Fullbacksympathy

I'm sure they'll be relieved when conference play starts. The Big East sucks this year and they'll fart out enough wins on their home court to be overrated enough to make the tournament.

Obviously Griesel and Walker were great. But Gary was a monster on those 9 boards. He kept an elite athlete off the glass because he was a better athlete. Probably time to start giving our defensive guru on staff some serious recognition here. That was about as high IQ as I have ever seen from a Nebraska defense. Creighton will always be skilled and finesse basketball. That’s why you beat them by punching them in the fing mouth. The weirdest part is that game didn’t look like a fluke to me. We were bigger, stronger, and smarter. Kind of like a B1G team is supposed to look.

I was coaching today and cannot believe this score. I cannot wait to watch this repeatedly. That’s an insane defensive effort!!

My thoughts too. At least be good at something. Be big. Murder the glass. Be bullies. Keisei and CJ are very bad defenders. Any of Sam/Juwan/Bando can guard the perimeter better.

All of this is 100% true, and worse still… The truth behind that “health” hiatus he took is movie level insane. He really needs to stfu about Nebraska or some real shit is going to leak.

I am nearly 100% positive Lawrence is better than both players at this point. He can guard opposing D1 guards and make an open three. He should have been given an honest look today. Should be interesting with Walker.

This team is good defensively. There is an identity and buy in on that side of the ball. Offensively we have no choice but to keep the ball moving. When it stops so do we. We don’t have the luxury of a guy who can simply win 1v1 matchups. But they are an unselfish bunch and I think they’ll be slightly worse than average on O by mid season. I don’t have any high expectations, but if you play proper defense, you’ll beat the teams you’re supposed to beat like APB.

I'm surprised Oleg hasn't gotten more looks. I like what I've seen from him on offense better than WB of Keita.

He made some shots and was generally bad on defense. Once they pressured and played physical in the second half, he was in over his head. I’m happy with him this season so far though.

I didn’t realize until the game started that Anderson coached SJU. This was an absolute nightmare matchup. It was a huge mistake to not put as much athleticism as we could on the court to combat their speed. Lawrence and Dawson should have gotten all of the Wilcher/Tominaga minutes in the second half. The youngsters need to take their lumps but they are much more talented athletes and huge upgrades defensively. The best thing you can do to a pressure team is pressure them right back. No way can Witcher and Tominaga do that. I also think Kojenets is a better player than WB and Keita at the 5, at least offensively.

He's had nagging injuries essentially since he arrived. He has played a crapload of games already as a highly active AAU player. Hopefully he can get healed because the talent is obvious. He could really probably be a lot like SG if he shadows his game.

Agree with most of what you covered. I will say what I’ve been saying for awhile: the only position WB can play is the 5. He looked mobile and fluid and comfortable Monday. Walker’s absence has forced WB into that role, and he looks great at the 5.

After watching the game... We sorely lack an identity, but one could easily be carved. Here's who earned starting spots after two games, IMO: Griesel, Bando, Dawson, Gary, Walker. Want an identity? How about a team who won't get outworked? Maybe they won't win, but they won't get outworked. I don't even think it's close. I really, really like all five of these players. They play hard. They are athletic. They could be excellent defensively. They have enough skill to learn to score at the rim. I am tired of seeing Wilcher and Tominaga not be able to guard opposing guards. They give up so many more points than they score. They are not D1 defenders. Sorry. Lloyd looked much better than both of them defensively. Kojenets is severely underrated. He isn't a fluke out there. He's a Euro player with legit offensive skills and great effort. The offense was night and day with him in the pick and roll. He's the son of a pro and it shows with his knowledge of spacing and skill inside. He'd be first off the bench for me at the 5. Wilcher, Tominaga, WB, Keita can battle it out for the rest of the minutes. I think Wilcher has to play the 4 and WB has to play the 5. I'll include Lloyd here too but I'm pretty optimistic about him. He has great size and some good instincts.

