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A few thoughts here from someone who generally observes reactions on this board but rarely comments. For long tenured Nebrasketball fans this is kicking into "the sky is falling" mode rather quickly. The team has some issues to sort out, for certain, but there is a base of talent and coaching to work with here that give me more confidence than in the past. The compare to '14-'15 is apples to oranges in opinion. The nucleus of that Miles team was in tact from the prior season. This year's team is pieced together from the portal (like many this day and age) and will hinge upon its ability for the potential of its talent to show itself. I think that can happen, but it's likely going to take more than two games for us to see it. The two teams we've faced so far haven't had top tier talent, but seeing them both up close; they played hard and scrapped defensively. They were a bit helter-skelter schematically and possibly the most important piece...They didn't lack for athletes. Those two teams played their asses off and that should be recognized. I think some of the perceived lack of effort here is the two teams you played ran around with their hair on fire. Our inability to hits shots consistently is an issue. Though the 3pt misses I think even out over time, I'm far more concerned about the growing trend of not finishing at and around the basket. Last year's team had plenty of early issues with hitting from outside consistently (2-22, anyone?). But the past two seasons 13 and 51 could settle everything down and get a bucket on the block when needed, or facilitate for someone else who could. I haven't seen that yet, but it looks like Berke and Morgan both have that type of potential as they get rooted in the offense. Berke, specifically has huge potential. Braxton is a worker and I expect there will be games where his ability to impact possessions on defense are lauded here. He will never be the centerpiece of an offense and I agree the game slows down significantly when we play through him. But these first two games are incredibly valuable reps for him to grow for when he has to do it later, because that day is coming. The same thing can be said for everyone else who's two games in (Rollie, Gavin, Connor and most of all Berke). You don't like the rotations? I'm guessing Fred doesn't either at times. They're figuring it out in these first three non-con games because when are they going to get a chance after that? The vitriol around Brice is surprising. Dude went for 27 and 5 out the gate then had an off night with everyone else on Saturday. He may not lead or carry himself like Sammy G or whomever you want him to be, but this team is going as far as he takes them. I have a pretty decent view of the floor and I don't see the "body language" issues. He's just playing ball and that's how he carries himself. He looks the same as he did last year when they were upsetting Purdue and Wisconsin from my vantage.

Meet Roxanne the newest Nebraska Basketball Mascot and hopefully good luck dog. There's precedent

A bunch of new guys on the squad, many of whom are objectively good at basketball. Perhaps we should give them the noncon to gel before we start passing absolute judgments.

take it easy my brother. I played hard every night ~Steve Harley

Here is what I would like to see: Starters Rollie Connor Brice Juwan Berke Bench Gavin Andrew Ahron Braxton

Our bigs. Meah - I was worried from the very first possession of the first game, when he missed that dunk. Got fouled (mayble), but should've made the dunk. But that alone didn't bother me. After the missed dunk, he lazily/nonchalantly walked around the paint for a bit, smiling and laughing, before he made his way to the free throw line. Then clanked two free throws. That whole scene was a microcosm of years 1-3 of Fred here at Nebraska. Last night, he did the "too small" gesture after dunking on someone a foot shorter than him. We were losing to Bethune Cookman at that time. Read the room, guy. He also had Brice laughing on the court last night. If there's one player you want to be locked in at all times, it's Brice. He's prone to losing focus, and is much better when he doesn't. I want Brice pissed off when we're not playing well. All these things are signs and symptoms that remind so much of Fred's first three teams and it worries the heck out of me. Culture matters, and Fred's timeline here is proof of that. Morgan - isn't a very good defensive rebounder, which I suppose is to be expected. He wasn't a very good rebounder at NDSU either. Doesn't have the vision or passing ability to play the Mast role. The staff thought he could stretch the defense when they brought him on, but he has only made 17 threes in his entire college career. And we haven't ran anything to get him a perimeter set shot, like we did with Mast. Just more of a traditional post player. Can definitely still have a role in the rotation, but there's a reason he isn't starting or getting starter's minutes. Berke - Does have the natural vision and passing ability to play the Mast role. The handful of times he's been in that spot, he's looked pretty damn good. Kind of surprisingly, he looks like our most sound interior defender, as well. Meah has long arms and will block some shots, but he gave up at least 4 layups last night. Berke has a wide base, long arms and defends without fouling in the post. He looks much more comfortable as the 5 on both ends of the court. He looks bigger than Mast to me. Certainly longer and more athletic. I hope we don't continue to insist on playing him at the 4 for 22 of his 27 mpg. Our "finisher lineup" is Rollie, Connor/Sam, Brice, Juwan, Berke. Yet I'm pretty sure we didn't see that group play together at all in the first 37 minutes. If that's your best group, how does that make sense? I suppose Fred didn't expect a barn burner with Bethune-Cookman. It's pretty clear to me that our best five is that group, with Connor in the 2 spot. Connor only playing 14 minutes in that game is inexcusable. I don't care that he went 0-fer from three. Still had 8 points in those 14 minutes and he's the ONLY player on our team that constantly makes the defense work with his off-ball movement, similar to Keisei. He's also our best shooter - can be hard for a shooter to get into a rhythm coming off the bench playing spot minutes (see Connor's freshman vs. sophomore seasons). I know Fred doesn't want to go small with Gary at the 4 in conference play, but I think we're going to have to. We can still be a good team. Can still go up to Sioux Falls and beat St. Mary's. But we have a lot of work to do.

