State of the Team after 8 games

[NUdiehard]

At the start of the season, if someone said Huskers would be 7-1 after 8 games, most would likely have taken that.  Not great, because we would know the loss was most likely to Creighton, but at least the Huskers took care of business in all the other games.  If it was also known that Huskers would win comfortably and beat the spread on most games, that would be a bonus.  With that said, we have now seen enough of this team and the players to get a good feel for what we have and don't have, areas of surprise (in a good way) and areas of concern.  This is my general "state of the team" overview at this stage of the season, feel free to comment or disagree.

 

1.  This team is not as deep as we all hoped/thought coming into the season.  We have 6 legit rotation players (Keisei, JL, Williams, Allick, Mast and Gary).  After that it drops off pretty fast.  Unless CJ is hitting 40+% on his 3s, it is hard to justify his playing time.  He is small, slow and really struggles on defense.  Sam H plays incredibly hard and is scrappy on defense, but he is also small and limited offensively.  Scrappiness only take you so far in the B1G.  But so far, the biggest dropoff has been Boogie.  He is playing decent minutes and averaging a whopping 2.5 pts/game, at 19%FG and 13% (2-15) on 3s, while on defense he is S-L-O-W.  

 

2.  Time for the time/rotation to shorten/change.  CJ, Sam and Boogie's minutes all must decrease, and based on their play, at least one of them should be completely out of the rotation (as of now, that would be Boogie IMO).  On the flip side, time to give Rice some rotation minutes and see what he can do.  If Eli shows he can be a solid contributor, this will likely come at CJ's expense (unless CJ suddenly gets on fire from 3, which he is capable)

 

3.  This is not last year's team (at least not yet).  There is some selfish play, and dare I say there may even be some tension/hostility between certain players.  I thought maybe I was just reading too much into things, but based on other peoples posts, others have observed some of it as well.   

 

4.  Keisei is still the most potent offensive weapon on this team.  And it appears that some players on the team resent this fact.  This must end.  The primary goal should be to get Keisei as many good/open looks as possible.  Keisei should not be having to do constant step-back's to get open, nor should he have to constantly create shots off the dribble.  Last year, his teammates ran sets and set picks to get him open looks, time for this year's teammates to do the same.

 

5.  Everyone loves Allick and his effort, but he is what he is.  The experiment of having his shoot multiple 3s each game has to end.  And frankly, he should never be the offensive focal point, whether inside or outside.  Have others noticed he has a bit of "butter" hands?  He rarely catches the ball cleanly, whether  by pass or rebound.  Too much risk going into him too often, only when he is wide open and has a clear advantage.

 

6.  JL deserves considerable praise for all his work in converting to PG, and overall, he has been pretty solid in that role.   But why oh why did his conversion to PG result in him forgetting how to shoot?  Man, what an unfortunate tangent  He's playing massive minutes yet averaging only 4 points per game on 32% FG and 20% on 3s (5-25).  

 

7.  Many people believe today's modern college basketball is largely guard-oriented.  Our 3 primary guards (JL, Sam and Boogie) are averaging 4.0, 2.5 and 2.4 points per game, and 2 of those 3 (JL and Boogie) on atrocious shooting percentage.  This just isn't going to get it done.  Creighton wasn't even guarding JL at the 3.  Same with Boogie.  This results in a clogged paint, or more emphasis on Keisei, making things significantly more difficult for all the other players. 

 

8.  Right now, the only players on this team who I feel confident shooting a 3 are Keisei, Williams, Mast and Sam.  If Rice was playing, I would probably add him to the list.  I really want to add CJ, but man he just is so inconsistent.  We wanted to believe we could play 5 out, but we can't.  It is not reality at this time.  

 

8.  Wrong players shooting the wrong shots.  There have been too many games in which Gary, or Allick or Boogie shot more 3s than Keisei or Williams.  Last game, Allick and Gary combined for more 3s (6) than Keisei and Williams combined.  And McDermott laughed all the way to a 30 point victory.  I realize the defensive emphasis was on Keisei and Williams, but this goes back to the team running an offense as team designed to get the best shooters the best shots.  

