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

[Navin R. Johnson]

I said at the beginning of the year that Berke and GG were wild cards.  If they played well, we could be pretty tough.  I thought GG would be better than Berke.  GG was a non-factor and Berke was up and down and did not shoot it as well as hoped.  Shooting was the ultimate downfall.  I thought (hoped) that Coach could improve Rollie and Berke into decent shooters.  Did not happen.  If Connor could guard better and GG could guard better we would be a different team as well.  Did not happen.  I also hoped Morgan would be able to knock down a 3 once in a while if teams did not guard him outside the paint.  Did not happen.  I hoped Rollie and Uhlis would be the point guards we have been missing that last few years.  Did not happen. Gary did not seem to be as active on the boards as past years as well, although it is tough to knock him as he had a good year.  We really waisted a phenomenal year from Brice.  

 

Teams solved our defense and we never seemed to adjust to their adjustments.  How many steals did our D make at the end of the season on long skip passes compared to earlier? (and I'm not talking about the out of conference schedule)

[hskr4life]

https://x.com/evanmiya/status/1899154596666458587?s=46&t=lCrffIZOq4y2gKLzLc9mLQ
 

Can’t really blame this year on injuries. Way different than our Copeland injury year.

[thrasher31]

I've had this talk with a buddy and some family members. Few things stood out to me this year about what went wrong. 

 

-Rollie IS NOT what I expected. At all. Far worse overall player and didn't relax the offense at all. With no big initiating offense, rollie had to be the QB of the team, and he failed. This is probably the biggest thing about what went wrong this year. They really needed Rollie to be a positive player and I don't think he was close. 

-all 3 bigs collectively playing bad at the same time didn't help. Berke I know was struggling with his injury, and I like how he played against Iowa honestly. But he played some of his worst basketball after his ankle injury. Morgan slowly got worse as the season went on and you could tell his confidence faltered in the process. Meah I thought played in in a few games and downright terrible in the rest. I didn't have high expectations for him honestly, so not too shocked. 

-I'll cut Connor some slack because I do think he fought on the glass and on defense more than I thought he would. That stood out to me. Mentioned it in another thread, but we don't win NW without him crashing the glass like he did. But he has to get to be more consistent from 3. It's either really hot and he'll hit 3-4, or he'll miss every 3. Having better shooting around him should help next year though. 

[AGHANSEN]

We hit 290 3's last year (23-24) at the end of the regular season and this year (24-25) we only hit 225....yikes.

Clearly the biggest issue with this year's squad was the lack of shooters. 

 

 

 

[hhcmatt]

1 hour ago, AGHANSEN said:

We hit 290 3's last year (23-24) at the end of the regular season and this year (24-25) we only hit 225....yikes.

Clearly the biggest issue with this year's squad was the lack of shooters. 

 

That's more the effect than the cause because we knowingly made the shift to guys with bigger size that weren't as good of shooters than recruiting shooters who simply didn't hit.  Last year we took 871 3s to this season's 693. To me the issue was that the shift towards defense didn't result in better defense and worse offense. 

[hskr4life]

1 minute ago, hhcmatt said:

 

That's more the effect than the cause because we knowingly made the shift to guys with bigger size that weren't as good of shooters than recruiting shooters who simply didn't hit.  Last year we took 871 3s to this season's 693. To me the issue was that the shift towards defense didn't result in better defense and worse offense. 

 

Kind of goes along with the defense theme in my original post too. In games we did play good D, we won or were right there. We also didn't excel at the rim sometimes when we did pass up on threes to shoot twos.

[cornfed24-7]

There may have been no way to keep them. I know nothing. But if there was...

 

I'd say we messed up before the season even started by not getting Wilcher or Lawrence back. 

 

I'd take Wilcher over Conner. And Lawrence over Rollie. And I think if you make that switch we're still talking about if we are gonna make the tournament or not.

 

 

[GhostOfJoeMcCray]

1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

 

That's more the effect than the cause because we knowingly made the shift to guys with bigger size that weren't as good of shooters than recruiting shooters who simply didn't hit.  Last year we took 871 3s to this season's 693. To me the issue was that the shift towards defense didn't result in better defense and worse offense. 

Correct. We gained points on our opponents from 2pt and FT this year compared to 2023/24. But not enough to make up for the difference in what we lost from the 3PT line compared to 23/24.

 

Me personally, I’d prefer to see us go back to the way we played 23/24. I don’t care if we get blitzed by an athletic SEC team in the tournament. (Bad) luck of the draw if that happens. Bringing Meah in seemed like an overreaction and will always be the most puzzling thing this staff did for me in 23/24. I get we were told no by a lot of guys, but we played 3 big men and none of them could shoot. Frustrating.
 

We need shooters who are willing to defend. Our defense was quite a bit worse this year despite putting more emphasis on that side in the portal.

Edited 1 hour ago by GhostOfJoeMcCray

[hskr4life]

1 hour ago, cornfed24-7 said:

There may have been no way to keep them. I know nothing. But if there was...

 

I'd say we messed up before the season even started by not getting Wilcher or Lawrence back. 

 

I'd take Wilcher over Conner. And Lawrence over Rollie. And I think if you make that switch we're still talking about if we are gonna make the tournament or not.

 

 

IDK if Wilcher over Connor would have given us much of a boost. That still only leaves 1 shooter who is a little lesser of an athlete defensively and could be exploited on the D end. You’re still missing Keisei or a 2nd shooter in this situation.

 

Now Wilcher over Gavin I could understand the argument as you now have two capable shooters off the bench.

[GhostOfJoeMcCray]

7 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

IDK if Wilcher over Connor would have given us much of a boost. That still only leaves 1 shooter who is a little lesser of an athlete defensively and could be exploited on the D end. You’re still missing Keisei or a 2nd shooter in this situation.

 

Now Wilcher over Gavin I could understand the argument as you now have two capable shooters off the bench.

they had to think one of Berke or GG would be big-time threats from 3. Unfortunately struck out twice. 

[cornfed24-7]

53 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

IDK if Wilcher over Connor would have given us much of a boost. That still only leaves 1 shooter who is a little lesser of an athlete defensively and could be exploited on the D end. You’re still missing Keisei or a 2nd shooter in this situation.

 

Now Wilcher over Gavin I could understand the argument as you now have two capable shooters off the bench.

I'm taking Wilcher 3 years in the system over Conner with 1. We didn't need much of a boost. I think the vet gives us more than the rookie.

 

We still got exploited in D. In the 1st half of the season Conner was atrocious on D. He did get better on that end though 

 

Not to mention you got 4 dudes back from a tournament team the year before. That alone is worth its weight in gold. Probably lessens the leadership gap this year as well.

 

As far as GG you could trade him for Rice. But that dude can't even hold Wilchers jockstrap as far as production in a Husker uniform 

 

Yup. You switch those 2 and we're in the Big Ten tournament 100%. And we're still talking about possible back to back tournament appearances.