+/- from Bethune Cookman: Worster +9 Morgan +8 Berke +8 Griffiths +7 Essegian +3 Gary 0 Hoiberg -1 Williams -2 Meah -3 Ulis -4 Total through 2 games: Worster +30 Berke +29 Gary +26 Essegian +18 Morgan +14 Griffiths +11 Williams +6 Meah +2 Ulis -5 Hoiberg -6 Seems like the staff is way over-complicating this. Your top 7 are your top 7.

Only the real masochists will ever want to run this one back, but just in case:

Starting Meah mucks up the whole offense and that leads to the stagnant offense throughout the game because it prevents the offense from getting into a rhythm early and then guys get down and start pressing. For the life of me I can't understand why he starts. He should be a 5-10 minute a game player, at most. I would be fine with zero minutes against lesser/smaller teams. His detrimental role in the starting lineup is compounded by the fact that Rollie and Gary can't shoot. Hard to believe Hoiberg is starting a lineup with three guys who can't shoot. Ugh! Watching basketball is not as fun when the players on your team can't shoot. Last year any of 4 or 5 guys could go off from the 3 point line on any night (Keisei, Wilcher, Mast, Williams, Lawrence, etc.) That made if fun--electric! After three games of watching this team the only thing I have felt is annoyed. Now that I've got that off my chest, I'll try to find some positives. Like many above, I do agree there could be some potential in some of these players if the lineups are adjusted. More minutes for Connor, Gavin and Morgan. Less minutes for Meah and less for Ulis or Sam. My roster is the exact same as Hugh's above, except that battle for the 8th spot is between Sam and Ulis. As of this point, I have no idea what Ulis brings to the table. So far all I have seen is a guy who can kind of dribble and is an okay athlete. He is not a good shooter. I have not seen any indication is a good creator or distributor. He is just . . . there. Does not really bring anything of substance that i have seen so far. But the season is early so he should have more time to show what he can bring and then it must be decided between him and Sam for those minutes.

I watched the whole replay. Two things: Griffiths should have been on the court for the last 5 minutes. The more I watch him the more I like. I’d start him over Meah and have Berke start at the 5. He creates all sorts of problems that don’t show up on the stat sheet with his length and speed. He’s smart, unselfish, and helps the offense flow. He also has a good understanding of pro spacing. BC’s run to get back in the game was with him on the bench. His closeouts on defense are really good and he’s capable of switching everything. He also led our team in assists playing 13 minutes. I love Sam but he’s not a PG and GG deserved Sam’s minutes last night. I like Berke a lot. He’s smart, skilled, and tough. We need to give him a ton of reps as the 5 in the half court because he has the passing ability to get it done in Mast’s role. They also need to green light him from 3 and live with the results. He’s a good player. Juwan started being Juwan more this game. Good to see. Brice forced it but also played really well alongside Griffiths. They are a problem together. Worster was terrible offensively but he’s a great defender. I guess this week is layup practice. Wtf.