 

9.  Overall, this team is slow and rather unathletic.  Even against teams like Duquesne, this was evident.  Which means we have to beat teams with skill, teamwork and shooting.  So far, the shooting has been a let down, but some of this is because they still are not playing 100% as a team.

 

10.  Before the season I stated I was curious about Williams because I had never seen him play.  His stats seemed solid, yet he wasn't a starter at Charlotte.  So far, I still am curious.  What is he?  He definitely has been "solid".  But can he be bettter?  Once again, his stats are excellent (14.6 pts/game on 45/42/90).  But does he have a killer instinct.  Can he take his game to the next level in the big games (had only 6 points vs. Creighton).  Many call him "mature", "disciplined", etc.  I hope it is all these "positive" attributes, but it is hard to know based on his demeanor.  He also is the player that seems to have an issue with Keisei.  

 

11.  Time for Fred to start playing the top 6 more minutes per game.  He is treating the players like they are made of glass.  Keisei is being subbed out within the first 5 minutes of the game.  No players are playing more than 28-30 minutes?  Versus Creighton, Williams only played 21 minutes and Keisei only 25.  I realize it was a blowout, but in contrast, Creighton had players playing 33, 33, 32, 28, 28 minutes.   Nebraska only had one player with more than 28 minutes (JL with 29).  

 

12.  The rebounding in the last 3 games has been a massive disappointment.  Is this a bad fluke, or is it the reality of this team.  Some of this goes back to the lack of athleticism of the players, but some of it is because of lack of block outs, positioning, and just flat out fighting for rebounds.  Can they get the rebounding mojo back, or will they continue to get dominated by the bigger and more athletic teams in the B1G?

 

 

[49r]

We were probably hurt more by Ulis losing eligibility than we would like to admit.

[Handy Johnson]

I wouldn’t mind seeing Rice get some more minutes & Brice needs to “step up” when the Bright Lights come on. 

[Ron Mexico]

22 minutes ago, NUdiehard said:

At the start of the season, if someone said Huskers would be 7-1 after 8 games, most would likely have taken that.  Not great, because we would know the loss was most likely to Creighton, but at least the Huskers took care of business in all the other games.  If it was also known that Huskers would win comfortably and beat the spread on most games, that would be a bonus.  With that said, we have now seen enough of this team and the players to get a good feel for what we have and don't have, areas of surprise (in a good way) and areas of concern.  This is my general "state of the team" overview at this stage of the season, feel free to comment or disagree.

 

1.  This team is not as deep as we all hoped/thought coming into the season.  We have 6 legit rotation players (Keisei, JL, Williams, Allick, Mast and Gary).  After that it drops off pretty fast.  Unless CJ is hitting 40+% on his 3s, it is hard to justify his playing time.  He is small, slow and really struggles on defense.  Sam H plays incredibly hard and is scrappy on defense, but he is also small and limited offensively.  Scrappiness only take you so far in the B1G.  But so far, the biggest dropoff has been Boogie.  He is playing decent minutes and averaging a whopping 2.5 pts/game, at 19%FG and 13% (2-15) on 3s, while on defense he is S-L-O-W.  

 

2.  Time for the time/rotation to shorten/change.  CJ, Sam and Boogie's minutes all must decrease, and based on their play, at least one of them should be completely out of the rotation (as of now, that would be Boogie IMO).  On the flip side, time to give Rice some rotation minutes and see what he can do.  If Eli shows he can be a solid contributor, this will likely come at CJ's expense (unless CJ suddenly gets on fire from 3, which he is capable)

 

3.  This is not last year's team (at least not yet).  There is some selfish play, and dare I say there may even be some tension/hostility between certain players.  I thought maybe I was just reading too much into things, but based on other peoples posts, others have observed some of it as well.   

 

4.  Keisei is still the most potent offensive weapon on this team.  And it appears that some players on the team resent this fact.  This must end.  The primary goal should be to get Keisei as many good/open looks as possible.  Keisei should not be having to do constant step-back's to get open, nor should he have to constantly create shots off the dribble.  Last year, his teammates ran sets and set picks to get him open looks, time for this year's teammates to do the same.

 

5.  Everyone loves Allick and his effort, but he is what he is.  The experiment of having his shoot multiple 3s each game has to end.  And frankly, he should never be the offensive focal point, whether inside or outside.  Have others noticed he has a bit of "butter" hands?  He rarely catches the ball cleanly, whether  by pass or rebound.  Too much risk going into him too often, only when he is wide open and has a clear advantage.

