Fullbacksympathy

We'll need Jordy against true bigs. I thought he played pretty well last night. He was very active on the glass. 5pts, 7rb in 11min. on 2-3 shooting is solid production. Compare to Roby: 10pts, 6rb, 1stl, 1blk in 22 minutes on 2-2 shooting. ------------------------------- Now, I think the real argument to be made at this point is starting Gill over Taylor. The kid is playing fearless and shooting 46% from 3. I think we're forgetting that he was a legit 4* Louisville recruit, and he's starting to look lightening quick on both ends of the court. It's been a very nice surprise. I'd be pretty happy with a 2-deep of: Watson/Taylor Gill/Allen Palmer Copeland/McVeigh Roby/Jordy/Okeke Something like that, with Taylor and Roby helping with the 3 as needed.

May not seem like it, but I think this win tells us quite a bit about this team. That was a pride win against a decent team who will make a lot of games close against decent competition. We haven't had the talent to flip the switch in the past. We do now. That's a feather in Miles' cap for his recruiting. Good win.

Funny story about this. I was at this game and in the first half the super athletic/strong Tennessee center dunked the SHIT out of the ball. I told my dad something was off with the hoop after that. Then, hilariously, all 190lbs of Jason D. gets a dunk in the second half and brings the house down and everyone goes nuts. lol.

I'm just worried about him finishing with his right hand. I don't think I've ever seen him finish inside with his right. But that's probably more of a Jordy problem than a coaching one.

So much this. Jordy should have a horrifyingly powerful drop step. And I would think he would be a lot better doing it from the left block for sure. I don't particularly like him dribbling to the middle of the lane.

Good points. A general rule for me is when a team with greater talent on the roster loses to a team with significantly less talent at home that something is abysmally wrong with the system the coach is trying to run. That verdict is still out with Miles, in my opinion. However, now that we have legitimate B1G talent filling out basically the entire roster (and gets even better next year), I tend to think the scales are tipping in TM's favor. Suddenly, his system doesn't look so bad, and it's not because of a hot streak--this team is actually full of pretty good basketball players. When I think about Doc and, in some respects, Nee, I think they both displayed better in-game coaching than Miles has to this point. Nee was good at letting talent win games with an extremely up-tempo and improvisational system and Doc was incredible, at times, churning out .500 teams with awful talent. Do I think there are other coaches who could x and o their way to a decent seed in the NCAA tournament with this current roster? Absolutely. Do I think there are other coaches who could recruit guys this good to Nebraska? Hell no. Sometimes you gotta dance with the one who brung ya.

Of course not. But if he loses a cupcake and we end up falling off the bubble because of it, bye bye. I'm actually not on the fire Miles tipping point because I think the job he's done as a recruiter has been phenomenal. I'd put his tenure so far at a B. I'm waiting for his in-game coaching to catch up to his recruiting prowess. I'm also open to the idea that he's getting so much talent on the floor that in-game coaching will matter less and less moving forward. Nothing matters more than talent.

The next three are must wins for Miles to keep his job. I'm behind the guy, but we can't lose at home to bums again this year. Respect your opponent and your own win column. Overall, it's been a solid non-con and while execution hasn't always been great, TM and co have done a fantastic job of coaching up effort. We'll win a couple of games we're not supposed to if we keep it up.

2-3 was very good for our last stretch, regardless of missed opportunities. We're #85 in Kenpom, which I would consider the non-con bubble at this point. I think we go 3-2 the next 5 because we haven't proven ourselves as a road team yet. I'm sold on our home court performances though. I think we win out at home.

I love Evan, but I don't think Evan has the ability to go off offensively. Gill and Thomas have both proven they can be an unexpected nightmare on that end. For the record, I like that we've slowplayed both of them--Gill because of the injury and Thomas because of the youth--but Thomas was on fire against KU. I think he should've gotten more minutes. We're going to need that additional scorer to win against really good teams.

Finally got a chance to watch. Awesome effort. We're an excellent home court team. My only thought on the rotation: if we're looking at output, have Gill and Allen earned Taylor's minutes at the 2? I feel like Taylor needs to give Glynn spot minutes at this point, and that might be it. Glad we gave Roby big minutes.

Lost to an inferior opponent. Refs were truly the difference. The talent gap between NU-CU is gone, and I've been very cynical about this matchup in the past. We'll beat their asses next year--we really will, and they know it. Let's beat KU instead.

I don't get how Allen is on the bench right now. He can score.

Get taylor out. What is he trying to do?

I don't like ET at point instead of Allen as Watson's backup... let the kid get acclimated. Ugh.

Jordy just needs to slow down at the rim. He has position down there all day. Energy is good all around. Just need to execute.

We need our starters to match the scoring of their starters. Last year their starters matched the scoring of our entire team. If we can make the starting lineup scoring a wash, I like our chances with having a more productive bench.

