uneblinst's postgame chatter: vol 16; ed 4 - Stony Brook

2nd half was great to see, especially going into our first P5 game. 

Another one that we looked pretty ugly in at times.  A much more stiff test awaits in our next two.  Win the next two and you are staring at an undefeated CU vs NU matchup.  I know it's just one game, but I think we're starting to see our top 8 take shape...

Mast

Lawrence

Tominaga

Gary

Allick

Williams

Hoiberg

Wilcher

I see Coleman and Rice getting more spot minutes as we move forward.  

The first half was not pretty but it was good for the team as it felt like a physical Big Ten game.  Tip of the cap to Stoney  Brook for playing their butts off.  They just ran out of gas. If the Frey kid ends up in the portal I would take him.  Good thing Gary played tonight.  Spacing, cutting and passing was good to see in the second half.

- Stony Brook had some dudes, man. I wonder if they’ll make some noise in their conference? You can’t be “bad” with that guard play. And they had some serviceable size too. Well coached.
 

- Some maddening stuff to start the game but they got in a better rhythm eventually. 
 

- KT’s gotta let the game come to him more and be focused on the other stuff to start the game. You could see his teammates getting a little frustrated. 
 

- Well Gary looked nice… dang. That’s a new element. 
 

- Our dudes are menaces on the glass. Adding Gary just made us even more menacing. He and Allick are bash brother’s material. 
 

- Guys…. Is Mast a better passer than Walker?!?!? Walker will absolutely hit you when you’re open a cut - Mast made guys open on some cuts. He threw some “if you’re even you’re open” passes that were to tight windows. 
 

- These guys have got to realize that Fred’s offensive system works if you do what he asks you to do first, and then read and react based off what it gave you. They gotta cut harder, move it faster, screen better, and dudes are gonna be wiiiide open. Can’t just go through the motions with those initial weaves and passes - that’s where everything gets set up. 
 

- Speaking of screening: ghost screens are the worst thing to happen to basketball in the last five years. They can’t be the fundamental aspect of your offense. Set hard, decisive screens. Ghost 1/5 times. 

Overall-- we beat the metrics with a 21 point win.  It seemed closer than it actually was.  I'm pretty sure they cut it to about 6-7 with 12 minutes left in the game.  A few big things on first watch...

Good:

- Gary was a welcome site back... and he learned how to shoot.  Looking forward to seeing how he fits in.  I think a starting lineup of Gary, Mast, Williams, KT, and JLaw would be interesting.

- Really nice spacing and cutting towards the rim.  If we don't settle for the 3... we could have scored 90+

- Another domination on the boards and another double digit offensive rebound night!

- KT appeared a little more comfortable moving tonight and not settling. 

Bad:
- Free throws again were bad bad bad.  Ended 10-17 but we started terrible.

- KT went 0-3 at the line.  That's unusual.

- 14 TO's again.  Have we had a game under 10?

Really interested in how Saturday goes!

4 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

- Stony Brook had some dudes, man. I wonder if they’ll make some noise in their conference? You can’t be “bad” with that guard play. And they had some serviceable size too. Well coached.

It seems like every year our "cupcakes" end up being absolutely awful.  There's also respectable cupcakes that can somewhat help your numbers.  Maybe this is our year in the cupcake department to have some teams that end up respectable.  

It was ugly in the 1st half. Not so much in the 2nd half. Hopefully from here on our we can start getting into a rhythm. 1st 2 games not the full roster. 3rd add Tominaga. 4th ad Gary. I agree with hskr4life's top 8 with maybe a Hoiberg/Coleman for the 8th spot. Gotta find a way to not come out ice cold to start.

Also how great was it to see Gary *quietly* dominate

Nice win.  Each opponent has been a little better than the previous.  Good to work Gary back into the lineup and he showed flashes.  The lineup works best on offense when Mast is in the game.  Oregon St and Dusquesne will give us a clearer picture of what we are and hope to become.  I am still not sure what we have.

Free throw shooting practice is a necessity. 

19 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

 

It seems like every year our "cupcakes" end up being absolutely awful.  There's also respectable cupcakes that can somewhat help your numbers.  Maybe this is our year in the cupcake department to have some teams that end up respectable.  

We're gonna be hanging on every minute of late season Rider, Stony Brook games - praying for that sweet, sweet NET boost.

1 minute ago, The Polish Rifle said:

We're gonna be hanging on every minute of late season Rider, Stony Brook games - praying for that sweet, sweet NET boost.

If we're heavily watching them in Feb and Mar, it means things in Nov-Jan went well lol.

We went 3 -17 from 3 in the 1st half.  Had open looks, just missed them.  I had about 4 where I questioned the shot.  The other 13 were good shots.  2nd half we made more shots, but also gave up some shots.  Of course, they were making 18 foot fadeaway jumpers, and shots from the Lincoln logo.

I'm not going to say that Stonybrook was dirty, but they were very aggressive on defense with very quick, active hands, slapping at the ball on drives and getting away with what I thought was much more contact than we were allowed on the other end.

