MICHIGAN STATE GAME DAY THREAD

[Huskerpapa]

Man, that second half was brutal. 

*  It appeared that our players assumed the win was banked, and they really didn't have to show up in the 2nd half.

*  Turnovers...my gawd what an awful display.  Lack of focus, carelessness and perception.  Film review today would be embarrassing if I was one of the players.

*  Our players do not react well to physicality.  

*  She gutted it out; but Alexis appeared a bit under the weather.  

*  I applaud MSU for not quitting and clawing their way back.

*  Their press wasn't that great; but our reaction to it was unbelievably bad.

 

Despite all of the above...we won.  An important win at that.

[12dozen]

Is it just me, or do others think we roll out the same game plan, game after game after game?    

   

I like our players. They are a talented bunch. I think they are executing what they practice. I think they do as told.  Inconsistent results must be frustrating for them too. 

 

I am not too upset with the W/L record. We have some nice wins. Yet, after games (or even seasons), I find myself discouraged as often as encouraged.  Conflicted for sure.  

 

  

 

  

[redsteve]

Yes, Alexis seemed to be not be well or something.  She only played a little over half the game.  But still had the double double. And free throws when it counted the most.

 

Was kind of like many games where a team plays us straight up defense for thy most part, and can't stop us. Then they full out the street ball defensive terror, and we don't respond well..........the first half big lead didn't help our mindset.  We lost focus. When you do that and they are on fire...it's a struggle to get back to how you started the game. Mich St reminded me of some old Rutgers teams. Crash and bang

[HUD]

1 hour ago, caveman said:

I'll agree to disagree.  I think the talent is there, I do not think player development is

Player development covers a big area.  I would like to focus on the mental part of the game.  Many of our on going short comings stem from a weakness there from time to time on decision making.  A couple of mental break downs can cost us in a close game like last night.  I could give many examples but for the sake of brevity I will give two examples.  With a 6 point lead and 22 seconds left (after a Mich St time out) Haggeman drove to the bucket on Bourne who fouled her.  3 pt play.  With no foul and a made basket it would have still been a 4 pt lead and our ball and they would have had to foul us. Big mental mistake. The foul which was correctly called was on a 4th year senior. We then missed two free throws and they drove the hoop again and we fouled with them and they made one but got the rebound and Haggeman took a long 3 which missed but was fouled by Haiby. Made all 3 free throws. It may have been an iffy call but you don't put yourself in that position for the ref to possibly call it.  The mental mistake was made by a 5th year player.  We can blame mental mistakes on poor execution but I will put a lot of it on the coaches when we have so many of them and they are recurring over the years.  Poor percentage passes, bad inbounds plays, bad fouling etc.  We have too much talent for this to happen as much as it does.

[longtimefan]

I totally agree with HUD. I thought the same when we were up 6 with 22 seconds left.  I thought the game was pretty much over. Let them have the 2 but whatever you do, don't foul them. Same with Haiby. She wasn't going to block it so don't go near her to be called for a foul.  We definitely don't play smart. 

[NUtball]

Well, that was certainly...interesting.  In the heat of the moment, I was completely disgusted with the second half collapse, but after some thought, I had to accept that Nebraska is a middling B1G team that, as longtimefan rightly states, doesn't play smart.  Nebraska and MSU are, as their records going into the game indicate, basically the same.  So, what might have been expected as a close, back-and-forth game, just unfolded in a completely different manner (each team having a dominant half) to get to the same point, a close ending.

 

As many have stated, the turnovers are simply inexplicable and unacceptable at this level.  Lazy passes, not moving to receive the ball, 25-foot passes through 3 or 4 defenders, hotdog behind-the-back passes to blow an easy scoring opportunity, etc.  Seemed like the last couple of years the team had gotten away from these ridiculous tendencies that have haunted them for years, but now they are back in full force.

 

Something hasn't seemed right with Shelley for several games.  She obviously does a lot of positive things but, my goodness, she also makes some of the most boneheaded, 6th-grade-level decisions to offset whatever the positives were.  She seems to be locked in for a couple of minutes and then completely disinterested for the next couple of minutes.  Officially credited with 6 turnovers (sure seemed like more) and could have easily been 12-15 with the horrible passes she made.

