uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 14; ed 6 - vs. Tennessee State

I’m going to get some flack for this. Walker was good offensively when fed by Verge and others. But he is NOT playing with the same effort and hustle as he did last year defensively. Maybe it was because he had to sit out half the season due to suspension. But he played with a lot more of a motor last season. He literally tried to rebound a few times tonight without jumping. And he lost the board each time he tried that. Even a guy in our section yelled “jump for the rebound”!!! After a couple of times. Walker does give us the beef and played admirably against Big ten centers last year. But he’s struggling to grab 4 boards against lower lower lower teams. I wish he’d rev up his motor. Just seemed that the entire team didn’t have much energy tonight. We do this saturday and South Dakota will roll us 

12 minutes ago, OurDecay said:

I thought Verge, Walker, Bryce and Wilcher all played well tonight.  We shot over 50% from the field and only had 10 turnovers.  The other team didn’t shoot that well overall….and we only won by 6.

 

Some of that is surely their 13 made 3s.  And we didn’t have a good night at the line.

 

But it is interesting that this Game felt different than the sum of its parts.

 

For one thing…we have to address a couple elephants:

 

- I was a member of the Goggles fan club, but he has been awful.  Completely out of control, bad defensive rotations, horrible decisions, poor rebounder, hasn’t made enough 3 pt shots to justify how often he shoots them.  He is real bad on both ends of the floor right now, but all of that pales in comparison to his immaturity.  Whining for calls, don’t love his body language either.  I know it’s growing pains and I believe he will end up being great one day…but right now he is hurting the team.

 

- Lat Mayen has been a problem for 2 years.  If he cannot shoot, he does not give you enough other things.  He is the shortest 6-9 player I’ve ever seen.  He does not play to his length, and the fact we play him heavy minutes despite the ridiculous dribble circus and his lack of hands or defense makes no sense.

 

- I would really love to know what Andre does to not warrant more playing time.  He protects the rim and can finish.  He gives you a lot more than Goggles right now IMO

 

- Our inability to get Bryce open looks within the flow of the offense is puzzling and frustrating.  Surely we have something other than a clear out 1-on-1 for him…right?  He is forcing it because he never sees the ball enough.

 

all that said….it’s a win.

Lat should never be given a green light to dribble. He is a turnover waiting to happen. When he put the ball on the floor tonight multiple people in our section yelled “no!”

Loved seeing double digit assists from Verge, give the guy a break. 
 

My guess is Lat is one of the players lighting it up from 3p% in practice, bc why else would you play him 36 minutes?  I’d like to see Kobe’s 12 min swap with Lat’s 36 min. Just like his energy and ball handling and unselfishness. 

My only hope is that Nebraska is looking forward to having some turkey and mashed potatoes, and they overlooked a salty TSU squad who had a few legit parts in a hodge-podge roster.

I really liked Verge tonight, if NU gets that Alonzo the rest of the year we'll at least have a chance to play well. If he didn't have a remarkable game tonight we lose this game.

Also I thought Bryce & CJ played within themselves, and took what the defense allowed them. If we could pass to those two dudes, we'd be a lot better than those stupid quick triples that got us into trouble tonight. Bryce is a baller, and Wilcher is good enough to get it done most nights.

And, combine those three with an efficient Derrick Walker (and by Jan. 2022 also having Trey in the mix), I think this team has some parts to give some B1G teams some fits... IF they can adequately knock down some 3's to open up the driving lanes. And, at this point, that IF is a HUGE 'IF'!

I hope that tonight was their casual, mid-week, screw-off ballgame, and I hate to see that; but, that's how I saw it. Nebraska acted like they can sleep walk through TSU and TSU said 'no way' tonight. I actually liked that TSU told us that they came to fight tonight. That will help this team (same thought I had when NU lost to WIU, well, you screw around & losing is the result!). Get better Big Red, or enjoy another sucky Big Ten record as a result. I hope these boys decide to get their poop in a group, and get better AS A TEAM!!

I still haven’t seen anything to make me change my mind about wanting to see Lakes playing for Lat.  

