uneblinstu's post game chatter: ed 6, vol 13: Cincy

[Huskerpapa]

A lot of angst about this loss.  But most predicted that we would lose, and we did.  We had our share of brain farts, yet there are some positive take-aways from this game.  Yep, there were some:

- We need Biggs.  He needs to get his poop in a group and think team first.  His absence is/was disappointing

- I have my beefs about officiating, but generally speaking this group did a pretty good job. 

- We do not have a post presence.  That said, we did a good job getting to the basket, but once again, struggled finishing.  My hope is that these drives will soon result in baskets or fouls or both. 

- We generally did a decent job defending, but once again, we had some breakdowns that need to stop.

- I will disagree with some, I thought Tai played pretty well today.  His shot looked better and he defended well.  He made a couple turnovers though that left me shaking my head.

- Shavon was overmatched today.  No excuses.  We need him and he simply must find a way to finish around the basket.  He is not using his body to shield his shooting hand.  This is not a sophomore jinx, it is realizing the problem and fixing it.

- Walter played soft.  He threw up a couple of airballs and seemed never in the games flow.  We need you dude.  Seems like whenever he tries to play tough, he ends up fouling.  Again, it is something that needs to be figured out.  His game is similar to Conklin's, but Brian matured into a player that may have not liked to play big, but was able to do it.

- Leslee was okay.  He plays with toughness, which we need.  He is a bit offensively limited, but his heart and effort makes up for those weaknesses.

- I thought I saw Rivers on the bench, but again, he did not appear on the floor.

- Benny had a very costly turnover.  And again, he is an offensive no-show.  But he played fine on defense. 

- I thought Ray had one of his better games; yet we need more from our only senior. 

- People bitch about Petteway, but he had a very nice second half.  I wonder what a difference it would have made if he hadn't picked up two touch fouls in the first minute of the game.  Funny how the officials called those quick fouls on us, but then tended to let Cincy do that same thing on the other end.

 

I expected to lose, and we did.  I am not discouraged, but we need to figure out some of these issues otherwise...this may be a season long struggle.

[kldm64]

Well considering Parker, Shields, and Pitchford all played terrible, it's amazing we didn't get blown out more.  All we did on offense is look for Gallegos and Petteway and luckily they had decent games.  We've also got to find a way to get to the free throw line more.  We will lose alot of games if we can't get to the line.  Nice to see Webster was a little more aggressive on offensive end today but still making some freshman mistakes as expected. 

 

We cut the lead down to 3 with under 10 minutes left and then got rolled after that.  Disappointing the we couldn't put up more of fight down the  stretch.

[hugh42]

- This was a winnable game

- Shields struggles against better athletes

- Tai gained a little bit of confidence today

- Petteway is our best player

[NUdiehard]

I think Shavon (and the whole team for that matter) is becoming a product of his (its) coaches mantra: "Love the rim, like the 3". It seems those are the only 2 options for Shavon (and, as I said, the whole team for that matter.) Unfortunately, this leaves out the other 19 feet between the rim and the arc. There are A LOT of good shots available inside that large arc on the floor, but nobody seems to want to take them. I distinctly remember early in the game Shavon caught the ball at the elbow, turned, and was wide open. I yelled SHOOT IT at the screen, but to no surprise he put his head down barrelled into 3 defenders and go swatted.

 

Opponents have figured us out. That stuff that worked against FGCU isn't working so well right now. Shavon and the rest of the team needs to discover the beauty of the mid-range game.  Shockingly, the only players who I remember taking good mid-range shots today were Smith and Gallegos (one each).

 

Last year, Shavon trusted his mid-range game.  This year, he doesn't give it a chance. 

 

Gallegos had a beautiful jumper from the elbow.  I remember watching him shoot that repeatedly in practice as a freshman.  If only he had continued to develop that in games.  What a waste.

 

Pitchford is the softest defender I think I have ever seen.  He will let his man drive right by him, and then stand and watch as that same player misses, gets the rebound and puts it back it.  To Miles credit, he took Walt out and let him sit and think about it.  It is one thing to make mistakes or miss shots, but lack of effort and simply "want to" is so frustrating.

 

Petteway played very well overall, but I swear he misses his first 4-6 shots every game (most of them forced IMO).  I wish he could get off to better starts b/c that would really help this team relax and get into a groove.

 

I was actually very encouraged by Tai's play.  Yes, he missed 6 of his 9 shots, but I thought all of them were good quality shots.  He was getting in the lane again and looking for his shot as well as the kick out.  Those bunnies will start to fall at some point, and when they do, his game will take off.  He is a true freshman, and that is why I give him more slack than others.  His TOs were frustrating, but part of that is on the team.  Tai has to break the pressure coming down the court, and when he crosses the mid-line, the rest of his teammates are often just standing there.  Can't do that in big time BB.  The other 4 guys need to be moving w/o the ball, making HARD V-cuts, etc.  Too much standing around, and so not all those TOs are totally Tai's fault.  As for Tai's assists, they could be more if his teammates would make shots.  He makes good passes and his teammates miss.  Heck, Tai made a great drive and dump to Smith who somehow managed to clank a wide-open 2 handed slam.

 

I thought Benny got exposed. 

