01/06/13 - Wisconsin Report card

[hhcscott]

OFFENSE: F

 

What offense? 36% shooting.  A lack of free throw attempts (five, of which we missed two) Six poor shots by Dylan Talley (two charges, two threes that were way off, and two shots that just were out of any offensive rhythm) Missed layups and tips. Dribbling out the clock on our last possession. In this game a five-six point lead was insurmountable.

 

One positive note was to see Gallegos take a drive to the basket. That shot has been open for him ever since the 20-pt games because EVERYONE's scouting report says overplay off the screen. Needs to happen more. 

 

The thing that is funny to me is the talk about the slow-down game, but we had 49 shots in this game and 56 against CMU, so it wasn't the pace of the game, but the difference between shooting 36% and 57%.

 

DEFENSE: D

 

B for the first 30 seconds of most possessions. F- for the last five. 15 fouls for Nebraska to 9 for Wisconsin but Wisconsin's FT shooting was 3 of 13 so our best defensive strategy was to foul the Badgers. Our biggest defensive disappointment was when Shields fouled Evans late, allowing the basket and his made FT.

 

 

REBOUNDING: B

 

Nebraska lost the rebounding battle 38-35, which is impressive considering the size and depth mismatches but eight offensive boards for the Badgers in a game where possessions were at a premium was a killer. Nice work by Shavon Shields on the boards matching Brandon Ubel's eight boards in seven fewer minutes.

 

BALL HANDLING: C

 

Eight turnovers to four assists isn't bad, but this might be the stat of the game, Wisconsin has eight assists and six turnovers.  That's how slim the margin is in this game. Four more assists and two fewer turnovers and the Badgers win by six. Take out the turnovers coming from three charges (Talley 2 and Gallegos 1), replace them with smart passes to the man trailing or pull up jumpers/banks, and both these teams are 1-1 in conference.

 

 

COACHING: C-

 

What was the play for the last minute? Dribbling exhibitions make for a great halftime show. Not so much at the end of the game.

 

We played close and had a number of chances to take control of the game, but there seems to be a lack of execution by our offense at decisive moments. Poor shot selection, lack of patience, lack of court awareness. 

 

No Almeida. No Vucetic. Minimal Rivers. I understand we don't have much depth, but playing just six deep we are shooting 35% over the last three games and we are just two games into the conference.  If we are trying to contend for postseason play then Biggs should have been on the floor from game one. If we are trying to build for the future then Vucetic should play and Rivers should play more. Right now, all we are doing is burning out our seniors and wasting developmental time for our younger players. I didn't see anything that Rivers did that made him a liability on offense or defense this game even though some of the players who did get 30 minutes sure did have some lapses in judgment.

 

 

OVERALL GRADE:  D

 

PLAYER OF THE GAME: RAY GALLEGOS

2012-2013 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS:

RAY GALLEGOS - 7

DYLAN TALLEY - 3

BRANDON UBEL - 3

DAVID RIVERS - 1

SHAVON SHIELDS - 1

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[colhusker]

Scott can't argue most of your grades, I would go with a C+ for rebounding for no other reason is we missed several keys ones down the stretch that led to more time off the clock and Wisconsin points.  When we needed to box out, we didn't do it well.

[hhcscott]

Scott can't argue most of your grades, I would go with a C+ for rebounding for no other reason is we missed several keys ones down the stretch that led to more time off the clock and Wisconsin points.  When we needed to box out, we didn't do it well.

If we had secured those rebounds it would have been an A since the Huskers would have won the rebounding battle despite the size/depth deficiencies.

[HB]

Interesting that a defense gives up 47 and gets a D.  I'm not here to argue with it, but that's pretty funny.  Bo Ryan finally figured out we have no size, and set everything in the paint the last 8 minutes.  Maybe we just got lucky Wiscy shot so poorly, but perhaps we had a little something to do with it. 

