hhcdave

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.

I still can't get over how well we trapped their ball screens on defense. Simply genius by Miles and staff. Also one other stat - Miles is 9-2 at Nebraska in games decided by 5 points or less.

No chance in hell we lose Petteway, Pitchford, Webster, Shields or Fuller. There's a chance of anyone else on the roster but none of them matter anywhere close to the above five. No reason to worry about losing any of those kids, 'cuz it aint gonna happen.

OFFENSE: A Nebraska did a fantastic job getting the shot they wanted nearly every single possession today and it was no coincidence that they scored their career high in the Big 10 (82 points) on 50% shooting from both the field and downtown. It was refreshing to see them handle the zone with ease and only get turned over once (Tai Webster late in the second) against the zone press they saw almost the entire game. What more can you say about Terran Petteway other than he played his best game as a Husker, scoring a career-high 35 points (and the most since Aleks Maric in 2007) on 10-15 shooting to go along with six rebounds, three assists and two turnovers. The scary thing is that this kid still has a lot of ceiling left, too. Love seeing an NBA player at Nebraska again. I have to call Shavon Shields the most underrated factor in this contest, as he scored some VERY KEY baskets while Petteway was on the bench with four fouls late in the second and NU was in dire need of baskets during a Golden Gopher run. Shields only scored 10 but they were a key 10 (how big was the three before the half)? All I can say is that it was truly fun to watch Petteway today. DEFENSE: A Nebraska was TRE-MENDOUS today!!! Best defensive game of the Tim Miles era. The doubling of guards with our Bigs completely ceased dribble drives for a good portion of this game and helped force 13 key turnovers and several late shock clock contested three's. Nebraska was active with its feet AND hands for once, stealing the ball EIGHT TIMES (I'm sure a season high) and swatting away three key shots. David Rivers, Benny Parker and Ray Gallegos deserve special mention for the work they did on the defensive end. And, maybe there's something to the talk of NU's W-L record with Rivers getting significant minutes. REBOUNDING: A Nebraska and Minnesota finished dead even on the boards (32-32) and NU held the Gophers to a very quiet eight offensive boards. Once again, Petteway and Shields led the way with six boards each. BALL HANDLING: A+ 19 assists to 11 turnovers. FANTASTIC - THIS is what good teams do! One completely unfair and pointless question I'd like to throw out - what happens in this game, both offensively and defensively, if Deverell Biggs had played? Do we play as good of defense knowing his well publicized deficiencies? Do we share the ball as well and break the press all day? Just sayin'. COACHING: A+ Coach showed guts in disciplining Biggs, first of all, just before the game today. Second of all, coach had an awesome defensive game plan that his players completely bought into. He did a marvelous job with substitutions, especially at the end going offense-defense when the foul-a-thon ensued. His team got good shots 95% of its possessions today and its defense created offense (10 fast break points and 14 off of turnovers). This was the best game of the season. OVERALL GRADE: A Nebraska played well in every facet of its game today. Would like to see more stops, less fouling and more made free throws in the last 90 seconds of games in which we have leads, but that's a symptom of being a young basketball team. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with this victory against a very good NCAA Tournament team (8-9 seed). PLAYER OF THE GAME: TERRAN PETTEWAY 2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 10 TAI WEBSTER - 2 WALTER PITCHFORD - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 2 SHAVON SHIELDS - 2 DEVERELL BIGGS - 1 This post has been promoted to an article

I used to have doubts about Petteway's attitude but no longer. To me, he is a winner, plain and simple, who won't back down. He cares about the team before himself, though it can be confusing to see that at times. I think he is most likely a very complex kid. On one hand, he wants to play in the NBA, and he will. On the other, he really wants to win and put this program on the map. You could see it last year from how hard he cheered and got into games on the bench, to how frustrated he is away from the ball, when he has nothing to do with the play, when they don't get a stop, to how bad he wanted the ball at the end of the game last night, to lots in between. Petteway is a winner - we are lucky as hell we have him. He's the only high level Big 10 player we have, and it aint close.

