2013 Husker Scrimmage Thread: Hüsker Nü

Some quick thoughts

 

- Webster is the real deal.  Athletic and has court vision.  I'll be surprised if he's not starting day 1.

- Ray will be starting and playing significant minutes for at least the first part of the season.  The rest of the season will depend on how streaky he might be and how the rest of the guys perform

- Hawkins was the surprise of the night for me...he looked pretty smooth on the court. He and Fuller definitely were on the same page.

Alright, here's the honest assessment of what we looked like.  keep in mind the team is basically all new & hasn't been coached together yet. 

 

Rey-Rey-Still utra streaky of a shooter, hasn't improved his consistency but he won't be the only option on offense this year. 

 

Shavon-Got hurt...assume he will be as good as last year

 

Webster-Looks the part.  Didn't wow me looks like a typical freshman.  He'll be a solid contributor & hit the game winner on a shot he created himself.  He seemed to play better as the scrimmage went along.  Early immpressions are that he reminds me of Cookie Belcher.

 

Biggs-very athletic & can break guys down.  Goes for the "flash" a little too much & will need to get  that under control but I think he'll start.

 

Fuller-Looked like a nervous freshman.  Didn't wow me with his shooting ability (yet).  Has a super high arc on his shot.  But again just a freshman, so I can't say anything bad about him.  Definitely not a stiff but no savior yet.

 

Hawkins-Thought he was the most impressive of the newcomers (freshmen).  He looks like he's going to contribute this year.  Very athletic & has a nice shot.  1st action in front of the crowd didn't faze him.  Think he's going to be a player.

 

Smith-Something we haven't had for awhile.  An athletic big.  He's not a guy that's going to be your #1 option in the post but he's going to give quality minutes.

 

Rivers-Where was he?  Sat the bench the entire scrimmage, didn't look hurt.  Assumming he must have had an issue finding the classroom.

 

Petteway-Has the most god awful outside shot I've seen.  I think 4 of his perimeter jumpers hit nothing but glass.  Bricks were an understatement.  Very athletic though.  He needs to just go to the rim.  Looks like he can do than whenever he wants.  Assumming his poor shooting was from being to hyped to play.  needs to keep his emotions under control so he can perform his best.  Didn't like Biggs passed up driving to the rim at the end & giving to Petteway for another brick from 3

 

Pitchford-We've never had a guy like this.  Wow..So many things we can do with him.  He likes to shoot the 3 a little too much. But again it was just a practice.  This guy off the high screen & roll is going to be a nightmare to match up with.  Wow & he's just a Soph.  He's a stud..Let's leave it at that.

 

Lots of athleticism on this team.  Once Miles has some time to coach them they are going to be fun.  I'm being hard on Petteway but I think he can be a good player for us but the outside shot isn't his game right now.  He needs to go to the bucket.  I don't think we have anyone who is lights out from 3 but we have waaayy more offensive options this year than we had last year & this is after just seeing what amounted to a sloppy pickup game.  Once Miles gets these guys playing together & working a system we're going to have a nice team.  Will we win the Big10...no but this should be a post season team if chemistry forms.  Again..not one stiff in all the newcomers..Which is something I can't remember saying in all the years I've followed Husker hoops.

 

Maybe the best thing of the night was the $10 Bon Jovi ticket promotion to those in attendance.  Now that's a deal, even if they are seats in the upper bowl..

I felt better after Kent said that they had been practicing since 3:00. Not that they looked bad, but... not sharp.

But if they had already put in 3 hours of a tough practice it was okay.

Tweet about Rivers is a bit unsettling, and hope that huge cold pool works wonders on Shavon's butt.

I heard Miles made a crack about Creighton...

biggest surprise: Hawkins

 

biggest letdown: petteway

 

just my opinion. I know it was just a scrimmage.

Happy to hear Hawkins looked good.  I was very impressed with his HS film. 

 

Wish I could have been there.

biggest surprise: Hawkins

 

biggest letdown: petteway

 

just my opinion. I know it was just a scrimmage.

If you had seen the scrimmage they held until 5:45PM you would have thought Petteway was unstoppable. His three ball was a thing of beauty as he hit three in a row! I was amazed at the change in the public scrimmage! I don't know if he was tired or nervous.

biggest surprise: Hawkins

biggest letdown: petteway

just my opinion. I know it was just a scrimmage.

