uneblinstu's post game chatter: vol 5, ed 8 - Tai Webster...err...USC

[uneblinstu]

- Yeah, I’m not worried about Webster. He was smiling all night. He was really eating up the attention.

- Loved the move to have him and his family sit with Erick Strickland.

- This was a great night for Nebraska basketball, both on and off the court.

- Gotta give a big shout out to the Red Zone and crowd. They were great tonight. There was an awareness that this was a big game and Webster was in the building. It felt like a conference game with something on the line.

- Something's clicked for Gallegos, at least, I hope it has. Ever since the stinker vs. Kent St., he's been locked in. I said it before the season that I thought Ray had as much to gain as anyone on the team from the coaching change. So far, that's proving true. If he does this again on Thursday, NU's likely to be in the game, but goodness, he gets that shot off quickly.

- NU was really only sloppy during that stretch in the first half where they let USC get up 18-14. They let Fontaine get loose a bit but did a decent job bottling him up from there.

- USC has a bunch of athletes on their team, but they seemed like they were struggling to put the pieces together.

- Talley didn't have a great game. 5 turnovers is a big much. Would like to see that number come down.

- Parker didn't have a great game either. zero assists. two turnovers. five points are nice, but I'd trade them for five assists.

- Peltz, though, played with an edge tonight. Doesn't bring much offensively, but a couple of assists are nice, but it's his bulldog defense that is getting him noticed. I was nervous though when Peltz got matched up on Fontaine a few times.

- Is it just me or is the bench more active cheerleading than I remember them in the past? Pettaway, Biggs and Pitchford were having a lot of fun tonight.

- If Gallegos gets the award for biggest beneficiary of the coaching change, Andre gets runner up. Having him healthy, we're finally seeing the player we thought we were getting two years ago. He was quick tonight and he's getting more consistent offensively.

- NU was pretty good in transition defense today. They're going to need to be even better on Thursday. If you let the Jays get out and run, that's a recipe for disaster.

- Watching the game, didn't notice Ubel much, but when I look at the box score, his 4 assists really stand out. If we can get assists out of the post, that'd be huge.

- Ten first half turnovers weren't a great sign, but they were able to fix that in the second half to finish with 14. That's a pretty good number.

I'm sure I missed some stuff. I'll let you guys fill in the gaps, but this was a good night, both on and off the court. Fun night tonight, will need more of the same on Thursday. It's going to be a sell out, or close to it and the Jays will be significantly better than any team NU has faced so far this year. We're in the middle of the key four game stretch. Many wondered if NU would win any of those four, well, they've won the first two and are playing confident basketball right now. We'll see two teams give it everything they've got on Thursday. Hopefully the fans do as well, I'm expecting them to, though there will be a fair share of Jays fans there as well.

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[Norm Peterson]

1. I think these kids are really starting to get the whole motion offense. From the first few games until now, I'm seeing a whole lot better movement without the ball. Passers become cutters; they don't just stand around.

2. Screening is night and day between this team and the teams of the last, oh, 6-10 years give or take.

3. Defensively, they do a pretty good job of fighting around screens to close out on shooters and staying in front of their guy to prevent the dribble drive. They're doing a lot better job helping and recovering on the screen and roll.

4. I am so thankful Ray Gallegos redshirted last year. He's shooting like the player we knew he could be. Let's hope he keeps this up.

5. Did the Kiwi deliver a signed LOI? Anyone know? My guess is no because they weren't talking about it and if he'd given us a signed LOI, they would be free to comment. At least I never heard Miles mention it either during the pre- or post-game. Sure would have liked to have nailed that LOI down during the visit.

[atskooc]

Good stuff, man!

But I'm a bit frustrated with Peltz. In some shape or form, he has to be a threat to at least shoot the ball. Honestly, when he's on the floor and we have the ball, we're playing four on five because he isn't even attempting to look to the basket. I'm not sure I'd put a guy on him when we're on offense.

That said, I was cheering my butt off watching the game tonight! What fun!

[atskooc]

Is the visit technically over, Norm? Any idea how long he'll be here?

