uneblinstu's post game chatter: ed 3, vol 16 - Michigan

[uneblinstu]

- Shields is a spark plug for this team right now.  Love how he plays on both ends.  Finishes at the rim, cleans up on the glass.

- This team played with a different mentality than they played with in Columbus.  Glad they took that lesson to heart so far.

- Not many figured NU would have a chance in this one *raises hand*, but at the half, NU only down five.  I think anyone in red would take that.

- Thought the charge on Parker early should have counted.  He released the ball before the contact.  Was fine with the foul, but the shot should have counted.

- Good to see Andre back.  He seemed to cause issues for Michigan.  Would have liked to have seen him get the ball and see if he could get position.

- NU doing a nice job of taking care of the ball, which keeps that Michigan transition in check.  

- Huskers still need to do a better job of getting to the line.

- Huskers just grinding away in the second half.

- Two quick shots for NU with the opportunity to cut the lead to five let Michigan build the lead back to five.  They weren't terrible shots, but they weren't what NU needed to stay in the game.

- NU doing nearly everything it can to stay in this game.

- NU did a fairly good job of making good decisions right up until Talley's turnover leading to Robinson's dunk.

- NU did a really good job of finding their man on rebounds until that Robinson dunk.

- Gotta be impressed with NU's resiliency in this one.  They're just hanging around all night.

- Couple better decisions.  Couple loose balls go NU's way.  Things might have been different.

- Love that NU didn't assume defeat here, bodes well for the future.

- Five minutes into the half, Michigan was in the bonus. Five minutes to go in the 2nd half, NU had been called for 10 fouls, Michigan only 3.  Speaks to a bunch of the things, but the mentality of the two is a big one.  NU has to do a better job of getting to the line.

- Parker had an impossible assignment tonight.

- If NU takes on every challenge like this, they'll win some games.

 

You guys take it from here.

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[hskr4life]

The refs did NOT lose us this one... with that being said, every and I mean every bump was a foul on Nebraska, but it is a bunch of crap to see them body us up and it not get called.  I realize we are on the road, but come one. 

 

I love the fight in the team.  Whether the early storm, and there are games comin up that are winnable.

 

We did shoot pretty well tonight, and I hope that Gallegos gets a jump from this game.

 

Wish we were 1 to 2 deeper... we ran out of gas.

[Huskerpapa]

I still want us to learn how to win games like this.  It is the little things, which are the things we should be doing right.  Boxing out on rebounds, sound picks, help on backside defense, timely free throws.  The little things that can change results.

 

We played pretty well, and we did it with limited minutes from Andre.  But I cannot pick out any one player that I am wholly disappointed in. We exceeded my expectations, but that does not heal the disappointment in losing a game that surprisingly was within our sites.  Oh well.

[tcp]

we lost on the boards, and much of that is directly attributable to superior athletes. We have to be able to live with that.

 

I really appreciate how the guys bounced back from that monstrosity of a Wisconsin game. Their heads were right for this one, so Miles' tweaks during the week helped.

 

Have another brutal game saturday, but, like last year, once we get out there might be some teams we can pick off from time to time.

[49r]

I become a bigger Shavon Shields fan with every game we play.  Imagine how good he'll be when he ISN'T playing hurt.

[tcp]

I become a bigger Shavon Shields fan with every game we play.  Imagine how good he'll be when he ISN'T playing hurt.

i agree. lots of talent there. he'll be a good one before it's all done.

[PAhusker]

understatement alert: we need more 50/50 balls

[FredsSlacks]

There just isn't enough talent or depth on this team. No reason to blame anything else.  I am impressed with what Miles has done with the players on this team and his recruiting. The biggest issue I have with Miles was bringing in a project like Vucetic knowing there is no depth on this team. One more solid contributor on this team would of helped a lot this year. Parker, Andre, and Rivers are seeing a lot more minutes than they would on a team with a lot of depth.

[hskr4life]

There just isn't enough talent or depth on this team. No reason to blame anything else.  I am impressed with what Miles has done with the players on this team and his recruiting. The biggest issue I have with Miles was bringing in a project like Vucetic knowing there is no depth on this team. One more solid contributor on this team would of helped a lot this year. Parker, Andre, and Rivers are seeing a lot more minutes than they would on a team with a lot of depth.

 

The same can probably be said for just about everyone on the team.  No 1 person is "the man" and they all have their hot and cold streaks.

