GhostOfJoeMcCray

True. Sam being a team-high +22 while scoring 2 points and going 1-4 is really just incredible if you think about it. Really hope his 3 ball starts falling soon. At some point it has to...

If you had told me Rollie Worster and Juwan Gary ranked 2 and 3 on the team in 3pt percentage through three games, I'd have said holy crap we are having an amazing start. There are 4 or 5 players I expected to (and still do expect) to shoot better than them.

Decided to make this its own thread and I'll add updates after every game. I like tracking +/- because, although not perfect, I think it's a great way to see who impacts winning. And Fred mentions it often so I know the staff values it to some degree. One thing to keep in mind is offense for defense substitutions can skew things. For example, Sam Hoiberg (defense) for Connor Essegian (offense) late in games would only mean Hoiberg has potential to decrease while Essegian only has potential to increase, which isn't totally fair to Hoiberg. But overall throughout the course of a season, I think it can be telling. We're already seeing how valuable Juwan Gary and Rollie Worster are, which was expected. Perhaps unexpected is Berke's impact through 3 games. +/- vs. FDU Hoiberg +22 Griffiths +19 Ulis +14 Berke +12 Jacobsen +12 Gary +12 Williams +10 Worster +7 Essegian +5 Burt +5 Grace +5 Morgan +3 Season +/- (Team +51) Berke +45 Gary +38 Worster +37 Griffiths +30 Essegian +23 Morgan +17 Hoiberg +16 Williams +16 Jacobsen +12 Ulis +9 Grace +5 Burt +5 Meah +2

+/- vs. FDU Hoiberg +22 Griffiths +19 Ulis +14 Berke +12 Jacobsen +12 Gary +12 Williams +10 Worster +7 Essegian +5 Burt +5 Grace +5 Morgan +3 Season +/- (Team +51) Berke +45 Gary +38 Worster +37 Griffiths +30 Essegian +23 Morgan +17 Hoiberg +16 Williams +16 Jacobsen +12 Ulis +9 Grace +5 Burt +5 Meah +2

Maybe it was the no beard allowing us to see more of his face, but Brice had great body language last night and was a great teammate and giving out high fives, all despite going 2-9 and scoring only 10 points. So I want to give credit where it's due. He looked to play like a team leader last night even though he didn't shoot it great. Also at the end when Burt and Grace scored, Brice was one of the most excited guys on the bench for them.

I'm with you, I don't feel good about it at all either. FDU lost to Miami by 41 and to Creighton by 26. We need to "get right" this game, or we'll go into Sioux Falls with very little confidence. That said, perhaps this is a team that will play up or down to its competition.

We also had an exhibition, a closed game against Utah, and a public intrasquad scrimmage. So technically 6 game-like situations. If the guys aren't ready to play St. Mary's in Sioux Falls, that's on us. Most Big Ten teams will have tested themselves by 4 or 5 games into the season. Wednesday is the time for the staff to actually implement the changes they see need to be made, in my opinion. Our starting group led 8-6 against UTRGV at the first media timeout and trailed 4-8 against B-C at the first media timeout. If we have 10 guys playing 10+ minutes once again, it either means we've won by 40, or the coaches truly don't know what they want to do. Because you can't sit there and say we've got 10 guys that can really play and can contribute, but then also only beat Bethune-Cookman at home by 5 and lead UTRGV at home by 4 with 5 minutes left.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I was curious so I looked. Washington (a very average team) had the following numbers in Meah's two years there: D efficiency ranked 71 and 97. 2pt FG% D ranked 95 and 152. What's my perhaps overly simplistic point? I'm not sure having a 7-1 rim protector really matters all that much, especially if it means A) other guys don't think they need to give that extra bit of effort because a "rim protector" will take care of it. And B) said rim protector can't score or keep up with a fast-paced offense.

+/- from Bethune Cookman: Worster +9 Morgan +8 Berke +8 Griffiths +7 Essegian +3 Gary 0 Hoiberg -1 Williams -2 Meah -3 Ulis -4 Total through 2 games: Worster +30 Berke +29 Gary +26 Essegian +18 Morgan +14 Griffiths +11 Williams +6 Meah +2 Ulis -5 Hoiberg -6 Seems like the staff is way over-complicating this. Your top 7 are your top 7.

We basically try to win the tip with him and get an easy basket with him on the first possession. We won the tip the exhibition game, Meah got a dunk. We won the tip the first game, Meah got fouled and missed both free throws. We lost the tip the second game.

We basically just typed the exact same thing at the same time.

Meah wasn’t bad last night. But I don’t understand Fred’s infatuation with him. “I’ve never had a player like him before at any level.” Yes and you’ve also had really good offenses most of the time and last year’s team was no slouch defensively at all, we were the #1 defense in the country in February with a hobbling Mast and one guard who had no interest in defense and another who tried but didn’t know what he was doing. Meah kills the offensive flow, he can’t get up and down the floor, he has fewer rebounds than our point guard, and he has blocked 1 shot and has 0 steals. I really don’t understand. It seems like we are just trying to force this to happen. Play like last year! Honestly I would like to see us start Brice, Connor, Juwan, Gavin, Berke. Bring Rollie, Morgan, Sam off the bench and Meah and Ulis in case of foul trouble or injuries. We need a better scoring starting lineup to start games. Right now we are starting basically one guy (Brice) who is a scoring threat from 3.

