uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 13; ed 4 - South Dakota

3-1 & NO losses to No Dak, or someplace in California Riverside....

Kissed our sister tonight. Wasn't bad; wasn't great; less than what we wanted, but a win is still a win, right?

Our KenPom ranking actually dropped after this game.  Not really a surprise, but dang...that's why you finish out these wins boys!

Stevenson needs to start for Thor, really miss Walker. 

Got one more “gimme” and then our shit better be together because nothing gets easier.

MEH.

It was a win...and it likely would not have been last year.  Players seemed to realize they needed to feed the beast in the second half, and did so. 

If the game was a movie title, I would vote for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

And oh by the way, before others choose to bash Thor, please learn what his role is, what he is being asked to do by the coaches, what his teammates say he brings to the court and then watch the tape and specifically what he is doing within the game.  Just saying...

And furthermore, this team does not need a volume shooter or a player that demands X number of shots per game.  We have players who can score; and so can Thor, he just understands he doesn't need to at this time.

Banton didn’t even play his best and still quietly fills the stat sheet.

Banton, Allen, McGowens, Shamiel, Webster, and Mayen all look like suitable power-5 level players to me.  
 

Having Thor and Yvan as effectively your 7th & 8th guys tonight in terms of minutes is quite the luxury.  
 

We have massively upgraded from last year.  Massively.  It may not equate to a great record in conference play, but we are worlds better and we still have some nice reinforcements on their way too.

Next year, we look to have 3 more players who can drain it from deep. And I mean three really *really* good shooters. They won't all start; they won't all necessarily get big minutes; but I'll guess two out of three will have an impact and make us a really tough out on any given night.

Nice to get the W.  When we got up by 17, the play seemed to get a bit selfish on offense—and things deteriorated rapidly.

30 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

MEH.

It was a win...and it likely would not have been last year.  Players seemed to realize they needed to feed the beast in the second half, and did so. 

If the game was a movie title, I would vote for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

And oh by the way, before others choose to bash Thor, please learn what his role is, what he is being asked to do by the coaches, what his teammates say he brings to the court and then watch the tape and specifically what he is doing within the game.  Just saying...

And furthermore, this team does not need a volume shooter or a player that demands X number of shots per game.  We have players who can score; and so can Thor, he just understands he doesn't need to at this time.

Seems like he's struggling, he knows he struggling, and it's compounding things.  He has the track record to show what level of player he is so it's really more of a matter of when he might break out of it.

33 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

MEH.

It was a win...and it likely would not have been last year.  Players seemed to realize they needed to feed the beast in the second half, and did so. 

If the game was a movie title, I would vote for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

And oh by the way, before others choose to bash Thor, please learn what his role is, what he is being asked to do by the coaches, what his teammates say he brings to the court and then watch the tape and specifically what he is doing within the game.  Just saying...

And furthermore, this team does not need a volume shooter or a player that demands X number of shots per game.  We have players who can score; and so can Thor, he just understands he doesn't need to at this time.

 

The sheer balance between our roster in scoring / focus on assisting and the extra pass... I LOVE it. Gimme more. You're probably not getting hero ball much this year which is satisfying as all hell. teddy came through tonight, he's a player I already love and adopt as our nebraska son, I feel like he's the glue guy and soon to be fan favorite. Frustrating sometimes but the kid has no fear, his confidence is important on a nebraska program that has history of weak willed surrender. 

Your point is well taken; the team simply has enough talent and a system in place now to pass it around and let "whoever offense" reign supreme. Balanced scoring won't win wooden awards, but it'll win a lotta ball games and with defensibe intensity will not only give you a shot in every game, but wins trophies.

Kobe Webster had 0 assists tonight. On one hand, you want to see a PG on this team pass to people. On the other hand, he basically kept us in the game at the end of the first half with all the foul trouble and choppy play.  

Found something tonight with Stevenson. McGowens is a great defender but it's tough to ask him to lock down on someone the size of Umude

The good...24 points from our bench.  5 guys in double figures overall.

The bad...15 turnovers.  We should of beat these guys by more.

The ugly...offensive fouls.  Good lord that's like a double whammy.  Players need to adjust to the refs a little faster.  (If possible???????)

2 minutes ago, REDitus said:

The good...24 points from our bench.  5 guys in double figures overall.

The bad...15 turnovers.  We should of beat these guys by more.

The ugly...offensive fouls.  Good lord that's like a double whammy.  Players need to adjust to the refs a little faster.  (If possible???????)

