uneblinstu's post game chatter vol 8, no 29: The Shining

[Norm Peterson]

When you only have one guy who can shoot, a team like Purdue is going to make sure he doesn't get any open looks.

Michael Jacobson is going to have to grow a whole lot more than 2 inches to have credible size against a guy like Hammond.

Ed Morrow was a really bright spot for the huskers tonight. I hope to see a lot more like that out of him next year. When he gets the entry pass in the low blocks, he has a real quickness advantage over most other bigs.

Nick Fuller has earned the right not to have any fans complain about him continuing to hold a scholarship.

I still say we are only a year away if we can find that elusive big man.

It's been a pleasure to cheer on Benny and Shavon over these last four years and I am proud that they were Huskers.

[HuskerCager]

gottagetabigman
gottagetabigman
gottagetabigman
gottagetabigman

gottagetabigman
gottagetabigman
.....

[Cazzie22]

A win over Rutgers gets us another match with .....Purdue!  We just don't match up with the Boilers.

[hhcmatt]

Big, gutty senior performance from Shields tonight.

 

 

White isn't right and I'm not sure we're going to win another game without him. He's made 9 shots in the last 3 games.

Tai took and missed a lot of shots tonight. Benny hit his first and that was it.

Ed Morrow had some UPs tonight...looked as springy as I've seen him all year. With a summer in the weight room and a maybe a jumper he's going to be a load next year.

Jacobson will not miss AJ Hammons or even Purdue. Hammond was lost in the shuffle tonight.

Fuller and that block was huge for us to get back in it during the first. I wish he could shoot.

Where is Jack McVeigh?  2 games ago he's keeping us in the Ohio St game. Tonight it's 4 minutes and 0 shots. Why?

When Watson makes that rhythm jumper, it's a thing of beauty. 3-6 and you probably remember all 3 of those makes.  2 assists and 0 turnovers along with a couple of those phantom fouls that kept him out of the game. Probably needed to say F-it a little sooner and just run the offense entirely through him.

 

Just way too many easy baskets and open looks tonight. Still a chance to keep out of the play-in game on Sunday vs Northwestern

[hal9000]

At times, Ed was a beast on the blocks tonight.  I want to see us look for him more often next year.  Gotta feed the beast. 

[hhcmatt]

Notes and quotes

*-Shavon Shields with a season-high 32 points, topping his previous best of 28 set two other times, most recently against No. 11 Michigan State on Jan. 20. Shields is averaging 28.5 ppg in his last two games since returning to action following a concussion on Feb. 6.
*-Shields now has 1,560 points, moving past Cookie Belcher for ninth place on NU’s career scoring list
*-Tai Webster finished with eight rebound, matching his career high set vs. Cincinnati on Nov. 27.
*-Nebraska falls to 1-8 against ranked foes this season. 
 

Head Coach Tim Miles Quotes

 Opening Statement

“First of all it, was great to recognize our seniors (Benny Parker and Shavon Shields) and honor them because they’ve been terrific kids to coach. If you had to start a program, I don’t think you can find two finer people to do it with.

To the game. I thought this was a game where we were outmatched physically. There’s no question. I think at the end whether it was resignation or disappointment, you kind of get that. The middle run in the first half was what frustrated me the most. We didn’t make multiple efforts and when you’re outmatched and you’re physically disadvantaged you’ve got to have this urgency and intensity on the ball everywhere and we just didn’t have that. I think that was disappointing and I don’t know if quite frankly we were intimidated with some of our guys or what it was but I didn’t have them in the right place mentally, obviously.

The one thing we have to do is be able to fight and we at least ended the half with fighters out there. Ed (Morrow Jr.) and I thought Nick Fuller did a great job of getting that thing back to a workable number or a few possession game so we could go out and feel like we could compete in the second half and feel like we can win.”

On the lack of help for Shavon tonight

“Our starting guards go 6-26. We ran all kinds of actions to try and get Andrew (White III) going. There’s some things that I believe he could do better for himself. Run harder in transition, rip pivot and drive to try and get to the foul line, he hasn’t been to the foul line much in the last two games. There’s some things you have to be able to do. Everyone goes through a little funk and certainly that injury threw him off, but now I think he’s healthy and we’ve got to get him back on track. I think Benny (Parker) was pressing. This night can do that to guys. Tai (Webster) had a tough night.”

