hhcmatt

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

Maturity level isn't really there right now.

Pretty sure it was Cheatham guarding Morgan at the end with the game on the line. Says a lot about what they think about him because often Morgan looked like the best player on the court today. It's going to be a lost season but it's way too early to start playing guys just because they're younger. Seems probable that Stevenson will be in the rotation immediately after he is eligible. Is Curtis ready to guard a power forward because that is where he needs to be if he's taking time away from Cheatham/Kavas. I think Arop is physically capable but it pretty much speaks volumes for where he's at that he's not playing right now.

It wasn't an inbound play

No one is above criticism...it's more about Hoiberg doesn't really need to worry about his job security in order to build this team the way he wants.

It was a pretty amazing play and I want to watch it again. Essentially we had two players cross each other and set picks at the top of the key, forming a door jam in their zone. Cam drove through the opening and I think just threw the pass too far up for a cutting Green.

Putting up a song from Grease would have been too much on the nose

Nebraska 82 - Southern Utah 76

Nebraska Cornhuskers (0-1) vs Southern Utah Thunderbirds (1-0) Date: Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019 Time: 1:00 p.m. Arena: Pinnacle Bank Arena Broadcast: (Pay) BTN+ Southern Utah Head Coach: Todd Simon Location: Cedar City, Utah (Southwest part of the state) Conference: Big Sky Nickname: Thunderbirds Shirt not to wear: Bird Defensive Style: Speed you up into a bad shot Offensive Style: Love the rim Line: Nebraska by 7.5 Players to watch: Cameron Oluyitan The 6'7" wing led the T-Birds in scoring last and has been noted as a lock-down defender. If the Huskers have someone get hot from the floor expect Oluyitan to be rotated there. Players to watch: Dwayne Morgan Morgan is a UNLV transfer and former 5 star that due to injury is back for a 6th season. Two years ago he was a double digit scorer and Southern Utah's leading rebounder. Morgan hasn't quite ever lived up to the hype as the scoring is definitely volume based. Hoiberg Presser Thorir Presser Hoiberg mentioned Cross when talking about the 3pt shooting struggles against UC Riverside. State they recruited Cross because he had that skill set and he was getting good looks, but they just weren't falling in. It's certainly a very different team we're watching as it's tough to imagine Cross even seeing the floor much under Miles or Sadler, much less getting the green light to fire away. The Skinny: Todd Simon can recruit and that's exactly why Southern Utah hired the young coach. Simon got his start under Lon Kruger at UNLV and then spent a number of years at now defunct prep school/basketball factory Findley Prep before parlaying the relationships built there back into the associate head coach job at UNLV, this time under Dave Rose. After Rose was let go mid-season, Simon served as the interim head coach. While UNLV was so-so in the win-loss department they had plenty of talent and Simon was a big part of that. Currently Southern Utah has arguably the best talent in the Big Sky as Simon has stockpiled transfers from UNLV (Morgan), Arizona St (Andre Adams), Iowa St (Jakolby Long), Boise St (Oluyitan), Illinois St (Daouda Ndiaye) and Utah St (John Knight). That's 6 transfers if you're counting at home...the same number as the Huskers. Simon certainly brings the Runnin' part of the Runnin' Rebels to this team though it's his own spin. The Thunderbirds want to play fast on both ends of the court with a focus on defense. You might assume that they're trying to force turnovers but it's more about speeding you up into taking bad shots to set up their transition offense. You also might assume that Nebraska wants to play fast anyway but if the Huskers are quickly missing a lot of shots that's absolutely what Southern Utah wants. Offensively the Thunderbirds will try and drive everything to the rim. They've made up for their fairly poor half court offense with transitions points plus getting to the FT line. A fully functional Sadler defense would probably throttle this team but if Tuesday is any indication we are far from functional. Adding to the uncertainty in how this game will unfold is that both teams are plenty capable of drawing contact so this could be a game decided at the FT line. It seems like S. Utah has some foul prone interior players. Does Nebraska have the patience to attack this? This early afternoon game was a trap waiting to happen had Nebraska won easily on Tuesday. How do they respond today? Prediction: Nebraska 82 - Southern Utah 76 View full article

Friday is more of a suspend a guy at Memphis day

UNL vs UNO there as Grand Rapids has Tra-Deon Hollins and Tre'Shawn Thurman

He was one and done here

Maybe a little higher or lower but I don't think it would be significantly different. I know that Miles tended to be a wizard in terms of pulling in guys but in terms of changing coaches while minimizing loss in talent, the change from Miles to Hoiberg came at the right time.

I will say that if you haven't lately check out the cumulative star rankings on verbal commits for the B1G You can go through and cherry pick through every roster (Cam Mack is a 2 star) but generally speaking it shows who has what people consider talent. ATM we are dead last in the conference with the lowest number that I can find we've ever had. I was looking at this because I was researching S. Utah who it was noted had a lot of upper conference transfers. They're currently clocking in at 2.5

oh no