uneblinstu's Post Game Chatter: ed 7, vol 24 - Wisconsin

[uneblinstu]

These are my thoughts at the moment. 

 

[Jadler]

So far this season is the reality check, gut punch, cold shower that I thought I survived through in San Antonio but realized it's going to last much longer.

[brfrad]

Need to find ways to get easy baskets in the first half of games.

 

We can't launch 3's or drive to the hoop and throw up acrobatic shots hoping to get fouled.  We have to press a little, crash the boards some.  We may give up easy baskets on the other end, but we have to do something to score more than 13 points in a half.

 

Defense was good again.  Wisconsin is a very good offensive team, but struggled to get open looks most of the night.  Some of their early success was after we played good defense they happened to find someone down low.

 

Man, how can we never get any home cooking?  31 to 10 in foul shots.  (10 of those Ft's were down the stretch for Wis)  It's not as if we settled for jump shots.  We took the ball to the hoop, and got nothing called against Wisconsin.

[doc1394]

Until Shavon's midrange with about a minute left, the only two Huskers to make a jump shot all night were Leslee and Terran. Mind boggling.

Also, surely a Shavon jump shot from a foot inside the line was not the play call with 40 seconds left down 6. He hasn't looked even decent from deep since non conference

[Cazzie22]

A couple of thoughts about tonight.  The officiating did not cost us the game.  Miles may becoming too much of a "whiner" about calls.  Players other than Shields and T.P. must try to score more often.  T.P. was a liability on defense in the first half because he was sulking about his offense, Decker owned him.  Effort and execution might result in some wins.

[Norm Peterson]

A couple of thoughts about tonight.  The officiating did not cost us the game.  Miles may becoming too much of a "whiner" about calls.  Players other than Shields and T.P. must try to score more often.  T.P. was a liability on defense in the first half because he was sulking about his offense, Decker owned him.  Effort and execution might result in some wins.

You weren't watching the same game I was, apparently.

[ajb5856]

A couple of thoughts about tonight. The officiating did not cost us the game. Miles may becoming too much of a "whiner" about calls. Players other than Shields and T.P. must try to score more often. T.P. was a liability on defense in the first half because he was sulking about his offense, Decker owned him. Effort and execution might result in some wins.

I see where you're coming from in regards to Miles being portrayed as a "whiner" and chasing after the officials seemingly every timeout. Maybe he needs to earn/command respect a little more woloth the officials. But come on...do you really expect him to just sit there and take it? When there's an obviously wrong call is he supposed to just go find his folding chair and be okay with it? I wish he would've earned a T tonight but the refs probably knew they were off and just didn't give it.

[hhcmatt]

[Norm Peterson]

I just checked the stats on the officials.

 

Gene Steratore has a whopping home foul disparity of -3.6 (average of 3.6 fewer fouls called against the home team.)

 

Brian Dorsey is -1.4.

 

Ted Valentine is a solid -0.9.

 

I think Steratore needed to balance out his numbers and decided the #4 team on the road would be a good opportunity to make his stats look a little better by blowing a little whistle on the home team.

[HuskerFever]

These are my thoughts at the moment. 

 

 

What is it about scoring 13 point in the first half two nights in a row?

[PeltzFan12]

I just checked the stats on the officials.

 

Gene Steratore has a whopping home foul disparity of -3.6 (average of 3.6 fewer fouls called against the home team.)

 

Brian Dorsey is -1.4.

 

Ted Valentine is a solid -0.9.

 

I think Steratore needed to balance out his numbers and decided the #4 team on the road would be a good opportunity to make his stats look a little better by blowing a little whistle on the home team.

Which one was the Bald guy who overruled in Wisconsin's favor like three times.  He called the offensive foul on Petteway just before the half...and then overruled when Kaminksy traveled, he came racing in from halfcourt and overruled the call and called a foul on us.  He needs to look himself in the mirror tomorrow morning and get a new profession.

