uneblinstu's Post Game Chatter: Vol 8, Issue 14 - Northwestern

[uneblinstu]

Oh, man, where to start...

 

- Kudos to Northwestern for clawing back, but that’s a game NU has no excuse for losing.

- Demps ran circles around Watson at times. Almost literally, a couple of times.

- NU got the total it usually does from their top three scorers. A little more from White and Webster, a little less from Shields. They’ve gotta have a third guy step up and tonight it was Benny. I thought when we got essentially 13 bonus points, that would be enough to bridge that gap, but it wasn’t, because…

- NU really, really struggled to find Pardon, in only his second college game, on the offensive glass. Look, I get that they’re small, but they can’t lose guys like that. Not at this level. He had, what, 24 points in the second half? 14 coming on offensive putbacks? Can’t do that and expect to win. Just can’t. NU was up 12, 51-39 and gave up 42 points from there. Had a lead with five minutes left and only scored six points the rest of the way. That’s just not gonna cut it.

- This is a game where the little things cost us. Losing Demps on the three point line on a miscommunication, the rebounding, both giving up the offensive boards as well as letting several slip away when there wasn’t really anyone from Northwestern there to challenge it.

- I don’t know how many minutes he played, but Morrow had zero rebounds.

- I do wonder why Hammond didn’t see any time. They could have used him today, especially when Jacobsen got in foul trouble.

- Jacobsen had a rough game, especially in the first half. Actually thought he did well in the 2nd to stay in the game, though there were times when he was hampered because he was afraid of picking up his 4^th. And his 5th was just silly. Can’t be tugging on to the jersey like that when you’re not in traffic and expect to get away with it.

- NU's going to have to figure out this rebounding thing if they're going to want to get anywhere this season. We've known this, it's not new, but they still shouldn't allow to happen what happened today. 

- Watson struggled a bit, especially defensively.

- With hitting so many 3's, I thought we fell in love with it a bit more than coach probably would have liked. Thought they probably missed some opportunities at getting to the rim, and perhaps the line. They gotta do better than getting to the line only 8 times. I know NW was packing it in but this was a day when they should have been able to get there.

- Thought the play drawn up at the end of the half was really nice.

- Despite the 72 points scored (which should always be enough, especialy at home), the offense still got bogged down. Contrast that with Northwestern who, Demps and Macintosh especially, were constantly working to get open, running hard off screens. NU hasn't done that in years. Is that a mentality or a philosophy?

- I thought the new rules were supposed to not allow for a power forward to put a shoulder into his defender? Can think of a couple of times when that happened, unearthed the defender and were allowed to continue. What am I missing?

- Thought the crowd was pretty good, actually. Better than what I was expecting.

- Energy from the team was good for about 32 minutes but couldn't maintain it through the end.

 

Indiana is going to be tough on Saturday.

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[PimpMario]

I am with you...

[jayschool]

What does it take to induce an honest-to-goodness post to sign with NU?

[cozrulz]

Tai had the right idea but too bad it was after blowing the lead.  At 12 the Huskers had to get better looks.  Get inside and get fouled.

[brfrad]

Benny scores 17 points, on 5 3 pointers, has 5 rebounds, and 7 assists, and we lose by 9.  That defies logic.

 

We should win every game when we score 72 points and hit 11 3 pointers.  Our defense was awful the last 17 minutes.  Northwestern did whatever they wanted to do.  They would blow by our guys, and throw the ball at the rim when 2 of our defenders coverged, leaving Pardon all alone by himself for an easy put back.

 

Which Indiana post is going to go off for 25 and 15 against us Saturday?

 

Hammond needs to get himself out of the dog house.  That usually means working hard in practice.  I don't know what else he did.  He needs to give us 15 minutes a game.  Have him and Jacobson man the post and play Morrow at the 4.

 

We didn't get to the free throw line.  Northwestern had no post defense, but until the final 2 minutes we didn't attack the rim.  Webster started attacking and Pardon picked up 3 fouls in the last 2 minutes.  Why did it take so long to try that?

 

We might as well buckle in and just hope to see some improvement from this team.  Our chances of making a postseason tournament are slim to none, and slim is getting ready to leave town.

[Huskerpapa]

Man, we cannot defend the pick and roll and we cannot defend the paint.  The lack of a post presence is going to make for a lonnnnnggggg year.  Sorry.  Michael is the best we have, but he can only do so much.  Not sure it can be fixed, but man, we are going to make a lot of post players look like all-Americans this year

 

Problem #2, when it became crunch time, our shooters/scorers disappeared...what the heck!  We needed players to step up and instead, everyone was passing up shots.  Even Tai passed up open looks, but then I credit him for at least taking it to the hole. 