The Brice Williams PG experiment needs to come to an end. Other guys start calling their own number when one guy starts doing it. It's like @basketballjones said above, more eloquently than I've been saying it: We have to run our sh!t. That weave action gets the defense moving, shifting, switching, adjusting. It gets them off balance. That doesn't happen if you waive off your teammate and decide to take matters into your own hands.

Rotating Gary, Mast and Allick through the frontline, with the occasional Brice Williams, is a solid rotation up front.

I hope Gary can continue to shoot FG the way he did tonight. I hope he improves his FT shooting, though. And I'm confident Keisei is going to settle in and get back into the flow of things. It's just a matter of time.

That stretch where we pulled out to 16 and they cut it to 7 was a surreal stretch where they were hitting crazy shots that they might not make in any game again this season. They were just hoisting shit up and getting it to drop. If they're that good when they get into their conference play, they'll roll to a championship.

6 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

I hope he improves his FT shooting, though.

JG and KT went a combined 1-7 at the line... rest of team was 9-10.  That won't happen every night I don't think.

2 hours ago, hskr4life said:

It seems like every year our "cupcakes" end up being absolutely awful.  There's also respectable cupcakes that can somewhat help your numbers.  Maybe this is our year in the cupcake department to have some teams that end up respectable.  

Sure, but you also want to beat those cupcakes. I won't say the incarnate word, but some of those cupcakes still haunt us to this day.

 B Williams is gonna be a Stone Cold Assassin. And what’s the latest on Blaise, I’ve heard some talk the ankle(s) might cause him to Redshirt. 

2 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

I'm not going to say that Stonybrook was dirty, but they were very aggressive on defense with very quick, active hands, slapping at the ball on drives and getting away with what I thought was much more contact than we were allowed on the other end.

 

The Brice Williams PG experiment needs to come to an end. Other guys start calling their own number when one guy starts doing it. It's like @basketballjones said above, more eloquently than I've been saying it: We have to run our sh!t. That weave action gets the defense moving, shifting, switching, adjusting. It gets them off balance. That doesn't happen if you waive off your teammate and decide to take matters into your own hands.

 

Rotating Gary, Mast and Allick through the frontline, with the occasional Brice Williams, is a solid rotation up front.

 

I hope Gary can continue to shoot FG the way he did tonight. I hope he improves his FT shooting, though. And I'm confident Keisei is going to settle in and get back into the flow of things. It's just a matter of time.

 

That stretch where we pulled out to 16 and they cut it to 7 was a surreal stretch where they were hitting crazy shots that they might not make in any game again this season. They were just hoisting shit up and getting it to drop. If they're that good when they get into their conference play, they'll roll to a championship.

They were definitely chippy and got away with a lot of slaps/bumps. They also were not afraid of the deep 3, dang. I hope those that asked about Brice’s intensity saw it tonight. He got a little fired up at 21 (they exchanged some elbows at one point) and came out and lit them up in the 2nd half, great overall stat line. If we get 2nd half Brice more often than not we will be tough. I don’t mind him as a change of pace initiator at all either.

i also think we are going to see a 9 man rotation. Don’t think he can sit Sam with his energy or Boogie as he seems to be the back up PG. Guess those two and CJ’s minutes might fluctuate depending on the game and what we need but all three will get regular minutes. Wish there was more for Rice as well but don’t see 10.

Hope Keisei settles in and does more cutting and no forcing 3s. Also the second game he did not go hard after a loose ball on the floor which was concerning.

Overall happy with this one.

2 minutes ago, Art Vandalay said:

They were definitely chippy and got away with a lot of slaps/bumps. They also were not afraid of the deep 3, dang. I hope those that asked about Brice’s intensity saw it tonight. He got a little fired up at 21 (they exchanged some elbows at one point) and came out and lit them up in the 2nd half, great overall stat line. If we get 2nd half Brice more often than not we will be tough. I don’t mind him as a change of pace initiator at all either.

 

i also think we are going to see a 9 man rotation. Don’t think he can sit Sam with his energy or Boogie as he seems to be the back up PG. Guess those two and CJ’s minutes might fluctuate depending on the game and what we need but all three will get regular minutes. Wish there was more for Rice as well but don’t see 10.

 

Hope Keisei settles in and does more cutting and no forcing 3s. Also the second game he did not go hard after a loose ball on the floor which was concerning.

 

Overall happy with this one.

Umm, coming off a sprained ankle injury, you really think the coaching and training staff advised him to do that?  I was sitting in the third row in front of the play you were referring to tonight. If Keisei dives in there for that loose ball and gets tangled up and re injures his ankle, everyone would be groaning about how he needed to be smarter. I personally am not concerned about KT at all. I would like Brice to be smarter against the zone, he forced two straight passes into turnovers in the second half, which allowed Stoneybrook some conversions. Also, Coleman had a bad turnover but got yanked right after that. I think Rice’s minutes are going to be pretty limited down the stretch

8 hours ago, brfrad said:

Of course, they were making 18 foot fadeaway jumpers, and shots from the Lincoln logo.

