uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 14; ed 7 - vs. South Dakota

That wasn’t a bad team we played today, glad we handled our business. 
 

I mentioned this the other day, but if Verge has NBA aspirations, he needs to facilitate and distribute. That’s the only thing that’s going to get him there, or at least an opportunity to get him there. The NBA isn’t interested in him being a volume scoring point guard. There are a lot of players far better than Verge that can do that. The crazy thing is that he’s capable of dishing out 8+ assists a game if he wants to. He will go drop 3 dimes to appease Fred and then look for his points. That’s why his minutes were cut today. He needs to figure that out pretty quick. 
 

For this team to reach potential, Lat needs to be a factor. 
 

It would be nice if Keon started to become a factor offensively, but he doesn’t necessarily have to. But he has to rebound. If he wants minutes come Big 10 play, he’s going to have to play defense and rebound. Not worried about the defense part. We need him to do both. Walker is not going to pull down a ton of rebounds in Big 10 play. We need Bryce, Lat, and Keon to hit them boards. 

Where did you find the replay?? Is it only on big ten plus???

I really didn’t feel like rebounding was an issue outside of the final 5 minutes. Up to that point, I only remember 2 or 3 possessions where we gave up big offensive rebounds.

One thing that needs to be considered with rebounding stats is the number of turnovers we cause. That cuts down rebound opportunities. If we win points off of turnovers against second chance points, then it equals an overall stats win in my book.

Brady Heiman DNP

Is he hurt or just fell that far down the depth chart?

1 hour ago, 1HuskerDad said:

Brady Heiman DNP

Is he hurt or just fell that far down the depth chart?

If I remember right when looking over their teams stats, he hasn’t played all that much this year.  Don’t know whether that’s an injury situation or a depth issue, but was surprised that he was getting single digit minutes per game prior to our game.

Agree with the earlier comments on Verge - I think yesterday signaled that he's at a firm crossroads now in the eyes of the coaches. 

Fred clearly has had it with the selfish, out of control play. Fred showed yesterday he's not afraid to sit him for it, or to reprimand him in front of the entire crowd, something Fred has not done to this point and rarely does with any player.

Considering Fred's demeanor, this is an extremely harsh step. 

How does Verge respond to it? Now that the precedent is set by benching him, Verge can either get with the program and play within the team concept, or he can sit. If he chooses the former, this team can be competitive in a lot of games. If he chooses the latter, he may not be here by Jan. 1.  

No idea how it will turn out, but for Verge's sake and future, getting on board would be by far his best option. He says a lot of the right things, but now the actions must match the words.

Hope he can do it ... but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen.

Radio said Heiman did not even travel here.

Was there yesterday and it was fun. 

-really liked seeing Keisei in ball handling situations with Walker in that p&r. If he has that ability to make pocket passes, that's an easy 2 points every trip down for Walker. Defense will smother him and commit to him, which leaves the roller open. Need to see it though

-lat is going through it. I think once big ten play starts he'll get more comfortable, but man he's going through it. 

-as little as Keon does in the starting lineup, I agree with keeping CJ on the bench. It gives the bench some valuable points every game between him and Kobe. They both are working off the bench right now, don't break it. Keon just needs to hustle, play defense, and keep shooting open 3s. It'll come around

-every game Bryce gets more and more comfortable and confident. The fast break euro step kick to the corner showed for example showed to me that he wants to get others involved. 

-verge is a hot and cold thing right now. Don't know what you're getting. Do you get the Tennessee state verge when you don't win that game without him, or do you get the verge from yesterday when he reverted back to old habits. That'll determine his playing time going forward. 

I do like this team personally with Trey inserted. They're getting comfortable with each other and it seems like figuring things out. NC state is going to be a big test on Wednesday. They have a guard in Seabron who leads their team in rebounds and points. Keon may get more ticks that just to body him up. 

The second half was more fun than I've had at a Nebrasketball game in a long time. The second unit really played well together on both ends of the floor. Seemed to me there was more urgency and dedication on the defensive end than I've seen all year. It looked like the defensive energy transferred over to the offensive end. There was more movement and we got great looks at the hoop. The lineup of Webster, CJ, Wil, Tominaga and Bryce plays well together. 

Two things I noticed in particular: 1) CJ moves well without the ball and makes some great cuts to the basket; and 2) Bryce, when locked in, has the ability to be a good defender and rebounder. He has made marked improvement from the first few games. 

Also, Wil had several hustle plays which added to our momentum during the run which put the game out of reach. I hope we can be competitive and put ourselves in a position to win a few of the upcoming games against some tough competition. 

2 hours ago, Coaches kid said:

The second half was more fun than I've had at a Nebrasketball game in a long time.

An underrated takeaway. 

Rothstein's comments about Illinois after beating Notre Dame last night are apropos to what we're gradually seeing develop here.

3 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

Rothstein's comments about Illinois after beating Notre Dame last night are apropos to what we're gradually seeing develop here.

 

 

And just like that, Optimist Norm is BACK!

4 hours ago, aphilso1 said:

 

And just like that, Optimist Norm is BACK!

Don't get ahead of yourselves. I don't for a moment think we're as good at Illinois at this point. I do think we're headed in the right direction and we're much better than we were against Creighton, which was one of the more dysfunctional performances I've seen by a Husker hoops team maybe ever?

Right now, we're better than terrible and the trend line is upward, so I'm happy about that.

16 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Don't get ahead of yourselves. I don't for a moment think we're as good at Illinois at this point. I do think we're headed in the right direction and we're much better than we were against Creighton, which was one of the more dysfunctional performances I've seen by a Husker hoops team maybe ever?

 

Right now, we're better than terrible and the trend line is upward, so I'm happy about that.

4 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Don't get ahead of yourselves. I don't for a moment think we're as good at Illinois at this point. I do think we're headed in the right direction and we're much better than we were against Creighton, which was one of the more dysfunctional performances I've seen by a Husker hoops team maybe ever?

 

Right now, we're better than terrible and the trend line is upward, so I'm happy about that.

You know... I was thinking this the other day.  Was this the one year where we played Creighton too early?  Me thinks maybe...