uneblinstu's postgame chatter : vol 17; ed 29-Minnesota

[HuskerBB]

Really disappointing outcome today.   The run in the 2nd half was fun - but should not have been necessary.   Obviously we lost this game in the first half by not coming out ready to play hard from the beginning. 

 

Morgan was obviously in the group that made the run in the 2nd half - but his first 5 minutes of play in the 1st half were about as bad of a 5 minutes as we have gotten from anyone all year.   

 

We definitely lack movement on offense but wonder how much that is due to cutters not being rewarded.   There were multiple times today where cutters broke free but we never made the pass.   We perhaps got spoiled by how good of post passers Walker and Mast were - but now it is completely the opposite - our post players cannot pass at all.   Really frustrating to watch.

 

I think Brice needs to be more selfish - but like most opponents Minnesota was really making him the focus of their defense.   We really just don't have anyone else that is a significant offense threat - maybe Connor at times but clearly no one else.

 

Juwan was REALLY upset after this game.   Just stayed on the court and looked very emotional - at least for him.   He did give great effort in the last 15 minutes and I think he really felt we needed this one (as did I).   I feel bad for him because he has been a great player for us.

 

I get why Fred left in the 5 guys were on the floor making the run - but I do think they got gassed a little bit and it may have been a good idea to at least use Berke and Rollie a little.    But again I understand his decision to basically just go with 5 guys when we finally had something working.

 

Just sick to my stomach that we lost this one.   I really like Brice and Juwan in particular and want them to have another tourney trip this year at least. 

[Handy Johnson]

1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

Notes from UNL

 

Brice Williams and Juwan Gary each scored 21 points for Nebraska. Today marked the sixth game this season where NU had multiple players score 20-or-more points and the fifth time with both Williams and Gary hitting that plateau. 

 

• Juwan Gary’s 21-point effort marked his sixth 20-point effort of the season and ninth of his career. 

 

• Brice Williams had his 16th 20-point game of the season and his eighth in the past nine games dating back to Jan. 30. He has been in double figures in 27 of NU’s 29 games.

 

• The Huskers committed only six turnovers, tying their season low in that category. 

 

• Connor Essegian added 11 points off the bench, his 13th double-figure game off the bench this season. 

 

• Rollie Worster notched his 500th career assist, making him the first Husker basketball player to total 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 500 assists. 

 

• Nebraska had eight steals in the game, marking the seventh Big Ten game this season the Huskers have had eight or more steals. The Huskers scored 19 points off turnovers. 

 

• Nebraska held Dawson Garcia to just nine points, the fifth time he has not reached double figures this season. 

 

• Minnesota got 31 points from its bench, including a team-high 20 points from Brennan Rigsby, who had just 30 points and four 3-points in 14 Big Ten games prior to Saturday. 

 

• Minnesota won in Lincoln for the first time since 2012 with Saturday’s win

I take Full responsibility for *Jinxing* Us by mentioning 1 too many times they’d never Won @ the PBA. On to Columbus…! 

[cozrulz]

Still can't believe how badly we screwed up the end of the game.  The shot clock was off right?  Why run the set so early?  Minnesota should not have had time left to run the court.

[throwback]

It takes a special kind of awful effort to shut out Garcia in the first half and to give up 1 FT and still have to rally to get the halftime deficit to 9 against that team.

 

The defense has its own problems -- how do we commit 1 foul in the first half on a poor FT shooting team that was dicing us up inside? why do we let them completely dictate the pace for the first 25 minutes with zero adjustments? -- but I have no idea what this team is trying to do on offense. Why do you spend the first 4 minutes forcing every ball into Meah and then never do it again? The first half was a contest to see which offensive player could stand in one place longer. 

 

Not sure why we weren't extending the game with fouls in the final 90 seconds when they'd have had three straight 1&1s. And that decision to try for the 10-second call worked, but just another head-scratching decision. Aren't we better off trying to force them to hit 1&1s and extending the number of possessions? Somebody who knows the analytics would have to weigh in on that one, but I have to imagine the percentages are pretty low getting the 10-second call vs them potentially missing the front end of the 1&1.

 

Minnesota just beat us on our home floor with 3 made FTs. One of the most disgusting losses I can remember in a while.

