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Putting in Morgan and Sam seemed like a weird way to "jump start" things because Morgan arguably gives you better offense and Sam gives you individual defense. I could see us trying to get ahead on offense at Wisconsin but who exactly are we trying to take away defensively on a Wisconsin team where basically everyone can hurt you? Maybe Meah was a bad matchup for Wisky but all the numbers I look at show that at worst it doesn't matter if he's on or off the court and at best he gives you defense without hurting your offense. I think we're finding it hard to use a guy who only dunks, blocks shots, and rebounds because for the most part we don't put him in a position to dunk lobs or block shots. If we're looking to get ahead offensively, the answer is Essegian. Given how he's the guy most wired to score on offense we could do worse than having him go full Keisei in terms of usage and build the team around protecting him on offense and defense.

We need Alexis on the block trying to score and/or facilitate by passing out to a shooter. Ohio St was forcing our pick and roll or pick and pop out past the 28 Ft line. We also need to do a little better feeding Alexis when she is showing her number to the passers. I really don’t want to see her shooting threes.

Agreed! Playing with a lack of confidence right now and definitely was capable of beating some of the teams that we just lost to. Hoiberg a helluva coach though so let’s just hope he can turn this thing around for a late run. #GBR Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The entire point for some to ask for more size (added) and athleticism (not added) was so that we might run a defense that doesn't involve double teaming the post and scrambling on 3s regardless of opponent. We add 5-6 transfers every season and most of the size we recruited is leaving. What exactly are we committed to besides our defensive philosophy and desire to play 5 out?

Ladies Night promotion level post

You might be right. If so, that's bad news because we bought the best players we could get with the money we had.

I love Sam, but the fact that we were having discussions about Sam being in the starting lineup just shows you how screwed this team is. In no situation should Hoiberg ever be a Big Ten starter.

Four single possession losses if you want to get into semantics. Iowa was a possession away from winning in regulation.

There were very few games where I could find a way to sneak down into the 100 level during the Bryce McGowens year. Basketball isn't going anywhere (nor should it). Yeah, we're 12-8 and on a six game skid. I bet that poster doesn't know just how close we are to 16-4 and a possible top 5-6 seed though.

Everyone on this board is so fickle. Last year after the Texas A&M game everyone was calling for more athletism and size. We get the length and size and then now we want all the 3pt shooters. I get that the team has not been playing well but every year cannot be a complete shift in philosophies.

There are a lot of opinions out there right now, many of them probably from people who watch 2 or 3 Nebraska basketball games all year, if that. Lots of people calling for Fred to be fired too. He is under contract through 2028-29 and we would owe him somewhere around $18-20 million. In an era where athletes are about to start being paid by the university...and a year after being named Coach of the Year. Miles was owed about $2.5 million. There's no way, unless we lose every game, players quit, and someone offers a ton of money to buy him out. In which case if they cared that much they'd probably already have given it to 1890.

There is currently a thread on another message board where the OP is seriously asking why the university of nebraska doesn’t drop the men’s basketball program and replace it with………Hockey. His main reason is the futility of the program the past 100 years. I know initial reaction is to laugh this off, but I was surprised how many other people chimed in with support for the idea. Now, knowing the numbers, I know this is preposterous. So I chimed in. Nebraska already has a hockey team and it’s in Omaha.

I hate to bring up Grant McCasland, but he's killing it at Texas Tech and the only reason I point this out is because it shows it can be done. He seems to have that "it" factor. He knows how to win. My concern with this team is that they seem to have a lot more in common with Fred's first three teams than his last two. And if last year is the high-water mark, that's a problem. He can still turn it around (maybe not for this season) but it's a big hill to climb.

I was thinking the same thing. Our defense is like a zone the way it is but if you went straight 2-3 you could still stop penetration, have help on the post and possibly get to shooters on the reversals better without being out of rotation.

I think he definitely earned the opportunity to start... but that also goes hand-in-hand with your point.

Title IX issues would be present.

Right. Teams seem to just stand back and let her shoot and concentrate on controlling the rebound. What is especially strange is that during the entirety of her freshman year, she hit a breathtaking 50% of her threes. I would think that she consistently hits 3s in practice - else she wouldn't have the green light. Maybe and hopefully she turns the corners soon.

That’s obviously Kookie Talk by some casual fans, BUT the B1G would like to add a Hockey Team, why does it have to be one or the other…???

And can shoot and make 3s. Mast and Berke + 9 wings / combo guards. That's assuming we think that Berke fits our self-starting culture

Disagree about the talent. Not only do we not have top 4 or 5 talent, we have bottom 2-4 talent. Not athletic, can't shoot. It's not just mental. We have guys out there who can't move well, and/or have skill deficiencies, to play at this level. Fred basically admitted it, saying we have to play about perfect to have a chance. That's code for my players aren't that good.

We have 3 single possession losses, all of which we had a shot against, and the 5 point loss to USC (shout-out Frost era). I'm not going to say "oh we're so close" because that's just bad juju and I might see Scotts shadow somewhere. In all 4 of those losses we had major breakdowns in different areas, most of which being defense, and it was still as close as it was. Basketball isn't going anywhere lol and people are just being emotional at this moment, and rightfully so. I went to every Bryce mcgowens game and I think the only game I left early was the Michigan clobbering.

Also should be noted Prince held their second ranked freshman in check to the point she was benched for most of the fourth quarter.

6th highest attendance in the Big Ten (even amongst newcomers), #15 in the nation for ticket attendance. Rank School G Attendance Average 15. Nebraska 19 277,338 14,597 I don't think people are aware of this, nor do they care. This is why they're not qualified to run an athletic department.

