uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 15, ed 1: Maine

[jimmykc]

At least we were not Oklahoma who lost at home to Sam Houston State.

Edited November 8, 2022 by jimmykc

[hhcmatt]

Notes from UNL

 

*-Juwan Gary post posted his third career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. His other two came at Alabama during the 2021-22 season. Gary’s 11 rebounds were a career-high, as his previous high was 10 on two occasions (vs. Louisiana Tech, vs. Drake, both in 2021-22
*-Gary had eight of the Huskers’ 16 offensive rebounds, which was the most by the Huskers since the 2020-21 season opener vs. McNeese State (17). Last year’s season high was 14 set twice. Nebraska had 16 second-chance points against Maine.
*-Sam Griesel led NU with 22 points in his debut, his 14^th career double-figure effort. He is now just two points away from 1,000 in his career.
*-Nebraska enjoyed a +17 rebounding advantage, the Huskers’ best against a Division I opponent since the 2017-18 season.
*-Keisei Tominanga reached double figures for the 8^th time in his career with 19 points, including 13 in the first half.
*-With the win, Nebraska improves to 86-41 all-time in season openers and has won 20 of the past 22 openers.
*-Wilhelm Breidenbach tied a career high in points (nine) and grabbed a career-best seven rebounds in the win.

 

We beat a team that outshot us because we dominated the boards. It's been a while since we've had more than one way to win a game.

[NUdiehard]

Left the arena a bit confused by this game.  On the one hand, I felt the team played hard, under control and as a team, and even shot decently well (46% overall and 32% from 3).  YET, the game was much tighter than it should have been, and was down to 2 points in the second half--thank goodness #1 is a horrible free throw shooter (0-6 Ouch!).  Of course, Maine's unconscious start to the 2nd half played a big part in that, BUT Nebraska's defense allowed that to happen--and defense is supposed to be this team's calling card.  However, it seemed a big part of the defensive struggle was Keita being completely unable to guard their stretch 5.  Once Fred replaced Keita with WB, and started hedging and switching at the top of the key, #22 and #11 had much more difficulty getting off a good shot.  Maine only had two guys who could shoot the 3, and we allowed them way too many open looks before making the adjustment.  It is nice to see adjustments, but it is frustrating that it takes the staff so long to figure these things out. These things should be scouted before the game even begins, not waiting until it's a 2 point game in the second half.

 

As many have pointed out, this team is more fun to watch that last year.  They play hard and seem to care.  But the loss of Walker is looming large and will set us back if he does not come back soon.  If Walker was playing, I don't think this game would have been close.  He would have been able to score on the block and he would have been able to guard the perimeter much better than Keita.  Based on what I have seen so far, I don't see the  point of playing Keita against these lower level teams who usually have smaller but better shooting 4s and 5s.  He simply cannot guard the perimeter well enough, and he doesn't seem to be able use his size advantage on the offensive end, so what is the point of playing him if there is no big man to body up down low?

 

Sam is not flashy, but is the key to this team.  Finished with 22/9/3.  Would like to see that assist number go up, but guys also have to make shots.  He also played 37 minutes, which is too much, especially in a buy-in game.  He will wear down if he has to play that much all year, but this team clearly has no true backup PG.

 

Fun to watch Keisei get it going.  Someone said earlier that Keisei can't do anything but shoot the 3.  I think we all saw tonight that is not true.  He actually is crafty around the rim and has a good touch.  He also had a couple nice cuts to the basket.  Keisei's problem is not his skill level, it's just the reality that he is short and not very athletic (at least not B1G level athlete).  Remains to be seen if he can be a contributor against better talent.

 

Gary has taken more shots than any other player in the 2 exhibitions and and this game.  I  am not sure that is the recipe for success.  He brings a TON to the table in rebounding, defense and energy, but shooting is not his thing.  Granted, some of those are simply put-backs on his own misses, but still, he is not MJ, he needs to know his role a bit better IMO.

 

Wilcher has not found his groove in any of the 3 games so far, and even got benched in favor of KT last night.  We are going to need him to come around quickly.

 

Dawson played 23 minutes and had 0 points on 0-0 shooting and 1 rebound, 1 assist and 2 turnovers.  Obviously brought a ton of energy and athleticism to the defensive end, but he remains a complete zero on offense teams are going to scout this and simply not guard him, causing difficulty for his teammates. 

 

UNO played Kansas tough until late in the game.  Arkansas Pine Bluff lost to #14 TCU by 1 point.   There are no gimme's for this team, especially without Walker.  They need to figure some things out and continue to improve each game.

