uneblinstu's postgame chatter : vol 17; ed 19-USC

[hhcdave]

I may have never felt more pain from a loss in my Nebraska basketball life than tonight. 
 

This was a nail in the coffin and now looks like a 6-14 team in league. 
 

There will be no postseason. 
 

How will Fred recruit without a contract extension? And how could you possibly give him one after this year? 
 

He needs one more season at minimum but we have almost nothing worthwhile returning unless the redshirts are good. Connor Essegian can’t start in the Big

10. Berke either isn’t near as good as we thought or he’s being horribly utilized. Or both. 
 

im tired of scramble drills on defense. 
 

im tired of no point guards every year. We have by far the worst point guard play in the big ten. 
 

this loss hurts so much because it feels like the beginning of the end of this era. 
 

and if Fred Hoiberg can’t get it done - who possibly could? 
 

this loss has crushed me. Like legit crushed me. 
 

Tonight was absolutely unacceptable and embarrassing. 
 

but at the end of the day. This team just isn’t good. And it doesn’t appear well

Coached. At all. 
 

but sure Juwan, shoot some more 3’s. 
 

talk me off the ledge. Please. 

[hskr4life]

7 minutes ago, hhcdave said:

I may have never felt more pain from a loss in my Nebraska basketball life than tonight. 
 

This was a nail in the coffin and now looks like a 6-14 team in league. 
 

There will be no postseason. 
 

How will Fred recruit without a contract extension? And how could you possibly give him one after this year? 
 

He needs one more season at minimum but we have almost nothing worthwhile returning unless the redshirts are good. Connor Essegian can’t start in the Big

10. Berke either isn’t near as good as we thought or he’s being horribly utilized. Or both. 
 

im tired of scramble drills on defense. 
 

im tired of no point guards every year. We have by far the worst point guard play in the big ten. 
 

this loss hurts so much because it feels like the beginning of the end of this era. 
 

and if Fred Hoiberg can’t get it done - who possibly could? 
 

this loss has crushed me. Like legit crushed me. 
 

Tonight was absolutely unacceptable and embarrassing. 
 

but at the end of the day. This team just isn’t good. And it doesn’t appear well

Coached. At all. 
 

but sure Juwan, shoot some more 3’s. 
 

talk me off the ledge. Please. 

Right there with you in that, if this season goes where it appears it’s going… next year feels like a “dead man walking” type of year.

[brfrad]

12 minutes ago, hhcdave said:

I may have never felt more pain from a loss in my Nebraska basketball life than tonight. 
 

This was a nail in the coffin and now looks like a 6-14 team in league. 
 

There will be no postseason. 
 

How will Fred recruit without a contract extension? And how could you possibly give him one after this year? 
 

He needs one more season at minimum but we have almost nothing worthwhile returning unless the redshirts are good. Connor Essegian can’t start in the Big

10. Berke either isn’t near as good as we thought or he’s being horribly utilized. Or both. 
 

im tired of scramble drills on defense. 
 

im tired of no point guards every year. We have by far the worst point guard play in the big ten. 
 

this loss hurts so much because it feels like the beginning of the end of this era. 
 

and if Fred Hoiberg can’t get it done - who possibly could? 
 

this loss has crushed me. Like legit crushed me. 
 

Tonight was absolutely unacceptable and embarrassing. 
 

but at the end of the day. This team just isn’t good. And it doesn’t appear well

Coached. At all. 
 

but sure Juwan, shoot some more 3’s. 
 

talk me off the ledge. Please. 

Just look at last year.  All we had coming back was Juwan, Keisei, Sam, J-Law, and CJ. 

 

In this era of the transfer portal, we just need a Brice and Mast to go along with our hopeful returnees.  

 

Our most important recruit is getting Mast.  He spreads the floor, and he is one of our best distributors.   To be honest, trading Mast for Meah, this team is worlds better.