[hal9000]

understatement alert: we need more 50/50 balls

I was thinking the same thing.  Against OSU, we flat out "under-efforted" (is that a word?).  Against Wisc and again tonight, our hustle was much better, but we still lost out on too many of those contested rebounds and loose balls.  GOT to step up the intensity even more, and win those little battles throughout the game.

[boomer1]

I become a bigger Shavon Shields fan with every game we play.  Imagine how good he'll be when he ISN'T playing hurt.

i agree. lots of talent there. he'll be a good one before it's all done.

I agree...every year he's going to continue to develop, in 2-3 more years he could be a major stud on this team.  

[FredsSlacks]

I become a bigger Shavon Shields fan with every game we play.  Imagine how good he'll be when he ISN'T playing hurt.

i agree. lots of talent there. he'll be a good one before it's all done.

I agree...every year he's going to continue to develop, in 2-3 more years he could be a major stud on this team.  

Has been very impressive. This was only his 8th or 9th game of the season that he has played i think. He and Gallegos should be the only starters next year from the current roster.

[atskooc]

we lost on the boards, and much of that is directly attributable to superior athletes. We have to be able to live with that.

 

I really appreciate how the guys bounced back from that monstrosity of a Wisconsin game. Their heads were right for this one, so Miles' tweaks during the week helped.

 

Have another brutal game saturday, but, like last year, once we get out there might be some teams we can pick off from time to time.

Yup.  Their work on the offensive boards killed us.  But, their work from the free throw line kept us in it.  Well, that and some pretty hard work on our part. 

 

I was glad to be wrong about the outcome of this game.  I thought we'd lose by 40.

[uneblinstu]

5 guys played 32 minutes or more. Yikes.

[jimmykc]

I can't fault our team's attitude or effort so far this year. We had 4 players on the floor scrambling for a loose ball at one point. I just hope they don't mentally tune out after a few more losses. In games like last night it's not exactly like battling someone armed with  a gun with a knife, but it does seem like fighting someone armed with a knife while brandishing a can opener.

[tcp]

5 guys played 32 minutes or more. Yikes.

it seems this is why we struggle so much closing games. this will be a problem all season, and it wouldn't surprise me to see a few potential upsets evaporate because of team fatigue in the last few minutes.

 

I don't envy Miles having to pick the poison of rest for an iffy replacement or running out of gas before the race ends.

[Silverbacked1]

One thing that Miles does that reminds me of Nee is giving the players rest.

 

Remember when Danny would say we will take tomorrow off and watch some film and maybe shoot around, let them get their legs back.

 

I think Miles understands that very well and it might help a bit, not much but maybe better than how Doc kind of ran things.

[NUdiehard]

I felt all of the guys that played gave tremendous effort, and Miles deserves a lot of credit for this as well.  After the poor effort against OSU, he seems to have gotten his message across that 100% effort is non-negotiable.  That is a good thing.  It will be interesting to see how the guys hold up playing so many minutes through the grind of the B1G though.

 

A few quick observations:

 

1.  Benny P seems over-matched in the B1G.  In short, this is why you don't recruit 5'8" players to play in the B1G unless they are so unbelievably talented that they can overcome their natural shortcomings (pun intended).  Against Wisconsin, his man simply backed him down to the paint and shot over him for 2 easy baskets late in the game, and last night he was completely overmatched guarding Burkes (granted, Burkes is a great player, but the mismatch was glaring with Benny).  This is compounded by the fact that BP is absolutely no threat on the offensive end.  Maybe BP is hindered by his injury, but right now he appears to be one guy that is not long lived for this level of competition.

 

2.  Shields is quickly becoming my favorite player.  He started out very strong and then faded a bit as the game went on, but he gives max effort and, what I like most about him, he is not afraid to bang with the big boys.  He drives more than any player on the team (although he will need to develop his left hand--always goes to his right) and he fights and scraps against much bigger guys for the rebound almost every possession.  Good passer and all-around smart player.  His shooting is still a bit of an unknown since I think his elbow injury, and also the large pad and sleeve he must wear as a result, is still hindering him considerably.  His 3 FT shots were not really close, and I think the injury plays a part in that.

 

3.  Gallegos is soooo streaky.  Right now we live or die with his outside shot.  I am still quite frustrated that he simply refuses to penetrate and drive to the basket or at least pull up for the 15 ft jumper rather than always the 3 ball.  He has the hops, and based on that fast break layup he made with his left hand while shielding with his right hand, he has the ability.  All he lacks is the mentality, and that is simply a waste of talent and potential easy points.  A shot fake and drive could do wonders for his shooting percentage.