 

6.  JL deserves considerable praise for all his work in converting to PG, and overall, he has been pretty solid in that role.   But why oh why did his conversion to PG result in him forgetting how to shoot?  Man, what an unfortunate tangent  He's playing massive minutes yet averaging only 4 points per game on 32% FG and 20% on 3s (5-25).  

 

7.  Many people believe today's modern college basketball is largely guard-oriented.  Our 3 primary guards (JL, Sam and Boogie) are averaging 4.0, 2.5 and 2.4 points per game, and 2 of those 3 (JL and Boogie) on atrocious shooting percentage.  This just isn't going to get it done.  Creighton wasn't even guarding JL at the 3.  Same with Boogie.  This results in a clogged paint, or more emphasis on Keisei, making things significantly more difficult for all the other players. 

 

8.  Right now, the only players on this team who I feel confident shooting a 3 are Keisei, Williams, Mast and Sam.  If Rice was playing, I would probably add him to the list.  I really want to add CJ, but man he just is so inconsistent.  We wanted to believe we could play 5 out, but we can't.  It is not reality at this time.  

 

8.  Wrong players shooting the wrong shots.  There have been too many games in which Gary, or Allick or Boogie shot more 3s than Keisei or Williams.  Last game, Allick and Gary combined for more 3s (6) than Keisei and Williams combined.  And McDermott laughed all the way to a 30 point victory.  I realize the defensive emphasis was on Keisei and Williams, but this goes back to the team running an offense as team designed to get the best shooters the best shots.  

 

9.  Overall, this team is slow and rather unathletic.  Even against teams like Duquesne, this was evident.  Which means we have to beat teams with skill, teamwork and shooting.  So far, the shooting has been a let down, but some of this is because they still are not playing 100% as a team.

 

10.  Before the season I stated I was curious about Williams because I had never seen him play.  His stats seemed solid, yet he wasn't a starter at Charlotte.  So far, I still am curious.  What is he?  He definitely has been "solid".  But can he be bettter?  Once again, his stats are excellent (14.6 pts/game on 45/42/90).  But does he have a killer instinct.  Can he take his game to the next level in the big games (had only 6 points vs. Creighton).  Many call him "mature", "disciplined", etc.  I hope it is all these "positive" attributes, but it is hard to know based on his demeanor.  He also is the player that seems to have an issue with Keisei.  

 

11.  Time for Fred to start playing the top 6 more minutes per game.  He is treating the players like they are made of glass.  Keisei is being subbed out within the first 5 minutes of the game.  No players are playing more than 28-30 minutes?  Versus Creighton, Williams only played 21 minutes and Keisei only 25.  I realize it was a blowout, but in contrast, Creighton had players playing 33, 33, 32, 28, 28 minutes.   Nebraska only had one player with more than 28 minutes (JL with 29).  

 

12.  The rebounding in the last 3 games has been a massive disappointment.  Is this a bad fluke, or is it the reality of this team.  Some of this goes back to the lack of athleticism of the players, but some of it is because of lack of block outs, positioning, and just flat out fighting for rebounds.  Can they get the rebounding mojo back, or will they continue to get dominated by the bigger and more athletic teams in the B1G?

 

 

Agree:

1. Shorten rotation by a player, that player being Colemen.

2. More minutes for RM, BW, KT, and JL.

3. Not as deep as we like but deep enough with 2 very experienced players coming of the bench.

4. Wrong people shooting 3's Sasquatch was daring Allick to take 3's. 

Diagree:

1. This team is not slow or unathletic

2. Disagree on your assessment of SH. 

 

Think this was a game where the moment was to big for the team. This is what you get when the roster is essentially very year. Need to have strong showing 

In the second half, instead we reverted to year 2 offense where everyone was chucking it up. That is completely on HCFH. He needed to settle the team down and tell them to keep playing w/in the offense.  What happened to our defense? Should not let a one player go off on 3's that way. We are much better team than that.

 

I was really surprised by how poorly both RM and BW played. RM was not pushing or sealing his man off on rebounds. Played soft. BW, looked lost at times and not confident.

