GoBigRed

They basically had us beat two years ago. We survived though. Hoping this doesn’t come close to coming down to the wire today. Would love to see a new starting 5: Webster Wilcher McGowens Wilhelm Walker Bring Verge, Lat, Keisei and Keon off the bench today. Andre if either big gets in foul trouble

It’s a game day, so understood. We’ve won 3 games in a row one time under Fred and never four in a row. So beating Southern, Tennessee State and South Dakota would be unprecedented success for this staff. Which is depressing. But what’s more depressing is I’m not sure if we can get that done. Fingers crossed.

99% of us didn’t play or coach college basketball. Doesn’t mean we can’t talk about basketball and what we’re seeing. I actually listened to a real college basketball coach on a podcast the other day say that sometimes coaches can be guilty of being blinded to certain players’ faults because they have biases from what they’ve seen from them in the past. Different perspectives are a good thing. Yeah we can criticize our 2-2 basketball team that lost to a Summit League team and barely beat Sam Houston State. I don’t think a basketball PhD is required to question things.

Agreed 100%. I have no knowledge of their philosophy on defense but having watched Doc defenses for a long time I think I am correct in saying this is their philosophy: We will make teams beat us from 3 and hope that they miss. We will not lose the game on the interior. And what happens? The other team inevitably goes off from 3. The problem for this year’s team (and every Fred team so far) is they have no interior defensive presence so we’ll get destroyed inside if we don’t pack it in. Creighton’s 4 games this year from 3 are: 7-25 (28%), 1-19 (5.3%), 10-23 (43.5%), 5-14 (35.7%). Guess which one was against Nebraska? 10-23. Idaho State: 6-18 (33.3%), 6-25 (24.0%), 5-23 (21.7%), 12-37 (32.4%). Guess which was against Nebraska? 12-37. Western Illinois and Sam Houston State’s 3 ball numbers against us are about on par with their other games this year. I used to think we were just cursed against Creighton in that they’d always go off on us from 3, but in reality it’s probably because Doc Sadler has been coaching our defense against them for the better part of the last 15 years and it’s always the same thing. How many of Creighton’s looks the other night were wide open? Sure seemed like most of them. I don’t recall thinking “how the hell did he hit that shot?” a whole lot. But I do remember thinking a lot “oh God this is going in again, he’s wide open” and “wow we got lucky that one didn’t go in.”

To reiterate what I said earlier, and I just found this. Webster and Wilcher were both +24 last night and I know they played together most of the night. Breidenbach was +19 and Bryce was +16. Small sample size but given last night and the last 8 minutes of the first half of the creighton game (when Kobe, CJ and Wilhelm were on the floor) I truly believe our best 5 includes those 3 (if Wilhelm can just avoid foul trouble). Pair that three with Walker and Bryce and bring Verge and Lat and Keisei off the bench. That’s what I would like to see Fred try.

Through four games to my blind eye it seems our offense is at its best with Webster running point and Wilcher on the floor with him. They have the best chemistry of the guard combos I’ve seen and they play the offense the way Fred wants it run. I’d rather see those two guys be our lead guards with Verge spelling them off the bench than the other way around.

I hate what we've seen from Verge these two games. I fear the Colorado game was an anomaly. This is what he was at Arizona State. Fred thought he could make him a play-making point guard, but really he's just a smaller version of Teddy Allen so far. I am worried we would be better with him on the bench. Addition by subtraction. I hope he turns it around pronto, like starting Tuesday. He could be a very good player for us if he can eliminate the out of control drives and shots.

Goes to show how tough it will be distributing minutes on this team. Any casual fan watching last night if you told them “oh yeah this guy lighting it up…he’ll play 10 minutes per game.” They’d be like how…..? His defense must be absolutely terrible (which I don’t think it will be. Not awesome, but he’ll work hard enough. That clip of him on verge showed he takes it seriously, even in a scrimmage setting.) But whose minutes does he take? Who knows. I think Lakes and McPherson are going to find anything but junk time minutes tough to come by. Other than that I have no idea. If anything this will be a year where if you don’t have it or you do will determine everything. If Keisei comes in and goes 0-3 in 4 minutes, may not see him again. If he’s shooting like last night, he may play 25-30 minutes. Depth. Options. Don’t have to ride out struggling performances just because you don’t have anyone better. It will be crazy fun.

Leaving early is not the problem. It’s where they are leaving. Buying a ticket doesn’t entitle everyone to exit on the court level behind the team benches and scorers tables. Not saying that’s the fans fault. Building design flaw or whatever, sure. But there shouldn’t be any gripes about being told to exit somewhere else. Especially if you are consistently one to leave with 4 minutes left no matter the score. I say walk up the stairs and have at it!

if they are that physically unable to take some stairs perhaps they should be in the ADA seating or if it is that big of a deal to them they can have their seats moved to the upper half of the 100 level so they are only a few stairs up from the concourse and then elevators. Not trying to be a heartless prick, but there are ways around it. And if it’s really that big of a deal perhaps a rule where they can wait 10 minutes postgame for foot traffic to clear out and then open up the court level access to 100 level ticket holders who will not take the stairs up. At least that way you don’t have people streaming for the court exits on National TV and anyone who absolutely must use the floor exits has the opportunity if they are willing to be patient. I don’t think they need to bend over backwards though to accommodate Husker fans who think they deserve special treatment. I’ve worked at the athletic department, and believe me there are a LOT of Husker fans who think they deserve what special accommodations for whatever their situation is. Knowing the demographics of that 100 level I think a lot of people would be lining up for an exemption to this rule and you’d end up with the same situation we’ve had, most of the lower 100 section exiting the floor and most of them doing so before the game is early trying to get home for the 10:00 news.