On regaining a home court advantage

“We’ve got good players and I think we’re losing a heart and soul guy and a really good player. I think we’ve got a really good player sitting out. I think we are bringing in two really solid recruits and we need another center. You never know what else might happen with roster management. I hope it doesn’t but at the same time I know we need to add pieces to this puzzle and we’re adding three more pieces next year, that’ll be good barring we don’t lose anyone of critical nature. I think we’ll get better and better from this.”

On the mental state of the team

“I thought tonight there was true disappointment, frustration and even resignation, which really bothered me. I think they resigned to we can’t handle these guys. It’s such a bad matchup that I don’t know what we can do. You could see it in the second half in the last six minutes of the game when we couldn’t get it under fourteen again.”

Shavon Shields & Tai Webster Quotes

On the lead Purdue had from the beginning and what the plan was to close the gap
Shields: “They were getting whatever they wanted. They got easy layups, a lot of good threes and stuff like that. When you leave a good team like that wide open, good things are going to happen.”

On how important playing a strong game on Senior Night was
Shields: “I really don’t care about it because we didn’t win. That is all I have to say about it.”

On the issues regarding 3-point shots
Shields: “We’re a small team so we have to make up for it in other ways so sometimes that leads to open shots, but if we want to be a good defensive team you have to make multiple efforts and we haven’t been doing that. It leads to open threes and they’ve been making them.”

On what the team talked about at half time
Webster: “Just that we know we have been in this position before you know it seems like and one of the things we are used to this season. Just not to give up and not go out on them on a note like that. We can make plays and bring it back then great, but if not at least go out full effort.”

On playing with big guys like those on Purdue
Webster: “It is pretty overwhelming to be honest and we try to put such an emphasis on guiding them inside, throwing different looks at them and stuff like that and then that leads to stuff like open threes and stuff like that. It is pretty tough.”

Purdue Coach Matt Painter
What did you like about the start to this game?

They obviously mixed it up and went some zone and some man-to-man, and I thought we adjusted on the switch and were able to get some good looks and get the ball into the high post against their zone. Then we were able to get it inside and score the ball a couple times, and as it went on, we were able to get some inside-outside looks from the perimeter. We had a really good balance. We knew they were going to make a run at us there in the first half, and obviously Shields got really hot—he was close to unstoppable. The shots he was making were really tough shots. But, I thought our guys did a good job in the first half just hanging in there and trying to execute on the offensive end. Then in the second half, we were able to make more runs and push the lead out.”

It seemed Raphael (Davis) didn’t look too good on the floor, do you attribute that to the game Shields played?

I just thought Shields was really good. A couple times, we didn’t take up his space, but he isn’t a high volume three-point shooter, and he made a couple tough ones. You want to do your best to keep him in front of you and score over you, but he was getting some angles and doing a good job of getting Raphael on his hip and then hitting that little floater that he’s known for.

Haas only played a couple minutes in the second half, is he okay?

Yeah, he’s fine. The guy that plays in front of him is pretty good.

 Another game with good perimeter shooting. Are you seeing a positive trend with selection, approaches…?

I think the fewer three’s we shoot, the more we make. We don’t need to be a high-volume 3-point shooting team. We need to be able to probe the defense, move the basketball, drive the ball, takes some three’s, hit some intermediate shots… but also, our bread and butter is posting up and getting the ball inside. A healthy balance is what we count on. Sometimes people are going to give us more than the other, but that doesn’t mean we need to necessarily always take it unless we get to the end of the shot clock.

 Your kids look pretty calm and collected tonight, have you been that way on the road?

Yeah, we’ve just turned the ball over too much on the road. We’ve had home games that way—we turned the ball over against Maryland, we turned the ball over against Michigan State, and we were very fortunate to beat them with a high number of turnovers. At our last road game against Indiana, we shot 59% and got beat because the 13 turnovers we had seemed like pick sixes. But tonight, we didn’t have as many turnovers and they didn’t lead directly to baskets all the time.

 Hill started the second half tonight. Is there something you’re seeing from him?

I thought he had more energy. I thought he played better, and so we wanted to have a good start to the second half. I thought he did a really good job for us getting some energy and taking care of the basketball—he didn’t turn it over—and he had six assists. He and Mathias gave us good momentum, and then Cline gave us some good minutes off the bench, so that was good to see. And obviously Haas has been very consistent for us.

 What has Hill meant to this team this year?

He’s done a good job all year of getting offensive rebounds. He just kind of floats, waits for those long rebounds to come his way, and attacks them. Tonight he only got one, but he’s had some really good nights just keeping balls alive and also being able to get us some extra possessions.

Did you like what you got from Vince?

