rimshot

Hell as long as we're looking backwards, why didn't we just redshirt Shields this year?

But... if we have Benny attempting more 3s it will free up White for better looks. Benny has to have his feet set (not outabounds), a perfect pass and catch for a nice easy peasy stress free rhythm shot with no defender within 5 feet of him. It could draw that extra defender off of Shields to help in guarding Benny and free up more space for Shavon too. I respectfully disagree. I think only our best shooter should ever take shots. Any shot taken by a lesser shooter is a wasted shot because it's shot by someone who's not as good at shooting. Therefore, only White should ever shoot and Benny should only be on the floor to distract the other team ("hey, look at the short dude!") while White shoots it. Just to be clear, Norm, whom are you actually making fun of with this post? Me. Ba ba ba Benny an the jacks

We will never ever be able to transcend into the realistic aspirations and expectations of this program, its players and its coaches, that we as fans all HOPE for, if we are continuously entertaining the ghosts of our past .. let it go. The future is looking bright for this program. I'm excited as hell. We are a few pieces and a few plays away from being a pretty dam good team right now. To me the big question to ponder .. will White decide to stay or enter the draft?

But... if we have Benny attempting more 3s it will free up White for better looks. Benny has to have his feet set (not outabounds), a perfect pass and catch for a nice easy peasy stress free rhythm shot with no defender within 5 feet of him. It could draw that extra defender off of Shields to help in guarding Benny and free up more space for Shavon too.

This makes a lot of sense to me. It's not that Benny should just 'fire-up' a lot more shots. The key to me in the above is Norm's supposition being where Benny is (relatively) un-guarded and in good position where he catches and shoots the ball comfortably 'in rythm' without even thinking about it. Yeah, exactly. I've been complaining for several years now -- and I say that so that people know I've been consistent -- that we have too many occasions where a guard will receive a pass with plenty of space to take a shot in rhythm and, instead, they turn it down and reverse the ball. A catch-and-shoot in rhythm should be a good, fairly high percentage shot. Benny isn't taking a ton of shots, but we need him or whoever is out there at the guard spot to take shots. We need it. Andrew White needs it. I have no problem at all with Benny taking open jumpers and making roughly 1/3 of them. He is not depriving White of shot opportunities. It might seem counter-intuitive, but it actually opens things up for Andrew when you have other players on the team capable of and willing to take threes. It's only counter-intuitive when you hit only a 1/3 of your 3s, especially when your at a size disadvantage. So your saying Bennys 1-5 shooting on 3s against Purdue HELPED White get more attempts 2-4 on 3s? I'm just not seeing it. I'll say it again, each possession counted against Purdue in order to have a chance against their size advantage. Hitting a 1/3 of our 3s against a team like Purdue isn't going to beat them, 40% or better gives us a chance.

My point is that one of the things that will free up White is if the other guys on the floor are a threat to shoot the ball (and make a reasonable percentage of those shots.) White already takes a significant portion of the team's shots. I detailed that in a thread sometime last month. He was, at that point, responsible for something like 1/3 of our total treys and 44% of the makes. He had (and I'm guessing still has) twice as many attempts as the next guy in line. (I checked, and that stat still holds: White has 134 3-point attempts; McVeigh is 2nd on the team with 64.) White is going to get his shots. But the looks he does get will be better looks if we have other guys on the team taking and making shots as well. So Benny does need to shoot those shots. And, in fairness to Benny, he's shooting the ball better this year than ANYONE on the team last year (who had at least 10 attempts.) He's third on the current team in 3-pt FG% at .345. So, I say let Benny shoot the ball. Norm I get what your saying, but, against a team like Purdue it was a possession game and each possession had to count. Against any other team yeah let Benny fire away. We shot 33% on 3s and we probably needed to be around 40% to have a chance to win it. Our season average is 35% so that tells me we're very close to being a real good scoring team. I'd would like to see Websters attempts go up. He only has 37 3pa at 40%. Other than him we just don't have anyone who is a reasonable threat/shooter and can make the 3 consistently at a higher % to free up White for better looks.

