uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 11; ed 15 - @ Iowa

1 hour ago, PimpMario said:

 

I don't think we can lose to Penn St at home...

Can we?

mathematically, sure. realistically? probably not. you're looking at likely losing the next 2 after that for a 1-6 start. That's likely too big a hole to dig out of. 

I wouldn’t run up the white flag just yet. Winning the Indiana & Michigan St games wouldn’t be OMG type wins like when we knocked off the Hoosiers with Bo Spencer. Let’s get Penn St this week and move on from there...

27 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

I wouldn’t run up the white flag just yet. Winning the Indiana & Michigan St games wouldn’t be OMG type wins like when we knocked off the Hoosiers with Bo Spencer. Let’s get Penn St this week and move on from there...

If you're referring to the previous two comment, then no one was running up a white flag on anything. It was a simple question: can we afford to lose to PSU.  I answered with an opinion, which was mostly no, but it was conditional, none of the conditions having been met yet, including a loss to Penn St. So we can hopefully retire the white flag rhetoric for the day. 

5 hours ago, TZAHL said:

* I’m not upset about this game. We got outplayed for the majority of it and that will happen. People who were frustrated about the Minnesota and Maryland loss have a right to be. Because nights like this happen.  We outplayed MN and MD for a majority of the game and didn’t get the W.   So those games irritate me. 

 

We didnt play good enough to win. Sucks that our other two conference road games we did and went 0-2. That is where my real frustration still lies. 

 

 

This is the best take I've seen - and why I said after the MN game, "this one is gonna hurt".

Bad nights happen in basketball occasionally and they should be expected. It's a strange thing but sometimes, the ball just simply will not go in the hole. But when you have an experienced, veteran team and you play well enough to win against MN & MD, you have to close those out. NU couldn't do it once, much less twice. Which in turn makes the "bad night" loss even worse.

The hole has been dug and I find myself seriously doubting NU can accomplish the "undefeated at home & steal a couple on the road" task. I will be watching and will be rooting for it, but I wouldn't put money on it. I hope I'm very wrong. 

Commentary not quite as bitter as expected. It will take a loss to Penn State to unleash the Rock Bottom phrase. Hopefully that does not happen.

I tried to wake up in a glass half full kind of mood today.  Here is what I know:

- The sun came up today despite my mood

- This team clearly hasn't peaked yet or reached it's potential.  I guess I'll trade a few conference games on the road that we should have won in December/January for playing our best basketball in March.

- Most of us don't live in Iowa.  For those that do, my apologies.

10 hours ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

I think Glynn was really frustrated by the officials today, for some reason. One ref in particular was rather one-sided on how he called this one. That's all I'll say.

 

 

I think Glynn has been frustrated, or perhaps a bit embarrassed, at both Maryland and Iowa.  He seemed to let the guards for both opponents get into his head.  Not sure why, but you can tell.  He made a couple moves both offensively and defensively that seemed awkward or unusual for him.  

One could also tell last night that the shooting mechanics for this team was off-kilter.  James fell into a bad habit, that had been corrected.  Nana looked hesitant as did Tom.  Coach Miles said it looked like the team was thinking too much.  Yes, that could be very true.  

29 minutes ago, Nebrasketball1979 said:

This team clearly hasn't peaked yet or reached it's potential. 

True, but from a glass half-empty perspective, a great many teams have not yet peaked.  You do not want to peak until March.  We just need to figure some things out.  My concern was that last night it came down to being outworked on the defensive end.  Defense is supposed to travel, but it sure didn't against Iowa.  

56 minutes ago, Nebrasketball1979 said:

 

- Most of us don't live in Iowa.  For those that do, my apologies.

Accepted.

Another couple of thoughts: Whatever one thinks of Garza (and his eyebrows) he showed some guts playing on an ankle which was obviously still bothersome. They wouldn't have won without his effort. Whatever one thinks about the Hawkeyes, they beat Iowa State who handled KU quite easily this year. They are not as bad as we let ourselves believe.

