uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 12; ed 15 - vs. Iowa

3 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

I like beating Iowa.

 

I love beating Iowa :)

3 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

I like beating Iowa.

 

It sure doesn’t suck. 

4 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

I like beating Iowa.

 

And Creighton lost...a great night all the way around!!!

Loved the rotation.

Loved the intensity.

Loved the win.

Loved the defense.

Free throw shooting...meh

I hope Mack stays (think he will) another year because when he is clicking, he is just fun to watch.  That extra year would give him time to work on his jumper with some guidance.  

Mack is as quick a PG as there is.

Cross played well tonight.  Struggled when left alone with Garza but even old and bigger guys have and will.

Cheatham - broke record here but dang he is solid.  Not fancy, but solid.

Thor - Thor loves him some Beakers.  The smell of bad corn brings out the best in the kid.

Easley - did all the little things tonight.  Instead of hanging his head when the shot was not going for him, he played good defense and was the first one on the floor for loose balls (yeah Norm I heard it).

Will be interesting to hear why Green sat.

Yvan - not one of his better games and yet, no horrible.  Just over matched by Garza and yet, still flashed some signs of what's to come.

Burke - Solid game, looked more confident shooting tonight.  And while I complained about his strutting after the dunk, not that I don't think he and the others should have fun, we just needed him focused on the FT at that point in a close game.  Game has to be fun for them,.

3 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Thor has one of the highest basketball IQs of any player we've ever had here. Examples abound. Some stand out: he knew we had 4 team fouls in the half with a minute or so to play and could force Iowa to waste time inbounding the ball rather than getting a shot at the hoop. Just made sure the foul was on the floor. And you could tell he knew exactly what he was doing when he did it.

 

Thor has made the absolute most of the opportunities he's had to see the floor his entire career here. And he has manufactured a jump shot where there was none, which had to take a lot of work and perseverance. Love seeing that kid have success.

Was fun listening to Burke and Mack basically say the same thing about his basketball IQ after the game in the Press Conference.  Mack even went as far as saying Thor was his best friend on the floor.

As much fun as it is beating Iowa, it’s even MORE fun when there’s about 10 of them sitting right in front of you. I couldn’t resist asking them if they knew how to get to I-80 East...

Thor really is a xfactor for us.  When he hits from outside, he’s a legit stretch 4 for us because he’s still somewhat serviceable there on the defensive end.  Great game from him on the boards.  
 

Cam is truly special when the guys around him decide to play at his IQ level and move without the ball/make shots.  
 

PLAY EASLEY.  He’s our best perimeter defender.  Gotta make those threes because once he does, we’ll have ourselves a Bruce Bowen.  
 

Burke was very clutch tonight.  He had a nice stat line, but he kept us steady with some big shots.  
 

Cross was fantastic and played like a true versatile big.  1/3 threes, 4/5 from the line.  Some grown man finishes around the rim.

 
Cheatham was a nuisance on both ends.  He was probably a part of 4-5 team steals.  Good to see the threes go down for him.  
 

Yvan was okay.   The effort was definitely there on both ends.  
 

Game ball goes to Doc for this one.  He put together another pesky defensive game plan.

I don’t think this game was a fluke.  I think we’re a decent team at home when we don’t crap the bed in the first 10 minutes.  There are more home wins on the horizon.  Let’s not talk about the road. 

Quite the gamble by Doc with that game plan, but we lucked out. 

Great defensive game plan - at least as it worked out.   Force them to beat us from 3 -and then watch them miss 16 out of their first 17 attempts - and 29 out of 33 overall.   Certainly help that Bohannon is out for the year and the guy they have shooting 50% from 3 (23/46) - Frederick was injured and did not play tonight.    But watching them play Penn State the other day Toussaint seemed very effective - announcers in that game were raving about him - and then we decided we did not need to guard him at all.   Looked it up and realized he was just 4-22 from 3 on the year before tonight - so a good move not just because he doesn't hurt you shooting from there - but playing 10 feet off of him also limited his opportunities to drive to the basket which is what he wants to do - and also took away passing lanes to Garza.    Had Wieskamp hit the jump shots he took in the first half the strategy likely would not have worked - but he wasn't hitting and they had no one else on the floor that would be considered a jump shooter.   Not sure if it was Doc or who that came up with the plan but it worked brilliantly. 

Obviously also helped that we shot very well - at least in spurts - and hit big shots when we needed them.

10 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Thor has one of the highest basketball IQs of any player we've ever had here. Examples abound. Some stand out: he knew we had 4 team fouls in the half with a minute or so to play and could force Iowa to waste time inbounding the ball rather than getting a shot at the hoop. Just made sure the foul was on the floor. And you could tell he knew exactly what he was doing when he did it.

 

Thor has made the absolute most of the opportunities he's had to see the floor his entire career here. And he has manufactured a jump shot where there was none, which had to take a lot of work and perseverance. Love seeing that kid have success.