Need to update the insult, the tools are wearing quarter zips now. Here, punch this face:

I think Weidner tweaked her knee a little bit. she came to the bench with a slight limp after he got tangled up and fell to floor. And as for Hake, she has always been a good defensive player. funny how most on this board don't think so though.

Didn't get to see the game last night and just popped on here this morning. After reading all the posts gotta say I'm a bit concerned. Then I landed on your post. The rescue is bringing our new puppy by in about 45 min. Coincidence? We shall find out.

I feel like I felt after the first Minnesota game last year - Does Brice care? Is there locker room cancer? Why are certain players getting the minutes they are? We figured it out well after that game last year. Hoping we can this year too. And it’s earlier in the season, so it could end up being a plus to meet that moment now.

Was at the game last night....SLOPPY!! I think some of this has to do with the fact that we are rotating so many guys in as Fred's still trying to figure out rotations. So I completely get it. I was even sitting the crowd last night thinking "Who would I have in that can maybe give us some offensive flow?" Last night I'm hoping was just one of those games where for whatever reason it just didn't "work" Here is the optimist in me that feels we can still continue to improve as the year goes on. Brice and Rollie combined for ELEVEN of our 18 turnovers. I don't believe that will the norm by any means at all. I felt on numerous occasions we were able to get to the paint, but our decision making was very poor. I do believe with some film those are things that can be corrected. Numerous times we had guys get into the pain with shooters open on the wings/corners and for whatever reason didn't get the ball to them and forced up a tough two. Other thing. We missed SO many buckets at the rim. I saw Robin tweet that at the 1/2 we were 6/12 on layups/dunks. Second half I bet we missed 5-6 more. I really don't think that will be the norm with this group. Heck, Gary missed about 4 at the rim and that is not him at all. Defensively I do like our length. I do think as the year goes on we can be a pretty solid defensive team. Especially with certain lineups. Look, last night wasn't pretty by any means. I've walked out of the Bob/PBA on NUMEROUS occasions where we lose that game last night. We did find a way to win. Was it pretty? NOT AT ALL. Were their some things we can improve on....ABSOLUTELY! I do worry about how we may struggle to score at times this season, but every team goes through that. Its why in basketball you see upsets all the time! I believe I saw that in the Big East alone they have already lose 3 "buy" games and we are just in the 2nd week of the season. It happens. I also like that our schedule isn't "brutal" to start as we try and find those right rotations. I will be curious to see how this team does. I do feel we can still be a solid team this year. We may have to "ugly" up games this year almost the same way Doc did. I'm sure we will lose some we shouldn't, but I also think we can win some we maybe shouldn't either. Lets not hit the panic button though. I remember after a game one time Kent Pavelka after beating Indiana said to Doc "What do you feel you guys did to look so much better tonight." Doc simply replied "We made shots." Let's avoid the 4-22 on 3's and all the turnovers and see where this season takes us. GBR!!

Optimist in me says if we finish around the rim like I THINK we are capable of while it's still an ugly game, we probably win by like 15ish points and all feel slightly better. The number of missed layups/put backs was unbelievable. Hoping it was an anomaly

They should be embarrassed after that “effort.” This team isn’t “bad,” (I don’t think anyways…) - but boy do they do some atrocious things. We’re gonna get the brakes beat off of us by Creighton and St. Mary’s. Brice Williams needs to check the attitude/ego at the door. His body language is such shit. It’s clearly all about him out there, and if he doesn’t have it he’s checked out. Braxton Meah is not a good basketball player, and if he can’t figure out how to be 7’1” with a 20ft wingspan then he will be riding pine. I asked after the scrimmage, “does this team have mono?” And I’m starting to wonder if either I was onto something, or they all just hate each other. Definitely looks like 2 or 3 different teams depending on the line-ups. And certain guys play different when other guys are on the bench. Last thing I’m going to say - all I’ve heard is how smart of an offensive mind Fred Hoiberg is - when have you ever said, “damn Fred really dialed up some stuff tonight?” I can’t think of one game. His hot potato 5-out weave offense is so ridiculously easy to guard. These guys never space the floor and let actions happen/develop. No one knows how to draw two and kick, then use it. They never get solid kick-out 3’s (and if they do it’s to the wrong guys). I’m pretty fed up with what I’ve seen from this crew the first few games. Lazy, uninspired, too-cool-for-school basketball. Zero team chemistry. Get it figured out fellas

This message board told me a lot that I didn’t even know about myself.

