millerhusker

Berke has made some incredible passes that unfortunately didn't end up being assists

After we beat Creighton in 2018, I heard Chris Heady argue adamantly on a podcast that Miles was better vs. Creighton than Doc ever was because Doc never beat Creighton. Doc was 3-3 against Creighton. Having a job covering Nebraska basketball for the biggest newspaper in the state does not require you to know much about Nebraska or basketball.

I'm not sure people are panicking. I'm a big believer that you should not ignore in a win what you wouldn't in a loss.

Another power conference road win for North Florida. They won 105-93. They play at Georgia on Tuesday.

I hear ya, but we kinda dealt with that sort of stuff from Keisei also. But overall he was a clear net positive and we needed him in the game to be what we were last year. Essegian is a better rebounder than Keisei and defensively it's probably a wash between the two. Without Keisei, CJ, JL and Mast this team desperately needs some shooting. Connor made nearly as many threes his true freshman year as Keisei did in his final year of college. I think this is just one of those situations where you have to take the bad with the good, and roll with it.

The second half of the Minnesota game was maddening. The very next morning I went and picked up a new puppy, then everything took a turn for the better…

Our bigs. Meah - I was worried from the very first possession of the first game, when he missed that dunk. Got fouled (mayble), but should've made the dunk. But that alone didn't bother me. After the missed dunk, he lazily/nonchalantly walked around the paint for a bit, smiling and laughing, before he made his way to the free throw line. Then clanked two free throws. That whole scene was a microcosm of years 1-3 of Fred here at Nebraska. Last night, he did the "too small" gesture after dunking on someone a foot shorter than him. We were losing to Bethune Cookman at that time. Read the room, guy. He also had Brice laughing on the court last night. If there's one player you want to be locked in at all times, it's Brice. He's prone to losing focus, and is much better when he doesn't. I want Brice pissed off when we're not playing well. All these things are signs and symptoms that remind so much of Fred's first three teams and it worries the heck out of me. Culture matters, and Fred's timeline here is proof of that. Morgan - isn't a very good defensive rebounder, which I suppose is to be expected. He wasn't a very good rebounder at NDSU either. Doesn't have the vision or passing ability to play the Mast role. The staff thought he could stretch the defense when they brought him on, but he has only made 17 threes in his entire college career. And we haven't ran anything to get him a perimeter set shot, like we did with Mast. Just more of a traditional post player. Can definitely still have a role in the rotation, but there's a reason he isn't starting or getting starter's minutes. Berke - Does have the natural vision and passing ability to play the Mast role. The handful of times he's been in that spot, he's looked pretty damn good. Kind of surprisingly, he looks like our most sound interior defender, as well. Meah has long arms and will block some shots, but he gave up at least 4 layups last night. Berke has a wide base, long arms and defends without fouling in the post. He looks much more comfortable as the 5 on both ends of the court. He looks bigger than Mast to me. Certainly longer and more athletic. I hope we don't continue to insist on playing him at the 4 for 22 of his 27 mpg. Our "finisher lineup" is Rollie, Connor/Sam, Brice, Juwan, Berke. Yet I'm pretty sure we didn't see that group play together at all in the first 37 minutes. If that's your best group, how does that make sense? I suppose Fred didn't expect a barn burner with Bethune-Cookman. It's pretty clear to me that our best five is that group, with Connor in the 2 spot. Connor only playing 14 minutes in that game is inexcusable. I don't care that he went 0-fer from three. Still had 8 points in those 14 minutes and he's the ONLY player on our team that constantly makes the defense work with his off-ball movement, similar to Keisei. He's also our best shooter - can be hard for a shooter to get into a rhythm coming off the bench playing spot minutes (see Connor's freshman vs. sophomore seasons). I know Fred doesn't want to go small with Gary at the 4 in conference play, but I think we're going to have to. We can still be a good team. Can still go up to Sioux Falls and beat St. Mary's. But we have a lot of work to do.

Connor belongs in this group that finishes games, instead of Sam, imo. Connor is always moving, is always a threat to score, and is an elite free throw shooter.

Prisoner of the moment, for sure. But that's gotta be the worst half of Husker basketball I've seen.

Meah is not protecting the rim. And we'll never have Fred's offensive flow when he's in the game. I don't get it.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/401711742/north-florida-south-carolina

Haven't seen this mentioned anywhere yet, but he visited Lincoln last weekend. From Italy, a Luca connection. A relative unknown until recently he kind of exploded at the U17 Basketball World Cup in July. On3 now has him ranked #23 in the class. That'll be borderline 5-star status. He doesn't have a profile on any other recruiting service yet. At the World Cup, he averaged 14.6 pts (58.6%FG), 8.6 reb, 4.6 ast. In the championship game against USA, he had 18 pts, 8 reb, 8 ast. About 6'9" 220 lbs. Wingspan is just shy of 7'. Plays below the rim. Doesn't shoot threes, but very skilled ball handler and passer for his size. Scrappy rebounder and efficient in the lane. Reminds of Derrick Walker. I'm an A'mare Bynum fan, but I'd actually choose this guy over A'mare. Let's reel him in. "Quick processor" stood out to me when watching his highlights. Seems to be able to see and feel the game faster than others on the court. From Jamie Shaw - “Unique would be a good way to describe Maikcol Perez’s game,” Shaw wrote in August. “The lengthy 6-foot-8 forward is a very quick processor with the ball in his hands. Throughout the U17 World Cup, Italy ran offense through Perez while lining him up on various areas of the court… “Perez finished with nine assists against Australia and followed that up with an eight-assist showing in the championship game against the USA. The intrigue comes with his uniqueness.”