 

Overall I hope this was just a blip. Very poor coaching job by HCFH and his staff. Can't let a game get away like that.

We seem to invent new ways to embarrass ourselves playing against Creighton.

 

Time to move onto Minny.

 

 

 

 

[Faux Mike Peltz]

I had to hear about this game most of my work day from dozens of bluejay fans.

 

The two main themes:

Fred got outcoached

Nebraska’s players looked nervous outside of KT. 
 

I would have to agree.

 

And at home too - SMH

[Ron Mexico]

1 hour ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

I had to hear about this game most of my work day from dozens of bluejay fans.

 

The two main themes:

Fred got outcoached

Nebraska’s players looked nervous outside of KT. 
 

I would have to agree.

 

And at home too - SMH

I'm going to say it... HCFH needs to get into at least the NIT or he should be let go, and even then, unless it's the NCAA, it should be strongly considered.

IMO, he's coaching for his job this year.

I don't care if he shows some incremental improvement again.

If he doesn't make a post season this will be his 5th consecutive year.

Tim Miles was here 7 yrs and made a post season in 3 of those years including his final 2 years.

Doc Sadler in 6yrs made 3 postseasons.

Barry Collier in 6yrs made 2 postseasons including his final year.

 

From the '00-'01 season until now (4 coaches) we have only had 2 seasons where we had a winning conference record.

We went to NCAA's for one of those and the other we didn't. The second one is the biggest screw job ever by the committee and I'll go to my grave believing that one.

During that same time span we've had 11 losing records and 2 where we where .500.

Doc had one season where we where .500 and Miles has both of those seasons where he had a winning conference record, and for him it was either feast or famine.

 

Seeing multiple Nebraska kids on the CU roster and one of them absolutely go off is sickening. I don't care about the circumstances of how they ended up there. 

We need to lock down the state. I know that CU is just one game, however we need to be better prepared. This game, like it or not, needs to be treated like a true rivalry. 

Our record playing them through Collier ('00-'01) to present ('23-'24) is abysmal. 

This loss is embarrassing and should NEVER happen...period.

I'm tired of year over year us not being competitive in this game. Cut the X hype videos and win the damn game or at least be competitive.

 

We have everything in place to have a consistent winning program and with NIL that tilts the scale even more in our favor.

Speaking of of NIL, every one on this board should be donation to 1890. I currently give $20/month and plan to increase that by $10/month each year going forward.

This has a direct impact on us being able to compete for top talent both HS and in the portal.

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Ron Mexico

[AuroranHusker]

1 hour ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

I had to hear about this game most of my work day from dozens of bluejay fans.

 

The two main themes:

Fred got outcoached

Nebraska’s players looked nervous outside of KT. 
 

I would have to agree.

 

And at home too - SMH

 

Sadly true, it happens. Hope they all learned a valuable lesson yesterday. Take care of biz in the Barn on Weds. Move on, that's the key to dealing with a poor all-around game.

[demone]

Really hard for me to fully judge at this point having only been able to watch a few games; however, I do remain sadly skeptical of this team’s season long prognosis. 

 

Concern remains that HCFH will not permanently adapt to what it takes to win at this level. The most recent example is the ridiculous game plans on offense & defense against Lord Voldemort. He wants to speed up and try to outscore people. He has not had a single team talented enough to do it consistently but that’s his preference, his system and try as he might, he can’t get away from it.

 

I was hopeful that he had “seen the light” after last year - and I hope he does before it’s too late this year. I fully admit recency bias after Sunday and we’ll know a lot more after the next 2 games. I want this to work in the worst way. I am so tired of the coaching carousel.

[hskr4life]

I’ll be completely honest, I don’t feel we have enough info yet to accurately say… at least not for me.

 

The Creighton game sucked, but it’s a wonkey game all together.  It gets a little extra umph because of the situation.  It’s a rivalry. Blue state/red state. I could go on and on.  Anything can happen in that game and it did.  
 

I feel like the next three will tell us

more than the previous one about how this team might fare this season.  Not every game is going to have the local media attention and umph that Sunday did.

