12/03/2012 - USC Report Card

[hhcdave]

OFFENSE: B+

When Nebraska wasn't turning it over, their offense was quite efficient, especially from downtown, as NU connected on 11-17 (65%) from beyond the arc. That, my friends, will beat most teams in the country, especially when you play defense the way the Huskers have been throughout the past few games.

Once again, I go Ray Gallegos as the Player of the Game, as the junior from Utah connected on 6-10 from downtown en route to shooting 7-14 from the field with 20 points in 38 minutes. If that seems awfully identical to his Wake Forest line, that's because it's nearly a duplicate.

Besidess Gallegos, Dylan Talley scored double figures (14) but its not really him I want to talk about, as his five turnovers really hurt the team throughout this contest (especially in the first half).

I want to give David Rivers some love, as he really seems to be improving at a rapid rate and looking quite comfortable offensively. If he can chip in 5-7 points a game off the bench, that will really help, and its nice to see him playing with confidence.

I will discuss this more in coaching, but I feel like literally, this ENTIRE ROSTER of returning players has greatly improved since last year. Quick – name me one player who has regressed?

Give up? Me too.

There isn't one.

DEFENSE: A-

Nebraska played outstanding defensively, holding an athletic BCS opponent to just 51 points on 38% shooting, to go along with 15 forced turnovers.

If there's one area that really needs improvement, its stopping dribble penetration. We've seen that quite a bit early on, where NU's younger and inexperienced point guards are having trouble staying with their men. Not to call him out, but most notably Mike Peltz.

Nebraska plays GREAT help defense and they are schooled very well on their assignments. I don't recall hearing much about Tim Miles being a great defensive coach before the hire but I'm starting to wonder if he understands “D'ing it up” much better than we ever realized he would.

REBOUNDING: A

Nebraska faced a team bigger than itself tonight and responded by going +4 on the boards (31 to 27), as well as holding USC to a respectable eight offensive boards.

Ubel pulled down a team leading seven boards and David Rivers grabbed two key second chance rebounds.

It's nice to see Nebraska really boxing out hard and having good technique. This was something else they struggled with early on but it was remedied in a hurry.

BALL HANDLING: D+

Nebraska was quite sloppy in the first half with the basketball and for awhile, turned it over about five times in 3:30. Talley was especially bad, turning the rock over five times, while Almeida had four.

For the game, Nebraska finished with 15 turnovers, which will not get it done in many contests this year. However, I don't expect to see Talley or Almeida making those kind of mistakes again at such an alarming pace.

COACHING: A+

As mentioned earlier, name me one player who hasn't improved from last year. There isn't a single one. Period.

Ubel looks polished as heck and like a legitimate honorable mention all conference type player, if not even possibly a second teamer. You can laugh, but I believe that.

Talley has improved ten fold on defense, really bought in and appears to have conviction on offense.

Rivers literally gets better every single game. He looks like he could become a useful basketball player and quite a decent spark plug.

Almeida has started playing defense, his foot work has gotten noticeably better and he's able to play more minutes.

Gallegos might be the most improved player in the nation from what we saw two years ago. Seriously, not a single person on here saw this coming. If you say you did, you're full of crap.

I also liked what we saw out of Shields tonight. He could become a really useful player this year that could help us pull out 2-3 close wins on his own. Love his athleticism, instinct and ability (it appears) to score. He looks confident, too.

Tim Miles' team is disciplined, plays insanely hard, plays well above average defense and is coming along nicely offensively.

I am seriously in shock of these last two games. You can say we haven't played great teams, and I'll give you that.

However, we're taking the wood shed to Purdue/Penn State/Northwestern caliber teams, and that is GOOD NEWS for this year and beyond.

OVERALL GRADE: A-

Keep it going, Huskers. Keep it going. You are making us proud. I haven't been this excited to be a Nebraska basketball fan in a long time. A win against Creighton is HUGE but either way, we've set ourselves up to have a great non-conference result.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: RAY GALLEGOS

2012-2013 PLAYER OF THE GAME TOTALS:

RAY GALLEGOS – 4

DYLAN TALLEY – 2

BRANDON UBEL - 1

[Swan88]

Shavon Shields showed some promise tonight. Looked like he belonged out there. Confident. Fluid movement. Under control. Looked good!

[atskooc]

Peltz has to at least appear like he's a threat to attempt a shot. Do defenses even need to put a guy on him if he continues to not even look in the general direction of the basket?

[trickey]

Peltz has to at least appear like he's a threat to attempt a shot. Do defenses even need to put a guy on him if he continues to not even look in the general direction of the basket?

The two dumps to Ray with the clock all but gone were examples of times when Peltz is going to have to find the confidence to shoot...the shots he could take can't be worse than the rushed airballs we saw as a result of these last second passes...still the kid hustles and he has a nose for where to be when the ball is coming off the hoop. I am glad to have Peltz, however, if he wants to make the team better, he needs to find enough confidence in his shot to take it when necessary. This probably means he should average 2 or 3 shots a game, but this beats none and the resulting "don't bother to guard him, coach" game plan.

[GATA]

He's a freshman point guard so maybe my expectations need to be lowered, but I'm a little worried about Benny Parker. I don't think Peltz is anything but a minutes eater, and on this team that's important, but we need Parker to be a lot better than he was tonight. Talley's turnovers were disappointing, but it's going to happen because he has to create for our offense since our point guards are doing very little of that.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm curious where we rank nationally in assists per game.

[PAhusker]

293rd

[GATA]

293rd

If that was in response to my post, thanks! That's an ugly number.

[GATA]

I also meant to mention that I absolutely LOVE the energy that Rivers plays with. I think he's the very definition of GATA.

