must be a very solid player.  We know he has potential, but the limited minutes he got last year were rough.  He needs to not only "not be rough", he needs to be good/solid, and it would help if he could hit an occasional three at a decent percentage.

 

4.  Wilcher must take a step-up, preferably a significant step up.  He is the best shooter/scorer on a team that is going to have trouble scoring.  A good season from his is critical.

 

5.  It would really help if one of the true freshmen could be a solid contributor.  Most likely candidates are Lloyd or Lawrence.  Lawrence continues to be my dark horse, but question is whether his strong and athletic enough to play in the B1G as a freshman.

 

6. Keita must be a very solid player, at a minimum.  To make a jump into top 10 or Top 7, he must be a beast, or at least as close to a beast as we can expect at Nebraska.  Unfortunately this is probably too much to expect from as a raw prospect coming straight from juco off an injury.

 

 


If all those things happen we will be in serious contention for the big dance.  Keisei could also be a factor, but him being in Japan (while great for him) concerns me as far as clicking with the team, especially the new players.  
 

As far as point #1, I think Griesel is the straw that stirs the drink as well, but if he gets hurt I wouldn’t automatically assume we are done.  Creighton lost both their point guards last year and had to have their freshman shooting guard take over.  They still took KU to the wire.  If we lost Griesel we have McPherson, then possibly Lloyd.  There is a chance one of those would take the opportunity and run with it.  
 

We have so many questions on this team because of all of the changes I can see where things could break right for us or go totally wrong in each instance.  With how the last 3 seasons have gone I can see where many people lean towards the negative outcome.  I am HOPING at least half of the question marks come out on the positive side, like Griesel being the steadying influence on offense and Keita is the rim protector and rebounder we need, versus Griesel being overwhelmed with the step up in competition and Keita is not the same after injury.  Man I wish the season was starting next week.

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Agree with the detailed responses, but I'll give a general one: we need to do something better or have some sort of advantage with our roster over almost every opponent we face.  It's not going to be shooting or athleticism, and we don't have a superstar... 

 

To me, that means we put the five best overall players on the floor and go with a heavy lineup.  I'd like to be a better rebounding team and more physical than anyone we play, and huge.  I'd start Keita and Walker together to go along with Sam and whatever wings earn time (Lloyd, Wilcher, Bandoumel).  I feel like Gary and WB could be great guys for energy and log a lot of bench minutes as the reserve front court.  

 

This lineup would be:

 

6'6" 220

6'5" 220

6'6" 190

6'9" 240

6'11" 240

Average height: 6'7.5!

Average weight: 222lbs!

 

Compare to last year's starting lineup:

 

6'2" 165

6'4" 196

6'7" 180

6'9" 220

6'9" 240

Average height: 6'6"

Average weight: 200lbs

 

If you want toughness, rebounding, and defensive help, you add length and weight with coachable kids.  That kind of weight difference is enormous when it comes to outmatching smaller non-con teams and holding up in the brutal B1G.  At least bully the teams you play and make every game ugly as hell.  I'm so sick of finesse basketball and tiny players.  We can't roll out a team that weighs, on average, what Austin Rivers weighs.   

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