 

We started out 7-0 which most teams would have with our schedule.  But we’ve also looked good doing so.  We looked like an NCAA team in those wins.  There weren’t close games that came down to the wire.   We dominated the first 7 which most NCAA teams would also do.  But just your run of the mill Power 5 team probably has 1 to 2 of those games closer than it should have been.

 

The next three are all winnable and also all loseable.  They are games that an NCAA lock probably goes 2-1 or 3-0 in.  They are games that a bubble team will need to win at least 1.

 

CU sucked, but, at least for me, I can’t say what the state of the team

is just yet.  We’ve done what we needed to against lower tier competition AND lost Sunday while looking ugly doing so.

Edited December 5, 2023 by hskr4life

[thrasher31]

24 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

I’ll be completely honest, I don’t feel we have enough info yet to accurately say… at least not for me.

 

The Creighton game sucked, but it’s a wonkey game all together.  It gets a little extra umph because of the situation.  It’s a rivalry. Blue state/red state. I could go one.  Anything can happen in that game and it did.  
 

I feel like the next three will tell us

more than the previous one about how this team might fare this season.  Not every game is going to have the local media attention and umph that Sunday did.

 

We started out 7-0 which most teams would have with our schedule.  But we’ve also looked good doing so.  We looked like an NCAA team in those wins.  There weren’t close games that came down to the wire.   We dominated the first 7 which most NCAA teams would also do.  But just your run of the mill Power 5 team probably has 1 to 2 of those games closer than it should have been.

 

The next three are all winnable and also all loseable.  They are games that an NCAA lock probably goes 2-1 or 3-0 in.  They are games that a bubble team will need to win at least 1.

 

CU sucked, but, at least for me, I can’t say what the state of the team

is just yet.  We’ve done what we needed to against lower tier competition AND lost Sunday while looking ugly doing so.

Very level headed and I agree honestly. All 3 coming up are winnable in my eyes, and they should go at minimum 2-1 imo. These should be a better sign of the team as you said. 

 

We probably won't see a team that shoots as good as creighton on the schedule and only team that's as good as them is Purdue. 

 

Very hard for me to read into anything yet 

[OmahaHusker]

35 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

I’ll be completely honest, I don’t feel we have enough info yet to accurately say… at least not for me.

 

The Creighton game sucked, but it’s a wonkey game all together.  It gets a little extra umph because of the situation.  It’s a rivalry. Blue state/red state. I could go one.  Anything can happen in that game and it did.  
 

I feel like the next three will tell us

more than the previous one about how this team might fare this season.  Not every game is going to have the local media attention and umph that Sunday did.

 

We started out 7-0 which most teams would have with our schedule.  But we’ve also looked good doing so.  We looked like an NCAA team in those wins.  There weren’t close games that came down to the wire.   We dominated the first 7 which most NCAA teams would also do.  But just your run of the mill Power 5 team probably has 1 to 2 of those games closer than it should have been.

 

The next three are all winnable and also all loseable.  They are games that an NCAA lock probably goes 2-1 or 3-0 in.  They are games that a bubble team will need to win at least 1.

 

CU sucked, but, at least for me, I can’t say what the state of the team

is just yet.  We’ve done what we needed to against lower tier competition AND lost Sunday while looking ugly doing so.

 

All of Mast's 3 PT looks looked looked great off the release. I know you have to make them, but they were great looks. A couple more of those go in with what the score was at the time and the game's changed. 

 

Allick, on the other hand, needs to forget the 3 ball. Take a couple dribbles in and spray or give it up and set a screen for somebody and crash the board. You can't have his 3 PT shot basically become a turnover against good teams. 

[Ron Mexico]

1 hour ago, OmahaHusker said:

 

All of Mast's 3 PT looks looked looked great off the release. I know you have to make them, but they were great looks. A couple more of those go in with what the score was at the time and the game's changed. 

 

Allick, on the other hand, needs to forget the 3 ball. Take a couple dribbles in and spray or give it up and set a screen for somebody and crash the board. You can't have his 3 PT shot basically become a turnover against good teams. 

Defiantly agree about Allick. Mast shooting '3's should be limited.

I liked what I saw for the first 7 games, especially defensively. 

We played the whole 2nd half, on both offense and defense out of control. HCFH should have put a stop to that. 

