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I don't post off-topic posts on this message board. Others do and I tend to not get bent out of shape about it but for me this is talking about Nebraska basketball and sometimes the tangent subjects like other levels of basketball or anything going on about the university. This isn't one of those boards where I have an off-topic section so that 5 people can bitch at each other in some section. I do not apologize for that for one second. I guess to whatever cabal you visit with about such things, I have to say that this board has been less dramatic since the off-season. This thing where I run the board, free and as a hobby, and I'm put into some position where I'm supposed to feel bad about it or some nonsense is horse shit. I appreciate the guys that currently post here that don't make the time and effort I spend feel like I'm some sort of lesser person for doing so. End rant.

Worster is more loose with the ball than I expected him to be. He has a very good career assist to turnover ratio but it's been the opposite so far here. Needs to get it going. Berke used all of his 7'1" wingspan to be disruptive and impactful defensively today. 3 blocks, 3 steals, several deflections, altered shots. Was his best overall game to date, all while going up against two very high level frontcourt players. He handles the ball a lot for a big, yet has only turned the ball over 3 times total in the first four games. Shooting 60% from the field and 83% from the line. I'm just so impressed with him. I really hope he and Mast are both on the team next year. From 10 minutes left in the first half on, we actually played better than I thought we were capable of. Might be a hot take to some, but that St. Mary's team could win the Big Ten this year. They very well might end up with a higher tourney seed than any Big Ten team. They're the same as they always are (very good), but they might've found their next Patty Mills in Mikey Lewis. Clutch free throws by that kid at the end. We played flat out awful the first 10 minutes. St. Mary's played pretty well, I thought. And we were still in it until the end. That makes me confident we can compete with anyone in the conference this year if we clean some things up. Most teams in conference this year are solid, but none are great imo. Speaking of the first 10 minutes - and speaking of beating dead horses - what the hell, Fred? It's obvious to all there is no offensive flow when Meah is in the game. In the starting group, Brice is forced to be ball dominant (he's doing an admirable job of it), and the guys he has to kick to are Meah, Gary, Worster and Berke. Rough deal. Morgan played better today. All in all, I don't feel discouraged after this one. Not a bad loss by any means. However, not winning this game can absolutely be the reason you're on the wrong side of the bubble (not sure that'll matter this year). 9-2 in the non-con (with no quality wins), plus 1 loss in the conference tourney, and you probably need to go 14-6 in conference to make the tourney with our non-con resume. I'm not sure 13-7 would do it (remember, we once went 13-5 in the Big Ten and weren't even close to making the tourney). Beat St. Mary's on a neutral court and you can probably go 12-8 again and make it. I think it makes that big of a difference with a schedule like ours. We also won't have any opportunities to beat the #1 team in the country this year.

Unless Fred has to win a certain number of games to keep employed I don't think burning redshirts is the way to go here. I have to think that if Janowski was remarkedly better than anyone else we're rolling out at the 1 or 2 that he'd already be playing.

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.

I have a good feeling about this one. 76 72 3 SKERS

Huskers-76 BlueJays-72 4 and there will much rejoicing on the trip back from Omaha

we call that the Boogie talk

I figured we were going to have issues running two types of offenses or defenses but it turns out we have issues putting a guy who shouldn't play more than 4 feet away from the rim 4+ feet from the rim most of the game.

Griffiths will need to show he remotely cares about defense to earn more minutes.

Kalkbrenner v. Meah--one of the greatest mismatches in the history of basketball.

The problem is GG and Connor defensively weren’t really an upgrade over KT and Wilcher, but offensively, so far they’ve been a downgrade. If we have to have Brice score 25+ a game just to keep us in it, it could be a long season. Rollie has shown flashes but has overall underwhelmed at times. He’s averaged a travel turnover every single game, I can’t remember a pure point guard who takes so many steps…

I would like to see Meah just hang around the off side block or short corner on offense and just crash the boards. GG was just terrible on defense. Need him to improve there. I'm done telling myself that the other team just hit shots. They hit them because we give them open shots. I guess we will have live with it as this is our defensive philosophy. I do feel better that we came back from being so far down against want looks like a pretty darn good team.

We screwed that up i believe. Put meat in for him to rebound the ft. But they made both and no time ran, so we couldn't sub him back in.

Proud of the effort and resolve today. I know they got little to no sleep last night with the fire alarm issue at the hotel. Liked our defensive effort. Coach’s offense still leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing happens off ball, and these guys are really bad at moving on other people’s drives/actions. I’m going to pass out if I have to watch Meah in the Walker/Mast role anymore. And then I’ll have an aneurysm if I watch us pre-double the post 12’ from the hoop to give up wide open 3’s. The book is out on how to beat it. Stop doing it.

Every road game on our schedule is a Q1 right now except Washington, which is borderline Q1.