UTRGV was awful last year. This first year head coach Kahil Fennell will be a name to keep an eye on in the future.

UTRGV is 6-10 from 3 and 2-9 on twos

Essegian's 7-0 run in 42 seconds felt vaguely familiar.

By the way, UTRGV went 13-41 from deep and we still won by 20. Last year when we gave up that many 3s: Iowa 15-35 (lost by 18) Creighton 14-40 (lost by 29) Illinois 13-35 (lost by 11) Purdue 13-33 (won by 16) Wisconsin 13-26 (lost by 16) A&M 13-23 (lost by 15) So this was a funky matchup given their play style, and considering we were outscored 39-18 from the 3 point line and still won by 20, that's encouraging. In many other older worlds of Nebraska Basketball we lose that game.

Agreed. We tinkered and messed around a lot in the first half especially and look where that got us. Obviously we really can't afford to lose a non-conference home game. Not that I thought we were going to, but 69-65 with 5 minutes left was a little stressful. I think the +/- from last night is pretty telling, moreso than it usually is: Juwan +26 Berke +21 Worster +21 Essegian +15 Brice +8 Morgan +6 Meah +5 Griffiths +4 Ulis -1 Hoiberg -5 Those top 6 are your core. Really like what Morgan can do in this system and he just seems like a way more natural/better fit for what Fred likes to do than Meah does. In my opinion, Berke and Morgan should be the clear Reink and Josiah replacements. Meah should fill Keita's role (except actually be available), playing situationally against giants or sparing guys who are in foul trouble. I like Griffiths and he will shoot it better than he did last night, he's the 7th guy for me. Ulis and Hoiberg get spot minutes.

Indiana is 64-73 in the Big Ten in the last 7 years since Tom Crean and has made the NCAA Tournament just twice. And yet every year is gonna be "the year" because of the new players they bring in. However, I suppose this must be what people think of Nebraska football fans. Still, Mike Woodson still coaching there? Thought so. Edge: Nebraska

I mean I definitely hope you're right, but the stats don't really say that. In his only year at Nebraska Griesel shot 44.6 / 32.3 / 68.3 In his last year at Utah Worster shot 40.9 / 27.6 / 70.5. In his 4 college seasons he never had a season better than 41.8. Best 3pt% was 32.8. But if anyone can get those numbers up, it's Fred. But Rollie also won't be taking near the volume of shots Griesel did, or probably even what he did at Utah. We have too many other options to turn to for scoring. If Rollie can average 5-6 assists per game, grab 5-6 rebounds per game, with just 1-2 turnovers per game and chip in 6-10 points efficiently, then we'll be golden.

Rollie-Connor-Brice-Juwan-Berke might be the lineup they experiment with when they put Berke at the 5.

Alright you guys talked me into it. Back all in on the Rollie bandwagon. If he can give us somewhere in the range of his last year numbers and Griesel’s senior year numbers, I’ll be a happy camper. Maybe I’m just overly concerned with his and Ulis’ lack of being an outside shooting threat.

I may have been a bit unclear in what I was trying to say. I meant to say Berke is the biggest reach in terms of comparing his style of play to Allick's. I agree with you, I think Berke is going to be 5x the offensive player Allick was, but also probably 5x worse on defense. I was just trying to find a starting 5 that resembled our best starting 5 last year that won a ton of games down the stretch.

I'm not worried about Juwan, Brice or Sam. Sam didn't play against Utah and we got outphsyicaled and outhustled supposedly? Not a coincidence. He has a role and it will be obvious when we need his presence on the court. My biggest concern right now is if adding Rollie/Ulis really makes us a better team. We've heard a lot about "finally having a true point guard" but does that mean we'll be better? Worster and Ulis combined for 6 points and hit zero threes against Utah. In Red-White they combined for 14 points and hit one three, though Rollie ran the offense pretty well. Their career averages put together are 6.5 ppg, 40.0% FG and 29.7% 3PT and 3.12 assists per game. Jamarques Lawrence last year averaged 6.9 ppg, 42.0% FG and 35.6% 3PT and 2.5 assists. Sam Griesel in his one year as our PG averaged 12.0 ppg, 44.6% FG and 32.3% 3PT and 3.8 assists. I'm skeptical. If one of them is starting - along with Meah and an unproven Berke - that is a lot less shooting and scoring threats on the court than we ended last year with (Brice, Keisei, Juwan, Mast could all shoot and score). The way we played the last couple months of last season with Brice running PG really seemed to work for us. In my opinion, the lineup that is as close to a replica as our core group at the end of last year is: Brice Essegian (for Keisei) Gary Berke (for Allick, the biggest reach though) Morgan (for Mast)

good to learn your flaws and some things that don't work in a meaningless scrimmage. That's why you do this. And to gain more insight on what your rotation should be.

Using clues of what we've seen and what Fred has said (recently he said a scout told him Rollie might be the most important (not best) player on the team)... Rollie Essegian Brice Juwan Morgan I think this is our 5 in crunch time of a close game. Swap Sam for Essegian if we're trying to hang on to a lead.