uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 15, ed 27: at Rutgers

[HuskerFever]

I said it last game and I'll say it again. Sam Hoiberg. Putting in the work that doesn't make the headlines, but still an important part to this team.

[Tallbaby21]

Holy heck. It’s amazing how good we can look when both Keisei and CJ are hitting. 

[REDZONEDAN]

2 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

I think Fred was ON the hot seat...not probably on it

Depends if Trev wanted to fire another coach.

[hskr4life]

I do like that we go Maryland, Minny, MSU.  Gives us a chance to reallllly start a run prior to MSU.

[jayschool]

[HuskerBB]

Fantastic win.    Did not expect this one at all.   Figured this was easily the toughest of our remaining games.   Everyone on the court played well tonight - but I thought Greisel was particularly good.   Kept his composure and did not turn it over (just one all game I think) as the primary ball handler against a very high pressure defense, made a couple of huge shots at key times including 2 big free throws near the end and most importantly dominated the defensive boards especially in the 2nd half.   Huge all around game for Sam.

Edited February 15, 2023 by HuskerBB

[Huskerpapa]

1 minute ago, REDZONEDAN said:

Depends if Trev wanted to fire another coach.

True, but the move Trev made with his contract at the end of last year made his seat hot.

[1HuskerDad]

 

[HuskerFever]

The headline during Pikiell's postgame: "3rd highest FG% allowed under Pikiell (58.2%)"

[The Polish Rifle]

11 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

 

I've always seen Hoiberg at a 5-6 year type of tenure (it's been leaning much closer to 5 after the first 2 seasons), as treacherous as it's been, that chance for longevity is what we've lacked in our men's athletics as of late. But this doesn't understate how important next season is going to be. Any bit of step back next season is going to raise a lot of eyebrows. But between now and November, at least for me, there's no evaluation or criticisms. But starting in November we must start to see some results come to fruition. 

I kinda had an epiphany during the 2nd half. I had been going on about wanting to find our Pikiell, but Hoiberg was working Pikiell on the road down 2 starters. Now I feel like Hoiberg can do this, and not just lets give him a lame duck year 5.

[REDZONEDAN]

8 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

True, but the move Trev made with his contract at the end of last year made his seat hot.

I almost put on rather than probably….didn’t think someone would nitpick.

[throwback]

Unreal effort - so important to go +5 after the under 4 timeout in the first half and then play even up to the under 16 timeout in the second half. CJ hit a huge 3 to push the lead back to 5 right before the under 16 timeout, and that took a lot of momentum away from RU, as they put a lot of effort into those first 5 minutes coming out of the locker room.

 

I thought the coaches were crazy starting CJ, but he had a game and then some. 

 

I love how the coaches have flipped the script midseason about how we are playing - the constant switching defenses without Bandoumel & Gary is working and hiding some of our flaws now on that end. And to turn the offense loose and play faster now that we need to play more of our better 3-pt shooters is exactly what needs to happen. Went from a team that had to win in the 60s to now a team that probably needs to be in the 70s+. To make that philosophical change 2/3 of the way through the season is incredibly hard.

 

To do what we did tonight offensively in that building against that type of defensive team is one of the most impressive performances of Fred's era. Not quite what we did at Wisky last year or in Omaha this year, but right behind those two.

 

Griesel did such a good job of settling the offense down at the right time and pushing it at the right time. Maybe his best game from the standpoint of being the QB out there.

 

Don't look now, but we've won at PSU, at Ohio St, at Wisky, at the bluebirds, at Minny, and at Rutgers in the last calendar year. That's 6 wins in our last 14 true road games. Also 3 wins in February already, most since 2018. Could be a fun finish to the season.

[HuskerFever]

1 minute ago, throwback said:

I thought the coaches were crazy starting CJ, but he had a game and then some. 

 

Hoiberg said in the postgame that CJ has been shooting lights out in practice. Well. It's nice to see that finally translate in the game.

[AuroranHusker]

43 minutes ago, millerhusker said:

That's two road wins against NET top 25 teams. 

Everyone played well, but my game ball goes to Griesel. 12 points, 11 rebs, 5 assists, 1 turnover. 2-2 free throws in crunch time. And handled the press pretty well. 

 

Exactly, Sammy was ballin' like a pro tonight. That was a great stat line, which served to complement the 22 (4-9 on threes) from Keisei, 17 (5-9 on threes) from much maligned (Jersey-native) C.J. to go with FOUR ASSISTS, and 16 from D-Walk. Just a well rounded offensive performance. And cool under pressure, for the most part. GBR

 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by AuroranHusker

[HB]

12 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

True, but the move Trev made with his contract at the end of last year made his seat hot.

Yep, great moves by Trev.  Seat needed to be hot apparently for Fred to make major, necessary changes to what we had been doing.  Starting with firing Matt.   We started winning and playing better immediately after Trev stood by Fred late last season, all while requiring needed change.  The improvement has continued.  Love the portal pickups even though 2 of them are hurt.  Those 3 were not Matt type of guys.  Huskers are much better to watch now, even when we don’t win.  

[throwback]

3 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

 

Hoiberg said in the postgame that CJ has been shooting lights out in practice. Well. It's nice to see that finally translate in the game.

To be fair, he says that about everybody.  I think they had to send out to NASA to calculate how many 3s Lat supposedly made in practices last season.

