MINNESOTA GAME DAY THREAD

[Gamafn]

This team was ranked 22 pre-season based on last season and returners, and that was after everyone thought Sam was out for the year.  So the team basically lost AW and gained SH for most of the year, statistically more or less a wash.  While AW’s intangibles may have resulted in a couple more wins, there is much more at issue here.  The keys to taking the next step for this team were:

1) further improvement/ development of the “big three” - Shelley, Markowski and Bourne

2) addition of elite athleticism, especially at point guard

The big 3 have flatlined or regressed, even with Jaz’s spectacular game last night.  And the team has no true point guard, let alone an elitely athletic one.  Recruiting, roster management, development, in-game adjustments all = coaching.

[Merlin]

Yori had top flight point guards—Lindsey Moore and Rachel Theriot were excellent. 

[12dozen]

There is so little information shared regarding Husker WBB, it makes it difficult to give Amy the benefit of the doubt.  Why they don't promote the program more, is a mystery.  Just look at football. Every tidbit of recruiting news, sparks interest. Official visits, offers, camps, events attended, hosting events, etc., Make it public. Every trip to a school, creating relationships, human interest stories, on and on.  All are music to the ears of existing and potential fans. They make an effort to promote. I know WBB is not at the same level as football, but they could learn from them.

 

When our AD was in the process of replacing Scott Frost, he mentioned a few of his thoughts. Does Amy meet this criteria?  She might, but how would we know?

 

 “Great coaches are people of character,” Alberts said. “They’re people managers, they’re culture-builders and they’re grinders; a lot of the great ones don’t have a lot of hobbies because it’s all they know.”

 

 

[All About the Corn]

Having a year like this makes recruiting hard, even in your own backyard. Also those here may look at their options. So what does Trev do? 

[Jakesbff]

He needs to shake something up. This team is underperforming. And it’s baffling. 

[HB]

33 minutes ago, Jakesbff said:

He needs to shake something up. This team is underperforming. And it’s baffling. 

 

I don't think it is baffling.  This staff has always struggled to recruit.    Go through the classes, and see how many busts (every staff has some, but our numbers are quite high).   We lose a ton of head to head matchups with conferences foes when really good players narrow it down to the last 2 or 3 schools.   In-state recruiting has really suffered other than lucking into Markowski late.    The Australia pipeline has been the lone bright spot.    Our bench got outscored 37-3 last night by one of the worst teams in the league.  We don't have enough players for this level.   Losing Weidner isn't an excuse for a complete lack of depth.  I appreciate the player development concerns expressed on here, but I'm mainly in the camp of "recruit much better".

[All About the Corn]

Just a little about Allison Weidner. Before her  injury she was the most athletic player we had. Certainly on par with other players in the conference. Noticed a few tell her good luck with her recovery. KBA reached out to her during warm ups, and Shyanne Sellers post game here in Lincoln stopped by the center huddle to say something to her. That was of course after the game she had in Maryland. She has the respect from other teams that she deserves. Hope to have her back as close to 100% for next year.

[huskerfrank]

Not to split hairs, but Sam, Leigha, Ashtyn, and Mershon were signed while the team was a mess and having a 7 or 8 win season. So sometimes players look at a poor record and think immediate playing time.  Of course now with the portal and no sitting out, all bets are off. in 

[HUD]

In the games we played before Allison's injury including the Kansas game we were 11-3 playing 6 quadrant 1 games (none at home) winning 3 of them.  After her injury we were 4-7 playing 7 quadrant 1 games (3 at home) winning 1 of them. With her we had 0 bad losses and without her we had 2.  In considerable reflection on what has happened to our team after her injury in my thinking it is her defense that we really miss.  As noted we don't have anyone else who can consistently do what she did in stopping drives to the hoop. She has the speed, toughness, desire and hustle to do that.

[12dozen]

28 minutes ago, huskerfrank said:

Not to split hairs, but Sam, Leigha, Ashtyn, and Mershon were signed while the team was a mess and having a 7 or 8 win season. So sometimes players look at a poor record and think immediate playing time.  Of course now with the portal and no sitting out, all bets are off. in 

I think it was 2016/2017, in Amy's first year, we went 7 - 22.  (that team had Shepard, Simon, Cincore, Whitish, Eliely, etc.) In 2017/2018, we went 21-11 and made the big dance. The girls you mention enrolled for the 2018/2019 season (unless the stats I looked at are not accurate).

[huskerfrank]

That's right. The recruiting is a year ahead. Basically all the high school players are committed before their senior season, and therefore also before the college season is played. Those 4 were all committed before the 17-18 season was played and all thought they were joining a 7-22 type of team.

 

I have another thought too. If Michigan State does not make up the game vs Purdue, which they would lose, they will most likely finish 7-10.  We could quite possibly finish 7-11, screwing us  again even though we beat them. Admittedly the reason this time is legitimate when 2 years ago they were just ducking the game as they had nothing to gain and everything to lose, and they would have lost.     

[Tom Jones]

33 minutes ago, HUD said:

n the games we played before Allison's injury including the Kansas game we were 11-3 playing 6 quadrant 1 games (none at home) winning 3 of them.  After her injury we were 4-7 playing 7 quadrant 1 games (3 at home) winning 1 of them. With her we had 0 bad losses and without her we had 2

Before AW's injury we did lose to Creighton 51-77 and Drake 62-80.   Those were bad losses. 

[HUD]

30 minutes ago, Tom Jones said:

Before AW's injury we did lose to Creighton 51-77 and Drake 62-80.   Those were bad losses. 

Bad losses score wise but they were both quadrant one games which if you win really helps but if on the road as they both were they don't hurt your net ratings hardly at all.