3 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

That's the first time, including exhibition games, that one was able to walk out of the PBA 3 consecutive times with a win.

Huh?

2 hours ago, atskooc said:

Huh?

****in the hoiberg era (I’m guessing)

I can't help nut wonder how often we practice at PBA.  It isn't the easiest building to shoot in(backdrop wise etc) and if we are not shooting there enough to make it an advantage, it is a problem.  

3 hours ago, atskooc said:

Huh?

In the Fred Hoiberg Era

1 hour ago, royalfan said:

I can't help nut wonder how often we practice at PBA.  It isn't the easiest building to shoot in(backdrop wise etc) and if we are not shooting there enough to make it an advantage, it is a problem.  

This is an interesting question but for some reason, it never seems to bother the visitors...

It seems the 4 spot is a pick your poison choice; to summarize the 4 spot.

Wilcher is the best choice offensively but as someone pointed out he is not a good rebounder or defensive player.  

Keon gives you a little better defense and rebounding but is a streaky shooter and tends to disappear.   

Wil is gambling too much on D and gets in foul trouble.      

Lat is a compromise for all these things but as folks can see the ball handling is scary. 

Sighhh.

It was frustrating to see #20 shooting lights out with no one around him although the first one was so deep it was totally unexpected.   Still I thought we needed to adjust to him after the 2nd make.   We would of been better off with less switching and help defense.   

It’s pretty clear by FH’s comments after the game that this crap style of offense is exactly what is allowed in practice - it’s just that the crap shots go in during practice.

Duh. That’s why coaches for years have basically said, “that shit won’t work in games. Too much pressure and the D is playing harder.”

8 hours ago, The Polish Rifle said:

What's wild is if we are like the 150th best 3-point shooting team and not the 300th best 3-point shooting team - we are 6-0. Are they gonna eventually fall consistently?

I find it hard to believe that the shots will start falling.  If the team can only shoot in the 20's percentage-wise against the plus-300 dregs of the NCAA, does anyone really think that will improve significantly against B1G competition with much better athletes, size, coaching and schemes to shut down Nebrasketball's anemic attempt at offense?  Sure, there will probably be a game or 2 where the shots are just falling, but from what we've seen so far, the league schedule is going to be a bloodletting of epic proportions.

Have to agree with most others.  Lat is playing really poorly right now.  His minutes need to be reduced significantly.  Does not do anything at all that you can point to and say it is a positive for the team.  Maybe length on defense, but he does not play defense well.

8 hours ago, hskr4life said:

 

 

5.  NIT?  Maybe?  No probably not.  I think we win more than the past few years... but that’s not gunna do much for me with the supposed talent upgrade we’ve brought in.

 

.

NIT??   Cue Jim Mora.   

26 minutes ago, REDitus said:

It seems the 4 spot is a pick your poison choice; to summarize the 4 spot.

 

Wilcher is the best choice offensively but as someone pointed out he is not a good rebounder or defensive player.   

 

 

 

Posters correct on Wilcher.   Really bad defensive player.  

45 minutes ago, REDitus said:

It seems the 4 spot is a pick your poison choice; to summarize the 4 spot.

 

Wilcher is the best choice offensively but as someone pointed out he is not a good rebounder or defensive player.  

Keon gives you a little better defense and rebounding but is a streaky shooter and tends to disappear.   

Wil is gambling too much on D and gets in foul trouble.      

Lat is a compromise for all these things but as folks can see the ball handling is scary. 

 

Sighhh.

 

It was frustrating to see #20 shooting lights out with no one around him although the first one was so deep it was totally unexpected.   Still I thought we needed to adjust to him after the 2nd make.   We would of been better off with less switching and help defense.   

Roll out Lakes for 8 minutes straight and see what happens?

Have Bryce eat A BUNCH at Thanksgiving?

 
Posters correct on Wilcher.   Really bad defensive player.  

