Rivers - and "want to"

[Rachoo]

As I wrote after the last game – I am dumbfounded by the absence of David River’s playing time!  Something must be wrong for him to go from a veteran important contributor to zero time.

 

  I know this has been mentioned by others as seen in tonight’s “Report Card” and the “From my view” post.  Wish I knew what was going on there – without any other input it seems Rivers deserves better consideration..

 

I was at CenturyLink tonight and watched the game – and when things were completely out of synch and such poor play on both ends of the court – I couldn’t believe the lack of team defense (seen in the Miami game) and the disorganized lack of driving the ball to the hoop or to kick out with Creighton not being that strong defensively inside.  I know I am an old guy – really an old guy – but is there no value any more to pulling the starters and those playing in such a manner – and inserting Rivers (there is that name again) and Smith and Hawkins, and Peltz, and Parker – and telling them to go in and work their tails off to get the defensive pressure where it needs to be and to run some meaningful offense?  I know that Doug and Wragge were hitting 3’s at an unbelievable pace – but in the past that has been a successful method of settling the starters down – and getting their attention – and providing some new energy and force to what is transpiring on the court.  (Has been used very successfully by coaches through the ages – i.e., Wooden, Bill Self, Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Bobby Knight, etc.)

  

Just a thought – but that is certainly what I would have tried tonight to shake things up for the short term about 8 to 10 minutes into the game.  Probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but that is what seemed a possible “old way” of righting the ship.  Does that make any sense any more? 

 

Love what Tim is doing with the program – but we started really out of hand tonight.   

[Nighthawk]

On my cell phone and too tired to figure how to post a tweet from Brian Rosenthal...but I asked him on Rivers status and his response was as follows: " no inside info. assume he's caught up in a numbers game. will Ask Miles again."

[uneblinstu]

[Nighthawk]

Thanks! Now I'm going to try to get some sleep. 8 am phone conference call. Yawn

[Hooper]

It seems that Miles has designated Rivers as the third big man behind Pitchford and Smith, and if those two aren't in foul trouble, he's not going to play him. Rivers brings very little to the table offensively, so it's no surprise that he's seeing severely-diminished playing time. 

[colhusker]

Given how we played in the first half last night, one no one brought any offense, and two, neither Smith nor Pitchford had a clue how to stop Doogie.  Miles seems to have pulled most of the right strings the last couple years, no playing Rivers is NOT one of those times.

[Huskerpapa]

Leslee only played 10 or 11 minutes.  If that is all Leslee played; how many minutes are available to David?

[Hooper]

Leslee only played 10 or 11 minutes.  If that is all Leslee played; how many minutes are available to David?

 

There has to be a logical explanation for Leslee's minutes. Either his knees were bothering him (please no) or Miles wanted a smaller, quicker guard-heavy line-up on the court. No one from the media asked about it, but it was odd, especially in light of how well he's played recently.

[colhusker]

Miles said Rivers is not hurt, just odd man out due to being 4th big.  Can you say transfer at the end of the year?  Sad really given the play we saw and Miles doesn't think a kid that busts his ass could have done any better.

[Silverbacked1]

My son said at one point that the game had become a drive or jumpshot game and I think what he was saying is that we needed smaller faster guys.

Leslee is a bit too big and a bit too slow for what we wanted to do.

I think we looked a lot like Colorado State when we scored most our points.

[Silverbacked1]

Miles said Rivers is not hurt, just odd man out due to being 4th big.  Can you say transfer at the end of the year?  Sad really given the play we saw and Miles doesn't think a kid that busts his ass could have done any better.

Okay I was listing them in my head:

1) Walter

2) Leslee

3) ?

4) David.

Who is three?

[colhusker]

No clue Silver, I was wondering the same thing when I read it.

[uneblinstu]

If he's including Rivers in the post rotation, your other post would be Shields.

[Silverbacked1]

If he's including Rivers in the post rotation, your other post would be Shields.

Thanks, because I could not come up with a third 5 except for Vooch and Kye.

And if he had fallen that far I was truly worried about my ability to see what to look for in a player.