Skers: 76 Ill: 74

Us 77 Them 71

OSU players, In general and by comparison, were faster, quicker, more agile, and more explosive than our own. That third quarter spurt didn't last long but hit like a bolt of lightning - quick hands and feet enabling the steal and then the speed to outrun defenders to the basket. Our players are not that far behind but far enough that there has to be some compensatory advantage in order to prevail. In our case that would to have to have been three point shooting - it wasn't there for us, and that was that. Part of that of course was OSU's defense which i thought was excellent - so many of the 3 pt attempts were closely contested. I will drop a few more tears into the spilled milk .... with Potts on the court, the Huskers would beat that OSU team three times out of four.

My underrated moment was in the first half when we cut it to 3 and had the momentum. Then Brice came back in the game and had two quick lazy turnovers and a lapse on defense. It was pretty much over after that. During this losing skid he's made so many negative game changing plays. A team shouldn't be better with their best offensive player on the bench, but that's where we're at. Juwan doesn't get a pass either. A lot of talk about him missing layups, but his on-ball perimeter defense and defensive rebounding has been really bad this year (even in December). I'm not buying the injury or physical limitation theory. He still jumps high when he decides to and pushes people around when he decides to. He just doesn't decide to do those things very often this year. He's often standing straight legged on defense.

This was not the OSU of the past few years. We had our chances too many missed threes and a few untimely errors especially in the 3rd cost us this game. So after USC, and UCLA we are right there with the next group of teams. Now we need to not loose to the teams we should beat and win some of these 50/50 games and we will be fine.

This right here. Even after the Purdue game, we had a Top 20 defense. It was Top 10 at its peak this season. Now it's Top 40 a we stand today. Sure, we've seen a drop and we need to find our way again. But our offense has been consistently bad and we're ranked around 90 ight now in offense. Our defense isn't the problem when our team scores ~7 points in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

Here's some records When scoring 70 + points (thru 20 games) 2023 - 24 13 - 3 2024 - 25 8 - 4 When scoring less than 70 (thru 20 games) 2023 - 24 2 - 2 2024 - 25 4 - 4 When opponents score 70 + points 2023 - 24 6 - 5 2024 - 25 2 - 7 When opponents score less than 70 2023 - 24 9 - 0 2024 - 25 10 - 1 This year we are having problems scoring. For all the complaints about defense. The offense is MIA this year.

NU - 76 UI - 73

Need to pay Britt big NIL money.

If Britt Prince is 3-6 on threes instead of 0-6 today, the entire complexion of the game has swayed NU's way. Doesn't mean NU would have won, but the 9-35 becomes 12-35 and the mojo might have been enough for NU to prevail. Tough reality that Prince is really good, yet even she was bound to have a tough day against a really good opponent.

9-35 on threes is ultimately the difference in playing with a deficit as opposed to having a lead, that's the sad reality in hoops. The three-ball is a make-or-break thing for a team. We also have witnessed this phenomenon with the men's team, particularly the past few weeks.

7-13 from the line. Probably the difference in a close game.

NU 75 ILL 70

It feels like I should record the game and check the score before watching, no point in putting in the effort if they won't

Nebraska 76 Illinois 71

I think Henry Burt, Jeff Grace, Nick Janowski, Braden Frager and Justin Bolis could have started this game and not given up a 19-2 run.

No. There’s been multiple games now where his perimeter defense was better than other players who should be much better defensively than Connor. We’re better overall with him on the court.

Is Essegian's defense even that bad? It seems fine as long as he doesn't get caught down low. Our defense has been pretty well lost for 5 games now... Most big 10 teams are going to make wide open threes.

Connor Essegian is our best +/- player on the season. His offensive presence does more good for us than his defensive presence does bad, as shown by him being our leading +/- on the season 2/3 the way through the season. We can't act like we put some super tough, defensive stalwart lineup out there to start each half. Meah can't get back in transition and practically needs to be carried to the huddle after 5 consecutive minutes of playing. Berke is not in the best shape. Down 10-6 to USC at the first media timeout. Down 10-7 to Maryland at the first media timeout. Rutgers was a good start, up 11-6 (Juwan made threes...) Iowa, Purdue and UCLA were terrible starts with little to no defense and even worse offense. Maybe Essegian's presence on the floor would open up something for Brice and allow him to get to the rim early on.

He’s shooting 41% from 3. You can’t keep him off the court. It’s malpractice. Hide him defensively. Don’t start him in the bottom middle of the 2-3 match up so that he is in the position to get buried at the bottom.

I'm totally on board with this. It's almost time to start throwing something at the wall to see if it sticks. I'd remove Ulis and Meah minutes and give them to Gavin. Shorten the rotation. USC basically played 7 guys and one of them only got 9 minutes. Think about how last year, Tominaga, Wilcher, Williams, Mast and to some extent Lawrence were all 3-point weapons that opponents had to account for. 5 guys. Gary (30.6%) was someone opponents were fine with shooting. This year it's Essegian and Williams. 2 guys. Berke (32.6%) and Gary (27.5%) our opponents are fine with shooting. Sam doesn't even average 1 attempt a game. It's a disaster really that Fred didn't find enough shooters after that being a strength of ours last year. We made 10+ 3s 16(!) times last year. We've done it only 3 times this year, all against awful teams. Fred thought this team's ability to get to the free throw line would offset that, but now in conference play we aren't getting fouled as much. They surely counted on Gavin to be one of those guys and probably figured at least one or two of Juwan/Worster/Ulis/Morgan/Berke would become a legitimate outside threat. However, they're 0/6.