uneblinstu's postgame chatter : vol 17; ed 4 - St. Marys

2 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Seemed like a combination of wanting to have a rim protector after getting our teeth kicked in vs Illinois and Texas A&M and then getting our 5th choice in the transfer portal.  Just seems nuts that we're trying to Alonzo Verge him into Derrick Walker over the course of a season.

I agree it might have been a bit of an overreaction to the Illinois and A&M players getting to the rim at will. But overall I loved the way the team played and defended for the whole second half of the season. 

Not only do I think Meah's game is just a terrible fit for what Fred wants to do, I think it's a horrible fit for Meah as well: 

At Washington (in 22 minutes per game): 7.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.3 turnovers per game, 73% FG

At Nebraska (in 17 minutes per game): 3.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.3 turnovers per game, 44.4 FG

2 minutes ago, cornfed24-7 said:

By the time that happens post season hopes will be over so what's the point? 

Yep. Only way Janowski sees minutes is if this season goes off the rails and they decide to start seeing if they have a potential starting point guard in him next year, which it sounds like they're trying to do with him. 

5 minutes ago, GhostOfJoeMcCray said:

 

Only way Janowski sees minutes is if this season goes off the rails and they decide to start seeing if they have a potential starting point guard in him next year, which it sounds like they're trying to do with him. 

I mean I guess I could see that. But it still feels if that happens you're just burning a redshirt to burn a redshirt. So why not do it now? Because PG didn't look all that great yesterday. And that's more the type/caliber of team we face from here on out. 

Edit- And I'm not advocating for it.

4 hours ago, HB said:

 

I'm going to point to one more thing that led to the loss--when we went up 5 in the second half and turned it over on 5 or 6 consecutive possessions.  That was just unbelievably brutal.   Involved no missed 3s, but was devastating.

We were up 4 before that and Essegian missed a wide open three.  That stretch probably cost us a 10+ point win against a team that will likely be competing with #3 Gonzaga for the conference championship.  I also thought St. Mary's played pretty well yesterday while the Huskers really didn't.  I think we can be very good.

Hopefully we got the slow Creighton like start out the way with this game.  That beginning stretch reminded me of way too many Creighton games.  I was waiting for it to get out of hand and it never did.  I'm hopeful we can give Creighton a game.

10 hours ago, jimmykc said:

NU football+basketball+Chiefs= Trifecta of crap this weekend. That's all I've got. Turn the page and bring on next weekend. 

I'm pretty excited for Nebraska football this week.  Don't really know why.  Maybe nostalgia.  Late November game with bowl implications on the line.  Pretend it is for the Orange Bowl instead of just a bowl.  Can take down the goalposts with a win.  There is way too much anxiety & dread from the fans instead of just having fun.

With St Mary's taking a FT to try and go up 3 with 5 seconds left, Brice and Braxton came in for Sam and Ulis.  St Mary's made the FT and then we took a time out.  Would it have been possible for us to sub back out for Meah or since we put him in at that point did he have to stay in?

Kent was on the microphone at the Coliseum the last time we played these guys in 1975, his second season.

https://huskerhoopscentral.com/2024-25/RadioBroadcasts/2024-11-17 Nebraska vs St Marys.mp3

Something I noticed that caught my eye late in game was an inverted p&p with Berke handling and rollie (I think) popping out. I don't know or remember that they have ran a lot of inverted stuff this year or even last year. 

Interesting to read the variety of opinions after the St. Mary's game. I only saw the second half, so I missed the worst part.

Although I'm disappointed we let a non-con Q1 win slip away, I did like some of what I saw from the team. First, we played with heart and passion, and in some sense, that alone almost propelled us to a win. 

Meah is clearly a liability and a fish out of water in the 5-out set. Yet, he did some things on defense and provided some intangibles we needed. He altered a few shots and threw his body around on the boards to point that even when he didn't get the rebound, his effort allowed for Berke and others to do so. We will need him to play situational minutes against some of the bigger lineups we will face in conference play. I'm confident Fred and Co. will figure out how to best utilize him in those situations. Berke and Morgan will have to play 5 in order for us to be competent offensively.  

Second, the new guys haven't gelled yet in our offensive sets. Whoever noted that we don't have enough activity away from the ball was spot on. I am hopeful that will change once the lineup combinations take better shape. Way too many turnovers and sloppiness with the ball. I am a bit surprised Worster has committed so many turnovers. Too much dribbling and not enough side-to-side movement of the ball and failure to cut with purpose. We've also missed too many chip shots at the rim, not only in this game, but in the other games as well. It looks like we're rushing things and not playing under control when we get in the lane. Despite that, we were in a position to beat St. Mary's. They have some real dudes on that team and I wouldn't be surprised if they beat Gonzaga once during conference play. 

Finally, like Fred said, I think the lid will come off the basket for our 3 point shooting at some point during the season. Essegian has a beautiful stroke, but his footwork and balance have been suspect so far. While Griffiths has been a defensive liability to date, I think he's got the length and athleticism needed to be a good team defender  and simply needs to have a fire lit under him to get him to expend effort on the defensive end. We will need his potential firepower on the offensive end at some point to get us over the hump. 

I'm hopefully optimistic that the pieces will come together in time to get us into position for another NCAA run. It would be a shame if that happened in late January and happened too late for us to have a legit run.    

9 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

With St Mary's taking a FT to try and go up 3 with 5 seconds left, Brice and Braxton came in for Sam and Ulis.  St Mary's made the FT and then we took a time out.  Would it have been possible for us to sub back out for Meah or since we put him in at that point did he have to stay in?

 

 

After listening to the post game presser, it sounded like Meah staying in was by design so he could set a screen for Williams.

18 hours ago, hugh42 said:

 

After listening to the post game presser, it sounded like Meah staying in was by design so he could set a screen for Williams.

Clarification from Fred today on this and it was the timeout that prevented inserting CE back into the game. Fred said that was on him, FWIW.

1 hour ago, hugh42 said:

 

Clarification from Fred today on this and it was the timeout that prevented inserting CE back into the game. Fred said that was on him, FWIW.

To me the keyword was "couldn't"

I think what happened was that Essigian checked into the game before the second free throw, and he did so before Meah. So I think what technically happened was Meah had to check in for Essigian which made Connor ineligible to come back in. 

I think this is a scenario that's so rarely happens that it didn't occur to Shon Morris on the broadcast