It takes awhile to learn where to anticipate when rolling out something this intuitive. We were trying to speed up the ballhandler and force an awkward shot but fell asleep a lot in the first 25 minutes or so. We also went on a 21-0 run in the second half once we settled in. It helped when we had a more athletic roster on the court, but there's nothing like live action to see how philosophy is actually supposed to work and how hard to have to work to actually execute.

I'm intrigued by the defensive philosophy. It's definitely an effort to run players off the three point line into contested midrange shots without fouling on the attempt. It will take a lot of awareness and discipline not to give up easy buckets, but those midrange/floater type shots don't happen nearly as often and are pretty uncomfortable for a lot of players. We might get killed in points in the paint, but I didn't see a ton of wide open threes. It is essentially a matchup zone which takes less of a toll on our energy on the defensive end as well. Definitely a bit exotic in terms of what I think we're trying to do. It's sort of an analytics defense--it doesn't necessarily look pretty but statistically it might end up matching the numbers (CSU was 25% from 3 and 38% overall).

Yes. We agree. This has been remarkable.

Portal parity is our friend at Nebraska. It's pretty tough to be absolutely terrible these days. It's also tough to be continually elite.

I think if Mickey gets this group to a bowl game he absolutely deserves to be hired, especially after that metric was released. Crazier things have happened. There could be a huge upside in terms of an assistant pool as well. I'm very curious to see how Trev handles Fred. I enjoyed watching the scrimmage. Fred could very well establish a culture Trev likes this season and Trev would have an equally difficult decision to make. I think the guy likes to develop leaders and work with what he has. I would think something like .500 would be a reasonable metric for Fred at this point, though, which may not be attainable.

Only watched highlights.. Lineup of Griesel, Dawson, Wilcher or Bando (can’t remember), Gary, and Keita jumped off the screen to me. The rest was kind of expected, but that group looked really fluid, long, and athletic enough for D1. Keita definitely has some old man to his mobility game, but looks like he has sound fundamentals. He was very comfortable in the high post and has great feel for handoffs/pick and roll. Looks extremely coachable. Am I way off base thinking that was our best lineup?

I got Keisei. Strick said he’s improved in every area. Strick also said he likes this team based on a scrimmage too. That’s a good sign coming from the best perimeter defender ever at Nebraska.

I don’t think he’s quite that quick but he is a pretty special athlete and very versatile defensively. Outside of Lloyd, he might be our best shot here. I just haven’t seen the other newbies enough. I don’t think Keisei can stay in front of PGs but it would be nice to let him try it out.

The games I watched he didn’t guard opposing 1 or 2 guards and was usually guarding the 4. It’s not a knock on him. I like him a lot. There’s no way he can stay with small quick guards. He’s a special player because he can guard the 3-4 just fine and then create all sorts of matchup problems on the other end as a PG. But you have to pair him with someone who can guard the point or that mismatch he presents is a wash. That way the opposition has to either put a small guard he can bully or a forward he can blow by or stretch the court. Bando can help for sure at guard opposing PGs, but he can’t do it all game. I think it’ll be up to Lloyd to step in if possible.

I’ve got this starting 5 as well. Griesel and Bando can create shots, and Wilcher is a good kick out option who will probably have a little more wiggle to his game with decreased weight. Gary gets ugly hustle points (and he is a dog on defense) which is something we’ve needed on our roster for a long time, and Walker is just a very good all around player. This starting 5 would kill last year’s team. I have no clue what the bench will be and I’m not convinced WB can play the 4 due to his lack of quickness. I’d rather have him be a stretch 5 but Keita is a true 5, so we probably have to stick w WB at the 4. I think Lloyd will get significant minutes as the moment won’t be too big for him. He’s gone against better players already than he’ll often see in college and more than held his own. What I’m hoping for him is that he has the athleticism/length to guard opposing point guards. Last season we only had Trey who could do that. Sam is too slow. Bando can, I believe. No chance with Wilcher. Keisei can’t. So it’s gotta be a new guy. What I do know is there should be very few teams that outrebound us this season or the coach has to go. He has the bodies. We’re going to struggle guarding the perimeter but our help defense should be fantastic with our length, strength, and hopefully attitude. I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll see some bully ball this year. It would be nice to have an identity.

Damn.