hhcdave

If we get to even 9-9 we are in the talk with two wins in the Big 10 Tournament. 10-8 with one win in the Big 10 Tournament puts us on the bubble. Probably, we have to get to TWENTY WINS to get in because of a less than impressive out of conference quality of win schedule. Georgia and Miami ain't super impressive. 10-8 with two wins and we're a lock. 9-9 with three wins and we're a lock. Anything else, we probably fall short.

This might be the most dangerous of the next three home games.

So who do we want to win tonight; Purdue or OSU? Indiana or MN? Who should we be going for?

OFFENSE: B As have so many, this offensive report card is "the tale of two halves" as in the first half, NU scored a pitiful 16 points on 25% shooting and in the second, 37 points on 57% shooting. For the day, that was JUST good enough, with Nebraska scoring 53 points on 40% from the field. Really, the saving grace in this game can easily be traced to four things: 1. The play of Walter Pitchford, who is our "Player of the Game" thanks to 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5-8 from the field (3-4 from downtown). "Pitch" also hit two GIANT free throws out of the under 4:00 timeout with NU tied and in a dog fight after an 8-0 Northwestern run. 2. The play of Benny Parker, who is "runner up" in "Player of the Game" thanks to 5 points, 1 assist, 0 turnovers and 2 GIANT steals in 16 minutes. 3. Continued back breaking shots from Terran Petteway, who was just 5-16 from the field but with some big time shots (most notably the three in the last minute). The Galveston, TX. native finished with his normal 17. And: 4. Overall, NU shot JUST WELL ENOUGH from downtown, especially in the second half (7-20 for the game, but 5-9 in the second). I didn't think Nebraska had a bad game plan in the first half, although I liked seeing them isolate and use Alex Olah against Northwestern more in the second. The screen and rolls and curls all worked magnificently and so did isolating Petteway and Pitchford off of them. Love the 1-2 game. DEFENSE: A Nebraska has REALLY SURPRISED ME the last several games (sans Michigan) with its defense. I wrote just a few games ago that they were "not a good defensive team" and "one of the worst NU defensive teams we've seen over the last decade." Well, ever since then, they have been (outside of MU) damn good on the defensive end, and today was no different. First of all, the key to this game was holding Trey Demps to just 5 points on 2-6 shooting. I have watched Northwestern five or six times this year and he normally KILLS people down the stretch. NU's "assault" defense completely took him out of the game and held Drew Crawford (13 points) in check. I'm not worried about JerShon Cobb scoring 14. Benny Parker with two BIG TIME steals. Ray Gallegos with a BIG TIME charge after a turnover in the first half. David Rivers with a BIG TIME blocked shot. These are the defensive plays that stick out and helped save the game. The zone was even very effective the last four minutes of the first half with Nathan Hawkins at the to. One thing I'm noticing - I'm mentioning almost every single player as a contributor in this one. It truly was a TEAM win. REBOUNDING: B Rebounding was dead even - 31 apiece. NU held a 5-4 edge on the offensive glass, which is what we expected. Two costly missed rebound were when Shavon Shields had an easy one and just dropped it. This led to points. Petteway had the same thing happen in the first half. Petteway was again "nails" with 8 boards. This was a good game when he