[Blackshirt83]

He's a freshman point guard so maybe my expectations need to be lowered, but I'm a little worried about Benny Parker. I don't think Peltz is anything but a minutes eater, and on this team that's important, but we need Parker to be a lot better than he was tonight. Talley's turnovers were disappointing, but it's going to happen because he has to create for our offense since our point guards are doing very little of that.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm curious where we rank nationally in assists per game.

According to Coach Miles, Benny smacked his head and hurt his ankle earlier this week and was about 75% healthy for the game.

Hopefully he'll be close to 100% by Thursday,

[Huskerpapa]

Excellent report card Dave. Spot on!

[HB]

Good card, Dave. I agree with the comments on Rivers. His shot and hands aren't the best, but he is helping us on the floor. He finds a way to make plays. Last night was his best all around game. Agree with the comments on coaching, and player improvement. I will find satisfaciton in each player improving and getting the most out of their game, regardless of the ultimate win-loss record.

A shout out to CWG, who did in fact predict big things out of Gallegos, including a prediction before we even played a game that Gallegos would be our leading scorer.

[Norm Peterson]

***

Gallegos might be the most improved player in the nation from what we saw two years ago. Seriously, not a single person on here saw this coming. If you say you did, you're full of crap.

***

With all respect, Dave, and I took some crap on the old site for saying it, but I have always maintained that Ray had the ability to do this. He's improved his spot up perimeter jumper during his redshirt year, but that pull up jumper off the dribble remains a powerful weapon for him because, with Ray's quickness and elevation, he needs so little space to get it off. Just a little separation from the defender and he's going to be able to get the shot off. The only difference between now and two years ago is that now, Ray is hitting those shots in games the way he used to only hit them in practice.

I'm not trying to take credit or anything. I'm only saying this because, for a couple of years now, I felt like a lot of people didn't really believe what I was reporting about Ray in practice. But now he's doing it in games. And it's a wonderful thing to see and let's hope he keeps it up.

[HB]

Ray: True about Norm as well. Norm and CWG were on this.

[Handy Johnson]

To all of you who scoffed or chuckled when I predicted 8+ Non-conference wins I'd say, Look at me now, Look at me now! With Creighton and Oregon up next I'm excited to see how we'll hang against stiffer competition. Hopefully we'll have a full house on Thurs. night and send all the stuffed shirts home sad.

[HB]

To all of you who scoffed or chuckled when I predicted 8+ Non-conference wins I'd say, Look at me now, Look at me now! With Creighton and Oregon up next I'm excited to see how we'll hang against stiffer competition. Hopefully we'll have a full house on Thurs. night and send all the stuffed shirts home sad.

Guilty as charged, Handy. Credit to you, and certainly to Uneblinstu for your more optimistic, and so far more accurate, predictions.

[uneblinstu]

Guilty as charged, Handy. Credit to you, and certainly to Uneblinstu for your more optimistic, and so far more accurate, predictions.

lots of basketball left.

[Tallbaby21]

I'm pretty pumped about the way this team is playing but Thursday and Oregon will be a reality check. USC and Wake might be the two worst BCS conference teams in the nation. I have no idea how Kevin O'Neill is still employed. It is encouraging to see us consistently outperforming the Vegas spread every game.

[The_Vault]

With all respect, Dave, and I took some crap on the old site for saying it, but I have always maintained that Ray had the ability to do this. He's improved his spot up perimeter jumper during his redshirt year, but that pull up jumper off the dribble remains a powerful weapon for him because, with Ray's quickness and elevation, he needs so little space to get it off. Just a little separation from the defender and he's going to be able to get the shot off. The only difference between now and two years ago is that now, Ray is hitting those shots in games the way he used to only hit them in practice.

I'm not trying to take credit or anything. I'm only saying this because, for a couple of years now, I felt like a lot of people didn't really believe what I was reporting about Ray in practice. But now he's doing it in games. And it's a wonderful thing to see and let's hope he keeps it up.

Can students go and watch practices? Id love to watch some

[uneblinstu]

I'm pretty pumped about the way this team is playing but Thursday and Oregon will be a reality check.

Right. Unless they win one of those games. It may not be likely, but no one expected the last wins or the Valpo win, either. We'll find out fairly quickly which reality it is.

[Handy Johnson]

Ubel is talkin' Big Dance already. While that might seem like "Pie in the Sky" talk, I LOVE it. If that isn't your goal every time you walk in that gym, then why even bother. Next 2 games though could be a BIG TIME springboard, or a cold bucket of water. We shall see...

[hskr4life]

Ubel is talkin' Big Dance already. While that might seem like "Pie in the Sky" talk, I LOVE it. If that isn't your goal every time you walk in that gym, then why even bother. Next 2 games though could be a BIG TIME springboard, or a cold bucket of water. We shall see...

Even if we do not win 1 or both of the next two, I think that the way this tam plays could show how conference season will go.

[colhusker]

Peltz has to at least appear like he's a threat to attempt a shot. Do defenses even need to put a guy on him if he continues to not even look in the general direction of the basket?

Wasn't Peltz a scorer at wherever it was last year?

[Norm Peterson]

Wasn't Peltz a scorer at wherever it was last year?

Not really, but he dished out about 6 assists per game. Peltz was a scorer in HS, though. I understood he lead Class B in scoring 2 straight years if you can believe that. I think that's what I read.

[hhcmatt]

Not really, but he dished out about 6 assists per game. Peltz was a scorer in HS, though. I understood he lead Class B in scoring 2 straight years if you can believe that. I think that's what I read.

I couldn't believe he didn't take that wide open shot with less than 5 seconds left with the game in hand towards the end.

[HuskerFever]

This is hands-down the best game of the year (and maybe one of the top 5 on the season). Valpo takes 2nd place.