3 hours ago, Huskerpapa said:

True, but from a glass half-empty perspective, a great many teams have not yet peaked.  You do not want to peak until March.  We just need to figure some things out.  My concern was that last night it came down to being outworked on the defensive end.  Defense is supposed to travel, but it sure didn't against Iowa.  

I think our defensive issues in the post come down to being tentative and fearing foul trouble.  Iowa (who does this well) successfully put Borchardt, Roby and Copeland on the bench to end the 1st half.  I though Copeland was tentative at the end of the Minnesota game as well because he had 4 and believed (rightfully so) that the team needed him to stick around.

I think our lack of depth (we are 322nd on KenPom with bench minutes) has taught teams that we will get tentative with some foul trouble especially on Roby and Copeland.

• I think we are the same team that went 13-5 in conference last year, which is better than last year's early non conference team.  The only difference I see is a little better three point shooting with Watson improved, Allen more experienced, Copeland healthier and Nana.  That team is good enough to dance and maybe win a game but is likely a middling team in this year's Big 10.  I still hope for 12-8 but KenPom says 11-9.
• If we do that and extend Miles we won't back up too far next year with what we have coming in and staying (maybe Bubble or NIT) and we can keep building from there, searching for more consistent post-season appearances and post season success.  We are really starting to gain all of the Nebraska/Omaha recruiting lead and I don't want to lose that.
• I disagree about this being the most talented team we have ever had.  We are just not deep enough and we don't have enough post presence.  I love him but you won't finish in the top 4 of this conference with Borchardt as your first big man off the bench.

And finally, I need to stay off twitter after games. 

31 minutes ago, HuskerPower #nato73 said:

 

I think our defensive issues in the post come down to being tentative and fearing foul trouble.  Iowa (who does this well) successfully put Borchardt, Roby and Copeland on the bench to end the 1st half.  I though Copeland was tentative at the end of the Minnesota game as well because he had 4 and believed (rightfully so) that the team needed him to stick around.

 

I think our lack of depth (we are 322nd on KenPom with bench minutes) has taught teams that we will get tentative with some foul trouble especially on Roby and Copeland.

 

• I think we are the same team that went 13-5 in conference last year, which is better than last year's early non conference team.  The only difference I see is a little better three point shooting with Watson improved, Allen more experienced, Copeland healthier and Nana.  That team is good enough to dance and maybe win a game but is likely a middling team in this year's Big 10.  I still hope for 12-8 but KenPom says 11-9.
• If we do that and extend Miles we won't back up too far next year with what we have coming in and staying (maybe Bubble or NIT) and we can keep building from there, searching for more consistent post-season appearances and post season success.  We are really starting to gain all of the Nebraska/Omaha recruiting lead and I don't want to lose that.
• I disagree about this being the most talented team we have ever had.  We are just not deep enough and we don't have enough post presence.  I love him but you won't finish in the top 4 of this conference with Borchardt as your first big man off the bench.

And finally, I need to stay off twitter after games. 

Stay off of Facebook too!  Especially the comments on the official Husker Basketball posts.

5 hours ago, jayschool said:

Accepted.

My sympathies. Also, it allows me to offer  moment of silence for my brother, who moved to dubuque from Chicago last month. I feel for him. I feel for you.

...

17 hours ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

 

 

*End of story is why I'd someone to bust Bohannon's chops. Bush league move.

 

Senior night is going to be a hostile crowd for Jordan.

3 hours ago, hskr4life said:

 

Stay off of Facebook too!  Especially the comments on the official Husker Basketball posts.

Don’t underestimate how much we miss Evan Taylor & Anton Gill, not only for their steady play and points off the bench, but we don’t have anyone that has filled those roles. We miss Amir for the minutes he allowed us to spell Glynn & the D he provided. And we never even got to see what Karrington Davis has to show...