was third in line for "POTG" (behind Pitchford and Parker). BALL HANDLING: C Turnovers really hurt Nebraska in that dreadful first half. While the Huskers finished with a "solid" 12 for the game, 4 were in the first four minutes of the game and 9 in the first half. Petteway continues to turn the ball over at an alarming pace, as he finished with 5. Same thing with Tai Webster, who was virtually the only non-effective Husker today (1 assist, 3 turnovers and 0 points in 19 minutes). Nebraska must find a way to get Webster involved more - he DID have a nice drive today but couldn't finish strong around the rim. It would be nice to see his three point shot come back too, but we're in Ball Handling right now. Overall, he has been ineffective in recent games and turning it over way too much. Thank goodness for Benny Parker and the ability of Petteway to play the point, which was also key down the stretch. COACHING: A- I love to mention when Miles doesn't use his timeouts, so he had two left today and only used one "real" time out since the other two came to save possessions. Awful use of timeouts by Coach (I kid, I kid). To be serious, I saw virtually nothing to be upset about in this game. I think this is one of the top five games Coach Miles has overseen here at Nebraska from a tactical standpoint because: 1. He substituted to perfection. Three Huskers had 2 fouls at the half; Petteway had 4 at the 7 minute mark; and none fouled out. 2. He made BIG TIME second half adjustments with the screen and roll, and using Olah against Northwestern. 3. He went to zone at the right time and otherwise, ran his defense to perfection. 4. He went with the right combo at point down the stretch (Parker and Petteway). 5. Some nice set plays drawn up, though most didn't work (such as the lob attempt to Petteway the first play out of the half). It was there, though. Only two negatives were not changing things up offensively a bit sooner, but that's kind of being ticky tack. Also, what the hell was that awful defense at the end of the half? You come out of a timeout, 3.9 seconds left, and you allow Crawford to catch the ball 80 feet from the basket but dribble within 35 feet and get a mostly uncontested three? That was pitiful and it was lucky that didn't go down or it could have changed the whole game. OVERALL GRADE: A- Nebraska won against a "white hot" team on the road and did it by being TOUGH. This is what we've been harping on Miles and company all season for away from the PBA - they aren't TOUGH. They don't create their own MOMENTUM. They don't play DEFENSE hard. All of that changed today - Nebraska played under control, made adjustments when necessary, played smart and won the game down the stretch. Now, the schedule sets up BEAUTIFULLY for an NIT appearance and an outside chance at an NCAA Tournament run BUT. BUT. BUT. Wednesday night is first. That has "trap game" written all over it. This is the game Nebraska ALWAYS loses the last 15 years. ALWAYS. Mid to late in the conference year, off of a big win, with a perceived "easier" game next and a chance to start going places. And ka-bam. We lose. WE MUST STAY FOCUSED and NOT count on this as a win until we show up and play a complete 40 minutes. STAY FOCUSED. PLAY HARD. And good things will continue to happen. PLAYER OF THE GAME: WALTER PITCHFORD 2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 11 SHAVON SHIELDS - 3 WALTER PITCHFORD - 3 TAI WEBSTER - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 2 DEVERELL BIGGS - 1 This post has been promoted to an article

