thrasher31

Rutgers has looked a bit better of late, but they're not that good. Bailey and Harper can go, but the rest of the team offers nothing. Also you can force Bailey to shoot them out of the game with contested mid ranges.

He's the best player in the big ten. TKR is feeding off him a lot right now. Fletch has added some on the ball stuff to his game too. But Smith is the best player we'll see all year imo

I was looking him up today, and he's going to be even more of a problem when he adds a few inches. Great at getting steals. Think he set a single season record for steals at North Star. They may press a lot.

Any defense can be exploited by running out doing the right things. We so far have had a top 20ish defense nationally. Have gotten burnt a few times, which will happen to any defense. But more often than not, it's a very good defense.

They have two of the best players in the big ten, but the rest is not good at all. Those two wings will keep them in most games.

Id agree if Connor was playing well in big ten play. Other option is to move Sam into the starting lineup, but I think Fred would go small with Connor in for meah vs swapping PGs.

Something I'm monitoring a bit moving forward. Connor essegian has had about as bad a start to big ten play as he can have. 27/23% on 5 PPG. I'm order for Nebraska to get where they want to, he HAS TO be a threat. Non negotiable thing.

There's a few games I have circled as games that will shift the season one way or another based on how close the metrics have it. This was a passed test. -uclas defense is real. Very real. They pressure the shit out of the ball and scramble. Does not shock me that Brice and Berke shot poorly from the field. Connor was wide open all night, so that was more a him missing shots thing. -sam needed to have a good offensive game soon, and boy did he have one. That 3 was such a timely 3 and he forced their guards to have bad nights -morgan is going to be a good big ten player. He can score in flurries and just plays so goddam hard. He's a perfect compliment for Berke and meah. Meah is just a tall body to catch lobs and shut off the water at the rim. Good win. Iowa's defense is going to be like playing a hs team compared to UCLA. Really poor defensive team.

Getting 2 off the next 5 should be the goal imo. Rutgers has two superstars, but the rest of the team is bad, so neb should get that one at home. Out of these 4, I just need 1. We'll see how they go. Vs UCLA @ Iowa @ Purdue @ Maryland

Very fair honestly. I was not a fan of Rice at all personally, so I'll lean Gavin despite his struggles. Thought Eli played with massive tunnel vision in his time here, and he was obviously not a great defender, but not like Gavin has shown to be much better. I think it's pretty obvious Eli is transferring after the year, so I'll be interested in how his next stop looks.

It's been great daily and Tyler have been great at the 4/5. Mara is just a big body at this point. Barely getting over 10 mpg, but with Kyle having surgery, that probably ticks up

Overall, Southern looked outmatched all night. Know they were down two guards, but it was bad offensively. They ran a junk trappish zone most of the night, and in the second half pressure got dialed up on that, so turnovers weren't shocking, although some were just dumb. No real overarching thoughts about individuals this one, as we were just better. Was awesome to see Gavin get going, because I really do think he'll be needed at some point this year and in the future. Keyed in on him on defense and thought he was in the right spots most of the time. Got a foul where he got overpowered for a orb, but overall rotated correctly. UCLA is a huge test. They're an interesting group, as they don't have one guy who can beat you, but their best player in Tyler from OSU or Eric dailey. They have about 4 quality forward bodies, best of which being kobe Johnson, who's a hellish defender. One area I think we can exploit is guard play, as I don't think their guard play has been all that consistent this year. They have 4 guards they go to, beat of which being Tyler perry imo, but he's a freshman. Sky Clark, Dylan Andrews and Sebastian Mack all do good stuff, but they all struggle with different things too. Could be a game to get Connor off, and potentially Berke, as he'll have Tyler on him more than likely

Might've missed this, but he's only played in one game this year.

He's extremely clumsy it seems in what I've seen. He fights on the glass on both ends, so I'll give him credit for that. His tips have led to keeping possessions alive at times. My ask of him is the same it was in the preseason. Be a dunker of the basketball. Deter people from driving to the rim. Crash the glass hard. Id say he's doing the first two well and the third can be improved upon. He adds a dimension none of the other bigs do with just how massive he is on defense. I will say though, Berke has been great on defense this year. There was a possession on defense where an OSU player (guard or wing) tried driving middle and Berke beat him to the spot and forced him into the help. The defense by him was not something I expected this year from him. If he can get his offense to where it was in Hawaii, that gives them a low post threat that can pop out other than Morgan.

Something I noticed that caught my eye late in game was an inverted p&p with Berke handling and rollie (I think) popping out. I don't know or remember that they have ran a lot of inverted stuff this year or even last year.