OFFENSE: D Not good. Had every opportunity to blow this game WIDE OPEN, from the final ten minutes of the first half into the first ten minutes of the second. Could do nothing. For the night, shot 35% and only got to the foul line ten times (missing four). The sagging defense that PSU played apparently meant we had no possible way of getting to the rim? Shavon Shields looked like the pre-OSU and post FCGU Shields again, putting in just six points on 2-3 shooting (2-2 from downtown). Have no idea why he wasn't involved in the offense. We will talk about the outstanding game management of NU point guards in "Ball Handling." DEFENSE: B+ I give Nebraska only a "B+" because they couldn't turn Penn State over (only five) or get key stops when it mattered. Overall though, how can you be disappointed with 58 points allowed on 35% shooting? You can't. REBOUNDING: C+ 40 to 35 (NU) was great. But NU allowed Penn State to out tough them on the boards, including multiple times in the second half when Husker rebounders had BOTH HANDS ON THE BALL and simply were outwrestled. As Coach Miles pointed out on the postgame, this was a team that wasn't any bigger than us, but simply outmanned us. For as absent as Shields was on the offensive end, he DID grab ten boards, and I have to point out that Walter Pitchford grabbed seven. He continues to improve with physicality and its good to see. BALL HANDLING: F 22-1. That was the "points off of turnovers" in this one. NU point guards were miserable tonight, from Tai Webster's three turnovers and zero points in fifteen minutes to Deverell Biggs' epically impressive meltdown in the final two minutes. The whole night, NU did a nice job against PSU's "Mickey Mouse Press" when they'd occasionally throw it in. That is, until the biggest part of the game, when Biggs decided he could simply dribble through two guys in the MIDDLE of the floor, with NU up one. Of course, since this is Nebraska basketball, this led to a dunk and one, and NU would never get the lead back. But Biggs wasn't about to be outdone. He decided to seal NU's fate one more time, when after a completely AWFUL in bounds possession by PSU, the Nittany Lions gave it back to the Huskers with 10.3 seconds left, only down two. Inbounds pass to Biggs, who dribbles, dribbles, then tries to dribble through TWO MORE GUYS! Great idea, Dev! Turnover. Ball game. For the night, the turnover machine (in recent games) finished with four turnovers, two assists and nine points on 3-9 shooting. At least we now know that Biggs has a tendency for showing up late - from film sessions to end of ballgames. COACHING: C Not impressed with Walter Pitchford getting a play drawn up for him out of a timeout, down two, with under 2:00 left. Really? That's the best we can do and the area we want to go? Shields and Petteway were GREATLY underutilized in this one. I'm aware that PSU packed it in and played soft, but we made virtually no effort to go to the rim in the first half and in the early stages of the second. We weren't even in the bonus until after the under 4:00 timeout in the second half. I don't understand the lineup of David Rivers and Benny Parker on the floor at the same time. No offense. Nebraska had no fire and intensity, either. It looks stupid, and Jamel White used to do it (that's a name I want out of my head) but why not some intensity by NU on defense by slapping the floor? Show you want to do it. That will lead to points on the other end if you can force turnovers and stops. Just ask PSU. This team played with zero passion and fire, especially in the second. There were about 610 people in the gym, counting announcers, referees and cheerleaders. And we couldn't find a way to generate our own momentum. That's on coach. OVERALL GRADE: D Pissed away an unpissable game. NIT dreams, gone. Casual fans, off the wagon. Am I too hard? Maybe. Do we know this team is up and down, as it probably should be in year two of a new era? Yes. But let's have some freaking expectations here, even in year two. Losing this game is pathetic. There is no excuse. And I don't want to hear that things are looking up - I know that. But in order for them to look up higher, we have to start winning some games. Casual fans and recruits aint impressed by beating OSU if you split with Northwestern and PSU and play 5-13 while staying at home for the umpteenth year in a row. And really, why should they be? Because we have toilets in the john? Because we have a new arena? Gonna need to start winning these games, and quickly, or that momentum we have is going to evaporate, and the arms race is going to catch up to us. PLAYER OF THE GAME: TERRAN PETTEWAY 2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 9 TAI WEBSTER - 2 WALTER PITCHFORD - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 2 SHAVON SHIELDS - 2 DEVERELL BIGGS - 1 This post has been promoted to an article