uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 14; ed 2 - Sam Houston St.

Our season opener taught me to appreciate the wins this season. So with that:

It felt like we won in spite of Verge. Anytime we started to get a rhythm going offensively he would put a damper on it with a step back three or an air-balled floater. This team obviously does have potential if we just keep the ball moving and generate good looks. 

I think Verge is kind of our new Teddy…

3 minutes ago, Faux Mike Peltz said:

I think Verge is kind of our new Teddy…

Biggs 2.0 I'm afraid...so, pretty much the same

16 offensive rebounds given up, but tied them in 2nd chance points with 14.

Difference was at the free throw line.  NU 26 - 36 SHSU 8 - 16

I thought defense was good for the most part.  Flagg took 22 shots to get 31 points.  To contrast, Bryce took 13 shots to get 29 points.

Flagg tried to keep them in the game.  Flagg was 12 - 22.  5 - 10 from 3.  The rest of the team was 12 - 42.  4 - 20 from 3.

Verge played a little more unselfish tonight.  Still had his moments where he dribbled around without a purpose.

Have to shoot better from 3.  Can't go 0 - 15 outside of Bryce going 4 - 7 to win many games, especially in conference play.

On to Creighton, who squeaked by Kennesaw State last night.

I mean we won, so great. And we met adversity and responded versus going, “oh no, here we go…”

But that was unwatchable. I don’t like anything we’re seeing offensively. If we play offense this way Creighton’s going to run us out of the building. We refuse to execute, cut hard, be unselfish. Slight better in the second half, but not much…

Defense just has no edge unless they get chewed out or start feeling like they have to play hard. Some Johnny try hard stuff while on the ball… but off the ball - YIKES. They rotate ok at times… but meh. 

Rebounding effort was much better tonight. Ed helped that out quite a bit. Well, Ed helped out everywhere quite a bit because he came in a played hard, and ran the offense. 

Verge was not enjoyable to watch at times tonight. Well, most of the time. He finally chilled the F out in the second half and tried to move the ball around more distribute. 
 

We all got a taste of why Bryce is not going to be playing for us next year, but for game checks. However, he’s got a lot to learn about playing basketball without the ball. Also looked like a JV kid when the blitzed ball screens on him a couple times. He’s only 19 so I’m not too worried. 

Really disappointed in the effort and how we’ve played to start the season. In Hoiberg We Trust. But man would I give quite a bit to just see a gelled, all on the same page team. 

I am glad we won.  We lack continuity for a variety of reasons.  Spacing and ball movement is severely lacking. 

Glad Andre is back in the mix.    

Shooting has to get better...right?

2 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Shooting has to get better...right?

Usually doesn't...

7 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

I am glad we won.  We lack continuity for a variety of reasons.  Spacing and ball movement is severely lacking. 

Glad Andre is back in the mix.    

Shooting has to get better...right?

The shooting is bad because we aren’t getting good looks. Other than a couple Lat looks and 1 CJ look, all of our three misses were either heavily contested or off the dribble sliding backwards. (Not counting Bryce who made some)

The offensive movement and passing needs to come first, and then the shots will fall

19 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

I mean we won, so great. And we met adversity and responded versus going, “oh no, here we go…”

 

But that was unwatchable. I don’t like anything we’re seeing offensively. If we play offense this way Creighton’s going to run us out of the building. We refuse to execute, cut hard, be unselfish. Slight better in the second half, but not much…

 

Defense just has no edge unless they get chewed out or start feeling like they have to play hard. Some Johnny try hard stuff while on the ball… but off the ball - YIKES. They rotate ok at times… but meh. 

 

Rebounding effort was much better tonight. Ed helped that out quite a bit. Well, Ed helped out everywhere quite a bit because he came in a played hard, and ran the offense. 

Verge was not enjoyable to watch at times tonight. Well, most of the time. He finally chilled the F out in the second half and tried to move the ball around more distribute. 
 

We all got a taste of why Bryce is not going to be playing for us next year, but for game checks. However, he’s got a lot to learn about playing basketball without the ball. Also looked like a JV kid when the blitzed ball screens on him a couple times. He’s only 19 so I’m not too worried. 

 

Really disappointed in the effort and how we’ve played to start the season. In Hoiberg We Trust. But man would I give quite a bit to just see a gelled, all on the same page team. 

Crayton shouldn't run them out of the building.  If anything it willbe ugly low scoring.  At some point the jays will hit shots.  Hopefully not Tuesday. Verge has to be a pg and not play selfish for this team to be successful

50 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

Verge was not enjoyable to watch at times tonight. Well, most of the time. He finally chilled the F out in the second half and tried to move the ball around more distribute. 

