uneblinst's postgame chatter: vol 16; ed 1 - Lindenwood

Did what we're supposed to do. Don't care about the quality of opponent many many times in the past we didn't do what we were supposed to do against lower level teams. I'm happy with this dub

We’ve got some BIG Boys who can Mix it Up down low. Forget about looking good “off the bus” we’re gonna push some people around. 

Notes from UNL

• Nebraska put five players in double figures, led by Sam Hoiberg’s 15 points. Hoiberg tied a career high with 15 points (also at Maryland on 1/28/23).
• Three of the Huskers’ five double-figure efforts were by players making their NU debut, including Rienk Mast (13), Brice Williams (13) and Josiah Allick (11). In all, 47 of NU’s 84 points were by newcomers.
• Nebraska’s 84 points is the most since scoring 88 against Boston College on Nov. 30, 2022.
• Nebraska’s 51-point first half was NU’s highest scoring first half since scoring 57 against Doane on Dec. 17, 2000. It tied NU’s highest first-half vs. a Division I team under Hoiberg, as Nebraska also had 51 against South Dakota State on Nov. 15, 2019. Nebraska shot 57 percent in the first half, including 9-of-19 from 3-point range.
• Nebraska improved to 87-41 in season openers and has won 21 of the last 23 season openers.
• Nebraska finished with 19 assists and just nine turnovers on the night. NU had 13 assists on its 17 first-half basket.
• Nebraska finished with 11 3-pointers on the night. The Huskers had just three games with 10+ three-pointers in 2022-23.

2 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

We’ve got some BIG Boys who can Mix it Up down low. Forget about looking good “off the bus” we’re gonna push some people around. 

I was really impressed with Allick! 

And a big old pffft to the notion that if Hoiberg has to play meaningful minutes we're in trouble. 

A lot of positives tonight.  Josiah is a dude!

24 minutes ago, cornfed24-7 said:

And a big old pffft to the notion that if Hoiberg has to play meaningful minutes we're in trouble. 

Add Keisei and Gary and you’re at a 10 man rotation. I don’t think we’re going to play a 10 man rotation. Add those two and he’s not in the top 8. Minutes should be limited for Hoiberg and Rice. Both of them

are ok players.  We simply have 8 better players then those two and that’s a good thing.

Some good some bad, but overall good start to the season. Took care of business. 

-big rotation is going to be good. Love both mast and allick. 

-brice and JL felt like they were trying to force it a bit at times to get going. Interested in how keisei playing will open up the court for those two 

-Rice felt like he got bullied a bit today, which will happen as a freshman. Felt like he shot more than 3 times today. Hopefully he can get going over the next few games. Gary would probably play in his spot when he's back. 

-sam was great today. He definitely looked improved from last year, and it'll be hard to not play him if he can do what he did today

Very happy with tonight. Hopefully get clarity on Gary's situation soon. Keisei just needs to get his ankle right

11 minutes ago, Dean Smith said:

Add Keisei and Gary and you’re at a 10 man rotation. I don’t think we’re going to play a 10 man rotation. Add those two and he’s not in the top 8. Minutes should be limited for Hoiberg and Rice. Both of them

are ok players.  We simply have 8 better players then those two and that’s a good thing.

Not arguing that. Though Hoiberg and Gary aren't competing for the same minutes. It's more so to the posts I saw on here that said we'd be in trouble if Hoiberg was playing meaningful minutes. And I think that is BS. I predicted Hoiberg would end up with the 9th most minutes on the team. If for some reason it's higher, say 7th or 8th, we'll be just fine. 

Nice performance against a mysterious foe.  Mast and Allik were solid and can finish at the rim.  Lawrence forced some shots but will improve.  Won’t find out much more against Florida A &M.

Tominaga was draining threes during pre game and looked normal to me. Was even bouncing along to the music at times.

The biggest thing that I liked is we kept increasing the lead and didn’t have a “we let the opponent get back into the game or go on a sizeable run” that we have allowed so many times against pre conference teams.

Allick was a nice surprise. Looked stout, active, hustled, and had better fluidity than I imagined. He’s gonna be a factor on both ends. He looks like a taller version of his sister with his hair. Or his sister looks like a smaller version of her brother….

Mast is a tall presence that hit a nice top of the key three and also had a better post up game than I was led to believe. His off the ball movement was good as well. Will definitely help us.

Hoiberg was much much better than the stats indicated. He impacted the game so much defensively. Had a lot of deflections and steals and factored into some opponents turnovers. He was also assertive offensively and his shot looked fluid. Biggest difference is he’s playing like he belongs. I actually think he takes a lot of Rice’s minutes as the 4th guard next to Lawrence, Tominaga, and Wilcher. 

JL had a couple of nice threes but also missed a couple of layups that he would’ve made last year. I agree with a previous commenter- it did appear he was pressing a bit. But he will be fine.

CJ looked like CJ, although I felt like he had a bit more confidence and comfort out there tonight. 
 

Will withhold my full assessment of Brice because he played out of position for a while. When Mast and Allick were out he would play the 5, his shot was off tonight  but I still have high hopes for him.

Rice looked like a true freshman. Had the ball knocked out of his hands on a couple of rebounds and forced up a few contested shots. Still, 6’8” is 6’8”

Boogie is a poor man’s Bonzi Wells. Ok, probably not. But he did all right and he had some good moments. I’m sure he’s still finding his groove playing a pass first role. 
 

Cale got some good minutes and does show some potential out there. He’s pretty heady and he frankly looked more comfortable to me than Rice did. 
 