 

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by NUdiehard

[Norm Peterson]

10 hours ago, Cazzie22 said:

Our help and recovery was really burned early In the 2nd half. It seemed to me that Maine had better shots than we were able to generate.  I had bad feelings when the lead was cut to 2 early in 2 nd half.  But a win is a win and they will be rare. 

 

If I'm not mistaken, they cut it to 1 and then had a chance to take the lead on a layup that was blocked magnificently by Bando and we recovered our mojo from there and they never threatened again.

[The Polish Rifle]

Better teams looked worse than us yesterday. Wasn’t exactly pretty but a win is a win. Glad to have hoops back! 

[Tallbaby21]

Liked the effort! Someone is going to have to sit me down and explain what we are trying to do on defense like I'm 5 years old because I don't get it. 

[Norm Peterson]

10 hours ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

Someone tells me KT 30 had 19 and I would’ve guessed all threes or free throws. He had 10 points in the paint, a few nice cuts and some nifty drives and finger rolls. And I know it’s Maine. But if we’re gonna give praise to the other players for playing well against Maine, I don’t want to hear that KT30 is only going to do this against teams like Maine. He definitely has a role on this team and I have to wonder if his increased role had something to do with Ramel redshirting??? Anyway, fellas, a win is a win

 

Let me say this about that: 

 

Watching warmups last year, there were plenty of times Keisei attempted a dunk and got stuffed by the rim. Last night he had a couple of throwdowns during warmups that were legitimately impressive. It appears he has spent some time in the weight room working on his explosiveness. We might have seen that play out in a couple of drives to the rim.

 

Speaking of warmups, it's refreshing to see a Hoiberg team appear to take warmups seriously. Finally. There was none of that horsing around bullshit we saw in prior years. They even came out after half and ran drills instead of just an unstructured shoot-around after half. That was one of my big complaints last year. They did not have a businesslike approach to their pre-game preparation and that would carry over to their game performance.

 

This year definitely looks like more getting down to business. That was good to see.

[Navin R. Johnson]

This team does have a totally different look to it, but we are missing that one guy that can put the ball in the basket. If and this is a big, maybe zero chance of landing if, we had a guy like Antonio Reeves (22 pts in first game with kentucky) we could really have a fun team to watch.  Still can't believe he chose Kentucky over us.  

[hhctony]

Did not watch but listened. Only thought to add to this thread, is I don't think our team wins that game without Sam. Which says a lot, about Sam and our team. We are gonna need him to hold us together. 

[tcp]

wins are going to be hard earned. i'll take whichever ones drop into our laps. 

 

this is one of those seasons where style points can be retired. it's a malcolm x kinda year: by any means necessary. 

[Norm Peterson]

3 minutes ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

This team does have a totally different look to it, but we are missing that one guy that can put the ball in the basket. If and this is a big, maybe zero chance of landing if, we had a guy like Antonio Reeves (22 pts in first game with kentucky) we could really have a fun team to watch.  Still can't believe he chose Kentucky over us.  

 

I've said the portal and NIL are the great equalizers that would allow us to build talent quickly. Potentially.

 

We were close to landing this kid. Imagine if we had.

 

We have some BIG shoes to fill after this season and we'll have another shot at the portal starting in March. And maybe, just maybe, we land next year's version.

[basketballjones]

First thing I'm going to say: Walking up to the stadium I heard about 4-5 little kids so f***ing excited to see Sam Griesel play. Saw so many #5 jerseys in the stadium. If you do not understand the point of taking and fostering in-state talent then I don't believe you should be a fan of this program or coaching here. No one is asking for an entire roster of Nebraska kids. But Jesus H. Christ - take 1 or 2 as actual scholarship kids every couple of years. Frankie Fidler should be playing at NU and I believe you will see that Thursday in what I think has loss potential written all over it. He's every bit of a player as SG, potentially even more polished out of high school. 

Some Positives:

- Guys played hard.

- Looks like they made some of the drive-defense adjustments to limit straight-line drives.

- I liked some aspects of their match-up zone. Looks to be a good base defense. 

- KT hit some shots.

- Sam took over when something needed to happen. That was cool to see.

- Oleg did some super nice things in his limited time. He doesn't know that he's 7'1", which is frustrating, but it's coming along. 

- Didn't give up when Maine made a huge push, were able to put their foot down and finish it. 

- Crashed the boards hard.

- I thought Wilhelm played a bit more "within himself." 

