uneblinstu's postgame chatter: Vol: 10; ed: 12 - vs. Kansas

I thought during last year's game at KU, Jordy wasn't that far behind Azubuike. But this year, they appear to be light years apart. I am definitely sick of us having post playes look like all-Americans against us ala Derick Pardon and now Azubuike.

I had the good fortune to attend last night’s game and was disappointed in the outcome.  Yes, some officiating calls were atrocious but so were so many empty possessions caused by sloppy passing which led to KU steals.  Also, KU got many more easy baskets due to the post mismatch and penetration by their guards.  

I liked the balance scoring from the offense but am still appalled at some of the shot selection.  I love Roby but don’t want him taking that late three.  At 66-59 it appeared it was “turn out the lights, the party’s over” but was very pleased the team battled back to take the lead.  

We we must play well against USTA Wednesday night and continue to build team cohesion and chemistry.  We cannot affor an Incarnate Word game at this stage.  

3 hours ago, WestOHusker said:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Jordy looked like he had progressed at the end of last season and now he looks like he’s taken 10 steps backwards. How much practice did he really miss over the summer is my burning question. He looks light years behind


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Jordy looks like he did absolutely nothing in the off-season and I don't think it has anything to do with his injury.  He's in constant foul trouble, still unable to pass out of the post, and still lacks an understanding of how to position himself for post entry passes.  That makes me think he didn't watch film.  Lack of advancement in the mental game shouldn't be blamed on a leg injury.

5 hours ago, HuskerPower #nato73 said:

 

Last night we shot 49.2% overall and 36.4% from 3 against the 9th best defense in the country according to KenPom.

Our FG Efficiency % is currently 48.6% versus 48.3% in our last NCAA tournament year.

We are turning the ball over at a pace that is 2nd least of the Tim Miles era.

Our 3 point percentage is currently 36% which is the 1.3 points better than our best year under Miles and 2.7 points better than our tournament team (33.3%)

Our 3 point defense is 59th in the country at 31.2%, this is versus 31.5% in our tournament year and a dramatic improvement from our 40.7% and 36.7% from the last two years.

Because of our upgraded talent and perhaps the 30 second shot clock we are playing at the fastest tempo since at least 2002 when KenPom records stop.

From the game last night 83.3% of our points will likely be back next year.  84.8% of our rebounds will likely be back next year.

 

Nothing I have read of yours indicates you are a fan of Coach Miles or the team for that matter and I am not naive about our weaknesses in the post etc.  With our 1st NCAA appearance of the century occurring under his watch, Miles has earned the right to see Glynn Watson through his senior year assuming this year does not completely fall apart.  My expectation is post-season of some kind this year and tournament win next year.  If that doesn't happen I think he has had plenty of opportunity.  Last night hurt because our margin for error is thin because we don't have a great non-conference scalp.

 

So now you you have been engaged,  I'll look forward to you sharing with us all the weaknesses and "why not's" that we already know.

Uhhhhhhhhh Kendrick where you at?

i actually thought duby played well last night. i'm starting to think he should be starting. he isn't an offensive threat, but at least he blocks shots. jordy isn't doing anything on either end right now.

roby finally played 30 minutes last night. i'm fine with him coming off the bench as long as he gets a lot of minutes.

Maybe starting Roby over Jordy would wake him up. I don't expect big numbers out of JTsh but a few rebounds and a blocked shot or 2 isn't asking too much. And why not foul Azubuike and see if he can make a ft instead of just letting him dunk on you all night? There are 10 fouls to use on him.

As for Eades, Eades and Wells their parents should be very disappointed in their performance last night. I think when Roby drove with about 2 and half minutes left Azubuike gave him a hip that should've been called a foul. And there are at least 6 other instances that were blatant missed calls.

As for rest of year there is no reason this team should lose a game at home the rest of the way. Win all of them and get 2 conference games on the road and that puts NU at 11 conference wins and 20 total. Unless there is a complete meltdown in conference tourney that is worth an NCAA tourney bid.

Of course every time I get all positive it seems like it turns out to put a jinx on things. But I also feel with the experience and amount of upperclassmen on this team they can and will handle adversity.      

Finally got a chance to watch.  Awesome effort.  We're an excellent home court team.

My only thought on the rotation:  if we're looking at output, have Gill and Allen earned Taylor's minutes at the 2?  I feel like Taylor needs to give Glynn spot minutes at this point, and that might be it.  

Glad we gave Roby big minutes. 

7 hours ago, LK1 said:

Finally got a chance to watch.  Awesome effort.  We're an excellent home court team.

 

My only thought on the rotation:  if we're looking at output, have Gill and Allen earned Taylor's minutes at the 2?  I feel like Taylor needs to give Glynn spot minutes at this point, and that might be it.  

