Where It Went Wrong (Maybe) -- Some Stats

[hskr4life]

Defense?: The most points we gave up in a win was 79 to South Dakota. We gave up 70+ in a win in just 6 of our 17 wins. All other games were in the 50's and 60's for points given up. In our losses, the most points we gave up was 116 (but scored 114 in the double OT games). However, we also gave up 104 in our loss to Purdue. Overall our opponents PPG in our wins was 64.1 and in our losses we gave up 83.5. This team lived and thrived on defense and that's something that we were sorely missing in our losses. When we played hard defensively, we usually won the game. The only games we lost and gave up less than 70 points was @Maryland (3 point loss), Michigan (3 point loss), and Minnesota (2 point loss).

 

The Scott Frost Effect?: We were absolutely terrible this year in one possession games and also games decided by 10 points or less. In one possession games we were an AWFUL 0-6. While we did win some games that were within 10 points, our final record of 6-9 just isn't good enough in that category. So games that were decided by more than 10 points, we were 11-5. We just couldn't make plays in close games to close them out. This brings me way back to the beginning of the year. Maybe the writing was on the wall early? Remember some of those early games where it was probably way closer than it needed to be and we'd end the game on like 7-0 or 11-0 runs to make the score look way worse than it actually was? Yeah well in conference play, those things didn't happen. B1G teams didn't lay down and die for us like some of those other teams and that killed us.

 

The Role Players: Usually when they stepped up, the role players quite literally would make the difference. We could always count on Brice to get his and Juwan to usually do his thing. But this ship went as our role players went most of the time. Essegian-- Our record was 10-5 when he scored 10+ points and 7-9 when he scored under 10 points. When Berke got going scoring... we were 4-1 in games he scored 10+ points. The role players scoring also eliminated the NEED for Juwan and Brice to score in bunches. In games where Gary scored over 20 points, we were just 2-6. Weird stat, but we were also just 4-6 in games where Gary scored under 10 PPG. So when Gary was in his sweet spot of 10-19 PPG, we were 11-2. We were 2-1 when Brice scored over 30 PPG, 4-3 when he scored between 25-29 PPG, 4-3 when he scored between 20-24 PPG, and 7-7 when he scored under 20 PPG.

 

PBA Magic: Whatever happened to our PBA magic... it really killed the vibe. For the first time in a long time, we had a solid road/neutral record. One that would have gotten us to the dance had we taken care of business at home. We finished the year just 10-6 at home, but that record is inflated with our cupcake games. In games against B1G competition, we finish the year just 4-6 including two Q2 and two Q3 losses. Win half of those and you're dancing. We'll finish the year with a pretty nice 7-8 road/neutral record. That'll play every year. That road/neutral record will get it done in the committee's eyes as long as you take care of your home court.

 

There is probably more, and we'll have all summer to hash it out. But we were close. A lot closer than the end of the year situation of not making the B1G tournament may show. Change just the Iowa game at home and we are the 12 seed, we're playing NW with a chance to be very much in the bubble conversation on Wednesday. But... we lost, and now we sit at home and see if Ohio St/Indiana will dance. Should they dance, we're likely locked into the Crown invite as we have to accept being one of the highest NET schools left out.

[HuskerFever]

I blame Adolph Lewandowski.

[hhcmatt]

It was a double-edged sword playing in a conference where essentially all the teams were good as while your wins mean more and your losses don't hurt as much, the wins in general are harder to come by

 

2025

 

 

2024