demone

Have to say I was very impressed with our defense today - did a nice of job of moving our feet, shutting down penetration and forcing them into a lot of jump shots. My biggest complaint until these past 3 games was a lack of noticeable improvement. The coaches have changed up the defense a bit (love the press wrinkle) & the players are responding. Not sure how many more we win, but if they keep getting better, I'll be happy.

Thanks! Looking forward to watching both Chang and Wyatt tonight!!

Maybe that's why, the two Nebraskans share a lot of similarities. Perhaps Ed Chang needs to differentiate his skills from Aguek Arop to be able to garner that offer from NU. Time will tell, though. Based on what I can tell, they may be similar physically but have different games. Chang is more of a wing - can handle the ball, shoots it from distance, etc. At least at the H.S. level, Arop plays more of an inside game.

Thanks. Yeah I saw that after I posted but still...that was September. I'm so tired of seemingly always having to play catch-up on in-state kids.

Read yesterday that Iowa was in to see him. Today, he was offered by Creighton. Has NU even talked to this kid since last fall?

I would agree - although it can be very hard for a young kid to reconcile what he's being told with what he sees on the court. Not sure the team's offensive performance this year would leave any big with a warm feeling.

I saw this referenced earlier and it has been on my mind since the season started. Knowing that we lack post presence, but have relatively good depth at other positions, why do we continue to focus on running half court offense? With this roster, it would seem to be a good option to run more and press on defense instead of standing around in the half court. Would love some thoughts on this from those more educated than myself.

Valid & accurate.

Not sure I've ever seen a team stand around on offense as much as this one. Mind-boggling.

I'll just answer that....no. It's rare for us to even rub off the screen properly, much less look for the roll.

IMO, there are only 2 things wrong with the fan participation: 1) The Husker Power Chant - we all agree this is a ridiculous stance taken by corporate wonks who don't want to offend anyone. 2) The stream of people leaving when the clock goes under 4 minutes. Beyond that, I had no issues with the fans yesterday. They cheered, got loud a few times when it was warranted...heck, those that remained did what they could to extol a defensive stop when we got it down to 6 with under 4 minutes to go. At a certain point, the product on the floor has to reward the cheers and outside of 1 magical run 2 years ago, it hasn't done that in many, many years. I kind of liken it to the chicken and the egg story - some believe the chicken (fans) come first, I believe the egg (results/wins) come first. We saw what it could be like 2 years ago - give the fans wins and PBA can be a really loud, tough place to play. Until then, it will continue to be inconsistent at best.

I also find my faith in Miles being shaken. I can't understand the "going small" strategy nor do I have any clue as to what we want to try to do when running offense against a zone. The University should be very thankful that going to a game is now something of an event with the Haymarket area being a draw. Having over 12k show up for a mid-day, mid-week game was pretty impressive but...losing games like this won't help the cause.

Loved the effort last night and there are many more positives than negatives, but I do have a question: In the games I've watched this year, I've noticed a trend of not even trying to enter the ball down low. There were a few times last night that Hammond had excellent position. I've also noticed in previous games with both Hammond and Morrow flashing across the lane or working for position and we aren't even looking for them. It would seem even dropping it down and then back out might give us a few easier looks. Is that by design? If I'm Morrow or Hammond, I think I'm gonna get pretty frustrated if I don't get at least a few touches when I'm open.

Just thinking out loud here... To me, there was a noticeable change in coaching philosophy this year, putting more emphasis on defense, slowing the pace & trying to grind out games. I'm not arguing whether this was the right approach, but I am wondering if this was a contributing factor for both Pitchford & Smith. Pitchford was always being forced to play out of position for his skill set and perhaps Smith was not thrilled by a slow-it-down, grind-it-out style. (I know I wouldn't be). Like I said, just wondering...

Would love to see the Huskers send the BDSC out the right way. Tall order but we've already seen Nebraska is a much better team than many thought they would be. Hoping we can get this done!