 

4.  If i had one criticism of Miles so far this year, it is his lack of willingness to play Almeida more minutes.  The ankle did not appear to be bothering AA much at all, and I thought he gave good minutes when he was in there. He was blocking or altering shots and causing disruption in the paint.  My other frustration is that NOBODY feeds him the ball down low on offense.  I was keeping track and I think AA only had 1  touch the entire first half, and not many more the 2nd.  That simply is unaccpetable.  All he has to do is shoot better than 33% to raise the shooting average of this team, and I think he is more than capable of doing that.

 

5.  Speaking of 33%, did anyone notice the box score.  Only 5 players shot the ball and all of them, except Shields, shot 33%.  Rivers 2-6; Ubel 3-9, Talley 4-12 and Gallegos 7-21.  Shields shot 37.5% (3-8).  That is remarkable.  Not sure that has happened very often before, if ever.  But that shows exactly what we are--a team full of players who are capable of making 33% of their shots against quality competition.  Not going to get it done.  That is not Miles fault, just the reality of what we are.

[uneblinstu]

Nudiehard, Miles owned #4 in his post game. Realized he probably should have played him more. I expect we'll see him more on Sunday. We could use his rebounding. He also caused Michigan fits at the rim because they just couldn't get around him.

[hskr4life]

As I dwelled on the loss last night, I realized that we just hung with the No 2 team in the flipping country.  An undefeated, possible sweet 16, elite 8, and final 4 team.  Guys we can do this.  If we play like we did last night, there is no way this team goes the entire slate of Big 10 games without a win.  There are winnable games out there, and I feel that we have a few upsets this year, possibly even 1 on the road.

 

We have Purdue at home, Penn State twice, Northwestern at home, Iowa twice, After Sundays game, we will only have 6 more road games, compared to 8 home games. 

 

Now maybe I am being a little optimistic, but I think there is a way to reach the 5 to 6 win mark.  If Gallegos can shoot 33 percent from downtown every game, and lean to drive, and Shields continues to improve, theres a way.

[bball23]

I agree AA needs to play a bit more, but if you noticed when we were on defense they were doing a ton of high pick and rolls and Almeida simply can't hedge well enough and recover to his man the way Ubel and Shields can.  He was simply staying below his guy leaving guys pretty wide open to either shoot, or drive the lane.  I think that had a little to do with it.  I really wish AA were able to play the Wisconsin game.  That game was more paced for him and we could have used his interior defense (especially late in the game) as well as rebounding.  Guys simply don't move AA, but late in that Wisky game, Bergerrer (spelling) was getting his way vs a smaller Shields.  He doesn't do that vs AA.  Man I wish we could have won that game and be sitting 1-2 right now.  We let that one slip away.

[twinswingohuskers]

What I can't believe is how our bench outscored they're bench 4-0.  I would think that they would have had someone come off the bench that could do some scoring.

[Huskerpapa]

I like this, it tells me that this team is not happy with moral victories...

 

“It’s too bad,” Nebraska coach Tim Miles said. “You really struggle telling those guys in the locker room, ‘Good job,’ because they don’t want to hear it, and that’s what I like about them, is they don’t want to define themselves this way.  “They don’t feel good about just playing hard and coming close. They’re in there with their heads down and beating themselves up because we’re 0-3.”

[hskr4life]

I like this, it tells me that this team is not happy with moral victories...

 

“It’s too bad,” Nebraska coach Tim Miles said. “You really struggle telling those guys in the locker room, ‘Good job,’ because they don’t want to hear it, and that’s what I like about them, is they don’t want to define themselves this way.  “They don’t feel good about just playing hard and coming close. They’re in there with their heads down and beating themselves up because we’re 0-3.”

 

I loved that quote too... if there is one thing that our guys can take away from this game and keep their heads up, it is that we can play with anybody on the rest of the schedule.  Home or Away, we can play with anyone, and in their minds, they should be thinking that they can win every game from here on out.

[cipsucks]

One thing that Miles does that reminds me of Nee is giving the players rest.

 

Remember when Danny would say we will take tomorrow off and watch some film and maybe shoot around, let them get their legs back.

In retrospect, Danny should have made Ramos run a lot of laps.  Followed by cold showers......