The Haymarket Hardwood Nebraska postgame chatter: vol 16; ed 3 - Rider

This team still has a similar issue to last year where they need a player that can beat their man 1 on 1. Poor shooting probably made it look worse than it actually is, but they look like they still need another playmaker. 

Saw the train wreck in person, it wasn't pretty but kudos to our defense. And from what Fred said post-game, rider is one of those experienced elite mid majors who will probably win their conf and be in the tourney.

Hope to see us shoot better, the arena was dead but that's expected early year. Hard to cheer for that basketball - - ugly ugly. but I love the defense and I hope ppl learn to appreciate good basketball, good defense.

Defensive play was outstanding, and the fact that we turned it up even more over the final 10 minutes was really impressive. To play that well without fouling against a team that wanted it to be a very physical game was impressive on our end.

And our potentially best rebounder still isn't playing - hopefully Gary can cut down on some of those 2nd chances when he comes back, which will crank up the defensive results even more. 

Offense? Woof. Things will get better the more Keisei gets going and gets healthy - I hope. Still have guys trying to figure out their roles.

I was impressed with Rider. Can see why they're favored in their conference. 

Ultimately, a game we almost certainly lose during Hoiberg's first few years. Instead, it's nice to get a double-digit win on a night where the offense was not firing. 

Williams—does anyone else seem like he’s kind of disinterested out there..  just not much emotion from him. Acts like his dog just died. Lighten up and have some fun out there.  

Wilcher was huge tonight!  He carried us that 1st half. Hopefully he can be a nice spark for us off the bench

mast has really impressed me as well. Just with his ability to rebound. keep battling in there!

Was there in person. This is exactly the game that caused Hoiberg to never previously go 3-0 as our head coach until this year. Wilcher had a nice game, on offense we totally over penetrated and got into trouble against their bigs. Tominaga was rusty and didn’t look 100%. But still, good to have him back. 3-0 is much better than Maryland right now 

32 minutes ago, ConkintheCorner said:

Williams—does anyone else seem like he’s kind of disinterested out there..  just not much emotion from him. Acts like his dog just died. Lighten up and have some fun out there.  

 

Wilcher was huge tonight!  He carried us that 1st half. Hopefully he can be a nice spark for us off the bench

mast has really impressed me as well. Just with his ability to rebound. keep battling in there!

just don’t think williams is a very emotional guy 

With top 25 teams around the country losing to low/mid major  teams and our own conference looking poor, it's nice to get a win like this. Hopefully we can take care of business and come out of this non conference with 1 loss. Our decision making needs to get better and our shooting HAS to get better, right? On the positive side we pretty much dominated a team on the boards that outrebounded marquette if i remember right

First game I’ve had a chance to watch - can’t say I was impressed by much but we got the win. Careless with the ball inside - dribbling in a clogged lane, pivoting into defenders and losing the ball, etc. Hope that gets cleaned up.

9 hours ago, ConkintheCorner said:

Williams—does anyone else seem like he’s kind of disinterested out there..  just not much emotion from him. Acts like his dog just died. Lighten up and have some fun out there.  

 

Wilcher was huge tonight!  He carried us that 1st half. Hopefully he can be a nice spark for us off the bench

mast has really impressed me as well. Just with his ability to rebound. keep battling in there!

I can't figure Williams out either. I don't think he's lazy. But he sure looks like it at times on both ends of the court. Sometimes he'll wait for a loose ball to bounce to him instead of going to get it. Other times he'll be fighting and scrapping for a rebound. He's just not locked in all the time. Maybe that's why he was voluntold to come off the bench at Charlotte. 

Not being locked in is why Eli now has an uphill battle to get a significant minutes. Too many missed blockouts and assignments on defense. 

Sam didn't play within himself at times in this game. Fred has been talking about instilling confidence in Sam and trying to get him to hunt some shots. However, I think he played with the right amount of confidence last year. 