[OmahaHusker]

1 hour ago, Ron Mexico said:

Defiantly agree about Allick. Mast shooting '3's should be limited.

I liked what I saw for the first 7 games, especially defensively. 

We played the whole 2nd half, on both offense and defense out of control. HCFH should have put a stop to that. 

 

Definitely needed to make more of an effort to slow it down. Seemed like we wanted to run, run, run, and that's what they wanted. 

[TourneyBound]

On 12/4/2023 at 7:38 PM, NUdiehard said:

At the start of the season, if someone said Huskers would be 7-1 after 8 games, most would likely have taken that.  Not great, because we would know the loss was most likely to Creighton, but at least the Huskers took care of business in all the other games.  If it was also known that Huskers would win comfortably and beat the spread on most games, that would be a bonus.  With that said, we have now seen enough of this team and the players to get a good feel for what we have and don't have, areas of surprise (in a good way) and areas of concern.  This is my general "state of the team" overview at this stage of the season, feel free to comment or disagree.

 

1.  This team is not as deep as we all hoped/thought coming into the season.  We have 6 legit rotation players (Keisei, JL, Williams, Allick, Mast and Gary).  After that it drops off pretty fast.  Unless CJ is hitting 40+% on his 3s, it is hard to justify his playing time.  He is small, slow and really struggles on defense.  Sam H plays incredibly hard and is scrappy on defense, but he is also small and limited offensively.  Scrappiness only take you so far in the B1G.  But so far, the biggest dropoff has been Boogie.  He is playing decent minutes and averaging a whopping 2.5 pts/game, at 19%FG and 13% (2-15) on 3s, while on defense he is S-L-O-W.  

 

2.  Time for the time/rotation to shorten/change.  CJ, Sam and Boogie's minutes all must decrease, and based on their play, at least one of them should be completely out of the rotation (as of now, that would be Boogie IMO).  On the flip side, time to give Rice some rotation minutes and see what he can do.  If Eli shows he can be a solid contributor, this will likely come at CJ's expense (unless CJ suddenly gets on fire from 3, which he is capable)

 

3.  This is not last year's team (at least not yet).  There is some selfish play, and dare I say there may even be some tension/hostility between certain players.  I thought maybe I was just reading too much into things, but based on other peoples posts, others have observed some of it as well.   

 

4.  Keisei is still the most potent offensive weapon on this team.  And it appears that some players on the team resent this fact.  This must end.  The primary goal should be to get Keisei as many good/open looks as possible.  Keisei should not be having to do constant step-back's to get open, nor should he have to constantly create shots off the dribble.  Last year, his teammates ran sets and set picks to get him open looks, time for this year's teammates to do the same.

 

5.  Everyone loves Allick and his effort, but he is what he is.  The experiment of having his shoot multiple 3s each game has to end.  And frankly, he should never be the offensive focal point, whether inside or outside.  Have others noticed he has a bit of "butter" hands?  He rarely catches the ball cleanly, whether  by pass or rebound.  Too much risk going into him too often, only when he is wide open and has a clear advantage.

 

6.  JL deserves considerable praise for all his work in converting to PG, and overall, he has been pretty solid in that role.   But why oh why did his conversion to PG result in him forgetting how to shoot?  Man, what an unfortunate tangent  He's playing massive minutes yet averaging only 4 points per game on 32% FG and 20% on 3s (5-25).  

 

7.  Many people believe today's modern college basketball is largely guard-oriented.  Our 3 primary guards (JL, Sam and Boogie) are averaging 4.0, 2.5 and 2.4 points per game, and 2 of those 3 (JL and Boogie) on atrocious shooting percentage.  This just isn't going to get it done.  Creighton wasn't even guarding JL at the 3.  Same with Boogie.  This results in a clogged paint, or more emphasis on Keisei, making things significantly more difficult for all the other players. 

 

8.  Right now, the only players on this team who I feel confident shooting a 3 are Keisei, Williams, Mast and Sam.  If Rice was playing, I would probably add him to the list.  I really want to add CJ, but man he just is so inconsistent.  We wanted to believe we could play 5 out, but we can't.  It is not reality at this time.  