If you had seen the scrimmage they held until 5:45PM you would have thought Petteway was unstoppable. His three ball was a thing of beauty as he hit three in a row! I was amazed at the change in the public scrimmage! I don't know if he was tired or nervous.

If you watched Petteway walk when he was not in the scrimmage, he looked extremely sore. I would not even have been upright after the amount of practice those guys had prior to the public event.

Webster-Looks the part.  Didn't wow me looks like a typical freshman.  He'll be a solid contributor & hit the game winner on a shot he created himself.  He seemed to play better as the scrimmage went along.  Early immpressions are that he reminds me of Cookie Belcher.

 

 

I felt like Webster was purposefully passive to start the game...like he was letting the other guys have shots.

Just got back home.  Autographs, good conversation.  Photo ops.  Man Shavon, that had to hurt like a sumbitch.

Webster has fantastic court awareness.  He needs to harness his game, but the dude has game.  I was most surprised by Hawkins.  He looked good and has game as well.

 

Webster-Looks the part.  Didn't wow me looks like a typical freshman.  He'll be a solid contributor & hit the game winner on a shot he created himself.  He seemed to play better as the scrimmage went along.  Early immpressions are that he reminds me of Cookie Belcher.

 

 

I felt like Webster was purposefully passive to start the game...like he was letting the other guys have shots.

 

He's going to start day 1 automatically because I think Biggs is out for 3 games. I would be surprised if biggs takes the spot from him.

 

 

Webster-Looks the part.  Didn't wow me looks like a typical freshman.  He'll be a solid contributor & hit the game winner on a shot he created himself.  He seemed to play better as the scrimmage went along.  Early immpressions are that he reminds me of Cookie Belcher.

 

 

I felt like Webster was purposefully passive to start the game...like he was letting the other guys have shots.

 

He's going to start day 1 automatically because I think Biggs is out for 3 games. I would be surprised if biggs takes the spot from him.

 

 

I'd agree there.  In the games where Ray might not have it we have a good chance of those two on the court at the same time....that's a lot of athleticism. 

OK, how many thousand words am I supposed to crank out here?  I forget.

 

Let's start from the top and work our way down.

 

Vooch.  Hmmmm.  Sergej has improved tremendously from last season.  That's the good news.  The bad news is there was really nowhere for him to go but up and, well, he's still got a ways to climb before he reaches mediocre or even decent.  But he does a great impression of Ivan Drago.

 

Pitch.  Wow.  Athletic is an understatement.  Love this kid.  His shooting form sucks a bit but he's not bad from beyond the arc.  Actually respectable.  Would like to see him work in some low post moves with his back to the basket.  But the kid has ups.  And he's tall to start with.  Not sure what his reach is but he seems to have a good wingspan.  I'd say he'll be pulling down some rebounds.  Definite upgrade athletically over Ubel.  Don't let the lack of minutes at Fla fool ya. 

 

Smith.  Surprisingly good athlete.  And a competent player all the way around.  This kid has some game.  I was pleasantly surprised.  He can score in the low post.  Has some nice moves, good quicks and good strength.  Plus he has decent touch.  And he can climb the ladder for a big fella.

 

Rivers.   Foot problem?  That's really too bad.  I think we'll need David more than people may have thought.

 

Shavon.  Looked good.  In warmups, he showed some explosiveness dunking that I personally had not seen from Shavon in the past.  I think he's picked back up basically where he left off.  Should be one of our best players right out of the blocks.  Assuming he's not seriously hurt.  Because that fall looked ... ouch. 

 

Fuller.  Hey, this kid's gonna be good.  He did some very nice things on the floor tonight including getting a couple of great position rebounds and at least one putback in addition to his obvious skill as a shooter.  Somewhere between his high arc and Ray's flat trajectory is the ideal, though.  But, yeah.  Not disappointed at all.

 

Petteway.  Closest to being disappointed.  At the beginning, everyone was trying to jack up 3s and he was missing badly.  As the scrimmage progressed and the other players stopped jacking up as many 3s, Terran kept at it and kept missing badly.  He's athletic but he he's pretty skinny.  Plays hard D.  That was a good sign.  But just did show much on the offensive end.  Except that he's not a very good shooter.