 

Glad we gave Roby big minutes. 

hmmmm, I may have to argue a bit regarding Evan.  Evan does a lot of things that may not make the official stat sheet.  Taking away any/many of his minutes may be a mistake.  But as we move through the year, finding additional minutes for Thomas and Anton will be important.  It makes for a great problem to have -- more talent than minutes available. 

The next three games will be important for Jordy.  He needs to find his mojo before we restart Big Ten play.

19 hours ago, Dead Dog Alley said:

shouldn't have stayed in zone the time Kansas called timeout and had the lob play called

Didn't Self have a time out called before this and still didn't have anything drawn up.  I get the sentiment of trying to torpedo a probable called play but we ran that defense for 3-4 minutes of game time before someone on the kansas bench could get enough wifi to google how to defeat it.

49 minutes ago, huskercwg said:

hmmmm, I may have to argue a bit regarding Evan.  Evan does a lot of things that may not make the official stat sheet.  Taking away any/many of his minutes may be a mistake.  But as we move through the year, finding additional minutes for Thomas and Anton will be important.  It makes for a great problem to have -- more talent than minutes available. 

 

The next three games will be important for Jordy.  He needs to find his mojo before we restart Big Ten play.

I love Evan, but I don't think Evan has the ability to go off offensively.  Gill and Thomas have both proven they can be an unexpected nightmare on that end.  For the record, I like that we've slowplayed both of them--Gill because of the injury and Thomas because of the youth--but Thomas was on fire against KU.  I think he should've gotten more minutes.  We're going to need that additional scorer to win against really good teams.  

37 minutes ago, hhcdimes said:

 

Did Self have a time out called before this and still didn't have anything drawn up.  I get the sentiment of trying to torpedo a probable called play but we ran that defense for 3-4 minutes of game time before someone on the kansas bench could get enough wifi to google how to defeat it.

Switching defenses for a possession there might not have mattered anyway, Kansas could always have ran that play the next time we went zone, and they were having a lot of success against man-to-man.  It didn't help that the referees allowed Azibueke to play offensive tackle on that.

On 12/16/2017 at 11:39 PM, ConkintheCorner said:

Sounded like Miles teared up a little after game also...  We were so GD close!!!!  Atmosphere was great  Allen played huge.  Gill was off tonight. After game you could really tell the players wanted that one bad!  Too bad. 

 

Jordy?  Gotta get tougher. You put there center on our team  wow we would be special. 

 

A lot of season left. Conference should be fun!!

You can tell the guys were drained after this one.  They need to understand this is what it takes...every night out...to achieve greatness.

19 hours ago, brfrad said:

I thought Miles did a good job.  He switched defenses at the right time.  His substitution pattern was pretty decent.  The last play I would have liked to see Watson as the shooter, not Gill.  Gill was 0 - 3 for the game from 3, and Watson was 1 - 2 from 3.  That is just nitpicking though.  This one still hurts.

Don't think it's nitpicking as Miles should have brought in Thomas Allen for Gill on our last possession and set up play for Allen, Watson, or Palmer to take the last shot.  I'm still scratching my head why we take a 3 point shot when you are only down 1 instead of trying to get something closer or at the rim and maybe hope for a foul as well. 

9 minutes ago, kldm64 said:

 

Don't think it's nitpicking as Miles should have brought in Thomas Allen for Gill on our last possession and set up play for Allen, Watson, or Palmer to take the last shot.  I'm still scratching my head why we take a 3 point shot when you are only down 1 instead of trying to get something closer or at the rim and maybe hope for a foul as well. 

I think it was stated that it was the same play that Palmer scored on the first time.  Gill was option 2.  Option 1 was for Palmer to drive and score but nothing was there.

2 things:

Had no answer for the big dude.

Hard to win when you're playing 5 on 8 on a regular basis.  I don't care what anyone says, that was an incredibly poorly officiated game, which by the way is no surprise at all.  The Eades 'brothers' are both incompetent and biased against NU, especially Tom 'Boom' Eades.  Every time NU gets stuck with those clowns, it's an uphill battle.  The state legislature should pass a resolution banning those two jackwagons form setting foot in the state.

10 minutes ago, kldm64 said:

 

Don't think it's nitpicking as Miles should have brought in Thomas Allen for Gill on our last possession and set up play for Allen, Watson, or Palmer to take the last shot.  I'm still scratching my head why we take a 3 point shot when you are only down 1 instead of trying to get something closer or at the rim and maybe hope for a foul as well. 

In principle, I don't disagree, probably should have attacked the rim.  But, unfortunately, the chance of a foul being called on KU in that situation is almost nil, regardless of any contact that might have occurred.  While, in general, they play better defense than NU with their foot position and staying straight up, they were able to initiate contact on NU players with impunity the entire game.  Someone would have had to lose a limb for the three stooges to blow their whistles.

