Where It Went Wrong (Maybe) -- Some Stats

[GhostOfJoeMcCray]

18 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

I agree very strongly with these two points. 

Rollie might go down as one of the most disappointing Huskers we've ever had. I truly felt he was "the answer" to nearly everything I'd wanted in a Husker PG. Big, strong, versatile defensively. I thought he was going to get into the paint at will and cause smaller guards absolute fits. Getting to the free throw line frequently. Then hit a 3pt shot here and there. Instead he turned it over, could absolutely not finish at the rim, didn't shoot near enough free throws, and couldn't hit a 3 to save his life (was expected tho). 

 

The bigs were super disappointing. I felt Meah was used very incorrectly and that is on the coaches, 100%. Morgan needed to give us like 70% of what Mast gave us as far as role in the offense and instead we maybe got to about 49%. And then Berke just could not put it together. I do feel Berke was also used incorrectly by the coaches. You can't have him on the floor with Meah and Juwan at the same time (which he was often to start the year). To me, Berke is closer to Mast than anything else (a small ball 5). I still think Berke has the most potential out of all of them. 

 

Rollie actually had the best season of his career in turnovers per game. His offensive numbers this season are pretty similar to his averages at Utah except for one key area...he averaged 2.6 assists per game after averaging 5.2 in his last 2 years at Utah. Probably some combination of our guys not being able to score, and for whatever reason he didn't create for guys. 

 

The lesson I've learned here is to not buy into transfer hype. We tend to hype up every guy that signs with us and assume they will make contributions beyond what they previously have done before. Their numbers are who they are, and the odds of someone turning out much better than their numbers (aka Brice) are low. Braxton, Rollie, Berke, Andrew, Ahron and Gavin all performed at or below their career numbers. Berke maybe slightly better only because he played a lot more, but his shooting numbers were pretty much identical.

 

Connor had a chance to be as good as his freshman year or as bad as his sophomore year and at least he was more like his freshman year. Otherwise, nothing any of these guys did or didn't do should have been that shocking to us. That goes for GG too, who shot 32% as a freshman and 28% from 3 and had 10 more turnovers than assists. This year he shot 34% and 25% from 3. 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by GhostOfJoeMcCray

[basketballjones]

1 minute ago, GhostOfJoeMcCray said:

The lesson I've learned here is to not buy into transfer hype. We tend to hype up every guy that signs with us and assume they will make contributions beyond what they previously have done before. 

 

Agree. If you are only getting a guy for a year you're are only - at best - getting what they have previously done. Often it is worse as they make the adjustment to the new team/conference. 

If you can get a guy for more than 1 year, that is the only way you will ever get "improvement" over their last contributions. 

[GhostOfJoeMcCray]

1 minute ago, basketballjones said:

Agree. If you are only getting a guy for a year you're are only - at best - getting what they have previously done. Often it is worse as they make the adjustment to the new team/conference. 

If you can get a guy for more than 1 year, that is the only way you will ever get "improvement" over their last contributions. 

 

I am guilty of glossing over the fact that a lot of guys told us no last year and we probably ended up taking guys we didn't really want to but had to. 

[hhcmatt]

27 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

To me, Berke is closer to Mast than anything else (a small ball 5). I still think Berke has the most potential out of all of them. 

 

He's a guy that looks real fire-y and has the sort of size and skillset that you can't find just anywhere.  Every time I watch him though I see someone who can dominate lowered skilled players and that when it comes to fighting against higher level players he always fades. Don't think he makes anyone better.  He's a guy you can probably win with if he's your 4th best player/a role player.  If he's one of your main guys, I think you're a team with a losing record.  Wish I could feel better about him.

[basketballjones]

8 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

He's a guy that looks real fire-y and has the sort of size and skillset that you can't find just anywhere.  Every time I watch him though I see someone who can dominate lowered skilled players and that when it comes to fighting against higher level players he always fades. Don't think he makes anyone better.  He's a guy you can probably win with if he's your 4th best player/a role player.  If he's one of your main guys, I think you're a team with a losing record.  Wish I could feel better about him.

He, unfortunately, has "best player on a bad team" written all over him. Like if you said we're gonna create this thing around Berke - he could probably thrive but it'll be relatively inefficient and won't make anyone else better. 

