uneblinstu's postgame chatter: vol 15, ed 21: Northwestern

If teams pass and space well and make 3's we are going to struggle - particularly with our two defensive stoppers out of the lineup.   Northwestern played well and the Berry kid was absolutely unconscious shooting in the first half - probably had the game of his life - I assume his halftime total was a career high for a full game.    Was kind of ironic in the 2nd half when he had a completely wide-open look he threw up an airball.   Made me wonder if we should have just tried not to guard him before then :).   

All that said as Norm pointed out the real difference in the game (and in this game vs our past games) was rebounding.   Early it seemed like the ball just never bounced our way - but later it was more a reversion to the old failures.   Given those struggles the one thing that did not make sense to me was not having Dawson on the floor more.   I think he just had 21 minutes and he is clearly our best remaining rebounder.      Maybe Fred thought we needed more offense on the floor but there were several times I wondered why Dawson was not in the game.

Is Keita ever going to play again?    The last home game he seemed to be limping so was not surprised he did not play but did not notice that tonight.   He is someone that we need to be giving minutes and he certainly could not have been worse than Wilhelm was tonight.

One other positive I saw was during a first half timeout - Bandoumel was out on the court specifically coaching Jamarquez presumably on defense.   Was good to see that from Emmanuel and I really hope Lawrence tries to pattern himself off Bandoumel's game.   If he tries to become the player Bandoumel has been then I am excited about his future.   

We are going to struggle the rest of the season.    Greisel and Walker are keys to the team obviously - but I think the whole team got their energy from Gary and Bandoumel and we really are going to miss that for the rest of the year.    

P.S.  I thought on the radio that Fred said Greisel was +11 tonight - which seems impossible as that would mean we would have been -26 in the 7 minutes he as not in the game.   Maybe he meant we were +11 with Sam Hoiberg on the floor ?    FWIW I don't think those numbers are really statistically significant in a single game - too small of a sample - but does anyone know a website that shows the +/- numbers for players for games.  Is that on huskers.com somewhere?

P.S.  I thought on the radio that Fred said Greisel was +11 tonight - which seems impossible as that would mean we would have been -26 in the 7 minutes he as not in the game.   Maybe he meant we were +11 with Sam Hoiberg on the floor ?    

Yeah, he was talking about his son...who in fact played pretty well.

10 minutes ago, HuskerBB said:

 

P.S.  I thought on the radio that Fred said Greisel was +11 tonight - which seems impossible as that would mean we would have been -26 in the 7 minutes he as not in the game.   Maybe he meant we were +11 with Sam Hoiberg on the floor ?    FWIW I don't think those numbers are really statistically significant in a single game - too small of a sample - but does anyone know a website that shows the +/- numbers for players for games.  Is that on huskers.com somewhere?

+11 with Sam Hoiberg playing.

These guys better learn REAL quick that no one in the B1G is going to feel sorry for them. 

The bad news: I don't foresee any remaining games I'll be picking us to win. The good news: I didn't see or hear any of last night's game (although I might watch our first 25 points if it is shown in rerun). Now on to Maryland.

Oh my, Denim Dawson. @D2dawsonn x @HuskerHoops pic.twitter.com/rmNZrcZDJp

— Nebraska On BTN (@NebraskaOnBTN) January 26, 2023

I know it came in a loss, but got to have a feel good moment from the game.

It's unfortunate that our calling card defense this year is now a semblance of what it was.  Denim is doing fine but imagine that rotation when someone driving baseline and pulling up for a short corner 2 has JG running at him instead of Dawson. Or if Berry has Bandoumel running at him instead of KT or Sam H?? I would feel a lot more confident also.  I can also remember Juwan cleaning up the defensive boards vs Creighton - was probably best athlete on the floor that day, including Kaluma.

We gave up 78 to Northwestern because, while the scheme is good, we don't have the horses to scare the other team now. 

Lawrence will be fine once he gets a little maturity under him to act like EB on defense. Right now, just kinda going through the motions. Give him two years and because he can play offense he may be a better version of EB.