Verge can be the key that unlocks this thing, and looked it in the Colorado exhibition. We've seen flashes of it. If it clicks it can be/will be beautiful. We don't have time to wait for it to happen, it's now gotta happen in the next couple games. I'm still praying a switch gets flipped and we never look back. 

23 minutes ago, coughunter said:

Crayton shouldn't run them out of the building.

If you search that sentence you’ll find it on this board 150 times, followed by a game thread where we got 30 burgered.

Andre came in and changed the game. His points were nice, but we all realize he won’t score that much most nights. But he altered so many shots in his limited minutes. 
 

I know he is raw and I am sure he does things that frustrate Fred, but he has to be a part of the rotation. I know people love Walker, and he is a good leader and plays hard. But he is a very below average center in the B1G. He is a 6’8” center who can’t shoot, can’t dribble and isn’t particularly skilled at anything. Has decent hands, but that’s not enough at this level. He definitely is not a rim protector. 

With that said, Ed has to do his part to help Fred have more confidence in him. Whatever he is or isn’t doing in practice needs to get sorted out so he can get more PT going forward. 
 

Disappointing thing is that if Andre played in the first game NU most likely wins. What was Fred thinking (or not thinking)? 

If the other Huskers hit 10 of those 15 Threes on Tuesday maybe WE’LL be the one’s who run Creighton out of the building…

27 minutes ago, NUdiehard said:

Andre came in and changed the game. His points were nice, but we all realize he won’t score that much most nights. But he altered so many shots in his limited minutes. 
 

I know he is raw and I am sure he does things that frustrate Fred, but he has to be a part of the rotation. I know people love Walker, and he is a good leader and plays hard. But he is a very below average center in the B1G. He is a 6’8” center who can’t shoot, can’t dribble and isn’t particularly skilled at anything. Has decent hands, but that’s not enough at this level. He definitely is not a rim protector. 

With that said, Ed has to do his part to help Fred have more confidence in him. Whatever he is or isn’t doing in practice needs to get sorted out so he can get more PT going forward. 
 

Disappointing thing is that if Andre played in the first game NU most likely wins. What was Fred thinking (or not thinking)? 

 

 

Been wondering same thing….  He put Lakes in first game but no Andre…. Very odd deal

- Andre was a good boost off the bench.  Absolutely what we needed.

-Bryce looked good on the drive tonight.

- T Mac is getting more comfortable in his role I think which is good to see.

-Sometimes Verge looks like me playing 2K where I just run around and dribble until I find an open shot and take it.

- With that being said.... at one point he was one of the only ones with a handful of assists on the night too.  Just need him to be even MORE of a distributor.

- Honestly think, if he would play more of a distributor role, his points would come more naturally.

- Ugly from deep, but... that’s Nebrasketball in a nutshell.

- Little hskr4life attended her first game and asked to go back.  So that’s a good thing.  She’s 1-0 attending Nebrasketball games. She didn’t have to sit though a gut punch ending though, so we can still train her up more.  

Got the win. It was slightly better than game 1, but I still fear what will happen on Tuesday night against the team that shall not be named.

I was very critical of Bryce after game 1 so I need to applaud him for game 2. Much better efficiency for the most part - wasn't "hunting shots" nearly as much and let the game present him with the opportunity. He took advantage when it did.

Someone else said it - I think our shooting is off because we aren't getting open looks. Too much standing and watching, which is understandable when Verge has the ball. 2 games in, I am not a fan and he would have spent a considerable amount of time on the bench again if it were me. Yes, he has assists but when you handle the ball as much as he does, a squirrel will find a nut once in a while. His mentality is shoot first, shoot second, pass third. I really want to see someone else run the point (Trey, Kobe) and let Verge come off the bench.

Andre was the reason we won - energy, defense, rebounding - he brought it all and led to the run to put that game away. 

Huge improvement from Wilhelm too - did a lot of things that won't show up on the stat sheet to help the team. However, stop whining to the officials when you get called for a foul. Officiating is awful, we all know it and you should too. Just stop complaining.

Obviously the referees never learned in grade school that you should never pick on someone wearing glasses.

8 hours ago, nuhusker7 said:

The shooting is bad because we aren’t getting good looks. Other than a couple Lat looks and 1 CJ look, all of our three misses were either heavily contested or off the dribble sliding backwards. (Not counting Bryce who made some)

 

The offensive movement and passing needs to come first, and then the shots will fall

I think your spot on.   I feel like some of our shooters are not getting the ball very much when they are open and then when they do get the ball they are shooting it up under pressure  because they want to show they can contribute.   It's like selfish play is leading to more selfish play. 

