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    hhcdave

    12/21/2013 - The Citadel Report Card

      OVERALL GRADE: D

      You can tell me you don't see this game as alarming and I will understand. I totally get that viewpoint.

      However, I don't share it. To me, this game was just as much of a debacle as Creighton (just in a different way). That marks about the fifth time we've come out with our fingers up our butts this year in the first half. We are NOWHERE NEAR good enough for that.

      Do you honestly think we're all of a sudden just going to turn it on come Big 10? That this will never repeat itself? Its just a few isolated incidents? No chance.

      Habits are learned and mentally, this team is in big, big trouble right now. If we want to ignore that and drink the Kool Aid, I'm fine with that. But if we're being real here, this is pretty damn disturbing.

      Not the kind of effort I would expect against the second worst team on our schedule in a "tune up" game. I hope these guys are as good as they think they are and will now just flip a switch, because it sure doesn't seem like they're working toward it on at least 20% of the 30 times a year they play.

      PLAYER OF THE GAME: TERRAN PETTEWAY

    OFFENSE: D+

    I really wasn't happy with most anything from tonight, so I apologize in advance if my feathers are a little ruffled!

    Offensively, Nebraska came out taking stupid, quick shots and when it wasn't doing that, it was turning the ball over.

    The Huskers clanked more free throws than me at the gym (22-34) and continue to leave Shavon Shields' face on milk cartons with how they forget about him halves (and sometimes games) at a time. In this particular contest, you almost forgot Shields was there until the first two possession of the second half. For awhile, I chalked this up to a young team and a young man (Shields) who needs to do a better job of asserting himself. But I'm starting to wonder if some of this comes back to my hero (Coach Miles), too. This is one of the biggest problems with this team right now - the lack of consistent Shields in the NU offense.

    Thanks to a fairly nice second half (when NU shot a sizzling 63%), the Big Red were able to finish 52% from the field for the night while scoring a respectable 77 against their Southern Conference opponent. Still, don't be fooled - this was not pretty.

    DEFENSE: C-

    I will start by saying that The Citadel got 18 points off of turnovers (though Nebraska, shockingly, got 22). That keeps this grade from being lower.

    With that said, it's still a sad state of affairs that NU let The Citadel connect on 50% of its shots in the first half and for the night, score 62. The Huskers had no answer for Ashton Moore, who put in a team high 21 points.

    REBOUNDING: F

    Nebraska got out rebounded by The Citadel (34 to 30).

    Repeating, Nebraska got out rebounded by The Citadel.

    While Leslee Smith needed to put some stick 'um on his hands to cut down the turnovers, he did finish with a quiet double double (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Shields grabbed 6 boards.

    Pitchford continued his Santa Claus down the chimney like quietness on the boards, pulling down just two in just 12 minutes.

    BALL HANDLING: F

    This was perhaps the most maddening facet of the game.

    First of all, the various zone defenses and looks gave Nebraska fits as it tried to set up its offense.

    Second of all, The Citadel put very little pressure on the Huskers, who turned the ball over NINE times in the first half (just four in the second; 13 total).

    Third, Tai Webster (3 turnovers) and Deverell Biggs (2 turnovers) continue to concern me, especially considering both seemingly had double that amount tonight. I think both have tremendous upside (most notably Webster) but we're getting to the meat of the schedule and its time to start seeing some progress. In the case of Webster, it's almost like he's gone downhill since the FCGU and Georgia games, where he looked the part. Mentally, I think he's really struggling, from turning his back on Coach Miles at halftime of Creighton, to not taking a wide open layup tonight (instead throwing it out to the corner) to getting overly frustrated with turnovers, to missing free throws. He will be fine; I hope Miles continues sticking with him in the lineup. But that still does concern me a bit, that we haven't seen hardly any progress from him since the Charleston Classic (correct me if I'm wrong on that; that's just my opinion).

    COACHING: F

    Tim, I love you to death. You're my boy, blue.