 

What I have noticed as the biggest flaws in his game are that he just does not know how to "GO" and how to instantly take the angle he was given and maintain it with physicality to attempt to finish. He wants every drive and every move in the paint to be 100% clear/open. Almost like he wants everything to be a "trick/gotcha" to the defender so he ends up with an easy/uncontested shot. Instead dudes just stay in front, stayed on the floor, and he ended up pivoting around like an idiot into nothing. He's gotta develop a more decisive first step and learn how to, without hesitation, take what was given to him and handle the physicality that comes with it. 

[thrasher31]

He was one of my guys, so ive pondered about Berke and his season so I went to the stats. His jumper in conference play was better than I had realized honestly. Before going down with his ankle injury vs OSU, he was 37.5 from deep on 40 attempts across 13 games in conference play. I've said it for a while, I care more about conference play #s at the end of the season. Low volume, but effective in his choices. What brings down his % from 3 is going 1/12 in the last 4 games of the year. He does play soft around the bucket at times, and that is 100% something he needs to work on, but that comes with working on his body imo. Needs some reshaping and some more muscle. Very good rebounder. Smart in the post on defense. And high low actions with him posting and mast feeding need to be a part of the offense next year. 

 

Only reason I bring him up is I see him getting beat up a bit across different Nebraska boards, and I thought his season was good through the middle half, but ended absolutely terrible. 

[Huskerpapa]

Berke has a nice upside and certainly, with development, could be a good player for us...but; one issue HAS to be resolved.  I'm not sure the best way to put it...oh okay...he is soft.  It is a complaint I had about Meah and Berke all season.  WAY TOO MUCH floor time (as in getting bumped to the floor).  The drama cost us points, and honestly, likely bugged the crap out of the refs.

Just saying...

[thrasher31]

1 minute ago, Huskerpapa said:

Berke has a nice upside and certainly, with development, could be a good player for us...but; one issue HAS to be resolved.  I'm not sure the best way to put it...oh okay...he is soft.  It is a complaint I had about Meah and Berke all season.  WAY TOO MUCH floor time (as in getting bumped to the floor).  The drama cost us points, and honestly, likely bugged the crap out of the refs.

Just saying...

Yeah he was pretty soft, specifically around the rim. He needs to embrace physicality more often, and I have to think that's a point of emphasis on the off-season. One also wonders if having 3(?) different injuries in the same year played a role. Last 4 games of the year he clearly didn't trust his body. 

 

Meah I just didn't think much of tbh. So him being soft doesn't shock me. The faster he can get out of here the better. One of my least favorite players I've seen, and I'm usually EXTREMELY PATIENT with players. But holy shit he was lazy. 

[cozrulz]

2 hours ago, thrasher31 said:

Only reason I bring him up is I see him getting beat up a bit across different Nebraska boards, and I thought his season was good through the middle half, but ended absolutely terrible. 

 

Berke was extremely important on the defensive end.  It would have been nice to see the season without the ankle injury.  I felt like it was bad news when it happened.

 

1 hour ago, thrasher31 said:

Meah I just didn't think much of tbh. So him being soft doesn't shock me. The faster he can get out of here the better. One of my least favorite players I've seen, and I'm usually EXTREMELY PATIENT with players. But holy shit he was lazy. 

 

Thought he got better as the year progressed.  We missed him on Sunday.

 

 

Do you go after one or two more bigs from the portal?

[thrasher31]

6 minutes ago, cozrulz said:

 

Berke was extremely important on the defensive end.  It would have been nice to see the season without the ankle injury.  I felt like it was bad news when it happened.

 

 

Thought he got better as the year progressed.  We missed him on Sunday.

 

 

Do you go after one or two more bigs from the portal?

I think meah was what he was. I didn't think much of him tbh though. To each is it's own. 

 

A lot depends on how they see Berke next year. A combo 4/5 again, or primary 4? And if bollis is ready to contribute, which I wouldn't bank on. Id personally prefer 1, but depends how the roster falls and where the needs are. 

[75unlgrad]

It started two years ago when we did not get Hunter Sallis to transfer to Nebraska.  Imagine him at guard the last two years.  We would have won a game in the tournament.

[HuskerFever]

17 minutes ago, 75unlgrad said:

It started two years ago when we did not get Hunter Sallis to transfer to Nebraska.  Imagine him at guard the last two years.  We would have won a game in the tournament.

 

Instead he's had zero NCAA tournament appearances at Wake Forest.