Nick & Nate

[Section_316]

I think most of you, like me, see Tai progressing into a really solid B1G point guard. Any thoughts on Miles other 2 freshman? I was really excited about Fuller and Hawkins (Probably my bias). Do you see them being productive here? What roles will they play next year?

[TheGov21]

Like somebody else stated, they see Fuller as a stretch 4 but feel he needs to add weight so that's probably why he's redshirting.  From everything I've heard I think Fuller has a future.  Hawkins probably should have redshirted, especially with the early injury.  He has no impressed me at all from the little I've seen.

[hhcmatt]

Seems like Fuller has made some great progress in terms of size and speeding up that shot.

We'll see him next year.

 

Nate? He was one hell of an outside shooter on a team lacking outside shooting.  Is he not hitting those in practice?

[PimpMario]

I hope Webster sticks with Nebraska and has a monster off season and gets loads of confidence.  

[Handy Johnson]

I was under the impression that if Hawkins was going to play this year, he was actually going to PLAY. If you would have told me before the season started we'd be getting absolutely ZERO from Fuller, Hawkins & Rivers I flat out wouldn't have believed it. I thought Hawkins was the more likely Redshirt candidate, but Fuller approached Miles about it, so there you go... Certainly a strange and humbling game, is it not?

[Red Rum]

From what I can see it seems that Hawkins gets too many ticky tac fouls and is kind of lost on D. Now that sort of looks that way for other players too but they're scoring. I really think he should have redshirted. There are only so many minutes to go around.

[NeeandMe]

Personally I've like what I've seen from Hawkins.  Obviously he hasn't come in and done much point-production-wise, but the moment has never appeared to big for him.  I believe we'd be seeing more of him if we hadn't just played two must-win games within single digit margins the entire way.  I fully believe once a game is separated by 8 or more and Miles is looking for a spark or to spell a guy, we'll see Hawkins.  I'm no expert, but it looks to me like he's a kid that will progress as he gets minutes.

 

I'm extremely excited for Fuller's future, as he was the one I was most excited for outside of Tai.  But again, I'm no expert so time will tell.

[Silverbacked1]

I like all three, it will take some time but we are going to be sad the day they leave here.

[MichHusker]

I like all three, it will take some time but we are going to be sad the day they leave here.

 

Won't be too sad when they lead us to a title

[Hooper]

FWIW, Coach Smith told some fans the other day that Fuller has looked like a completely different player since coming back from the extended Christmas break. He also said that if we hadn't already made the decision to redshirt him, he'd be getting major minutes right now. As discussed previously, they're developing him into a Wragge-type stretch 4.

 

Supposedly Hawkins has been great in practice but hasn't been able to put it together in games yet. Maybe it's just nerves.

 

I feel that both of these guys are going to be really nice players for us, and I'm glad to hear that Fuller has really impressed lately.

[bball23]

I want to play devil's advocates for just a moment and ONLY for discussion reasons.  I want to first say this....Fuller is the recruit I'm the MOST excited about.

 

(FOR DISCUSSION ONLY) do any of you ever worry that coaches say these things to almost make it sound like we would be better if Fuller were playing now (almost like an excuse).  The ONLY reason I say this is because in the past 8-10 years I swear the "guys red-shirting" would be starting or giving us big minutes if they were playing.  Ala how everybody always loves the backup QB. 

 

I for one think Fuller is going to be damn good.  Loved him on film, love his size, love how he can use both hands, love his shot.  I'm just saying....it seems like so many times the guys that "aren't playing right now" would be "great, or giving us big minutes if they were"  Then they come to play, and maybe don't do as well as we thought.

 

Again, this is only for discussion as I'm a HUGE Fuller fan.

[Norm Peterson]

bball23, interesting thought.  Except what we've seen recently is that the guys redshirting REALLY WOULD HAVE BEEN STARTING.

 

Or at least playing big minutes.

 

Have you seen Petteway this year?  Can you imagine him NOT playing a significant role last year?  And Biggs?  And Pitchford?

 

Every single one of last year's redshirts would have been in the rotation last year and Petteway, at least, would have been starting, and possibly Biggs or Pitchford as well.

[Norm Peterson]

And just to put a further point on it, if you look at the team this year, what elements are we missing?  What do we most need? 

 

Miles has said we're one big man away and I think there's something to that.  It'd be nice to have a solid post defender who is also a rebounding machine.

 

But what else?  Is there another element we're missing?

 

Fuller's strength is apparently his perimeter shooting ability.  And right now we have nobody -- not a single player -- shooting at least 40% from beyond the arc.  We have three guys shooting between 35% and 40% and hardly anyone else is even registering on the Richter scale of shooting.

 

In the absence of a solid post-defender, it would be nice to have a 3-pt specialist who could spread the floor, bust zones, etc.  And if Fuller has come back a new player, basically, I could easily see how he'd be getting minutes on this team right now.

[Creighton Fan]

Bb23 you may be onto somehing.

It could also be true that redshirts look good because they are practicing against the guys and not against other big ten schools.

[Hooper]

I'm more inclined to just take Smith at his word. They let Fuller stay home longer because he didn't travel to Iowa City, so he had a longer break than the others. The decision to redshirt him had already been made, and they're not going to burn it now. I don't feel that Smith would go out of his way to say that Fuller has looked like a completely different player after the break if he didn't really believe it.

[Concrete]

I want to play devil's advocates for just a moment and ONLY for discussion reasons.  I want to first say this....Fuller is the recruit I'm the MOST excited about.

 

(FOR DISCUSSION ONLY) do any of you ever worry that coaches say these things to almost make it sound like we would be better if Fuller were playing now (almost like an excuse).  The ONLY reason I say this is because in the past 8-10 years I swear the "guys red-shirting" would be starting or giving us big minutes if they were playing.  Ala how everybody always loves the backup QB. 