Halftime performer deserved a bigger crowd. Made a 6 minute non stop jump rope routine look super easy. Did acrobatics and jumped rope. 99.7% of that arena would’ve needed oxygen and a wheel chair after that routine…

Be back Thursday…..

1 hour ago, Dean Smith said:

Add Keisei and Gary and you’re at a 10 man rotation. I don’t think we’re going to play a 10 man rotation. Add those two and he’s not in the top 8. Minutes should be limited for Hoiberg and Rice. Both of them

are ok players.  We simply have 8 better players then those two and that’s a good thing.

This was my thought as well, don’t remember anyone saying we were in trouble if he was playing. Do remember people wondering whose minutes he was taking if he was in the top 8.

However it seems like Fred wants a faster pace this year and that might lead to a 9 man rotation with Sam being in that 9 and then going with the hot hands in the second half. He can be in the rotation of a good team for sure,  nice problem to have 

Keep playing like a team boys.

2 hours ago, Dean Smith said:

Add Keisei and Gary and you’re at a 10 man rotation. I don’t think we’re going to play a 10 man rotation. Add those two and he’s not in the top 8. Minutes should be limited for Hoiberg and Rice. Both of them

are ok players.  We simply have 8 better players then those two and that’s a good thing.

idc whos on our team they arent keeping hoiberg of the court. played a hell of a lot better than jamarques

42 minutes ago, Art Vandalay said:

This was my thought as well, don’t remember anyone saying we were in trouble if he was playing.

You're right that's was more me paraphrasing. It was something to the effect something bad had happened ergo we're in trouble.

Realistically if he were to "take" anyone's minutes it would probably be CJ's if he has one of those slumps like he's had before. But I don't think that happens.

I think he ends up with the 9th most minutes. And if we have to go deep on our bench because of foul trouble or *gulp* injury it's comforting knowing we got Hoiberg ready and waiting.

It's a great problem to have and a problem I can't really remember having before. 

8 minutes ago, k3s3i said:

idc whos on our team they arent keeping hoiberg of the court. played a hell of a lot better than jamarques

Hahahaha when's the last time we got to argue about which player is getting minutes over which player?!? This is so much more fun of an argument

We are currently projected as an 11 seed on Bart Torvik's T-Ranketology 

https://barttorvik.com/tranketology.php?

A lot of obvious positives. The first half was a thing of beauty in almost all aspects. 

Some causes for conern:

It's just game 1, but the overall demeanor doesn't seem as business-like as last year's group. Not sure if that's necessarily a concern. But on a few occasions we had players complaining to the refs rather than getting back on defense, reminiscent of Fred's first three teams. That stuff didn't happen last year.

Eli got bullied on both ends. Not close to being ready for the Big Ten. He plays very hunched over, similar to Breidenbach. Rare for a basketball player to have that posture on the court. They tend to play smaller than they are and short-arm shots in the paint. Eli airballed a layup - fortunately a foul was called, but there was no contact. After his three point attempt was blocked, he gave no effort getting back to contest the layup. Freshmen.

Coleman's body language was poor when things didn't go his way. 

Not a fan of Brice in a ball handling/creating role. It didn't get him into much trouble today, but he doesn't appear to have that ability and it will show against better teams. He can help us a lot in other ways. 

The offense was much more stagnant without JL or SH on the floor to keep the ball moving. Getting Keisei back will help keep things flowing. 

Once Keisei and Gary are back, we have a clear top 9. If we end up with an 8 man rotation, right now I'd say Coleman will be the odd man out. He'll have to play differently against Big Ten teams to keep that spot.

Regardless, there were many more positives than negatives in this game. Expectations and hype are real high right now and I'm trying to stay grounded. 

I’m glad we COULD have a 10 player rotation, even we only end up with an eight player rotation. Extremely rare to make it through a season without injuries, and we have players who can step up when it happens.

1 hour ago, HuskerActuary said:

We are currently projected as an 11 seed on Bart Torvik's T-Ranketology 

 

https://barttorvik.com/tranketology.php?

Doesn’t this belong in our NCAA tourney watch thread?  What, no one has started one yet!?!? What are we doing? It’s Nov 7 and we’re undefeated!

A lot of talk about SH tonight.  Honestly, I see SH getting minutes this year and it isn’t a knock on anyone or a bad thing.  I see Sam being the guy who plays when someone rolls an ankle, the guy who plays when someone is out sick mid-season, and the guy who will step in when someone is having an off night.  
 

We’ve got enough cupcakes this year for two Thanksgivings.  Looking at T-Rank above, we’ve got a better chance at losing to Duquesne than Oregon State and neither are close to being a toss up.  So expect to probably see 10+ guys through the Creighton game.  Let’s get 4-5 games for all 10+ and we will have a better idea of who the big 8-9 are going to be.

A lot of good takes on the game from everyone.  Again, our opponent was inferior, but we did not play down, which has happened all too often in our past.

I thought it was a telltale sign of what this team is about occurred with about six or seven minutes left in the game, and up by 30+ points, Josiah dove on the floor for a loose ball.  Great effort play.  

I can see why Fred likes this team.  Like last year, they appear to be a cohesive unit that works hard and has an eye on the prize.  Here's hoping that we just played our worst game of the year, and we continue to evolve.

We did what was expected and win by a large margin and that is something you might not have been able to say in the past few years.  There is a clear separation from the veterans to the underclassman and it showed tonight.  These are the games we didn't always win under Fred in the past so nice to get get off to a great start and without potentially 2 of your starters.  Heck, even MIchigan State lost at home to open the season.  The schedule is set up for this team to get a lot of wins if they can just make that happen.