unelinstu's postgame chatter: vol 15, ed 8: Boston College

Hot shooting from three helped lead to easy win.

What a great game! Tominaga was feelin' it! I really like this team. This very second I see this team making it to .500 The basketball gods can try and break my spirit over the next couple weeks. Tonight they can suck it!

Ok- first of all - during the first half we were tested and pushed by BC’s hot shooting. I thought it was going to be another close one, KT carried us in the first half. I think at one point he scored 11 straight or something like that.

Awesome to see CJ find his shot. His confidence grew and that’s a very good thing.

Many are going to say “it’s fun when we make them” but that’s simplifying it a bit.

First, our defensive intensity and effort overall was very good. We hustle and give great effort. Those two tenants were not always guaranteed last year. 
To me, the ball movement and moving without the ball, putting strain on BC’s defense, is what made the night special. This is what I thought a Hoiberg offense could do. We passed so crisp and clean - Even Keita had some nice passes. 

I said it earlier this season. Gary, Bandoumel, and Dawson are Big Ten level athletes. Sam is a big ten sized guard. We have some interesting pieces.

But tonight belonged to Keisei Tominaga. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 23 point effort with just one missed shot. That’s incredible. Unbelievable actually. 
His offense was much needed, but he had some great assists on cutting players. He even had a steal and caused a couple of other bad passes.  Like the announcer said, he’s just a smart, heady basketball player. His energy is infectious and the joy that he plays in the game - loved his postgame interview too. 
This was a tough, tough day for Husker fans. This game helped me escape for a couple of hours. 

Finally fellas, Go Big Red!!!

23 points on 8 shots. That's, uh, pretty good.

I didn't see a lot of bad on our court tonight.   Lot's of physicality, good hustle, good passing, good rebounding, good adjustments, and good shooting.  I was a bit concerned about some bad possessions/turnovers in the first half, but we found the cure in the second half.  Tominaga was scorching hot in the first half, basically carrying the scoring load on his rather skinny shoulders.

A solid B performance. 

Keisei had himself an “80/100 in practice” type of game.

5 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

Keisei had himself an “80/100 in practice” type of game.

I listened to Fred’s postgame presser.

Quite a few questions related to KT.

To sum it up, he said he was very happy to see his guys were very purposeful in finding him because they knew he had the hot hand. He said “that’s a true sign of a selfish team” and I almost could hear him thinking ‘unlike last year’

He did say Keisei has quite a few tricks in his bag and it’s not just 3’s, it’s the runners and floaters. Said the floater he hit that he bounced it off the top of the backboard - that’s when he knew he had it going…

Such a fun win, no idea what the next 3 games hold but tonight was awesome

Sitting courtside tonight envisioning what Blaise Keita will look like in another 2 years…

That might have been the most fun game of the Hoiberg era.  Hopefully more to come.  It is going to ruin my HHC score but was nice to see a team play a complete game.

5 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

Sitting courtside tonight envisioning what Blaise Keita will look like in another 2 years…

Postgame notes

*-With the win, Nebraska improves to 6-6 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and picks up its first win in the event since 2018
*-Nebraska improves to 2-0 all-time against Boston College with both wins coming in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge
*-Nebraska shot 61.5 percent from the floor, its highest total since shooting 62.8 percent against Northwestern on Feb. 3, 2015
*-Keisei Tominaga tied a career high with 23 points tonight, matching his 23-point effort last season against South Dakota. It marked Tominaga’s second career 20-point game. He has been in double figures in each of the last three games and five times this season, all coming off the bench.
*-Tominaga’s 23 points is a season high for any Husker this season (Sam Griesel vs. Maine)
*-Nebraska held Boston College without a field goal for over 12 minutes from the 3:11 mark in the first half to the 11:07 mark in the second half, outscoring Boston College 25-3 in that span
*-Emmanuel Bandoumel matched his career high with six assists, matching his personal best set at Vanderbilt on Jan. 4, 2020 while at SMU.
*-Nebraska put five players in double figures for the second straight game.
*-Nebraska out-rebounded Boston College, 29-26, the fourth straight game NU out-rebounded an opponent.
*-Nebraska’s 88 points was a season-high and highest total since scoring 93 at Penn State on Feb. 27, 2022.
*-C.J. Wilcher scored all of his 14 points in the second half, including shooting 4-for-7 from behind the arc.
*-Nebraska drained a season-high 12 three-pointers in the contest, including 9-for-13 in the second half.

Three likes in no particular order.

Defense. Hey, they're starting to click. They're *communicating.* They're talking, they're pointing, they're not leaving their feet on close-outs, they're switching screens better, they're not losing guys. There was ONE TIME in the second half they failed to get back on D after a really nice make (when they got up by 27) and it's like they were so shocked they forgot to go back and play D. That only happened once. I thought the defense, for the most  part, looked really solid.

Keisei. Hit some threes but he did a lot more than that. And he wasn't a defensive liability. Really good to see him have a solid game almost  mistake free.

Multiple touches on almost every possession. Only a couple times in the 2nd half did I really see a guy put his head down and decide to take it himself when there was an easy pass that was clearly a better option. Some of the passing was next level. Blaise Keita made a touch pass to Gary for a layup that was so quick, if you'd have blinked, you would have missed it.

That was a night for the record books

I think we'd have been happy to see that performance against Boston University let alone Boston College. But this convincing, 21-point win over the Kenpom #107 team doesn't feel like a fluke, particularly coming on the heals of the win over Florida State.

I'm not saying we're a tournament team. At least not *that* tournament.

But, I will say this team could be a lot better than I was expecting. Certainly better than I feared.

それは個人撮影の素晴らしい展示でした。

To me this at least looks like a team that understands how to play with each other and seems to understand the system they are supposed to play in.  Having DW back is quite the security blanket for these guys and now we can offensively and defensively play how we want to play.  I feel we will be competitive and right now that’s all I ask, especially with the big 10 ad a whole not looking super great in the ACC/Big 10 challenge there could be some January and February wins for us.  

It seemed like our offense wasn't letting itself be bogged down by ball pressure on our guards.  If one watches the St. Johns game again and looks at how much dribbling was going on compared to last night, which seemed there was very little dribbling it is night and day.  That was awesome spacing and movement last night.  I think BC did have their will broken with a thin team, which helped the cause, but it was still very beautiful.  

57 minutes ago, royalfan said:

It seemed like our offense wasn't letting itself be bogged down by ball pressure on our guards.  If one watches the St. Johns game again and looks at how much dribbling was going on verse last night which seemed there was very little dribbling it is night and day.  That was awesome spacing and movement last night.  I think BC did have their will broken with a thin team, which helped the cause, but it was still very beautiful.  

This!! In Orlando (especially against Oklahoma) the ball was "sticking" horribly - many of the times with 5 trying to iso and a make a play. Last night was glorious ball movement. This team can win a bunch of games playing that way. 

3 hours ago, jayschool said:

それは個人撮影の素晴らしい展示でした。

同意します

Enjoyable game to watch last night and enjoyable to read HHC this morning. All I can say is "Domo Arigatou gozaimasu, Keisei."

What a game. Great job fellas. If Keisei just keeps getting hot, he might be on track to prove my ass very wrong. Need to see it against quality competition, however. FSU/BC are really, really bad. 

Some funky business absolutely happened with Walker's fouls. He clearly picked up two early - announcers said it and the foul was on him watching it. I couldn't believe when he picked up his "3rd" in the first half that it got corrected to his "2nd." 

It may have been a mandatory penalty for the referees calling two fouls in two seconds on a player wearing glasses.