 

Both of these problems can be fixed.  But it is going to take a change in mindset as well as improved x's and o's.  Here is the important question:

 

WHO ON THIS TEAM HAS THE HEART!!!  That is what it takes to move to the next level.  I believe the talent is there, but you need to have the heart and mental approach.  Is it Shavon?  Is it Benny?  Is it Andrew?  Who is going to step up and say this is bulls***!  We are not going to lose like this again!

[jimmykc]

Just got back from the game. Highlight for me was I got to talk with Noah for awhile. Too bad we didn't squirrel a guy like Pardon away so that we could crack him open whenever we needed him. I also wondered about Hammond-at least until he proved he was just as ineffective on Pardon as the other guys. Can I still revise my prediction concerning our Big10 record? Most disconcerting sight were those who stalked out with a minute to go. Did they want to be first in line at Jimmy John's? Did they want to send a message to the team that they were not trying hard enough? Were they worried about not getting to bed by 8pm? Just an observation.

[HuskerBB]

You can complain about Jacobson and Morrow if you want but we are absolutely AWFUL when we don't have at least one of them in the game.   It cost us the game against Samford when we tried to play the 2nd half without a post player and it was even worse tonight.   Tried it for a stretch in the first half and then gave away the game in the last 4 minutes when we decided to play Fuller at 5 instead of bringing back Morrow.   We get lost both offensively and defensively trying to play those crazy lineups.  I thought Miles would have learned that lesson from the Samford game - but apparently not.     I just don't understand what he was thinking with the lineups he put on the floor at times tonight.   White carries us for stretches in the 2nd half and then at the end we go entire possessions where he doesn't touch the ball - but again I put that on basically putting 5 guys on the floor  that should not be there.  Perimeter guys were waiting for a screen but Fuller had no idea what he was supposed to do out there.

[brfrad]

Man, we cannot defend the pick and roll and we cannot defend the paint.  The lack of a post presence is going to make for a lonnnnnggggg year.  Sorry.  Michael is the best we have, but he can only do so much.  Not sure it can be fixed, but man, we are going to make a lot of post players look like all-Americans this year

 

Jacobson is 6'8" 222 lbs.  Pardon is 6'8" 235 lbs.  Not much of a size difference.  Not enough to see one of them go off for 28 and 12.  Hammond is 6'10" 235 lbs.  I thought Hammond was our best post defender.  Worthy of at least a try to get some minutes in the game, especially with Jacobson in foul trouble.  I am worried Morrow is going to get frustrated and leave before his 4 years are up.

[MandRHusker]

Unfortunately I'm losing faith that Miles can game plan & coach. I know he can recruit but can he do much with what he brings in? I know we're young, but between this year so far, and last year, I am losing faith. I'm beginning to think that Miles hasn't covered the loss of Craig Smith with an assistant that compliments his strengths. Sorry to be a downer but the demise of the Huskers men's teams has been difficult to watch. Thank goodness for the women's sports.

[hal9000]

This is a bitter pill, because we played so good the first 32 minutes.  We lost this primarily because of poor defense, and poor defensive rebounding.  Too many wide open threes for them, and Pardon killed us inside.  I know we went small, but you gotta box out and play post defense.  No excuse for getting that dominated.

 

And at the end we tightened up offensively. No one wanted to shoot, and when we did we settled for outside shots and missed.  Morrow still has a ways to go.  He had a wide open dunk and instead he almost missed laying it up.  Boy we need a good post player.  

[jayschool]

Unfortunately I'm losing faith that Miles can game plan & coach. I know he can recruit but can he do much with what he brings in? I know we're young, but between this year so far, and last year, I am losing faith. I'm beginning to think that Miles hasn't covered the loss of Craig Smith with an assistant that compliments his strengths. Sorry to be a downer but the demise of the Huskers men's teams has been difficult to watch. Thank goodness for the women's sports.

Demise or reversion to the mean?

[brfrad]

I don't think Miles plays the role players like he should.  He'll play White, Shields, Petteway their minutes, but he has no idea how to distribute minutes for everyone else.  I know I harp on this a lot, but I have zero clue about Hammond.  He also did it with Rivers, and Tai.  Pretty much every player has seen it before. 