On 12/17/2017 at 12:06 AM, Kendrick Perkins said:

 

Hot take.  Are you a stats based guy or an emotional guy?   Would love to see the stats that would indicate success is in our near future. 

Most predictive models wouldn't value a 1 pt win over Kansas much more than a 1 pt loss.

I'd roughly estimate that 6 of the 20 games left qualify near that Kansas level of difficulty. 

I'd love to see an indication that in the next 4 years on this site you're going to make a post that approaches your apparent standard for others.

I wish we would have gotten Glynn the ball at the end because I think he sinks whatever terrible shot the Kansas defense gives him.

Otherwise, I look at us going 6-8 vs their 8-8 or the couple of times where we threw some lazy pass they took in for an easy layup when I'm looking for something to beat myself up about in this game.

I honestly think Jordy's biggest contribution this game was not picking up cheap fouls on the boards.

Other than that, I'd say he's got a huge case of the yips when it comes to getting buckets.

If this team plays this way the rest of the year, they'll be better than we've seen in awhile.

In watching the last possession again, I wish Palmer would have taken a shot rather than kick it out. When Newman showed help off of Gill, Palmer probably made the correct basketball play, but he had Lightfoot on him and I think with his athleticism, he likely gets a decent look if he pulls up and either pump fakes or rises to take the shot. I agree with Dimes, it's difficult to get my mind off of this game. 

Great college basketball game to watch.  I'm glad I was able to go.

I think our 1-3-1 will continue to give teams fits, we're long and lanky, it works. 

Crowd was great I thought.  KU fans were a non factor.  Frost intro I thought was cool.

Stayed for the end of volleyball, which the PBA crowd got a few mentions on the volleyball telecast which was cool.  Went out on the balcony and watched some on the Cube.  The Haymarket has come a long way.

Even though we lost, I left looking forward to league play.  I heard probably have to go 12-6, or something like that, to make the dance, but I see the Huskers being in the conversation this year.

1 hour ago, hskr4life said:

 

I think it was stated that it was the same play that Palmer scored on the first time.  Gill was option 2.  Option 1 was for Palmer to drive and score but nothing was there.

That is correct.  The tough thing about driving to the hoop in this situation is 1) how well Kansas rim protects and 2) refs tend to suck on their whistles in these situations. (and especially if it was Kansas) Gill was option 2 and had a good open look.

19 hours ago, huskercwg said:

I sort of stepped away for some time given the game outcome.  I was devastated.  We could have, should have but didn't win.  The moral victory mentality simply doesn't do it for me.  Some isolated thoughts follow:

- I certainly cheered for Coach Frost, and he provides hope for football and the overall culture of the university.  I am happy as hell that he is here.  But I wasn't pleased with the introduction.  At the time I thought it drew attention away from the subject at hand.  I know, I know I am in the minority but I do not believe it should take the introduction of a new head football coach to get Husker basketball fans fired up regarding a game against the Kansas Jayhawks.  Sorry, but again, it is merely my humble opinion.

- I love that our volleyball team won the national championship.  Love it, love it, love it!  But doggone it, some in the crowd were distracted by the start of the match.  But good for the university to show updates and to show the game after our game was over. 

- Despite the aforementioned distractions, the crowd was really into the game.

- Kansas is still a classy team and plays the game the right way.  Nothing but respect.  But with the exception of their center, I thought we matched up well and were on par with them regarding talent.  Again, we should have won the game.

- I saw "that referee" and thought it would be problematic.  But with the exception of some homer opinions, I thought they did okay.  I am still confused that we do not get to the line more often.

- I watched the flow of the Kansas offense, and like I am with the flow of the Creighton offense I am envious. 

- I liked the 1-3-1 look, but I wish we could be more flexible with our timing of going in and out of the zone.  We should use it throughout the game as a change in pace. 

- Copeland and Roby played very well.  Same with out entire guard corp.  My continuing disappointment is the play of Duby and Jordy.  I am not about to pick on college kids, but dang, both have to pick up their offensive play significantly. 

 

We are a talented crew and we continue to hope that wins start coming.  I cannot accept being close.  We lost last night.  We had a chance to win, we could have won and yes, we should have won.  I am not picking on anyone but we have to start this week and go on a long term win streak. 

Somewhat related, the front page of the OWH Sunday had a story about the National Champion Volleyball team, but they had to tie in how it relates to the football program. Jesus H. Christ ENUFF with the football. These other programs can stand on their own.

8 minutes ago, Huskerone said:

I think our 1-3-1 will continue to give teams fits, we're long and lanky, it works. 

I wonder if we will ever trap at half court out of this. 

I saw Western Kentucky do this to Wisconsin the other day and it drove them nuts; this is probably more effective against slower offenses.