uneblinstu's post game chatter: vol 5, ed 3 - Valparaiso

...lots of work still to do.

- Nice win...ugly, but nice.

- We did an extremely good job defending the 3. We took them out of what they wanted to do.

- For those of you who doubted Ray...well, so far, so good.

- For those of you who doubted Ubel...well, so far, so good.

- I have always thought Talley was all offense...but nope, he played excellent defense on their stud tonight.

- Parker was quiet, but very good tonight.

- Andre, dude we need your offense, please! But it is fun watching opponents bouncing off of you.

- Rivers is awkward, but he has growth potential. When he can put on another 25lbs of muscle...

- Offense...come on, we need to get about 100% better.

- Free throw shooting (other than Ubel) uggh.

Right now, Brandon Ubel is averaging 6 more points per game than Doug McDermott. Whoda thunkit?

I'm pretty happy with this win. If we played this tomorrow night, we lose. I think that nutty schedule for Valpo gave us just enough of an advantage to eek this out. They did not look sharp at all.

But for a team like ours, every ambush matters, and I'm thrilled we took advantage of our first one.

I think Benny Parker is going to become a very good player. His shot is a little better than I first thought.

The thing that impressed me the most was that we won with Talley only scoring 1 point.

As far as the question was it a poor shooting night for Valpo or did we just play better defense. I think in the first 10 minutes of the first half they were getting very good looks and just not converting, lots of easy shots and their pick and roll was killing us but we made just the adjustments and I was really impressed with the defense.

After what I saw I don't think Valpo is a tourney team, and Detroit will probably come out of the Horizon in my opinion. But still a solid and impressive win.

Need to make sure we schedule more teams that play a 7am game two days before they play us. Valpo looked tired.

Well, Rivers. He had some very good defensive sequences. But he also missed a couple wide open baseline jumpers. Geez, David, you gotta hit those. Rivers also needs to be willing to take the semi-open/semi-contested three. When he catches it in rhythm like he did several times tonight, he gots to be willing and able to let a 3-bomb fly. Several times tonight, he caught the ball in rhythm and would have easily been able to elevate and get the shot off. They were sagging off of him to help inside. And you have to make teams pay for that. Plus it would be nice to have a guy with his length be able to hit that shot because it's so tough to defend a 6-7 kid with long arms who can catch and shoot on the perimeter.

And Jordan Tyrance? Dude, you gotta learn how to play basketball. I mean, you played out there tonight like the last kid picked on the playground. His touch to turnover ratio was pretty scary.

Glad we eventually figured out how to stop the pick and roll play because our perimeter defense was solid. They were having to attack the rim and we eventually did better with recovering to the ballhandler and getting good on-ball pressure to deny the entry pass long enough for the defender to recover.

I worried when we got up by 14 that we were going to get tentative and let them back into it, which is exactly what happened. We had some good fortune that they were cold from outside and we got hot at the right time, but then we couldn't buy a bucket. We've got to be able to find points when we need to end a dry spell. Talley might have been able to provide some of that but after he blew the dunk in the first half, he just stopped looking for his shot.

I was singularly unimpressed with Broekhoff. Van Wyk was pretty good, though. And Valpo only suited 9 players. Not sure if they all played, but they fouled one starter out and lost another to injury mid-way through the 2nd half. And still they crawled back into it. Hope our guys watch some film and absorb how that happened.

I was singularly unimpressed with Broekhoff.

I like to think of this as being more impressed with Dylan Talley

Just got back from the game. Some thoughts:

1. Brandon won the opening tip!!!

2. Talley didn't score but came up big as the primary defender against their primary scorer--held their primary scorer to 2 of 11 shooting--and provided some stability and maturity handling the ball. Had 4 assists to 2 turnovers.

3. LOTS of walk-on minutes tonight--20 to be precise (27 if you count Menke).

4. Brandon Ubel needs to stop getting the ticky-tacky fouls because we need him in the game to be successful. However, it's fun seeing him having friendly chats with the officials when time is out.

5. This team is dramatically better now than it was in the opening exhibition game. Big improvements are coming from nearly everyone.

