Nebraska postgame chatter: vol 16; ed 2 - Florida A & M

4 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

I get that, but last night, Matar was screening like the guy at the bar trying to hold his mouthy friend back from getting his ass kicked.

 

No, Matar, this isn't football and you're not an offensive lineman. You can't just push a defender out of the way when you're setting a screen.

Also didn't have his feet set, and didn't have those unset feet narrow enough - all things that won't be called in February. 

23 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

Also didn't have his feet set, and didn't have those unset feet narrow enough - all things that won't be called in February. 

With our depth I would of preferred to redshirt Diop.  He needs a year to develop but I realize players don't do that much anymore..

5 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

Box Score

 

I presume that you meant to post the Florida A&M boxscore, @hhcmatt.

9 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

As fun as the first game was to watch, this one was frustrating.

 

Sloppy, sloppy passes; too many guys failing to communicate, getting lost on defense, and leaving shooters wide open; certain guys getting caught up in trying to create their own shots off the dribble rather than running the offense.

 

I've started calling it "running our sh!t." We're better when we do it; we're a lot worse when we don't. And even an unsophisticated consumer can see when it breaks down and a guy starts to freelance. Problem is the "getting mine" attitude rubs off. After watching one guy do it last night, then another more veteran player started doing it. Run the damn offense, guys. There's plenty of season left for you to get yours. You don't have to get all your touches in one night.

 

It's not as bad, yet, as the Alonzo Verge-Bryce McGowens show. But, then again, I trust the assistant coaches this year a lot more than the staff two years ago to get this corrected.

 

It'd also be nice if we stopped jacking around during warmups and started approaching things with a little more businesslike attitude the moment they hit the floor. And that might be a symptom of a lack of discipline that carries over into their approach to the game itself that we kind of saw a bit of last night.

 

Have a couple of games to get this right before we face a P5 foe in Sioux Falls.

 

Good news is I do believe we're 2-0 against the spread, but hopefully someone else more knowledgeable in that area can confirm.

So I’ve watched it twice and agree with the sloppy passing / turnover and poor defense for sure. What never stood out to me was guys playing hero ball. I mean it happens to every team every game at least a few times. Who did you see doing that? I know Fred wants Brice posting up so I’m not counting that. Just curious, maybe I missed a few.

Wasn't pretty on offense for most of the night, but they still win by 20+. Good game to go back and watch tape on

-brice and Lawrence are trying to find their niche right now offensively. Balancing being aggressive while making the right play on passes. Lawrence in particular has struggled quite a bit. 

-more turnovers than assists is bad, no matter the opponent. Lots of balls went sailing out of bounds. That might mean guys don't have the chemistry with each other yet? Lawrence and boogie have to take better care of the rock though. 

-i said it Monday and I'll say it again. I love allick and mast as a front court pairing. Both can play together and can play alone with a wing at the 4. Gary coming back will be interesting, because I don't know if he fills in for allick or if he comes off the bench. Good problem to have imo 

-offense is still missing the most important piece to the puzzle in keisei, so I'm interested in how the offense looks with him. I have to think it alleviates  pressure from Brice and Lawrence.

-rice scored quite a bit and I can see the microwave ability he has. Also had some bad defensive rotations and drove into a crowd a few times. Talent is there clearly though, but he'll need to hone it in at times

First real test is next Saturday vs Oregon State. Get through the next two games in convincing fashion and get to that one

3 hours ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

 

I presume that you meant to post the Florida A&M boxscore, @hhcmatt.

 

Thanks, should be good now

10 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Thanks, should be good now

No problem. The scores were nearly identical.

13 hours ago, thrasher31 said:

First real test is next Saturday vs Oregon State. Get through the next two games in convincing fashion and get to that one

Oregon St survived Troy at home in double OT. I think we blow their doors off in what will be a home game for us in South Dakota and our first real test is against a Duquesne team that looks quite good.

16 hours ago, ConkintheCorner said:

 

With our depth I would have preferred to redshirt Diop.  He needs a year to develop but I realize players don't do that much anymore..

Agreed. He must have not wanted to.

9 hours ago, basketballjones said:

Agreed. He must have not wanted to.

I’m glad he is not. Think any minutes he will get benefits more than a redshirt year. Plus with the injuries and I’m sure there will be some games with foul problems we will probably need him. I’m also not looking down the road, let’s win now.

56 minutes ago, Art Vandalay said:

I’m glad he is not. Think any minutes he will get benefits more than a redshirt year. Plus with the injuries and I’m sure there will be some games with foul problems we will probably need him. I’m also not looking down the road, let’s win now.

He’s getting like…. 6min a game against the worst teams in the nation, and once Gary is back it’s gonna drop to essentially nothing meaningful. 

1 hour ago, basketballjones said:

He’s getting like…. 6min a game against the worst teams in the nation, and once Gary is back it’s gonna drop to essentially nothing meaningful. 

Matar is going to be a project and yes, a redshirt year would have helped him and the team in the future.

It will be interesting to see if he can help later this season.  I guess it depends on his retention and performance.

Not only Gary is coming back; but we may eventually get Blaise back as well.  So...he either keeps improving or he will be doing a lot more sitting than playing.  He is one athletic dude; yet we all know pure athleticism is different than basketball athleticism. 