What was disappointing to me last evening was the mental lapses that occurred.  More so with our veterans rather than our younger players.  Turnovers, offensive and defensive lapses kept occurring all night long.  

If we would have cut our turnovers down to a reasonable number, then it is a tight game.

I guess I get it; the team lost two very important players to injury.  Losing Bando now appears to have broken the team spirit.  This is going to get real dismal unless and until the team as a whole steps up.  Last night a couple tried to step up; but were sort of tripped up by those that did not.

A couple other observations from last evening:

* Perhaps I have been blind; but I hadn't seen Jacobson on the floor warming up until last night.  Perhaps there are thoughts of pulling his redshirt.  However, Sam Hoiberg's performance may further delay that decision. 

* Blaise did off-the-court drills in pre-game.  He looks close to 100%

* I was sort of surprised we didn't see Oleg with a bit more playing time.

* CJ cannot play the 4.  Of course, he currently is struggling playing the 2 and 3 as well.  Man, I wish he could get it going.

Notes from UNL

• Keisei Tominaga had 22 points, the highest point total of his career in a Big Ten game and one point shy of his overall career high. Tominaga scored 15 of his 22 points in the first half on his way to his 12th double-digit scoring effort this season. He scored the Huskers’ first 12 points of the game and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field to open the game. The 20-point game was Tominaga’s second this season and the third of his career.
• Tominaga’s 22-point game was the ninth 20-point game by a Husker this season.
• Making his first career start, Jamarques Lawrence had a career-high 12 points, eclipsing his previous high of nine points against Kansas State last month. He was 4-of-8 from the 3-point line after entering the game with six 3-pointers this season. His four 3-pointer tonight ties a team season high for Nebraska.
• Lawrence made his first career start tonight, replacing Emmanuel Bandoumel (knee) in the lineup. It marked the sixth different lineup NU has used this season.
• Nebraska made nine 3-pointers against the Wildcats, above the team’s season average of six and the most since the Huskers also made nine 3-pointers against Purdue on Dec. 10.  
• Sam Hoiberg set career highs with six points and six rebounds in a career-high 17 minutes. Hoiberg entered the game with seven points and three rebounds in his first nine games of the season, playing a total of 12 minutes in his first nine games. Nebraska outscored Northwestern by 11 points in Hoiberg’s 17 minutes on the court.
• Sam Griesel had a team-high four steals tonight and has nine steals in the last two games.
• Nebraska outscored Northwestern 30-26 in the paint. The Huskers have outscored their opponent in the paint in seven straight games and have either led or been tied in paint points in 10 straight contests.

11 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

Anyway, did you know Jamarques Lawrence is shooting 41% from beyond the arc in league games? It's true.

 

And he had a solid line tonight, too: 4-9 FGs; 4-8 3ptFGs; 2 bds; 3 asst; 1 TO; 12 pts; 33 minutes. Acquitted himself quite well. Don't anoint him some kind of savior of the program, but give him credit. He's not terrible. He's not like this year's version of Elijah Wood. He's got some game. I kinda like this Lawrence kid.

Said the same thing to my buddies. I kinda like him. Not sure what "position" he is yet, are you? Would hope a guy his size is more of a point guard or an absolute dead-eye from 3pt. 

11 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

And Keisei continued to show he's serviceable. Better than serviceable. Calling him serviceable at this point is like damning him with faint praise. He deserves some credit.

He's scoring a lot of wild points on, what I feel comfortable saying now, a bad team. That's his ceiling imo. But I'll give him credit where credit is due, guy plays fearless and seems like a great teammate. 

CJ Wilcher looks absolutely lost out there. Disappointing as has been one of my favorites since he signed. 

NW out-hustled us. Was tough to watch. Give Wilcher's minutes to Lawrence. Wilcher has turned into Shamiel Stevenson 2.0 - he's a turnover waiting to happen. Breidenbach had a rough night last night, and that's being nice. Lawrence should be a starter for the rest of his Husker career. Starting to doubt the coaching abilities of this staff. Why were we doubling the post while they made open three and open three? Not sure I want to spend $400 on tickets and parking again next year. This is getting old.

