Should severely slumping sophomore Shavon Shields sit?

[TheKamdyMan]

First I wanted to make a topic that every single letter started with "S" and it make sense.  As for Shavon I really think right now that sophomore slump is really hitting him hard.  I love Shavon as a person and think he has the game but for some reason it really hasnt been there since FGCU.  I mean he's missed a ton easy bunnies all year long and his outside shot has been off, badly for some games, and just looks completely frazzled out on the court.

 

I dont want to sounds like I dont want him to be successful by any means and think hes a tremendous player but for whatever reason his game lately has been a round peg in a square hole.  Im sure I will take some flack and push back but this team right now isnt working well with him getting as minutes as he is, but like Miles has mentioned are a few men short so who takes away a few minutes.  I still want him out there to get his groove back like Stella but until that happens its not helping the team with his play.

[Concrete]

a- No, I don't think so, unless the knee injury Miles talked about post game is getting worse due to his minutes

b- Who would we start in place of him?  Webster/Biggs/Gallegos/Petteway/Pitchford is even more "square peg round hole" than what we have right now.

 

Webster/Gallegos/Petteway/Smith/Pitchford is intriguing, but isn't an option

[tuxino]

David Rivers. 

[Concrete]

David Rivers. 

touche, forgot about him

[cozrulz]

I wonder if not having to start would relieve some of the pressure on him.  Is he just pressing too much?  How bad is his knee bothering him?

[bkamler]

Shields is good at driving to the basket but he does elevate at all and he does not pump fake so he either gets stuffed or misses the bunny 70% of the time. His leaping ability is not great and his outside shooting has digressed. When he and Webster are in the defense has a five on three gimme. You can't have forty percent of your offense be impotent! IMO at least one of the two needs to start the game on the bench.

[bkamler]

Meant to say Shields does not elevate at.

[tcp]

shavon needs that 12-15 footer desperately, but he's not going to get it sitting on pine. maybe cut his minutes down if someone else can take them, but we have some guys we just need to let play through some of their crap. as long as they're playing passable defense, I think you have to let them keep playing.

This is what you get when you lengthen Doc's old leash. You can't have it both ways.

[49r]

shavon needs that 12-15 footer desperately, but he's not going to get it sitting on pine. maybe cut his minutes down if someone else can take them, but we have some guys we just need to let play through some of their crap. as long as they're playing passable defense, I think you have to let them keep playing.

This is what you get when you lengthen Doc's old leash. You can't have it both ways.

 

Right?  There were plenty of people complaining about how Doc was "ruining" his most talented players by yanking them from the game and not letting them play through their issues.

 

I guess you gotta pick your poison here.

[tcp]

 

shavon needs that 12-15 footer desperately, but he's not going to get it sitting on pine. maybe cut his minutes down if someone else can take them, but we have some guys we just need to let play through some of their crap. as long as they're playing passable defense, I think you have to let them keep playing.

This is what you get when you lengthen Doc's old leash. You can't have it both ways.

 

Right?  There were plenty of people complaining about how Doc was "ruining" his most talented players by yanking them from the game and not letting them play through their issues.

 

I guess you gotta pick your poison here.

 

 

exactly. It's a hard call for coaches, too, since there's no guarantee of the outcome.

[Norm Peterson]

Yeah, the same peeps who had their panties in a wad over Standhardinger not playing would have had their knickers equally twisted if Doc had let him play through struggles while not giving those minutes to someone else.

I really had hoped we could get to at least year three of the next staff before the boards started bitching like they did about the last staff. The nice thing is that Miles has a 7 year deal, so the buyout will be minimal when everyone starts complaining in year 4 that we should fire him.

Has anyone registered the FireCoachMiles domain yet?

[huskerbaseball13]

Yeah, the same peeps who had their panties in a wad over Standhardinger not playing would have had their knickers equally twisted if Doc had let him play through struggles while not giving those minutes to someone else.

I really had hoped we could get to at least year three of the next staff before the boards started bitching like they did about the last staff. The nice thing is that Miles has a 7 year deal, so the buyout will be minimal when everyone starts complaining in year 4 that we should fire him.

Has anyone registered the FireCoachMiles domain yet?

Talk about an overreaction. So fans can't be critical of some of Miles decisions without you thinking they are calling for his head?

[tcp]

Yeah, the same peeps who had their panties in a wad over Standhardinger not playing would have had their knickers equally twisted if Doc had let him play through struggles while not giving those minutes to someone else.

I really had hoped we could get to at least year three of the next staff before the boards started bitching like they did about the last staff. The nice thing is that Miles has a 7 year deal, so the buyout will be minimal when everyone starts complaining in year 4 that we should fire him.

Has anyone registered the FireCoachMiles domain yet?

 

I don't think I've seen anyone at quite this level of dissatisfaction yet, but it'll come. Just don't take it too seriously. It's the nature of this beast. Internet attracts a lot of mean people and a lot of troubled souls, especially on sports boards for some reason.

[Hooper]

Shavon is definitely slumping this year, and given the duration of the slump, I don't believe we can just say that it's because the knee's bothering him. That's more of a recent issue.