 

Smith was very good in the first half, struggled a bit in the 2nd half.  He showed some diversity in his offensive game that we haven't seen (nice jumper from the elbow, driving layup, etc).  He is by far our best rebounder, but he still frustrates me at times.  I remember one play in the first half where he had clear inside position and simply allowed the CU player to jump over him and get the ball.  Smith is a good athlete, but he is not the most explosive jumper off 2 feet and that hurts him b/c he is undersized at the 5.  But again, overall, he was very good today for us.

 

Gallegos was great.  Very happy for him.  We need him to play like that the rest of the way out to have a chance in conference. He is a senior and has the athletic ability and skill set.  Loved the mid-range jumper at the elbow.  Keep it up Ray!

 

Smith

 

 

[throwback]

Count me in thinking Tai played one of his better games of late - much more confident and aggressive offensively, even though it didn't always work out in a bucket. He obviously has some confidence problems, but I also wonder if some of his problems aren't related to just a true freshman needing to get stronger. It seems like 2-3 times per game he gets some incidental contact and loses his balance, like the one where he threw the ball into the 5th row in the 2nd half. Hopefully those turnovers will go away once he has a consistent weight lifting program. I can't imagine he has ever lifted weights seriously.

 

I liked how we didn't back down vs a really physical team - we didn't do enough on the glass to win, but we weren't horrible either.

 

Losing Biggs didn't cost us the game, but I thought we ran out of gas at about the 7-8 min mark in both halves & Cincy put big runs on us in both of those spots, some of which was fueled by tired guards not getting back in transition - having one more body may have helped that.

 

If you'd have told me we hold Kilpatrick to 2 of 12 on FGs and no 3s, I would've bet we'd have won the game. Didn't expect 18 FTs for him.   One of the announcers said he was getting the LeBron treatment at one point - sure seemed like he initiated contact quite a bit. That didn't cost us the game either, but it didn't help.

 

As was mentioned earlier, we have to finish at the rim better or be willing to take that 8-10 foot jumper, because we're getting into the lane well. 

 

Just lots of little things added up to the loss today - I was feeling good at 44-41, but Cincy went on a big run there like a veteran team should  Ultimately Cincy starts 3 seniors and they hit some outside shots today that they don't normally hit. Even though it was a dead arena today, Cincy is a solid program, and we aren't mature enough to win a game like that on the road yet, whether that lack of maturity shows up in having a junior get suspended or having your leading scorer pick up 2 quick fouls or having your tallest player give you very little on defense.

 

Unfortunate to go 0-4 against the 4 best teams on our non-conf schedule, but hopefully we can use some of the lessons learned in those games to pick off a upset or 2 in Big Ten play.

 

Weird question just popped into my head: If we're one talented big man away, do we win that game if we had a player like Jackson? Not sure, but I think it would've been a very tight finish.

[Huskerpapa]

NA

[49r]

Unfortunate to go 0-4 against the 4 best teams on our non-conf schedule, but hopefully we can use some of the lessons learned in those games to pick off a upset or 2 in Big Ten play.

 

With all due respect, I believe Miami is a better team than UAB.

 

Also, none of those losses came at home.  We maybe should have snuck one more out of Charleston, but anyone who would have predicted anything better than 8-4 in non-con this year had way too high of expectations going in, IMO.

[throwback]

 

Unfortunate to go 0-4 against the 4 best teams on our non-conf schedule, but hopefully we can use some of the lessons learned in those games to pick off a upset or 2 in Big Ten play.

 

With all due respect, I believe Miami is a better team than UAB.

 

Also, none of those losses came at home.  We maybe should have snuck one more out of Charleston, but anyone who would have predicted anything better than 8-4 in non-con this year had way too high of expectations going in, IMO.

 

You could be right on Miami-UAB, I'd take UAB head to head, but it'd be a tight game.

 

And I agree on the 8-4 record, that's right where I expected us to be at this point - I thought we might split FGCU/Miami games and maybe get 2 in Charleston, but either way it adds up to 8-4. 

 

What I probably should've written was that it would've been nice to steal one of the four we lost, but I didn't really expect it.

 

And not a real surprise to see a young team playing much better at home than on the road - I thought I saw on the broadcast today it's the first time we've been unbeaten at home in the non-con since 2010-11 - lost to CU & Kent St last season, lost to Wake & Oregon in 2011-12. Hope we can continue to play well at home, starting with Michigan Jan. 9!

[BenJammin63]

I feel like Shavon is having trouble adjusting to Tims offense. I feel shavon needs a actual set offense to succeed. He doesn't create much for himself, and the way Tim runs the offense where he doesn't have a set play and that the person needs to create for themself. Shavon just can't quite do that and be successful. He is a hell of a player and one of our best, but just can't quite create like what Terran does.

[Dean Smith]

I dont think Shields struggles to create but is a little soft on his finishes. He needs to attack the rim, dunk or shoot FT's. someone also previously mentioned the lack of a pull up game. His life would be a lot easier if he could add that demention.

Also, motion offense does not just rely on players to create for themselves. Right now I think the team sets sloppy picks & does a poor job of setting them up & pick receiving. Spacing was off today. Too many people in the lane taking away back door cuts and so we allowed them to push us too far out on the floor, I cutted instead of V cuts and lots of indecisive half cuts which leaves the passer guessing.

Motion requires everyone to be on the same page, working together which is why the complete lack of assists early in the year scared me.