[AuroranHusker]

Yeah, Normy, the one where Benny drove the basketball toward the rim & Koenig tackled him was sure a good non-call, huh?

 

Or the time that Kaminsky fell down being pressured & the bald-headed ref decided that the others' travel had best be a foul, right?

 

And, the bald-headed's obviously blatant "foul" by Petteway on his drive toward the basket when the Wisky defender undercut him was a 'must' call, as well. (Admittedly, Terran should have been T'd up for making contact with said ref, but c'mon...)

 

 

All right, all right. Enough with the crap call whine-a-thon. Just had to get the whines out of my head before it drove me bonkers.

 

"Heart over Hype" finally took hold in the final 8 minutes. Not sure why it took a full 24 games to see it in full display for more than a couple minutes stretch. Sure hope the team cinches it up real tight to 'ball out' at Purdue on Sunday afternoon. Looking forward to that 1st B1G road win at West Lafayette against the hottest conf team since WIsky (!?!).

[doc1394]

 

I just checked the stats on the officials.

 

Gene Steratore has a whopping home foul disparity of -3.6 (average of 3.6 fewer fouls called against the home team.)

 

Brian Dorsey is -1.4.

 

Ted Valentine is a solid -0.9.

 

I think Steratore needed to balance out his numbers and decided the #4 team on the road would be a good opportunity to make his stats look a little better by blowing a little whistle on the home team.

Which one was the Bald guy who overruled in Wisconsin's favor like three times.  He called the offensive foul on Petteway just before the half...and then overruled when Kaminksy traveled, he came racing in from halfcourt and overruled the call and called a foul on us.  He needs to look himself in the mirror tomorrow morning and get a new profession.

 

Bryan Dorsey was that guy. He didn't have himself a very good game.

 

I don't mind Gene. He's seems to usually be less of a pretentious tool than most refs. Plus, he helped my favorite NFL team, the Packers, get into the NFC title game.

[Huskerpapa]

CBSSports.com

Husker players not named Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields scored 20 points on a solid 14.8 percent shooting.

[hhcmatt]

Postgame Notes from Huskers.com

*-Nebraska fell to 13-3 in Big Ten games at Pinnacle Bank Arena over the last two seasons and saw its five-game home win streak snapped.
*-Nebraska held Wisconsin to 39.1 percent shooting, only the third time Wisconsin has been held to under 40 percent this season.
*-Terran Petteway finished with 23 points, his 12^th 20-point game of the season and 24^th of his career. Petteway has now been in double figures in 53 of 56 games at Nebraska.*-Nebraska had eight turnovers, which was its second-lowest total of the season.
*-Nebraska was held to a season-low 13 first-half points, the second straight game the Huskers had 13 points at the break.

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles
On the comeback in the second half compared to the first half
"I thought our defensive intensity was pretty good. We held them to 35 percent in the second half from the field. For as bad as we shot in the first half to only getting out-rebounded by two was a surprise, but a pleasant one that way. We outscored them in the paint, we got more field goals than they did, our bench outscored their bench. But we just had such a slow start. We mixed up some things on offense. We were 2 for 12 at the rim the first half and 9 for 13 in the second half. We try and live at rim. When you're not able to score, and I don't think we shot a foul shot in the first half either, so when neither of those things go right it is hard for us to score. We just went away from some of our screen rule actions so we could maybe find other ways in isolation to get to the rim."

On being spooked or scared of Wisconsin
"We were lethargic there's no doubt. I think they know Wisconsin is really good. This is a elite champion type of team. We did a lot of things to them and they made a lot of right decisions. They didn't make very many mistakes. Just with extra passes, finding guys, and making free-throws down the stretch. They showed a lot of veteran leadership. Those guys are really, really good players. Smart players. We tried to disrupt as much as we could, but that's hard to do to a team like that."