No one can deny that fact, always a favorite.

watched the game the other night. at least for this game, creighton had some trouble under the rim getting out rebounded 41-28. jackrabbits had 38 points in the paint. just when you thought jacks were gonna pull away in the second half, creighton would hit a big shot to keep them within distance. post 6'2" Brooklyn Meyer gave them all kinds of trouble around the rim. so did the jacks mesa byom. don't put creighton at the free throw line....at least to a minimum. creighton can cause problems with full court press, although, for the most part jacks handled it pretty well. lauren jensen is just awesome. outside and inside---although her shooting efficiency wasn't all that great for this game. Maly hit big shots when needed. molly mogensen also. granted, one never knows, but, i think it would be rather disappointing if huskers can't pull this one out. huskers need to keep it at a distance near the end. i will say this, jackrabbits are good. not sure they can topple any top 10 teams, but, can give anyone else a good game. this is with recruits from sd, iowa and minnesota.

Hate seeing this friction. Love the Huskers. But I also appreciate and support the Saltdogs. They do a lot for the community, in particular the youth. There is no need for a new (or separate) complexes. We have one of the top venues in the country.

FDU plays fast in general

The middle of each half should be pretty safe vs being in the bonus. But if we’re there and the opponent is trying to expose it we can adjust. From these first two games he’d be the first players who’s minutes I would reduce.

Meah wasn’t bad last night. But I don’t understand Fred’s infatuation with him. “I’ve never had a player like him before at any level.” Yes and you’ve also had really good offenses most of the time and last year’s team was no slouch defensively at all, we were the #1 defense in the country in February with a hobbling Mast and one guard who had no interest in defense and another who tried but didn’t know what he was doing. Meah kills the offensive flow, he can’t get up and down the floor, he has fewer rebounds than our point guard, and he has blocked 1 shot and has 0 steals. I really don’t understand. It seems like we are just trying to force this to happen. Play like last year! Honestly I would like to see us start Brice, Connor, Juwan, Gavin, Berke. Bring Rollie, Morgan, Sam off the bench and Meah and Ulis in case of foul trouble or injuries. We need a better scoring starting lineup to start games. Right now we are starting basically one guy (Brice) who is a scoring threat from 3.

Here is something to checkout. It is the injury report for the game/s being played. https://bigten.org/wbb/availability-reports/

I noticed a lot of what you said with Gavin. There were a few times that I thought he could force a shot, but he made the easy pass which led to layups or dunks. The Morgan pass and the fast break one stand out to me. He still seems to be figuring out where to be on offense in the half court right now, but that wasn't just a him thing. He just needs to continue to get better every game. With Berke, I agree. I can see the talent and skill, it's all there. It's about piecing it together for him.

I hear ya, but we kinda dealt with that sort of stuff from Keisei also. But overall he was a clear net positive and we needed him in the game to be what we were last year. Essegian is a better rebounder than Keisei and defensively it's probably a wash between the two. Without Keisei, CJ, JL and Mast this team desperately needs some shooting. Connor made nearly as many threes his true freshman year as Keisei did in his final year of college. I think this is just one of those situations where you have to take the bad with the good, and roll with it.