[kldm64]

Nothing more frustrating than letting a win slip away.  Wisconsin gave us every opportunity to win that game and we couldn't find a way to do it.  They missed free throw after free throw to give us a chance.  Someone needs to tell Talley that he's not the entire offense.  He's a thought, how about passing the ball once in a while instead of thinking you have to be the man to take every critical shot.  This season gets more frustrating with every game.  What sucks even more is I think we get the win if Almeida was able to play.

[bigred4]

Completely agree about Vucetic.  Why not play him 15 or 20 minutes a game?  He may get pushed around a bit but you already BURNED his redshirt.  Reminds me of Wes is frosh year (in terms of wasting a year).  Plus we lose Andre and Brandon, so our 5 next year will be either him or Pitchford who doesn't have much game experience.  Also, he had a nice hook shot and a 17 foot fade away jumper that looked pretty sweet vs. OSU and was 4-4 from the free throw line in exhibition so I think he has nice touch.  You have nothing to lose so he should be playing.

[Cheap Seat Perspective]

Agree with most of the grades except the D for Defense, I thought our defense played at about a B, we had very good rotations out of the double teams. Bo Ryan said in the post game we were the most physical defensive team they played all year. Our closeouts weren't very good because we were out of control on them and allowing straight line drives to the basket. But overall I felt our defense was above average. 

[Buglem]

I disagree on Vucetic. The inside guys for Wisconsin were pushing Ubel around. Serj would have been destroyed. Agree that Rivers could have played more.

On a side note, the grade for the crowd was an F-. I expected some energy since we had a big recruit in town, it was a winnable game and it was Wisconsin. Instead, it was the worst crowd I've seen in a long time. I hope Atewe can look past it and see the opportunity for immediate playing time.

[HB]

I disagree on Vucetic. The inside guys for Wisconsin were pushing Ubel around. Serj would have been destroyed. Agree that Rivers could have played more.

On a side note, the grade for the crowd was an F-. I expected some energy since we had a big recruit in town, it was a winnable game and it was Wisconsin. Instead, it was the worst crowd I've seen in a long time. I hope Atewe can look past it and see the opportunity for immediate playing time.

 

Agree on the crowd.  It was perhaps the worst I have ever seen for a conference game we were in.  A utter library.   Disgraceful.

[bigred4]

I disagree on Vucetic. The inside guys for Wisconsin were pushing Ubel around. Serj would have been destroyed. Agree that Rivers could have played more.

On a side note, the grade for the crowd was an F-. I expected some energy since we had a big recruit in town, it was a winnable game and it was Wisconsin. Instead, it was the worst crowd I've seen in a long time. I hope Atewe can look past it and see the opportunity for immediate playing time.

He may have, but we wont know until he plays.  I would have had no problem if he redshirted him, but they didn't so I would play him to get experience.  He just as big as Brian was the 1st year he played.  They already redshirted Biggs who wold be playing 30+ minutes this year and brought in 2 transfers who have to sit so playing for the future may not be fair to Ubel, Almeida, and Talley, but thats the decision that Tim made.

[Cheap Seat Perspective]

I agree with bigred4, 

 

Since we didn't red-shirt him he should be playing, get him some experience, even if it's only for about 5 minutes a game. 

[cozrulz]

Miles gets a D.  We had two timeouts at the end and one should have been used to set something up with 20+ seconds left when you could see the offense of flustered.

[Busch Light]

I'm not sure that working on player development during one of our few winnable conference games is the right thing to do.  There will plenty of games yet that will be decided long before the final minute.  I absolutely agree that we need to play Vucetic more, he will get his chances though. 

[Buglem]

I'm not sure that working on player development during one of our few winnable conference games is the right thing to do.  There will plenty of games yet that will be decided long before the final minute.  I absolutely agree that we need to play Vucetic more, he will get his chances though. 

You said it better than I did. I would like to see Vucetic play, but when the game is close and we have a chance is not the time. Will be plenty of blow out time to play him. Probably on Wednesday.

