GoBigRed

Creighton fans actually believe the way to defend them is with a zone, against conventional wisdom. But McDermott is a man-to-man killer, and I really don't think we can defend him without "fouling". I'm sure we'll throw a few different looks at them to see what works.

I hate it too, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's more upset that he's not adding to the team's lead than he is about getting his own points. Though the first shot he took, the fadeaway 15-footer with a guy on him, drove me nuts. He does get genuinely excited when other guys score, so I think he's just really concerned that we win.

He was definitely hurting, could see it on his face. I really only think he came back in to hit free throws in the final minutes, because he was pretty gimpy coming onto the court.

Allow me to share some of their wisdom: First of all, the level of insecurity for a Creighton fan to have to go look up some of these obscure statistics is just unbelievable. For a fanbase who supposedly doesn't worry much about what we're doing down here...well then, here's a question for you, Jays' fans, and it took very little effort to look up: Who went 12-36 in the Big 12 in his last 3 seasons at Iowa State? Greg McDermott. Hell, even Doc Sadler went 17-31 in his last 3 years in the Big 12. And we know what Creighton fans think about Doc Sadler. Good luck against those Big East teams. I predict McDermott is out within 3 years, unless he has another son coming up through HS. No one said this will be the last year Creighton will beat NU. But it is the last year the dominance ends. Creighton, your best player in the history of your program is gone after this season. Take recruiting classes out of it, and here is why things will be different next year moving forward. Also, remember, 2 of the players in NU's starting lineup are sophomores who transfered from Florida and Texas Tech. That doesn't show up in recruiting classes, but it's a huge reason why Nebraska is on its way to being better. As of right now and not counting defections, Creighton will return: Scoring - 43% Rebounding - 55% Assists - 54% Minutes - 48% Nebraska (with just 1 senior) will have back: Scoring - 92% Rebounding - 97% Assists - 93% Minutes - 91% The only reason I do not think Nebraska will win this year (did you hear that, Creighton fan?) is the inexperience and it being the first true road game. Other than that, our talent level stacks up very favorably outside of Dougie. Creighton fans are spending their Wednesday nights looking up if Husker basketball tickets are available. Priceless. Also, morons, season tickets sold out. Not all the games. Marc Boehm has said this. A select number of single-game tickets were reserved for each game. Or they're watching the game without blue goggles on and don't have a hate for the team they're watching. Exaggerate much? From a guy with "Final 4" in his message board name? Powerhouse? We just want to make the damn 68-team tourney. Creighton, you are the ones who came into the season projecting a Final 4 run. Hell, a week ago you thought you were going to run through the Big East and win it with ease. Now after some stumbles, you're just hoping you're good enough to make the tournament. This is rich. Less than a week ago Creighton was bragging about their huge blowout win over Arizona State. Miami beat that same ASU team on Sunday. Now Miami is "mediorce at best"...what does that make that powerhouse ASU team Creighton beat? Terrible? Creighton scored 24 points in the 1st half against George Washington. Apparently they've forgotten. "Ugly" basketball must be in the eye of the beholder. While last night's game wasn't pretty, I would argue that our 96-90 loss to UMass and our 87-74 loss to UAB were pretty dang ugly. I know I cringed watching those guys go in for layup after layup, free throw after free throw.

Somewhat, Webster has attacked some but traveled twice. Biggs is going hard but is kicking it way back out. Miami is collapsing around the rim pretty well. They are long and tall, difficult for our guards to shoot down there or dump it off. Parker is pretty much a catch and pass at the top of the arc guard.

This is what I'm thinking....I wonder if Ray not having a great night the other night makes Miles think he should start Ray. Ray started last year and more than likely would have this year without the suspension. Some guys handle coming off the bench better than others and maybe Miles feels Ray needs to start to get him going quickly. Biggs/Smith/Rivers/Parker have shown they can come off the bench and be productive. Plus, whoever starts doesn't mean they get the most minutes. Sometimes as a coach you may want to start one man over another but know it may affect the mental part of the guy that doesn't start. Maybe Ray is one of those type of guys? I'm pretty sure Ray will start tonight, for exactly the reason you said. I think Auroran's lineup is correct, but it's not really that drastically different, so I don't get why there's been such a big fuss about a new starting lineup tonight on Twitter and in the paper and whatnot. The only thing that would really catch my attention is if Petteway, Shields or Pitchford comes off the bench. Aside from that, we've already seen Deverell, Leslee, Benny, Tai and Ray come off the bench this season, so that's not that different.

