Coaches kid

Really enjoyed this game.   There were some bumps and some things I wish we could do better - but love the way this team plays hard and pays attention to defense.  Such a change from last season.
 
Keita had BY FAR his best game.   Was really a force and showed flashes of what we expected from his JUCO reputation.   Obviously he had a significant size advantage - but hoping this is a sign of things to come and builds some confidence for him at this level.   Also loved the way CJ seemed to come out of his scoring slump and hit some key 3's - and the way the team again responded when the opponent made a little bit of a run.  
 
I actually thought UNO looked pretty good - and in particular thought the way they played made it a good learning game for us.  They were very aggressive on defense and played physical which is what we will see in conference.   UNO plays alot of guys so I think they can afford to give some fouls (although it hurts them if Fiddler is in foul trouble).    I do think they will do very well in the Summit league this year.
 
The fact that we seem to have different guys come up with big games in different games is also a positive IMO.   Obviously you want consistency (and FWIW Greisel and Bandoumel have been consistently good) but it makes it harder to game plan for us when Gary has 20 one night, Wilcher 20 another night, Walker 20 another (future) night :) - and even Keisei goes off for 13 in a half like he did against Maine.  
 
Finally - mentioned above - but I love the way Denim Dawson plays D - and we saw a flash of offense from him tonight as well.   Maybe made him get a little too aggressive on the offensive end after he got the 3 and the dunk - but as long as he has some flashes of offense it will force teams to at least play him honestly when he is in the game.
 
REALLY am anxious to get Walker back on the court.    We will learn alot when the team has to go on the road to St. John's but I thought tonight was at least another step in a positive direction.
 

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. 

NIL money, Jerseys for sale in the Racks by his Senior year…

I am in this camp until proven otherwise.  I believe jettisoning Matt A is equivalent to getting rid of Frost and Chinander.  Getting the kids the right leadership from the coaches will get everyone moving in the right direction as a TEAM.  And if certain kids don’t get with the program the coaches should be able to not play them, which I heard was a bit of an issue with Matt A as well.  

We shall see but I am a huge believer that coaching matters a ton.  That’s why they are paid millions of dollars to do it.  

You didn't ask for this post so sorry for quoting you personally haha.
But personally... I've made a choice to drink the kool aid. I believe social media, "insider" boards, constant media attention, have taken a huge amount of the fun out sports and fandom. We've all become so fatalistic about our sports teams and it's really tiring and annoying. I've gotten to the point where I've chosen to start each season with a clean slate and be an optimist.

I no longer see the value of being realistic, and, effectively, wishing (subconsciously and consciously) for your team to perform poorly so that it matches your opinion/beliefs/predictions. I see a lot of that happening. And I irrationally believe in the power of "positive energy." I think Husker Football, especially, has been doomed by all of the negative energy and camps that have been built up due to "Coach X" being hired/fired. There were people all over the insider boards who called Pelini's, Riley's, Frost's failure from the start. And it seems like they very much enjoyed their predictions being right. And I never understood why they relished in being so negative or "realistic" from the start. I guess I believe in the power of positive energy. 

Every team starts each year or era with obvious flaws/holes. I find it a lot more fun to believe our coach will fix those and let it happen. Maybe I get let-down? To me, personally, it's better than playing the "I told you so" game that so many of my friends like to play. I find myself during Husker Football and Basketball games being the "Dude - can we just watch and cheer the game? I don't care what you read on your insider board about why you know they'll fail." 

That's just me! 

I will say— one thing I keep seeing is people posting/tweeting they’re “happy”.  That’s one thing I’m not.  As much as it needed to happen, it’s not a happy time.
 
I’ll say the same thing I did when Miles was fired (and every coach).  It’s not a happy time.  These are still people.  Lives are effected.  Clouds of uncertainty now hover over the rest of the staff, players, families.
 
It needed to happen.  I’m not happy about it.

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.  

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.  

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.  

I have no idea what kind of a player he is, but I saw him at the Special Olympics Camp and I can say with certainty he is an absolutely great person.

Y'know, instead of the usual "chemistry is better than last year and the guys know we have the talent to win" or similar pap, I'd love to see one of these pundits write, "The players know there's a lot of skepticism among the fans, and big talk going into the last few seasons has basically fallen flat. They know they have to prove it on the floor for fans to start believing in this program again and they want the fans to know, heading into the season, they're all working hard to control the things they can control, and if success eludes them again this year, it won't be for lack of effort."

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. 

Exactly how I see it.  So it’s probably wrong.

If Keita is the player he was billed to be when his juco team won the juco national title, he would definitely have a shot to be our starting center. Biggest question is whether he's recovered from injury.
 
He's listed at 6'11. His length would give us a legit rim protector. He's able to create his own shot inside. He appears to have solid shooting touch out to at least 15'.
 
Granted, in all reality, I think Walker is probably the guy. He has the advantage of experience. But how would you play Walker and Gary in the same frontcourt? It's like Walker and slightly shorter Walker.
 
I think one of our best hopes for the season is that Keita ends up being the player we hoped we were getting.

Sorry, I have to comment. You guys have missed some great basketball. Steph Curry and the Warriors have played some of the most entertaining basketball in the history of the sport. Kevin Durant and Giannis also are among the all-time greats you've missed, and Luke Doncic is a blossoming superstar. So I guess you're not basketball fans, just Nebraska fans?
 
This is a strange thread. Maybe I'll start one:
"I didn't eat at Applebee's last night"

My point is most of the guys we have taken from other states needed to develop also, and haven't been able to cut it here.   So in hindsight they needed to go to a lower D1 school to develop also.   Or stay.  Point is, we and other schools are too harsh or skeptical about in-state recruits, and not skeptical enough with recruits from other areas.   

we can live with one-dimensional. 
 
The problem is....we've been trotting out too many zero-dimensional players.  Guys like Lat, Edwards, Tominaga and at times Andre didn't offer anything of note.  They shot a low percentage, didn't defend, didn't handle, didn't rebound.   We've been missing role players who could actually play their role well.   A guy like this who is actually good/effective at that one-dimension are exactly what we've been missing.

I watched Michigan do it in the tournament last weekend with both Dickinson and Diabate on the floor for heavy minutes together. I would be skeptical it would be a typical lineup, but I think it could be effective for 10-12 minutes a game. Or perhaps they find it really opens things up for shooters. Or it could just be they're part of our 5 best players on the team and you want to get them on the floor as much as possible. I think you'll see it some. Just remains to be seen how much. 

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. 

And when you heard about Dawson coming in and diving for more loose balls than the rest of the team had combined, and getting Briedenbach back, who was very willing to get on the floor, I'm hopeful we'll see that change start to happen next season. It needs to be an identity for this team to win. 

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. 

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. 

there it is

I’d like to see us go after a  PG and a physical athletic “4” man in the transfer portal. 

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.