 

I think Williams is a decent coach but don't see Nebraska ever being a top team in the conference unless some exceptional/transformational talent falls into her lap.  They'll be competitive and pull an upset here or there but never get over the proverbial hump.  There's a body of work now that indicates a middle-of-the-pack team that can't seem to achieve any consistent, sustained player development.

[Cazzie22]

I am old school but there has to be some accountability for player decisions. I would have benched Jaz for the hot dog behind the back pass.  She needs to know that’s not acceptable and one should never try to show up your opponent. I love her play but everyone needs to be accountable.  

 

Amy post game laments the turnovers. Then something must be addressed in practice. And please, get some baseline inbounds plays where the ball can be inbounded and not lead to turnovers.

 

Sam Mckewon wrote today that NU needs to win 5 of the remaining 7 to make the NCAA.  Two with NW, 2 with Illinois, Minnesota, at Michigan and at Iowa.  I don’t see 5 wins there. 

[12dozen]

6 minutes ago, Cazzie22 said:

 

Amy post game laments the turnovers. Then something must be addressed in practice. And please, get some baseline inbounds plays where the ball can be inbounded and not lead to turnovers.

 

Agree   Seems like "Rinse and Repeat".   

 

Questions.  Can this team even practice 5 on 5 to address the issues?  We have 10 players on a good day.  You can't blame it all on injuries.  Open scholarships, zero walk-ons.  Is using volunteer male students as good an option, as having a full roster that uses practices to develop?

 

 

[Fastbreaker]

3 hours ago, HUD said:

Player development covers a big area.  I would like to focus on the mental part of the game.  Many of our on going short comings stem from a weakness there from time to time on decision making.  A couple of mental break downs can cost us in a close game like last night.  I could give many examples but for the sake of brevity I will give two examples.  With a 6 point lead and 22 seconds left (after a Mich St time out) Haggeman drove to the bucket on Bourne who fouled her.  3 pt play.  With no foul and a made basket it would have still been a 4 pt lead and our ball and they would have had to foul us. Big mental mistake. The foul which was correctly called was on a 4th year senior. We then missed two free throws and they drove the hoop again and we fouled with them and they made one but got the rebound and Haggeman took a long 3 which missed but was fouled by Haiby. Made all 3 free throws. It may have been an iffy call but you don't put yourself in that position for the ref to possibly call it.  The mental mistake was made by a 5th year player.  We can blame mental mistakes on poor execution but I will put a lot of it on the coaches when we have so many of them and they are recurring over the years.  Poor percentage passes, bad inbounds plays, bad fouling etc.  We have too much talent for this to happen as much as it does.

Regarding the 2 fouls that you refer to.  On the 1st The Michigan state player Purposely ran into contact and then Flop backwards like she had been killed.On the second Sam Did not come close to touching her.In fact she went to the bench saying I sure flopped hard to get that foul. 

[Bugeaters1]

9 minutes ago, Fastbreaker said:

Regarding the 2 fouls that you refer to.  On the 1st The Michigan state player Purposely ran into contact and then Flop backwards like she had been killed.On the second Sam Did not come close to touching her.In fact she went to the bench saying I sure flopped hard to get that foul. 

The women's game needs the flop rule bad.

[All About the Corn]

I think quite a few fans knew she was acting except the ref who bought it hook, line, and sinker, or called it knowing it was an act. Either way, he needs to be done as an official. 

I agree with most what has been said. I believe Jaz is done after the season. She has not had her head in the game. With what looks like 3 done (Sam, Issie, and Jaz) and maybe more( medically retired, transfers ?) Williams and staff have much work to do. I am at a point where I am not sure she is up to the task. Would say last year Williams took a few steps forward, now think she may have lost more than she took. As has been pointed out we have enough to go on and at this point she is a slightly better that .500 coach at NE. 

[Huskerpapa]

29 minutes ago, 12dozen said:

Agree   Seems like "Rinse and Repeat".   