 

Edited March 2 by throwback

[brfrad]

21 minutes ago, cozrulz said:

Still can't believe how badly we screwed up the end of the game.  The shot clock was off right?  Why run the set so early?  Minnesota should not have had time left to run the court.

I have no problems.   We were down 1.  If we miss the shot, and Minnesota gets the rebound, we have time to foul a poor FT shooting team.

 

The problem was after the make.   Brice went for the steal instead of getting back.  This made everyone converge on the ball handler, leaving their hot shooter wide open.

[TourneyBound]

1 hour ago, HuskerBB said:

Morgan was obviously in the group that made the run in the 2nd half - but his first 5 minutes of play in the 1st half were about as bad of a 5 minutes as we have gotten from anyone all year.   

Totally agree with this assessment. Wasn’t not ready to play at all!  

[TourneyBound]

31 minutes ago, brfrad said:

I have no problems.   We were down 1.  If we miss the shot, and Minnesota gets the rebound, we have time to foul a poor FT shooting team.

 

The problem was after the make.   Brice went for the steal instead of getting back.  This made everyone converge on the ball handler, leaving their hot shooter wide open.

Agree. If it’s tied maybe you wait longer but when your down 1 you want to get best shot and then foul if you miss and maybe get a 2nd shot after FTs

[TourneyBound]

It sure seems the officiating in games has drastically changed from the beginning of conference play to now. Refs just let so much go and we aren’t getting near the fouls at the rim as we did earlier in year and I think that’s a big reason why we are struggling to score. Earlier in year we were making so many more FTs a game then we are lately. 
I remember Morgan getting hacked in face and it should of been Garcia’s 5th but maybe that is why they didn’t call the foul.

Garcia only scoring 9 points in this one and us still losing really hurts. Man. This season is going to sting for awhile if we don’t make the tournament. 

[hhcdave]

We are also at best 5-5 at home in league. Embarrassment 

 

By the way - one good thing about next year - in theory no “wasted scholarships” 

 

as in, nobody on injury redshirt (mast), no freshman redshirting (assuming our incoming kid plays right away) 

 

I think not having 3 scholarships this year was restrictive, too. 
 

plus we won’t waste one next year like we did last on Uhlis - who might be the most Division II PG to ever play at Nebraska. Guy makes me pine for boogie Coleman. 
 

bottln line - we can’t waste scholarships anymore 

[TourneyBound]

7 minutes ago, hhcdave said:

We are also at best 5-5 at home in league. Embarrassment 

 

By the way - one good thing about next year - in theory no “wasted scholarships” 

 

as in, nobody on injury redshirt (mast), no freshman redshirting (assuming our incoming kid plays right away) 

 

I think not having 3 scholarships this year was restrictive, too. 
 

plus we won’t waste one next year like we did last on Uhlis - who might be the most Division II PG to ever play at Nebraska. Guy makes me pine for boogie Coleman. 
 

bottln line - we can’t waste scholarships anymore 

I’m not sure then 3 schollys is that big of a deal..  we had to be pretty short on NIL money after constructing current roster and not sure who else we could of added that would of made a contribution.  The retention of Uhlis was obviously a mistake. Should have kept JLaw and let Uhlis go. Rollie has been a big disappointment as well and he was one of the first guys we got.  I know we are limited with our NIL but we could of done a lot better at PG

Edited March 2 by TourneyBound

[Cazzie22]

I was traveling to a High School District BB game and can only give my impression from listening to Kent and Jake.  Why we are not giving great effort from the beginning is a mystery to me.  Poor FT shooting is contagious and adds to our multitude of offensive woes.  We are an average team and not playing like a team worthy of the Big Dance.

[TourneyBound]

We should have known the game was over when Meah went 1 for 6 to start game at FT line…. Ugghh

[Handy Johnson]

9 minutes ago, TourneyBound said:

We should have known the game was over when Meah went 1 for 6 to start game at FT line…. Ugghh

They’d just LOST at Home to both Penn State & Northwestern then come in here and look like the Globetrotters. 

[AGHANSEN]

Our offense is so awful. I guess we should have saw the early warming signs against UTRGV and Bethune Cookman. Not having a big men that can pass the ball is killing this team. A lot of those back doors we try to run have to be open but our big men can’t pass for crap. Every single one of our portal additions have all underperformed from their previous teams and some of them have been significantly worse. We’re not a bad basketball team we’re just extremely flawed in many ways. This team doesn’t deserve to make the Dance with a lot of bad losses especially at home. Hopefully this rag tag bunch can figure it out and put themselves back in position to make the Dance. 