 

Hammond goes off for 11 points and 10 boards against Tennessee.  Next game against Miami he has 0 points, 4 boards, and 4 blocks.  He struggles against Abaline Christian going for 0 points 2 boards and 2 blocks.  He has 6 and 4 against Creighton, and then averages 6 minutes a game the following 3 games.  I know we have no idea what goes on in practice, but Hammond's numbers this year aren't horrible.  Especially, not to play when a player is killing us, and our starting post is in foul trouble.

[huskerbaseball13]

Unfortunately I'm losing faith that Miles can game plan & coach. I know he can recruit but can he do much with what he brings in? I know we're young, but between this year so far, and last year, I am losing faith. I'm beginning to think that Miles hasn't covered the loss of Craig Smith with an assistant that compliments his strengths. Sorry to be a downer but the demise of the Huskers men's teams has been difficult to watch. Thank goodness for the women's sports.

Jury is still out on his recruiting IMO. On paper this is the case but unfortunately this does not guarantee anything. I think it would be wise for him to ask Coach Mo to move on after this season and hire someone who can help on the offensive end.

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[demone]

I also find my faith in Miles being shaken. I can't understand the "going small" strategy nor do I have any clue as to what we want to try to do when running offense against a zone. The University should be very thankful that going to a game is now something of an event with the Haymarket area being a draw. Having over 12k show up for a mid-day, mid-week game was pretty impressive but...losing games like this won't help the cause.

[northwillriseagain]

Unfortunately I'm losing faith that Miles can game plan & coach. I know he can recruit but can he do much with what he brings in? I know we're young, but between this year so far, and last year, I am losing faith. I'm beginning to think that Miles hasn't covered the loss of Craig Smith with an assistant that compliments his strengths. Sorry to be a downer but the demise of the Huskers men's teams has been difficult to watch. Thank goodness for the women's sports.

Jury is still out on his recruiting IMO. On paper this is the case but unfortunately this does not guarantee anything. I think it would be wise for him to ask Coach Mo to move on after this season and hire someone who can help on the offensive end.

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completely agree, coach mo and miles make too little on the offensive mind side.

[brfrad]

 

Unfortunately I'm losing faith that Miles can game plan & coach. I know he can recruit but can he do much with what he brings in? I know we're young, but between this year so far, and last year, I am losing faith. I'm beginning to think that Miles hasn't covered the loss of Craig Smith with an assistant that compliments his strengths. Sorry to be a downer but the demise of the Huskers men's teams has been difficult to watch. Thank goodness for the women's sports.

Jury is still out on his recruiting IMO. On paper this is the case but unfortunately this does not guarantee anything. I think it would be wise for him to ask Coach Mo to move on after this season and hire someone who can help on the offensive end.

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This year's team is dreadful on the defensive end.  Our offense was good enough to win today, even with the dreadful last 4 minutes.

[Wayne Pesek]

There has been lots of optimism about the long term future of the program due to the perceived upgrade in recruiting.  Perhaps we would be better served to scale back the recruiting! 

Derek Pardon was ranked as a 3-star, #43 PF.

Ed Morrow was ranked as a 4-star, #10 PF.

Something about those numbers doesn't make sense.

[hhcmatt]

There has been lots of optimism about the long term future of the program due to the perceived upgrade in recruiting.  Perhaps we would be better served to scale back the recruiting! 

Derek Pardon was ranked as a 3-star, #43 PF.

Ed Morrow was ranked as a 4-star, #10 PF.

Something about those numbers doesn't make sense.

 

There is something wrong with Morrow right now. When he got that pass near the basket and brought it up for the wide open dunk layup. Is he still bothered by that boot, is it mental, or is it both?

[hhcmatt]

 

15 minutes from Watson.  When the entire offense was afraid to shoot for the last 4 minutes of the game, we really could have used him.  However, had we played any sort of defense the entire game we wouldn't have needed to

[ajb5856]

Unfortunately I'm losing faith that Miles can game plan & coach. I know he can recruit but can he do much with what he brings in? I know we're young, but between this year so far, and last year, I am losing faith. I'm beginning to think that Miles hasn't covered the loss of Craig Smith with an assistant that compliments his strengths. Sorry to be a downer but the demise of the Huskers men's teams has been difficult to watch. Thank goodness for the women's sports.

Jury is still out on his recruiting IMO. On paper this is the case but unfortunately this does not guarantee anything. I think it would be wise for him to ask Coach Mo to move on after this season and hire someone who can help on the offensive end.

