basketballjones

I just wanted to shoutout @Jacob Bigelow here after listening to his last few episodes - great pod man. Awesome guests (can't wait to hear from Ali and Garth, I know both a little bit, great people). And whenever you are in a pinch for a guest let me know, I promise I'll be interesting.

Nebraska 87 UTRGV 66 10 21

Doesn’t have to be if they don’t try to fit a round peg in a square hole. Just have to have a slightly different scheme/roles for him.

I thought he looked out of shape and a bit lumbering.

The good: - Man we’re big and long. Strong looking dudes too. - Even as average as we played, our defense is just tough to score on. - Thought a lot of dudes made some nice individual plays. - The high-low plays for Meah. I’d love to see a few more wrinkles on those. - Lots of steals and hands in passing lanes. The bad: - Definitely not 5 playing as 1 yet. Thats for sure. And I’m not talking about typical pre-season sputters. Far behind where they should be right now after this many practices. - I expected a lot more O rebounds. Especially on sub- 50% shooting. - Gave up 14 offensive rebounds to a D2 team…. Yikes. - Anything with Meah operating at the top of the key. Yeeesh. Please don’t try to force that. He doesn’t have any feel for it and does not have the skills for it. And we don’t have time for him to figure it out. The ugly: - Does everyone on this team have mono? Second time I’ve seen them, they look lethargic, uninterested, and bored. Maybe that’s a good thing? Need a bit more of a challenge to get our juices flowing? -Body language leaves quite a bit to be desired… whiney and uninspired.

My dad is quite the tech-whiz thank you very much... No, I have had my identity stolen, and was able to get it back with very minimal damage done.

@Silverbacked1 Did you get this all resolved? Please let me know if you need any more help. I have some experience in this area.

I am afforded a bit of exaggeration, you know. It's the internet.

I disagree. You have to go after them. You just have to re-evaluate your approach and expectations. Can't treat them as an in-state kid.

Word of advice for the board and fans of recruiting.... Omaha is not "Nebraska" and the kids here have absolutely zero, zilch, nada affiliation with the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. If ya hear of a good Omaha kid, you might as well consider them an out-of-state recruit and judge accordingly.

We know exactly who he is. It's completely obvious. Only way he'll have an negative effect on the team is if they try to stick a round peg in a square hole and make him into a DWalker/RMast type of post. He needs to go dunker spot to dunker spot, and flash for pick 'n rolls and hand-offs.

Not sure if this is the right thread for this question… but can someone give me some more insight on “what Ulis is?” What kinda of player are we expecting here? What do his previous stats say? Watching him the scrimmage I can’t say I got a great handle on what to expect from him.

The two I’m not sure you can play together are Meah and Gary…. Then again, along with Berek, we should get loads of offensive rebounds. But if they aren’t score and/or getting offensive rebounds, Meah and Gary are tough to have on the court together.

Episode with TF was awesome, man. Great work. Who knew TF was so high on Brice Williams?

We’re f-ing done.

Great episode. I echo almost all your thoughts

The way that Coach Hoiberg builds his teams makes me think he really always appreciated the Golden State Warriors classic "Line-Up of Death" (Steph, Klay, Iggy, Barnes/KD, Draymond at the 5) they would employ in crunch situations. It's a line-up that is different than your starting line-up, and can be deployed in important situations where you feel you can take advantage of your versatility. Long, big, versatile, switchable, position-less players. This team seems to have unlimited "Line-Up of Death" potential. Let's assume our starters are: 1. Rollie/Ulis 2. Bryce 3. Gary 4. Berke 5. Meah/Morgan What would be your crunch time "Line-Up of Death?" My Guess: 1. Rollie 2. Brice 3. Griffiths 4. Gary 5. Berke

Agreed. Rollie is a poor man's Sam Griesel (from a size perspective), but a rich man's Sam Griesel (From a point guard perspective).

To me, Cale brings a lot of the things Rollie does, not Sam. Cale's a ball control/facilitator player with good size. If he can shoot it as well as he did Sunday, then there's a role for him. The wildcard for what Cale and Sam end up doing this year is Ulis. If he is productive offensively, with what he can bring naturally defensively, Cale and Sam's minutes will be limited. Cale's especially.