[HB]

1 hour ago, HUD said:

In the games we played before Allison's injury including the Kansas game we were 11-3 playing 6 quadrant 1 games (none at home) winning 3 of them.  After her injury we were 4-7 playing 7 quadrant 1 games (3 at home) winning 1 of them. With her we had 0 bad losses and without her we had 2.  In considerable reflection on what has happened to our team after her injury in my thinking it is her defense that we really miss.  As noted we don't have anyone else who can consistently do what she did in stopping drives to the hoop. She has the speed, toughness, desire and hustle to do that.

Why is it that we don’t have “anyone else who can consistently do what she did”?

[Husker22]

Watched the game again and the most notable thing to me was how bad our posts are at defending in space. Markowski and Stewart are so slowwww. Our ball screen defense was incredibly bad, posts were almost always in no mans land. Minnesotas back up big is a walk on that couldnt get playing at time at Sienna and some little school in Illinois but she made Stewart and Markowski look silly a couple times. We gotta get more athletic, thats the bottom line.

[HUD]

1 hour ago, HB said:

Why is it that we don’t have “anyone else who can consistently do what she did”?

Good point.  We seem to be limited on players that can really play defense.  Nicea Eliely was one for 4 years.  Part of playing defense is desire to do so.

[HB]

1 hour ago, HUD said:

Good point.  We seem to be limited on players that can really play defense.  Nicea Eliely was one for 4 years.  Part of playing defense is desire to do so.

And athleticism helps, which has been the subject of recent posts.  Watch film closely and the slow feet are readily apparent, per Husker22 above. 

[caveman]

Jensen, Morgenson, Maly, Ronsiek which one of these are we going to argue has more athleticism than our current roster.  I promise you that Hake, Jaz and Sam have them beat athletically.  Most foot work is how you drill and how consistently you drill.  I will take good footwork and defensive planning over athleticism almost every time

[HB]

3 hours ago, caveman said:

Jensen, Morgenson, Maly, Ronsiek which one of these are we going to argue has more athleticism than our current roster.  I promise you that Hake, Jaz and Sam have them beat athletically.  Most foot work is how you drill and how consistently you drill.  I will take good footwork and defensive planning over athleticism almost every time

 

Yeah, let's keep recruiting the same kids, and stay mired in mediocrity.

[hskr4life]

I try and catch the women any time they are on BTN.  B1G still does a terrible job of getting women's games... and just games in general... on the tube or available to stream (FOR FREE).  But that's another issue.

 

It's unfortunate, because I had really high hopes for the ladies this year.  Especially knowing what was likely to come of the men.  Looking at the rest of the schedule, there is a very good chance that the men and women could have nearly identical records.  Coming into the season, I would have thought that meant the men overachieved. 

[12dozen]

5 hours ago, caveman said:

Jensen, Morgenson, Maly, Ronsiek which one of these are we going to argue has more athleticism than our current roster.  I promise you that Hake, Jaz and Sam have them beat athletically.  Most foot work is how you drill and how consistently you drill.  I will take good footwork and defensive planning over athleticism almost every time

I agree.  Issie runs the court as good as anyone. She is athletic.  Weidner is athletic. Coley and Moriarty are athletic. They just haven't been taught to play under control. As you mention, the entire roster is above average athletes. You don't play Division I ball, and not be.  Teach the fundamentals.  Point guard and post development is concerning.  Please don't waste a talent like Alexis.  Staff needs to "up" their games. 

[All About the Corn]

So I like to watch interactions within our team, our opponent  and with the officials beside watching the action on the court. So I thought it was interesting during the first time out of the Northwestern game the girls was coming back to the bench, Bourne had a nice start to the game, here was coach Mays coming out on the court to talk with Bourne and Issie was not having any of it as she was going right to the bench and there was Mays following her.

  We all have seen Amy go off during the game on calls, pushing it as far as she can without a "T". Wonder if at some point those same officials just tune her out, or make/not make calls based on her interaction with them. 

[Huskerpapa]

A random thought or two:

* you can be supremely athletic and yet be a miserable basketball player;

* you can be as strong as an ox, and not be good at basketball;

* you can be as quick as a cat, but fail on the court;

* you can hit 95 out of a 100 free throws in practice, but fail in games;

* you can be great in 3 point shooting drills, mut miss 75% in games;

* and on and on and on.

 

The point being is that finding the right players, finding the right fit, goes beyond seeing talent; it also includes the mental toughness and the application of talent in practice and games.

 

We can certainly debate the.level of talent this team has.  In my humble opinion they have the talent to compete in arguably the best conference in the country.  I do question their mental toughness though.  We lost one player who likely was the most mentally tough person on the court.  The remainder of the team could likely overcome that physical loss, but they have not recovered that mental edge.

 

We get pressed, how do we react? We have a turnover, how do we react?  We miss an assignment, how do we react?  A player gets knocked on her butt, how does the individual and team react?

 

I still think we are an above average team with a good coach.   A few things must be fixed; but a major overhaul is not necessary.

 

 

[HUD]

I agree totally with Huskerpapa.  Well thought out analysis. 

Edited February 17, 2023 by HUD

[Redhac]

FYI-Bench points and minutes for the last ten games. Not a strength of late.

Last ten games
TEAM Played		Minutes		Bench Points
PS		58		28		Won
OS		51		15		Lost
Purdue		47		23		Won
Maryland		73		21		Lost
Iowa		37		11		Lost
M State		37		16		Won
Nwst		43		15		Won
Ill		48		5		Lost
Mich		40		10		Lost
Minn		28		3		Lost