Edited January 23 by brfrad

[hskr4life]

 

[TourneyBound]

I knew it was going to be a long night when the 3 blind mice didn’t blow a whistle once in the first 5 minutes…..  if we aren’t getting calls at rim it usually doesn’t go well

and Brice not getting a shot up until 5 minutes in 1st half. Wtf. Why can we get him coming off some screens or cutting to hoop it seems like he just stands out there waiting for ball

Edited January 23 by TourneyBound

[hhcdave]

Also why is Rollie taking shots two possessions in a row with under 2 minutes in the game? He and Uhlis both belong in the MAC Conference. How can a team with average NIL money coming off the tournament end up with these ham and eggers at point? 
 

and does Berke just go brain dead on d? There’s one on the damn shot clock. Contest the shot!!!!  

[Faux Mike Peltz]

Something is off fellas. The whole mojo. Our lack of leadership. Brice and Juwan are supposedly the leaders, but Brice looks like he’s moping and picking and choosing when he wants to be aggressive. I really liked the foul merchant Brice that was going to the line 7-10 times per game. Now he almost seems like he’s lost a bit of confidence. 
Rollie just doesn’t know how to properly space on fast breaks. Multiple times tonight I saw him go towards his teammate on the fast breaks, that’s basic, upward level basketball 101. Uhlis and Rollie can’t shoot well enough. 
I love Connor but let’s stop the Keisei comparisons. Keisei scored on drives and mid ranges and crazy layups that energized the vault and crushed the other teams morale. We don’t have that this year. No spark plug outside of Sam.

Our bigs are….big. But my goodness they aren’t all that fast/quick and not as tough as I was hoping. 
Fred is going to have to hit the portal and maximize the portal to the absolute max - I personally would have taken Fidler and or Saint over Gavin. Cant have any misses in the portal next year. 

[cozrulz]

1 hour ago, Handy Johnson said:

I can’t decide which is MORE disappointing:

1. The Over Rushed ridiculous Non-Shot to End the Game. 
2. Hearing Brice @ the Presser Trot Out the Old Warhorse listing the games we could’ve/should’ve Won. 

 

I'd go with the 3-point defense with the game tied, under a minute and out of an inbounds with 6 seconds left on the shot clock.

[cozrulz]

1 hour ago, hhcdave said:

this loss has crushed me. Like legit crushed me

 

Not crushed but it is keeping me awake.  Anyways,

 

Next year you would have:

Mast

Essegian

Berke (would only be a Junior)

Hoiberg

Janowski (I kind of wonder if he could have been an extra scorer this year)

Frager

Griffiths (feeling like he'll transfer)

Jacobson

Rhymes

 

So what can we find in the portal?  A couple guards and a forward?

 

I will say just as far as coaching goes maybe we need to show as much patience as Northwestern has with Collins?

 

Our defense needs rethought.  The open threes are a huge problem.  Teams don't even have to work that hard to get them open.

 

Maybe we will win February again?  If we could somehow find one win before the Washington game...  That's where I was looking for the start of a potential win streak and momentum.

 

I just kind of hope we keep competing at this point.

[HuskerActuary]

Hey at least somebody won a Porsche last night

[arliepro]

6 hours ago, hskr4life said:

 

Don't think I've ever seen worse body language at a post game press conference than he and Gary showed last night.

[RedEyedFanatic]

Maybe this is just life in the transfer portal era. This is obviously not the right mix, it was an over correction from last year.  It's like watching football at this point. You just know Brice is going to turn it over in the last minute and we will lose. 

[Cazzie22]

 I don’t think a coaching change will necessarily solve the situation.  Fred stays positive and I don’t believe we have the personnel to run his sets.  We have to get a very good player somewhere to plug in with Mast.  Berke has to learn that the B1G is physical and become physical himself.  
 

I don’t believe the B1G has exceptional talent this year but we have great coaches in this league and the 4 new schools have shown that.  This season seems to be gone and the future is uncertain.  Sorry, Kent P., this is not the year.