 

I for one think Fuller is going to be damn good.  Loved him on film, love his size, love how he can use both hands, love his shot.  I'm just saying....it seems like so many times the guys that "aren't playing right now" would be "great, or giving us big minutes if they were"  Then they come to play, and maybe don't do as well as we thought.

 

Again, this is only for discussion as I'm a HUGE Fuller fan.

I think this would apply in most cases, but our staff is pretty honest when discussing players with the public/media. If the coaches weren't confident in fuller and Hawkins going forward, we probably would've recruited Leon Gilmore way harder than we did

[extremehoops]

Thats the good and bad of redshirting.  The bad is you dont get but one game to judge your talents against others before you make a decision.  In Fullers case he played one game and had 10 points and 6 rebounds and was 6-8 from the FT line, from that Fuller had to decide what to do.  As I remember correctly Coach Miles said Fuller went to him to redshirt or Coach Miles wasn't planning to redshirt him, so Fuller, himself must of felt he needed more time to develop or take that chance to play this year in limited minutes or be at that same Freshman level next year with more strength and skill, that the good.

 

Coach Miles must really want Fuller to be as involved as possible because how many redshirt players do you see suit up for the games.  Most I see are in street clothes. So Coach Miles wants Fuller to get the full experience minus the playing which seems huge to me.

 

If Nebraska did a summer overseas trip and did 2 exhibition games, then a player can get a better chance to decide to redshirt or not.  This year you had one game to decide if your in out out for the entire year.  very tough

 

Coach Smith said on the basketball show that Fuller is a basketball freak and cannot get enough basketball and wants to do workouts all the time.

 

Maybe Fuller made the wrong decision to redshirt and could of helped the team this year, but the NCAA rules make it tough.

 

Well look at the bright side of things.  We should be excited to say the Freshman class will now be Hammonds 6'10" and Fuller 6'6".

[bigred4]

I think at the start of the year, Fuller seemed to be the guy who was going to play right away.  He decided to redshirt and its sounds like he has improved which is good.  His high school film looked pretty good.

 

Hawkins really impressed at the opening scrimmage, and then got hurt and missed some time.  He looks like a freshmen out there, but I think he has a good upside.  One play sticks out for me with Hawkins.  At the end of the 1st half after OSU made the free throws with like 3 seconds left, and they inbounded the ball to him and he basically just held the ball with no one around him.  He could have dribbled 3 times or so and tried a half court shot.  Not a huge deal, but just think if Walton from Michigan didn't try the half court shot and just let the clock run out.

 

Lastly, nothing against Mike Peltz, he seems like a cool dude and probably works hard in practice, but Miles said he is one of the guys they are looking at playing more minutes at wing.   He is a 6-2, senior, walk-on, who got a lot of opportunities last year.  Miles talks about building the program, who would you rather have getting more minutes at the wing in a season where we aren't going anywhere in all likelihood?   Hawkins or Peltz?  I would say Hawkins, especially since he has never really had consistent playing time.

[Hooper]

I don't understand why Mike Peltz would be in contention for more playing time. He's unathletic and unskilled. Not even close to being a B1G player. The only time I want to see Mike Peltz out there is when we're up by 20 points with 2 minutes left.

[Silverbacked1]

Or when we need somebody "taken care of"

[NeeandMe]

I don't understand why Mike Peltz would be in contention for more playing time. He's unathletic and unskilled. Not even close to being a B1G player. The only time I want to see Mike Peltz out there is when we're up by 20 points with 2 minutes left.

Couldn't disagree more.  The rest, meh, I suppose I wouldn't argue.  He's a helluva pounder though, wouldn't mind seeing him come in to rough up Craft... like break his leg.

[Norm Peterson]

Or when we need somebody "taken care of"

An "attitude adjustment" if you will.

 

It kind of makes me feely skinny knowing that Peltz could put a 100# plate on top of me and still bench press me.

[HB]

I think at the start of the year, Fuller seemed to be the guy who was going to play right away.  He decided to redshirt and its sounds like he has improved which is good.  His high school film looked pretty good.

 

Hawkins really impressed at the opening scrimmage, and then got hurt and missed some time.  He looks like a freshmen out there, but I think he has a good upside.  One play sticks out for me with Hawkins.  At the end of the 1st half after OSU made the free throws with like 3 seconds left, and they inbounded the ball to him and he basically just held the ball with no one around him.  He could have dribbled 3 times or so and tried a half court shot.  Not a huge deal, but just think if Walton from Michigan didn't try the half court shot and just let the clock run out.

 

 

Rumor has it holding the ball in that situation was contrary to coach's instructions, and coach was not happy at all about it.

[Hooper]

 

I don't understand why Mike Peltz would be in contention for more playing time. He's unathletic and unskilled. Not even close to being a B1G player. The only time I want to see Mike Peltz out there is when we're up by 20 points with 2 minutes left.

Couldn't disagree more.  The rest, meh, I suppose I wouldn't argue.  He's a helluva pounder though, wouldn't mind seeing him come in to rough up Craft... like break his leg.

 

 

There are many different types of athleticism. If we were evaluating him based on a football metric, then I'd grant you your argument to a greater extent. In the context of basketball, where fluid coordination means more than having an impressive 20-yard shuttle time, for example, I don't believe he displays B1G-caliber athleticism. I know he's strong and fast for his size. To me, that doesn't equate to fluidity and high-level athleticism on the court. Instead, he looks like a muscle-bound, marginal athlete. Just my opinion.

[hhcmatt]

Bb23 you may be onto somehing.

It could also be true that redshirts look good because they are practicing against the guys and not against other big ten schools.

 

Fuller would be on the scout team so he's practicing against our starters, FWIW.