uneblinstu's Post Game Chatter: ed 7, vol 7 - Creighton

[HuskerCager]

I just want to, after all the fan jawing back and forth, just congratulate Creighton on the win.  They flat out were the better team tonight.  We have no business running any smack until our Huskers make this series a little more balanced.  Until then, I think we should probably just STFU about Creighton.

Exactly.  To much smack talk going on the last 6 months against a program who is now 14-5 against us in the last 19 games.

[Norm Peterson]

 

Play the fundamentally sound guys as many minutes as possible.  Sit the others until they figure it out.  WE CAN AFFORD TO DO THIS FOR TWO MORE WEEKS.

It's a tough balance, isn't it, that coaches have?  I mean, I really don't want Miles to go Doc on our players and kill all the creativity they have.  Yet, I tear out what little hair I have when I see Terran launch some of the 3's he does without a single pass.

I think McDermott got it right.  Shut down Shields and make Terran beat you.

 

The only reason they were able to shut down Shields is because we don't have guys outside of him and Petteway willing and able to hit dagger threes.  When they collapse on the driving lane trying to take away penetration, we need to be able to kick to the open guy and bury the three that is therefore open.  Our guys won't even TAKE that shot, let alone make it.

 

We need another shooter and we need a big who's capable of locking down the post and scoring from time to time. 

[HuskerCager]

 

 

We need another shooter and we need a big who's capable of locking down the post and scoring from time to time. 

 

We have some nice talent coming in next year, but with Leslee Smith and Moses gone next year, just how bad is it going to get for us on the inside?  We'd better get someone decent signed this spring.  Maybe 2.

[hal9000]

CU was flat better than us tonight. TM got out coached tonight, as he admitted. I give a lot of credit to CU's defense, and their execution of it. They took away what we want to do which is drive and create. They collapsed and took away the driving lanes and we didn't have any threat to shoot them out of it. How bad must Fuller be right now that Miles wont put him in just to see if he can give a another three point threat to loosen up the middle? Really had hopes for him after red shirting.

[uneblinstu]

 

This is a joke right?  The last 2 times we got within 1 possession, Webster lost his man, #21, and he hit 2 dagger 3s. Miles pulled him because his defense sucked!

 

 

- There were a couple things I liked from this game. Webster's defense is really good. He brings a high level of energy more consistently than most. He can be really disruptive when he does that.

No, I think Tai's a pretty solid defender most of the time. 

[uneblinstu]

Final thought of the night. We're going to see teams do this until we get an outside threat and post presence. This probably isn't a surprise to anyone, but teams have figured out that if you let Petteway do his thing and try to shut down Shavon, until Walt gets going, this team is very beatable. This is where we find out how good of a coach Miles is. How will he address this? You've supposedly got a shooter on your bench, why isn't he playing? That'd open things up, right? How are the coaches going to combat teams packing in the lane? It's really going to be fascinating to see what they come up with because until they figure it out, you're going to see a lot more of this.

[HB]

Credit to Creighton for playing great.  As for us, it has been apparent for awhile that we have issues.  Not enough shooters, poor rebounding.  Walt totally AWOL.  Mentioned this after FSU and caught some crap for it, but it's been pretty obvious.  Was hoping Tai came back a better shooter but  it's obvious that's not the case.   Long way to go to become a NCAA tournament team.

[hal9000]

Final thought of the night. We're going to see teams do this until we get an outside threat and post presence. This probably isn't a surprise to anyone, but teams have figured out that if you let Petteway do his thing and try to shut down Shavon, until Walt gets going, this team is very beatable. This is where we find out how good of a coach Miles is. How will he address this? You've supposedly got a shooter on your bench, why isn't he playing? That'd open things up, right? How are the coaches going to combat teams packing in the lane? It's really going to be fascinating to see what they come up with because until they figure it out, you're going to see a lot more of this.

One thing Coach Miles did say in the post game interview regarding packing the lane is we need to do a better job moving the ball around more quickly in the half court game to help loosen up the middle.

[hhcmatt]

 

 

- NU has absolutely no identity on offense right now. I have no idea what they're trying to do. When they face a team that does a good job of cutting off the lane, they look lost. 

 

I wonder how much we're currently missing Craig Smith.

 

Yeah, it's one loss in a season. It's also a big kick to the pills.

 

Can Craig Smith score inside or shoot more than 35% from three?

 

 

We weren't shooting more than 35% from three last year nor scoring a ton inside either.