 

8.  Wrong players shooting the wrong shots.  There have been too many games in which Gary, or Allick or Boogie shot more 3s than Keisei or Williams.  Last game, Allick and Gary combined for more 3s (6) than Keisei and Williams combined.  And McDermott laughed all the way to a 30 point victory.  I realize the defensive emphasis was on Keisei and Williams, but this goes back to the team running an offense as team designed to get the best shooters the best shots.  

 

9.  Overall, this team is slow and rather unathletic.  Even against teams like Duquesne, this was evident.  Which means we have to beat teams with skill, teamwork and shooting.  So far, the shooting has been a let down, but some of this is because they still are not playing 100% as a team.

 

10.  Before the season I stated I was curious about Williams because I had never seen him play.  His stats seemed solid, yet he wasn't a starter at Charlotte.  So far, I still am curious.  What is he?  He definitely has been "solid".  But can he be bettter?  Once again, his stats are excellent (14.6 pts/game on 45/42/90).  But does he have a killer instinct.  Can he take his game to the next level in the big games (had only 6 points vs. Creighton).  Many call him "mature", "disciplined", etc.  I hope it is all these "positive" attributes, but it is hard to know based on his demeanor.  He also is the player that seems to have an issue with Keisei.  

 

11.  Time for Fred to start playing the top 6 more minutes per game.  He is treating the players like they are made of glass.  Keisei is being subbed out within the first 5 minutes of the game.  No players are playing more than 28-30 minutes?  Versus Creighton, Williams only played 21 minutes and Keisei only 25.  I realize it was a blowout, but in contrast, Creighton had players playing 33, 33, 32, 28, 28 minutes.   Nebraska only had one player with more than 28 minutes (JL with 29).  

 

12.  The rebounding in the last 3 games has been a massive disappointment.  Is this a bad fluke, or is it the reality of this team.  Some of this goes back to the lack of athleticism of the players, but some of it is because of lack of block outs, positioning, and just flat out fighting for rebounds.  Can they get the rebounding mojo back, or will they continue to get dominated by the bigger and more athletic teams in the B1G?

 

 

Well said!

[hhcmatt]

We have 3 tough opponents in a row....I can't really see the staff making any sort of knee-jerk changes to this team that have just as much of a chance at backfiring as they do at working.  At this point in the season it's about embracing that you are a defensive team built on scheme and effort and keeping locked in because you can control that. 

[tcp]

On 12/5/2023 at 5:25 AM, demone said:

I am so tired of the coaching carousel.

 

I'm so tired of choosing *poorly* on the coaching carousel. 

 

The one we need is out there. Just gotta land the sucker. It's like fly fishing for Nessie. The targets big enough and we can't miss what we're looking for, but damn if we just don't have a big enough hook for the sucker. 

[BjoeHusker]

I’d really like to see Brice take more shots. 

[thrasher31]

6 minutes ago, BjoeHusker said:

I’d really like to see Brice take more shots. 

He's been too passive for my liking also. He's trying to balance helping run the offense with creating himself, so I kinda get it? And finding his spots. But I would like to see more offensive aggression from him overall. 

[cipsucks]

On 12/4/2023 at 10:16 PM, Ron Mexico said:

I'm going to say it... HCFH needs to get into at least the NIT or he should be let go, and even then, unless it's the NCAA, it should be strongly considered.

IMO, he's coaching for his job this year.

I don't care if he shows some incremental improvement again.

If he doesn't make a post season this will be his 5th consecutive year.

Tim Miles was here 7 yrs and made a post season in 3 of those years including his final 2 years.

Doc Sadler in 6yrs made 3 postseasons.

Barry Collier in 6yrs made 2 postseasons including his final year.

 

From the '00-'01 season until now (4 coaches) we have only had 2 seasons where we had a winning conference record.

We went to NCAA's for one of those and the other we didn't. The second one is the biggest screw job ever by the committee and I'll go to my grave believing that one.

During that same time span we've had 11 losing records and 2 where we where .500.

Doc had one season where we where .500 and Miles has both of those seasons where he had a winning conference record, and for him it was either feast or famine.

 

Seeing multiple Nebraska kids on the CU roster and one of them absolutely go off is sickening. I don't care about the circumstances of how they ended up there. 

We need to lock down the state. I know that CU is just one game, however we need to be better prepared. This game, like it or not, needs to be treated like a true rivalry. 