 

Negatives:

- Oh boy where do I start with this offense... None of our actions go to the rim. There's no back-screening, no flex-screening, no shuffle screens. Guys don't know how to read screens based off of what the defender did. It's all hand-offs and weaves around the perimeter until someone decides to do something. The guys can't change gears. There's no 1st to 5th gear change, hard stop-starts. It's all floating around in 2nd-3rd gear. There's zero post presence from a slam-seal perspective (would have been unbelievably easy last night for Keita to seal on reversals for lay-ups but he didn't). So many negative passes away from the hoop for no reason (tough one for me to explain without showing). There's just no rhythm and timing, which you could say "hey it's the first game!" Yeah - that's the problem when you start with a new team every year. 

- 3pt Shooting is going to be an issue... again... deep sigh

- I'm just not sure Keita is that good, very unfortunate. Too bad he didn't start out somewhere as a freshman and develop. 

- 19 Points from KT - and about 10 of the worst, most offensive basketball mistakes I've seen. Against real competition, we won't get that 19 from him, but we will get the mistakes. 

- Maine was like 351st in Kenpom - and I'm not 100% sure you could tell which team was the P5, millions of dollars spent on the entire operation team, and which was the effectively D2/NAIA team. There's only a couple guys out there for us who make that evident. 
- Hoiberg just looks lost and has zero confidence. I'm not saying it doesn't look like cares or doesn't have passion - he just looks so unsure and restrained. He's not coaching with a free mind or body. You can see he feels the crowd and whatnot behind him... it's the worst position to be in as a coach and I have felt it before. I honestly feel for the guy. Don't think in his wildest dreams he thought this would go this way. 

- Was not in love with the bench demeanor of our assistants outside of Nate Loesner. What are you doing guys? Every game matters, give juice, be focused, look dudes in the eyes and get them going... Idk, just a nitpick of mine. @Huskerpapamentioned the opposite, so I wanted to acknowledge that I must have not done a good enough job of paying attention to them. 

Edited November 8, 2022 by basketballjones

[NUdiehard]

45 minutes ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

This team does have a totally different look to it, but we are missing that one guy that can put the ball in the basket. If and this is a big, maybe zero chance of landing if, we had a guy like Antonio Reeves (22 pts in first game with kentucky) we could really have a fun team to watch.  Still can't believe he chose Kentucky over us.  

 

Fred had the exact player we need on campus and ready to commit until compliance/medical blew it up in his face.

 

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/34977032/keyontae-johnson-starts-kansas-state-2-years-collapsing-court

[cornfed24-7]

Not much to add. This was the 1st game I actually saw so I have been trying to keep an open mind. A couple of themes have been rambling around this board since the 1st two exhibition game I agree with. 

(1) This will be a much easier team to cheer for than other Hoiberg teams

(2) It's gonna be a long season 

I am not confident stating we will be at least 3 - 1 after the 1st four games.

[cornfed24-7]

5 minutes ago, NUdiehard said:

 

Fred had the exact player we need on campus and ready to commit until compliance/medical blew it up in his face.

 

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/34977032/keyontae-johnson-starts-kansas-state-2-years-collapsing-court

Too big of a risk with very little reward. Good job on compliance/medical "blowing" it up.

[NUdiehard]

2 minutes ago, cornfed24-7 said:

Too big of a risk with very little reward. Good job on compliance/medical "blowing" it up.

 

Uh sure.  Of course you will be the one complaining all year about our lack of offense and scoring and how Fred needs to be fired.

[cornfed24-7]

3 minutes ago, NUdiehard said:

 

Uh sure.  Of course you will be the one complaining all year about our lack of offense and scoring and how Fred needs to be fired.

Apparently someone agreed with me

No need to complain about Hoiberg or anything related to his offense or lack there of. His record will speak for itself.

[Huskerpapa]

27 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

Was not in love with the bench demeanor of our assistants outside of Nate Loesner. What are you doing guys? Every game matters, give juice, be focused, look dudes in the eyes and get them going... Idk, just a nitpick of mine. 

Many in our section thought the opposite...we saw much more activity from the assistants interacting with the players and Fred.  Also noted that Sam was like a coach on the floor.  It has been a few years since we saw our PG take charge like that.

[hhcmatt]

1 hour ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

If I'm not mistaken, they cut it to 1 and then had a chance to take the lead on a layup that was blocked magnificently by Bando and we recovered our mojo from there and they never threatened again.

 

Hoiberg called it the play of the game.  