Maybe it’s just me. I just dont see that same fire from Juwan and Brice this far. Brice had some bad fouls last night but he also literally had the ball and fell down, didn’t even trip, just fell down. Turnovers matter eventually. Did Jo, Mast, and Keisei really have that much of the heartbeat of the team last year? I hope they can get motivated for Wednesday. St Mary’s is a different level. Losing to the McDermott in Omaha isn’t unusual, but getting blown out by 30+ needs to stop, just so I do t endure the stupid sweater vests in the office all year

I think the body language concerns are overblown at this point. When shots are going in everyone is happy and when they aren’t, it looks bad. Effort and selfishness haven’t been the major concerns of mine through two games. At the end of the day you have to take care of the ball and make 3s to win in today’s game. -Rollie was close to 3:1 assist to turnover ratio and at the top of the PAC 12 in that stat. So far he has 5 assists to 8 turnovers which has to change. I will put more stock in his two years over two games but no offense looks good with your PG having those stats. - 3 point shooting. We currently sit at 25% which again is not a winning level. I don’t hate the shot selection overall but Griffiths/Berke/Gary/Brice have to shoot a better percentage if we are to be successful. I’m more concerned about this one long term than the above point. Those guys have some track record of good shooting but outside of Brice not a long history of high percentages.

I think he backed underneath a player who was airborne. There's still time to figure it out, but we're a long way away. One bit of optimism, we do seem to look OK running sets out of timeouts. I think Fred is trying not to call sets so they can figure it out on their own, but this might be a team that needs more sets for a while. Maybe worth trying. Or maybe that's the plan once the competition ramps up. There's just a lot that looks really bad on offense right now. Even if we make 8 of those bricked layups and win by 20 last night, I'd still feel the same way today. It doesn't negate the issues with offensive flow. We've been able to see 120 minutes of play against vastly inferior opponents, and it's looked awful against all 3, so the issues are not a one-off. We really miss Mast right now. Berke easily has the closest skill set to Mast on the roster. Maybe we need to play smaller and just live with the rebounding issues to get better flow on offense. I don't know that Morgan and Meah will be able to give us anything offensively once we hit B1G play. I don't know that either one of them can score consistently in the post against B1G-quality posts. Teams certainly won't be doubling them ... and I don't know that either of them could pass out of it successfully if they do get doubled. And if either freshman was doing anything in practice that would put them even with or ahead of the guys who are playing, the freshmen would be playing now. They're both redshirting unless something disastrous happens. The coaches might reconsider if we get blown out by St Mary's and the bluebirds, but I doubt it. I'd imagine we're riding all year with the guys who are playing now. I'd rather see them give Jacobsen a shot if they're going to try to get a spark by putting someone else in the rotation.

No doubt we have quickness issues on the exterior. Although I am surprised at the quickness that Rimdal exhibited yesterday. But we have length and physicality that can offset that lack of quickness. In the league we are in, that may be more important. For example, I would argue that last year, Iowa did not have quick guards, yet they did okay. Our guard corp, with Britt healthy, should be a big advantage for us. By the way, our interior players seemed quicker this year than last. Potts and Hargrove move very well. AM has some nice quick moves, and Bozan has good feet. I think we will be okay.

...and Petrie actually stands with a slight slump. I suggest she is about 2 inches taller than AM. When she walked past me she looked young, tall and athletic.

Regarding Connor, I would tend to agree but last night I don't believe he was totally locked in (he wasn't alone in this regard either). One glaring example was when he was setting up for a defensive rebound and instead of blocking out the opponent he just grabbed him and threw him aside and then looked dumbfounded when he was called for the foul. I believe he got the hook immediately after that. Just an absolutely stupid/lazy play for someone that knows better.

"There's a lot of parity this year in college basketball." -- Random television color man

First, I don't recall having seen many opponent teams as quick and as fast all across the roster as was SELA yesterday. Huskers were consistently out quicked and outrun. Many rebounds were seemingly in the hands of a Husker before being swiped away by a pair of quick hands connected to a pair of really fast feet. Hake was a warrior out there, controlling the pace, getting the ball upcourt before opponents' quickness closed in on us, and getting the ball to teammates for open shots. Her defense was best yet. She doesn't seem to run out of gas. I loved the persistent urgency and intensity of the entire second half in trying to keep up with a team shooting such at such a high percentage - near 60% well into halftime. Potts: She said her summer work especially included improving her 3 point shot. Looks like mission accomplished so far. If she can keep that around the 35% level, she will have it all as an offensive threat. She can post up and score close in, and pull up and score at mid range, and she can drive and score and draw fouls. Add to that the ability to set up and score from beyond the arc and she will be even more of an opponent coaches' head ache. Rimdal: Fits right in. Looks as tho she has been playing in this system and with these teammates for years. Nissley: Fleet feet. Yaaay! Weidner: Effective, but not (yet I hope) 100%. Bozan: What a nice surprise! Several of us on here, myself included, were bemoaning the lack of having found, either thru recruiting or the portal, another big especially given that this is AM's last year. And then along came Petra. Interesting that so early in the season she got more minutes at important game moments than did Petrie. She could turn into a very potent scoring threat. As to her size - she and AM are both listed as 6-3. I thought I noticed this in the National Anthem lineup last game but didn't pay close enough attention. Yesterday I focused on it. She stands next to AM in that line and the top of AM's head looks to match up to the bridge of PB's nose They are not the same height.