4 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

Don’t underestimate how much we miss Evan Taylor & Anton Gill, not only for their steady play and points off the bench, but we don’t have anyone that has filled those roles. We miss Amir for the minutes he allowed us to spell Glynn & the D he provided. And we never even got to see what Karrington Davis has to show...

Miss Evan's we aren't losing leadership.

On 1/6/2019 at 9:53 PM, Husker4theSpurs said:

I find myself especially concerned when I see someone who left doing so well elsewhere (Michael Jacobsen) and it's brought to mind that I can't really recall too many players who were drastically improved by the time they left here.

We have built our program by taking players that were not succeeding at previous colleges and them drastically improving by the time they left.

3 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

 

We have built our program by taking players that were not succeeding at previous colleges and them drastically improving by the time they left.

So are you saying that this staff is above average at developing talent?  I would disagree in a big way with that assessment if so.  

19 minutes ago, royalfan said:

So are you saying that this staff is above average at developing talent?  I would disagree in a page way with that assessment if so.  

No. I'm saying that Jacobson improved because he spent a year developing his offensive game, which was what he needed to work on.

I think he would also show this kind of improvement had he stayed at Nebraska and redshirted for a year. 

On 1/8/2019 at 10:37 AM, hhcmatt said:

 

No. I'm saying that Jacobson improved because he spent a year developing his offensive game, which was what he needed to work on.

I think he would also show this kind of improvement had he stayed at Nebraska and redshirted for a year. 

I think I agree although not certain we could have helped his shot as much as they have.  Actually I kind of doubt it.

I thought Tai Webster was overmatched at the D1 level his first two years, and he turned out to be a rock star. Petteway, Pitchford, even Palmer and Copeland were bit players at their previous institutions. Some guys do just need a change of scenery and more minutes... hard to say how much we've "Coached em Up" but they've all been huge contributers.

I have tried not to think about this because in the grand scheme of things, I know the fate of Nebrasketball is a very small matter, but this skid still bugs me. I believe this team has the capability of making a 5 of 6 or 6 of 8 run, but we've got to figure things out soon. The frustrating thing for me was that the only real chance Iowa had to keep us below 90 points was to throw some gimmick zones at us, and we looked like we'd never prepared for it. Absent Cook and maybe Moss, Iowa is not athletic. We needed to make individual defenders actually have to guard us in the zone, and we eventually began attacking and had some success. Heck, we scored 84 points only making 4 3's. Problem was when we did attack, we couldn't get stops on the defensive end. It appears to me that we are lacking the mental toughness, especially on the defensive end, that spurred our run in conference play last year. We seemed to have a will and desire to get stops that is not present now. Maybe Taylor and Gill were more important than we thought. Miles has repeatedly said that the "aggressor almost always wins." We are not playing that way right now, or, when we do get aggressive, we aren't playing smart. For example, when JPG attempted on several occasions to dribble through two defenders 25 feet away from the basket. There was also a transition opportunity where Glynn had Bohannon backpedaling, and instead of attacking the basket, Glynn stopped and kicked it back out, and we eventually missed a contested 3. I won't lose hope that we can turn this around. Nobody wants to do that more than the coaching staff and players, and they take a lot of garbage from message board posters like me. However it comes about, the staff needs to restore some confidence and instill the killer attitude which appears to be missing. Remind and instruct them how they can be successful and drill into them an attitude of discipline not to stray from the plan (and hopefully have some fun playing basketball). Get some momentum by beating Penn State and then move on. GBR!!

NM

2 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

 

No. I'm saying that Jacobson improved because he spent a year developing his offensive game, which was what he needed to work on.

I think he would also show this kind of improvement had he stayed at Nebraska and redshirted for a year. 

Some of Jacobson's improvement might also be that, at Iowa State, he doesn't have to concentrate so much on bulking up to play defense in the post in the Big Ten.  He's listed at 230 this year, where he was listed at 240 two years ago.  Nebraska took him as a guy who was a bit undersized and had some offensive skills, had him focus on getting stronger and bigger and playing defense, and his offense suffered.