Fun offensive basketball (or I am sick of being a defensive team)

[PimpMario]

i knew we weren't going to be great the first few years under miles until he had time to recruit.

But the thing i really looked forward to was fun offensive basketball. I could deal with some tough years if the games were fun and miles style attracted good offensive recruits.

Well it is clear to me that this team is no fun to watch. I am tired of being a defensive team.

Being a "defensive" team is another way to say we suck on offense. You can be good on defense without being inept on offense.

I know next year is the year and miles hasn't had a good class come on campus yet but i sure hope next year we can be a fun offensive team.

Maybe we were spoiled by last year.

[Silverbacked1]

I think we were spoiled by last year, and winning also makes seem much better.

[colhusker]

i knew we weren't going to be great the first few years under miles until he had time to recruit.

But the thing i really looked forward to was fun offensive basketball. I could deal with some tough years if the games were fun and miles style attracted good offensive recruits.

Well it is clear to me that this team is no fun to watch. I am tired of being a defensive team.

Being a "defensive" team is another way to say we suck on offense. You can be good on defense without being inept on offense.

I know next year is the year and miles hasn't had a good class come on campus yet but i sure hope next year we can be a fun offensive team.

Maybe we were spoiled by last year.

Spot on, if the coaches can't tell they need to spend more time working on shots and getting any shooters we have the ball in a position to score we need to re-evaluate.  This is much like Collier and Doc.

[Cazzie22]

Last year's team won games late because of defense, and that defense created some turnovers and transition offense.  We are playing good defense but don't seem to be generating enough transition opportunities.

 

You have to play in a manner that gives a team the best opportunity to win.  NU is offensively challenged and has to play great defense to win games.

[colhusker]

Last year's team won games late because of defense, and that defense created some turnovers and transition offense.  We are playing good defense but don't seem to be generating enough transition opportunities.

 

You have to play in a manner that gives a team the best opportunity to win.  NU is offensively challenged and has to play great defense to win games.

Well we do that, doesn't mean it's not painful to watch.

[HuskerFever]

If we consistently made 45+% of our field goals, we wouldn't be evaluating our defense right now.

[hhcscott]

If we consistently made 45+% of our field goals, we wouldn't be evaluating our defense right now.

This is the problem. Combine poor shooting with limited offensive rebounding and no transition offense and every basket becomes crucial, every turnover huge and every missed free-throw devastating.

[jimmykc]

Is this thread recycled from the Moe Iba era? I believe this attitude is what caused fans to turn against Moe, and to a lesser extent , Doc Sadler. For some reason fair weather fans would rather watch a team lose 120-95 than 50-45. Either way it is a loss, and I hope that the rumblings of discontent do not begin to affect Miles and cause him to lose his enthusiasm for "the best fans in America".

[colhusker]

Is this thread recycled from the Moe Iba era? I believe this attitude is what caused fans to turn against Moe, and to a lesser extent , Doc Sadler. For some reason fair weather fans would rather watch a team lose 120-95 than 50-45. Either way it is a loss, and I hope that the rumblings of discontent do not begin to affect Miles and cause him to become lose his enthusiasm for "the best fans in America".

Jimmy not given up on Miles, this is just painful basketball to watch right now.

[FredsSlacks]

leslee smith needs to start over rivers. we need a guy to throw the ball into if we are going to effectively beat the zone defense.

[hhcmatt]

ATM this is the worst we've been on offense since the 02-03 Collier team.

All of Doc's teams were slow but he did typically run an efficient enough offense....which obviously wasn't fun to watch.

 

I found the styles we have run under Miles to at least be more entertaining than the obvious clock runs of Doc but this is 2 out of 3 years that we've run slow. We're bringing in some firepower next year and should have our deepest team yet. Miles has a history of moving faster than this so we'll see. 

 

No one likes watching slow losing basketball.

[AuroranHusker]

When asked about execution of the offense, the coach says, "Yes, I'd be in favor of it" a la John McKay of the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Seems to apply to Nebrasketball offense as well.

[PimpMario]

Is this thread recycled from the Moe Iba era? I believe this attitude is what caused fans to turn against Moe, and to a lesser extent , Doc Sadler. For some reason fair weather fans would rather watch a team lose 120-95 than 50-45. Either way it is a loss, and I hope that the rumblings of discontent do not begin to affect Miles and cause him to become lose his enthusiasm for "the best fans in America".

 

Moe Iba... really.

 

I didn't turn on Collier and I didn't turn on Sadler.  Neither coach got it done.  I won't turn on Miles.

 

And yes, I, like many (if not most) college basketball fans would rather see is losing a high scoring game than a low scoring game.  

 

This years team is sloppy and low scoring teams make mistakes.  IT IS NOT FUN watching a team make mistakes.  Turnovers, missed shots, missed rebounds, unforced errors.  

 

But I would like to know for my sanity if we were wrong about Miles, are we going to watch mistake prone low scoring teams that compete, which is fine, but I (and many others) will need to readjust our expectations for the Tim Miles era.

[jimmykc]

Virginia plays an "ugly,low scoring" pace. I plan to watch tonight to see if I become bored and turn to  "The Bachelor". If I am tempted to do this, I may have morphed into another type of entity, sort of like the end of 2001, A Space Odyssey.