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This year's team is dreadful on the defensive end. Our offense was good enough to win today, even with the dreadful last 4 minutes.

Agree with this to a point. The defense has been downright pathetic at times. Especially the interior defense and pick/roll defense. I have seen some slight improvements guarding the post. Guys aren't leaving their feet and are forcing their man to at least shoot over top of them. The defense wasn't awful today. A couple mental lapses but okay, just okay for the most part. Now checking out after the stops and allowing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances was another story.

I still feel Miles and Mo are conflicting with their ideal defensive strategies. Miles wants to GATA and Mo wants to allow passes to force opponents to drain the shot clock to make the game messy. We play well in spurts and it's always when we GATA, force turnovers, and get out and run. That's when we are best. Guys are aggressive trying to get to the rim or are finding guys spot up in transition. There is no hesitation or tentativeness when the defense sparks the offense with a steal. Now, when we play Mo-ball (aren't attacking the ball on D) it leads to suffering at the offensive end. Guys are tentative, hesitant, play on their heels, it's no good.

[jason2486]

Watson has 4 assists in 15 minutes. There's no question he should be playing 25+.

[ajb5856]

And since we are on the topic, here is how I see Miles' tenure at Nebraska so far.

He gets here. Expectations are zero. He immediately hits the floor running from the recruiting standpoint. Petteway, Pitchford, Biggs. Brings in Vucetic, a big. A big toothpick but a big nonetheless. Season one is a throwaway, everyone knows it. Shields comes into his own. He brings in Leslee Smith. Another big. Season two, Miles strikes gold, catches lightning in a bottle. NCAA tournament appearance. Lands senior transfer Moses Abraham. Yet another big. Still trying to fill gaps. Jacob Hammond, yet another big comes in. Now for season three, expectations are at a ridiculous level considering where the program had been for decades. Season three is a flop. And now here we are season four. Andrew White, Ed Morrow, Glynn Watson, Michael Jacobsen, Jack McVeigh, Bakari Evelyn. Remember, Miles had never intended to need 6 fresh bodies at this point. Petteway, Pitchford, and Biggs are supposed to be in their senior seasons now. Instead, because of a multitude of factors, there is a large gap to bridge and there is a huge crop of newcomers, several who have to play meaningful roles instead of being afforded the chance to grow up within an established program. Oh, totally forgot the part about assistant leaves, new assistant hired, assistant leaves, another new assistant hired, The new assistant leaves before the season starts and another new assistant is hired. All of this inconsistency of the coaching staff within a program that has had a partial, incomplete team each and every year since Miles has been here. I'm not trying to make excuses more than I'm just trying to validate what I've seen over the last 4 years with actual reasons.

This is all on Miles. I know it's been said that without the tournament appearance we don't get the 4 star guys we have on the roster today, but is it possible that Miles catching lightning in a bottle actually hurt the program build that Miles needed to make Nebraska a consistent winner? I keep hearing people question whether Miles has the tools to coach the upgrade in talent that he has recruited here. In my eyes, the single best thing Miles can do with this season is to teach in a way (regardless of win-loss record) that makes all the newcomers and freshman want to remain with the team so that next year's crop of 4-star guys roll into a program behind the current newbies. I need to see some stability. With the assistants to. Now if there's a player or assistant that needs to go then by all means go but for the most part id like to see us roll from one season to the next without major upheaval. Please. And for goodness sake, find a big man. I know quality ones are hard to find and I'm not still pretty sure that we will have something in Hammond or Jacobsen by the time try are upper classmen, but let's start rolling in big men behind these guys each and every year. My god Miles has had bad luck with the injuries, the swings and misses, and the desperation heaves on the big men.

[Silverbacked1]

Something is way off on the Hammond front. I don't think he can be in that bad of a dog house to not have been put into the game today.

Did he maybe do something that we haven't heard about or could it be grades? Remember last year he missed a trip due to his grades right?

Could he be sick or hurt in some way? I can't think that Tim is so mad at him that he is willing to lose to prove a point it's the kid.

Crowd was good, Elijah looked good hope he and his mom liked what we have to offer.

Well need to play a whole game on Saturday.

[Blindcheck]

At some point, you have to box out the guy getting all the offensive boards....that is tough to teach....because it is more effort than anything...you have to find him when you are tired and box him out.

But as a coach, you need to keep running guys out there until you find one that does....my guess is why fuller was sent out there...give him a shot to see if he will box out.