 

But they decided to trust CJ to start for whatever reason tonight and it worked big time.

 

[AuroranHusker]

8 minutes ago, throwback said:

To be fair, he says that about everybody.  I think they had to send out to NASA to calculate how many 3s Lat supposedly made in practices last season.

 

But they decided to trust CJ to start for whatever reason tonight and it worked big time.

 

 

Home state mojo, maybe. Glad Fred didn't go with Wilhelm tonight, he seems to continue ridin' shotgun on that struggle bus (pushing C.J. outta that front seat).

 

 

[roscoe]

Going to comment on couple things I saw in game thread. 

1. Why the hell is the Rutgers AD patting CJ on the back to start 2nd half? Anyone not associated within the team should never touch a player unless player approaches them. And even if player does approach a fan he's facing a technical because of celebration of or retaliation of some sort.

2. Sam Hoiberg is fun to watch. When he was getting minutes during mop up duty I wasnt impressed with him. But man now that he is getting important minutes he's showing he belongs. And guessing early on he knew he was only playing in blow outs so he didn't prepare as hard but now that he's playing meaningful minutes he's into the game mentally and has a typical "coaches kid" mentality.

3. Does this husker team remind anyone else of a city league/town team type team.

  Walker and Greisel play like the 38 year old guys that just know the game and frustrate the 22 year old former all stater with their smarts, positioning and humility.

  Keisei is the guy that is super hyper and won't quit running. However those guys usually can't shoot in the rec league.

  Lawrence is the guy you can't figure out because he doesn't appear to be doing that much but is just a "steady eddie" type.

  Wilcher is the guy you guard at start but if he misses his 1st couple you let him shoot til he makes couple in a row.

  Hoiberg is the guy who doesn't look like he will beat you. But a basket here, a rebound there then a steal and maybe an assist and you're calling him names.

  Breidenbach is the guy that shows up late and has 2 different socks and elastic is shot in one of them so it's around his ankles. You also hope you get to guard him but then    he  "careers" you and your friends bring it up even at the mention of his name.

[Huskerpapa]

3 minutes ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

Home state mojo, maybe. Glad Fred didn't go with Wilhelm tonight, he seems to continue ridin' shotgun on that struggle bus (pushing C.J. outta that front seat).

 

 

Hmm, I thought Wilhelm played well tonight including a big three pointer.

 

 

[Dead Dog Alley]

1 minute ago, roscoe said:

 

3. Does this husker team remind anyone else of a city league/town team type team.

  Walker and Greisel play like the 38 year old guys that just know the game and frustrate the 22 year old former all stater with their smarts, positioning and humility.

  Keisei is the guy that is super hyper and won't quit running. However those guys usually can't shoot in the rec league.

  Lawrence is the guy you can't figure out because he doesn't appear to be doing that much but is just a "steady eddie" type.

  Wilcher is the guy you guard at start but if he misses his 1st couple you let him shoot til he makes couple in a row.

  Hoiberg is the guy who doesn't look like he will beat you. But a basket here, a rebound there then a steal and maybe an assist and you're calling him names.

  Breidenbach is the guy that shows up late and has 2 different socks and elastic is shot in one of them so it's around his ankles. You also hope you get to guard him but then    he  "careers" you and your friends bring it up even at the mention of his name.

Who is the guy that drinks a couple beers at halftime?

[AuroranHusker]

Just now, Huskerpapa said:

Hmm, I thought Wilhelm played well tonight including a big three pointer.

 

 

 

 

I was referring to his general lack of great play preceding tonight.

 

 

[Art Vandalay]

Just now, Huskerpapa said:

Hmm, I thought Wilhelm played well tonight including a big three pointer.

 

 

Thought he played well vs Wisco also, good def and rebounds His defense has been much better lately IMO

[roscoe]

2 minutes ago, Dead Dog Alley said:

Who is the guy that drinks a couple beers at halftime?

If it's at Longwells I'm guessing Walt Pitchford?

[AuroranHusker]

Just now, Art Vandalay said:

Thought he played well vs Wisco also, good def and rebounds His defense has been much better lately IMO

 

I thought he hadn't been playing well, generally speaking, during the conference season. Tonight I was glad he didn't jack up a bunch of threes after his make. I tend to get on him about that part of his game as he isn't very proficient from the land of plenty, perhaps I've been too critical of Wilhelm lately... I hope he does well going forward, same for Keita whenever he plays.

 

 

[Nebrasketball1979]

37 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

 

I've always seen Hoiberg at a 5-6 year type of tenure (it's been leaning much closer to 5 after the first 2 seasons), as treacherous as it's been, that chance for longevity is what we've lacked in our men's athletics as of late. But this doesn't understate how important next season is going to be. Any bit of step back next season is going to raise a lot of eyebrows. But between now and November, at least for me, there's no evaluation or criticisms. But starting in November we must start to see some results come to fruition. 

I hear you and understand the sentiment but we are seeing results in the here and now.  There are 4 games left in the regular season and then the BIG tournament and then, well....

 

Heading into today I thought beating a physical Rutgers team on the road was probably a pipe dream.  So, continuing to puff on that pipe, whose to say this team can't run the table in the regular season.  Three at home and one very difficult game at Iowa who we already trucked.  What if we we get to 17-14 and then win the first two in the BIG tournament. 

 

I am hoping for results this year still.  While still unlikely, it's not as crazy as it was three hours ago.