It's exactly like you say,  if we would have more ball movement (passing),  I think the shot selection would be better and they would have opportunities for more open shots. 

The second issue is blocking out on rebounds.   We need to do much, much better on that. 

After watching the first half of the Kenesaw St./Bluejay game and seeing our team's stats from the first two games, it is easy to predict Tuesday's game will be a brick-athon. If it is, we'll get killed on the boards. Are Mayen and Webster still injured from what people observed last night? As two of our better 3 pt. shooters, we will need them Tuesday night. And how did the "chemistry" between our guards appear last night? At this point I have no idea what to expect, but a raucous home crowd might help make the difference.  

Thought I'd throw this out there:

2021-22

NEB

 

GP	GS	MIN	FG	FG%	3PT	3P%	FT	FT%	OR	DR	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PF	TO	PTS
2	2	37.5	8.0-15.5	51.6	2.5-6.5	38.5	8.5-10.5	81.0	0.5	5.0	5.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	1.5	1.5	27.0

 

I'm going to assume Lat Mayen is injured still. Slowed by back spasms or whatever. But 18 minutes and not a single rebound? 0-4 from 3, OK, 1st game jitters for him. But not a single board? Not one? In 18 minutes? Dude is 6'9.

But here's some good news:

Last year, Derrick Walker was an atrocious 45.5% from the FT line. Eduardo Andre was right behind him at 45%.

Last night, they were a combined 80% on 10 attempts. In fact, Derrick has only missed 1 FT on the season and he's currently at 83.3% from the line.

That's a very welcome improvement. Trey McGowens, however, is still lagging in the FT department at a frigid 58.3%. That must get better.

Great points here. Surprised one of you sharp people didn’t mention in particular how outwardly angry Fred was on the sideline with Verge in the last 90 seconds. He TWICE didn’t follow the directions of taking the air out of the ball and both times damn near turned it over (Bryce got a dunk on one). Fred threw his Hands up once and the next time threw his hands up and turned around. I’ve never seen him do that. 
 

Also worth pointing out on Verge that Fred kept him out almost 5 minutes in the second half when things were gelling with him on bench. That’s much longer than game one at any point and much longer last night than either Trey or Bryce sat at once. Verge will be in Fred’s doghouse soon if he doesn’t buy in. 
 

Finally, as I posted after game one, where’s Andre? I’d like to hear an actual explanation and details of what happened because we surely (as pointed out above) win game one wifh him. 

9 minutes ago, hhcdave said:

Great points here. Surprised one of you sharp people didn’t mention in particular how outwardly angry Fred was on the sideline with Verge in the last 90 seconds. He TWICE didn’t follow the directions of taking the air out of the ball and both times damn near turned it over (Bryce got a dunk on one). Fred threw his Hands up once and the next time threw his hands up and turned around. I’ve never seen him do that. 
 

Also worth pointing out on Verge that Fred kept him out almost 5 minutes in the second half when things were gelling with him on bench. That’s much longer than game one at any point and much longer last night than either Trey or Bryce sat at once. Verge will be in Fred’s doghouse soon if he doesn’t buy in. 
 

Finally, as I posted after game one, where’s Andre? I’d like to hear an actual explanation and details of what happened because we surely (as pointed out above) win game one wifh him. 

Definitely a pass, right, @zo_verge1? @BryceMcgowens5 saw it all the way. pic.twitter.com/tKZ8fvQuTL

— Nebraska On BTN (@NebraskaOnBTN) November 13, 2021

27 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

I'm going to assume Lat Mayen is injured still. Slowed by back spasms or whatever. But 18 minutes and not a single rebound? 0-4 from 3, OK, 1st game jitters for him. But not a single board? Not one? In 18 minutes? Dude is 6'9.

 

But here's some good news:

 

Last year, Derrick Walker was an atrocious 45.5% from the FT line. Eduardo Andre was right behind him at 45%.

 

Last night, they were a combined 80% on 10 attempts. In fact, Derrick has only missed 1 FT on the season and he's currently at 83.3% from the line.

 

That's a very welcome improvement. Trey McGowens, however, is still lagging in the FT department at a frigid 58.3%. That must get better.

At one point I remarked to my seatmates how freaked out I was that Walker was making all these FTs.  He reportedly put the work in over off-season so good job by him.