Coaches kid

For all of the difficulty we have had in the last two years, one thing has been constant - Fred's offensive sets have gotten us good shots - we just haven't had guys who could knock them down or could finish at the rim. One of the things that bothered me most about last night is that we didn't get our 3 point shooters good looks and we didn't get many easy shots at the rim. We kept going to that high screen and roll in the middle of the floor and we hardly ever changed it up. I was very disappointed in the lack of ingenuity in our offensive sets. No moving the ball from one side to the other. We didn't force most of the defenders to move off of their spots. They slow played the screen and roll and we allowed the other defenders to just stand there on the perimeter because we didn't have any offensive movement. Just really disappointed.

If Edwards can guard 4s, perhaps we'll see Edwards, Walker, the brothers McGowens, and Verge together on the floor at times. I am still excited about Breidenbach and believe there's a chance he'll be a heavy rotation player.

The scrimmage was akin to an NBA All Star game. For the most part, nobody played defense and it was an opportunity for players to show off their skills. What stood out to me about Breidenbach was that, even in the midst of the free-for-all, he was actually making the correct basketball plays (e.g. reversing the ball quickly, going to set a pick when people were standing around). It appears the kid has a very high basketball IQ. He clearly has some skills and he's obviously put on some good weight. It will be interesting to see how he might be able to help this team win games.

Nothing left today to improve on my seats in section 221. Still glad to have my current seats and looking forward to this year more than any since I've been a season ticket holder.

This is a pretty fair summary of his offensive game. Not much said about defense. A big question is who is he going to guard on the next level? He's not quick enough to guard point guards and with his slim frame, I'd foresee him having trouble guarding physical wings. What I found distressing this year is that often he was sloppy with the ball and turned it over carelessly. I had expected that with his size, he'd be able to work smaller defenders into the paint and mid-range to create his own shots. I don't think that ever really blossomed. No doubt Banton's got a lot of intangibles and tools to work with. His ceiling is much, much higher than we saw this year. However, I just can't see him sticking with an NBA team in the near future without putting in the work on those glaring weaknesses. I'd love to have him back if he's willing to put be humble and develop his game.

Cam had some exceptional point guard skills, and had we had guys who could have finished while he was at Nebraska, he may have averaged over 8 assists per game. He was masterful in our win against Purdue. If he could have cloned that performance, we would have had something to build on. He never played at that level the rest of the time he was here. His negatives got exposed as the year went on, especially his inconsistent shot - teams started going under every high screen and dared him to shoot jump shots. His brooding attitude and his narcissism was a net negative for the long-term health of the team.

Yes - the game has changed drastically since I was in college. I think I'd characterize a point guard, generally, as somebody who: 1) can be the go to guy to handle the ball against pressure; 2) take command of the offense and get you into your sets; 3) has the poise and floor savvy/basketball IQ to be a leader on the floor, and 4) can distribute the ball within the context of the offense. But as you suggest, in today's game, a 6'8" guy with the right skill set could fill that role.

I am actually disappointed I didn't get an offer. I am only 5'9", but I make up for it by being slow and having poor court vision.

Nice! I guess Fred answered your questions sufficiently to decide that you WOULD, in fact, play for Fred Hoiberg's Huskers

With all the clamor about bringing a point guard in for next year, I wanted to posit the possibility that we may already have our starting point guard on board. Trey handled the majority of minutes at the point during the last 4-5 games. I don't think he is a natural point guard, but it seemed to me that he showed great improvement as a floor general and in his decision making over the last several games. I think he was our best player during that time. In fact, one of the biggest factors in our Big 10 tourney loss to Penn State was Trey getting his fourth foul early in the second half. While things weren't going well before that happened, they deteriorated even further after that call. If we were to land Pinson, is it possible we would let him operate off of the ball, and let Trey handle the point position? Some have commented that Pinson is really adept in pick and roll situations, but you don't necessarily have to initiate the pick and roll at the beginning of a possession. It could come after a few passes swinging the ball side to side, or after several dribble handoffs. Not sure how I'd feel about making Trey the main guy at point, but will his late season improvement make this an option going forward? That being said, if we could bring in a quality, true point guard, I don't think we pass that up.

Agreed. Didn't mean to imply you were making him a scapegoat. I agree with you 100%.

I don't think it's fair to make Teddy the scapegoat for our troubles. There is plenty of blame to go around. What stood out to me during our run against Indiana was we seemed to be more fluid, have better spacing, and collectively, seemed to be in attack mode more effectively when the ball was primarily in Trey's hands. And I think it benefitted everyone, including Teddy, when that was happening. My question is whether there is a way that Teddy can modify what he does to play within that scheme. Perhaps it comes down to him developing a broader understanding of what he can accomplish, for him AND his teammates, by doing so. On the other end of the court, Teddy has a lot of work to do, but to be fair, he is not the only person making mistakes on the defensive end.

He was the catalyst in our second half run against Indiana. For about 12-15 minutes in the second half, I felt like we saw what Fred's offense was supposed to look like, and Trey was fantastic during that span. The spacing seemed to be way better, we attacked the rim, and got some really good looks. While Banton's FT misses killed us, I thought one of the biggest failures in the final 3-4 minutes was that McGowens didn't touch the ball near enough. That failure, along with the missed FT's and Teddy deciding to play hero ball, did us in.

Yes, Norm! This is one of my biggest hopes for Walker. A legit threat to score at the rim on pick and rolls plus a big body which won't get pushed around and can play post defense. Have no idea if this is what will transpire but here's to keeping hope alive.