On being "lethargic" in an atmosphere like PBA
"Maybe I shouldn't call it lethargic. I think that when you miss shot, miss shot, miss shot, you're kind of in the "I wonder what's going on state." You either make it happen or you wonder what happened. I think it's more of that. You have to have a certain aggressive mentality or you're in trouble. You can seem them having a conversation in their head, at least it appears to me. Like I said there are two types of players. Those that wonder what happened and those that make it happen.”

On the frustration of getting the players to be aggressive
“We ran some downhill actions early and settled for jumpers and just stopped or refused the action. But, three different guys refused the action so instead of getting the mismatch and driving it, they would just skip it and go the other way. Now all that action is designed to go to the weak side of the floor. Now you're driving into three guys and it screws everything up. Everybody just stands there and looks at each other. Even in our motion stuff when we gave them two entries into our motion, we didn't cut very hard and move the ball off those things. We did at their place, but we didn't today."

On getting better at the rim in the second half
"I would have to watch the tape. I know the numbers and I know I felt like there was more space. There was just way more urgency and desperation in our play. And necessarily so."

On the players getting frustrated
"That's just personal pride. That's my job as a coach to make sure they're ready for Purdue, and they'll be ready." 

On the first half struggles pushing the guys during second half
"I think they have really done us in. Once we have gone out and played with that urgency, that desperation, we seem to really play. We changed up our routine this week to try and give them a fighters mentality, and it didn't take. Eventually it did, but it certainly didn't in the first half."

On Tai Webster's performance
"I think Tai's been doing better, I really do. I though he played a really good game tonight, I was really proud of him. I kind of like him off the bench. He's at least someone who is going to score off the bench."

On Terran's efforts late in the second half
"Well, he was in foul trouble but I thought those were his best decisions as the end. I don't think he made as good of decisions earlier in the game."

Nebraska Guard Terran Petteway
On what sparked the second half rally
"We were just more aggressive I guess. We weren't really worried about the refs not calling fouls. We were just going with reckless abandon, which we should have been doing the whole game."

 

On whether playing with reckless abandon was part of the game plan

"We were trying to get to the basket, but it was just one of those nights where we weren't getting any calls. It was going in there, but it just wasn't happening. You've got to give credit to Frank Kaminsky. He did his job. Coach Bo Riley told him to stay vertical, and the refs didn't call it."

 

On confidence and the run at the end

"It wasn't a confidence issue. We've been shooting bad all year. We just stayed with it and kept playing. Everyone tried to stay positive at the huddles and at half time because we've been shooting bad all year. That's nothing new."

On Tai (Webster’s) impact on the game
“One thing we did do is we didn’t quit. When we were down, guys kept playing and Tai came in and played his butt off like he has been doing the past two to three weeks. Hopefully, he continues to do that and everybody continues to do that and we will find our run. ”

On frustration levels
“We have to stick with the process. Everybody can’t be on their own agenda. We can’t have guys coming in and doing their own thing because that would sink the ship right now. As captains, we have to come in every day and get our guys going and getting ready and staying with the process. Getting guys to listen to the game plan and preparing for the next team.”

Nebraska Forward Leslee Smith
On the team's frustration
"It's at its highest. I don't think it can get any higher than this. Losing consecutive games home and away… we're a very frustrated team right now trying to find ourselves. I think tonight we made a really big step even though we lost. We did pretty good in the second half defensively and offensively. We just have to stick with the process right now."

On the impact of bench players
“We need everybody, we can’t just rely on the starting five or one or two guys off the bench, we need a full five or ten guys who can come in and spark the team. Tai (Webster) picked up his play the last three weeks and we need other guys to spark, like Smitty (Tarin Smith). He fell off a little bit, but we need to get him back on track. We need everybody to contribute in order for us to be a good team. We can’t rely on Terran and Shavon and Walt just to bring offense to the team. It takes a team effort so we just need to have everybody involved."

On if it felt like Wisconsin was on their heels late
“I thought we had them on our heels, especially when we put the press on them. For a team that doesn’t press at all in practice, we come out and really play hard in the press. I think we really had them on their heels and got a couple of turnovers, five second counts, and forced them to call timeout… We fought and at the end of the day we fought our butts off and that’s all that really matters to me and my teammates. We know that we can be a good team if we stick together.” 

Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan 
On being up double digits, did NU slow the game down to get back into it?
"Take a look at Nigel (Hayes), the shots he had and he got to the free throw line, he had a chance to put up big numbers. Those two 3's were wide open. One of them was halfway down and came back up. If we score on those, we get a little more separation and maybe it is tougher for them to make the run. We knew it was coming. We are not going to tell the players, now of course, we are not going to tell them that they will cut the game down to five or six points. But we always are trying to get ready--especially for a team at home, you get a few to go and you get on a roll, you get your pressure working a little bit, a couple of bad decisions on the inbounds and rather than that, I like the way we stayed the course." 

On the job the team against Petteway 
"He was 2-11 (in the first half), I have seen him take those 11 shots and make seven or eight of them, so that is just the way he is. He can light it up, or sometimes when he is struggling he is like a lot of guys, the hoop gets a little bit smaller and if you are hitting, the hoop gets a little bigger. We didn't change anything defensively from the last game." 

On if they are the team to beat Kentucky... possible rematch... 
"Hey, my story last week was--somebody said something about the polls, it should be Kentucky, no. 1, parenthesis 'blue ',  No. 2 Kentucky, parenthesis is “white.” ---- I got a couple of chuckles ---- Everybody else is scratching and clawing." 

On if Frank Kaminsky contributed in other ways than scoring
"Oh yeah, oh yeah. Key rebounds, defensively on his rotations he did a real good job of stopping triple penetration. Frank can influence shots, and I think he did a real good job of that in the first half and then a decent job in the second half." 

On grinding out a win with not the best offense
"Well, Nebraska had a little bit to do with taking some looks away that we were trying to get. Same thing on their end, we think we had something to do with their shooting percentage." 

[jimmykc]

Watched the game late and made it through the game thread this morning so I'll now add some thoughts from the armchair. Positives: 1. We now have another referee to hate on. If the year continues along these lines, we should end up with at least a baker's dozen. Actually I thought it was a miracle that we didn't pick up some technicals along the way. Valentine has either mellowed or had some nyquil before the game. 2. I doubt we'll do the white out thing again. Although the way our team is playing, a combo of black unis and white clad fans might be a way to fool people into thinking we don't represent Nebraska. Negatives: (So much to choose from) 1.Dakitch seems to have developed a genuine dislike for our team. It was almost as if he enjoyed pointing out our shortcomings. But I might have done the same without a fast forward button. 2. Tai continues to excel on the defensive end. He'll be able to play a role here if we can just get some outside help to allow him to concentrate on that role. 3. I think we still can make the NIT even if we get abused by the mammoth centers at Purdue in the next game as I forsee. And once Friday the thirteenth is over, maybe we'll be allowed to score more that thirteen points in the first half too.

[hhcmatt]

- Did anyone else notice Tai "drive to the basket" Webster in the second half? I haven't seen much of him since his freshman year. I'd like to see more.

- Leslee had a nice run during this game. His buckets to start the second half kept us in the game.

- We out-offensively rebounded Wisconsin and it led to 15 second chance points. I bet Bo is making them run extra for that today.

- We did hold Wisconsin to one of their worst offensive games of the year. Those numbers were improved by all those FTs they shot at the end of the game. We managed to make more baskets than they did if you can believe that.

[HuskerActuary]

CBSSports.com

Husker players not named Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields scored 20 points on a solid 14.8 percent shooting.

Huh? That's not true. According to the boxscore, the supporting cast shot (22-9-5)/(62-24-11) = 29.6% shooting.

[hhcmatt]

1.Dakitch seems to have developed a genuine dislike for our team. It was almost as if he enjoyed pointing out our shortcomings. But I might have done the same without a fast forward button.