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

Janowski was 1-6 from 3 in the intrasquad scrimmage and exhibition. I love his future, but I don't think he's ready. Before we decide this team needs shooting so badly to burn a redshirt, we need to start by giving more minutes and shots to Essegian, Griffiths and Morgan and less to Ulis and Meah.

Us 71 Them 68 3

We've made 20+ FTs over the first 4 games. I've made it back to 2010-11 and haven't found a 4 game stretch where we've done that. We've taken 25+ FTs over the first 4 games. I've made it back to 2010-11 and haven't found a 4 game stretch where we've done that. I assume both streaks will end at Creighton considering how stingy they are at giving up points at the line but we shall see.

I missed this yesterday. I should have reworded my post. Q1 games (with a home crowd like environment) are few and far between. Opportunities like yesterday as few and far between. We also know how our road games last year went. You're right-- we have a lot of opportunity left for Q1 wins, but many of them are away from home and in much less friendlier environments.

At the end of the day-- I think our best option for a slimmed rotation is pretty obvious. Starters: Williams, Berke, Worster, Gary, Morgan (or another guard) Subs: Griffiths, Essegian, Hoiberg (went with Hoi over Ulis as I think Sam is more of a disruption defensively, does the little things right, and dirty work) Spot Minutes: Meah (if bigs are in foul trouble, breathers at the end of the half, or teams with big posts), Ulis (if guards are in foul trouble, injuries, etc)

Weird Connor wasn't in on last play when we had to have a 3. I thought that was his main role.

NU 77 CU 76

NU 88 bluebirds 81 4

We looked like we are capable of being top 25. I felt like we played poorly a lot of the game today and yet we weren't blown off the floor. We had some chances to extend the lead in the 2nd half but missed shots. I actually like Meah out there at points. I don't really like starting him. He is able to be disruptive on defense. Probably need to do less on offense where he needs to pass the ball (same with Morgan). I don't really like seeing them get the ball away from the basket at the top.

Proud of how they fought. Brice’s 4th foul was the turning point. Glad they fought to the end though. Really like Berke! His energy is great too. When he gets leaner and more muscular and consistent from deep, I’m talking next year, he will be a force. Capt. Morgan is solid too. Rollie will be a big plus as the season goes along. Essegian will get his too. Would be great to see Griffiths find his form and confidence because we’ve seen how well he can play. Meah needs to play a bit more sparingly or according to matchups. And I’m not sure what Uhlis offers over Sam. So if we are going to trim the rotation, Uhlis is the first casualty and Meah with a reduced role. I do have one beef with Fred: why wasn’t Essegian on the floor for the final shot? Didn’t want too many good 3-pt shooters on the floor at a time? Don’t understand that one at all. But hopefully they were saving all of their 3s for Omaha. GBR!!!!

9 guys have played 14+ minutes. And Griffiths has 7. St. Mary’s has 6 guys with 14+ minutes. Yes we’ve had a little foul trouble but this has been our M.O. and I don’t like it. Trying too hard to keep guys happy and it’s killing us. Ulis and Hoiberg can’t score at all but Hoiberg does just about everything else better than Ulis. They shouldn’t both be playing. Brice needs to be PG when Worster needs a break.

I’m really struggling to understand what Meah offers. Doesn’t rebound. Rarely alters shots. Not athletic. Is just a body on offense. We’re getting blitzed from the 3 point line on defense. Easily our best game of the season was the one he didn’t play. Not trying to be a hater, I just wish this experiment would end now so we can move forward with playing Fred Hoiberg style basketball.

You’re right. And if we’re in a position to have a resume picked apart, we just missed one of our two non-con chances for a quality win. The rest will be lumped into Big Ten play.

Brice is 31-34 this season on FTs. Has a decent chance to breaks James Palmer's make record and maybe a chance at the attempt record.

I've seen Meah play 5 games (including the scrimmage and exhibition) and I'm wondering why he is even on the court. Hate to be so hard on him but I don't see any positives in playing him. Maybe if someone is in foul trouble but definitely not starting or playing significant minutes. He's not even a strong rebounder. He's weak. He's always falling down. He is an offensive liability. I would also like to see Rollie try to score more often. So far he's not much of a scoring threat.

Nebraska currently averaging 29 FT attempts a game (#15), and making 23 of those (#4) for a 79% rate (#25). Definitely need to get a few more 3s to fall, but until then, free throws are keeping them in games, especially this one.

The lineup for the last shot was Brice, Berke, Meah, Gary, and Rollie. It looks like the play was for Meah to screen so Brice could get up a shot. Seems like you could do the same thing with Morgan who at least would be a threat. I think you want Berke in there because he's at least a guy big enough to get off a shot. I think you want Rollie in there so you can get the ball up the court. You could have Brice do this as well. The question I'm asking is why was Gary or even Connor in there over Meah.