6. Andre is so good at absorbing contact that noone gets called for fouling him. On one occasion, he took a charge and didn't move a bit, but the charging player injured himself. No call, of course. He had 3 nice, clean blocks.

7. Ray shot 5 of 11, including 4 of 6 from three. 1 steal and 1 turnover.

8. Mike Peltz will continue to get minutes because of his defense and reliability with the ball.

9. Benny played well: 3 assists to 1 turnover and 1 of 2 from three. Had a great drive and finish on a break.

10. Gotta appreciate what Tim Miles and the staff are doing with this team so far--considering the multiple challenges they are dealing with.

Just got back from the game. Some thoughts:...

6. Andre is so good at absorbing contact that no one gets called for fouling him. On one occasion, he took a charge and didn't move a bit, but the charging player injured himself. No call, of course. He had 3 nice, clean blocks.

Andre seems to get penalized for being big...on the play you describe, he was standing still for 2 seconds and the little guard ran straight into him and bounced off like he hit a brick wall....no call when an OBVIOUS charge/foul decision was required (Officials took it more like football, No harm, No foul)

More disconcerting was our offense against the zone...if Valpo would have went zone earlier/more often, we are not as happy tonight.

Easy planning for Coach Miles, as he will not have to worry about finding things to work on. And he has a decent victory to savor...while we get ready for the far BIGger tasks ahead.

Overall, good game.

After what I saw I don't think Valpo is a tourney team, and Detroit will probably come out of the Horizon in my opinion. But still a solid and impressive win.

Don't forget that one of their best players is out another couple weeks with a hernia injury, but will return.

Congrats Huskers. 2-0 is pretty good; keep it up and just enjoy this season. Norm, was Ubel double and triple teamed like Doug Mc? Ubel has been a bright spot. Trickey, I think you are right about Andre being penalized for being big. It has happened to Echinique alot, also, untihe became more established as a good, legitimate player. (I hate refs. A quote by Jimmy Val... "I hate refs; you just can't trust them. I asked one if I could get a technical for something I was thinking. He said of course not. So I told him: I think you stink! He gave me one anyway."

Norm, was Ubel double and triple teamed like Doug Mc? Ubel has been a bright spot.

Looks like they game planned from the start to double Ubel and did so throughout most of the game.

Norm, was Ubel double and triple teamed like Doug Mc?

Not Norm here, but the answer is, "Yes" he was double and tripple teamed [but can't say it was "like Doug Mc," since I haven't seen him play this year] When the ball went into Brandon anywhere near the inside, he was immediately double teamed and it seemed like all the defenders sort of collapsed a bit around him. It was frustrating because it seemed there should be an open man somewhere, but we never seemed to find him or otherwise make them pay for such efforts.

- Nice win...ugly, but nice.

- We did an extremely good job defending the 3. We took them out of what they wanted to do.

- For those of you who doubted Ray...well, so far, so good.

- For those of you who doubted Ubel...well, so far, so good.

- I have always thought Talley was all offense...but nope, he played excellent defense on their stud tonight.

- Parker was quiet, but very good tonight.

- Andre, dude we need your offense, please! But it is fun watching opponents bouncing off of you.

- Rivers is awkward, but he has growth potential. When he can put on another 25lbs of muscle...

- Offense...come on, we need to get about 100% better.

- Free throw shooting (other than Ubel) uggh.

I'm one that thought Ray was not very good, but so far after two games he has done good and shot better than he has in 3 years, 2 playing....was Doc that bad of coach or is Miles a great coach at teaching them to shoot the ball?

Always thought Ubel was our best inside player without him we would be hurting bad....kind of wish he would have redshirted this year to play with a better team next year....he deserves it as he is one player to actully improve in four years.

