uneblinst's postgame chatter: vol 16; ed 6 - Duquesne

Good team win.  Allik battled on the boards and I thought Coleman had some nice minutes.  A game to build upon.  On to the Titans.

Very nice win.   Duquesne was as physical a team as you are ever going to face - at least in the way they played with hand checks and shoves all over the floor.   Good that we did not back down and stayed disciplined.   Plus as noted when a team plays like that you are going to eventually shoot a lot of free throws and  you need to make them - which we did very well tonight.   I thought our players showed a lot of character in dealing with that from an opponent.   Crowd was very good as well.   

Don't think I have ever seen a player flop as obviously as the kid (Grant I think) from Duquesne.   If he got breathed on he went into convulsions on the floor.   Worked the first two times though.  The one with about a minute to go in the game was really ridiculous - but that time he waited too long to fall down and the refs were not even looking at him anymore I guess.   Did they change the rule where you could get a technical foul for flopping?   Certainly have never seen anyone deserve one more than that kid tonight.  

Didn’t matter how it happened, we just had to win this one.

The box score will look like our point guards didn’t do much, but I thought those two guys played excellent. They took care of the ball and made good decisions against a scrappy, quick, physical team that pressures you for 40 minutes. 
 

It seemed like we couldn’t secure a dang defensive rebound.

12 minutes ago, Bugeaters1 said:

28 of 31 free throws won the game for us.

The game also shifted once Duquesne got into serious foul trouble and eventually fouling out.

Would be remiss to say we won this game purely on our own. Duquesne seems to have a solid team that can have a strong season if they maintain some more discipline through 40 full minutes.

I'll likely keep my eye on them a couple times throughout the season.

3 minutes ago, millerhusker said:

Didn’t matter how it happened, we just had to win this one.

 

The box score will look like our point guards didn’t do much, but I thought those two guys played excellent. They took care of the ball and made good decisions against a scrappy, quick, physical team that pressures you for 40 minutes. 
 

It seemed like we couldn’t secure a dang defensive rebound.

From the start of the season when most of us thought that Coleman would play hero ball. It has been nice to see him pass to the open guy for some buckets.

I think we're at worst a 3-loss team going into 2024. But each of those potential losses is also potentially winnable. I think the odds are very low that we'll be undefeated at the end of December. But it's entirely possible we're only a 1- or 2-loss team entering the new year.

This does not seem like the kind of team that would allow themselves to lose to Incarnate Word. So, I'm thinking we ought to take care of business against everyone below us the rest of '23 for sure, except less than 50/50 shot at beating each of Team Voldemort, Michigan St, and Kansas St. I think we could win any of those. But I think we could also lose all three. And, right now, I think the odds are we lose two of them. I could easily see us being just a two-loss team to begin the New Year.

I would not be surprised if Duquesne is at the top of the A-10. That was a great as we get ready for what the B1G has to offer. Keisei, Mast and Williams will get the publicity for their stat lines but what we get from guys like Gary, Wilcher and Boogie takes this team to the next level. 

We just beat a Team that will qualify for the NCAA Tournament & shot 90% from the line. Happy Thanksgiving  

By the way, don't look now, but our non-seniors look like this:

PG Jamarques Lawrence, So

SG CJ Wilcher, Jr

SG Brice Williams, Jr

PF Juwan Gary, Jr

PF Rienk Mast, Jr

SG Sam Hoiberg, So

SG Eli Rice, Fr

SG Ramel Lloyd, Fr

PF Matar Diop, Fr

PG Ahron Ulis, Jr

Oh, and we already have a couple of high-ranking shooting guards signed for next year. Both lefties. Like Keisei.

