Jacob Padilla

Shoot every time you touch the ball and not make enough of them. He's been the same player for three years.

Staying at Papillion-La Vista wouldn't have affected his national ranking. That's based off AAU play and he was already trending down before his senior season.

I think the writing was on the wall when he didn't sign during the first period. Washington recruited over him. Apparently Oklahoma State sees something, though. I think the Cowboys still have three scholarships to play with.

Assistant coaches leaving are a different case than many of these, but when schools refuse to release kids it is usually written about by national writers and not in a favorable light. Forcing a kid to go somewhere he no longer wants to go or else face a stiff penalty is going to be held against your program, especially on the recruiting trail. If Xavier doesn't want to come to Nebraska any more, you let him go. If he does want to go to UConn, that just proves Kenya was the reason he signed with Nebraska in the first place. If Xavier tells Kenya he wants to follow him, is he supposed to say no? Saying yes doesn't make him a bad guy.

I've posted a few times this month. Is there something in particular you'd like to hear form me?

I don't see Palmer's game translating to the NBA. He has excellent size and length, but he's not particularly explosive and he's not nearly a consistent enough shooter from the perimeter. Add in that he can get to the rim whenever he wants but can't always finish, and I'm not sure what he does for you at that level. He doesn't look like a plus passer, rebounder or defender, so he has to be an efficient scorer and he's just not. Isaac Copeland isn't anywhere close from what I've seen. His tools aren't anything special at the NBA level and he has three years now of not being able to shoot after one year of shooting well at a lower volume. Isaiah Roby is the best bet based on his physical tools and potential skill set, but he has a ways to go. He's not really great at any one thing offensively. His shooting, ball-handling and ball-security all need significant improvement (although he's already done some of that). His defensive potential alone and solid-looking stroke should be enough to entice some NBA scouts down the road but he has the potential to be more for sure. As for running plays for him, if Roby could be a No. 1 option Miles would be doing just that. He's not there yet, both in skill level and in mind-set. He's still young. Give him time.

Isaiah told me they measured his max vertical at 42" or 44", which is insane. Whether it's hand size or not, he has shown some issues holding onto the ball. Some of those turnover issues have to do with him fumbling the ball or not being able to hold on when another defender digs in. That will have to improve.

Numbers I saw were 15, 14 and 10. They haven't posted their official box score on MaPreps yet but impressive either way. He did have five triple-doubles as a sophomore. Jimmy, he doesn't have stone hands by any means but they're not super great either. Average to a little above-average I'd say. Touch is a little iffy though.

Brady was 6'10.5" in shoes when we measured him this summer but his wingspan was only 6'9.5". He was 197 pounds at that point. Maybe he's put on some weight, but it's also hard to do so and keep it when you're in the middle of a season. I've watched him play since he was 15 years old and seen his development. I 100% think a redshirt season would be in his best interests. His shooting isn't close to refined enough for him to rely on that part of his game and his lack of length will hurt him as a shot-blocker at the next level despite his excellent instincts. He needs to get a lot stronger. Perhaps Jordy's struggles have something to do with having to be thrown into the fire right away despite probably not being ready. I'd rather not see Brady go through something similar.

Here's the full quote on the small lineup: “Isaiah Roby is tremendous. I just don’t think it’s in his best interest or even Isaac Copeland’s to battle with the big guys like Dererk Pardon who’s an all-conference-type player and Isaac Haas who’s having all-conference-type numbers, to go in there and think he’s going to play them for 30 minutes and not foul and not get worn out or whatever. Now, certainly I’m going to get that lineup on the floor at important times.”

Minor correction: I don't believe Haarms is a Kansas transfer; he was a post-grad recruit from Sunrise Christian Academy, which is in Kansas. He committed to the Boilermakers and joined the team for the second semester last year, using his redshirt. He's a more mobile big option than Haas and is a better defender.

Just curious about this comment. What kind of boosterism do you think we do at HV? Our two main beat writers (Derek Peterson and myself) are alumni of Oklahoma and Creighton, respectively, and a guy like Brandon Vogel is far from a Nebraska homer. We're not out to create conflict or go at anybody directly, but I feel like we've been pretty critical when the situation has called for it (which was a lot this year). I don't consume every other outlet's content regularly so I don't really have the proper perspective for how we compare to everyone else. Our magazine is definitely targeting the hardcore fan who loves photography, history and things like that, but I feel like our website coverage is fairly straightforward. I'm not begging you to change your decision by any means, I'm just always curious about how we might improve.

The worst is when officials make anticipation calls when they're not even in position to see the point of contact. Like, when the ref's sight line to the ball is blocked by a player's back or whatever but he blows his whistle anyway when a defender reaches in to poke a ball free or tries to tie a guy up or something like that. It is possible to get all ball when you reach in; the reach in itself isn't actually a foul. Yet it seems some officials call it every time no matter what.