I think we can infer that from neither of the freshman playing in a clear the bench moment vs FDU but it hasn't been announced publicly.

I guess I read too much into how you worded that.

Why was this pointed at my simple and generic response. I will repeat, there were reasons why individuals stop posting. I personally ignore most posts I do not like. I sometimes respond if I am in an uglier mood. To each, his own.

Split the week with a win at home and a neutral loss. Good effort from the team, overall. So you can't complain about that. Much better progress than we saw in the prior week. Onto the next. HHCC Standings - End of Week 02 1 basketballjones 87 U1 2 BjoeHusker 89 U3 3 KenPom 98 U13 4 AGHANSEN 99 U14 5 aphilso1 99 D2 6 hskr4life 103 D5 7 NeeandMe 104 U21 8 SkersHoops 104 U37 9 bigred4 112 U18 10 cornfed24-7 116 U5 11 AuroranHusker 119 NC 12 Nebrasketball1979 125 D5 13 demone 127 D1 14 TourneyBound 127 U15 15 LNKtrnsplnt 128 U7 16 REDZONEDAN 131 D2 17 Huskerpapa 132 U2 18 nuhusker7 132 D8 19 HuskerFever 133 U6 20 Bugeaters1 135 D14 21 BigTate 137 D13 22 TheNovice 137 U20 23 EAbby 138 U10 24 Handy Johnson 138 D11 25 MichHusker 139 U22 26 roundball3 139 D6 27 Busch Light 140 D10 28 Silverbacked1 144 U11 29 Vinny 144 U12 30 NU Follower 146 U7 31 Crush78 148 D7 32 75unlgrad 149 D2 33 UnicamMan 149 D29 34 throwback 150 D13 35 colhusker 154 D26 36 hhcmatt 156 U8 37 MitchMcGaryMunchies 156 D11 38 BugeaterZ 158 D6 39 twinswingohuskers 158 U1 40 Cazzie22 159 D17 41 roscoe 159 D10 42 4NUfans 165 D4 43 Woody Boyd 167 NC 44 Ralph Wiggum 169 D9 45 emwilliams 173 D11 46 CanadianHusker 176 D10 47 jimmykc 176 D1 48 BLB115 188 NC 49 HuscurAdam 209 U2 50 MJW82 221 D1 51 Noah121 226 U6 52 brfrad 234 U3 53 hal9000 234 D1 54 HuskerMB 261 NC 55 Sidelines - Nebraska 261 NA 56 NUtball 290 NC 57 1sdpad2 306 D7 58 mmackey5 327 NA Biggest Rise SkersHoops U37 Biggest Fall UnicamMan D29

St. Mary’s is damned good and about as disciplined as any D1 coach could ask a team to be. They will win a ton of games sans injuries (they have no depth). They will be a problem in the tournament this year. Meah needs to work the low block offensively when he’s in the game. He’s not bad there and it would give us a nice change of pace. Pretty proud of the effort. You can tell they don’t quite know how to win yet but I saw some flashes out of several of them I’ve been waiting on, and they were happy to get chippy. Both good signs.

Atmosphere was great today if you were there, sounds like it was equally great last night for the woman’s game. meah needs to sit and Morgan needs to take a majority of those minutes, then trim to rotation down to 8ish guys. St. Mary’s looks pretty damn good, very physical and offense is both efficient and they have 3-4 guys that can shoot it. Shorten the rotation and I think we can win some of these type of games in the Big ten. Do we give Janowski a look to provide some bench shooting?

Back home. We need to tinker with starting line up. Got to perform better the first ten minutes of the game. Second gotta shoot better on the perimeter.

There are reasons why some posters have fallen silent.

Cornhuskers 68 - 60 4

+/- vs. St. Mary's Williams +7 Meah +1 Berke 0 Essegian 0 Griffiths 0 Hoiberg 0 Worster -1 Ulis -3 Morgan -7 Gary -12 Season +/- (Team +48) Berke +45 Worster +36 Griffiths +30 Gary +26 Essegian +23 Williams +23 Hoiberg +16 Jacobsen +12 Morgan +10 Ulis +6 Grace +5 Burt +5 Meah +1

The loss won’t hurt us because St. Mary’s seems good. But not winning will hurt us because of our lack of quality non-con opponents. (If that makes any sense!)

I’m happy to be wrong. Whenever we start playing really good winning basketball with Meah and Ulis both playing 15 minutes, I will gladly say I was wrong about them.

My guess is they review it sooner. 1st half you can wait til halftime.

I really liked our starters and that gives us a good diverse bench (skill wise). All bring something to the table.

When you're up 30 at half, why risk injury. I get that she needs to knock rust off. But save those legs for later in the season. Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

Twenty made threes by 9 players, wow. That was a fun one to re-watch on BTN+. GBR