Take away the offensive fouls and we have about 10 turnovers for the game, right? Overall not a bad number. Need to understand less athletic teams will try and take charges so we need to be smarter

Seemed like it took Banton quite a while to get back in the flow after the early foul trouble. Hopefully he can play better in those situations in the future.

Thor seems to be struggling right now, but hes still probably the 2nd best deep threat on this team, will need him to get straightened out. Didnt play the last 16 minutes, hopefully no injury issue.

1 minute ago, MichHusker said:

Take away the offensive fouls and we have about 10 turnovers for the game, right? Overall not a bad number. Need to understand less athletic teams will try and take charges so we need to be smarter

That's a good observation

1 minute ago, Crush78 said:

Seemed like it took Banton quite a while to get back in the flow after the early foul trouble. Hopefully he can play better in those situations in the future.

 

Thor seems to be struggling right now, but hes still probably the 2nd best deep threat on this team, will need him to get straightened out. Didnt play the last 16 minutes, hopefully no injury issue.

Maybe Thor isn't feeling well?   

I noticed Lat was sweating profusely fairly early.  He didn't sweat that much in the other games.   I wonder if he is a bit under the weather.   Isn't Lat the one that had an upset stomach the previous game? 

Teddy can fill it up as well as Petteway and Palmer, but he can do it more efficiently. 

They seemed disinterested and bored out there tonight. They started and finished like they were just going through the motions with a little work to actually win the game in the middle. 

One the one hand they won fairly easily playing that way.. but on the other hand that kind of stuff shouldn't be happening regardless of competition. Especially at this level. After Sunday there isn't a single team on the schedule we win against playing with that mindset.

5 minutes ago, MichHusker said:

Take away the offensive fouls and we have about 10 turnovers for the game, right? Overall not a bad number. Need to understand less athletic teams will try and take charges so we need to be smarter

There is this play in basketball called a jump stop. It would help in this area immensely. Also, it doesn't seem like we are running the floor and passing the ball ahead like we did last year. Was it that Cheatham leaked out a lot last year or am I just off the mark on this?  Kind off disappointed in the game tonight but I never really felt we were in jeopardy of losing.  I also think the team is not clicking yet and we could be pretty good when we do.

The insinuation that Thor is awesome because he isn’t selfish and can score at will but doesn’t feel like it really needs to stop.  He’s struggling to find a role with this roster, and that’s okay for now.  I’m sorry, but he getting outplayed by Shamiel and Kobe.  Look at the stat line and relative minutes.  

We all love Thor.  That shouldn’t negate the fact that we have a bonafide scorer in Teddy and a world class facilitator in Banton.  This team isn’t good enough from deep to frown on isolation scorers.  Teddy put on an iso clinic tonight.  Trey, Kobe, Delano, and Shamiel were all quietly in double figures.  Those are largely points that come from spreading out and taking your man off the dribble.  That ain’t Thor.  Against a zone?  Play him all night.  Against man?  At the 3?  He’s gonna have trouble getting open.  If he’s not hitting, you cannot tell me he is more valuable on the other end than Shamiel.  
 

I liked the distribution of minutes tonight, but I’d start Shamiel moving forward.  He’s earned it on both ends.  

1 minute ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

 

There is this play in basketball called a jump stop. It would help in this area immensely. Also, it doesn't seem like we are running the floor and passing the ball ahead like we did last year. Was it that Cheatham leaked out a lot last year or am I just off the mark on this?  Kind off disappointed in the game tonight but I never really felt we were in jeopardy of losing.  I also think the team is not clicking yet and we could be pretty good when we do.

In terms of the jump stop, while I'm a big fan I know some coaches don't teach that anymore. Nate Oats down at Alabama spoke at our coaches clinic in Michigan two years back and teaches his guys to go off one foot all the time. Right or wrong, I wonder what our staff teaches

3 minutes ago, MichHusker said:

In terms of the jump stop, while I'm a big fan I know some coaches don't teach that anymore. Nate Oats down at Alabama spoke at our coaches clinic in Michigan two years back and teaches his guys to go off one foot all the time. Right or wrong, I wonder what our staff teaches

Charges are called correctly about 1/3 of the time based on most metrics.  Tonight was definitely an anomaly.  It is almost always best to crash into defenders these days because blocks are so often called.  I’m guessing that’s the rationale.  

I love Thor. But he had about as quiet of a game as I’ve seen him have. I do think I’m conference play, Shamiel brings us more physically and scoring, probably defense as well. I’m probably in the minority here, but I really think Kobe Webster transferring here kind of fell below the radar with all the other pieces that came in. His scoring off the bench, let’s be honest, it’s been a while since we’ve had a guy come off the bench and get us double figures...He’s money from the baseline three.