Coaches kid

Have loved what I've seen from Lawrence. He could be a very good 4 year player for this program. He does many things well. Same for Dawson, who does a lot of little things well which do not show up on the stat sheet but nonetheless help the team win. My son was at the game with me and we were impressed with how those guys flew around on defensive rotations. They were technically very sound on closeouts - balanced, choppy feet, hands up. This team is very well coached on the defensive end.

Agreed that this will be an easier team to root for. They exude a different vibe than previous squads. What concerned me is the inability to stop the ball off of the dribble. They broke us down way too often and we were left scrambling on close outs. There were several times Bando initially put good pressure on the dribbler but was unable to move his feet to stay in front of him. I don't quite know who will guard 1s or 2s who are good operating off of the dribble. At this point, Keita cannot guard stretch 5s off of high screen and rolls. We'll need his size when we get into games where teams play traditional bigs. We did some decent things and I think these guys will play hard. Although it was ugly it was much better than watching a loss to Western Illinois.

This is disturbing. The coaches who are successful (Izzo, Self, Jay Wright, etc.) are able to impose their will on their players. They demand that things be done the right way. Some of them may allow for a player to blow off some steam in the heat of the moment, but in the end, the player does what he's instructed to do or there are consequences. On teams where there is a healthy culture, leaders on the team enforce the instructions given by the coaching staff. Hoping the current crew of players can change the culture. My brother was talking with a Michigan basketball booster. The booster said that when John Beilein was coaching, he would often stop practice for even small errors, like making a pass to the wrong shoulder, or failing to set a pick correctly. That's the type of attention to detail which makes a team successful.

1. Sam (Won't have to learn how to play point on the fly; Nebraska kid who loves the program; underrated athletically) 2. Bandoumel (looks to be athletic guy who can defend AND be a threat offensively) 3. Gary (athleticism, defense and comes from a good program; not as accomplished as Bandoumel offensively) 4. Lloyd (perhaps not as big of an upside as Bryce, but physically more ready to play right away; son of a solid player who hopefully has high basketball IQ) 5. Keita (BIG body, bigger upside than Eduardo who may give us another post scoring threat) Just outside the top 5, Dawson and McPherson. If he's at least a little competent offensively, Dawson may be a good glue guy, akin to the Geronimo kid from Indiana. McPherson's attitude and grit alone might get him on the court.

This absolutely!! We need the right kind of role players. Ones who can actually fulfill their roles.

Your observation that "You need 4 bigs to have a chance" is right on point. To win in the Big 10, absent a bunch of NBA talent at multiple positions who can overcome size mismatches, you have to have at least 3 and preferably 4 guys who can guard legitimate 4s and 5s. We suffer against teams who run out traditional center/power forward combos. Walker competes against the centers, but Lat really struggled playing post defense against power forwards. He consistently let guys back him down and did little or nothing to make them uncomfortable. That's why Wilhelm's loss was significant. He was raw, but he battled and at least made it uncomfortable for opposing 4s. CJ gave good effort, but he simply doesn't have the size to guard true 4s. I think you've got to have rotation options to go big against teams who utilize traditional 4/5 players.

Pleased to have him aboard. It's nice that he wants to be here and represent the University. Even if he's not a game changer, I really think we need home state kids like Sam to change the culture. I saw him in high school and watched him in college and felt like he can be a solid contributor.

Exactly! No more "this is the Japanese Steph Curry" or "that guy was a 5 star before he reclassified" or "he made 89 of 100 3s in practice." I was that guy. Not anymore.

Absolutely agree with this. Add in that their effort has been exponentially better, I have actually enjoyed watching them. I think Fred has done a nice job game-planning the last two games.

Those were the clips my friend sent me. I have a hard time understanding the mindset on those plays. If I'm out there on the floor, I have a responsibility to my team to do my job on the defensive end. Even if you didn't care about the team, I would think you would have a sense of personal pride not to be shown up. It's exactly what I was referring to about Bryce playing soft. I think your suggestion of applying the same standard of getting pulled for plays like this on the defensive end is the only way to deal with the problem.