Our record playing them through Collier ('00-'01) to present ('23-'24) is abysmal. 

This loss is embarrassing and should NEVER happen...period.

I'm tired of year over year us not being competitive in this game. Cut the X hype videos and win the damn game or at least be competitive.

 

We have everything in place to have a consistent winning program and with NIL that tilts the scale even more in our favor.

Speaking of of NIL, every one on this board should be donation to 1890. I currently give $20/month and plan to increase that by $10/month each year going forward.

This has a direct impact on us being able to compete for top talent both HS and in the portal.

 

 

 

 

I'm not going to disagree with your points. Valid. If you really go back to where the train went off the tracks, it was Danny's firing and hiring Collier. I don't care he made it to 2 NITs. He screwed this program over royally. His last year wasn't an NIT berth, his last year was Doc's first. He left this program in shambles. I admire Doc for what he did here. 

 

I'm hoping you're not including Nick Bahe on the multiple kids on the Creighton roster. Nebraska has had an historically tough time recruiting Omaha.  Go back to Mike McGee.  Fast forward to Ron Kellogg, Kerry Trotter and Vic Lazzaretti. Cedric Hunter.  It sucks Scheireman went to Creighton. Oh well.

 

1890 has a tough road ahead.  The face of that business is not as popular as he thinks.  Just sayin'...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nebrasketball1979]

19 minutes ago, cipsucks said:

1890 has a tough road ahead.  The face of that business is not as popular as he thinks.  Just sayin'...

 

Well, the NCAA proposal regarding what basically is a "pay for play" model could ultimately rinder these collectives obsolete in short order.  Some semblance of that proposal will pass in light of mounting pressure from Congress and various lawsuits relating to athletes and the employee/employer definition.  Who knows how this shakes out but don't be surprised if the well-funded Universities absorb their collectives at some point in the coming years and have that money put in some sort of trust.  The below article is a good read:

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-proposing-new-college-athletics-subdivision-rooted-in-direct-athlete-compensation-145051537.html

[Dead Dog Alley]

3 hours ago, tcp said:

 

I'm so tired of choosing *poorly* on the coaching carousel. 

 

The one we need is out there. Just gotta land the sucker. It's like fly fishing for Nessie. The targets big enough and we can't miss what we're looking for, but damn if we just don't have a big enough hook for the sucker. 

 

I don't think Trev wants to make many of these calls:

 

[thrasher31]

3 hours ago, thrasher31 said:

He's been too passive for my liking also. He's trying to balance helping run the offense with creating himself, so I kinda get it? And finding his spots. But I would like to see more offensive aggression from him overall. 

He heard me. Brice looks incredible

[cornfed24-7]

2 hours ago, Nebrasketball1979 said:

 

Well, the NCAA proposal regarding what basically is a "pay for play" model could ultimately rinder these collectives obsolete in short order.  Some semblance of that proposal will pass in light of mounting pressure from Congress and various lawsuits relating to athletes and the employee/employer definition.  Who knows how this shakes out but don't be surprised if the well-funded Universities absorb their collectives at some point in the coming years and have that money put in some sort of trust.  The below article is a good read:

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-proposing-new-college-athletics-subdivision-rooted-in-direct-athlete-compensation-145051537.html

You gonna have a hard time convincing me that athletes are going to agree to give up their individual rights to NIL. And you're gonna have an even harder time convincing me that courts would rule against individual athletes owning their rights. 

[basketballjones]

It’s not good after 9!

[NUtball]

On 12/4/2023 at 11:16 PM, Ron Mexico said:

I'm going to say it... HCFH needs to get into at least the NIT or he should be let go, and even then, unless it's the NCAA, it should be strongly considered.

IMO, he's coaching for his job this year.

I don't care if he shows some incremental improvement again.

If he doesn't make a post season this will be his 5th consecutive year.

 

 

 

I really wanted Hoiberg to succeed.  However, after the 2nd half performance against the formerly worst team in the conference (Nebrasketball has now firmly grasped that title), he deserves to be fired.  Worst exhibition of basketball I've seen in a long, long time.  If you can't find a way to contain Ola-Joseph...ooof.  Can I change my conference win total prediction to 0?  This team is horrible.