Agree. NIT was the realistic and needed expectation for this year. At this point, I would say the NIT is a must for this season to be called "Successful," just based on where we're at after 10 and with the toughest stretch out of the way. Get in the NIT and this season is a RESOUNDING success.

I think it would take 10-8 or 9-9 +2 in the Big 10 Tourney for us to dance, just because we're Nebraska and we won't have a "quality" road win unless we steal one at Indiana or Minnesota. The good news is 8-10 gets us in the NIT and if we just go 4-5 the last nine, we're in that.

One thing I will say is that Illinois has trap game written all over it.

4-6 with three of four at home (Illinois, Penn State, Purdue). Go 3-1 and you're sitting at 7-7, on the NCAA bubble and a near lock for the NIT, because: Last four ALL winnable (except possibly at Indiana): At Illinois Northwestern At Indiana Wisconsin You go 3-1 next four (protect home court) and you're 7-7, needing ONE win for the NIT and THREE for the NCAA, or TWO for a chance at the NCAA with two wins in the Big 10 Tournament. Let's dream.

What an impressive win! 8 wins gets us in the NIT and we have five home games left (all winnable) and at least two winnable road games left (At MN and at IL).

Great post, Lang. I miss you and Hugh, you don't post as much as the old days! Always great to hear from you.

Am I the only person that felt like Miles completely gave up and "mailed it in" by halftime? Maybe I'm too critical but I still, even 5 hours later, am in disbelief and upset with that second half, lack of coaching and lack of development time. We aren't anywhere near that time or good enough where we can just waist games and time to work on things, improve and grow. I saw no effort of that tonight, especially after halftime. No timeouts, no adjustments, no offensive flow (in the least), bad shots, no consequence, lazy defense, etc, etc. I might be overreacting and I still very much love Coach Miles, but I am BEYOND disappointed with him tonight.

He'll be here one more year. But I doubt we see him two years from now. Which means next year becomes a HUGE YEAR with a fairly experienced team coming back (Smith and Rivers a senior; Shields, Pitchford, Petteway, Parker, plus a yet to be determined JUCO as juniors; Webster, Hawkins sophomores).

I find Miles' in game coaching effort embarrassing. What do you expect from the players when you show no interest in the game either?

OFFENSE: F Really inspiring game plan tonight on offense. Just try and do one on one moves and/or hock up quick shots. Also, God forbid we don't start the game with a Walter Pitchford three. I wish somebody would go back and see NU's record when he makes the three on the first possession of the game versus when he misses. Shavon Shields aint Terran Petteway. So while I'm happy we FINALLY attempted to REALLY involve him in a game, you CAN NOT DO THAT WITH HIM ONE ON ONE. He isn't athletic or good enough. You have to RUN AN OFFENSE. Shields all by himself aint gonna work in the Big 10. We'll talk about this later, but AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL coaching by Miles tonight in letting this team become lazy and just play out the motions. Apparently we don't need to teach and build in year two - we can just mail it in. Pathetic. DEFENSE: F Novel concept - try playing someone straight up? The junk defense of double teaming with the big at the top absolutely KILLED US tonight. Now, I gave Miles LOTS of credit for this against Minnesota and its been effective at times, but that's because at that point, it was a complete surprise. Michigan was ready for this, as will every other Big 10 team. After that, the zone was tried, and that was maybe even worse. Nebraska left EVERYONE WIDE OPEN and even more bothersome, appeared to not care for a lot of the game. No adjustments made defensively to bring the defense out further. All it took was a few passes for a wide open three. Maybe not even that many. Michigan shot 50% from the field and easily could have poured in 95-100 points if they wanted to. Nebraska was awful in all facets defensively. REBOUNDING: C This is a "moot" grade tonight because Nebraska missed so many shots and Michigan made so many, that of course Michigan was going to out rebound NU (35-26). Moving on. BALL HANDLING: F Nebraska showed no interest in running an actual offense tonight or passing the ball around for 20-30 seconds to find a good shot. Apparently Tai Webster forgot how to dribble the basketball. In the first half, he looked like me at the gym, unable to even dribble. Petteway was the worst - 4 turnovers, 1 assist, 5 points, in 31 minutes. COACHING: F I'm sorry but I thought Coach Miles "really liked this matchup" and "thought we had a chance to win." You could have fooled me, based on his lackluster effort once the game began. First of all, Miles gave up just like his players did, which can be evidenced in several different ways. A. He didn't use A SINGLE TIMEOUT in the second half, and only the USE IT OR LOSE IT in the first half (and not until 16 minutes in). Apparently he wanted to get this one over as soon as possible and didn't believe that any adjustments were necessary with our potent stand around defensive game plan and our potent one pass, shot or one pass, dribble, dribble, dribble, drive, and force game plan. B. He allowed young players to develop TERRIBLE habits. How does turning Nathan Hawkins into Terran Petteway benefit our offense or Hawkins? The entire second half was just catch, shoot. Catch, shoot. One pass, shoot. This is no offense at all. None. Zero. Zilch. Not a semblance of an offense. But this is okay? We're going to let our kids develop these habits and just throw away 20+ minutes of teachable game time to "get this one over with" and "go through the motions?" The effort by Miles was garbage. I love the guy. But this was completely unacceptable and the most "mailed in" I've seen a coach since the final days of the Danny Nee days. We aren't going anywhere with this attitude and example being set. Watch Patrick Chambers coach - there's a guy who coaches like he wants to build a program and set an example. *** NOTE *** I hope like hell Miles is further along than where Chambers is at this point when Miles gets to that point, but I at least love how Chambers coaches on the floor. I have no idea in hell what NU had in mind tonight or why its head man didn't care to even attempt to coach. Seriously, that was unacceptable. OVERALL GRADE: F Next time, please inform me before the game that you don't give two craps, so I don't waist two hours of my night on it. How we didn't even have a coach who appeared interested in using this to teach, work on things and set standards is beyond me. PLAYER OF THE GAME: SHAVON SHIELDS 2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 11 SHAVON SHIELDS - 3 TAI WEBSTER - 2 WALTER PITCHFORD - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 2 DEVERELL BIGGS - 1