His fouls were PERFECT. 

1 minute ago, basketballjones said:

Quite the gamble by Doc with that game plan, but we lucked out. 

That's our default defensive game plan.

Kevin Cross impressed me tn. I had said just a couple days earlier that, against good competition, he had not impressed me. Tonight he did. I am very intrigued to see how a body transformation affects his game next season.

Also, I am interested to see if the Easley-Green swap is long term move or was just used as a motivational tool for Green. No doubt Green has played some good minutes for us this year but he has also been arguably our most inconsistent player. Credit to Easley for making the most of his opportunity. If HCFH decides to stick with Easley for a few games you cannot fault him for it.

Everything else has been touched on already. GBR!

I loved this game plan, very similar to Purdue. I want to see us use this going forward every game. I think if we played that Rutgers game again, you'd see us use it. Awesome effort all around!

Cross grew up very much tonight.. He also doesn't have any fear when he is on the offensive end.

We play hard we seem to have the best chance to win.... no sh1t right?

We also play much better from the front... get the lead and the swagger comes and we then feed off of that.

Fun game...

And did somebody say on here it is fun to beat Iowa?

Also our game plan works best against bigs who aren't that willing to bang a lot.

51 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

I like beating Iowa.

 

- Night and day different from the Rutgers game.

- It's fun beating Iowa

- Thor has turned into a difference maker. Don't think I would have predicted that one.

- It's wonderful beating Iowa

- We seem to play better when Green isn't playing much. I wouldn't have predicted that one, either. 

- It's  good to beat Iowa

- I thought Yvan and Kevin did pretty well against Iowa's trees. 

- I think beating Iowa something everyone can get behind.

- Defense did a good job across the board.

- Who doesn't think beating Iowa is a good idea?

- Easley needs to be in the rotation. There's an open scholarship for next year. Maybe he should get it?

- Lol. Iowa hates PBA. That's cool.

- I thought it was interesting that right after Fran got T'd up, Iowa got a bunch of calls in a row...

- Any night you beat Iowa is a good night.

- Crowd was into it all night. 

- I enjoy beating Iowa

Something in my mind says that you enjoy beating Iowa.  
 

Me too! 

Interesting that Hoiberg said he told Jervay before the game that he wasn’t going to play, said he wanted to replicate the lineups they went with vs Indiana and Purdue.  Our offense moved sooooo much better. (At least it’s seemed like it to me)

Yvan actually has the size and strength to somewhat effectively keep Garza from getting real deep. That is amazing to me, that we have a 17 year old true freshman going up against one of the top big guys in the country. 
 

Cheatham and Burke has solid, nice games. But Mack and Thor, and some Cross were the catalysts...

Also loved Charlie’s hustle. Right in front of my seats o got to see him block a pass and then dive for the looseball and call a timeout. Hoiberg said on the radio that play was huge because it helps set the tone to the rest of the team. I expect to see more of Charlie.

Kavas played like 2 minutes it seemed. 
 

A great win - the late drive back to Omaha was much better than Friday night...

40 minutes ago, colhusker said:

Was fun listening to Burke and Mack basically say the same thing about his basketball IQ after the game in the Press Conference.  Mack even went as far as saying Thor was his best friend on the floor.

That last comment was intriguing, in particular, especially with a guy like Jervay Green not playing tonight. Just a curious notion to present "Best Friend is The Hammer" in a post-game presser

Charlie "Hustle" and Thor bringin' the Hammer to Iowa once again were especially enjoyable.

And, the home team has won the past 7 meetings between NU & Iowa.

Outta the next 5 games, can we get one @ Northwestern & home against Indiana...? I don’t think that’s unrealistic.

Just now, Handy Johnson said:

Outta the next 5 games, can we get one @ Northwestern & home against Indiana...? I don’t think that’s unrealistic.

Those are the two I've earmarked as the Best Possibilities for Multiple NU WIns in the Next 5 Ballgames.

6 hours ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

Interesting that Hoiberg said he told Jervay before the game that he wasn’t going to play, said he wanted to replicate the lineups they went with vs Indiana and Purdue.  Our offense moved sooooo much better. (At least it’s seemed like it to me)

The thing about Green is:

He has the 3rd worst 3pt% on the team at 30%. Only above Cross and Easley but leads the team in 3pt attempts at 61. (tied now with Cam, Prior to tonight he was alone as the only guy with 60+ 3pt attempts) 

He's also dead last (not counting Arop who has yet to take a shot) in fg% and yet is one of 5 players with over 100 attempts. (he had the 3rd most attempts on the team going into tonight.)

Considering the fact that he's put up those shot numbers despite missing 2 full games and again is often the worst shooter on the floor... that is simply an offense killer. Nothing else he brings to the table right now makes up for what is lost just by having him on the floor taking shots.