The first clip began at 18:44 in the second half. The second was at 13:39 in the second half.

I had to go to a Christmas party so I gave my tickets away last night. I did watch the game on DVR. A friend of mine texted two video clips of the game. Both of the clips involved Bryce showing little to no effort on the defensive end. I wish I was technologically fluent because I would post them here. In the first clip, a guy blows by Bryce on the baseline with no resistance. Verge had to come help, leaving his man wide open for a 3. The shot was missed, but Bryce just stood there while his guy blocked him out and got an easy put back. In the second clip, Bryce played matador defense at the top of the key and the Burton kid got an easy layup. Hummel pointed out the poor defensive effort on tv. While I have been pretty hard on Bryce, I think he is clearly a talented kid and I think getting a 5 star to come to Lincoln was a significant development for the program. I'm glad we have him. Hoiberg said before the season that Bryce is not only an exceptional talent, but an exceptional person. The troubling thing to me is that he does not consistently play hard, especially on defense. I don't think he is soft, but at this point in his career, he often PLAYS soft. Perhaps it's a byproduct of being the most talented kid during his high school and AAU days. His dad's tweet about wanting your kid to go to a school where the teammates care primarily about winning was somewhat ironic. You would think a kid who cares primarily about winning would play with great effort all the time, on both sides of the floor. Objectively, Bryce hasn't yet demonstrated a commitment to playing with great effort on every possession. I hope he digs deep and learns to do so very soon.

Generally speaking, I am a glass half-full type of guy. I usually do not comment on the day of a loss, but...here goes. I simply can't believe that a guy with Hoiberg's college coaching track record would put together a group of guys who have such low basketball IQs. The way it's going right now, I can't fathom a scenario where this group of guys will ever gel into a team that can be competitive against legit competition. We have nobody - absolutely nobody - who is good at guarding the basketball on the perimeter. We let guys into the paint with little to no resistance. Offensively, we have only 2 guys who can generate their own shots, Bryce and Verge. Neither of them know how to do so within the flow of the offense. Both of them are on the lower end of the basketball IQ. Neither of them seem to understand game situations. Most of the time Bryce will not move without the ball, and his effort on D is subpar. He stands straight up - never stays in his stance. On teams with better components, CJ and Tominaga may be good role players and could conceivably knock down shots. Neither of them can defend their position against good athletes. Both of them try, but CJ looks like he has lead in his feet. He cuts well without the ball, but most of the time, we don't run cutters. We have 3 guys just standing in one spot. Lat just can't get it done. He will turn it over 90% of the time he dribbles more than 3 times. If he doesn't make shots, there is no reason to have him on the floor. Walker would be a good glue guy on a better roster. The potential we saw in Andre is long gone. He is clearly frustrated and I don't know if he can recover. I don't know why Edwards doesn't get more chances. He is big and athletic. He can't be worse than Lat and has to be able to guard better than CJ. All this to say is how could we could we have missed so badly in assembling this roster? When we were recruiting, did we do any analysis on whether these guys could defend? Or whether they had enough heart to rebound and accept (or fit for that matter) into a role on this team? At this point in time, I can't name more than maybe 3 guys I would want to have back next year. I really don't want to make wholesale changes again. It is not a way to build a program. But right now, I don't see this roster being successful. My hope is that something clicks and things will change. I realize they are 18-22 year-olds. I will never stop rooting for them and hoping for the best. Right now, I just don't see how this improves.

As a relatively old guy, my experience about rumors of the type we are hearing is that once the actual account of what really happened is reported, there is sometimes great disparity between the original rumor and what actually transpired. My sincere hope is that is what happens here. That being said, as a lifelong Nebrasketball fan, it would not surprise me if the worst possible scenario is true. Until then, I will maintain a modicum of hope that this won't be such a big deal. Forever, GBR!

Bryce and Lat are really, really bad closing out on three point shooters. CJ was bad as well last night. With one shot fake, those guys fly past the shooter.