[HuskerFever]

I had no idea this was an option. Depending on how the game goes on Tuesday, here's a potential solution:

 

 

[Faux Mike Peltz]

Had an amazing vantage point today. 
Very disappointed how the majority of the team came out - just no urgency at all. Our defensive effort was so bad. Berke’s injury must’ve injured his shooting ability, he’s now 1-16 the past 2 games.

Our big men really aren’t complete players. Brax has size and can dunk and alter shots, but can’t shoot beyond 2’

Morgan plays hard but is sometimes clumsy and makes bad passes.

Berke is a head scratcher. Shows flashes of being something but also airballs and shoots off the side of the hoop. 
Major major major overhaul needs to happen. Troy and the collective have to decide if a PG and Big men are equally as important as a Left Tackle and Safety.

[HuscurAdam]

6 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

 

• Minnesota got 31 points from its bench, including a team-high 20 points from Brennan Rigsby, who had just 30 points and four 3-points in 14 Big Ten games prior to Saturday. 

 

Rigsby had more 3s against us than he had in all other B1G games combined this season...because OF COURSE he did.

[jimmykc]

I was ready to call the season over after the gut punch yesterday. Today, we still have two winnable regular season games and a shot at the league tourney left. I'm declaring this the official "Not-Yet-Rock-Bottom" day. 

[HuskerFever]

52 minutes ago, jimmykc said:

I was ready to call the season over after the gut punch yesterday. Today, we still have two winnable regular season games and a shot at the league tourney left. I'm declaring this the official "Not-Yet-Rock-Bottom" day. 

 

Must be doing something good if that 17-game losing streak in 2019-20 doesn't crack "rock bottom."

[Huskerpapa]

Our lack of physicality was glaringly obvious for the first 25 or so minutes yesterday.  That should never, ever happen.  Connor and Brice can make moves at the rim, everyone else need to go up and rip down the rim.

[hhcmatt]

10 hours ago, HuscurAdam said:

 

Rigsby had more 3s against us than he had in all other B1G games combined this season...because OF COURSE he did.

Pretty sure the only reason that Rigsby got extended minutes today is because Mike Mitchell got injured and Ben Johnson had to play him

[cozrulz]

13 hours ago, brfrad said:

I have no problems.   We were down 1.  If we miss the shot, and Minnesota gets the rebound, we have time to foul a poor FT shooting team.

 

The problem was after the make.   Brice went for the steal instead of getting back.  This made everyone converge on the ball handler, leaving their hot shooter wide open.

 

I get why just don't agree with it.  With the way yesterday was and at that point in the game, I'm going for the win.  I'm not a fan of giving the other a team a chance to win when you don't have to.

[cozrulz]

10 hours ago, HuscurAdam said:

 

Rigsby had more 3s against us than he had in all other B1G games combined this season...because OF COURSE he did.

 

Our three-point defensive philosophy is terrible.  Generally teams have players that can make open threes.  We leave guys open and they get confidence.  USC game was the same with a player that hardly shoots them but making multiple against us.

[jimmykc]

1 hour ago, cozrulz said:

 

Our three-point defensive philosophy is terrible.  Generally teams have players that can make open threes.  We leave guys open and they get confidence.  USC game was the same with a player that hardly shoots them but making multiple against us.

I tend to agree although, personally speaking, when the opposing team's 3s go in I tend to blame defensive lapses and when we miss ours, I think it is poor shooting. But that's just my fan perspective. 

[B-town hoopsfan]

Well the crowd brought it yesterday and was probably the main reason we got back in it from the 15 minute to the 5 minute mark in the second half…a shame they couldn’t string anything together in the first 25 minutes to get us into the game…those first 6 free throws and inability to finish around the rim by meah were brutual. 
 

can tell by the sub patterns that 29 games in we are just kinda screwed…no answers to be had and no one other than Williams and Gary that can go on any type of scoring run. 
 

mast and Berke feel like 2 solid building blocks if they are back but boy this staff is gonna have its work cut out for it…gonna need 2 more bigs, 2 PGs, and 3-4 wings that can play. Maybe 2 of those wings are on the roster already but that might be wishful thinking