[PimpMario]

Virginia plays an "ugly,low scoring" pace. I plan to watch tonight to see if I become bored and turn to "The Bachelor". If I am tempted to do this, I may have morphed into another type of entity, sort of like the end of 2001, A Space Odyssey.

There is two ways to score low. Virginia is an example of a slow deliberate pace. Nebraska is an example of a team who turns the ball over and misses shots.

[colhusker]

 

Virginia plays an "ugly,low scoring" pace. I plan to watch tonight to see if I become bored and turn to "The Bachelor". If I am tempted to do this, I may have morphed into another type of entity, sort of like the end of 2001, A Space Odyssey.

There is two ways to score low. Virginia is an example of a slow deliberate pace. Nebraska is an example of a team who turns the ball over and misses shots.

 

spot on.  Far to many wide open shots missed.

[HuskerCager]

Every once in a while, I like to look at how recent coaches compare to each other regarding scoring.  This is career averages (at NU) for our last 6 coaches, sorted by margin.  I was a little surprised to see Miles at the bottom of the list.  And even more surprised to see Doc in 2nd.

 

                      NU      Opp  Margin
Moe Iba         67.2     62.3    4.9
Doc Sadler     65.4    62.8     2.6
Danny Nee    76.9     75.0    1.9
Barry Collier   68.2    66.9    1.3
Joe Cipriano  69.7    68.8     0.8
Tim Miles       62.6    63.5    (0.9)

[Wayne Pesek]

Virginia scored 43 points tonight, on the road at North Carolina, in one half.

I could live with that offense.

[jimmykc]

Snow knocked out my Dish. Point is moot. Now I'll never know who got the rose.

[hhctony]

Every once in a while, I like to look at how recent coaches compare to each other regarding scoring.  This is career averages (at NU) for our last 6 coaches, sorted by margin.  I was a little surprised to see Miles at the bottom of the list.  And even more surprised to see Doc in 2nd.

 

                      NU      Opp  Margin

Moe Iba         67.2     62.3    4.9

Doc Sadler     65.4    62.8     2.6

Danny Nee    76.9     75.0    1.9

Barry Collier   68.2    66.9    1.3

Joe Cipriano  69.7    68.8     0.8

Tim Miles       62.6    63.5    (0.9)

 

 

What's funny about that is Miles is ahead of or tied with four of the six coaches on this list for NCAA Tournament appearances. Not too shabby.

[Ron Mexico]

I know everybody is frustrated but we all knew coming in that this was going to be a complete overhaul.

There are a couple of factors that are playing into why we are struggling on offense.

1. No one has been able to step up and take Gallegos points or presence. 

2. Pitchford is averaging about 3 fewer points per game. 

 

While I really like David and Benny, neither one of them should be starting for a D1 team. They bring little to nothing on the offensive end of the court and their mistakes are magnified because of their lack of production. T. Smith and L. Smith should both be starting, with Benny and David coming off the bench. 

 

At some point this season Miles needs to start playing Hammond a lot more. We lose Leslee, Moses, and David after this season leaving only Pitchford to play down low and we all know that if Walter is forced to play center it hurts on 2 fronts, it takes away his perimeter capabilities and exposes his weakness as low post player. If Miles doesn't get this taken care of this team will be like that year(can't remember which one) when Ryan Anderson had to play in the low post and we were the smallest team in the Big 12. What little I've seen of Hammond I like but he needs to play now while he doesn't have to worry about being our only low post option.

 

I've been happy with how Miles has recruited but he needs to get these guys, Fuller and Hammond, some more playing time. We are very likely to lose TP to the draft next year and it is going to be all hands on deck to replace his scoring. 

 

Even with the likely loss of TP next season it doesn't have to be a rebuilding year. We have enough pieces(Sheilds, Pitchford, Tarin, Benny, and AW3) coming back, plus a stellar recruiting class of young talent to make a run at the NCAA's. 

 

This may sound like I'm writing off this season, I am not. I just believe that Miles needs to find a better balance to get Hammond and Fuller some playing time, which can only help us going forward. 

[GATA]

Agree with a lot of what's written here: We play unwatchable basketball. It's a combination of the brand of basketball and the execution (or lack thereof). Sometimes it looks like we have zero idea on how to break a defense down. Then to compound things, we take awful shots or commit the dumbest turnovers.

Even our wins are ugly on the eyes. I know the name of the game is to win, but is it too much to ask that we play smart and well offensively? Maybe so with this group. We're basically playing 2-on-5 offensively. Sometimes, when Walter shows up, we're up to 3-on-5.

[Norm Peterson]

Agree with a lot of what's written here: We play unwatchable basketball. It's a combination of the brand of basketball and the execution (or lack thereof). Sometimes it looks like we have zero idea on how to break a defense down. Then to compound things, we take awful shots or commit the dumbest turnovers.

Even our wins are ugly on the eyes. I know the name of the game is to win, but is it too much to ask that we play smart and well offensively? Maybe so with this group. We're basically playing 2-on-5 offensively. Sometimes, when Walter shows up, we're up to 3-on-5.

That kind of basketball is definitely offensive.  And offensive basketball is no fun to watch, regardless of what the OP says.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*  No animals were harmed in the making of this pun.

[huskerbaseball13]

Amazing how fun it can be when shots are falling. Good stuff tonight all around.

[GATA]

Amazing how fun it can be when shots are falling. Good stuff tonight all around.

 

I take back all the negative things I said today.

 

Until the next game.