 

I'm not quite sure why Shavon seems to have taken a step backward this year. It's tough to understand. As others have mentioned in this thread, a guy like Shavon, who lacks high-level explosiveness and athleticism, needs to make his living a lot more with his jump shot than he currently does. When opponents respect his shot, he can work the dribble-drive off of shot fakes and probably have more success. 

 

Additionally, he's too deliberate in getting to the rim, which, when combined with limited elevation and explosiveness, makes him easy prey for shot blockers in the paint. 

 

I don't see Shavon taking his game to the next level until he really embraces who he is and works really hard to build his game around what he's capable of. Shavon really didn't inherit much of his dad's explosiveness. 

 

I really expected him to pick up where he left off last season, and after FGCU, really believed he had, but that doesn't appear to be the case, and he's hurt us a lot this year in many games. Hopefully he'll at least develop better consistency later this season than he's shown up to this point.

[nuled2dance]

Yes sometimes people need wake up calls

[HuskerCager]

Severely slumping?  Watch last night's replay.  He's creating loose balls, keeping the ball alive, etc.  Doing the small things that help his teammates.  I don't see any evidence that he's obsessing over his diminished numbers over last year.  He's adjusted to a new role, which shows an incredible amount of maturity for a young guy if you ask me.

Shavon might not finish his four years here with a sparkling stat line, but he is going to be the glue that takes our program up a notch, if it happens at all. 

[ajb5856]

Severely slumping? Watch last night's replay. He's creating loose balls, keeping the ball alive, etc. Doing the small things that help his teammates. I don't see any evidence that he's obsessing over his diminished numbers over last year. He's adjusted to a new role, which shows an incredible amount of maturity for a young guy if you ask me.

Shavon might not finish his four years here with a sparkling stat line, but he is going to be the glue that takes our program up a notch, if it happens at all.

Agree. Shavon is struggling on offense but it's not like he's a total disaster to have on the floor. He's not turning it over, he knows the offense, rebounds, and plays defense. He's not a liability, I guess, despite the offensive struggles.

Shavon is a nice player, a smart player. Things will get better for him offensively. But, as it has been mentioned, he's not very explosive. I'm still one who thinks the Shavon we saw last year was a little fools gold. He was a better offensive option on a team with extremely limited ability, and he had a few big games. Now he has teammates that are much more athletically gifted than he is, and some with more talent. I think people were expecting Shavon to be a 20 point a game guy this year and that's just not gonna happen when you've got Petteway, Biggs, and even Smith to share the ball with, all of whom might be better offensive options than Shavon.

Shavon is a really nice player and I hope he can get back to doing some of the nice things he was doing last year. I just don't think we should expect consistent production.

[Dean Smith]

Wasn't he B1G player if the week already this season?

[TheKamdyMan]

Wasn't he B1G player if the week already this season?

Yes week one for his game against FGCU

[ladyhusker]

I wonder if some of it isn't just that last year, he was an unknown quantity, so teams weren't necessarily able to prepare as well for him (he was a true freshman, then injured for a while, so their film on him wouldn't have been all that plentiful). This year, they have more of a sample size to see what he brings to the floor, and shut him down accordingly -- much like what we saw happen with Ray last year. I don't know if it's so much a slump as it is that he has a certain skill set (that admittedly is up to him to continue to expand) and teams are better able to prepare for him and make him more of a focal point of their defense than they did last year when they also had to shut down Ray, Brandon and Dylan (known quantities). Shavon has the added bonus that he's very smart, and last year I think we may have been spoiled with him because he has some talent but he also I think knew how to exploit that when teams weren't prepared for him. I'm not so sure we won't see something similar happen with Terran and Deverell next year -- guys who were more or less unknowns coming into this year who have put up big numbers in a hurry but will be more of a defensive focal point for teams next year (or even later this year, for that matter) with more film available of them now to focus on.

[AuroranHusker]

Shavon's game will be all right as soon as his knee gets better. He's probably the best "team player" that NU has at the moment... Shields does need to pull up more often in the mid-range game than settling for 3's or driving all the way in only to shoot awkwardly or get swatted.  I have faith that Shavon will be a big part of the reason that NU gets on the right track (i.e. winning more often as well as playing the game to put the team in position to win) in the B1G. Big things are ahead for this program, and Shavon is still the face of this team.

[throwback]

I have to wonder about the knee affecting him more than they're letting on too. He sure looked more explosive early in the year than he has lately. I remember being surprised at the open scrimmage and vs FGCU at how much more noticeably explosive he seemed versus last year. Of course, he's battling bigger players now too than he was early, so the early games could have been an illusion or it could be a confidence thing now. Or a combination of all of those factors.

 

With most fans staying to the end Thursday for a change  I got caught up in the foot traffic & didn't get back to the car in time to hear Coach on the post game. Did he mention when/where he injured it? 

[trickey]

There is a subscription article entitled "Shields looking to break out" at 247.

Since I am not on their good list...perhaps somebody can say if there is any insight here:

 

 

http://nebraska.247sports.com/Article/Nebraska-basketball-Shavon-Shields-wants-to-break-out--170825

[hhcdave]

Has anyone else noticed that everything with him is "short" this year? Meaning, he front ends almost every shot.

 

Could that be because of a lack of legs/the knee?

[hhcmatt]

We need some midrange game against Purdue.  Could be him focusing on shooting today instead of driving and perhaps being the guy we saw knocking down 12 footers against FGCU