Back to Blaise, Matar and Gary.  We seem to have really performed well in the five-out offense that Fred runs.  I believe Gary fits well.  Blaise and Diop have to prove they can perform in it as  well.  Matar's four fouls in five minutes [struggling setting legal screens] gives me pause...

1 hour ago, basketballjones said:

He’s getting like…. 6min a game against the worst teams in the nation, and once Gary is back it’s gonna drop to essentially nothing meaningful. 

Still fine with me, game minutes mean more. I don’t think Blaise is going to contribute so I am happy he will be available if needed. Whatever it takes t win this year.

I don’t see why you’d redshirt anyone who can give you any meaningful minutes. Players have more freedom to leave than ever. Using redshirts for development is basically doing work someone else will reap the benefits of.

19 hours ago, Vinny said:

I don’t see why you’d redshirt anyone who can give you any meaningful minutes. Players have more freedom to leave than ever. Using redshirts for development is basically doing work someone else will reap the benefits of.

Very true.

To be honest, you could probably even go even further with this and say, “not sure why you’d redshirt anyone.” Unless of course they came in wanting to or injury. Other than that there’s absolutely zero guarantee they stick around. 

Redshirt, shmedshirt. I'm back to my suggestion that we should basically just give everyone 5 years to play.

You want parity? There's basically no better equalizer than to allow North Dakota State a bunch of 5th year seniors who will never play in the NBA to go up against Kentucky's freshman first-round NBA draft picks.

On 11/11/2023 at 8:22 PM, Vinny said:

I don’t see why you’d redshirt anyone who can give you any meaningful minutes. Players have more freedom to leave than ever. Using redshirts for development is basically doing work someone else will reap the benefits of.

I guess I'm wondering what qualifies as "meaningful." Why you would redshirt someone depends entirely on the player in question, his relationship with the coaches and the state of the roster/program. There is still value to a redshirt if everyone is on the same page and you have a good plan, and doing what's best for the player is still part of being a good college coach in my mind. Creighton has redshirted scholarship players three years in a row. Mason Miller is now starting and Jasen Green was competing for minutes before getting hurt. They have two scholarship freshmen redshirting now who were late adds taken as developmental prospects to fill the last couple of schollies. Their other freshman in Dotzler was on track to redshirt before making strides over the past few weeks, though it appears he's the 9th man and they may only go 8-deep in competitive games early.

45 minutes ago, Jacob Padilla said:

 

I guess I'm wondering what qualifies as "meaningful." Why you would redshirt someone depends entirely on the player in question, his relationship with the coaches and the state of the roster/program. There is still value to a redshirt if everyone is on the same page and you have a good plan, and doing what's best for the player is still part of being a good college coach in my mind. Creighton has redshirted scholarship players three years in a row. Mason Miller is now starting and Jasen Green was competing for minutes before getting hurt. They have two scholarship freshmen redshirting now who were late adds taken as developmental prospects to fill the last couple of schollies. Their other freshman in Dotzler was on track to redshirt before making strides over the past few weeks, though it appears he's the 9th man and they may only go 8-deep in competitive games early.

I don't know enough about Creighton's roster over the last few years to know why those players redshirted, who was in front of them, what injuries they were working through, if they needed time in the weight room etc. I pay attention to that program for about two or three days a year, like most of our opponents. My guess would be McDermott determined they wouldn't be in a position to help the team win at that time. 

Which is what I would call meaningful minutes.  Minutes when the outcome is yet to be determined.  If a player brings something to the table to help you win, you have to play them.  For the Huskers this year, I'm thinking the most about Matar. If Blaise isn't going to get right and be able to play, meaningful minutes will be there for Matar.  If the coaches think him getting minutes at the 4/5 when we're in foul trouble is better than say, sticking Brice down there, I don't think you should redshirt him.  I'm of the opinion that you can learn how to set a screen in practice and still play in the games.  

Wonder if it's easier or harder to keep 'em on the plantation after a redshirt year.  Not sure.

3 hours ago, Vinny said:

I don't know enough about Creighton's roster over the last few years to know why those players redshirted, who was in front of them, what injuries they were working through, if they needed time in the weight room etc. I pay attention to that program for about two or three days a year, like most of our opponents. My guess would be McDermott determined they wouldn't be in a position to help the team win at that time. 

 

Which is what I would call meaningful minutes.  Minutes when the outcome is yet to be determined.  If a player brings something to the table to help you win, you have to play them.  For the Huskers this year, I'm thinking the most about Matar. If Blaise isn't going to get right and be able to play, meaningful minutes will be there for Matar.  If the coaches think him getting minutes at the 4/5 when we're in foul trouble is better than say, sticking Brice down there, I don't think you should redshirt him.  I'm of the opinion that you can learn how to set a screen in practice and still play in the games.  

It's been a mix of strength and conditioning, skill level and veteran guys ahead of them that have led to the determination that they'd get more out of redshirting. 

Since Diop is the one who started this discussion, if the Florida A&M game is what it's going to look like for him (not playing until the very end and struggling in those minutes), then I think there's an argument to be made he would be better served redshirting. If they think he'll progress enough to give them actual rotation minutes, then you play him. My response was more to the second half of your original statement because it's in line with a common thought I've seen here that redshirting is a thing of the past and you shouldn't do it anymore. That I disagree with.