Vince had a good game. He was aggressive, and that’s what we need him to do. We need him to be able to look for that drive, look for that shot because when he does that and they guard him closely, that really opens up things for our post guys. So that really helps us with our spacing.

 

 

[hhcmatt]

Box Score

 

[ajb5856]

I think we saw a little of the Ed Morrow tonight we should have seen this year if he wasn't hurt. Ed struggled with injuries this season, more than we were even informed of. He was such a spark on the run to climb back in in the first half. Showed off a couple nice post moves, altered some of their bunnies enough to make the miss so we could grab the board.

White?????????????????????????????

We know his shoulder is not good but what about his feet? I think it was the Ohio State game but not sure anymore, but noticed he took inserts out of his shoes at one point, then switched shoes altogether. And then tonight, how the heck did he blow out his shoe? It was like the middle plate between the insole and the actual rubber bottom sole just exploded out of his shoe. He had trouble keeping his footing all night.

Purdue is just not a good matchup for the team we have right now. We worked so hard just to get a look and on the other end they would just lob it inside and get a quick and effortless flush.

Refs and buttholes. Not the reason we lost, we were just overmatched, but why do we get refs that are always such buttholes? They seriously had no clue on about 6 out of bounds calls. You have Teddy TV absolutely getting off on calling back to back travels. And then he hasn't had enough so he just can't help himself in getting in one final PBA call for the year on that wrist graze on their shot with under a minute left. The one possession we get 2 stops and aren't even awarded the ball. First a travel on Tai when he hasn't come down to the floor and established a pivot nor does he even have possession of the ball yet. Then Purdue on their second try knocks it out of bounds and the refs don't see it. So of course the one guesses wrong and gives it to Purdue instead of going to a jump ball. Ok I'm done now.

[AuroranHusker]

Rough night for the Big Red. Bright spot was Shavon all night, Ed here & there, Fuller's block & Glynn's late flurry of jumpers. That's all I got.

 

Nebrasketball needs to get a dub in Evanston on Sunday. Get on a late roll, if you will. GBR

[huskerbaseball13]

An elusive big man that is an immediate contributor is probably going to be a hard find at this point. I'm certain we will land a Big Man...but he will likely be a two year project if we are lucky. Unfortunately, I think our issues run deeper than just needing a big man.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[doc1394]

A little disappointed in Jacobson's level of physicality out there tonight, considering he was recruited to be a tight end. Morrow at least went after those guys and shoved right back on defense. Fun watching him fight tonight, at least, even if Hammons dunked it either way.

It just seems like the last 2 seasons the Huskers have gotten significantly worse as the season goes along.

Gonna miss Shavon and Benny. Could not have represented this university any better.

[nustudent]

Find a big man and things change dramatically next year.   Not to trash him on senior night...but we are instantly better the minute Parker's eligibiity expires. 

 

Shields is an all timer but I do think he's replaceable.   For as good as he's been the last two games, he's had some poor games in conference as well.   Another year of experience for Watson and the others and Gill and Roby coming in can offset Shields IMO.

 

In a perfect situation for me...Fuller and Hammond move on... we get a 5th year or JUCO transfer big, Jordy T and a shooter for next year.

[hhcmatt]

A little disappointed in Jacobson's level of physicality out there tonight, considering he was recruited to be a tight end. Morrow at least went after 

 

Did the same thing last time against Purdue. Hopefully this is a small case of the yips that leaves with AJ Hammons going to the NBA.

[hskr4life]

Find a big man and things change dramatically next year.   Not to trash him on senior night...but we are instantly better the minute Parker's eligibiity expires. 

 

Shields is an all timer but I do think he's replaceable.   For as good as he's been the last two games, he's had some poor games in conference as well.   Another year of experience for Watson and the others and Gill and Roby coming in can offset Shields IMO.

 

In a perfect situation for me...Fuller and Hammond move on... we get a 5th year or JUCO transfer big, Jordy T and a shooter for next year.

Don't be so quick to pull the trigger on Benny... He plays a bigger role than many on here have EVER realized. We don't get "instantly" better by losing a 4 year guy like Parker. Sorry.

Shields will be tough to replace, but Billy Beane would say you don't have to replace him... Just recreate him. Which you I think did.

I want and expect both Fuller and Hammond to stay. Nick has his limits yes... But hustle and playing hard is something you can't teach and he showed plenty of heart last night. I think Nick is a lifer. Jake is big and there's always a chance he will improve. For as much as we are hurting for a big man, it's ironic that we want our biggest guy to transfer out of the program.

