uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 13; ed 9 - vs. Michigan

Yvan played well and Andre needs more minutes.

Generic to the season as a whole, but there's a trend:

We can play for one half. Then we shut down. Shooting inconsistency is continually a problem. Bad things this season, but promise for next season if some things get fixed. No need for a major overhaul, just a lot of small mistakes that add up real fast for us this season.

Good to see some response after a drought this time around, but not enough to topple a ranked team. Do like Hoiberg's ability to create opportunities, we're just got scoring off of them.

The bench scored 4 points. We just don’t have the depth or talent right now needed to win in this league. 
 

On the bright side it’s good to see Drago starting to play better. Mich showed tonight what having a legit man can do to change the game. 

--Thought Teddy had a good first half, but dropped off in the 2nd half.  Unfortunately, with a "volume" guy, they are going to keep shooting the entire night after having a first half like that.  

-- Lat is giving us virtually nothing right now.  His shot is OFF.  I realize it's different shooting in practice vs shooting in a game, but 80/100 should mean you at least shoot 33% in a game right?

-- We fought back in this one, but it was too far gone.  Once again, we can't play for a full 40 minutes.  Maybe one of these games.

-- Yuv... my man... has been great since his struggles early on.

-- Andre needs to start taking Lat's minutes if he ain't hitting.

-- Lakes was meh... need to try and find him open looks.

-- Banton took wayyy too many tough shots once we started to make a comeback.

-- Pretty good game for McGowens.

-- Overall, wish it could have been closer but at least we didn't fold.  We've got a long 18 games coming.

Can't have Lat, Webster, and Thor combine for 2 points on 1 of 7 shooting. Somebody has to get out of their funk and soon

Michigan defense is designed to turn you into a one on one team and we obliged. 6 total assists and 2 in the second half

9 minutes ago, MichHusker said:

Can't have Lat, Webster, and Thor combine for 2 points on 1 of 7 shooting. Somebody has to get out of their funk and soon

Agreed.  Lats and Websters decline or ineffectivness is a concern

Spirited effort.  Good defense.  Still can’t shoot.   

It just doesn't seem like this team is committed to run. The guy with the ball will push it but everyone else runs with the pack instead of getting out ahead of the ball. Nike Bahe said a few times that he would like to see Nebraska's athletes in the open floor. I would like to see us press to get the game going up and down even if it means giving up easy shots which we do anyway.  We can't guard the post one on one and when we double it just leads to open threes. Everybody thinks they want to run and gun but it takes a full commitment from five guys to run hard on every possession, make or miss.

A lot of open looks and free throws missed.  There are players who are balling and others that are lost.  Not naming names but...

Did we cover?

20 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Did we cover?

No. I had the line at +8.

1 hour ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

It just doesn't seem like this team is committed to run. The guy with the ball will push it but everyone else runs with the pack instead of getting out ahead of the ball. Nike Bahe said a few times that he would like to see Nebraska's athletes in the open floor. I would like to see us press to get the game going up and down even if it means giving up easy shots which we do anyway.  We can't guard the post one on one and when we double it just leads to open threes. Everybody thinks they want to run and gun but it takes a full commitment from five guys to run hard on every possession, make or miss.

I'm not sure they can.

5 minutes ago, demone said:

 

No. I had the line at +8.

Dang.

1 hour ago, Huskerpapa said:

A lot of open looks and free throws missed.  There are players who are balling and others that are lost.  Not naming names but...

We need more from Thor/Lat/Kobe, maybe Andre & the imminent return of Walker will light a fire under our ass...

My observations, for what they are worth.  

Michigan moved the ball and people crisply and got better looks.

Nebraska stagnates too much, 4 people standing and watching a dribbler.

(in fairness, we did have some movement in the first half.)

Because  of Dickinson we had to double team and Michigan moved the ball to get good shots.

Michigan is good on defense but we were easy to guard.

Andre might be an unpolished gem.

Smith, the Michigan point guard made some very slick passes.

We seemed to sulk when we didn’t get foul calls on drives to the basket.

IMO our 3 point percentage is lower than it should be because of selection of attempts.

How often have we taken an offensive rebound and kicked it out for an open 3?

IF, and it’s a big IF, we can play a full 40 minutes we might pull off some wins.

Minnesota beating Iowa tonight is one more tough opponent.

Who believed Northwestern would be this good?

Kobe Webster had never gone scoreless in his first 92 collegiate games.  He's gone scoreless since, against conference competition.  His previous career low of 3 was against the only other Big Ten opponent he'd played against (Nebraska two years ago).  Let's hope he gets that turned around.

Was unable to watch live, had to catch up on DVR.

