uneblinstu’s postgame chatter: vol 12; ed 1 - vs. UC Riverside

12 minutes ago, The Polish Rifle said:

Fred and co had to build a boat in a month and hope it floats. Turns out it has a ton of holes. It sucks but the reality is turning over an entire roster and building a new one in a short amount of time, this is the risk you take. I hate PJ Fleck but I’ll steal his phrase, this year is truly year 0.

As much as I can not stand the Fleckster, he's done a heck of a job at Minny this season. There will always be hope for brighter days ahead for Big Red.

12 minutes ago, The Polish Rifle said:

Fred and co had to build a boat in a month and hope it floats. Turns out it has a ton of holes. It sucks but the reality is turning over an entire roster and building a new one in a short amount of time, this is the risk you take. I hate PJ Fleck but I’ll steal his phrase, this year is truly year 0.

I do actually agree with this. What Hoiberg took over at Iowa State roster-wise wasn't great, but it was serviceable, and certainly not as bad as the situation here was. I shouldn't have watched the highlights this morning because it lead to me venting again lol. We'll be ok. 

Funny little story...

So last night my wife receives of text from a coworker about the loss. He's a Creighton alum. I live in San Diego and still can't escape them, but I digress. Anyhoo, I tell her "meh it's an exhibition game and they probably were trying different lineups to get ready for the first game and it doesn't really matter blah blah blah." So, later when I get on the board I am thoroughly confused as I see unl's Vol12game1 post. Huh!?! Wait we lost a REAL game?!? Totally forgot about the secret scrimmage. In my defence I just started a doctorate program and have been detached from just about everything. My wife wasn't happy when I woke her up with a stunned, "Babe. We lost ." 

2 minutes ago, OmahaHusker said:

 

True, but at least their 20-30 point losses were to Big 12 teams. Looking at their 2010-2011 schedule they actually were in most of their games minus like 4 (Mizzou, Colorado, Texas, Kansas). We're getting down to technicalities here, but I'd understand blowout losses to teams like that, not to teams where we're 16 point favorites at home. His first team at ISU went 13-2 in non-con and beat most of the teams they should've.  

The floor for this team is lower than the floor for that Iowa State team. They did have some solid pieces. Hopefully the ceiling for our future teams are as high as it was for those next few Cyclone teams. We’ll see, but I’m not gonna get too worked up over any loss this year.

2 minutes ago, cornfed24-7 said:

Funny little story...

So last night my wife receives of text from a coworker about the loss. He's a Creighton alum. I live in San Diego and still can't escape them, but I digress. Anyhoo, I tell her "meh it's an exhibition game and they probably were trying different lineups to get ready for the first game and it doesn't really matter blah blah blah." So, later when I get on the board I am thoroughly confused as I see unl's Vol12game1 post. Huh!?! Wait we lost a REAL game?!? Totally forgot about the secret scrimmage. In my defence I just started a doctorate program and have been detached from just about everything. My wife wasn't happy when I woke her up with a stunned, "Babe. We lost ." 

Last Weds. NU beat Doane 91-63 in its sole "open" exhibition. Last night was a debacle, as it were. Maybe the game this Sat. will start an awakening of our Big Red as they 'rebound' - guess we'll have to wait & see.

20 minutes ago, The Polish Rifle said:

Fred and co had to build a boat in a month and hope it floats. Turns out it has a ton of holes. It sucks but the reality is turning over an entire roster and building a new one in a short amount of time, this is the risk you take. I hate PJ Fleck but I’ll steal his phrase, this year is truly year 0.

I like the "Year Zero" description. I was in South Florida when Miami revived its program in the mid-'80s after a 15-year hiatus. I started covering the team in 1987-88, Year Three of the Bill Foster era. 

Here's the difference between starting that Miami program from scratch and Hoiberg doing essentially the same thing here:

• Miami hired Clemson coach Bill Foster at the end of the 1983-84 season, set him up in a new basketball office at the Hecht Center, and gave him a year to build his team. Some players were already on campus during that "build" year, and they started practicing and working out together. Foster installed his systems, spent a full year recruiting, and his first Hurricane team defeated Georgia in game three of 1985-86, the 'Canes' third consecutive win in their first season back.
• Nebraska hired Hoiberg at the end of the 2018-2019 season, giving him less than two months to build a roster, install systems, etc. We're still in that "build" year, where Miami didn't have to compete against other Division I programs. The only players who have played together are Burke and Thor, and they were probably not working together much during practices last year, which featured entirely different offensive and defensive systems.

So, yeah. We're in Year Zero and will have to wade through one of the toughest conferences in the U.S.

1 minute ago, millerhusker said:

The floor for this team is lower than the floor for that Iowa State team. They did have some solid pieces. Hopefully the ceiling for our future teams are as high as it was for those next few Cyclone teams. We’ll see, but I’m not gonna get too worked up over any loss this year.

Yep. It sucked, for certain; but anyone truly surprised by it hasn't been paying attention to the nuts & bolts of the situation. It was basically a tear-down, and, hopefully, the result is a total re-build in a good, sustainable program - which mirrors a lot of what has been happening with Frost over on the gridiron.

36 minutes ago, OmahaHusker said:

 

I do actually agree with this. What Hoiberg took over at Iowa State roster-wise wasn't great, but it was serviceable, and certainly not as bad as the situation here was. I shouldn't have watched the highlights this morning because it lead to me venting again lol. We'll be ok. 

Probably the biggest difference between Hoiberg then and here was that Diante Garrett in his senior year was the experienced focal point for that offense. Miles found a similar role for Dylan Talley which is how he managed to scrape together 15 wins against the 8th hardest schedule in Div 1 per KenPom.