Although the Big East isn't that good, I think they are in for a rude awakening when they find out that every team in the conference has athletes like San Diego State and George Washington, if not better. They only had a .722 winning percentage in the MVC last year competing against the likes of Bradley, Drake, Missouri State, Southern Illinois...now the worst teams they will play are Xavier, Seton Hall and DePaul. Looking at their schedule, I could easily see them going 2-7 or 1-8 in their road games. Wouldn't be shocked if they don't even get to .500 in their conference play. Definitely don't think it's a lock they get to 20 wins total.

No reason this couldn't be Biggs or Webster. True, I just like that Petteway is 6'6". Don't see anyone on Creighton's roster who can match up with him. I'm guessing Avery Dingman could match up with Petteway Not sure if you're serious...but Dingman plays 13 minutes a game. And his own fans don't even want him on the court that much. Since Petteway has basically gotten to the rim whenever he wants, I'm not worried about Avery Dingman being the answer.

Yeah they've been on the road since last Wednesday, so hopefully they are tired and ready to get back to the beach on Wednesday night.

Vooch? Upset of the century!

No reason this couldn't be Biggs or Webster. True, I just like that Petteway is 6'6". Don't see anyone on Creighton's roster who can match up with him.

Creighton does not match up well against very athletic teams and teams that have a good 5 protecting the rim. We don't have a good 5, so our only hope is to out-athlete them. There is a reason McDermott has never fouled out of a college basketball game (I believe) in 3 1/4 years, and that is that he doesn't try very hard on defense. He and Wragge are their big offensive threats, but when they are in the game they give the opponent lots of chances for offensive rebounds. If the Jays are hitting from long range, we'll be in huge trouble (which I suspect they will being a big game in Omaha; they always show up for this one). I'm sure we'll pick up a crapton of fouls in this game, while Doug will probably finish with 1, 2 max in 35+ minutes. The good thing for us is Creighton does not have an Echinique who can expose our lack of a post presence. But Doug will be a tough guy for us to guard. This game will be a real test for Tai Webster, as he will never have played in a road environment like this before. Creighton's guards are pretty experienced. You know Biggs will be ready for this one though. As much as I hate to say it, this game seems like a huge opportunity for Petteway to take over on offense. That guy needs to spend the good majority of the game attacking the rim and drawing fouls. I don't think Creighton will be able to defend him without fouling.

Can't figure out Creighton right now. Next Sunday's game should be very interesting. Here's hoping Miles takes this game a little more seriously than Doc did and studies some film from these last 2 Creighton losses to see how they can be beat. They have Doug, and if Wragge is "on" he is a problem. Other than that, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to match up with them body for body. Their "big newcomer" Devin Brooks looked horrible to me, out of control and making really dumb mistakes all over the court.

Win the 3 gimmees to start. Don't need any slip ups against those teams this year. Try and use our home-court advantage to beat Miami. I think we can do it. Creighton I see no way we win in Omaha. We don't match up well with McDermott. We'll probably have 2-3 guys foul out trying to guard him. However, I do think our ability to drive will create problems for them. If we turn into a jumpshooting team that game, we could get blown out. If we attack the rim, I really think we can hang in there if we're hitting free throws. Creighton is not the most athletic team in the world and from what I've seen they still can't defend guards who can drive. Cincinnati, hopefully we catch them still sleeping coming off Christmas three days earlier. Haven't seen them play this year, but I'm guessing they are still very athletic will not a lot of skill. Will probably be similiar to UMass/UAB except in a hostile environment. Kilpatrick and Petteway might combined for over 50 shots.

To clarify, Lee Barfknecht has nothing to do with Creighton basketball and does not care. He is the Huskers' beat writer and has been for a long time. I'm pretty sure he wants to see the Huskers succeed because just like Rosenthal, he wants to cover a winning team.

We are currently tied for 37th in the NCAA in most fouls per game with 23.5. The national leader is Nicholls State (31.0). We lead all Big Ten teams in most fouls per game. The next closest is Penn State at 21.6. Iowa is the lowest at just 14.0 fouls per game. The only "major conference" teams with more fouls per game than us are Georgetown (25.6) and Seton Hall (23.8). The rest are podunk teams. Kind of disappointing that we haven't caught on to how to play to these new rules yet. I'm not going to blame this entirely on officiating. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we don't have much of a defensive post presence. Also, as I pointed out in another thread, the fouls beyond the three-point line have got to stop. Look, you only get 5 fouls to use. Don't waste them on bumping the ball handler 25 feet from the basket.

I believe "you guys have seen how the reffing is this year so far.... we will need him" would be far more correct. There are a lot of fouls this year. Some games will be way worse than others. True, but a number of fouls on us were called when our guards were defending closely 25 feet from the basket. If we are going to continue to play that high pressure defense that far from the basket, you can expect the fouls to continue. Another guard not named Mike Peltz would be nice to have as an option. And Gallegos is so streaky, if he is 0-5, 0-6, then he is a huge liability.