Will Coach Miles earn a technical foul this year? So far, none. I think he only had one last year, too. Is our main man cool as a cucumber or will he crack one day on some BS officiating?

I miss "25 or 6 to 4"

Pep band stays. Any other talk is ridiculous and sacreligious. It's COLLEGE SPORTS. COLLEGE BASKETBALL. One of the best things about the Bob in the 90's was how the pep band would get ROCKIN' during timeouts. Maybe we could bring back guitars with it to boost the level.

True that it wasn't zone the entire second half but it seemed like at least 70% of it and I thought it was the zone that turned things around, especially the minutes Hawkins was in. Who knows though other than WHAT A WIN!!!

Our zone held them to 23 in the second half.

Royalfan, one of us is way off on our thoughts on our zone. I love it and think its played well. You hate it and don't. I've been wrong many times in my life, so it could definitely be me. I loved it tonight though, as I note in the report card (even after OSU). One thing we DO have in common - can't WAIT for Royals baseball and the season to get started! Book 91 wins this year and the AL Central coming to KC.

OFFENSE: B+ I give Nebraska a TON of credit for bouncing back in the second half. Let's compare for a second: First half - season low 19 points on just 35% shooting, and only ONE free throw attempted (it was converted). And while we consider it a different category on these report cards, the "Ball Handling" (that's what she said) was pitiful. 11 turnovers completely let this one get away early and led to both of the banked three's that made the fans at "The Bank" quite disgusted. Second half - 41 points on 52% from the field, and 13-18 from the line (74%). That's an additional SEVENTEEN free throws and yes, while 6-8 were foul-a-thon shots at the end, it was still a legitimate ten. That's a HUGE difference. So what did NU do differently? They started to get the ball to the middle of the defense more consistently and hit some three's to boost the crowd. Then, they attacked the basket off of that threat and the energy from the building. Nebraska just looked mentally much more into it, also. You have to wonder if there was a "hangover" from the Biggs situation in the first 20 minutes. Our Player of the Game (should we even do it anymore - he wins every night?!?) was Terran Petteway, who scored the softest 18 points you'll ever hear on 7-10 from the floor! And as always, they were when it counted, from the nice layup to cut an Indiana deficit from 4 to 2 (after NU had come back to tie) to the "dagger" three created off of dribble penetration in the final two minutes. Petteway = STUD. DEFENSE: A- Nebraska's defense was consistently solid all night, outside of five minutes in the first half (after the banked three's). You can't do this but heck, take those two horrible missed three's off the board, and IU doesn't even crack 50! NU held the Hoosiers to 55 points on 45% shooting and helped force 19 turnovers. The defensive intensity was AWESOME and obviously, the crowd helped a lot. Can you imagine if NU could have played even 50% that hard against PSU? They would have blown them out of the building. For a second straight game, NU generated some offense off of its defense, as the seven steals were key in helping NU score 19 points off of turnovers! The zone, once again, was great. I never thought I'd finally see an NU team who could play it competently. REBOUNDING: D+ This was one of the few disappointing rebounding efforts of the season, as the Hoosiers out boarded NU by a wide margin (31-22 & 10-5). No Husker had more than Leslee Smith's five boards and Indiana had 11 second chance points. So again, take out the two banked three's AND a few offensive rebounds and well... Indiana aint crackin' 45. BALL HANDLING: D+ The first half was just AWFUL - 11 turnovers, many unforced, and many completely embarrassing. The second half was