uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 15, ed 2: Omaha

3 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Without question my favorite Hoiberg Husker team and it's not even close.

Cant wait to see em next Thursday!

6 minute scoring drought YIKES!!

Just now, Bugeaters1 said:

6 minute scoring drought YIKES!!

Our strings of empty possessions seem to revolve around guys not running offense, putting their heads down and trying to drive the lane too many possessions in a row. It's like some of you guys think you can put the ball on the floor cough cough Breidenbach cough cough and you're honestly not that good at it yet.

2 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Our strings of empty possessions seem to revolve around guys not running offense, putting their heads down and trying to drive the lane too many possessions in a row. It's like some of you guys think you can put the ball on the floor cough cough Breidenbach cough cough and you're honestly not that good at it yet.

The team did get a little drive happy there.

Speaking of empty possessions I noticed once Tominaga took that ill advised 3 he didn't get too many more minutes. 

3 minutes ago, Bugeaters1 said:

The team did get a little drive happy there.

I hope these guys watch some film of their ineffective attempts to drive to the rim and really, critically evaluate why the sort of off-balance, weak-to-the-hoop stuff doesn't work very well. Have the film guy make a clip of every drive that got stuffed and compare them to every drive that succeeded. 

Watching Bando tonight was fun as hell.

Interesting game.  General theme was inconsistancy.

Players that were "on" against Maine, missed the mark against Omaha.  I guess that tells us that on any given night, somebody else may step up.

Sam was big again tonight.

Blaise had a good game.  As did the freshmen.

But man, we seem to be on the cusp of breaking the game open, and then, bad choices.  I am optimistic that we can be pretty good, once we find consistency.

Confusing game. There were times where I thought we were looking really good and I liked what we were doing - but we can’t seem to keep our foot on the gas. Seemed like we were killing then, then I’d look and we were only up 11. 

Likes, in no particular order:

Denim Dawson's defense. Watching him in warm-ups last year I was thinking all this "he dives on the floor for loose balls" was just because they had to try to find something positive to say about someone on the team. This kid has a great motor and great energy. He's a ++ athlete. On the defensive end, he uses that athleticism and motor to make himself really pretty effective even though he's still just learning the college game. He played a big role on the defensive end during our big run in the first half. His offense needs a lot of work, however.

Bandoumel's unselfishness. Oh, man. So many times in these two games I've seen him start to do that shake-n-bake stuff where, if his name was Alonzo Verge or Bryce McGowens or Cam Mack, you're thinking to yourself "oh no, he's going to put his head down and try to take it all the way himself, 1 on 5." But then he stops and passes the ball and it's like "I was NOT expecting that." He gets his points when those points are there to be gotten. He really does a good job of letting the game come to him. 

Sam Griesel's command. Favorite player of the Hoiberg era? Yeah, quite possibly. He doesn't have the best handles ever for a PG. He's not the best shooter ever. He isn't going to overwhelm you with athleticism. But he's making good decisions. Like all the time. He plays within himself and seems to know just how to take advantage of what the defense is giving him. Witness those several possessions in a row tonight where he drew fouls driving to the basket. Drive after drive. Eventually, the fouls piled up and they had to let him just go. He positions himself for rebounds. He boxes out. He just doesn't hurt you. Like ever.

11 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Players that were "on" against Maine, missed the mark against Omaha. 

If I were to tell you that three of our guys who scored 42 of our 79 points against Maine would go scoreless against UNO, you'd probably think we didn't win.

Was very impressed with Lawrence on the defensive end and honestly the defense in general today, closeouts felt quicker and while Omaha moved the ball around a lot we were usually there, offense wasnt perfect but Sam Bando and Wilcher stepped up when they needed to, good fun game

Maverick fans are as annoying as Creighton fans, but they don’t have much to cheer for. Those chants and whining…

We need to eliminate those stretches where we revert back to last year's team.  When we moved the ball and were patient we were not just helping our offense but the defense as well.  We defended very well when they had to go against a set half court defense.  Bad shot selection and forced shots lead to run outs and better looks for Omaha.  

Good effort on defense and tonight we knocked down some shots when the game tightened.  Much to improve upon and that is the goal, to get better.  Might want to practice free throws! 

59 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

Confusing game. There were times where I thought we were looking really good and I liked what we were doing - but we can’t seem to keep our foot on the gas. Seemed like we were killing then, then I’d look and we were only up 11. 

18-31 on FTs

Wait til we get Walker back…

Really enjoyed this game.   There were some bumps and some things I wish we could do better - but love the way this team plays hard and pays attention to defense.  Such a change from last season.

Keita had BY FAR his best game.   Was really a force and showed flashes of what we expected from his JUCO reputation.   Obviously he had a significant size advantage - but hoping this is a sign of things to come and builds some confidence for him at this level.   Also loved the way CJ seemed to come out of his scoring slump and hit some key 3's - and the way the team again responded when the opponent made a little bit of a run.  

I actually thought UNO looked pretty good - and in particular thought the way they played made it a good learning game for us.  They were very aggressive on defense and played physical which is what we will see in conference.   UNO plays alot of guys so I think they can afford to give some fouls (although it hurts them if Fiddler is in foul trouble).    I do think they will do very well in the Summit league this year.

The fact that we seem to have different guys come up with big games in different games is also a positive IMO.   Obviously you want consistency (and FWIW Greisel and Bandoumel have been consistently good) but it makes it harder to game plan for us when Gary has 20 one night, Wilcher 20 another night, Walker 20 another (future) night :) - and even Keisei goes off for 13 in a half like he did against Maine.  

Finally - mentioned above - but I love the way Denim Dawson plays D - and we saw a flash of offense from him tonight as well.   Maybe made him get a little too aggressive on the offensive end after he got the 3 and the dunk - but as long as he has some flashes of offense it will force teams to at least play him honestly when he is in the game.

REALLY am anxious to get Walker back on the court.    We will learn alot when the team has to go on the road to St. John's but I thought tonight was at least another step in a positive direction.

Hate to nitpick here, but I was disappointed…..I’m the student section. Frankie Fiddlesticks shoots not one, not two, but three air balls and the crowd didn’t let him have it every single time he touched it. Much fuller student section tonight vs. Monday 

Loved seeing other guys step up and still win without scoring from certain guys.  Last years team, if we didn’t have a monster game from one or two we were definitely cooked 

6 hours ago, unl said:

Maverick fans are as annoying as Creighton fans, but they don’t have much to cheer for. Those chants and whining…

Had an Omaha guy right behind me that you'd think we were playing Creighton with his trash talk about how bad we were. He. Would. Not. Shut. Up. 

5 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

Wait til we get Walker back…

Which needs to happen next week or we are going to face a buzzsaw.

We defend, we rebound, we compete.....I think we are onto something