Beyond the boxscore

• Tom Osborne was in attendance though he typically is unless something else big is going on
• Guessing game this week was Johnny the Jet trying to name as many Heisman winners as he could in 30 seconds or less. Of course the first person he named was Johnny Rodgers and he just beat the over/under of 11 with no time on the clock
• Crowd was fairly sparse again but was able to rise to the occasion for the last 2 minutes of the game
• Not sure if anyone has mentioned this before, but they've redone some if not all of the bathrooms and concessions stands on the upper level. We're talking about High Def concessions screens and stainless steel urinals as they start the prep of the conversion into a volleyball facility.
• A couple of students shooting layups as part of a half-time competition made Shang Ping look like Kevin Durant...it was brutal
  

Post game notes from UNL Media Relations


Nebraska Coach Tim Miles
Opening Statement
"Good win. The kids played, I thought they defended, we took away threes. We ran just enough offense to be okay."

On how the team showed me
I thought we did okay. We need to get better, but I thought we did okay

In the last seven minutes
We did a good job when they were in man and then went zone and we started to score against the zone. They were running out of time and we started standing around. It was late game and we played some guys heavy minutes . You don’t cut and move like you do, especially early in the year. I thought our guys played with a pretty good pace earlier. All those factors go into play and then we missed some inside shots and we don’t get to the foul line.

On the mood of the team
"Our guys were a little unsure going in. The mood in practice was a little odd because we had some guys who were sick and some other things. But it kind of felt like a team who was unsure. At halftime, they didn't feel like a team that was unsure. I didn't think they played like a team who was unsure. I thought we were aggressive, and we did a lot of good things. We'll watch the tape tomorrow, and we'll get better because Omaha's coming in here and this is a big game for them. It's a big game for us. Everyone counts as one."

On David Rivers
"I thought Dave was real solid. I thought he had a really solid night. I thought he was valuable. He shows you that he knows some things when he's in there."

On improvements in the defense on the switches
"Well they did it about a thousand times. About 800 times they did it pretty good. I'd say they did alright. You have to hedge your bet one way or another. Now, did they do a good job putting it on the move? They probably could have played small and switched more of them, but I thought for the most part, they did a pretty good job."

On the team's change in attitude
"I thought there was a spark on the team that we probably hadn't seen before. Like I told them after the game, we've won the exhibition game and the locker room was just kind of blah. We beat Southern and the locker room was just kind of blah. Tonight, I asked them "How're you feeling?" They were all charged up and I said "This is what you're supposed to feel." It's not just about winning, either. I felt like we played alright. We have a lot to get better at, but that was a good game."

On the team moving on offense
"It's a way of life for me. You can just see that I'm begging guys to move, and they're just not quite sure. The only way to do this is to continue to teach them. They're gonna have to go out and do it and you've got to show it to them. It's a daily deal and it's not happening quick enough."

Nebraska Forward Brandon Ubel
On how the team survived its first test of mental toughness
"We got the win. That's huge for us. We gutted it out, too. We were able to get stops. That's a good Valparaiso--a very good shooting Valparaiso team that we just held to 48 points. We did it on the defensive end, which is what we're going to have to do, and I think that was big for us tonight."

On if Valparaiso disliked the physical nature of the game
"We definitely had that advantage, and I think they knew that coming into the game, that we were a little bit bigger and stronger. They were throwing double teams at us, trying to take that away, but we found a way to get past that and found a way to move without the ball, get through those double teams and be able to finish. That was big for us."

On NU's scoring drought late in the game
They switched into a zone and that kind of threw us off it kind of got us out of whack for a second. We started settling for jump shots. Then we started to attack the rim a little bit more. We got a couple baskets, but the biggest thing for us was on the defensive end. We let them get a couple easy baskets there that we shouldn't, but in the end we got enough stops to win the game, so that was good."

On how key it was to hold Valparaiso to 13 percent from beyond the arc
"That was huge. That was the key to the game coming in, getting back in transition, finding their shooters and contesting their shots. Watching their tape, they ran a lot of good plays, but most of their stuff came off of transition and off confusion-type plays where they were just getting wide-open looks at the basket. Good players are going to knock that down, so we were able to take that away from them tonight."


Valparaiso Head Coach Bryce Drew Quotes
Opening Statement
“I thought Nebraska did a very good job. They were well scouted and played very well tonight. Our schedule was set up this way, and we knew coming in we would have to play at 7 a.m. and then come back two days later and play again. I think it was more Nebraska and what they did than the time of the games.

