PimpMario

Or tied for 37th. He lists 11 other teams. So basically he thinks we are top 40 material. Not really a big deal until we can pick up some games on the road.

I think we played well on defense. Having said that it is easy to find some things to improve upon, thus lowering our grade. For starters a guy went off for 30. Smith had several wide open looks in the 2nd half after Miles tweeted about containing him at halftime. Also, we fouled several times in the last 2 minutes which stopped the game and allowed Minnesota to score points without taking time off the clock. Not good defense. I would rate our defense at B. It seems like these grades are on a scale where the worst possible grade is a C+. It also seems like if we win then everything automatically starts a letter grade higher.

Maybe they didn't enjoy watching their team crease? We almost folded at the end, luckily we only creased. I think after 15 fouls you should be in the triple bonus and get a 3 free throw attempts. I am beginning to hate the end of close basketball games, takes forever and doesn't seem fair to the team that is winning; and rarely chagnes teh outcome of the game.

We played well tonight aside from free throw shooting and the occasional mental lapse. Glad we didn't completely fold at the end, we creased but didn't fold. I can't find a lot to really complain about. Rivers played well and Shields had an ok game even though he had a tough night, he fought through it and got double figures. I can't help but wonder what we look like tonight with Biggs? Does he just take some points and scoring opportunities away from Petteway? If this team is going to continue to try to live and die by the 3 I need some heart medicine. Finally, Smith went all Wragge on us and he deserves a grammy for his acting. Once he litteraly just fell down after a shot without being touched.

You can never have enough point guards assuming they can all score as well.

I just wish everyone could move on. I hate being constantly reminded. It is simply not healthy to dwell on the past. You have to forget the bad plays and losses.

Seriously. Let it go. We can't do this every single year. We have won adn will win our fair share of close ones. I am so sick of playing "what if." We didn't deserve to win either of those games. We didn't play 1 possession of defense against Michigan and we played like absolute horse crap against Penn State; just terrible. Lets be happy with the Minnesota win and hope we can find a way to win 2 league games away.

I am on my way to the game right now. I will cheer my heart out. But if we lose another coin toss game I will be frustrated after the game. But the good thing about losing games you have a chance to win over and over again is the pain fades with each loss.

We are both selfish and over-confident. Basketball players are usually selfish unless they are confident or over confident.

We are 18 games in and that may have been our worst game yet. I seriously don't understand what we are trying to accomplish on offense.

Yeah, I don't think there is any doubt that NU and PSU are neck and neck in terms of being the worst team in the league. I think we can finished ahead of them in the standings but SO FREAKING WHAT? PSU is terrible, horrible, crappy, They suck and they beat us. How should that make us feel? They were terrible last year but at least we beat them on the road last year.

I will preface my comments. The good news, this team is relatively young (although they really aren't that young compared to other B1G teams). The bad news is that they are young, and who knows if they will be coached up between now and next year. I still think this team can grow and we can have a good year next year, and I don't think the sky is completely falling. Having said that, last night was terrible. And yes, if we had pulled out the win I would have still made this thread because as terrible as we played last night Penn State may have actually played worse. -------------------------------------------------------- I honestly don't know who has less of an offensive identity right now, the football or basketball team? And that is not a compliment to either. I was so heartbroken after the Michigan loss. Today, I am not sad I am just mad and frustrated. I woke up today to Nick Bahe venting about the offense and a lot of what he said paralleled what I have been feeling about the offensive identify of this team. You should give it a listen, I can't find a direct link and don't know how to embed but the podcast segment is entitled "Segment 2: Finishing the Thought" What is a good possession? Miles and this team need to figure out how to make the guys understand what a good possession is. With good possessions we will get good high percentage shots. Sometimes shots don't fall, but that hasn't been our problem. If doesn't seem like guys know they they are supposed to be doing within the flow of the offense so they just fall back on whatever they do when they play pick up games. We have a systemic problem of this team being selfish. We are worse than 300th in the country in assists. And maybe the guys aren't being selfish but they certainly haven't been taught that driving down and jacking up a shot without rebounders is bad. WE aren't getting good possessions, and I don't know if it is because Miles hasn't communicated to his team what he wants, if they are ignoring him or if Miles doesn't know what they want. Nick talks a lot of about sharing the ball, screening for you teammates, driving and kicking, cutting. All of which it seems like this team either doesn't do or does half heartedly. I thought we might be onto something with the UM and OSU games. I thought we were going to have Petteway, Biggs and Webster drive a lot. Put pressure on defenses and kick it to open shooters. Instead last night we jacked up a lot of 3s early in the shot clock. Kept the ball on drives and turned it over some more. And Miles sucks out of timeouts. We never seem to get good set plays out of timeouts. Maybe that is why Miles doesn't like calling timeouts, they don't do us any good. Nick quantifies coaching of players this way, here is my rankings for last year and this year. How hard do they play: Last year A+, this year B- How unselfish do they play: Last year B+, this year F- How smart do they play: Last year B+, this year C+ I am not sure anyone knows what they want to do on offense "Good teams have good possessions and good possessions usually lead to high percentage shots and rarely lead to turnovers." /vent

what Good would that do us?

Biggs had 3 turnovers on 4 of our last possessions

Season over

in Lincoln

I feel like this game is over. Put a fork in us.

this game will be won or lost on the free throw line. Scary.

We are looking terrible. is this offense called stand around and look scared to do anything?

That really was a terrible first half. And we didn't p[lay that great against OSU. But if we can play poorly and still win games and be in them that is a good sign.

It is the fault of the uniforms. Red on black is hard to make out.

Can someone tell me how much free throws cost?

So many missed bunnies. We could be up by 20 and should be up by 13.

What is the record for jump balls in one game? We are at 3 so far.

I want to stop complaining but we are winning... so maybe I shouldn't jinx us.