He is 6'8" but it looks like he has longer arms than usual for even a guy his size. He can do a lot of things deceptively like make steals and tip in rebounds that you don't think he's going to get to. And unlike 99.9% of big men who have played here the last decade, I don't cringe when he dribbles the basketball.

You guys have seen how we foul...we will need him.

Well said. My only concern is: what if what the players are buying into is this isolation type offense? With the rule changes, I definitely think Miles has emphasized the importance of getting to the free throw line. And the easiest way to do that is attack the rim. It's very possible Petteway may be doing mostly what the coaches want. The guy is an excellent free throw shooter...but he also misses wild shots for every time he gets fouled, shots that look dumb if you aren't fouled and look good if you are. Personally I have not seen him get yelled at or benched for anything other than foul trouble, so I am not even sure if he is doing anything wrong in the coaches' eyes.

Through 5 games, Petteway has taken 23.9% of our shots. Here is who has taken the most percentage of shots for our teams in recent years: 2012-13 Dylan Talley (24.9%) (really only had a 7-man rotation though) 2011-12 Bo Spencer (24.5%) 2010-11 Jorge Brian Diaz (16.6%) 2009-10 Ryan Anderson (8.3%) 2008-09 Steve Harley (18.5%) 2007-08 Aleks Maric (19.2%) 2006-07 Aleks Maric (23.4%) 2005-06 Wes Wilkinson (17.3%) 2004-05 Joe McCray (23.1%) 2003-04 Nate Johnson (16.5%) 2002-03 Andrew Drevo (19.9%) Talley and Spencer both took a greater percentage of our team's shots in the past 2 years, but no one else in the past 10 years took more. Talley didn't seem like a "ball hog" because who else was there to score? Bo Spencer averaged 3.3 assists per game (Petteway at 1.2 right now). I don't know what any of this means. Just thought it was interesting to look at. It's weird that Nebraska basketball fans would EVER complain about a guy scoring 28 and 21 points in consecutive games, when in the Doc years a player reaching 20 points seemed like a milestone.

Not that +/- really means as much in basketball as it does in hockey, but the numbers for the UAB game are interesting when you look at how most people feel about our team's play just by watching the game... Petteway -19 (worst on team) Parker +4 (best on team and only guy with a + number) So there is definitely some merit to the thought that Petteway killed us against UAB and Benny was doing a good job.

Wait, are you suggesting that Miles tanks his first year just so his subsequent years look better? And will get rid of good players just to accomplish that? From SBNation: "When Tim Miles became the 19th coach in Colorado State history, he inherited a program that could have returned as many as four starters and eight letter winners from a 17-13 team. Instead, Miles, hired to replace Dale Layer after seven seasons of mostly mediocrity, with the notable exception the 2003 MWC Tournament championship run, will open his first season with just two players that have ever played a game of Division I basketball. The departure of Jason Smith (16.8 ppg, 10.1 rpg, .579 FG), who was the 20th pick in the NBA draft, was expected, but the losses of Tyler Smith (10.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg), Stephan Gilling (8.9 ppg, .435 3PT), Tim Denson (8.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg) and several other reserves were not. ''We started with eight and kind of worked our way down to a workable number,'' Miles said with a laugh about the number of players CSU had going through individual workouts in the spring. ''It's not an optimal situation to step in to,'' Miles said. ''At the same time, if you've got to go through it, you might as well go through it right away and get things the way you want to. It might be a blessing in disguise.' I don't know all the specifics, but CSU had 6 guys who were the regular "starters" on the team the year before Miles, and 1 was senior, and the 1 kid went pro. Miles kept 1 kid around and the other 3 were gone. In short, they could have been a lot better than 7-25 in his first season. But would they have been 20-12 and in the NCAA Tournament in his 5th season if he had kept all those guys? Maybe, maybe not.

We have no chance to beat Creighton. McDermott can probably score as many points as he wants to in that one. I would not say "no" chance, but we have to improve. Lets see how we face adversity not only this Sunday, but in the other 2 games leading up to the Creighton game as well. If it was at PBA, I'd give us a puncher's chance. I just don't see things going well up there in Omaha, mostly because they never do. That's our first true road game and it will be loud. And with how this young team has handled itself mentally so far, I don't think we're due to pull the upset this year. Hope I'm dead wrong.

We have no chance to beat Creighton. McDermott can probably score as many points as he wants to in that one. With these guys we might play out of our gourds and hold him to 1- 17 from the field and have him foul out. 1-17...bold talk considering we just allowed a team to score 56 points and shoot 83% in a half...