 

Hawkins.  Very pleasant surprise.  Y'know, people were kinda saying he'd probably redshirt.  Not sure where there's a place for him on the floor, etc.   Wait a second.  You shoulda asked him what he thinks.  He made a statement tonight.  This kid can play.  And he's a better athlete than I expected he'd be.  He's not just a standstill shooter.

 

Webster.  This is clearly the best recruiting class we've had in a very long time and Webster just adds to it.  Whatever someone above said about none of these freshmen being stiffs is very true.  Tai is going to play right away and probably start.  His shooting form could use some tweaks.  But he does a lot of very good things that are unfreshmanlike.  Real Deal?  Yeah, maybe.  I was not disappointed.

 

Gallegos.  Give him a break.  He was stroking it most of the evening.  He's unstoppable when he's on.  Yeah, his shot is still ugly but it goes in quite regularly.  And the only one who can stop Ray is Ray.  It might not go in but he'll be able to get the shot off any time he wants to.  Didn't see evidence of him driving the ball but that could be a function of the kind of scrimmage it was. 

 

Biggs.  Clearly a very good athlete.  Shot didn't look too bad.  I'm saying he plays and gets decent minutes.  Probably doesn't start ahead of Webster but he's a very good athlete.

 

Parker.  Listen, Benny does some good things out there.  And he drilled a three tonight.  Looks more comfortable.  Very good on the break. 

 

Worries: 

 

Perimeter shooting.  Even in warmups, there weren't a lot of shots finding the bottom of the net. 

 

Shavon's butt.  Hope the kid is OK because we're going to need him.

 

Petteway.  He didn't look in sync tonight.  Not seeing why he's a "lock to start."

 

No worries:

 

Rebounding.  We have some guys who can go get it.  Both of our bigs have serious ups.  Especially Pitchford. 

 

Depth.  We knew this already, but we are loaded compared to years past.

 

Freshmen.  No worries.  These kids can play.  Yeah, probably some excessive hype.  But they sure don't lag very far behind the hype, if at all.  And I see all three being able to contribute this year.

Fuller.  Hey, this kid's gonna be good.  He did some very nice things on the floor tonight including getting a couple of great position rebounds and at least one putback in addition to his obvious skill as a shooter.  Somewhere between his high arc and Ray's flat trajectory is the ideal, though.  But, yeah.  Not disappointed at all.

 

Fuller seemed to have a knack for finding rebounds...Shavon-esque  That's definitely going to come in handy this year.

Gallegos' shot is ugly?  It might be a little quick, but it's pretty smooth, IMO.

Fuller averaged 11 rebounds a game in high school. I would have liked to see him get more shots tonight.

Someone already touched on this, but I wanted to back it up since it seems to have been overlooked.  We got there around 5:15-5:30 while the "actual" practice was still going on..  Petteway was by far the best player on the court.  Getting to the rim with ease, rebounding, and hitting damn near every shot.

 

Also no surprise that things looked sloppy tonight, Miles had them working their asses off in the first practice.  Push ups after every turnover, suicides for the defense when they allowed transition (I think, not totally sure) points, etc.

 

Glad Shavon is okay.  From my seat, it was a nasty fall.  Visions of another broken hip screwing up a promising player's career.

In fairness to Petteway, I'm pretty sure he was hurt....I was speaking to one of the staffers at the arena and they said he sat out their practice before the scrimmage. 

In fairness to Petteway, I'm pretty sure he was hurt....I was speaking to one of the staffers at the arena and they said he sat out their practice before the scrimmage. 

He didn't...  Thinking of Rivers?

In fairness to Petteway, I'm pretty sure he was hurt....I was speaking to one of the staffers at the arena and they said he sat out their practice before the scrimmage. 

I think you might be confusing him with Rivers, if the previous posts of Petteway tearing it up in practice are true.

Yeah you know that tall thin guy with dreads.

Fullers first 2 points is a offensive put back slam....pretty cool

The freshman might see alot of playing time

 

In fairness to Petteway, I'm pretty sure he was hurt....I was speaking to one of the staffers at the arena and they said he sat out their practice before the scrimmage. 

He didn't...  Thinking of Rivers?

 

 

I'll bet you guys are right....the guy I was talking to probably got them mixed up.  Makes sense since Rivers didn't play