Nice halves from Allen and McGowens. Need a whole game.

Banton wasn't making good choices on his shots.

Echoing the tempo critique, both Banton and McGowens had easy buckets when they raced to the offensive end... gotta have more of that. 

At what point does it become clear that the three point barrage is not in the current team's  repertoire? I understand coaching style, and preference, but I also remember that COACHING involves finding a way to get more points than the other team. Coaches seem to understand that if you don't have a powerful post you don't try to pound inside, but when you have a team that has proven to perimeter-limited,  why isn't there another option? I believe a made two is worth more than a missed three.

I have never seen a team get away with more moving screens than Michigan in this game. 

12 hours ago, hhcscott said:

Was unable to watch live, had to catch up on DVR.

 

Nice halves from Allen and McGowens. Need a whole game.

 

Banton wasn't making good choices on his shots.

 

Echoing the tempo critique, both Banton and McGowens had easy buckets when they raced to the offensive end... gotta have more of that. 

 

At what point does it become clear that the three point barrage is not in the current team's  repertoire? I understand coaching style, and preference, but I also remember that COACHING involves finding a way to get more points than the other team. Coaches seem to understand that if you don't have a powerful post you don't try to pound inside, but when you have a team that has proven to perimeter-limited,  why isn't there another option? I believe a made two is worth more than a missed three.

 

I have never seen a team get away with more moving screens than Michigan in this game. 

Nebraska only took 20 3s, and a few of Teddy's were desperation shots late in the clock after they failed to create anything else.

Nebraska shot 18-44 (40.9%) inside the arc including 10-24 on layups and 1-2 on dunks per the live stats. The Huskers missed their first 10 2-point shots of the second half. And a lot of the time when Dalano tried to create off the bounce he ended up taking really hard in-between shots, most of which he missed (6-14 inside the arc). 

It's not as simple as "stop shooting 3s and take more 2s." They're not good at 2s either right now, and they're obviously not good at the free-throw line either.

I didn’t think the effort was there for 40 minutes tonight like it was against Wisconsin. Closeouts and block-outs were lazy at times. Everyone is focusing on their big guy, but their guards/wings were getting into the lane at will for much of the game, and it’s not like we were running them off the 3 point line. 

Once Teddy caught fire, and other guys missed a couple open threes, everyone stopped moving on offense. Later in the game, the group that made the comeback (Dalano, Trey, Thor, Lakes, Yvan) were playing with purpose on both ends. 
 

Trey is the most explosive guard we’ve had since maybe Strickland. I love his mentality. His first instinct after a highlight reel dunk? Sprint back on defense. That’s pretty rare nowadays. 
 

Feel bad for Lat. He has no confidence right now and his body language shows it. He does play hard. 
 

If you take away the Nevada game, we’re shooting about 35% from three. That’s really not too bad considering our shooters - Lat, Kobe, Thor - aren’t making shots right now. Everything would look different if those guys were just average shooters right now. Again I thought Lakes passed up a couple early looks. I want him shooting with no hesitation.

I hope Walker is a miracle man. I really thought we were going to win this game. Now after seeing all of the other teams play at this point, I'm thinking along the lines of an 0-fer for the remainder of the season. Maybe it is just a post-Christmas hangover. 

2 hours ago, jimmykc said:

I hope Walker is a miracle man. I really thought we were going to win this game. Now after seeing all of the other teams play at this point, I'm thinking along the lines of an 0-fer for the remainder of the season. Maybe it is just a post-Christmas hangover. 

Unless we see some improvements, I can agree with your position.  We need to find a group with total chemistry.

Mcgowens kind of reminds me of Clifford Scales.  Tough, hard nose and has energy.   Thought we might see more than 4 minutes from Andre.  I think Andre may not be seeing much for minutes because he may not be in game condition and know offense/defense as well due to the 3 week covid quarantine?    Thought we would be closer on this game.   We just down't shoot the 3 well enough.   Michigan shows how good a formula it is to have a 7+ footer that can dish to multiple outside shooters.  

I've noticed over the years when you try to blend a bunch of new guys together, it generally takes a good ten games before they kind of figure out where the points come from and how to make those opportunities happen. This year, we had a bunch of new guys but not the luxury of a normal non-conference with a host of directional cupcakes to cut our teeth on.

Yeah, we lost, but we were within 4 points with 6 minutes to play against a top 20 team.

I think we're going to see some guys begin to appear more comfortable out there and I think we have a win or two on the horizon.

Heck, you're already seeing it with Yvan. He's kind of grasped some of his limitations and what not to do and he's now focusing on where he's strong and can help the team.

I'm not as down as some people are, but then that's kind of what I'm known for, right?