 

 

[TourneyBound]

2 hours ago, NUdiehard said:

Left the arena a bit confused by this game.  On the one hand, I felt the team played hard, under control and as a team, and even shot decently well (46% overall and 32% from 3).  YET, the game was much tighter than it should have been, and was down to 2 points in the second half--thank goodness #1 is a horrible free throw shooter (0-6 Ouch!).  Of course, Maine's unconscious start to the 2nd half played a big part in that, BUT Nebraska's defense allowed that to happen--and defense is supposed to be this team's calling card.  However, it seemed a big part of the defensive struggle was Keita being completely unable to guard their stretch 5.  Once Fred replaced Keita with WB, and started hedging and switching at the top of the key, #22 and #11 had much more difficulty getting off a good shot.  Maine only had two guys who could shoot the 3, and we allowed them way too many open looks before making the adjustment.  It is nice to see adjustments, but it is frustrating that it takes the staff so long to figure these things out. These things should be scouted before the game even begins, not waiting until it's a 2 point game in the second half.

 

 

 

This over and over!!!  The one guy was a perfect 6 for 6.  after his 2nd one find the shooters and get in there damn face.  I don't understand how we continue to let them get good looks.  I mean ya it would be nice to scout ahead of time but even if we don't you need to adjust and get up on them on the 3 point line.  It was ridiculous the shots they were getting to start 2nd half.

Edited November 8, 2022 by ConkintheCorner

[hhcmatt]

33 minutes ago, NUdiehard said:

 

Uh sure.  Of course you will be the one complaining all year about our lack of offense and scoring and how Fred needs to be fired.

 

Little slow on the uptake here as I didn't realize that all the posts about blaming the medical department for not clearing a guy who we don't even know would have chosen Nebraska over K St had he been cleared are for the purpose of campaigning for another Hoiberg year.  If Hoiberg does get fired for not winning enough games it's because it's the 4th out of 4th years of not winning, not some hypothetical commit to a team that is using all its scholarships.

[basketballjones]

32 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Many in our section thought the opposite...we saw much more activity from the assistants interacting with the players and Fred.  Also noted that Sam was like a coach on the floor.  It has been a few years since we saw our PG take charge like that.

That’s good to hear, I didn’t see the same thing but maybe I missed it. Thanks for your input. 

[hhcmatt]

Post game presser

 

 

 

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
Opening Statement
“Obviously, we played a very good opponent today. We knew coming in they had guys who could really heat up and get it going. Gedi (Juozapaitis) especially. He played in the same league as Coach (Adam) Howard and also my son last year. We knew coming in that he was a guy that could really heat up from the outside, and that’s exactly what happened. Kristians Feierbergs was a guy that got going as well. We made an adjustment and had more of a square coverage. I thought we executed that well and shut it down a little bit. Then I thought we kept executing. I thought we finally started getting stops to open the lead. Proud of the guys for doing that. We have plenty to work on. The next 48 hours are going to be very important. We are playing a quality opponent on Thursday, and we are going to have to play better than we did tonight for the full 40 minutes. I loved our start. I thought we really came out of the gate with great energy. Juwan (Gary) got us off to a great start with an offensive rebound and a great hustle play. He hit a three early, and that’s the kind of start we need. Now we need to duplicate in the second half. It’s very important to get off to a great start for the first five minutes of both halves.”
 
On the importance of player-led teams and what they’re saying in the huddle
“They are talking before I get in there a lot of times. When I get in there, their focus shifts. Sam (Griesel) came to me and said that those guys see some things that we don’t see. Those guys suggested some things, we ran it and they worked. That’s the kind of leadership Sam can give, and the trust level that I have with him. Emmanuel (Bandoumel), same thing.”
 
On if he liked what he saw in the front court
“I had a good conversation with Wilhelm (Breidenbach) a couple days ago, and we decided to make the change. Really just to change up the rhythm. He was going to be the first big off the bench in whatever position that was. We ran a couple clear-out plays for him, and he got to the rim. Wilhem is always going to play hard, and it was great to see him step up and drain that three when we really needed it. I was pleased with Wilhelm. He’s battled some tough things this last week, so to bring him off and change his rhythm I think paid off.”

Nebraska Player Quotes
On getting the game under control after the lead was cut to one point:
Sam Griesel: “That happens all the time in college basketball. Obviously, they came out in the second half and punched us in the face, but I think kind of like what we saw in Colorado the resiliency of the group and staying together was something that we were preaching in the huddles. Every time we broke the huddle, we wanted to make sure we were all on the same page and just trusted our principles defensively. After they got really hot in that first six or seven minutes, they started to cool off and that first part is a big credit to them. They shot it well in that stretch, but just trusting our principles and trusting the process.”
 