Pretty depressing chatter to start the countdown for Thanksgiving so I'll be as upbeat as possible. Looking at our schedule to start the year I thought we might be 7-0 in November and 3-3 in December. Even though starting the New Year with 10 wins appears beyond our grasp at this point, we still have to play the games and stranger things have happened. So, let's all try to enjoy Thanksgiving weekend with full stomachs and hope that all of the vaccinated and unvaccinated, masked and unmasked, politically divided folks in our great country begin 2022 in a more optimistic state of mind.   

Verge was very good on offense last night, about as well as we can expect him to run the point.  His defense is still way too undisciplined, needs to shore that up.

I was rooting for every single TSU 3 pointer to go in because that is the only way this coaching staff is going to realize you can't leave the opponent WIDE OPEN from 3 time and time and time again.  I think Fred answered his own question as to why his team shoots well in practice--it's because they are playing against themselves.  Almost any college player can shoot well from 3 when left wide open.

As many have mentioned, the PF spot is a problem right now.  I don't know if Lakes is the answer (in his limited minutes so far he has not been any better) but I would like to see him start and get 25+ minutes vs. SD just to see what he can do when getting consistent minutes.  Hard to imagine he could do any worse, and a one game experiment is warranted at this point. 

Walker has been great in these past few games.  I just really question whether he will be able to do that in conference.  He is too short and those "easy" looks he is getting now may be swatted into the 3rd row in conference.  I hope I am wrong, but I just don't see that being sustainable.  And his lack of size will be exposed on defense and rebounding.   

Andre has his deficiencies, no doubt about it, but I think Fred is going to regret not getting him more experience against these lower level team when he discovers how important his rim protection is in conference.  Time will tell. 

Keisei is showing there is a huge difference shooting in juco than in Div 1, and we are even in conference play yet.  With that said, I still think there are going to be a few games where he catches fire and knocks down 3, 4 or 5 threes in a row to give a spark.

This team does not play hard.  They have no idea how to bust tail every second of every game.  Not sure if they can "learn" this skill or they just don't have it in them, but it is disappointing to watch game after game. 

8 hours ago, OurDecay said:

the ridiculous dribble circus

Love this.  I think we have a nickname for Lat.

10 hours ago, The Polish Rifle said:

305th in 3pt%. 328th in Opponent Rebounds per game. 325th in Opponent Offensive Rebounds per game. 

 

And this is against an average Creighton team + the little sisters of the poor. 

Yeah, this rebounding thing isn't about philosophy, giving up rebounds to get something else. My lying eyes tell me we're getting out-muscled inside on the defensive end. Forget the offensive end where we don't crash the boards at all and run back to get on D as soon as the shot leaves the shooter's hand. I'm talking about continuously giving up inside position on the defensive end and giving the other team extra shot opportunities almost every possession (except the ones where they make the first attempt).

Don't feed me that bullshit about it just being a style of play that we adopted on purpose.

Yeah.  Rebounding is a huge frustration--and you can see it in Hoiberg's demeanor every time we get beat out down low by the opposing offense.

That . . . and getting a decent three point percentage would do wonders for the team.

One is fixable or, at least, should come around (it's not like every one of our three point shots has been contested). 

The other . . . doesn't look good.

I get the people giving Alonzo Verge props. Yeah, he's dishing dimes (mostly to Walker.) And he's getting to the rim with some success.

But everyone else just stands around and watches him dribble. When he's out of the game and, say, Webster comes in, they actually pass the ball to create open shots.

Remember everyone complaining last year about how the ball would stop in Teddy Allen's hands? Remember how people said Teddy would have fit better in Tim Miles' offense than in the Hoiberg offense? Remember @basketballjones saying that Teddy would never be a star player on a good team?

Verge can sometimes get to the rim 1-on-5. And he can often make acrobatic, circus shots at the  rim that go in. He's been fairly effective the last two games at dropping the ball off for Walker, who's been really good at taking advantage of it. But he CANNOT score enough to win the game by himself and he does a poor job of getting his teammates involved in the offense.

And then you talk about the almost indifference on defense.

I don't know. I'm not as high on Verge as some of y'all.