[demone]

Frustrated by this season and not seeing enough "impact" improvement as the season has progressed. In fact, in some cases, I think I can safely say there has been some regression. I hate talking about "next year" but that is where we are, once again.

 

7 assists? What happened to the team early in the year that was moving, sharing the basketball and knocking down open looks? This team hasn't shot particularly well in the past few games and I believe it starts with too much standing & too much dribbling. We are 1-4 in the last 5 games and the most assists in a game we've had in that stretch is 12. (Purdue had 22 last night!).

 

Defensively, we simply can't or won't make life difficult on 3 pt shooters. I realize we are undersized and that is a contributing factor when having to double the post and then recover on the shooters. But...the effort to recover is a requirement for this team to be successful. It has not been there.

 

Thank you to both Shavon and Benny for giving this program 4 years of your life. Kudos also to the fans - pretty impressive that over 15,000 showed up to congratulate the seniors and cheer on a sub-.500 team.

 

Next year...ah next year...

[hhcmatt]

For as much as we are hurting for a big man, it's ironic that we want our biggest guy to transfer out of the program.

 

Yeah, I don't get this at all. He's gone from no minutes to some important minutes and for the next 2 years his absolute floor is post player who can contribute minutes off the bench.

[huskerbaseball13]

Frustrated by this season and not seeing enough "impact" improvement as the season has progressed. In fact, in some cases, I think I can safely say there has been some regression. I hate talking about "next year" but that is where we are, once again.

 

7 assists? What happened to the team early in the year that was moving, sharing the basketball and knocking down open looks? This team hasn't shot particularly well in the past few games and I believe it starts with too much standing & too much dribbling. We are 1-4 in the last 5 games and the most assists in a game we've had in that stretch is 12. (Purdue had 22 last night!).

 

Defensively, we simply can't or won't make life difficult on 3 pt shooters. I realize we are undersized and that is a contributing factor when having to double the post and then recover on the shooters. But...the effort to recover is a requirement for this team to be successful. It has not been there.

 

Thank you to both Shavon and Benny for giving this program 4 years of your life. Kudos also to the fans - pretty impressive that over 15,000 showed up to congratulate the seniors and cheer on a sub-.500 team.

 

Next year...ah next year...

 

Still not quite sure what our offensive identity is.......hero ball?  Defensively.....GATA has gone out the window.   

[nustudent]

 

Find a big man and things change dramatically next year.   Not to trash him on senior night...but we are instantly better the minute Parker's eligibiity expires. 

 

Shields is an all timer but I do think he's replaceable.   For as good as he's been the last two games, he's had some poor games in conference as well.   Another year of experience for Watson and the others and Gill and Roby coming in can offset Shields IMO.

 

In a perfect situation for me...Fuller and Hammond move on... we get a 5th year or JUCO transfer big, Jordy T and a shooter for next year.

Don't be so quick to pull the trigger on Benny... He plays a bigger role than many on here have EVER realized. We don't get "instantly" better by losing a 4 year guy like Parker. Sorry.

Shields will be tough to replace, but Billy Beane would say you don't have to replace him... Just recreate him. Which you I think did.

I want and expect both Fuller and Hammond to stay. Nick has his limits yes... But hustle and playing hard is something you can't teach and he showed plenty of heart last night. I think Nick is a lifer. Jake is big and there's always a chance he will improve. For as much as we are hurting for a big man, it's ironic that we want our biggest guy to transfer out of the program.

 

Yes...we will be better.  Parker is a liability on offense.   He's okay at best defensively.   His only redeeming quality is nullified the more minutes he plays.

 

Hustle and hardwork alone doesn't make up for talent shortcomings.   Fuller is a 3rd year player and despite that hustle and hardwork can barely find time on a team thin on depth.   He's a tweener.   With Roby and Horne coming in...there is even less of a role for him.

 

Hammond is pretty bad.   It shouldn't be a stretch to think we can find better.   It'd be one thing if he was just raw offensively and could give you something defensively or on the glass.   He's real bad there as well.

[nustudent]

 

For as much as we are hurting for a big man, it's ironic that we want our biggest guy to transfer out of the program.

 

Yeah, I don't get this at all. He's gone from no minutes to some important minutes and for the next 2 years his absolute floor is post player who can contribute minutes off the bench.

 

Pry because it shouldn't be that inconceivable for us to find better.  Especially with our track record of bringing in transfers under Miles.

[nustudent]

 

Frustrated by this season and not seeing enough "impact" improvement as the season has progressed. In fact, in some cases, I think I can safely say there has been some regression. I hate talking about "next year" but that is where we are, once again.

