uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 14; ed 3 - vs. Creighton

9 minutes ago, throwback said:

Couldn't agree more. Defensive fundamentals are horrible. You can't rebound when you don't put yourself in position to rebound in the time before the shot goes up. Or we're scrambling because a perimeter player's terrible defensive footwork allows penetration, so no one is in position to rebound.

 

We look like a team that spent the 6-week preseason running half-assed scrimmages and doing little else.

 

Filming practice videos so we could put out cool tweets?

Another thing that may or may not be a thing: Shoe color. Everyone on creighton's team wore something within their color scheme. NU's are all over the place. Why was Ed wearing blue shoes? Maybe it's not a big deal, but I would have liked to see a little more assertiveness there...

17 minutes ago, throwback said:

Couldn't agree more. Defensive fundamentals are horrible. You can't rebound when you don't put yourself in position to rebound in the time before the shot goes up. Or we're scrambling because a perimeter player's terrible defensive footwork allows penetration, so no one is in position to rebound.

 

We look like a team that spent the 6-week preseason running half-assed scrimmages and doing little else.

 

We are a poor defensive team this year.  But this is the same coaching staff as last year, which had a good defensive team.  And as we all know, Doc is the one coaching the defense.

We have some slow footed guys like Wilcher, Tominaga and Wilhelm.  We have some skinny guys in Verge, Bryce, Edwards.  And we have an undersized center in Walker. 

We also have some guys who simply don't understand the effort it takes every second on the court to be a good defender, and this includes our 5* freshman. 

As i mentioned in an earlier post, we can't have both guys getting beat on the perimeter and lack a rim protector.  Need either one or the other, at a minimum. I don't have a lot of confidence that the perimeter defense will ever be great, so I think we need the rim protection Ed brings just to try and mitigate the easy layups.  

Some moments that could have changed the game:

- Bryce gets called for a block. Kalkbrenner gets the and one and converts the free throw.

- End of the half, Edwards takes a 3 with about 19 seconds left instead of holding the ball. CU gets an extra possession and gets a free throw out of it.

- NU is down 44-43 and Bryce drives the lane and gets called for an offensive foul. A couple of possessions later, the score unchanged, he missed a layup. I'm guessing he's finished that play most of his life and will later in the season.

- Verge missed one, too, at 46-43. CU answered with at 3.

If those things, and probably some others go the other way, and they easily could have, been a different story. It's not really that different from what's happening in the football program. Little things and discipline are the difference in these games.

14 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

Some moments that could have changed the game:

- Bryce gets called for a block. Kalkbrenner gets the and one and converts the free throw.

- End of the half, Edwards takes a 3 with about 19 seconds left instead of holding the ball. CU gets an extra possession and gets a free throw out of it.

- NU is down 44-43 and Bryce drives the lane and gets called for an offensive foul. A couple of possessions later, the score unchanged, he missed a layup. I'm guessing he's finished that play most of his life and will later in the season.

- Verge missed one, too, at 46-43. CU answered with at 3.

 

If those things, and probably some others go the other way, and they easily could have, been a different story. It's not really that different from what's happening in the football program. Little things and discipline are the difference in these games.

ALL of this in Spades, every time we needed a stop/score we couldn’t make it happen, & they answered every single time. Would love to see a low post player in a Nebraska uniform learn a turnaround jump shot or some “back to the basket” moves….

52 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

Also, I think the Juco transition struggle is very real for Tominaga right now.

He does some good things off the ball.  I don’t know that he can flourish in an offense run by Verge.  I am concerned our dysfunctional offense may make a mess of him between the ears.  He has already seriously forced some shots versus letting them come in the flow of the offense (which we have almost none of at the moment).  

1 hour ago, uneblinstu said:

I wonder where McPherson is in his development. I wonder if he gets a look with Trey going down.

Feels like we absolutely need to find some minutes during this next stretch of games for the only available scholarship player with PG experience just in case we have something there.

26 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

Some moments that could have changed the game:

- Bryce gets called for a block. Kalkbrenner gets the and one and converts the free throw.

- End of the half, Edwards takes a 3 with about 19 seconds left instead of holding the ball. CU gets an extra possession and gets a free throw out of it.

- NU is down 44-43 and Bryce drives the lane and gets called for an offensive foul. A couple of possessions later, the score unchanged, he missed a layup. I'm guessing he's finished that play most of his life and will later in the season.

- Verge missed one, too, at 46-43. CU answered with at 3.

 

If those things, and probably some others go the other way, and they easily could have, been a different story. It's not really that different from what's happening in the football program. Little things and discipline are the difference in these games.

Those two calls - both fouls on Bryce were huge - and both were really bad calls.   Not sure how they called the one a block - had to be that they did not think he gave the guy room to turn because he certainly was set and appeared to be outside the circle.    The baseline drive in the 2nd half where they called a charge was a horrible call.  Ref on the baseline had a bad angle and apparently thought Bryce was moving into the defender when I could tell from my angle if anything the defender moved in to cause whatever contact was there.   Like they often do the ref assumed something was going to happen and made a call without see what actually happened (sort of like the foul they called on CJ when he contested a breakaway layup in the first half and literally never touched the guy at all).

1 minute ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Feels like we absolutely need to find some minutes during this next stretch of games for the only available scholarship player with PG experience.