When Benny receives a pass where he can catch the ball in rhythm and get off a shot, he needs to do so. There's a reason he's usually open like that. If he's not willing to step up and shoot in that situation, he shouldn't play at all. White isn't always open to take Benny's shots. Defense keys on him. White NEEDS Benny to be able to take and make that shot, b/c it'll open things up for White. So, instead of saying Benny shouldn't take that shot (so that White can try to get open for the attempt instead) why don't we just say Benny needs to make a higher percentage of those shots that he HAS to take. "'Benny needs to make a higher percentage of those shots that he HAS to take." Because Benny is not a pure shooter, that'l never happen. He gets a ton of open looks, but teams know that, play off him and give that up. In a game like this each possession matters and we needed to hit better than 33% on our 3s to keep up. If anything I would've liked to of seen Webster with more 3 attempts than Benny. Gotta have guys on the floor that can consistently hit the 3 and unfortunately we're not there just yet, but close.

I sort of wonder how we're going to handle the defensive end of it as not only are their post players big but also their guards. Maybe it's an advantage pressure-wise. Would you agree we have an overall better team this year than last? Last year we lost to them out there, 66-54, we shot 40%, 18.8% from 3s and 7-9 on FT. We had 22 fouls to their 11 and they shot 18-30 on FT, 38.5% on Fgs and 38.1% on 3's. We hit 3-4 more 3s and go to the line a few more times who knows what happens in that game at the end. I don't recall what type of defense we ran against them last year, but whatever it was it slowed them down some and they have the same team back basically. To me its not so much about their size as its more about us hitting our 3s better than 18%, drawing more than 11 fouls and getting to the line more than 9 times. I agree with the press idea, we need to push the pace put pressure on them from the start and that means having our best scorers on the floor at the beginning, driving to the bucket, drawing fouls, getting to the line and hitting our shots. If we can do that I think we can steal another one on the road. The last 2 games we've shot 28-27% on 3s, hopefully with rested legs with the week off we can get back closer to our average of 35%. To me the key will be how many attempts we get at the line and our 3pt shooting to draw their bigs out to help guard the perimeter and open up driving lanes.

Couple counter thoughts... just thoughts that might sway in the other direction. Benny* is a senior leader who really enjoys starting. He has worked his butt off and deserves a start if warranted. His offensive game has improved this year and for that I think he should still start. There are cases to make Webster start though and I can totally see them. Tai has really thrived off of that sixth man role! He has had some of his best games as a Husker by coming off the bench. Many times it has been said that it isn't about who starts a game but rather the minutes they play during the game. Personally I feel that we need that scoring option off the bench. Tai seems to be the better option scoring wise off the bench because he can shoot it fairly well AND he can drive. Benny is more in there for the D in the beginning because we have plenty of scoring options. My last argument is why change what is working? Sure we lost to Michigan with that lineup, but I believe that the lineup we have has gelled more than any lineup we put on the floor this year. I say stick with what is working. Please don't miss-understand me, I'm in no way trying to bag on Benny. The kid has a huge heart and is a tremendous leader for this team. In my opinion, if you have 2 players that are pretty equal on D, one off the bench averaging 10 ppg and the other a starter is averaging 4.6 ppg , you make the switch. Its only going to put added pressure on opposing teams from the opening tip, which is what you want, on who to guard if you have 3 players on the court averaging (White 16.9) (Shields 15.8) (Webster 10.0). Thats not including Watsons 8.4 and is getting better and better each game. You can never have to many scoring options on the floor at once.

Okay guys here's my thought.. I don't post much on here but I really enjoy reading everyone's thoughts about the program and the positive direction we're heading into the future. So go easy on me, but this thought came to me after the Michigan game.. Why not start Webster now in place of Bennie? Your gaining length and more point production out of the gate while not loosing anything significant on the defensive side. It seemed like a few of the players legs were getting tired during the game and maybe bringing Bennie in off the bench would provide a new shot of energy to the team. My 2 cents. May or may not make a difference against Purdue and I apologize if this has been address in another thread, so go easy on me.. Carry on

My first post so go easy on me. I've been following for awhile and I truly respect what everyone has to say regarding Husker bball. It's nice to finally see this much excitement for the program from everyone. That said.. I'm going to be patient with this staff as they continue to build this program from the ground up, 1 brick at a time. Numbers wise I think we'll be ok, esp if we can land another senior transfer and another transfer that will sit out this next year. My only real concern going into next season and making another tourney run (and keeping the ball rolling with recruiting) that we all hope we can do.. is we stay healthy, esp at key positions. B10s a brutal, physical conference. Thats all, carry on. Enjoy all of your comments!