On letting Ben Boggs play in foul trouble
“You know we were on the verge of losing control of the game. We already had our starting point guard out with an injury so I thought we needed him on the floor as long as we could to give us a chance and stay close to make a run at the end. If I could do it again, I would definitely keep it the same because if I sat him down we could have been down by 15 or 16 so it wouldn’t have really mattered.”

On three-point shots
“Usually we are a lot more aggressive driving to the basket. Again, I thought Nebraska did a good job closing out, and also containing our drive. I thought Nebraska’s bigs did a good job being bigs. This team has won before by not shooting well from three, basically we were two points away from that tonight.

On the last seven minutes
“I thought the last seven minutes we finally got a rhythm and started to play. For 33 minutes Nebraska outplayed us. That is something we will try and address work on for the next game.”

Notes:
*-With Ray Gallegos’ 14 points tonight, it marks the second time in his career he has reached double figures in consecutive games. The other time came early in the 2009-10 season.
*-Gallegos’ four 3-pointers are a career high, as he had three against UT-Pan American on Dec. 2, 2009.
*-Nebraska held Valparaiso, which was 26-of-48 from 3-point range in its first two games to 2-of-15 shooting from long range. Valparaiso was shooting 52.5 percent and averaging 77.0 ppg as a team entering tonight
*-Nebraska improves to 3-0 all-time against Valparaiso, as tonight’s game was the first meeting since 1920.
*-The Huskers held Horizon League Player of the Year Ryan Broekhoff to just eight points on 2-of-11 shooting
*-Valparaiso’s 48 points was its lowest total in 29 games, as Ohio State held the Crusaders to 47 points on Nov. 25, 2011.
*-Nebraska’s 50 points equals the fewest the Huskers have scored in a win since a 50-44 win over Oregon State on Dec. 12, 2009.

I'm one that thought Ray was not very good, but so far after two games he has done good and shot better than he has in 3 years, 2 playing....was Doc that bad of coach or is Miles a great coach at teaching them to shoot the ball?

Ray could always shoot the ball lights out in practice and was encouraged by Doc to do so, but he would load up his pants in games so to speak.

Ray could always shoot the ball lights out in practice and was encouraged by Doc to do so, but he would load up his pants in games so to speak.

The difference I have seen is the Doc was trying to make Ray a spot-up shooter and Mile's offense gives him shots off the dribble or shots coming direclty of screens. Ray has always been able to shoot off of motion but for whatever reason he is a very poor shooter if he is stationary spotting up somewhere when he gets the past. The difference to me is now Ray is getting the shots that he is comfortable taking and that he can make.

Ray could always shoot the ball lights out in practice and was encouraged by Doc to do so, but he would load up his pants in games so to speak.

Can't 100% agree with you as do agree that Ray could always shoot the ball but think he game shooting issues were more related to Doc's coaching. Ray would take a shot early in shot clock and Doc didn't like is and would give him the hook (as he did with several players). The last thing you want is playing thinking about it and just shoot. Ray wanted to play more uptemp and Doc didn't want to so there was enough conflict that Ray and other struggled offensively. You have to trust kids to take shots when they feel it regardless of how much time is left on shot clock. If they continue to take bad shots, then you can sit them and explain things but not because you take a shot early in the shot clock.

HuskerBB, that is not true, Doc's offense did not try to make him a spot up shooter, we ran him on a single side and tried getting him jumpers off the motion at the elbows. Ray just didn't have any confidence during games, in practices he was lights out and preseason practices he looked like our best player.

Doc also encouraged him to shoot the ball during practices and didn't take him out of games for missing shots, it was usually because he would get lost on defense. (not saying I agree with what Doc did hear) I think he finally has the confidence because he knows he's one of the main guys this year and not just a role player.

HuskerActuary,

I'm aware their best player is hurt, but I think they live and die with the three and once conference tournament time comes they will die by it look at our game I think they only made 2 3s? With Ray McCallum I just think Detroit is a better team in the Horizon, I'll probably be wrong though.