uneblinstu's postgame chatter : vol 17; ed 1 - UTRGV

Everyone trying to figure out how to pronounce Rollie Worster's name:

9 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

Everyone trying to figure out how to pronounce Rollie Worster's name:

 

 

Just like the Alice in Chains song 

Here they come to snuff the Worster, aw, yeah

Yeah, here come the Worster, yeah

You know he ain't gonna die

No, no, no, you know he ain't gonna die

Glad we got it to 20 there at the end. Rollie is just a really solid college basketball player. 

I liked Berke tonight. Didn't ever try to do too much. Handled the ball really well - his 1 turnover wasn't a travel. Couple assists, couple steals, 6 rebounds, finished at the rim.

Offensive flow is not where it was at this time last year. I'd be surprised if Meah stays in the starting lineup. His skillset just doesn't fit in our offense as the handoff guy. Two quick turnovers in that spot. Teams will just start fouling him when he gets the ball in the low post. Can still have an off the bench Keita-type role. 

Brice hit a few shots in a row early, but we were force feeding him at the expense of good offensive pace and flow in the first 12ish minutes. Berke didn't touch the ball in the halfcourt until 9 minutes left in the first half. Juwan only had 1 or 2 halfcourt touches at that point. That's unacceptable. This led to turnovers and poor shot selection.

Need to just plug Essegian into the Keisei spot and play him 26-28 mpg. Why not? Similar enough offensive capabilities. He and Gavin gave a nice energy and scoring boost when it was much needed in the first half. 

Juwan didn't play great tonight on either end. Hopefully this game will be an anomaly for him. We're always better with him on the court.

Figured UTRGV would take a ton and make some threes, and get some offensive rebounds. The defense really wasn't too bad on paper.

It feels like we're good enough team that we weren't going to lose that game no matter how close the score got and that's a nice feeling to have to start the season. 

Otherwise it was probably a pretty good idea to schedule the first few games pretty soft because we have work to do.

Loved what I saw out of Morgan tonight. 

Loved that we, for the most part, never deviated from loving the rim-- even when they went on their min 3 point runs.

For about 3, 4 minute chunks in the game I thought we looked like we could make it to the elite 8. For the other 28 it looked like we might not win in the big ten.

Overall I still have some optimism for the year. We just need to gel a little bit more. Juwan was also a step slow, and I have no concerns about that once he is fully recovered from being sick.

Hopefully this is a fun year, I have a feeling we will see some lows and some real high highs 

We have some fun pieces on this team. I like that we can go with many different lineups. Would like to see a few more made 3s but having a true point guard looks good. 

This team has a lot to figure out - but none of it is unsolvable. Not necessarily missing any pieces, per se. Obviously you’d love a freak guard or some other nba guy, but I’m saying we at least don’t have “glaring holes.”

Disjointed effort on both ends of the court.  Much to like a few obvious issues.  Really looks like a team trying to connect with each other.

Offense was alot of one on one,; but we were more physically able to excel with that strategy tonight.

Overall, pretty happy with a 20 point win.

Gave up the middle defensively - so we overcompensated at times and left some of their guys pretty open. Our defensive effort tonight would not have translated well in say, the CHI in Omaha. 
Rollie is solid.

Gavin has some spring to his game

Connor found his shot compared to the exhibition

Have some areas to improve.

I don’t think we played all that well and still won by 20.

By the way, a few comments outside the lines, so to speak:

* Surprising good crowd.  Both numbers and volume.  Good to see.

* The floor was a factor on a few occasions.  Not sure why players were struggling with traction, but quite a few slip and falls.

*  Our dance squad is top notch.  I apologize for the following; but our cheer squad is, uhhh, pathetic.   Get rid of all the men and

rethink what the team and fans want.  Good lord, they are bad.  Sorry.

* Pogo twosome was unique.

What group was on the floor toward the end during the 18-2 run?

13 minutes ago, Swan88 said:

What group was on the floor toward the end during the 18-2 run?

The dance squad. 

It was certainly some ugly basketball especially in the 1st half.  Things got a little cleaner in 2nd half but this team has alot of work to do in a short period of time if they don't want to get blown out by CU in a few weeks.  I'm hoping we improve enough to beat St. Mary's next weekend as well.  Lots of one on one basketball last night as ball seem to stick in peoples hand. I wasn't impressed with ball movement as seemed people tried to create their own shot instead of setting each other up.  I've seen that brand of basketball at NU with teams under Fred and its never good.  Just something to keep an eye on that ball movement really needs to improve.

Conner - Really like this kid and think he is going to factor in the offense big time by the end of the season.  