[Norm Peterson]

No, I disagree with Miles. We had decent ball movement. Too many times, though, our guys turned down open perimeter looks and kept passing around until we stepped out of bounds or had to take a bad shot.

Please recruit a big who can post up and a couple more guys who can hit outside shots but are athletic enough to get minutes. Please.

Also, I agree with HB's post.

[hskr4life]

God bless his heart, but when Benny is our best option on a kickout 3... it's going to be a rough night.

[hskr4life]

No, I disagree with Miles. We had decent ball movement. Too many times, though, our guys turned down open perimeter looks and kept passing around until we stepped out of bounds or had to take a bad shot.

Please recruit a big who can post up and a couple more guys who can hit outside shots but are athletic enough to get minutes. Please.

Also, I agree with HB's post.

Problem is we have in a way. We saw it last year with Pitchford... Petteway can knock em down... Hell, even Benny wants in on the action. The problem comes when that space in between your two ears (for some its more empty than others ) plays a role in your shot. I think that is why Pitchford is in a funk, that is why Petteway stunk shooting wise after that missed 3 early. But that space can also work to our advantage (See Benny P) and that is where we need guys to be. They need to KNOW they are going to make it before they shoot it, and I do not think that our guys are thinking that way at the moment.

Its all mental right now guys, and when we finally get that part of the game down, we will be the team everyone wants. Remember how we first had to learn how to win? We kind of saw the team grow last year in this category. Now we must learn how to win with expectations. We are two years removed from a mediocre season that we did not even make the post season. We have the horses to compete in the race... we just need to place them right, and most importantly.... they have to KNOW they can.

[Chuck Taylor]

I don't think this is bad coaching, the roster is just short pieces. TM put together a team last year out of sticks and mud, and I think he can do it again. For as much as Gallegos got ripped, he provided an outside threat that teams had to respect. Don't have that this year, that's why Creighton allowed Benny to stand alone in the corner. Also don't have L. Smith's minutes, and when the guards help on D in the post, it gives opponents' shooters more room.

 

I never for a minute thought this was a top 25 team in the preseason. All of these shortcomings were apparent then. But I also think TM has a chance to piece together something that will work by the time the BIG season starts.

[HuskerActuary]

Our points per field goal attempted ratio was less than 1. The last time that happened was against Michigan last year... 18 games ago.

[jimmykc]

Just a few quick thoughts before heading to work. And it is a very bad sign that no new avatar has appeared. 1. I did not find out the score before watching the tape late last night. And I wish I had, because I would have fast forwarded a lot more. 2. My grandson's team also lost for the first time. 3. Before getting too down on the team, remember that these are the guys we will have to live or die with this year and it is a very long season. 4. I predicted before the season started that we would go into the Big 10 with 4 losses and still be able to join the dance. This is still quite feasible. 5. Regarding the Miles-McDermott rivalry I'll just use the quote from Pedro which sums it up best. " He's my Daddy". But I hope people remember which team won three championships after that quote was made. Jimmy is out now (still wanting to retire Sir Walter).

[Crush78]

God bless his heart, but when Benny is our best option on a kickout 3... it's going to be a rough night.

Petteway had 3 or 4 open looks on kickouts, and he didn't even put up a shot. Seems uncomfortable with catch and shoot, likes pull up jumpers a lot more. Even when he did shoot on a kickout, he usually dribbles first.

[hhcmatt]

- That said, I though NU had a bunch of opportunities to push the tempo and maybe get the Jays in some foul trouble and for whatever reason chose not to. It cost them the game.

 

I had some time to think about the game this morning....what is our record in games where we shoot under 10 fts?

We don't have an inside offensive presence...we don't currently have a defacto outside presense....if we aren't getting to the FT line then not many of our points are going to be easy.

 

Creighton is a team that doesn't put people on the line.  We typically require FTs to win against anyone except truly inferior opponents.  Until that changes, they are going to cause us problems no matter how good of a team we have and how poor of a team they have.

[NUdiehard]

 

- That said, I though NU had a bunch of opportunities to push the tempo and maybe get the Jays in some foul trouble and for whatever reason chose not to. It cost them the game.

 

I had some time to think about the game this morning....what is our record in games where we shoot under 10 fts?

We don't have an inside offensive presence...we don't currently have a defacto outside presense....if we aren't getting to the FT line then not many of our points are going to be easy.

 

Creighton is a team that doesn't put people on the line.  We typically require FTs to win against anyone except truly inferior opponents.  Until that changes, they are going to cause us problems no matter how good of a team we have and how poor of a team they have.