[uneblinstu]

  On 12/4/2012 at 5:11 AM, Norm Peterson said:

5. Did the Kiwi deliver a signed LOI? Anyone know? My guess is no because they weren't talking about it and if he'd given us a signed LOI, they would be free to comment. At least I never heard Miles mention it either during the pre- or post-game. Sure would have liked to have nailed that LOI down during the visit.

Robin Washut said on the radio this afternoon that he signed it back home, had all the requisite witnesses and is signed and sealed.

[PimpMario]

  On 12/4/2012 at 6:06 AM, uneblinstu said:

Robin Washut said on the radio this afternoon that he signed it back home, had all the requisite witnesses and is signed and sealed.

I want to believe but I am waiting for something official.

[GATA]

Fantastic game tonight. Everyone above raised some great points. The one thing that annoyed me today, other than the turnovers, were the silly fouls early. Not only is that a huge no-no for a team with zero depth, but it gave USC some free points when they were absolutely struggling to score points.

We will definitely need to correct that come league play, because scoring for us will be tough enough. Giving away points will be a killer.

[Cheap Seat Perspective]

My take from the game:

When Ray gets in his zones it's amazing no matter what he throws up you just know it's going in, his shot just looks so pure, a thing of beauty. I also like how he did a little smack talk on Jio Fontain after he made the 3 before half. I like that fire in him, he usually doesn't show much emotion on the court.

I've never seen Ubel take players off the dribble like this not even in practices, he is playing really well and I hope he keeps it up.

It seems Andre has turned the corner and maybe he knows what his role is on the team now.

Shavon Shields is strong. That baseline move in the 2nd half was a really good play to get back under control and power it up strong.

Mike Peltz has to look to shoot, those 2 plays at the end of the shot clock where he was looking for anyone else to shoot, is going to get us beat in closer games. He has a nice shot just needs some confidence.

Benny really has to up his assist totals, but he's a Freshman we should expect some up and down games, other than lack of assists, I thought he played solid.

Dylan didn't play well tonight way to many turnovers, 5!!!! One time in the 2nd half when he was dribbling through the USC defenders, the whole time he had the ball, I was yelling pass, pass, pass, pass. He just scares me when he dribbles, but he did have some nice passes and shot pretty well.

Overall a great win, I am excited where this team is at right now, and encouraged about the future.

[hhcmatt]

The one person everyone forgot was David Rivers. This looks like one of his best games of the season and did anyone see that one armed rebound towards the start of the game?

[Huskerpapa]

What a fun night. I would have shared more last night, but I was uhhh, locked out. That is a bummer, but hey, what are you going to do about it.

- Ubel is having a good senior year. He is much more aggressive this year, both offensively and defensively. He stayed out of foul trouble in the second half, but he is still prone to ticky-tack fouls on occasion.

- Andre is a force, more so on defense right now than offensively, but that offensive inconsistancy (I think) will improve as the season progresses. But on defense, he simply blocks out the key. If, and this is big, he can improve his footwork just a tad, he can perhaps stay away from foul trouble.

- Rivers improves each and every time out. That is a credit both to David and to the coaching staff. He appears to be gaining confidence and that is very positive.

- Shavon looked pretty good last night as well. He is rusty and still has the look of a first year player, but he certainly looks like he knows his way around the basketball floor.

- A few mistakes out of Benny, but he is a tough nut. I love to watch him play, he, like Shavon, has a tremendous upside. I about freaked out when he rolled his ankle early on, but given this play the remainder of the game, he looks to be fine.

- Peltz struggled a bit at times, especially with the quicker guards, but as I have said before, he has grit and determination that allows him to play the minutes he does. I just wish he would expand his shot selection just a bit. The scouting report on him will indicate that he can't or won't shoot, and his defender will end up double teaming others.

- Despite his turnovers last night, Talley still played a decent game and made some key shots. Firm up the handles Dylan, then all is well.

- Gallegos = stud. What a night.