 

2. Tai continues to excel on the defensive end. He'll be able to play a role here if we can just get some outside help to allow him to concentrate on that role.

 

3. I think we still can make the NIT even if we get abused by the mammoth centers at Purdue in the next game as I forsee. And once Friday the thirteenth is over, maybe we'll be allowed to score more that thirteen points in the first half too.

 

1. There is a reason people have developed a Bingo game for Dakitch coverage.

2. If he can make the leap offensively he'll really be something. He forced some turnovers with his length last night.

3, Purdue is a sneaky good matchup for us IF we can keep them off the offensive boards. I would like them to blow out Rutgers on the road so they sleep on us a bit more. They are a team we can press a bit if we're still into that.

[49r]

Watched the game late and made it through the game thread this morning so I'll now add some thoughts from the armchair. Positives: 1. We now have another referee to hate on. If the year continues along these lines, we should end up with at least a baker's dozen. Actually I thought it was a miracle that we didn't pick up some technicals along the way. Valentine has either mellowed or had some nyquil before the game. 2. I doubt we'll do the white out thing again. Although the way our team is playing, a combo of black unis and white clad fans might be a way to fool people into thinking we don't represent Nebraska. Negatives: (So much to choose from) 1.Dakitch seems to have developed a genuine dislike for our team. It was almost as if he enjoyed pointing out our shortcomings. But I might have done the same without a fast forward button. 2. Tai continues to excel on the defensive end. He'll be able to play a role here if we can just get some outside help to allow him to concentrate on that role. 3. I think we still can make the NIT even if we get abused by the mammoth centers at Purdue in the next game as I forsee. And once Friday the thirteenth is over, maybe we'll be allowed to score more that thirteen points in the first half too.

 

See, jimmy, I get the complete opposite feeling about Dakitch.  I honestly believe he loves him some Huskers...he couldn't stop gushing about the facilities and the fans.  At one point he was trying to get Tirico to comment on PBA and the Haymarket (but Tirico is too much of a pro to get involved in that conversation).  Heck, Dan almost seemed to openly root for the team during the comeback.

 

Sure, he was critical of the effort of the team in the first half, and of Terran specifically (and rightly so IMO), but not nearly as much as most of the fans on this very message board were.

 

It's almost as if he graduated from NU, not IU.

[49r]

- Did anyone else notice Tai "drive to the basket" Webster in the second half? I haven't seen much of him since his freshman year. I'd like to see more.

- Leslee had a nice run during this game. His buckets to start the second half kept us in the game.

- We out-offensively rebounded Wisconsin and it led to 15 second chance points. I bet Bo is making them run extra for that today.

- We did hold Wisconsin to one of their worst offensive games of the year. Those numbers were improved by all those FTs they shot at the end of the game. We managed to make more baskets than they did if you can believe that.

 

I did, and it got me to thinking that it seems like the script has flipped from the end of last year when everybody's confidence was sky-high except Tai who was in a terrible funk.

 

Now, Tai's confidence is increasing game to game, and the rest of the team has become really tentative.

[basketballjones]

I don't know what everyone's opinion on Dan Dakich is (I like him), but he was absolutely drilling last night. It's like he read this board pregame.

Dan, are you here?!?!

[jimmykc]

49er: I didn't mean to imply I dislike Dakitch's commentary. But as a Bobby Knight disciple, I'm sure that the relationship he perceives between our players and their head coach has got to rub him the wrong way. And if you require a hint on the new avatar, I'll just say that in my youth I spent some time in a place named for this Walter.

[Norm Peterson]

49er: I didn't mean to imply I dislike Dakitch's commentary. But as a Bobby Knight disciple, I'm sure that the relationship he perceives between our players and their head coach has got to rub him the wrong way. And if you require a hint on the new avatar, I'll just say that in my youth I spent some time in a place named for this Walter.

There was a Civil War General with the last name of "Reformatory"?

[Handy Johnson]

I slept like a baby knowing our 20 pt. "Non-Blowout" streak is still intact.