It feels like, if you've got a glaring PG problem and you don't like the one guy who's a true PG on the roster play, then I wouldn't expect him to be a solution at the PG moving forward because he'll be portaling the second week of March.

1 hour ago, throwback said:

 

We look like a team that spent the 6-week preseason running half-assed scrimmages and doing little else.

 

6 weeks?  This team has been working out and practicing together since the first week of June. 

1 hour ago, uneblinstu said:

Also, I think the Juco transition struggle is very real for Tominaga right now.

I really feel like he has a feel for the game in addition to that outside stroke of his that hasn't been hitting over the last couple of games.  I really like his chances of figuring it out over this year and being a real contributor over the next couple of years.

I'd like to seem more of Edwards, too, but I have to think that decision to take the 3 at the end of the half played a big role in him not getting time as the game wore on. Coach was very adamant in that moment about getting the last shot. Really costly moment in the game.

7 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

I really feel like he has a feel for the game in addition to that outside stroke of his that hasn't been hitting over the last couple of games.  I really like his chances of figuring it out over this year and being a real contributor over the next couple of years.

Yeah, I do too. 

1 hour ago, uneblinstu said:

Another thing that may or may not be a thing: Shoe color. Everyone on creighton's team wore something within their color scheme. NU's are all over the place. Why was Ed wearing blue shoes? Maybe it's not a big deal, but I would have liked to see a little more assertiveness there...

And while we're at it, get rid of the gosh darn hoods on the gosh darn warmups!

2 minutes ago, Shawn Eichorst's Toupee said:

 

And while we're at it, get rid of the gosh darn hoods on the gosh darn warmups!

Meh, I don't care about that so much.

4 minutes ago, uneblinstu said:

Meh, I don't care about that so much.

Believe that was some high quality sarcasm based on that troll post some years back. 

1 hour ago, uneblinstu said:

Another thing that may or may not be a thing: Shoe color. Everyone on creighton's team wore something within their color scheme. NU's are all over the place. Why was Ed wearing blue shoes? Maybe it's not a big deal, but I would have liked to see a little more assertiveness there...

Details matter.  Basketball is a team sport and we have certain players that focus on being individuals.  Creighton has more new guys playing than us but you wouldn’t guess that by watching yesterday’s game.  The guys need to be laser focused on functioning as a team within the framework of our system or you don’t play.

If we could travel back to June 1 and gave McDermott the Nebraska roster and gave Hoiberg the Creighton roster, I think the Nebraska roster wins by 20. This is perhaps the most disheartening thing. Creighton just has a way better coach than we do. It's been that way for a decade and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

2 hours ago, uneblinstu said:

 

- I wonder where McPherson is in his development. I wonder if he gets a look with Trey going down.

 

Intrigued by this.  With Trey going down and Verge obviously not the answer, I would be interested to see what type of player he is.  Or more specifically is he a real PG.  

3 minutes ago, dustystehl said:

If we could travel back to June 1 and gave McDermott the Nebraska roster and gave Hoiberg the Creighton roster, I think the Nebraska roster wins by 20. This is perhaps the most disheartening thing. Creighton just has a way better coach than we do. It's been that way for a decade and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

I don't know. Sort of feels like Hoiberg would look like a hell of a better chef if McDermott did his grocery shopping.

3 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

I don't know. Sort of feels like Hoiberg would look like a hell of a better chef if McDermott did his grocery shopping.

Ingredients are important, sure, but there's a lot more to cooking a meal than just what's in your grocery bag.

2 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

I don't know. Sort of feels like Hoiberg would look like a hell of a better chef if McDermott did his grocery shopping.

I am in between on this one.  While I believe a lot of our guys would perform better in Mac’s system, I don’t know what he could do with the void at PG.  when is the last time Creighton had a below average PG?  

6 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

I don't know. Sort of feels like Hoiberg would look like a hell of a better chef if McDermott did his grocery shopping.

I tried to limit my sports radio talk this AM, but I did hear something similar to this discussed. They were talking about how Nebraska prioritizes skill/measurables over intangibles. Guys like Trey, Verge, Webster were all very skilled players that stuffed a stat sheet, but all came from unorganized, losing programs. Contrast to Creighton who has guys who might not be physically, or flashy impressive - but guys from winning programs like Hawkins (D2 National Champ), Nemhard (HS National Champ), O'Connell (Duke) who are used to do the small things that win games. 

18 minutes ago, dustystehl said:

If we could travel back to June 1 and gave McDermott the Nebraska roster and gave Hoiberg the Creighton roster, I think the Nebraska roster wins by 20. This is perhaps the most disheartening thing. Creighton just has a way better coach than we do. It's been that way for a decade and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

They had a better recruiting 2021 class, just didn't have a 5 star. And O'Connell averaged 5 ppg in his last season at Duke. Kalkbrenner was a 4 star, I think. So the talent is actually pretty even, other than at PG, while we had the edge in experience.

29 minutes ago, busticket said:

I am in between on this one.  While I believe a lot of our guys would perform better in Mac’s system, I don’t know what he could do with the void at PG.  when is the last time Creighton had a below average PG?  

Probably Davion Mintz.  But that was a bridge between Watson and Zegarowski

A more relevant question is what type of PG will work for what Hoiberg wants to run? Next year is Romel Lloyd the type of guy that fits what we want to do or is he the type of guy we could see fitting into what we want to do? Seems pretty important as next year's PGs currently are Lloyd and McPherson.