    But that was a completely garbage effort tonight. The first half was EMBARASSING. We're talking Barry Collier losing to Alaska Fairbanks embarrassing. We're talking Collier losing to UMKC embarrassing; we're talking Nee to Western Carolina embarrassing.

    Nebraska should have TRAILED at the half. It didn't even enjoy a 5 point lead until the game was 3/4 over!!!

    I listen to most every Miles press conference/post game, and his players adopted his outlook of this game, plain and simple. And that outlook was, NU would show up and win, because it was much better. It didn't even have to gameplan much. It could look ahead. Miles has even all but said as much, that he allows his players (in a way) to look ahead.

    As a player, that must be an awesome thing. As a fan it is, too. I don't want Coach to ever be less honest and not shoot straight, telling us how it is. Obviously if he did hide more, I wouldn't have been fairly certain this was his view, so I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth.

    But Coach, this team is nowhere near ready for that attitude. I get that it makes them like you more. I get that its relatable. Hell, I get that its common sense, because every single person is doing that (myself included).

    But this is too many times now that this team has come out flat, especially at home, to just "chalk up" to inexperience and laugh off. I was greatly, greatly concerned about this game and the effort. The first half was BRUTAL. That has been a common theme at home this year against several opponents. That comes back to coaching/motivation/focus.

    There's no excuses; this was NOT a true 15 point win. The team played like garbage against a garbage opponent and was lucky Eddie Hightower's crew blew the whistle as it did.

    2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS:

    TERRAN PETTEWAY - 5

    TAI WEBSTER - 2

    WALTER PITCHFORD - 2

    LESLEE SMITH - 1

    SHAVON SHIELDS - 1




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    Plus, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but Walter was definitely not 100% yesterday. He spent much of the 2nd half on the bike, and that may be part of the reason he only got 12 minutes

     

    Good eye

     

    Yeah, I noticed that to.  Has anyone heard anymore details regarding Pitchford?  I'm assuming he just pulled a muscle.  Hopefully whatever it is it is something minor.  We need his shooting and rebounding.

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    Noah was back.  Despite a lackluster perfromance by our Huskers, Noah brought it consistently throughout the game.  He has refined some of his dance moves, and worked them into his routines flawlessly.  A solid "A" on the Noah Report Card.  

     

    I was only featured on HuskerVision once, however.  I would think that the crew should know which songs are my signatures: "Fire", "Heartbreaker," "KC Medley," or "Offspring Medley."

     

    There's also not a lot of room there to dance in the new arena  :P

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    Plus, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but Walter was definitely not 100% yesterday. He spent much of the 2nd half on the bike, and that may be part of the reason he only got 12 minutes

    Good eye

    Yeah, I noticed that to. Has anyone heard anymore details regarding Pitchford? I'm assuming he just pulled a muscle. Hopefully whatever it is it is something minor. We need his shooting and rebounding.

    Definitely need him. Pitchford had made great strides in interior aggressiveness and rebounding the last few games. Was this apparent injury/gimpiness evident the entire game or did it happen during the contest? There's was one play in the 2nd half where Pitchord thought he had a monster jam going down the right baseline. Then I think he realized a defender was there and had to awkwardly dip under and almost came up short on the dunk attempt. Maybe when it happened?

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    I thinking that for us part of the issue as fans is coming off of 6 years of a coach that couldn't be more different than this one is. I keep catching myself watching NU through the lens of Sadler--looking for discipline, ferocious defense, a sense that no game can be taken for granted from a team that knew it wasn't good enough for swagger. In short, a more humble crew.

     

    It's as if for the first time in years, we have to return to the Nee days--a coach far more similar to Miles--where the tradeoff of getting better athletes is that you lose some of the blue collar charm of a lesser talented team that knows it has to bust its ass to win against anyone.

     

    Maybe I'm alone in that thought, and that's cool. But I'm finding it hard to like this team at all; not because they're bad kids, but because their approach to playing the game is so different than what I've been conditioned to and also the way they're coached is so different than what I was used to.