 

Questions.  Can this team even practice 5 on 5 to address the issues?  We have 10 players on a good day.  You can't blame it all on injuries.  Open scholarships, zero walk-ons.  Is using volunteer male students as good an option, as having a full roster that uses practices to develop?

 

 

They actually practice against 5 men.  

[Redhac]

As several the turnovers are outrageous with 4 turnovers in the first 3 minutes of the game before making a basket, plus a couple turnovers on inbounding below our basket!   That is horrible for a college team!  It seems like the development of Mendleson is not a priority or Coley.  Mendleson may be ready for a fulltime volleyball scholarship versus a basketball scholarship if she can get it.  

 

It likely will not matter what talent level we can get if Williams and the others are in charge, particularly if they can not fix passing and inbounding with who we have.  

 

I prefer the team to do well, but am tired of crappy play.  It seemed like when they tried to slow the speed of putting up shots they did better in scoring.  Likely we can watch them play in the NIT!

[12dozen]

1 hour ago, Huskerpapa said:

They actually practice against 5 men.  

So, as I mention;   

 

Is using volunteer male students as good an option, as having a full roster that uses practices to develop?

 

[Bugeaters1]

6 minutes ago, 12dozen said:

So, as I mention;   

 

Is using volunteer male students as good an option, as having a full roster that uses practices to develop?

 

What's your point? All D1 teams use men to practice against.

 

[12dozen]

2 hours ago, Bugeaters1 said:

What's your point? All D1 teams use men to practice against.

 

I like the idea.  I'm sure they can prep for practice, and give our team certain looks of the upcoming competition. I'm sure certain players can simulate individuals.  If we're going up against height, I'm sure they can give that look. They have a purpose.  But I read, they utilize the guys at one practice a week.   Is that not accurate?

 

My original response was to a post, wondering if recurring issues, were being fixed in practice.   My rambling thoughts, we might not have the numbers to maximize a practice session. Didn't intend to question the effective use of guys in preparation.

[HUD]

5 hours ago, Fastbreaker said:

Regarding the 2 fouls that you refer to.  On the 1st The Michigan state player Purposely ran into contact and then Flop backwards like she had been killed.On the second Sam Did not come close to touching her.In fact she went to the bench saying I sure flopped hard to get that foul. 

Bourne was moving with Haggeman as she was going to the basket.  It was smart for her to have contact with Bourne as refs will call that every time.  The second foul was pretty well explained by the announcers.  Haiby did not touch her with her upper body but when Haggeman came down Haiby's foot hit hers and she did a good job of selling it.  Sam shouldn't have been that close.  Haggeman was 0/5 on three's for the night.

[HUD]

As for predictions I will go on record that we will make the NCAA T.  

[NUtball]

21 hours ago, Bugeaters1 said:

The women's game needs the flop rule bad.

Not disagreeing with you at all, but I think simply having even marginally competent officials would be helpful.

[12dozen]

35 minutes ago, NUtball said:

Not disagreeing with you at all, but I think simply having even marginally competent officials would be helpful.

Agree. On the play in question, the player went up with the shot, close to a foot behind the 3-point line.  Haiby ran by her, clearly on the other side of the 3-point line. Took a flexible player to make that contact happen.

 

Regarding the officials.  This reminds me of the old Omaha Lancers games.  There was always a trumpet player there, who performed  "Three Blind Mice" when an official made this caliber call.   Always amusing.  

[NUtball]

8 hours ago, 12dozen said:

Agree. On the play in question, the player went up with the shot, close to a foot behind the 3-point line.  Haiby ran by her, clearly on the other side of the 3-point line. Took a flexible player to make that contact happen.

 

Regarding the officials.  This reminds me of the old Omaha Lancers games.  There was always a trumpet player there, who performed  "Three Blind Mice" when an official made this caliber call.   Always amusing.  

Eons ago when playing JV ball in high school, we had the same 2 local officials for every game.  They were not good officials to begin with, but I swear to this day that they purposely overcompensated to 'prove' they weren't favoring the home team.  We never got the 50/50 calls and always had a number of WTF calls go against us.  It was like seeing that dick with ears, bald Lurch decked out in the zebra suit for Husker games.  We called it the 'Home Court Disadvantage.'