Breslin Petteway

Huskers 80 Gophers 66

Couldn't watch last night, traveling but was able to listen to the second half...... Kent and Jake are a lot of fun. Jake was in midseason form, angry at the officials and their inconsistency. Jake brought B1G Conference intensity. Kent was a true grizzled vet rounding into form, easing into the season. Once called "got it" on a CJ airball. Line of the night was Jake complaining that Rienk's mask could not get knocked off his face by itself and that he had to be fouled. Kent responded that his CPAP mask seems to work its way off his face without much contact

Huskers-75 Rider-62

It's nice to take care of business. My overreactions: -Rienk bandwagon going to get full in a hurry. Pretty sure I saw point Rienk on a couple possessions which will be interesting. -Eli sure isn't shy. I like what he potentially brings. Scoring at every level, can get into the lane off the dribble. Preseason cupcakes should get him plenty of minutes hopefully the shot selection improves. -Brice is so steady, glad to see his rebounding numbers pick up from game 1. -Sam is going to be really, really hard not to play. -Ready for Keisei -Too many turnover and ugly misses but winning ugly by 27 is pretty enough for me.

No experience with it, but I like it. We have an identity and guys seem to know where they need to be. The way I see it is there is always someone at the rim to take away layups, and we do our best to run guys off the three point line. That leaves the mid range, the shot all teams are taught to avoid. I think that our biggest issues come from quick skip passes that create long close outs, and giving up open corner threes. Games where we are just a step slow rotating can lead to open threes. If I remember rights B1G teams seemed to have some success with this last year, but when we had Bando, Gary, Sammy G flying around we were deadly. We don't have that length this year obviously, but Sam and Jamarques sure fly around and play great defense. I think teams make the baseline drive a part of their offense in today's game, and we are often in great position to make steals out of that rotation. I'm no expert, but it's just nice to have an identity on that end of the floor, one I think puts our guys in a pretty good spot to make steals and be aggressive.

Nebraska-78 A&M-58

Skers-79 Lind-52 10 non-con 22 reg season

It's good to have Husker hoops back!! My overreactions and meaningless opinion: -Missing 5 key players (including Keisei) I thought we actually looked pretty good. -First I think the continuity in the coaching staff is important. The defensive scheme looked similar to last year and the returners really fly around on defense and play confidently. Offensively things looked similar at times as well. I thought our interior passing and cutting looked better than the past which may be something we see more of. -Sam and Jamarques are fun to watch on defense. They are active and get their hands on balls. Sam totally disrupts the other teams offense with his hustle. My biggest overreaction is that Sam's energy and effort on defense is similar to what Keisei gives us on offense. (nothing like beating an NAIA team) -I liked a couple actions we ran for Jamarques when he was off the ball. I think two of his open looks were on sets similar to the shots he got last year. -Williams moves well without the ball and I think will be a great fit. Coleman has some Griesel in his game. He backed down shorter defenders and most of his scoring came off a mismatch. He doesn't move the ball as well as the rest of the group but if he can give us a couple back down baskets a game v smaller guards that would be nice. -Eli is a scorer. His corner 3's looked silky smooth. Like any freshman his shot selection and defense needs work. I thought there were 3-4 plays where he could have gotten an easy steal if he was engaged. If he can guard he will play. -I definitely don't questions this staff's ability in player development. Guys get better under this group and the staff does a good job putting them in positions to be successful. I worry about our ability to get into the lane off the dribble. I don't see a lot of guys able to break people down off the dribble on the roster, cutting and spacing will be key.

Skers-77 Other-71

Our defensive style in general is so different this year compared to years past. The "no middle" defense is a wrinkle teams have to prep for. When they shoot like APB did in the first half and we are slow to rotate it looks awful, not sure on the metrics but in general the guys seem bought into the scheme. I have to think that Howard's fingerprints are all over the defense but help me out if I am wrong

Hell of a win! Now lets see what we are made of. Hard to make too many judgements about the team until we see Walker with Sam, Gary, Bando, and CJ. He is a rock on both ends of the floor.

NU-78 St. Johns-77

Interesting observations. I place shot selection right behind roster building on the list of criticisms of Fred's tenure. I get that he wants to give guys freedom to take shots but the light is a little too green for some. I agree that there is definite improvement this year already but we do not have a lot of guys that can blow by their man and get to the rim, which also means we don't have a lot of drive and kick to open shooters. Overall the offense looks better, but having to rely on set pieces to get good looks without a guy to create open looks off the dribble seems more difficult so I don't know if we should expect our shot quality ranking to improve that much.

We defend, we rebound, we compete.....I think we are onto something

Fair, obviously Andre was a flawed and raw player, but In terms of a back up big man, I liked the rim protection he provided better than what I have seen from Keita so far. But we will see how it plays out in time, and from a culture point of view, it was probably okay to move on from Ed and whatever that disaster of a culture was last season.

Fun to watch the boys back in action! It feels weird to have so many new guys and still have such an experienced group. Sam, Derrick, and Emanuel are the real deal on both ends. The rest of the roster seems hit and miss, but I do think that player development will be a strength of this staff through the season. I actually really like what Fred has going offensively, it looks like post ups for Sam will be a huge part of our offense, and once Walker comes back we will have more of an inside presence. Keita kind of got played off the floor with Maine's 5 out style and he missed some open passes to Sam for layups. Our defensive no middle style requires a lot of scrambling to shooters and he just found himself 1-2 steps behind a lot of plays. I'm hoping he continues to develop but he's got to play stronger, but the fadeaway jumpers and lack of rim protection made me miss Eduardo Andre. On the plus side, Wilhelm really let the game come to him and took what the defense gave him. He was a much needed spark. Can this team avoid a Western Illinois type loss without Walker? I think is the biggest question early in the season. My gut says no, but lets see how they look tomorrow night.

Imagining this team for any stretch without Walker is a scary thought. He is a defensive difference maker and it seems like we want to play through him in the post again on offense. Hell he even brought the ball up for a possession against Chadron St which looked designed, not to mention he seems to be the leader and face of the team. Any list of most indispensable players has to start with Derrick

Nebraska 75 Maine 54 7 non con 14 total

Ha I struggled coming up with a name and Petteway hitting dagger 3's in the Breslin Center to take down Michigan State is the happiest Nebrasketball memory I could think of (No Sit Sunday excluded)

All things considered I thought it went okay. Defense Looks pretty solid, the guys are competing and putting out multiple efforts. You feel guys like Emanuel, Denim, Gary, Sam, Walker (fingers crossed). They disrupt stuff and our scheme is unique which could throw some teams off. Guys compete on the glass as well. Wilhelm and Keisei try but feel like pretty big negatives on this end. Offense Yikes. Turnovers, killed us. Mark Jackson type backdowns from Griesel were our best offense. Someone mentioned earlier there is a desperate need for someone who can get into the lane and create. We can't get around anyone off the dribble which makes it tough for guys like Wilcher, Wilhelm, and Keisei who can shoot but not create their own. Fred seems to think we can fix our offense through set plays, but I doubt it. Before Sunday I thought Walker and the defense would will us to 6-7 Big Ten wins. I still feel that way if he is okay. Hoping he just is freaked out about altitude.....anything long term and we are in deep trouble. If this was Fred's first roster it would be damn fun, but this is year 4 and while this team might be fun to root its time for results and hopefully the conference is down enough for us to get them