Notes from UNL

• With the win, Nebraska improved to 6-0 for the first time since the 2008-09 season. The six-game winning streak is Nebraska’s longest since a six-game winning streak in January and February of 2018.
• The Huskers scored a season-high 89 points, scoring more than 80 points for the fifth time in six games. Nebraska topped 80 points for the third consecutive game, marking the first time Nebraska has scored 80 points in three straight games since November of 2019.
• The 89 points was NU’s highest total since scoring 93 at Penn State on Feb. 27, 2022.
• The Huskers’ 10-point win marked their sixth double-digit victory in six games this season. Nebraska has won six straight games by double digits for the first time since a six-game stretch in the 2010-11 season.
• Nebraska scored 52 points in the second half, the Huskers’ highest scoring half this season and the second time NU has scored 50 points in a half. The 52 points were just three shy of the Pinnacle Bank Arena record for second-half points (55 vs. UTSA on Dec. 20, 2017).
• Nebraska went 28-of-31 from the free throw line, shooting 90 percent from the charity stripe. The effort marked the first time Nebraska has shot 90 percent from the free throw line in a game since going 21-of-23 (91 percent) against Oklahoma State on Dec. 16, 2018.
• The Huskers scored on each of their first 16 possessions in the second half.
• Nebraska committed only two turnovers in the game, both of which occurred in the first three minutes of the game, as the Huskers did not turn the ball over in the game’s final 37:01. The two turnovers tied a school record for fewest turnovers in a game. It also occurred against Purdue on Jan. 16, 2013.
• Nebraska finished with 18 assists and two turnovers. Over the last two games NU has 34 assists and just eight turnovers.
• Nebraska’s bench produced 27 points, as the Huskers have gotten at least 25 points from their bench in every game this season. Nebraska’s four bench players (C.J. Wilcher, Sam Hoiberg, Juwan Gary and Jarron Coleman) each finished with a plus-minus of 10 points or larger.
• Five Huskers scored in double figures, marking the second time this season Nebraska has placed five players in double figures.
• Juwan Gary scored a career-high 20 points, topping his former career high of 19, which he reached three times previously. Gary hit 7-of-10 shots from the field and scored 13 points in the second half on 4-of-6 shooting. Gary has scored in double figures in each of his three games this season.
• Keisei Tominaga produced his first 20-point game of the season and 11th of his career, leading Nebraska with 23 points. Tominaga’s total was fueled by a 9-of-10 effort at the free throw line.
• Brice Williams scored 11 points, reaching double figures for the third straight game and for the fifth time in six games this season.
• Rienk Mast scored 10 points and has reached double figures in every game this season.
• Josiah Allick filled up the stat line with 12 points, seven rebounds a career-high-tying five assists.
• Nebraska had a 13-0 scoring run in the second half, the fifth run of 10-0 or better this season.

Fellas, that was an excellent team win. Diverse contributions. Couldn’t believe it when they said the previous 5 games we’ve had 5 different leading scorers. I actually like Allick starting and setting the tone and then having Gary come off the bench w CJ to give some good scoring punch and ability. We just have so much more depth than I’m used to. I don’t think we beat this team with last years team, either before injuries to the 2 blackshirts or after. They were very physical and scrappy. 

Dang, the 2nd half, we played top notch basketball.  We stayed composed and did our thing.  Great to see.

Now, worth mentioning, so, so often we are on the negative side of refereeing.  Bad calls seemed to always go against us.  Not tonight.  I am sure our opponents believe they got screwed.  But heck, I thought there could have been a bunch more calls made especially against Mr Floppy.

Finally...congrats to the crowd.  We were definitely a factor.  One more time...FLOPPYYYYY!!!

18 assists to 2 turnovers. That's incredible. That is why NU prevailed. Yes, the 90.3% from the FT line helped put this away, despite DU fighting back to cut the deficit. Then were T'd up twice because they felt they were screwed, ironic when to start the night their guard flopped a handful of times to get things underway. Also ironic that by flopping so much early on, the refs were more keen to his schtick earlier than they might have been otherwise. It actually helped NU in the long run!