Lawrence played a good game, I thought. Won't show up in the box score. The pace of play is so much better with him on the court. So much better. He's willing to make the simple play and the ball doesn't stick with him. He'll continue to figure things out in his new role. I don't like when he's off the court for an extended amount of time like these past two games. The offense really gets stagnant. His 22mpg will bump up significantly as the year goes on. He had the highest +/- on the team last night (+18). Boogie had the only negative +/- on the team (-4). 

Outside of the missed open looks I thought Keisei looked sharp and in good shape. He'll be just fine. 

Mast is legit and the only one who's consistently strong with the ball right now. Everyone else fumbles it too much. 

We need to finish in the lane. Even if there's a little contact. No excuses there. 

I'm wondering about Gary in the first group with Allick coming off the bench. Right now there are 4 players on the team who are adept at moving without the ball - Lawrence, CJ, Keisei and Gary. It'd be nice to have two of them playing off the ball in that starting lineup. Gary gives you a bit more defensive versatility and offensive spacing also. 

The competition will continue to get better. Hopefully we will too. 

This is the first team to hold their first 3 opponents under 55 points since the Mighty Mites of 2008-09

At pains of using a football analogy, I thought this game had Maryland vibes. Defense played well for the most part but couldn't deliver a knockout punch.

Offense was just out of sync. All three QBs fumbled or threw picks. We had just enough gas in the tank to finish these guys off, but they made us sweat. And we weren't getting much done at the rim on offense. At one point, we had 9 made three-pointers, 15 FTs and only 7 two-pt FGs (= 56 pts). Seemed like Fred was really trying to focus more on getting into the paint from about that point, so I don't know how many made two-pointers we ended up with.

After their one guy fouled out on a technical (I thought the blocking call for his 4th was a good call; we got those called on us too; and then he argued) they went on a bit of a run and tied it up at 47 and I was like, oh no, here comes Nevada all over again.

I thought we out-skilled them; I thought they out-athleted us. They have a good team. I was surprised to see them low-200s in Kenpom. I thought they were better than that. But it tells me we better gird our loins for Duquesne.

The Jersey Boys represented Nebraska at tonight's presser

Some thoughts...

- That game left a nasty taste in my mouth and left me feeling very frustrated. Just being honest. I'm seeing a ton of hero-ball in our first three games and I really do not like it. Maybe I am not seeing it, but I don't see it being addressed either. Guys who are jacking stuff up certainly seem to stay in the game. I hate our shot selection (they just went in more the first game, against a horrific team). 

- Remember against Lindenwood when I said how embarrassing their coaching and effort was? This game is what I am talking about. Sure, Rider had more talent than Lindenwood - but they also played their damn asses off and had a systematic approach to the game. They had a scout and a gameplan. That is coaching, and their staff should be applauded - I expect big things from their team in conference this year. Good on them. 

- This is my biggest fear with Keisei - everyone gets it "watch what he can do/let's hope he hits a shot" mode. That very much worries me. We should be playing to use his gravity and his constant movement to help everyone else. Not standing, watching, and praying he does something sweet. KT also needs to chill out and run the offense. It's not the KT show, especially early. Keep your teammates engaged and involved - the sooner in the game he tries to "take over" the earlier we get into watch/hope mode. 

- Disappointed in Sam Hoiberg. He's played so well and forced himself into the regular rotation - but he can't forget how or why he's there, or who he is. He took some bad, forced, rushed shots tonight. That's not his game. He's an in-rhythm, open 3-point shooter, ball mover, and an attack the basket guy. Then defense and energy also, obviously. He doesn't need to be taking shots that are rushed/early/forced. 

- Some positive, our defense is just lights out, and we are soooo physical rebounding. Even when we don't get rebounds (O or D), we at least make them truly earn it. Guards are flying in and rebounding, bigs are bashing and rebound - good stuff here. Proud of the guys for their gutsy effort and commitment to that end. Now if we could just be committed to true ball movement, player movement, and unselfishness on the offensive end... 

- Need to figure out who BWilliams is and what his role will be. 

- Excited/nervous/very interested to see what this team looks like with Gary back, and who loses minutes, or what line-ups get thrown out there. 

Keisei basically got Eli Rice's minutes in this one.

CJ actually played more minutes in this game than in the others in which he started.

