uneblinstu's postgame chatter : vol 17; ed 26-Northwestern

[Huskerpapa]

I wonder how many bunnies were missed by both teams?

We struggled mightily in the first half; but were much better in the second half.

Here is the deal, we have a bad habit of finessing the ball to the rim.  Not sure why; but is quite obvious.  When we go balls-to-the-wall to the hoop, we have much better luck.

[royalfan]

Anyone complaining about officiating is simply not evaluating it from a fair standpoint.  We got several generous whistles when we were down huge that kept us in reasonable touch.  
 

was an absolutely horrific game plan going in and the effort matched it.  Essegian willingness to man up on the glass and our defense keeping better balance in second half were huge.  Very lucky to walk out if there with a win against a terrible team.  

Edited yesterday at 01:37 AM by royalfan

[AuroranHusker]

When the Huskers were getting smoked, the rebounding was 27-7 in favor of Northwestern. The remainder of the game was a slim Nebraska margin (20-19) in rebounding. Northwestern had a huge volume of shots, but Ty Berry not scoring in the final 15 min. of game action was essentially the difference today. He had a season-high 23 points in the first 25 min. of the game, then ZILCH.

 

[Huskerpapa]

 

[hhcmatt]

Box Score

 

[Dead Dog Alley]

3 hours ago, HuskerBB said:

 

P.S.    Maybe just a pet peeve of mine - but would be "nice" if board members could try to remember he spells his name Brice - not Bryce :)

 

 

 

 

Brice is 15 months older than Bryce, yet Brice's final year of college is three years after Bryce's.  It will be interesting if Brice ever gets to match up against Bryce in the future.

[hal9000]

16 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

 

Better his hand than his heart.

[HuskerFever]

36 minutes ago, royalfan said:

Anyone complaining about officiating is simply not evaluating it from a fair standpoint.  We got several generous whistles when we were down huge that kept us in reasonable touch.  
 

was an absolutely horrific game plan going in and the effort matched it.  Essegian willingness to man up on the glass and our defense keeping better balance in second half were huge.  Very lucky to walk out if there with a win against a terrible team.  

 

The fact that was a Q1 win, and given how bad Northwestern is, is astonishing. Does not compute.

[hskr4life]

6 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

 

The fact that was a Q1 win, and given how bad Northwestern is, is astonishing. Does not compute.

 

They are one of those teams that are weird when it comes to the NET and metrics. Really their best win is either Maryland or Illinois at home. But outside of that, they lost all of their better Non-Con games and haven't done squat in conference. 

[demone]

Team showed a lot of guts to make that comeback and I’m very happy with the win, regardless of how it came about. I do struggle to understand how a team with this level of experience requires the head coach to jump their a**es at halftime and break his hand on a whiteboard in order to get the fire lit.

[AuroranHusker]

32 minutes ago, Dead Dog Alley said:

 

Brice is 15 months older than Bryce, yet Brice's final year of college is three years after Bryce's.  It will be interesting if Brice ever gets to match up against Bryce in the future.

 

That's a wild stat, for sure. I hope Brice and Bryce can match up in the NBA.

 

[AuroranHusker]

5 minutes ago, demone said:

Team showed a lot of guts to make that comeback and I’m very happy with the win, regardless of how it came about. I do struggle to understand how a team with this level of experience requires the head coach to jump their a**es at halftime and break his hand on a whiteboard in order to get the fire lit.

 

Their sense of urgency is noticeable when the fire is lit, however. I just wish they'd turn it on from the opening jump.

 

[Dean Smith]

1 hour ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

That’s the thing that won’t show up on the stat sheet, how many altered and affected shots Braxton causes, shoot, even giving guys second thoughts about driving to the rim too deep because he’s waiting down low. It’s like having a stud cornerback who teams don’t throw to often - I think he brings a lot of value. I also think the lob from the lick and roll is there a lot more than we look for it. Feel like he should have a ton of confidence heading to happy Valley

The lob was an ATO involving Essegian back screening the ball screener aka Braxton 

[demone]

5 minutes ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

Their sense of urgency is noticeable when the fire is lit, however. I just wish they'd turn it on from the opening jump.

 

 

I agree. IMO the players know (or should) by this point in the season what they need to do to win every time they step on the court. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to consistently own that responsibility. If it requires FH to light the fire, consistently performing well is simply not sustainable.

 

Again, it was a great comeback and I’m very happy for the win. Don’t want to take away from that - but man, this team is mind boggling sometimes.

[AuroranHusker]

3 minutes ago, demone said:

 

I agree. IMO the players know (or should) by this point in the season what they need to do to win every time they step on the court. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to consistently own that responsibility. If it requires FH to light the fire, consistently performing well is simply not sustainable.

 

Again, it was a great comeback and I’m very happy for the win. Don’t want to take away from that - but man, this team is mind boggling sometimes.