Not sure why Griesel only attempted five field goals in 34 minutes

Sam forced plenty of shots and passed last night. I was fine that he took just that many shots.

KT is fun to watch.

Lawrence is gaining invaluable experience in a hurry.

I know some on here have used the lack of a “complete roster” next year as evidence in which Hoiberg should be shown the door, but let’s ponder next year: 

C - Transfer Portal, 100% Kieta, Olegs

PF - Juwan Gary, Wilhelm

SF - Gary (if another player is better at the 4), Dawson

SG - KT

PG - Lawrence

Wilcher, McPherson, other transfers coming in off the bench

Also, last year at this time nobody knew who Juwan Gary and Bandoumel were. And look at the impact they had this year until being injured. We need to fill some gaps in the portal and develop existing…

5 hours ago, Huskerpapa said:

A couple other observations from last evening:

* Perhaps I have been blind; but I hadn't seen Jacobson on the floor warming up until last night.  Perhaps there are thoughts of pulling his redshirt.  However, Sam Hoiberg's performance may further delay that decision. 

* Blaise did off-the-court drills in pre-game.  He looks close to 100%

* I was sort of surprised we didn't see Oleg with a bit more playing time.

* CJ cannot play the 4.  Of course, he currently is struggling playing the 2 and 3 as well.  Man, I wish he could get it going.

He looked totally disinterested towards end of game watching the team huddle at  timeouts...  Pretty frustrating.

6 hours ago, 89Husker said:

It's unfortunate that our calling card defense this year is now a semblance of what it was.  Denim is doing fine but imagine that rotation when someone driving baseline and pulling up for a short corner 2 has JG running at him instead of Dawson. Or if Berry has Bandoumel running at him instead of KT or Sam H?? I would feel a lot more confident also.  I can also remember Juwan cleaning up the defensive boards vs Creighton - was probably best athlete on the floor that day, including Kaluma.

We gave up 78 to Northwestern because, while the scheme is good, we don't have the horses to scare the other team now. 

Lawrence will be fine once he gets a little maturity under him to act like EB on defense. Right now, just kinda going through the motions. Give him two years and because he can play offense he may be a better version of EB.

9 Turnovers between Sam and Walker is not going to cut it.  We have to have those guys limit turnovers and play better..  Need around 15 points a game from them as well.

Does Breidenbach have a Wes Wilkinson type leap in him or is he just going to be a walking brick his entire career?  

25 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

Does Breidenbach have a Wes Wilkinson type leap in him or is he just going to be a walking brick his entire career?  

 

 

Here's the difference between the two.  Wilkinson has the superior Central Nebraska gene that no one else in the world has. When I say superior, I'm not talking about Barfnecht. Handy has that gene! Eric Piatkowski got that gene transferred to South Dakota. Bruce Chubick has that gene. Husker football had that gene for years.  Matt Vrzal has an ungodly amount in his system.  Having said all that, heart means more than talent.  I hope Wilhelm visits central Nebraska soon!

I don't understand why Walker was playing at a high post (past the free throw line) most of the NW game.  He needed to dribble two or three times to get into position near the rim and by that time other NW doubled him up. 

Wilcher and Breidenbach are incredibly frustrating to me.  What I see are two very low BB IQ players who absolutely kill us most games anymore.
 

Sam Hoiberg should get all of CJ’s minutes until he gets out of whatever is wrong with him.  We were +11 with him because he played smart basketball and busted his butt, despite his physical limitations.  Maybe he will be this year’s Trueblood.

I was a bit surprised looking at the final box score.  Northwestern barely shot better than us by the end of the game.  We lost the game on the boards.  Breidenbach had zero boards in his 11 minutes.  I would honestly rather see Oleg out there than Wilhelm at this point in the season.

Wilcher has no excuse for not giving maximum effort. He didn’t even appear to try on the boards last night a few times. A commented on the OWH toasted him pretty strongly…