Believe this is the first women to ref a men's game at Nebraska

8 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

Some thoughts...

 

- That game left a nasty taste in my mouth and left me feeling very frustrated. Just being honest. I'm seeing a ton of hero-ball in our first three games and I really do not like it. Maybe I am not seeing it, but I don't see it being addressed either. Guys who are jacking stuff up certainly seem to stay in the game. I hate our shot selection (they just went in more the first game, against a horrific team). 

 

 

- This is my biggest fear with Keisei - everyone gets it "watch what he can do/let's hope he hits a shot" mode. That very much worries me. We should be playing to use his gravity and his constant movement to help everyone else. Not standing, watching, and praying he does something sweet. KT also needs to chill out and run the offense. It's not the KT show, especially early. Keep your teammates engaged and involved - the sooner in the game he tries to "take over" the earlier we get into watch/hope mode. 

Hero ball was a constant theme of Fred's first 3 years at Nebraska. I'm in the same boat as you in that all of these offensive options could just turn into a bunch of your turn, my turn on offense. This has been my biggest gripe with Fred's time here, and the lack of correcting of it.

I see flashes of this team looking similar to last year's offense where we run actions out of the high post, and the ball moves from there. IMO this season hinges on whether this team can play more similarly to the end of last year's team in terms of ball movement or if they revert back to Fred's earlier years.

39 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

I thought we out-skilled them; I thought they out-athleted us. They have a good team. I was surprised to see them low-200s in Kenpom. I thought they were better than that. But it tells me we better gird our loins for Duquesne.

Couldn't agree more - we'd better be ready for that one next week and better not be going through the motions heading into the holiday. DU is good.

Observations:

-Controlling the boards cures a lot of ills. 

-I still am not a fan of the auto-double in the post. There are very few college bigs who can hurt you, I get that maybe you can cause a turnover here and there but why put yourself into scramble mode if you don't have to.

-Boogie was a ball stopper on a few possessions when an extra pass would have meant an open shot. 

-We'll be able to win a bunch of games with D, rebounding, and making 3s, but the lack of playmaking, particularly at PG will be a constant problem. 

-One way to cover up a lack of playmaking is to get out an run which we should be able to do with Allick and Mast sucking up rebounds. 

This was not a good game for us.  This is one in previous years we lose or it’s down to the wire and we win by maybe 5-7.  So to win by double digits is nice, but there’s a lot to get corrected.

No need to hash out the hero ball stuff again as that was a large contributor on offense.  KT was forcing some shots trying to find a rhythm.  Also a little surprised at SH’s forced passes that did or almost resulted in some turnovers.  We need those two to be constants and fundamentally sound.

Rice did some things in the few minutes he was in.  I hope he continues to gut it out because he can still be special AND there are minutes out there for him to be had this year.

I thought our post play was tough tonight BUT Rider doubled the post hard.  Combine that with the fact that the refs were letting it go for the most part AND raking at the ball wasn’t being called as ticky tacky as some games— it’s not a surprise we did turn it over.  We have to recognize that and adjust though.

We have not been good at the rim this year and that’s concerning.  Post play, on drives, all of it.  Even on shots where we get fouled we can’t make it for an and-1, we usually have to shoot 2.  It’s not just our posts either.  Guards have been poor here too.  That’s got to improve.  

Good: won the boards again with almost 50 of them.  Grabbed 14 offensive boards which is huge!  77% at the line is respectable.  Mast double-double again.

Encouraging thing is our D.  Was a little worried about buy in down there from the new guys, but they seem to be bought in.  If we can correct things on the other end, and keep that same D intensity… along with a deep bench, we could have something special this year.

38 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

Believe this is the first women to ref a men's game at Nebraska

I thought the same thing.  That said, I thought she called a good game.  If I'm not mistaken, she called the block and insuing technical on the Rider player.  The block call looked legit.  She was starting to make the call and her head jerked around...I assumed the player used a "magic" word at that moment.

On offense, it looked sort of like we hadn't practiced in awhile.  Spacing looked decent for the most part.  We went from hero ball, to quick shots, to forced shots and then forced passes often.  I will opt to look at the glass being half full.  Most of the mistakes can be used as teachable moments.  The team needs to be good students.