Duquesne is very talented.  They have 3-4 power 5 starters on that team.  They should have beat Princeton.  They will win a ton in the A10.  
 

This win will look better than Oregon State at the end of the season.  
 

Our team IQ on both ends is crazy high.  
 

As mentioned after Oregon State… we just have a bunch of adults out there.  Mast, Allick, and Gary are an extremely tough, skilled, diverse front court.  Both Mast and Allick are showing how valuable it is to have bigs who can pass.  Our guards are smart and play within themselves.  
 

12pt, 7rb, 5a from Allick with no TO is an incredible stat line. 
 

Really fun to watch us just bully teams into submission. 

Aside from all that's been one of the things that won the game was KT's willingness to mix it up with the DuQ guards after that bogus foul call early on Grant's (?) 3 pt shot. He gave it right back to them and got into their heads it seemed. I wonder what trash talk sounds like in Japanese.

8 minutes ago, KZRider said:

I wonder what trash talk sounds like in Japanese.

We can’t 100% without a doubt say that we beat a tournament team last night, but at minimum they should contend for the A-10 title.

That time is a post season worthy team though.  100%.  Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see them in the NIT at minimum..

4 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

We can’t 100% without a doubt say that we beat a tournament team last night, but at minimum they should contend for the A-10 title.

That time is a post season worthy team though.  100%.  Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see them in the NIT at minimum..

Top Four in A-10, via Bart Torvik. FWIW, Tassel Loafers U. beat Loyola by 23:

I HATED the game flow to start that game. Obviously something clicked in the second half though, so I'm thankful. That's a good team they just played though. 3 guards that can get their own shot whenever, even if I thought Grant was exaggerating contact as bad as I've seen at this level. 

-that stretch from allick in the second half was massive. He won't always score a ton, but he picked his spots perfectly and knocked down a timely 3. Was great at being a connecting passer too. 

-l could talk about Lawrence for a while. I'm super impressed with him so far, and last night was massive too. Wished he tried to go get his own shot sometimes, but he's doing an outstanding job pushing the ball in semi transition or on inbounds. Gets the offense set in a hurry and seems to have great command. No turnovers last night with their high pressure defense is also outstanding. 

-Keisei pushed it a bit trying to match Grant bucket for bucket, and got pulled to end the first half. Message was received though and I felt he didn't do that in the second half. 

-did not love the boards last night. Got beat to their spot on the glass far too often. 

-gary does not look like the same player we saw last year. The arc he added on him jumper is obviously helping, but he's using his improved jumper to attack on closeouts. Still an outstanding defender and can crash the glass great. I like allick starting, but Gary closes halves/games with one big. 

Take care of CFSU on Sunday and then we're onto the school an hour away. I think we matchup well, but mast will need to hit his 3s in order for it to work. 

I loved watching this game last night.  One thing I am very curious about going forward is how Fred is going to handle Keisei in these games with physical teams. I thought Keisei played well, I love his moxie (even if over the top every once in awhile). But it't not often you get a great win like that and your leading scorer was -3. That says a lot for the rest of our dudes and how they played. I feel like we definitely guard better when 30 is out and most of our winning run came with him on the bench. Please don't take this as a knock on 30, love him to death. 

5 minutes ago, hhctony said:

I loved watching this game last night.  One thing I am very curious about going forward is how Fred is going to handle Keisei in these games with physical teams. I thought Keisei played well, I love his moxie (even if over the top every once in awhile). But it't not often you get a great win like that and your leading scorer was -3. That says a lot for the rest of our dudes and how they played. I feel like we definitely guard better when 30 is out and most of our winning run came with him on the bench. Please don't take this as a knock on 30, love him to death. 

I think KT is still working on adjusting to a role that is different than last year.  What we need from him this year is completely different and he doesn’t have to carry the load.  He can easily average 12-15 PPG without forcing anything.  His best shots have been on ball reversals and when he works to get open.