GREAT - 3 turnovers, an offense that actually flowed and 41 points on the board. I'll talk more about this under "Coaching" but nice to see Nathan Hawkins both make a three AND run the point for five minutes. We "stole" some key minutes that way when Tai Webster was in foul trouble and if teams continue to completely play off of Benny Parker (which they will unless he can start hitting shots), we are going to need much more of Hawkins. COACHING: B+ Coach Miles saw his team sleep walk through the first half and forget how to take care of the basketball. They also had a five minute stretch of bad defense off of bad offense. In the second? The zone and defensive adjustments pay HUGE dividends for NU, leading to some easy baskets and getting the crowd involved. NU all of a sudden looked alive on the offensive end and figured out the junk defenses the Hoosiers ran. And perhaps the savviest move of this entire game looked stupid at the time it occurred but WORKED. And that was the aforementioned Nate Hawkins sighting. When he first came in, I said "What the hell are you doing? Hawkins?" Then I realized Coach Miles knew what I knew - that Benny Parker couldn't run the offense in this game the way IU was junking us when he was on the floor. With Webster in foul trouble, Miles showed something we (and Indiana) have never seen - Hawkins running the point. So earlier this year, when Hawkins looked completely lost on the floor, he was probably playing out of position (the 3/4) as many on here pointed out. But tonight, he looked completely comfortable and natural in the 1/2 slots that he played. He hit a key three, ran the offense good enough and did a nice job at the top of the zone. It was a ballsy move that paid off. I'm sure Indiana didn't have him in the game plan or know a single thing about him, either. This was a completely savvy decision by Miles that was a GREAT in game adjustment. To me, perhaps one of the biggest "feather in the hats" he has pulled this year. One other thing to note about our coach - he is 10-2 in games decided by five points or less in the last two seasons. Think about that - 10-2 in games decided by five or less. Good coaches win close games. OVERALL GRADE: B As we so often see with young teams, it's a "tale of two halves." Look that term up in the dictionary and this game will show up. To me, this might be the most impressive win of the season, just because of the fashion in which it was earned (overcoming a 16 point deficit - the second biggest Miles has overcome at NU, next to the 19 points at Iowa last year). We are seeing before our eyes, NU improving each game and competitive in each game. We are seeing a bonafide First Team All-Big 10 Caliber player in Petteway who (not to put the cart before the horse) might get good enough where "NBA early talk" could happen at the end of next season. We haven't had that talk in these parts since Bill Clinton was in office. Make no mistake - WINNING THREE OF FOUR IS HUGE. A. We are right back in the NIT hunt. B. The local fans are PUMPED and full of MOMENTUM. C. Recruits are noticing. Believe me. One bold prediction - with no game until Wednesday, we have TWO official visits locked down (maybe THREE) with Miles and staff having momentum and plenty of time to recruit over the next few days. PLAYER OF THE GAME: TERRAN PETTEWAY 2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 11 TAI WEBSTER - 2 WALTER PITCHFORD - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 2 SHAVON SHIELDS - 2 DEVERELL BIGGS - 1 This post has been promoted to an article

Believe me, the worst possible grade isn't a "C+." You can ask longtime readers about that!! Haha. I thought Nebraska played the best game of the year yesterday and all "A's" were warranted. The "A" on defense might not be applicable for a good defensive team but for this team, which is NOT good defensively, I thought it was warranted based on their ability level.