 

7 assists? What happened to the team early in the year that was moving, sharing the basketball and knocking down open looks? This team hasn't shot particularly well in the past few games and I believe it starts with too much standing & too much dribbling. We are 1-4 in the last 5 games and the most assists in a game we've had in that stretch is 12. (Purdue had 22 last night!).

 

Defensively, we simply can't or won't make life difficult on 3 pt shooters. I realize we are undersized and that is a contributing factor when having to double the post and then recover on the shooters. But...the effort to recover is a requirement for this team to be successful. It has not been there.

 

Thank you to both Shavon and Benny for giving this program 4 years of your life. Kudos also to the fans - pretty impressive that over 15,000 showed up to congratulate the seniors and cheer on a sub-.500 team.

 

Next year...ah next year...

 

Still not quite sure what our offensive identity is.......hero ball?  Defensively.....GATA has gone out the window.   

 

I think you'll see next year a lot more what Miles wants us to be offensively.   You won't have as many black holes or liabilities next year.   A deeper more complete roster.

[hhcmatt]

Defensively, we simply can't or won't make life difficult on 3 pt shooters. I realize we are undersized and that is a contributing factor when having to double the post and then recover on the shooters. But...the effort to recover is a requirement for this team to be successful. It has not been there.

 

 

For me the 3pt% is an outlier of the Miles era at this point and not some ongoing problem. It's more of a combination of what happens when you have Watson and Parker playing together in terms of length plus playing a bunch of youth. It will get fixed next year.

 

For me, I'm seeing the same team that puts people on FT line almost more than anyone else. How much of this is us being physically undersized (and needing to recruit better) and how much of it is scheme (and we've fouled regardless of whoever has been the assistants here) 

[hhcmatt]

 

 

Frustrated by this season and not seeing enough "impact" improvement as the season has progressed. In fact, in some cases, I think I can safely say there has been some regression. I hate talking about "next year" but that is where we are, once again.

 

7 assists? What happened to the team early in the year that was moving, sharing the basketball and knocking down open looks? This team hasn't shot particularly well in the past few games and I believe it starts with too much standing & too much dribbling. We are 1-4 in the last 5 games and the most assists in a game we've had in that stretch is 12. (Purdue had 22 last night!).

 

Defensively, we simply can't or won't make life difficult on 3 pt shooters. I realize we are undersized and that is a contributing factor when having to double the post and then recover on the shooters. But...the effort to recover is a requirement for this team to be successful. It has not been there.

 

Thank you to both Shavon and Benny for giving this program 4 years of your life. Kudos also to the fans - pretty impressive that over 15,000 showed up to congratulate the seniors and cheer on a sub-.500 team.

 

Next year...ah next year...

 

Still not quite sure what our offensive identity is.......hero ball?  Defensively.....GATA has gone out the window.   

 

I think you'll see next year a lot more what Miles wants us to be offensively.   You won't have as many black holes or liabilities next year.   A deeper more complete roster.

 

 

You've seen bits and pieces already this year. Somehow this is still the most efficient offense we've run in over a decade, essentially because Andrew White is on the team.

[huskerbaseball13]

Per the OWH..the last time we lost more league home games than we did this year was in the 1922-1923 season.  And we were in the Mo Valley.   

 

Tough to continue to build when you can't protect home court. 

[hhcmatt]

 

 

For as much as we are hurting for a big man, it's ironic that we want our biggest guy to transfer out of the program.

 

Yeah, I don't get this at all. He's gone from no minutes to some important minutes and for the next 2 years his absolute floor is post player who can contribute minutes off the bench.

 

Pry because it shouldn't be that inconceivable for us to find better.  Especially with our track record of bringing in transfers under Miles.

Inconceivable? No. Probable? What exactly have we been waiting for over the last 3 years?

[nustudent]

 

 

 

For as much as we are hurting for a big man, it's ironic that we want our biggest guy to transfer out of the program.

 

Yeah, I don't get this at all. He's gone from no minutes to some important minutes and for the next 2 years his absolute floor is post player who can contribute minutes off the bench.

 

Pry because it shouldn't be that inconceivable for us to find better.  Especially with our track record of bringing in transfers under Miles.

Inconceivable? No. Probable? What exactly have we been waiting for over the last 3 years?

 

While true...at some point that is going to change.   Especially with Fuller.   Undersized post players who cant defend or score aren't exactly hard to find.   With Roby and Horne coming in and another year for McVeigh....where does he fit in?