On the block that sparked the offense
Sam Griesel: “Effort plays can really change the outlook of halves and games completely. Obviously, that being blocks, dunks whatever to get the crowd into it so that was big time. That (Bandoumel’s block) was a big change in the momentum for us. We got some shots to fall and got some shots that we wanted to get. I thought a few of the times we forced some especially early in transition but like I said earlier just sticking to our principles defensively and trusting the process after that effort play from Emmanuel (Bandoumel).” 
 
On Keisei Tominaga pitching in 10-straight points
Sam Griesel: “That is Keisei to a T. When I first got here, he was not here. He was still playing with Japan but his first few weeks he just lit it up and I was like ‘Who is this?’ Especially when he comes off the bench that is what he can bring for us. He is a big spark plug and he can just take the lid off the basket for us so obviously he did that tonight, but we are going to continue to rely on him to stretch the floor and be that guy for us.”
 
On how the players led during the game
Sam Griesel: “Just speaking up in the huddles weather that was timeout huddles or in the flow of the game when the ball goes out of bounds or whatever. Me personally I kind of think it is my job to rally the troops every time and make sure we are on the same page and bring the team into the huddles and that has just been a big emphasis that I have talked about with Coach Hoiberg is just when we are in the huddles we are on the same page and just me and him our relationship I always have to have his ears and he always has mine so just talking strategy and making sure everyone is on the same page.”
 
On Sam Griesel’s second-half points
Sam Griesel: “I would not necessarily say that I came out of half time and was like ‘I need to do this. I need to do that.’ My whole career I always try to let the game come to me and I felt that my role is to do whatever I can to help the team win and tonight it was score and facilitate obviously but I was not particularly pleased with my defensive play so I am going to need to focus on that but I just want to do whatever I can to help this team come out on top.”
 
On Juwan Gary
Sam Griesel: “Eight offensive rebounds is pretty ridiculous, but he is just such a big energy guy for us. The team can rally around his play. He makes so many hustle plays like we talked about and effort plays and offensive rebounds I think I talked about it before but they are so demoralizing for opponents. When you guard someone for 25 or 26 seconds and then maybe they get a long rebound or Juwan is just out hustling people and we get a second possession it is so demoralizing to them. He is just so relentless on the glass and we are glad that he is on our side.”
 
On offensive rebounds as a team
Sam Griesel: “It is for sure something we have emphasized both offensively rebounding and defensively. We are a pretty tall team across the board so we are going to have to rely on rebounding and we always want to be positive in the rebounding differential like we were tonight but that has been a big focus for us early this season.”
 
Maine Coach Chris Markwood
On how he thought his debut went
“Obviously, there’s some mixed feelings there. I thought we did some good things. We gave ourselves a chance back in the second half, but we just weren't consistent enough. I give all the credit to Nebraska. They came out and played really well. They beat us up on the glass and used their size as an advantage. They kind of got wherever they wanted to go on the offense. We’ve got to have a little bit more defensive urgency and intensity if we're going to win a game.”
 
On the highlights from the game
“I think the biggest one is just the resolve. They showed it down 12 or 13, whatever it was at half. We had a chance on a breakaway layup that we missed to take the lead at some point in the second half. So, I thought the guys fought. They didn't give up. I thought we had a nice run there to give ourselves a chance. Obviously, Gedi Juozapaitis and Kristians Feierbergs both played really well. And I thought we had some other guys that are really talented that didn't have their best game, which is part of basketball. We'll be fine.”

On what the team can take away and work on in practice
“I think the biggest thing for us is the defensive side. That’s what we just talked about with the guys. We gave up 79. Some of that was fouls at the end, but it was 40 in the first half. We're not going to win basketball games if that's where the teams are. I felt Nebraska got what they wanted, and I think Coach Hoiberg is a tremendous offensive coach. So that's not surprising, but I thought a lot of it was within our control, stuff that we've worked on throughout the preseason. To me, that's the biggest takeaway – that we have to get a lot better on that end if we want to look forward to winning basketball games on a consistent basis.”

[hskr4life]

 

Give me the 25% chance to dance every day for the rest of the season!

[Handy Johnson]

18 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

 

Give me the 25% chance to dance every day for the rest of the season!

So if the B1G gets 8 teams in the Dance, we’ll finish 8th & they’ll take the NINTH place team, got it…