 

I think seeing the ball go in the basket is how this team gets sparked. Maybe a lob for a Braxton Meah dunk to start the game would fire 'em up. I think he's earned the right to get back into the starting lineup. GBR

[AuroranHusker]

Today was Fred Hoiberg's 80th win at Nebraska, in the greater Chicago area, where he coached the Bulls from 2015-18. In fact, Fred coached a preseason game at PBA in 2015, and at that time, I wished there was a world in which Hoiberg was the Huskers head coach at some point in time. Didn't know that day would come about 4 years later.

 

So, we all know the start of Fred's coaching in Lincoln was atrocious, going 21-66 before the turn in 2022 with a 3-game road winning streak (which was matched in 2025 with NU wins at Oregon/Washington/Northwestern). Those three games were all on the opponents' Senior Night: PSU 93-70, OSU 78-70, and Wisc. 74-73. Since the start of that 3-game road win streak, Nebraska's been 59-37 under Fred Hoiberg. Almost incomprehensible the turnaround there's been in the 3 years since the prior 3-road-game win streak had occurred.

 

Primary reason for the turnaround, imo, is that Fred's coaching staff has changed (for the better, obviously), and the NU leadership has committed to recruiting more gritty & complementary players who aspire to be better than they were the day before. I have had a lot of faith in this team, now it's time to grit & grind our way to that big dance victory. GBR

 

Edited yesterday at 03:13 AM by AuroranHusker

[Huskerpapa]

18 minutes ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

I think seeing the ball go in the basket is how this team gets sparked. Maybe a lob for a Braxton Meah dunk to start the game would fire 'em up. I think he's earned the right to get back into the starting lineup. GBR

Yet after the previous game I would have said Andrew earned more time, and the two or three games before that, Berke played well and earned time. 

Point being, all of our bigs are playing better, and who plays, and when they play, is like a chess match. 

Edited yesterday at 03:06 AM by Huskerpapa

[AuroranHusker]

5 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Yet after the previous game I would have said Andrew earned more time, and the two or three games before that, Berke played well and earned time. 

Point being, all of our bigs are playing better, and who plays, and when they play, is like a chess match. 

 

True. I think a "jumpstart" dunk to start out the scoring would be a good way to go, and Meah's that guy. I hope NU has all 3 ready to go for Michigan for the next home game, we will need all 3 of 'em

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 03:10 AM by AuroranHusker

[royalfan]

1 hour ago, HuskerFever said:

 

The fact that was a Q1 win, and given how bad Northwestern is, is astonishing. Does not compute.

This iteration is horrible to be clear.  The one they had prior to two of best three players going down from a very thin team was certainly not a bad team.  

[TourneyBound]

3 hours ago, hskr4life said:

There’s takes on here… and then there’s takes like this. This take is pure trash.

No kidding, on a side note how is Jake able to call game when he isn't there....

[cozrulz]

Went back and watched what I missed, plus the minutes Griffiths played.  Griffiths gave us outstanding minutes in the 1st half.

[CanadianHusker]

6 hours ago, throwback said:

Juwan was so big in turning that thing around - just refused to let us continue playing so poorly. 

 

Essegian was a very willing rebounder in the second half - he turned up the physicality versus how he's been playing & that was a big difference, too.

 

I think I'll attend NW's graduation ceremony to make sure Berry walks across the stage finally.

 

After Barry mocked Kesei last year and was acting like he couldn’t be stopped when he was hitting everything this game and had the dunk that led to NU’s timeout early in the 2nd half, shutting him up and shutting him down for the rest of the game was sweet revenge. Enjoy watching the tourney from your couch, Barry!!! 

[Vinny]

1 hour ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

I think seeing the ball go in the basket is how this team gets sparked. Maybe a lob for a Braxton Meah dunk to start the game would fire 'em up. I think he's earned the right to get back into the starting lineup. GBR

That’s how we tried to start games at the beginning of the year.

[AuroranHusker]

5 minutes ago, CanadianHusker said:

After Barry mocked Kesei last year and was acting like he couldn’t be stopped when he was hitting everything this game and had the dunk that led to NU’s timeout early in the 2nd half, shutting him up and shutting him down for the rest of the game was sweet revenge. Enjoy watching the tourney from your couch, Barry!!! 

 

And Boo Buie in the house today, along with 30 Northwestern alumni, was justice for Keisei. Buie and Ty Berry were both mocking KT last year. I recall it like it just happened, my son was in the hospital in early Febr. of last year & we watched that ballgame on a 20" TV in the hospital room. I was so ticked off about a lot of stuff that particular day.

 

[AuroranHusker]

1 minute ago, Vinny said:

That’s how we tried to start games at the beginning of the year.

 

Yep, exactly. Let's do it again.