47 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Probably the biggest difference between Hoiberg then and here was that Diante Garrett in his senior year was the experienced focal point for that offense. Miles found a similar role for Dylan Talley which is how he managed to scrape together 15 wins against the 8th hardest schedule in Div 1 per KenPom.

Yep, and both of those teams had senior post players who were solid on both ends of the court. Miles had Ubel and Hoiberg had Jamie Vanderbeken (6-11 245). 

4 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

 “That is the thing that will ultimately tell you what kind of group you have, is when that adversity hits in a real game setting. You can use the excuse of ‘Well, we have so many new faces and new players.’ We’re not going to do that. We got outplayed today, and we’re going to find a way to bounce back with effort and preparation. We’re going to take every opportunity, whether we win or lose, to learn from it and grow from it. Adversity hit us in a huge way tonight, and you can talk to your guys about it until you get blue in the face. It’s going to hit you every time you step out on the floor. It will be how you handle it and we didn’t handle it well tonight.”

Hoiberg last night

Would have had no impact on the game, but were the people that controlled the score board asleep?  They never seemed to catch up on stats or on who was actually playing. 

Some scapegoats for last night

• Team not used to male cheerleaders
• NCAA not clearing Stevenson
• Lack of "Can You Feel It" to start the game

3 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

Some scapegoats for last night

• Team not used to male cheerleaders
• NCAA not clearing Stevenson
• Lack of "Can You Feel It" to start the game

Noticed that on TV.  Forget about the result of the game....Fire Hoiberg for getting rid of that song!

I was a bit disappointed by the enthusiasm of the crowd for an opening game with a new, prominent coach. But I guess it was 8pm mid-week as well. After that opening 14 points in the first 4 minutes, I never thought we'd end up with such a low score. As so many here have said, it's gonna take time and this team is going to be all over the place this year. They seem to be overthinking a little bit right now with the "shoot a 3 or drive" philosophy. I'm sure it will become more like second nature as the team gets more experience. Lots of growing to do. Hope I can keep my perspective that this year will be whatever it's gonna be.

I hope those of you who disagreed with the sentiment of my post to, "temper your expectations," now understand why I was concerned.

All is not lost. Lots of good things happened last night and I'm pretty excited for our future. 

2 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

Some scapegoats for last night

• Team not used to male cheerleaders
• NCAA not clearing Stevenson
• Lack of "Can You Feel It" to start the game

lol..I was looking forward to the return of the Male Cheerleaders...they need some work.  They are doing the same cheer that the women have been doing for year and they seemed to have the same level of energy the fans had.  

A couple things did disappoint and surprise me. One was our EFFORT on the boards. We were out-rebounded 49 to 29. A lot of that comes from the absurd amount of shots we missed, but that’s not acceptable. We hear all about our size disadvantage, but UC-Riverside had a 6’3” guard grab 18 (!!!) rebounds last night. Props to that kid. Given how much the coaches and players talk about it being a point of emphasis, I couldn’t believe how our guards would turn and watch the shot, and almost never put a body on someone.  
 

The other thing was our on-ball defense, which I could tell was driving Doc crazy. Riverside’s ball handlers were driving past our guards at will, drawing help defense and kicking out to shooters. It’s pretty easy to catch fire from 3 when the majority of your shots are open stand-still threes off kick outs. I call it “pretend” ball pressure. Our guys were clapping their hands and getting down in their stance as Riverside’s guards brought the ball up the court, acting like they wanted to defend. But apparently not understanding the mentality, effort and focus it takes to defend at this level. They all have the quickness, athleticism and coaching it takes. I expect/hope for huge improvements in this area as the season goes on.

With an entire new team and new system, there will obviously be growing pains. But effort and aggression is always something you can control as a player. Hoiberg has voiced his concerns about the mentality and toughness of this team and last night I think we saw what he’s been talking about. 

If I calcluated correctly, we had Zero second chance points...We did not make one bucket after an offensive rebound...I think they had about 11 points in second chance points.

4 minutes ago, millerhusker said:

A couple things did disappoint and surprise me. One was our EFFORT on the boards.

1 minute ago, hhcmatt said:

 

 

Man, that sums it up. And that’s in the first 70 seconds of the game.

Some Notes:

This group 3-11-22-24-25 gave up 14 points on 6 possessions, while only scoring 2 on six possessions.

The starters 3-11-22-23-24 gave up 10 points on 19 possessions while scoring 18 on 19 possessions.

This group 3-11-22-23-25 gave up 9 on 3 possessions while scoring 2 on 3 possessions

this was based on me charting these possessions and I definitely could have made an error.

4 minutes ago, Blindcheck said:

Some Notes:

 

This group 3-11-22-24-25 gave up 14 points on 6 possessions, while only scoring 2 on six possessions.

The starters 3-11-22-23-24 gave up 10 points on 19 possessions while scoring 18 on 19 possessions.

This group 3-11-22-23-25 gave up 9 on 3 possessions while scoring 2 on 3 possessions

 

 

this was based on me charting these possessions and I definitely could have made an error.

 

 

 

So our starting five is our best lineup.

16 minutes ago, jayschool said:

So our starting five is our best lineup.

And Kavas might be a D liability. 

Kavas was on the court for 42 possessions.....

Offense scored 28

Defense scored 52 

while he was on the court.

14 minutes ago, Blindcheck said:

Kavas was on the court for 42 possessions.....

 

Offense scored 28

Defense scored 52 

 

while he was on the court.

And Kavas had 10 points, so the others had only 18 to UCR's 52. Not too good.