I'm like, easily in the top 3 of Cale Jacobsen Fans on this board, so remember that before this next part... But I always think back to the story Nick Bahe has told a few times on the radio and on his podcast. When he was a freshman walk-on at KU, he scored 30 in an inter-squad scrimmage and was sure he was going to be the man. But as people started picking it up and playing above that level, it was clear that scrimmage work aint real work.

From what I saw them working on in warm-ups and what I saw in game - yes - I think a lot of the defense will be the same. Lots of switching, essentially a 2-3 match-up zone, full rotating vs. jab/recover, pre-rotate on baseline actions. Whether the double the post will be match-up dependent and what big is in.

Yep..... Every time he shoots a three I do a little grimace. I suppose he has to do it to keep other teams honest (has to make them, of course, too). But each time he shoots a 3 I am left wishing the possession was used differently.

My Thoughts: 1. This has to be one of the biggest, longest, and versatile teams that have ever set foot on campus. I posted early simply about the heights of the guys who "started," but everyone else is also huge. 2. This team is athletic in ways but also woefully unathletic in others. We are long, tall, strong, and have some guys who can get vertical. But we are very much missing "twitchy" guys. Ulis does add a nice defensive element off the bench from a quickness/twitchy perspective, but I could see us having a bit of a problem with quick guards. However, our length and verticality, plus Meah protecting the rim, should hopefully mitigate some of that. 3. The main line-up will be: Worster Williams Gary Berke Meah Ulis Morgan Essegian Then guys like Griffiths, Hoiberg, will definitely have roles but will be determined by the type of game. I don't think any of the freshman are really "ready" to play any type of meaningful role yet. 4. Brice Williams is the best player on the team. I am not 100% sure how I feel about that. He almost has one of the most NBA-type games we've ever had here... But I am not sure where he is at mentality-wise. Not a knock on him, necessarily... but is he a killer? Is he going to be aggressive? Can he lead verbally? 5. They clearly have a long way to go offensively to be considered a well-oiled machine. Hoiberg mentioned this after the scrimmage. Gavin Griffiths, who was kinda disappointing, is swimming in it. Definitely not understanding the flow of the offense yet, or the spacing. He is a very natural and instinctual basketball player - but for those of you who have coached and played - you can see how maybe "being in a 'system'" is not something that is natural or instinctual for him. Will take some time to get him in the flow. But he is going to "make plays" out of nowhere, for sure. 6. I'm not concerned about the shooting. There's guys who can clearly make them and their shots look nice. That will sort itself out in a real game, when not everyone is shooting. 7. Reink and Josiah were the heart and soul of this team last year, and they will be sorely missed from an intangibles perspective... But man, I really think we should be able to replace their actual production fairly well with Meah, Berke, Morgan - who are all very capable dudes. Meah's gonna add an element defensively we've essentially never had here. And offensively for that matter, catching lobs and being a pain on the O boards for easy put backs and tip ins. However, the less Braxton Meah handles the ball in any form, the better. I am not sure how they are going to get Reink/DWalker level production out of him in the high post or the full-court as a pressure release/trailer - he does NOT have that game. I will wait to see if Morgan does, but Meah absolutely does not have that. He's a ball screen and roll, hand-off, dunker spot to dunker spot guy. I do not believe he possesses the skills to run the offense through him at the high post. 8. I understand Fred's offense, I really do... but I can't stand some of the "false motion" that they do. All those touch passes and faux reversals do nothing to move the defense. But it can be very effective when you have five guys who know what they're doing, and run that false motion with speed and efficiency. That's why guys like Griffiths will struggle to play right away, until he starts understanding that spacing and movement - he's a tempo killer right now. 9. Hot take... we're not going to miss KT much. I think this team will flow better, guard better, and be more versatile/unselfish without him. 10. I like this team... I like it a lot. We have the truest Point Guard we've had in a LONG TIME in Rollie. You give me height, length, a true point guard, and a true defensive big - along with some of the other rebounding upgrades we made - and we're going to be a very tough out.

I’m here, will try to provide a write-up later tonight. No way Nebrasketball has ever started: 7'1" 6'10" 6'7" 6'6" 6'4" right?

@hhcmatt Please keep up the good fight. New court is horrible. Boring. Lame. And incorrect as is.