Postgame chatter: Vol: 10; ed: 4 - North Dakota

Will get this started

WWW (3)

L (1)

Look at that. We have more Ws than Ls on the season. I like Ws. Let's keep getting them. Improve along the way. Learning how to play while accruing Ws is more fun than learning from a loss. Let's get Ws.

Better

Nice to see shots fall and the team seemed to play together.  A step forward.

@uneblinstu won't be available until later

- Tried to feed Jordy in the post early. Not very effective right now but kudos to the staff for keeping after it in a game where you could leave some possessions on the floor

- The Issac Copeland show tonight punctuated by his first 3s of the year. He's one of those guys that all of a sudden has a bunch of points. Was aggressive ont the boards early on

- Evan Taylor was all over Crandall in the first half, basically shutting him down. The rest of the team helped out as well in a pretty good showing of taking away a team's best player. Taylor led the team in assists with 5.

- Watson had a fairly chill day. He seems to be a magnet at times for random fouls. Even then he still put in 13 points and was one of 4 Huskers in double digits

- Palmer the same deal...where is the guy who blew up in the preseason?

- Anton Gill has a career high 16 points including a 4-5 showing from downtown. Can he put up a few more showing like this or will this be just one of those good days?

- Roby once again filling up the stat sheet with points, blocks, rebounds, assists. He's still hesitant with that shot, especially from 3. What happens when he really becomes confident?

- McVeigh still MIA.

- Team shot 40% from 3 and 52.9% overall. We needed that.

On to Orlando

View full article

A few observations:

- I'm not sure what I expected, but I saw a team come out focused and with a short memory.  We all know that last game was a fiasco, but it was good that we came out and played with a purpose.

- No sure how good North Dakota is.  They had a few good players, but I guess the season will need to play out to see where they end up.

- Glynn once again struggle with his shot.  But he seemed to make up for it with the other elements of his game.

- Evan looked like he enjoyed the challenge of guarding their stud.  Generally speaking Evan shut him down.  I repeat, he is an exceptional glue player.

- James appears to be pressing a bit.  Missed some shots at the rim again...we really need him to finish.

- Thomas didn't play, I am assuming we are resting his hip???

- Anton had a break out game.  Nice to see.  As good as he did, I cannot believe he missed the chip in lay up.  Otherwise, A..G. stepped up.  Looks like he is healed.

- Jordy, Jordy, Jordy.  I HOPE he is still in recovery mode.  Nuf said.

- Duby had some nice action today.  I thought he was pretty active and played very good help defense.  Any offense out of Duby is a blessing, but hey, the ally opp was cool.

- Isaiah looked a lot looser today.  Nice to see.  He continues to show improvement.  The kid is going to be a good one.  I may add, he is selfless to a fault.

- Jack looked lost in the first half, but played better in the second half.  If he can remain engaged, he is going to be a big help in certain games.

- Isaac was a stud today.  Flat out stud.  He met expectations today.  He was aggressive and man, when that shot is falling, it is a beautiful site.

I know this was not a high quality opponent, but this is a game we should win and we did win and it was never in doubt.  Copeland was easily the player of the game and our overall grade would fall in the low B range.

Copeland looked like the player we thought he'd be.

Gill looked like the player we thought he'd be last year.

Roby continuing to show his upside.

We dictated the pace of the game today and played to our strengths more.   Hence we played better.   Still turn it over a bit too much and have some leaky defense at times, but we showed our potential today.

Downside was some of our personnel decisions.  This isn't meant to be derogatory, but I think it is clear that playing faster and moving makes this team better than trying to play a halfcourt game.   Thus...there are a few guys that just dont fit.  IMO, again, not meant to be derogatory, the Tanner Borchardt experiment is over.  Great story.  Good on him for his effort...but he's just limited.  Yes...he only played 2-3 minutes in the first half, but those were 2-3 minutes that we could've expanded the lead with and used our main guys.   Same with McVeigh.   He just doesn't offer anything when he's not making his shots...and it's a total crapshoot when he does.  Jordy is   my 9th guy.  He plays when there is foul trouble and situationally against big big 10 lineups.

Focus on the top group of 8 players.  Play to their athleticsm.  Play your best players together and for extended minutes, which is always something we've seemed to avoid in the past in some fashion.  Especially since you have more than just a top 5 now.  Stop giving guys token minutes when its not necessary.   Get that top group of 8 as cohesive as we can.  

Now it gets fun.  Absolutely brutal 3-4 week stretch here.   Need to go 3-1 in the next 4, at the worst, with our early December schedule as nasty as it is.

Didn't manage to make the game, night owl I am

Question: did we fix that flat-arc 3 point shooting? Was that copeland? Nice to see some positives from most of the team; every guy has their strengths. Especially with all of the depressing negatives so far.