Sam - NIce fill in player when needed but not expecting big minutes from him this year

Ulis - didn't play alot. He didn't do anything great but nothing bad either

Brice - Scored alot but seemed like he was a ball hog at times with no assists. Hope he doesn't get that mind set that every time I get the ball, I need to shoot.  I'm sure they will watch film and point things out to him

Juwan - Not a great start for him but not worried.  He will be fine

Berke - Nothing flashy but has huge upside.  Will be interesting to see how he develops over the season with this team

Gavin - Needs to get stronger.  Had some good and bad moments but will be a nice player to come off the bench and further develop his game this season

Morgan - Started out great with some nice down low moves.  Could see him taking over for Braxon in starting lineup

Rollie - Just solid.  

Braxton - Wow, he is offensively challenged.  You can't teach size so nice to have him on the team for rebounds but based on what I saw, can't expect a lot of scoring from him.  

11 minutes ago, Swan88 said:

What group was on the floor toward the end during the 18-2 run?

Rollie, Gary, Connor, BT, Morgan.  Brice was on the bench.

Those 6, along with Gavin seem like our top 7.  I think Sam and Meah will play when needed/match ups.  Things could change though.

The offensive flow just didn't seem to be there. It felt choppy and hard to score.

I wonder how much of that was due to all the free throws.

It looked like we only ran 2 or 3 offensive sets.

As the season progresses, I think Fred will expand the playbook a little more.

I'm still not a fan of the baseline trap especially at the end of the shot clock.

UTRGV had way too many wide open threes.

Williams, Essegian Gary and Worster will all need to average double figures for this team to be good.

My goodness, Essegian's shot is a thing of beauty. 

Post game presser

Notes from UNL

*-Nebraska’s 87 points is its highest total in a season opener since scoring 102 on McNeese State in 2020-21.
*-Nebraska has won 13 straight games at home dating back to last season.
*-Senior guard Brice Williams finished with 27 points, his highest total as a Husker. His previous high was 25 vs. Oregon State last year.
*-Williams now has four straight 20-point efforts dating back to last season’s Big Ten Tournament. It marked the 18th 20-point game of his career.
*-Rollie Worster nearly finished with a double-double with 18 points – one off his career high – and nine rebounds. Worster also had four of NU’s nine steals on the night.
*-Nebraska forced 20 turnovers, its highest total since getting 21 turnovers against Kennesaw State on Dec. 22, 2021.
*-Nebraska’s 35 free throws were its highest total since going to the line 36 times against Florida A&M last season.
*-Nebraska got 27 points from its bench, including double-figure efforts from Connor Essegian (13) and Andrew Morgan (10). Essegian had 10 of his 13 points in the second half, including seven straight points in Nebraska’s 12-0 run.
*-Nebraska outscored UTRGV, 40-18, in the paint in the win.

Once we tighten up the rotation, we won't have ten guys getting double digit minutes, things will smooth out. Gotta think that Meah will be a situational big and Rollie will be logging mid-30s minutes. We have some lineups without enough willing shooters which could cause some problems. 

4 minutes ago, Tallbaby21 said:

Once we tighten up the rotation

Hoiberg saying we can't be tinkering and messing around too much this year was music to my ears. You can mess around with lineups throughout the non-con schedule at Kansas, but not so much if you're coaching a team that could potentially be on the bubble imo. You need to figure it out quickly. I've always thought coaches with bubble-ish teams can cost their team a tourney bid with early season personnel decisions, we just tend to forget about those head-scratchers by the time resume evaluation comes around in March. Every game truly matters for us. We can't afford even 1 mid-major non-con loss. And definitely need to have things honed in by the Saint Mary's game. Most important game of the year imo, as (aside from Creighton) it's our best chance at a non-con resume building win. 

The demonstrative Berke reminds me a bit of Standhardinger

22 minutes ago, Tallbaby21 said:

Once we tighten up the rotation, we won't have ten guys getting double digit minutes, things will smooth out. Gotta think that Meah will be a situational big and Rollie will be logging mid-30s minutes. We have some lineups without enough willing shooters which could cause some problems. 

Vs smaller teams it seems like you can mostly roll with Morgan and Berke at the 5

25 minutes ago, Tallbaby21 said:

Once we tighten up the rotation, we won't have ten guys getting double digit minutes, things will smooth out. Gotta think that Meah will be a situational big and Rollie will be logging mid-30s minutes. We have some lineups without enough willing shooters which could cause some problems. 

I would love to see Brice get back up PG minutes and get CE and GG more minutes as I agree on shooters.