This was a trainwreck, but for some reason I couldn't stop watching. What's mystifying to me is that Coach Hoiberg sees these guys in practice every day and a constant refrain has been that we have guys who can make shots, but for some reason, haven't done so in games. The mental aspect of the game is so important, and I have to believe that at least 50% of our problems emanate between the ears. But watching these guys, I am alarmed at the glaring lack of basketball IQ/savvy that has been on display. There have been numerous examples of this, such as knowing when (and when not) you have an advantage to take your defender off the dribble, failing to make an extra pass when doing so would have resulted in a clean look for a teammate, or simply showing an understanding of your assignment on the defensive end. I still believe we have pieces to be competitive, but these fundamental mistakes have got to get cleaned up. Banton is a good player, but I'd rather see him pass up most of the 3's he takes and instead develop a mid/short range game where he gets in the paint and uses his length to score taking short jump shots - not to mention getting stronger so he can finish better at the rim. He also ball watches on defense and is slow to close out quite a bit. Same for Teddy. Teddy could benefit from developing a 8-12 foot repertoire as well. I haven't lost faith that HCFH knows how to coach and teach basketball, but unless he has some skills as a sports psychologist, this may get uglier. I'm hoping that Walker can at least be a threat that other teams have to account for off of ball screens - even having the ability to catch the ball and go up and finish without bringing the ball down will be a huge upgrade. I am pulling for Lat, but if he can't make shots, there is simply no advantage to playing him at the 4 or 5. What he gives up defensively he has to be able to offset by making them pay on the offensive end. Hoping we can taste at least some semblance of success and improvement in the next few weeks. Forever GBR, even it it drives me to the asylum.

The fact that he's gonna play doesn't surprise me. He gives us length on the defensive end, and if he's able to alter some shots and grab some rebounds, why not play him. On the offensive end, if he's able to catch the ball around the rim and finish or be an alley oop threat off of the screen and roll, that's something we haven't had in our offensive arsenal yet this year. As much as I like Yvan and want him to succeed, teams essentially don't pay any attention to him on the rolls off of high ball screens. If you aren't a threat to pick and spot up, you have to be a threat at the rim. Doesn't hurt to see if Andre can provide that threat.

Just based on what I've seen so far, he isn't a good enough shooter, at least yet, for him to crack the 1st two rounds. Also think he needs to get a bit stronger. That said, I hope his game grows to the point where he is first round guy AFTER next year.

With regard to Thor, I noticed that there were a few times where he had spotted up in transition or on a cut and was open, but the guy with the ball didn't make the pass to him. It could be that the new guys aren't yet in sync with Thor yet. We will need his shooting and intangibles down the road.

Interesting question. My sense is that Fred has excellent CEO-type skills and he would find a top-notch recruiter who would be a great fit for his staff.

I agree. The level of offensive skill displayed has been fantastic. Donovan Mitchell, Luka, Jamal Murray, D Lilard, Leonard, Jokic, just to mention a few. I have also been impressed with Porzingas. It was a big blow to Dallas' chances when he went out. The shot making, especially in some of the Utah/Denver games, has been lights out.

Dalano and Teddy in a toss-up. It will be interesting to see how much the ball is in Dalano's hands, and whether he can shoot it well enough to keep the defense honest. As for Teddy, I watched him play many times in high school. He had tons of talent and was a man among boys playing at a C-1 school, but I have to admit I'm a bit surprised at how much his game blossomed in college. My hope is that he will be a guy who can get you buckets in a variety of ways, as well as find ways to get to the foul line. We need to have a flat out scorer who can end the dreaded scoring droughts we always seem to experience. Both he and Dalano add length (and Teddy has an Adrian Dantley like body as well), so we will have more size in defending and rebounding. I just hope we get a chance to see a full panoply of games this season. I realize the Dantley reference ages me quite a bit.

Exactly! That's been the hardest thing to deal with.

Green and Burke leaving would not surprise me. Another scenario would be that Thor could opt to play professionally in Iceland or Europe. If he has a degree perhaps he opts to make some money ASAP. I think I remember somebody here posting that his family values education and that maybe money is not a huge issue for him. I'm not even sure whether he is on track to graduate. Thor is a guy I would most definitely want back, so I hope he sticks around. If we have more guys who can get to the rim next year, he could see a fair amount of open looks spotting up. As for whether I'd take Green or Burke, my son says Green has greater upside. I think he's probably right, but Burke has produced way more than Green, so I'd probably opt for Burke.

If you were to have a draft of Big Ten players, I doubt whether many of the Wisconsin guys would go very high. That being said, they have a system, they run their sets very well, and their personnel is very skilled and perfectly fits the way they want to play. The fact that we have nobody that can guard post players straight up has really hurt us and limited what we can do from a defensive standpoint. Add to it that we don't always stop dribble penetration, and it's a recipe for what's happened to us this year. There is still reason for excitement for what may come in future years. Fred's system is really fun to watch, and for the most part, our guys get great looks at the basket. Even with our defensive shortcomings, if we make even half of our missed lay-ups and dunks, we'd be in within two or three possessions of some of the games we've lost by double digits. Hopefully having guys like Banton, Allen and Stevenson finishing at the rim will raise that percentage significantly. It would be interesting to know how many assists Cam would have had this season had guys been able to finish. This Saturday alone, he had at least 4 assists which were squandered.

Amazing how somebody from the other team always steps up to hit big shots.