Side note: why are there 3 post game chatter threads? A bit overexcited, are we?

If it wasn’t for the damn scrubs going 0-4 in 2min, we would have shot almost 45%

Something I saw that was very enjoyable to me, was that we barely ran any of the Lithuanian continuity crap. Really did go a lot of what I’m going to refer as “Roles Oriented Motion.” 

Miles and Co. also ran some really nice sets to start possessions today. Creative stuff that the guys executed fairly well. Couldn’t see that against St. John’s because we played so soft and got knocked off every spot. 

I also thought our ATOs, BOBs, and SOBs were pretty good today. Not sure what our success percentage was but it looked good.

38 minutes ago, huskercwg said:

A few observations:

- I'm not sure what I expected, but I saw a team come out focused and with a short memory.  We all know that last game was a fiasco, but it was good that we came out and played with a purpose.

- No sure how good North Dakota is.  They had a few good players, but I guess the season will need to play out to see where they end up.

- Glynn once again struggle with his shot.  But he seemed to make up for it with the other elements of his game.

- Evan looked like he enjoyed the challenge of guarding their stud.  Generally speaking Evan shut him down.  I repeat, he is an exceptional glue player.

- James appears to be pressing a bit.  Missed some shots at the rim again...we really need him to finish.

- Thomas didn't play, I am assuming we are resting his hip???

- Anton had a break out game.  Nice to see.  As good as he did, I cannot believe he missed the chip in lay up.  Otherwise, A..G. stepped up.  Looks like he is healed.

- Jordy, Jordy, Jordy.  I HOPE he is still in recovery mode.  Nuf said.

- Duby had some nice action today.  I thought he was pretty active and played very good help defense.  Any offense out of Duby is a blessing, but hey, the ally opp was cool.

- Isaiah looked a lot looser today.  Nice to see.  He continues to show improvement.  The kid is going to be a good one.  I may add, he is selfless to a fault.

- Jack looked lost in the first half, but played better in the second half.  If he can remain engaged, he is going to be a big help in certain games.

- Isaac was a stud today.  Flat out stud.  He met expectations today.  He was aggressive and man, when that shot is falling, it is a beautiful site.

 

I know this was not a high quality opponent, but this is a game we should win and we did win and it was never in doubt.  Copeland was easily the player of the game and our overall grade would fall in the low B range.

Could not agree more with you and glad you pointed that out.  Watch Roby when he's on the court as he's the one running around screening for everyone to get them open.

Like the "short memory" observation - perfect description and exactly what we needed today. N Dak is just scrappy enough and runs just a weird enough offense that if we came out in a funk, still thinking about Thursday, that's probably a 40-min battle.

Felt so good for Copeland and Gill - with all the things they've gone through with injury, transfer, etc, that had to feel great for them, a big relief. 

Allen was not available today, Coach said pre-game he probably shouldn't have played Thursday either as he recovers from the hard fall he had Monday. I'd expect he'll be ready to go in Orlando.

Copeland looked like a man out there, I will take 12-14 from the field every day, awesome job.

Valid point on the rotation as me and my son discussed that as well during the game.  Miles needs to shore up the rotation and get it down to 8 or 9 players.  I'd play Duby over Jordy right now but obviously our best line-up is Roby replacing Jordy in the starting rotation.  Make that move and it's a pretty solid starting line-up.

Based on my naked humble eye, it appears our rotation sort of looks like this:

PG  Glynn, Evan, Anton

SG  Evan, Thomas, Anton

W   James, Anton, Jack, Isaiah

PF  Isaac, Isaiah, Jack

C   Jordy, Duby, Isaiah.

Sort of on the outside looking in:  Tanner, Nana, Thor.

Concern is certainly with Jordy.  Man, his moves are lethargic, he only goes to his left, he is not strong to the rim and he is not finishing...at all.  I am hoping he is still recovering and he is going to soon "find it" again.  Perhaps it is a byproduct of poor match ups.  I don't know the answers, but sheesh, I am hoping he hasn't digressed.

This was a great way to respond after that last game. Hopefully a game like this will give them some confidence and get the ball rolling.  This team is very talented, probably the most talented since those late 90’s Danny Nee teams.   We’ll find out a lot more about this team in the upcoming tournament. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can somehow go at least 2-1.

Didn't manage to make the game, night owl I am
Question: did we fix that flat-arc 3 point shooting? Was that copeland? Nice to see some positives from most of the team; every guy has their strengths. Especially with all of the depressing negatives so far.
 
Side note: why are there 3 post game chatter threads? A bit overexcited, are we?

Glynn seems to be shooter the ball with less arc than I remember last year. That always makes it harder.