Reggie Lynch is a very good center averaging 12pts, 10rb, 5blk, and 2 TO a game. His stat line against Jordy: 9pts, 9rb, 2blk, and 5TO. Jordy's stats against Lynch: 4pts, 6rb, 1blk, 2 TO So did Jordy lose the matchup battle? Maybe, but 5TO is pretty awful. Regardless, Lynch performed worse in every category. When you look at our starting lineup, it seems that Jordy's job is to defend the paint and facilitate scoring for our natural scorers (Watson, Palmer, Copeland). I personally thought he would score more points this year (and he may still), but I don't think many people are considering how much his frame and physicality affect games. Jordy is not easy to score on, has decent lateral quickness, sets good screens, and wears down opposing bigs. There is just no way to replace 6'11" 270lbs. Also, he's a true sophomore. He was going against an All-Conference senior against Minn. and a 5-star TFrosh at MSU.

I don't hate Creighton as much as I did when they were in a high school conference and got to the tournament every year with Big 12 bottom level talent. Back then, the game hurt our RPI whether we won or lost. Doc was right when he said it was bad for Nebraska basketball. Now they have proven themselves to be a legitimately average P5 school who sniffs the Top 25 once every few seasons and makes the NCAA tournament a couple of times a decade. It's no longer a bad game for our RPI. In fact, it's a pretty nice luxury. I'm all for it now. I'm sure Doc would be too. At least the team we're playing is an honest product now.

I think it depends on matchups, but I generally disagree, especially in conference play. I have really liked the rotation of late. The subs between Copeland and Roby were more frequent last night. Having both of them fresh basically the entire game was pretty demoralizing for our opponents last night. I kept waiting for a lull, and then Roby or Copeland would be checking in and I'd think, "Oh yeah. We lose nothing with this substitution." I wish I could see +/- stats.

I don't agree. EM was a better rebounder than anyone on our current roster. That I agree with. Jacobson was not. Both of them were a huge defensive liability against opposing centers. I'll take missed shots over a few rebounds all day. I love the fact that we have two true centers (Duby is a true center by strength and sheer leaping ability) playing center and nothing else. I think it's a bad idea to overlook FG% from opposing bigs, and I think Miles is aware of this. Defense matters. True centers alter shots. They draw fouls. They wear down opposing bigs. They set more annoying screens. Look at the last time we played Minnesota: Murphy/Lynch: 31pts on 12/16 shooting: 75% 56 minutes Last night: Murphy/Lynch: 19pts on 7/18 shooting: 39% 61 minutes I know they had an off night, but we also have the 1-year-later improved version of them here. We were not physically overmatched inside last night on either end of the court.

Nate Mason is a great PG. Jordan Murphy is a great PF. The rest of their starting lineup is outstanding. They were neck and neck with Top 10 Miami in their earlier loss. I personally think Minnesota has the best starting five in the B1G, but they definitely lack depth, and we exposed that last night. I agree that the refs were wearing red for a good majority of the game last night. I also thought Minnesota had some crybabies who made the refs care even less.

Which All-American scored in isolation when Roby was guarding him? Which one kept Copeland from getting 12 points on 5 shots? I did exaggerate though. Expand it to front court: Murphy/Lynch/Fitzgerald/Hurt/Konate = 19 pts, 24rb, 2a, 4blk, 3stl, 8TO, 14 fouls 7/21 FG = 33% Copeland/Tshimanga/Roby/Okeke = 22pts, 17rb, 2a, 7blk, 0stl, 8TO, 10 fouls 9/15 FG = 60% On the surface it's close to a wash, but our bigs were so much more efficient with their shot selection. Copeland and Roby can both cause bigs to guard on the perimeter. That matters. A lot. I still love Morrow, but the Jacobson thing is just baffling to me at this point given Copeland's production and Roby's all-around contributions. Jacobson would've been an enormous liability last night.

Great, great win. A few things: I said this team has the potential to be a great home team awhile back. We have the talent to match anyone when we are in our own building. It didn't look like an upset tonight. If I had my way, we'd start conference play in the arena of the best B1G team every year. Credit MSU for showing us what elite basketball looks like before this game. Thomas Allen is officially a serviceable backup for Glynn at PG. He wouldn't have scored 30 with the same minutes, but I bet he would've scored 15. That's a hell of a compliment for a true Freshman. Funny how I haven't seen any bitching about missing Morrow and Jacobson on this thread. I guess that's fairly easy to forget when Copeland and Roby are dominating All-Americans. Duby finally had the exact game he was brought here for: 3 blocks, 2 huge momentum dunks. YES. Defensively, I saw some really, really good changes. No more slowplaying crap on pick and roll. We hedged HARD, we doubled the post HARD, we blocked 9 shots. We had a friggin identity. AMEN. I still think we lose @ Creighton, but I think KU is going to be the game of the year.

Agree with the bottom one for sure and would love to see that lineup tried out, but the top one would mean Watson is a primary defensive rebounder and he would get killed on the glass when the shot goes up on Copeland's side.