Actually, one from Falls City and one from Kansas City, KS.

Notes from UNL

*-Nebraska improves to 4-0 for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
*-Juwan Gary led Nebraska with 19 points, matching his collegiate career high. He also had 19 points against Houston (12/11/21) and at Florida (1/5/22) when he was at Alabama. Gary’s previous high at Nebraska was 18 at Minnesota (1/7/22), his final full game before his season-ending shoulder injury.

*-Gary becomes the fourth different Husker to lead NU in scoring this year.

*-With Gary and Keisei Tominaga (16 points) tonight, NU has had eight players reach double figures in the first four contests.
*-Rienk Mast reached double figures with 14 points and tied his career high with five assists. He had five assists three previous times at Bradley). His five assists are the most for any Husker in 2023-24. As a team, NU tied its season high with 19 assists.

*-Brice Williams posted season bests in points (17), rebounds (nine) and assists (four), as his four assists tied a career high.
*-Nebraska shot a season-high 55 percent, including 65.5 percent in the second half. It is the first time NU shot 50 percent or better this season.
*-Nebraska held Stony Brook to 37.9 percent shooting, the fourth straight opponent under 40 percent.
*-Nebraska out-rebounded Stony Brook, 45-28, and had three straight games with at least 10 more rebounds than its opponent.

Stoney Brook played hard last night.  I commend them for their effort.

We started slow and gained momentum throughout the game.  We need to relearn that 40 minute mentality that "we got" during the lader half of last season.  

Offensively we launched some quick shots; but generally there weren't very many bad shots.  A few yes, but not many.  Spacing was good, and we had some good movement.  Some bad passing occurred but I still think we are building chemistry.  It simply looks like we are trying to force things at times.  If I have angst, it is with the struggle we seem to have in finishing at, or near the rim.  Sheesh.

Defensively, we looked okay.  We lost the shooters on occasion but man, they drilled some long ones which you really can't do much about.

Keisei may have missed more free throws last night than he did over any ten game stretch last year.

8 hours ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

Umm, coming off a sprained ankle injury, you really think the coaching and training staff advised him to do that?  I was sitting in the third row in front of the play you were referring to tonight. If Keisei dives in there for that loose ball and gets tangled up and re injures his ankle, everyone would be groaning about how he needed to be smarter. I personally am not concerned about KT at all. I would like Brice to be smarter against the zone, he forced two straight passes into turnovers in the second half, which allowed Stoneybrook some conversions. Also, Coleman had a bad turnover but got yanked right after that. I think Rice’s minutes are going to be pretty limited down the stretch

I just think normally a players instinct is to go hard after a loose ball. I don’t like playing scared like that but that’s just my opinion. The one on Monday was not even a scrum situation. Agree on lazy passes by a lot of guys is one of the things we need to tighten up for sure.

We also need to see what Lloyd is able to do. 
if he is like advertised he could see some good minutes also, right?

As the schedule become more challenging, Fred is gong to have to shorten his bench.  In the second half, the starters came out and quickly extended the lead to something like 16 points.  But then the subs came in and lost it just as quickly.  I have been a big supporter of Sam H., but I simply don't see the need or value in playing both Sam and Boogie, let along both of them together.  One of them should be the backup PG, and whoever loses that battle should not play against good teams. 

Gary was a beast, and he showed why he should be starting and finishing over Allick at PF. 

Mast is showing he can be an very good passer/facilitator, much like Walker.  It will be fun watching him continue to develop that chemistry and timing with Keisei and others as the season progresses. 

There is a dropoff when Reink goes out and Allick goes to center.  Allick is not a rim protector and does not have Reink's size to body up down low.  Allick also is not as skilled an offensive player or passer.  I hope Reink is in excellent shape because his minutes are going to be critical this season.

The missed layups/bunnies are going to be a continuing frustration this season.  The reality is that guys like JL and Brice are the players who are best at getting to the rim, but simply are not good/great finishers at the rim, especially through traffic/contact.  On the positive side, Brice is very good at getting the foul called on contact.  There are so many times it feels like he is getting bailed out because if he didn't get fouled, I doubt he would convert the shot. It will be interesting to see if B1G teams scout this and try not to foul him as much in the paint. 

JL has been serviceable at PG, but not great, and he still has not found his shot.  It would be real nice to see him drain 3 or 4 threes in a game just to get his confidence up.

Still seems like there is a bit of selfish play going on.  Late in the 2nd half there was a stretch of about 5 minutes where it seemed Keisei did not receive a single touch, almost as if his teammates were intentionally not passing to him because they thought he would shoot it. I am just speculating of course, and maybe I am reading something into nothing, but I just feel that when Keisei is on the court, he should be involved in the offense in at least some manner almost every time down the court.  He is still the best offensive weapon, and the other players need to accept that.