The students are teetering in dangerous territory - not filling up the sideline for a Sunday afternoon game is disappointing. They've done a nice job fulfilling their end of the deal ever since PBA opened. Seems like enthusiasm is running dry (and with our results the last few years, it is hard to blame them).

1 hour ago, nustudent said:

Copeland looked like the player we thought he'd be.

Gill looked like the player we thought he'd be last year.

Roby continuing to show his upside.

 

We dictated the pace of the game today and played to our strengths more.   Hence we played better.   Still turn it over a bit too much and have some leaky defense at times, but we showed our potential today.

 

Downside was some of our personnel decisions.  This isn't meant to be derogatory, but I think it is clear that playing faster and moving makes this team better than trying to play a halfcourt game.   Thus...there are a few guys that just dont fit.  IMO, again, not meant to be derogatory, the Tanner Borchardt experiment is over.  Great story.  Good on him for his effort...but he's just limited.  Yes...he only played 2-3 minutes in the first half, but those were 2-3 minutes that we could've expanded the lead with and used our main guys.   Same with McVeigh.   He just doesn't offer anything when he's not making his shots...and it's a total crapshoot when he does.  Jordy is   my 9th guy.  He plays when there is foul trouble and situationally against big big 10 lineups.

Focus on the top group of 8 players.  Play to their athleticsm.  Play your best players together and for extended minutes, which is always something we've seemed to avoid in the past in some fashion.  Especially since you have more than just a top 5 now.  Stop giving guys token minutes when its not necessary.   Get that top group of 8 as cohesive as we can.  

 

Now it gets fun.  Absolutely brutal 3-4 week stretch here.   Need to go 3-1 in the next 4, at the worst, with our early December schedule as nasty as it is.

Can't disagree with much, especially McVeigh. He needs to learn to maximise his minutes.

I'll be really disappointed if Tanner continues to get minutes in meaningful games.

I slightly disagree with you about Jordy. He has the one thing you can't coach and that is size. He is still a bit raw and it shows. He needs to have a few of those easy buckets to fall for him along with being more aggressive on the boards. He has a lot upside. Who are you going to give those minutes to? Can't give them Roby as he has settled in at the 4 spot. Okeke isn't ready for that kind of a load.

Below is how I see the rotation shaking out:

Jordy/Okeke/Roby

Copeland/Roby

Palmer/Gill/Copeland/McVeigh

Taylor/Gill/*Allen 

Watson/Taylor

*I think you have to find minutes for Allen. He's to much of a talent to leave on the bench.

Copeland is our best back to the basket post player. He HAS to be successful inside for this team to be successful. His success started at the basket and then he moved out on the floor, first hitting mid-range jump shots and then threes. Confidence make everyone a better shooter.

Our best lineup is with Roby out there.  However, I am not in the camp that he should start just to start.  I think he provides something off the bench that we need.  Others have said before, and I agree, I don’t think it matters who starts.  It’s who’s in during crunch time that batters most.

While Roby is part of our best lineup, I don’t think he’s our best player (yet).  So we have the luxury of bringing in him off the bench to provide a spark, hustle, team play, and a different look.

North Dakota wasn’t great by any means, but it does irk me a little to see people degrade teams that we beat just because we are beating them.  I think that two of the three Mid Majors we have played are decent teams.  North Dakota had a guy averaging 25+PPG for crying out loud.

Speaking of, KUDOS to Evan Taylor.  Big effort on D.

Big team effort today.  Big game for boys.  All around the best game we have played all year.  Should give us some Mojo going into Orlando.

Im not all rainbows, so a few negatives starting with Jordy.  He is just mightily struggling.  However I agree with the poster who said that we need to keep playing him.  Especially in games like today.

Came out to start second half sluggish.  Got to find a way to start hot both halves.

Bring on UCF!  Big opportunity this weekend.  No team in the field we can’t beat or play with.  

41 minutes ago, Dean Smith said:

Copeland is our best back to the basket post player. He HAS to be successful inside for this team to be successful. His success started at the basket and then he moved out on the floor, first hitting mid-range jump shots and then threes. Confidence make everyone a better shooter.

Some of the great things about having Isaiah and Isaac on the floor at the same time:  both are excellent defenders (although they may struggle against classic centers) and they are interchangeable on both the offensive and defensive end.  Both can play on the perimeter, both can close out on shooters, both can play back to the basket, both have good post games and both have a good mid-range game.  Both can shoot free throws, both can get to the line and both can rebound, and oh yes, both can block or alter shots.  Both can also shoot the three, but we will see the quality of their "3" game as we move through the season.

One of my sons mentions over and over...Roby will be the Big Ten sixth man of the year.