[millerhusker]

The Big Ten has a good reputation this year but the eye test says we're losing to some pretty mediocre teams. Rutgers plays garbage basketball. That USC team lost to St. Mary's by like 40 on a neutral court. We're a far cry from where we were 1 month ago.

 

During our hot streak in Dec. our coaches referred to last year's identity of "pretty offense" almost as if it was a bad thing. Give me pretty offense over whatever we are right now. 

 

I don't think our defense is doing anything well at this point. The open threes are obvious, but it starts with not being able to keep ball handlers out of the lane. The stand still, catch and shoot three off a kick out is the most efficient shot in college basketball. And teams are getting a lot of those. We don't get any of those because 1. we don't have a player who can consistently get into the teeth of the defense without getting stripped and/or falling down and 2. we only have two shooters in the rotation - one will always be blanketed and the other has to be ball dominant on this team because Hoiberg can't trust his point guards.

We also aren't securing defensive rebounds, even against smaller teams. 

 

I'm gonna go watch some Rienk Mast highlights. 

[SkersRback]

Our roster can’t be the land of misfits every year and expect to compete in any sort of fashion. But until we prove we can finish better than 15th in the conference who is going to want to play for this program? We’re in purgatory. 

[basketballjones]

8 hours ago, hhcdave said:

I may have never felt more pain from a loss in my Nebraska basketball life than tonight. 
 

This was a nail in the coffin and now looks like a 6-14 team in league. 
 

There will be no postseason. 
 

How will Fred recruit without a contract extension? And how could you possibly give him one after this year? 
 

He needs one more season at minimum but we have almost nothing worthwhile returning unless the redshirts are good. Connor Essegian can’t start in the Big

10. Berke either isn’t near as good as we thought or he’s being horribly utilized. Or both. 
 

im tired of scramble drills on defense. 
 

im tired of no point guards every year. We have by far the worst point guard play in the big ten. 
 

this loss hurts so much because it feels like the beginning of the end of this era. 
 

and if Fred Hoiberg can’t get it done - who possibly could? 
 

this loss has crushed me. Like legit crushed me. 
 

Tonight was absolutely unacceptable and embarrassing. 
 

but at the end of the day. This team just isn’t good. And it doesn’t appear well

Coached. At all. 
 

but sure Juwan, shoot some more 3’s. 
 

talk me off the ledge. Please. 

He has 101 losses now. 

 

His 2nd best year was a "cute" year where we got behind watching a home-town kid and we finished 16-16 with a first round loss to the worst team in the big ten. 

 

His best year still yielded no results and he was clearly unable to capitalize off of it. 

[AGHANSEN]

Brutal loss.

Our defense the final 5 minutes was awful.

USC scored 18 points in the final 5 minutes and the only play they ran was an iso with Claude and we had no one that could guard him. 

Even if we would of got stops we probably would have turned the ball over anyway.  

All of our transfers have under performed. 

We just don't have the dudes. 

[GhostOfJoeMcCray]

8 hours ago, hhcdave said:

talk me off the ledge. Please. 

 

OK, I'll try. You've put yourself through what, 30, 40, 50 seasons of this BS? What's one more season in the grand scheme of things...

[hhcmatt]

Notes from UNL 

 

• The game featured nine ties and10 lead changes, as the largest lead for either team was six points.
• Juwan Gary scored a career-high 27 points, eclipsing his previous career high of 22 points against Minesota on Feb. 25, 2024. Gary posted his third 20-point game of the season and the sixth of his career.
• Gary’s 11 field goals were the most by a Husker this season.
• Brice Williams added 17 points, including 15 in the second half. Williams scored in double figures for the 17th time in 19 games this season.
• Connor Essegian finished with 15 points, his ninth double-figure game off the bench this year. NU now has 20 double-figure efforts from its bench in 2024-25.
• Essegian hit three 3-pointers, marking his eighth game of the season with at least three 3-pointers.
• Rollie Worster tied his season high with six assists while adding six rebounds and four points off the bench.
• Nebraska was efficient from inside the arc, finishing 22-of-31 (71 percent) on 2-point field goals.
• Nebraska was out-rebounded for only the third time in 19 games this season as USC held a 36-31 advantage on the glass.
• Ahron Ulis made his first start as a Husker pm Thursday, as Nebraska used its fourth different lineup of the season

[Sidelines - Nebraska]

1 hour ago, AGHANSEN said:

Brutal loss.