This was a very fun game. We played well, a big recruit in the house, the red zone was on, the music made things more exciting rather than putting us asleep (no Sweet Caroline), there were 10,000 in the building and they provided a good show. Red Panda brought out a standing ovation, and finally, finally, when the fans started to come, we played well. Man, that was sweet. Now Creighton...

[HuskerPower #nato73]

We we were struggling to get the ball inside to Ubel especially because of the size and length of USC. I thought the adjustment to having Ubel take his man off the dribble was an excellent adjustment.

Rivers' looked 2 times more active than he has been in any game so far. He looked like he fit in the speed of the game and showed some athleticism on some rebounds. Obviously if he can hit from 17-20 feet at 6 foot 7 he could be a weapon for us. He still struggles to box out and a few other things, but this was his best game by far.

Shields also looked a lot more fluid than he did his first game and I think he will continue to improve. He and Rivers are both long guard/forward combo players. While we are still not deep they could make our 7-8 rotation solid and I think they are the model for what Miles likes in his guard/forwards which is versatility. I think Hawkins and Fuller are similar.

Don't get overly excited. As Miles pointed out on the post game show, we are still picked last in the Big 10 and have some work to do. Last night was a really fun game though and Miles is a coach with a style that players will want to play for.

[swoll cracker]

I had the opportunity to watch the majority of the game on TV last night. I had seen USC play against Texas and San Diego State, both very solid defensive teams. Nebraska did a much better job of disrupting the flow of the USC offense in the half court last night than those teams did. The coach, his staff, and the players deserve a lot of credit for the great team defense they played over 40 minutes. I think the team grew a lot last night, especially in the second half, with the patience and intelligence they played with.

[1sdpad2]

Is it just me or is the bench more active cheerleading than I remember them in the past? Pettaway, Biggs and Pitchford were having a lot of fun tonight.

I've noticed this at the games I went to early on this year. It was getting very bad last year in my opinion along these lines. It's got to much more fun when your bench is cheering you on too.

[kldm64]

Miles did an outstanding coaching job last night. I was thinking with about 2 minutes left in the first half to pull Ubel so he don't pick up a cheap 2nd foul and sure enough, Miles sends in Rivers with under a minute to go for Ubel. Miles has put this team far ahead of what I expected. I stil know we will take a pounding in some Big 10 games but he has kids playing very well and confident. Ubel has improved greatly under new coaching and what more can you say about Ray. He is clutch. Talley tries to go one on one a little to often and gets himself in trouble. Parker is servable for this year and players seem to know their role. Almeida is getting better as well if he can stay out of foul trouble. At the beginning of the year, I would have said Creigton would blow us out by 25 points but not it wouldn't shock me if we hang with them. Even if we do lose, I don't see us getting blown out. What a credit to Coach Miles and his staff. The future so bright, I gotta wear shades.

[Bugeaters1]

  On 12/4/2012 at 6:06 AM, uneblinstu said:

Robin Washut said on the radio this afternoon that he signed it back home, had all the requisite witnesses and is signed and sealed.

If this were true why did some of us get a tweet from the Nebr. compliance office about signs and pictures etc.

[Bugeaters1]

Peltz struggled a bit at times, especially with the quicker guards, but as I have said before, he has grit and determination that allows him to play the minutes he does. I just wish he would expand his shot selection just a bit. The scouting report on him will indicate that he can't or won't shoot, and his defender will end up double teaming others.

Peltz is doing a good job of the rope a dope that Ali used to do in his fights, he puts you to sleep then bam he hits you in the head for a knockout.

[uneblinstu]

  On 12/4/2012 at 6:29 PM, Bugeaters1 said:

If this were true why did some of us get a tweet from the Nebr. compliance office about signs and pictures etc.

Because until it's officially done, it'd still be a violation.

[Bugeaters1]

What I'm saying is that he didn't sign LoI in New Zealand.

[uneblinstu]

  On 12/4/2012 at 8:47 PM, Bugeaters1 said:

What I'm saying is that he didn't sign LoI in New Zealand.

I knew what you were saying, but the coaching staff can't comment on it until it gets turned into the NCAA, so any acts that would be considered violations while he's still considered a recruit would still be in effect until it is turned in.