hhcmatt

Re: Curtis Looks like he potentially was injured and at one point looked like he would not play

To me, it seemed like Southern Utah was a better team than Riverside. I'm often wrong but I don't see UC Riverside as anything beyond a team that needs to win their conference tourney to make the tournament and they will not. Thus to me it was how this team just folded in the 2nd half vs Riverside. I guess if our excuse was missing one guy it's too bad that Riverside missing two starters and down 16-7 early on the road couldn't have just given us the win. While we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn vs Southern Utah either it really felt like we showed resolve and effort.

Is this right? I picked Nebraska 82 - Southern Utah 76

I simultaneously think we will get better and that our level of play in the first game was sub-par for any scenario of any team we put on the court.

Is anyone making the argument that this team will not improve over the course of Hoiberg's tenure?

Sorry, Iowa

Here are the numbers to back up what some of you might not get to see since most of the games have been on pay TV: we're really, really struggling to score in our half court offense. Via hoops-math.com: "Transition shots are defined as occuring within the first 10 seconds of a possession after a steal, defensive rebound, or opponent score." Transition offense: 37.7% of our shots, 58.1 eFG% Other "half court" offense: 62.3% percent of our shots, 26.33 eFG% In other words, when we have to execute our offense against a set defense, we really, really struggle to score. Couple of good news items to grab from here I think we can maintain at least a 30% share of our offense in transition. It's definitely our focus so I don't expect us to slow down even when teams sell out to try and force us to You have to think that our lack of execution/shooting on the offensive end has to be in part because of the unfamiliarity of the system. It would stand to reason that this team should become better throughout the year at executing. The real question is where we will fall between 'marginally better' and 'markedly better'

Comparing makes per minute isn't a great way to compare these two teams given how different they are in style and tempo.

Hoiberg Post game presser Mack/Green Post game presser

Post Game Notes from UNL Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg On the contest I thought our guys really went out and competed today. I thought we got off to a great start. We challenged them the last few days to put that last frustrating loss behind us, and they responded with great energy. I thought we had a good play drawn up at the end, but unfortunately just didn’t finish it. The competitive spirit of this group was where it needed to be today, and it’s something we can build on.” On Kevin Cross’ performance “Look at what Kevin did today, I thought he was one of the best players on the floor for us. He was finishing, he’s got a good feel in the middle of that zone. We felt Kevin was the guy to have out there. I’ll say this about Kevin, he’s really bought into getting his body right so he could play sustained minutes tonight.” On how Cam Mack facilitated the game “He had a stretch where he was just incredible. He completely took over the game and that’s what he’s capable of doing. He’s got great speed and instincts. He’s got good pace to get a guy on his hip and make the right play. To go out there in his second game at this level and almost put a triple-double on the board is pretty impressive.” On getting better “If we continue to take steps, the results will take care of themselves. That’s the biggest thing for our group right now, to continue to go out there and battle. I’m proud of the way they went out there and battled and fought. [SUU] is a good team. They’re long, they’re athletic and look like a lot of Big Ten teams will. Now that we’ve seen that length, hopefully we’ll be better next time we see it.” Junior Guard Jervay Green On the offensive struggles late in the game: “I just think we didn’t execute. But as we go on, and we get back to the drawing boards we are going to fix all of that.” On his buzzer beater to send the game into overtime: “Great point guard gave me the ball. I saw the time was going down and just shot it. And made it.” On how the end of regulation effected the momentum for the team: “It’s big. Obviously the first game didn’t go how we wanted it to so for us to even come close like that it feels great. And we are a new team so we are still trying to find the rhythm of each other. I think we took a huge step forward. We are going to keep working. and we are going to get that game and we going to start winning here soon.” On Kevin Cross: “Kevin played great. He played big. He’s not used to playing center. Obviously in high school, he could dribble real good so for him to even be switching that up is big and he is doing a very good job. Hats off for him today. He came up big.” Sophomore Guard Cam Mack On taking a step forward from the last game: “I mean I feel like we took a step forward, but when it came down to it we should have won that game. We should have just won the game. I mean we didn’t execute well (enough). I didn’t come through making my two free throws so I took the blame on that. But we just didn’t execute. That’s all it is.” On Kevin Cross’ performance “Kevin is a great player. (After the) Last game, I told him you miss shots you make some so keep shooting and stuff will come. I’m proud of him. He is a freshman so I am very proud of him. He played big minutes and caught a lot of my passes. I really appreciate him a lot.” Southern Utah Head Coach Todd Simon Opening Statement “It was an exciting college basketball game. Any time you get one of these two overtime deals, it’s a highly contested game with two teams who wanted to win. I thought they played really hard. Coach Hoiberg does a heck of a job, and he’s going to build this thing into a big-time winner. I was proud of our guys’ resilience. They kind of kept coming back and made some plays down the stretch.” On how SUU responded in the second half “We didn’t execute great in the first half. I thought we had a lot of open looks. We were a little nervous and we fired some shots that we normally make. We were a little antsy around the rim. We calmed down and did a much better job executing late in the second half and in the overtimes.” On how SUU responded to the tying buzzer beater “It was a good teaching moment for us. Our game plan was to foul, and we didn’t execute. It was a lesson learned. We’re always going to foul in that situation, and we didn’t get it done, and that’s what can happen. I was proud of our guys, to be able to buckle back down and come back out and play 10 more good minutes of basketball.”

I think it was because of how effective Cross was offensively. Could we have played Cross and Yvan together?

Great weather on Saturday so his he and his family might not know the weather here is typically colder