Our defense the final 5 minutes was awful.

USC scored 18 points in the final 5 minutes and the only play they ran was an iso with Claude and we had no one that could guard him. 

Even if we would of got stops we probably would have turned the ball over anyway.  

All of our transfers have under performed. 

We just don't have the dudes. 

I thought Rollie did what he could.  Where we got in trouble was on pick n rolls.  Andrew is lost when defending pick n rolls.  Then they stopped playing drop and hedging to just straight up switching.  Then Claude went off.  Idk none of our bigs seem to know what they are doing when they hedge.  Then they go to drop and we get out of rotation.

[HuskerBB]

Teams have figured out that they just have to throw a blanket around Brice (i.e. having someone assigned to never leave him and grab and body him constantly away from the ball - like a box and one almost) and dare the other guys to score.   Have seen the same thing multiple games and we can't seem to find a way to address it - probably mostly because outside of Connor the rest of the lineup is very mediocre on offense.  

 

I have gotten sick of starting over so I am not going to clamor for a coaching change.   Two years ago we did great with transfers in getting Brice and Mast.   Last year it went the other way - lost more in the portal than we gained.   This will be a huge year in the recruiting front as Brice and Juwan alone are going to be very difficult to replace but we need to find multiple guys who can shoot the ball and at least one who can put up big numbers on the offensive end.    As I said before Gavin being a bust is a killer to this team as we are desparately in need of other quality shooting options - and that was what he was supposed to be.

[Silverbacked1]

Okay so this is the not "Rock Bottom" page yet.  

 

But am hearing that the places we are walking has some big and sharp pebbles.

[Silverbacked1]

45 minutes ago, HuskerBB said:

Teams have figured out that they just have to throw a blanket around Brice (i.e. having someone assigned to never leave him and grab and body him constantly away from the ball - like a box and one almost) and dare the other guys to score.   Have seen the same thing multiple games and we can't seem to find a way to address it - probably mostly because outside of Connor the rest of the lineup is very mediocre on offense.  

 

I have gotten sick of starting over so I am not going to clamor for a coaching change.   Two years ago we did great with transfers in getting Brice and Mast.   Last year it went the other way - lost more in the portal than we gained.   This will be a huge year in the recruiting front as Brice and Juwan alone are going to be very difficult to replace but we need to find multiple guys who can shoot the ball and at least one who can put up big numbers on the offensive end.    As I said before Gavin being a bust is a killer to this team as we are desparately in need of other quality shooting options - and that was what he was supposed to be.

But isn't getting a new coach starting ... over?

[cornfed24-7]

3 hours ago, GhostOfJoeMcCray said:

 

What's one more season in the grand scheme of things...

The menacing straw to the camels back perhaps?

[TourneyBound]

13 hours ago, hhcdave said:

Also why is Rollie taking shots two possessions in a row with under 2 minutes in the game? He and Uhlis both belong in the MAC Conference. How can a team with average NIL money coming off the tournament end up with these ham and eggers at point? 
 

and does Berke just go brain dead on d? There’s one on the damn shot clock. Contest the shot!!!!  

I watched those possessions with Rollie and Brice just stood out beyond 3 point line. No movement nothing from anyone so it felt like Rollie just decided to do something in his own.   Honestly though Rollie had a pretty damn good game last night. It’s pretty sad when your PG is your leading rebounder…. His effort was a lot better than some out there