I believe the huddle about the Tshimanga call was whether or not Hegner was inside the restricted zone. For those watching on TV, what happened was the guy made the initial call and then the officials huddled up before the game moved on. The whistle sent it to a TV timeout, so I don't know if the broadcast went to commercial before the huddle or not. But after talking for a few moments, they determined that Hegner was outside of the circle, called it a charge and Creighton got the ball after the timeout. Like dimes said, FS1 doesn't have replays available which is stupid and makes life more difficult than it should be. Anyway, I didn't get a chance to see what the play actually looked like on a replay. The Watson thing was kind of a different case. It was simply a foul call on a rebound (and a horrific one). I don't know if I've ever seen officials huddle up to change a foul to a no-call. The restricted zone judgment was the difference between the two. Nebraska got some bad luck with the way the officials decided to call the game. Nebraska and Creighton's defensive styles are polar opposites. The Huskers are very aggressive trying to force turnovers with their length. Creighton is much more focused on playing positional defense; they don't try to force turnovers very much. The officials called all the reach ins and Nebraska didn't really adjust. On the other end of the spectrum, while it did get some guys into foul trouble it also helped forced 10 first-half turnovers. That's the tradeoff. On the other end of the floor, Creighton's defense wasn't particularly good in the first half, especially early. Nebraska got a lot of open looks (some they hit, some they didn't); you're not often going to get free throws on open jumpers or dunks. Creighton did have to deal with its own foul trouble in the first half, primarily to its best player in Thomas. Creighton's defense picked it up a bit in the second half and Nebraska's offense fell back into that stagnant phase that we see too often. There were a lot of really bad shots in the second half as Creighton crept back into the game. Tshmanga's blown layups were killers because Nebraska actually did generate some easy looks and couldn't capitalize. Perhaps the Tshimanga reversal was bad (again, I don't know either way because I couldn't tell live), but it was in the first 10 minutes or whatever it was. And Watson's fifth was certainly atrocious, but Nebraska was still trailing when he had to sit down and he was 4-14 from the field at that point. After that, Krampelj hit FTs to make it 5, Palmer scored to make it 3, Foster put back his own blocked shot to make it 5, Roby scored to make it 3, Krampelj tipped in Harrell's miss to make it 5, Palmer scored to make it 3 and Foster hit the 3 to make it 6. Copeland missed a 3 and that was game. What would Watson have changed during that stretch? The biggest issue with this game wasn't the officiating, it was the same issues that have plagued this team all season -- getting nothing from Tshimanga and the stretches of stagnant offense. Nebraska has a chance to do some things in the Big Ten if they can find a way to address those issues.

I believe so.

One thing I noticed at the game last night: After jack drove for the lefty layup an got stuffed, Miles sent Copeland to check in. Next time down he knocked down a 3 and Miles pulled him back and gave Jack a couple more possessions before subbing. Miles said he wants Jack to be more aggressive than he has been. I think we saw that (to mixed results) in his minutes against BC. As for Gill, I think he was always viewed as more of a scorer than a pure shooter but I do believe he had 10 3s in one game in high school (FWIW, Thomas one-upped him with 11 3s in a game at Brewster).

I don't think Miles has seen enough from Copeland or Roby in terms of shooting, ball-handling and defending on the perimeter to go to that lineup much.

I did not get any.

Miles went on Evan Daniels' podcast this week. https://scout.com/college/basketball/recruiting/Article/The-Sidelines-Pod-Nebraskas-Tim-Miles-110583614

Early diagnosis (as in, from Coach McDermott after the game) is that it was probably a high ankle sprain. Those things are tough to get over. Nebraska goes to Omaha in about 3 weeks so I'd anticipate he'll probably still be out by then, or at the very least be limited. Creighton is going to have to decide whether or not they can get by without burning the redshirt of their freshman center Jacob Epperson who is a lot like both Justin Patton and Brady Heiman in that he's really talented but very thin. Hegner would have been good for them to have against a guy like Tshimanga as he is their second-biggest body with the ability to stretch the floor.

St. John's has a pair of really talented scoring guards in Shamorie Ponds and Marcus Lovett who are equally capable of winning them a game and shooting them out of it. They added a pair of transfers from Arizona and Michigan State who are starting for them as defensive players, but the team still can't defend (as evidenced by allowing Rutgers to score 80 points). Chris Mullin is a terrible coach who is more of a figurehead than anything else.

For a while he was tied with Kobe for the most 3-pointers in a single game (12), so thats something. Then Steph Curry came along.

Part of the rebounding thing according to Miles was Nebraska just got outworked. Northwood had some guys that were flying around every time a shot went up. I did see some guys get pushed around inside which isn't a good look, but I'm sure Miles showed those guys the tape and lit into them a bit. But a lot of it too was the fact that Northwood missed a ton of shots, and a lot of them were bricks from the outside which are hard to rebound because they ricochet so far out. Northwood beat Nebraska's guards to a lot of long rebounds, again a hustle thing. Don't necessarily think it was a physical incapability that will cripple the team long-term.

They go 6'2" (Devonte' Graham), 6'3" (Malik Newman), 6'5" (Lagerald Vick), 6'8" (Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk) and 7' (Udoka Azubuike) in their starting lineup with 6'5" (Marcus Garrett), 6'8" (Mitch Lightfoot) and 6'10" (Billy Preston) off the bench. Azubuike is a monster at 280 pounds but Mykhailiuk is a guard playing power forward in their starting lineup. I think involving Azubuike in pick-and-rolls with Watson or Palmer and making him guard in space and going at Mykhailiuk would be wise. Newman is the 5-star recruit who transferred from Mississippi State and is a pure scorer. Graham is a great shooter and usually does a good job of distributing the ball without turning it over. Haven't ever been overly impressed by Vick. Lightfoot has been pretty disappointing for them. 5-star recruit Billy Preston is an interior scorer and rebounder. Marcus Garrett is a 6'5" 4-star combo-guard. Based on Self's recent history with his 5-star freshman big men, hard to know how much Preston is going to play or how consistent he will be. It's basically a 7-man team because they don't want to play Lightfoot more than they have to. Those starters are going to play a lot of minutes.

Oh. Huh. It won't let me upload the rest.