Nebrasketballer

Unfortunately, I have the feeling that Creighton will be a top-10 team, make a run at a Big East Championship, and make a Sweet16 or Elite8 run in the NCAA Tournament.

According to Washut, it sounds like Derrick Walker might come back next season (also sounds like Trey and Lat won’t be). If Walker does come back, I’d like to see him play the 4 spot with Blaise Keita at the 5 spot. I like a lot of what Walker provides, but he’s just undersized to play Center in the Big Ten. I think he could be really good at the 4 spot. And I also think that if Hoiberg were to restructure his system in such a away that Walker is at the 4 spot, rather than a jump shooter that plays on the perimeter at the 4, that could also be a system that is much better suited for the Big Ten conference.

I think my current list would be: Top 4 (Current Salary): Dana Altman ($3.5 Million) Ed Cooley ($2.2 Million) Darian DeVries ($500,000) Mike Anderson ($2.5 Million) Then: Mark Turgeon Gregg Marshall

He’s done well recruiting talented individual pieces. He has not done well recruiting pieces that fit a system and pieces that function as a cohesive unit.

I also think there’s a style component in regards to Hoiberg’s offense and how it fits in the old Big 12 vs the current Big Ten. I’m not sure Hoiberg’s system is a great fit for the current Big Ten. Similar to Frost, I don’t think his Oregon/UCF offense is bad, but I think its not the best fit for the Big Ten. I also think that the inability to bring in a true distributor PG has crippled this offense. There are capable shooters in this team, but they are all spot up shooters. They aren’t going to shoot well from 3 PT if they need to shoot off the dribble. Also, Hoiberg needed to understand that you have to have some legit rim protectors in the Big Ten. And players need to give effort to rebound and when they can’t make shots, they need to give 200% effort on defense and rebounding, but unfortunately this team is doing those things as if they were scoring 90 points per game.

And I’m not against the players doing those things. I think they should be able to do it, but it’s a really bad look when it looks like some people don’t care much on the court. It’s been pretty clear over the last year that a couple of players on this team are much more concerned with building their own personal brand than they are with building a winning basketball team/program.

My guess is that when Hoiberg was building his teams via the transfer portal at ISU, every other program wasn’t doing it. But now, pretty much every program is recruiting transfers, so he has much more competition in that regard.

At least they have their podcasts and T-Shirts…

At least the Women’s team plays tomorrow

I honestly don’t know how Hoiberg can survive this dumpster fire of a season, unless there is some sort of catching fire like the Tim Miles catching fire to close the season of their NCAA Tournament run. And that’s saying a lot, because we just saw Frost get another season after going 3-9 at a self-proclaimed football school with only 1 win vs a Power5 opponent.

To me, this loss is falls on the moronic decision to have Lat with the ball in his hands at the end of the game during a full court press in a clear fouling situation for OSU. Lat bricked both FTs and once again, Nebraska Men’s Athletics gonna Nebraska Men’s Athletics… it ended up being what Nebraska Men’s Athletics always is.

Being a fan of Nebraska basketball and Nebraska football is the epitome of an exercise in futility.

Gonna have dead legs and probably get smoked by Indiana on Saturday too

Why is Breidenbach shooting 3s in the OT periods? That's not what we need in OT

I came across this video and thought it was interesting. Scott Davenport -- head coach of Bellarmine basketball -- has arguably the most unique offensive scheme in the country. His program's combination of passing and off-ball motion has produced some of the most efficient offenses over the past decade.

Walker needs to realize that at his height, he absolutely has to box out to get rebounds. He has to put a body on someone.

The ball movement by everyone is so much better when Kobe is in there to get it started.

It was also nice to see how Kobe handled Nebraska's last possession of the half. Drove the ball strong into the heart of the defense, then when he got to the basket and the defense collapsed on him, rather than throwing up a poor quality contested shot, he made the extra pass to Walker and he finished it off with the high percentage dunk.

"Wilhelm thinks he's gotta dribble and score if he touches it. Lat thinks he needs to dribble and score if he touches it. Kobe the same. Trey the same. Bryce the same. CJ the same." To me, this is the direct result of the way Verge is deciding to play at this point. If he was playing as an actual PG, and getting the ball to them in scoring positions, then they wouldn't feel the need to create on their own (which I honestly don't think that's something that any of those guys can consistently do, other than Bryce and maybe Trey/Kobe in certain games when they get into a good rhythm). When the ball isn't moving around, then the other guys end up standing around and watching, rather than being ready for kickouts and/or back door cuts to the basket. Whether that's right or wrong for them to do is a separate issue. I'm saying it's what happens. Those guys aren't going to expect the ball to move and find them, unless the ball starts moving and finding them. And, since Verge is the PG initiating the offense on most possessions, that starts with him. Bottom line is, as long as Verge continues to play the way he has in Nebraska's first 3 games, Nebraska won't win many games this season and their offense will continue to look like it has. If, on the other hand, Verge starts moving the ball around like he did in Nebraska's exhibition games, then I think this team can win a lot of games and play an exciting brand of basketball while doing it. My hope is that he embraces his role, so that he can reach his potential as a PG and so that this team can reach its potential.

In regards to "It's on coaching that they haven't adjusted and corrected the play", Go back and watch these last two games. On the regular, you can literally see Hoiberg telling Verge not to drive and throw up some wild shot, but he just ignores Hoiberg and does it anyway. And when he gets to the rim, there's a difference between a quality finish at the rim and a poor quality, contested shot. I'm not saying he should never look to finish at the rim, but when the defense collapses, and/or he is met by a rim protector in the paint, he needs to kick that out to shooters, rather than throwing up a prayer. I've said it before, even though those types of throw away shots don't show up as turnovers on the stat sheet, with a team that rebounds as poorly as the Huskers, it is effectively the same negative impact as a turnover. A poor quality highly-contested circus shot at the rim isn't his only option, there are always 4 other options on the floor. I would rather see a kick out 3PT shot for Bryce, Mayen, Wilcher, Edwards, Tominaga, Webster, and, hell, even Breidenbach than see a contested circus shot at the rim by a 160 lbs PG. And the lack of ball movement is what leads to a lack of cutters. We saw the same thing with Teddy. When he got the ball, the rest of the guys on the court often ended up just standing around and watching, because when he got it, he was largely a black hole. In this offense, ball movement is a necessity. Sticky hands are kryptonite and put the rest of the guys on the floor to sleep.