12 minutes ago, Tallbaby21 said:

Observations:

 

-I still am not a fan of the auto-double in the post. There are very few college bigs who can hurt you, I get that maybe you can cause a turnover here and there but why put yourself into scramble mode if you don't have to.

 

I think this is here to stay.  So if we’re going to commit to this, I guess I’m happy we’re doing it every time and drilling it into our bodies/brains.

I actually think college posts are usually inexperienced enough to make more mistakes when we do double.  Get flustered, make errant passes, etc.  We’ve also got a few guys (Sam, KT, and sometimes JLaw) who have good enough instincts to intercept those bad passes.

Our D has held each of the first 3 opponents under 55, so it’s hard to argue with those results, even if the scheme seems like it should do more harm than good.

2 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

I thought the same thing.  That said, I thought she called a good game.  If I'm not mistaken, she called the block and insuing technical on the Rider player.  The block call looked legit.  She was starting to make the call and her head jerked around...I assumed the player used a "magic" word at that moment.

 

I was going to say, I didn’t notice her and that’s a good thing.  It means she didn’t draw attention, called a good game, and belonged.  In an age where referees are at a shortage, I’ve been trying my hardest to recruit women (and men) to the HS ranks but it’s tough.  Getting HS kids involved in refereeing as early as possible is important as well!

Juan Gary will add a spark of quickness between getting the ball in the paint and scoring.  He doesn't get bottled up while gathering the ball and getting set to leap, as defenders close in around him.  That should help.

1 hour ago, basketballjones said:

Some thoughts...

 

- That game left a nasty taste in my mouth and left me feeling very frustrated. Just being honest. I'm seeing a ton of hero-ball in our first three games and I really do not like it. Maybe I am not seeing it, but I don't see it being addressed either. Guys who are jacking stuff up certainly seem to stay in the game. I hate our shot selection (they just went in more the first game, against a horrific team). 

 

- Remember against Lindenwood when I said how embarrassing their coaching and effort was? This game is what I am talking about. Sure, Rider had more talent than Lindenwood - but they also played their damn asses off and had a systematic approach to the game. They had a scout and a gameplan. That is coaching, and their staff should be applauded - I expect big things from their team in conference this year. Good on them. 

 

- This is my biggest fear with Keisei - everyone gets it "watch what he can do/let's hope he hits a shot" mode. That very much worries me. We should be playing to use his gravity and his constant movement to help everyone else. Not standing, watching, and praying he does something sweet. KT also needs to chill out and run the offense. It's not the KT show, especially early. Keep your teammates engaged and involved - the sooner in the game he tries to "take over" the earlier we get into watch/hope mode. 

 

- Disappointed in Sam Hoiberg. He's played so well and forced himself into the regular rotation - but he can't forget how or why he's there, or who he is. He took some bad, forced, rushed shots tonight. That's not his game. He's an in-rhythm, open 3-point shooter, ball mover, and an attack the basket guy. Then defense and energy also, obviously. He doesn't need to be taking shots that are rushed/early/forced. 

 

- Some positive, our defense is just lights out, and we are soooo physical rebounding. Even when we don't get rebounds (O or D), we at least make them truly earn it. Guards are flying in and rebounding, bigs are bashing and rebound - good stuff here. Proud of the guys for their gutsy effort and commitment to that end. Now if we could just be committed to true ball movement, player movement, and unselfishness on the offensive end... 

 

- Need to figure out who BWilliams is and what his role will be. 

 

- Excited/nervous/very interested to see what this team looks like with Gary back, and who loses minutes, or what line-ups get thrown out there. 

I think this is just a bit of a doomer take though.  KenPom had us as 16 point favorites in this one and we won by 14.  Considering the low scoring in the game you gotta figure we performed just about as expected.  Fred's teams always improve as the season progresses, I am not sure it's time to (at 3-0) start ringing alarm bells just yet.

9 hours ago, k3s3i said:

just don’t think williams is a very emotional guy 

He's basically Shep from Above the Rim except he can't buy a layup