 

One thing to keep in mind.  Last year there was the big emphasis on "freedom of movement" which led to historic highs in the number of defensive fouls called.  This may have been a contributor to our success last year since we just kept driving it in the lane time after time and often got the foul call to put TP or Shavon to the line.  Based on the games I have seen so far this year, that whole emphasis seems to be out the window.  For instance, last night Shavon did try to drive it on a few occasions and when he collided with 4 CU defenders who were just standing in the paint waiting for him its almost like the refs were saying "he just tried to drive it against 4 guys and I am not going to bail him out even if there was a little contact. Play on." 

[Coaches kid]

Gotta give it to Creighton's game plan. They were shading Petteway and Shields towards help all night. When our first option wasn't there we stood around. We needed to get defenders off of their spots by moving the ball but we settled for jumpers instead of being patient and looking for opportunities to attack later in the shot clock. 

 

At the beginning of the year I felt confident we had three solid scoring options, but the Walt of conference play last year hasn't showed up. I didn't think we would miss Gallegos but we do. Ray was at least a threat to score, unlike Tai. We also miss Leslee. We could at least make a post entry pass when he was in the game and opponents had to guard him. I was hoping Fuller would be ready to at least come in and be an option to stretch the floor.

[hhcmatt]

Post Game video

 

[hhcmatt]

 

 

- That said, I though NU had a bunch of opportunities to push the tempo and maybe get the Jays in some foul trouble and for whatever reason chose not to. It cost them the game.

 

I had some time to think about the game this morning....what is our record in games where we shoot under 10 fts?

We don't have an inside offensive presence...we don't currently have a defacto outside presense....if we aren't getting to the FT line then not many of our points are going to be easy.

 

Creighton is a team that doesn't put people on the line.  We typically require FTs to win against anyone except truly inferior opponents.  Until that changes, they are going to cause us problems no matter how good of a team we have and how poor of a team they have.

 

One thing to keep in mind.  Last year there was the big emphasis on "freedom of movement" which led to historic highs in the number of defensive fouls called.  This may have been a contributor to our success last year since we just kept driving it in the lane time after time and often got the foul call to put TP or Shavon to the line.  Based on the games I have seen so far this year, that whole emphasis seems to be out the window.  For instance, last night Shavon did try to drive it on a few occasions and when he collided with 4 CU defenders who were just standing in the paint waiting for him its almost like the refs were saying "he just tried to drive it against 4 guys and I am not going to bail him out even if there was a little contact. Play on." 

You're absolutely right about there being less fouls called...the numbers overall back that up and point to a historically slow tempo and lower scoring season. However, relative to all teams this year Creighton is top 40 in FTA/FGA. They're 2-2 when teams shoot 20 or more FTs on them.  They're 5-0 when it's less.

[bobcat402]

This game completely showed me how valuable an actual post scorer defender to this team would be, and not some 6'8 guy who can bang, a traditional 6'10-7'0 guy we can throw the ball down, slow the game down, and get some simple points, or force some fouls. We need that in this next recruiting class. 

[Handy Johnson]

Shameful

[hhcmatt]

Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
On what he thought of Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott’s game plan
“I thought his game plan was better than my game plan.  I thought they did a nice job of playing off guys and staying with their discipline. Some teams lose their discipline. And I thought he had those guys in the same amount of time probably because we see each other so much. Those guys held firm with their game plan. And I felt like we could go out there and run what we run to beat him. But I was wrong and he was right. And that’s on me. I thought we were ready to play. It’s not that. We just weren’t able to take away the things they were able to take away from us.”

 

-------------------------------

 

I'm down with Miles embracing the rivalry off the court. Doesn't seem like he took it too seriously when game planning because a 3pt shooting team who doesn't foul much doesn't match up well with what we run on offense or defense.

[Norm Peterson]

Let's not give McDermott too much credit here for being some defensive mastermind.  Not directing this at anyone in particular, just a general tone of some posts I've seen.  Yeah, let's take away Shavon Shields and let Petteway do his thing.  BRILLIANT!  Really?  Why would you play us any other way? 

 

Put it this way:  You have two guys averaging about 20 ppg.  Then, the next three starters average about 6 ppg.  And it goes down from there.

 

So, this is a team where, really, only two players this year have shown the ability to hurt you offensively.  You won't guard them both, straight up.  So key on the more consistent guy and let the more inconsistent guy see if he can pick up the slack.  Because the rest of the guys on the roster aren't going to beat you.

 

So, yeah, great strategy.  How did they ever think that one up?