    I agree that this coaching style is almost opposite of Doc's.  I think we all agree the we are not going to find many coaches that coached defense, disipline, and unselfish play, better than Doc.  IMO, at times, Doc did all that to a fault by being too strict on offense.  My concern is that in Miles' first 2 years, I am not seeing a huge jump in talent.  Transfers are great, but there is a reason they transferred.  And as I have stated before, selfish play in games is a result of Coach Miles allowing it in practice.  I agree that Shields is being left out at times during games.  Is that a result of someone being selfish?

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    This team may have bigger problems than I thought.  We ended up having to use our main rotation throughout this game.  Was our bench there?  Honestly would have liked to see some of those guys to hopefully get the starters focused.

     

    Miles will have a task of not losing the team this season.  A loss @Cincinnati and then they're looking at starting 0-5 in conference before playing on the road @Penn State.  A real possibility considering the team is softer inside than last year.  Would have liked Miles to utilize more size in the non-conference (e.g. Vooch and Kurkowski) to at least see if they can keep Pitchford out of foul trouble during conference play.

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    I thinking that for us part of the issue as fans is coming off of 6 years of a coach that couldn't be more different than this one is. I keep catching myself watching NU through the lens of Sadler--looking for discipline, ferocious defense, a sense that no game can be taken for granted from a team that knew it wasn't good enough for swagger. In short, a more humble crew.

    It's as if for the first time in years, we have to return to the Nee days--a coach far more similar to Miles--where the tradeoff of getting better athletes is that you lose some of the blue collar charm of a lesser talented team that knows it has to bust its ass to win against anyone.

    Maybe I'm alone in that thought, and that's cool. But I'm finding it hard to like this team at all; not because they're bad kids, but because their approach to playing the game is so different than what I've been conditioned to and also the way they're coached is so different than what I was used to.

    I agree that this coaching style is almost opposite of Doc's. I think we all agree the we are not going to find many coaches that coached defense, disipline, and unselfish play, better than Doc. IMO, at times, Doc did all that to a fault by being too strict on offense. My concern is that in Miles' first 2 years, I am not seeing a huge jump in talent. Transfers are great, but there is a reason they transferred. And as I have stated before, selfish play in games is a result of Coach Miles allowing it in practice. I agree that Shields is being left out at times during games. Is that a result of someone being selfish?
    I'm of the camp that this Shields being left out thing is a little overplayed right now. Could he be given more opportunities? Sure. But at least some of it stems from the way Shields plays. Extremely smart player, doesn't force it, let's the game come to him, etc. And numbers don't tell the whole story. This last game, for example, Shields only has 6 shot attempts, Petteway with 18. Shields is not the aggressive slasher Petteway is. He's more apt to pass rather than take his man and get to the rim if it's not there. Could Miles draw up more things for Shields specifically? Probably. In the Miami game I watched Shields go at the rim 4 or 6 times in the first half of that game alone and all of them were either blocked or altered and missed. It was almost like someone told him to be more agressive in that game, and he was when he shouldn't have been. Then this last game I noticed Shavon had isolation on his man out on the wing/corner with no defender under the rim, and he got bottled up and was forced to pass. So I guess we want Shields to get more involved but do we really want a 2nd agressor forcing it to the rim when we already have one of those in Petteway? Or do we want to just let Shields do his thing, waiting for things to come to him with the expectation that it's not always going to be there? Again, I'm not saying that we don't want shields more involved but this is some adjustment for us having multiple options, trying to figure out what each can do and when they should do it.

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    Plus, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but Walter was definitely not 100% yesterday. He spent much of the 2nd half on the bike, and that may be part of the reason he only got 12 minutes

     

    Good eye

     

    Yeah, I noticed that to.  Has anyone heard anymore details regarding Pitchford?  I'm assuming he just pulled a muscle.  Hopefully whatever it is it is something minor.  We need his shooting and rebounding.

     

    IIRC, Miles said in his radio post-game interview that he sat Pitch for too many defensive mistakes.  Didn't allude to injury as being why. Take that fwiw.

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