some thoughts Berke- timid shooting 3s. Can see why after he attempted a couple. I think back to his games over seas this summer and thought he shot the ball considerably better. If he can’t have confidence to make the 3 then we might have to look elsewhere. I do like him on boards. Sam Hoiberg- had a couple wide open 3s and couldn’t hit. Missed his FT at end of game. Just doesn’t appear to have the same energy he did last year. I know him and keisei were tight so maybe him being gone is part of it or maybe even his injury. Brice-couple bogus charge calls felt like it took him out of his game. Saw this some last year where his body language is just bad. Saw him get beat on a couple defensive rebounds as well. Need more energy from him meah-was actually pretty dang good inside tonight but once again him on perimeter is a disaster rollie- yikes he struggled with just about everything tonight. Hopefully just an off game uhlis- was pretty happy with his play tonight. Think he might of had one bad turnover but other than that he was solid Gavin- played pretty well. Had a nice pass for an easy score. Doesn’t force things Connor- need him to hit his 3s. Did have a couple nice drives for some buckets. Made his FTS which were big. morgan- surprised but don’t believe we have seen him shoot a 3 yet.. needs to improve his defense and rebounding. I think those two factors led to him not playing as much tonight gary- was great defensively tonight but man he has to finish at the time better. Left way to many points out there. i hate to say it but man I’m just not seeing it from this team. Hope they can get things figured out but scoring seems to be so difficult either way these guys.. I do watch body language out there and guys do seem to get along good which is a good sign. Really miss Mast if you ask me. He was just the perfect 5 in this system and these guys we got are too hesitant to shoot the 3. Berke had an open 3 but put ball on floor and traveled. Got to shoot it!! im headed up to SD next week and am a little worried..

Took my 2 oldest to there first husker game today and the environment was a lot of fun for them, really got into the second half defensive chants when we were trying to will some stops for the skers. Bummed we didn’t get to see prince in a skers uniform today but seeing 14 3s go through the net somewhat made up for it. Foot speed on the perimeter is going to be a problem again this year unfortunately but post play looks to be improved over last year, they just refused to throw it into the post for most of the first half. Bozan is gonna be a good one once she figures out the defensive side of the ball, very skilled, good hands, and looks to be all of 6’4” to me. Rimdal looks like a pretty good option to help fill Shelly’s shoes too. Everyone stays healthy and we get the right draws 20+ wins and a chance at a sweet 16 seem in play.

I blame Satterfield.

That was one very Fugly basketball game. Goodness, it reminded me of a cat who caught a mouse and simply wanted to knock the mouse around rather than simply kill and eat it. Okay, I am not close to being in a panic mode at this point; but for a mature team we do a lot of bad things. Bad passes, forcing penetration, defensive breakdowns, failure to box out, et al. Everything is a tick too quick or a tick too slow. Frustrating to watch. I trust the staff and players will have a light bulb moment and figure this out. So am I concerned, yes. Am I in a panic no. We did win.

About the only positive I have from tonight is defense. I think that side is really clicking. Few missed rotations, but overall very happy with that end. Offense, nothing really was good. Probably my biggest gripe was Brice and his aggressiveness. He can't have 6 shots any game no matter who the opponent is. I expect more from him honestly. Lid seemed to be on the basket on short shots tonight and from 3. Throwing the ball to cutters who weren't there at least twice. To be expected with a essentially new team, but need to work it out very very quickly.

Not a game, but still pretty cool