As far as Miles, I have no problem with not calling timeouts at the end. We got nothing from set plays all night and our best bet was to let them play through it. He's trying to get these guys to play through adversity, that includes learning to be aggressive and make plays under duress.

[bigred4]

I'm not sure that working on player development during one of our few winnable conference games is the right thing to do.  There will plenty of games yet that will be decided long before the final minute.  I absolutely agree that we need to play Vucetic more, he will get his chances though. 

He never played him in the non-con which is when he sould have been playing 10- 15 minutes a game.  A lot of people have said it wasn't worth it to play Biggs this year cuz we might win 5/6 conf. games instead of 3.  So if you play Sergej whats the diference of only winning 1-2 conf games instead of 3-4.  I like Ubel but I don't think he should be playing 38 minutes a game.

 

I don't know if Sergej is any good but he is Tim's guy so its a little concerning to me that he isn't playing him more when we only have 1 true center (Almeida) on the team.

[Silverbacked1]

I liked our 1-4 set today.

 

Could that be a peak at the future?

[basketballjones]

A buddy sent me this -- "We just lost a game in which the opponent shot 38% from the floor, 24% from three, and 17% from the FT Line.  No real excuse to lose a game like that at home, regardless of how bad your roster is."

 

I agree... talk about  recipe for an upset, and we still didn't pull it off. 

[bigred4]

REBOUNDING: B

 

Nebraska lost the rebounding battle 38-35, which is impressive considering the size and depth mismatches but eight offensive boards for the Badgers in a game where possessions were at a premium was a killer. Nice work by Shavon Shields on the boards matching Brandon Ubel's eight boards in seven fewer minutes.

 

My concern with rebounding is we struggle to score, but we have maybe 1 guy trying to get offensive rebounds.  We should be crashing the offensive boards and try to get some easy points. We did the same thing under Doc.

[hugh42]

A buddy sent me this -- "We just lost a game in which the opponent shot 38% from the floor, 24% from three, and 17% from the FT Line.  No real excuse to lose a game like that at home, regardless of how bad your roster is."

 

I agree... talk about  recipe for an upset, and we still didn't pull it off. 

 

You would hope that we could win considering that stat line, but being undermanned apparently did still make a difference in the outcome.

[royalfan]

Ryan knows a thing about coaching defense.  Never was going to be easy when we only have two or three scoring options.  People like to pile on Talley but he has to shoot.  And in this league the coaches know it and the shots are not easy.  Tough sledding.  Our defense was far better than a D today IMO. 

[atskooc]

Coach Miles' tie: B+

[hhcscott]

Sorry guys I'm sticking with the D on defense. I agree that we played solid defense for a good part of the game but that part was not a half or a run. It was the first 30 seconds of each possession when Wisconsin was just moving the ball around, but I lost count of the number of times we gave away baskets with < 5 seconds on the shot clock. That's unacceptable.

[tcp]

Solid card. I also think the D grade was kind of harsh--yeah, we broke down at the end of a lot of possessions, but we still D'd fairly well and those first 30 seconds count, too. But this was a maddening game. I couldn't give Gallegos PoG because of all the grenades he lobbed up, either. He made a few shots that were just bad shots, but missed quite a few more. Talley took very few quality shots.  I really think we could have done a better job getting some quality shots off than we did.

It just occurred to me today how much of this honeymoon's going to erode by the end of this season... Man, what a project this program is right now.

[Chuck Taylor]

I think TM realized this is one of our few winnable BIG games and so went with the extremely short bench. You just can't make mistakes or get pushed around when you play Wisky, because that's how they beat everybody. The downside, which we saw, was tired legs at the end that resulted in a lot of jump shots clanking. If we hadn't played the starters so many minutes, we might have hit some shots at the end, but we might have also been down double digits. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off. We're going to have a lot of lose-lose propositions this season, unfortunately.

[Handy Johnson]

This one hurts, you're not going to win too many games scoring in the 40s, but Wisconsin is one of them.