No chastising here. You're 100% right. Eduardo's role on this team will be to contribute if someone is in foul trouble. He may be fairly skilled with a lot of potential but we have other dudes who are ready to play right now that do things Fred wants better. Wilhelm is one of them. Even in the short highlight clip from last night Wilhelm had a dunk, a 3 pointer and a put-back layup. Eduardo is a great player to have on the bench if Walker/Wilhelm are in foul trouble or injured. But I don't see us forcing him into the short rotation especially considering he's missed time with illness and is likely behind the other guys in conditioning. Don't get me wrong, tons of potential, but some good players won't be in the top 8 or 9 and somebody has to be 10 or 11.

I'll just say this, I'm not saying Luka Garza will be an all star. My point is a guy named Goga Bitadze was the 18th overall pick by the Pacers in 2019. 6-11, 250. Not an outside shooter at all. His weaknesses were the same as Garza (not athletic, lacks explosiveness). He averaged 3.2 points and 2.0 rebounds last season in 54 games off the bench as a rookie. He was drafted 18th, and Garza is one of the final 10 picks or even undrafted in many of the mocks. I would be absolutely shocked and will come here and eat crow next June if Luka Garza doesn't average 3 and 2 for an NBA team this season. But back to the original topic, Banton needs to get better as a shooter and cut down on the turnovers. If he does that, he'll be very very intriguing. Also, Roby has not looked too great this preseason. He's been getting lots of playing time from the Thunder but it doesn't seem like he's taking advantage of it enough (at least according to their twitter fans).

No. I watch on TV.

Since when does the NBA play defense? I like how these scouts act like "lateral quickness on defense" matters in the typical 125-115 NBA game.

I suppose. Well some team at the end of the draft is going to be very fortunate IMO and get a guy who will easily be in an NBA rotation for many years.

I get that, but he's a 6-11 dude shooting 68% from 3 and averaging 29 ppg.

I have no idea about Banton yet, and I don't mean to hijack this thread, but how is Luka Garza a projected late 2nd round pick? It's befuddling to me how time and time again NBA GMs and scouts outthink themselves and draft some kid from overseas who has "potential" but we never hear from him again, but Garza is literally dominating NCAA Division I basketball and is apparently barely draftable.

I won't bash on Yvan's finishing around the rim but I think it's worth looking at the +/- from the first 3 games: Mayen +68 Banton +60 McGowens +57 Allen +46 Thor +37 Webster +28 Yvan +9 Stevenson +8 Our two "bigs" being in the game so far has caused us the most problems. They don't need to bring scoring to the game because we have enough of that elsewhere but if you value +/- even a little bit then this is not a great sign, considering as a team we are +66.

The NCAA did not wait until this morning to tell Nebraska this. Don't worry about our rotation preparation.

Everyone relax. The basketball program has known about this for a long time.

Bumping this. I took a lot of grief for saying Cross would probably leave...

just listening to Matt A and Fred do interviews this last week it seems like the writing is on the wall Sanogo is coming here.

ok I'll give you that for his per game averages, but that has nothing to do with his percentages, which were pretty similar to Burke's.

Burke 12.2 ppg 3.4 rpg 1.27 apg 40.1% FG 30.4% 3 56.6% FT Kobe King 10.0 ppg 2.8 rpg 1.58 apg 45.9% FG 25.0% 3 67.3% FT Not saying he wasn't disappointing, but Kobe King had basically the same production at Wisconsin. So I hope you aren't expecting King to tear it up next year.

No Cross would have nothing to do with Sanogo. Walker, Ouedraogo and Sanogo would all be a 5. Cross is an undersized 4 or an unathletic 3. He isn't 6-8, more like 6-6 or 6-7 at best. Why would he leave? Maybe Fred didn't like his game and told him he won't see the floor much. He was the worst three shooter on the team besides Easley. He was the worst overall shooter on the team besides Easley. The amount of three pointers he attempted per minute played are almost laughable for a percentage like his. He took 116 threes in 587 minutes and missed 72% of them. By comparison one of the best shooters in the nation, Tyler Hagedorn of South Dakota (Norfolk native), shot 51.4% from three and took 140 of them in 955 minutes and missed 49% of them. I could be way wrong and kind of hope to be because I think he has a ton of potential if he can turn his shooting around. But if Fred said this to him: Dalano Banton Kobe King Kobe Webster Shamiel Stevenson Yvan Ouedraogo Thor Teddy Allen Lat Mayen Derrick Walker are the 9 guys we're going to roll out next year, maybe he'll just decide to go to some mid-major and be one of the team's 2 or 3 best players.