Nice win for Ohio State last night. They shot the lights out - 14/28 from the arc. That won't be normal for them. Texas is also overrated, as usual. Any team with Arthur Kaluma as a focal point is going to underwhelm. William Kyle might not be in the rotation this year for UCLA. Played 3 minutes in the first half, then 7 or 8 minutes in the second half (mostly in mop-up duty). Same as their exhibition game. Bummer for him. Would've loved to have him in Lincoln. Maybe next year...

Hoiberg saying we can't be tinkering and messing around too much this year was music to my ears. You can mess around with lineups throughout the non-con schedule at Kansas, but not so much if you're coaching a team that could potentially be on the bubble imo. You need to figure it out quickly. I've always thought coaches with bubble-ish teams can cost their team a tourney bid with early season personnel decisions, we just tend to forget about those head-scratchers by the time resume evaluation comes around in March. Every game truly matters for us. We can't afford even 1 mid-major non-con loss. And definitely need to have things honed in by the Saint Mary's game. Most important game of the year imo, as (aside from Creighton) it's our best chance at a non-con resume building win.

Glad we got it to 20 there at the end. Rollie is just a really solid college basketball player. I liked Berke tonight. Didn't ever try to do too much. Handled the ball really well - his 1 turnover wasn't a travel. Couple assists, couple steals, 6 rebounds, finished at the rim. Offensive flow is not where it was at this time last year. I'd be surprised if Meah stays in the starting lineup. His skillset just doesn't fit in our offense as the handoff guy. Two quick turnovers in that spot. Teams will just start fouling him when he gets the ball in the low post. Can still have an off the bench Keita-type role. Brice hit a few shots in a row early, but we were force feeding him at the expense of good offensive pace and flow in the first 12ish minutes. Berke didn't touch the ball in the halfcourt until 9 minutes left in the first half. Juwan only had 1 or 2 halfcourt touches at that point. That's unacceptable. This led to turnovers and poor shot selection. Need to just plug Essegian into the Keisei spot and play him 26-28 mpg. Why not? Similar enough offensive capabilities. He and Gavin gave a nice energy and scoring boost when it was much needed in the first half. Juwan didn't play great tonight on either end. Hopefully this game will be an anomaly for him. We're always better with him on the court. Figured UTRGV would take a ton and make some threes, and get some offensive rebounds. The defense really wasn't too bad on paper.

Essegian and Griffiths will be real important to any success this team has. All the pieces are there, but definitely need a couple relatively consistent catch and shoot guys.

I give it three weeks before the Ballo hype fades away. Ware > Ballo. Especially in that system next to Reneau in the frontcourt.

Offensively, I think Morgan replacing Mast is a much bigger reach than Berke replacing Allick. That's more a compliment to Berke than it is a knock on Morgan. Wouldn't be surprised if he was our 3rd-ish leading scorer (and maybe lead us in rebounding). He might have an NBA future.

Before social media I still wanted to know what the team looked like in preseason scrimmages and practices and couldn't wait for the season to start...

Would like to see a box score. Would like to know what the rotation looked like. Utah probably has more length than anyone we'll face this year. Their top 8 goes: 6'4" 6'6" 6'8" 6'8" 6'9" 6'9" 6'10" 7'1" November 4th can't get here fast enough.

What do you guys think the starting lineup will be Game 1. What about Game 12? It doesn't necessarily matter who's in the starting lineup - these 7 players will probably get starter's minutes - but who is on the floor together to begin the game and how that group gels will be interesting. The obvious (maybe?) answer for Game 1 is Worster, Williams, Gary, Berke, Morgan. I could see that group having some space and pace issues. Rollie Worster - seems clear he'll be the starter at point guard and can be a Griesel-type player/leader. Berke Buyuktuncel - maybe the player with the most preseason hype from coaches, teammates, media, etc. Looks bigger, longer than everyone on the team other than Meah. If he can defend and rebound as well as Morgan, I think we'll see a lot of him at the "5", to allow for more versatile lineups. Brice Williams - starter, obviously Juwan Gary - starter, but if we need someone to come off the bench for best fit within the rotation, he'd be willing to. Andrew Morgan - We've been assuming since April he'd replace Mast as the starting big. Haven't heard much about him in the preseason. He does look smaller than expected. Connor Essegian and Gavin Griffiths - 2A and 2B for offseason hype rankings (behind Berke). The two most likely players to somewhat replicate Keisei's gravity on the court. Do we really want to keep both Essegian and Griffiths out of that first group? Ahron Ulis - coaches love him (and so will we), but he's probably the backup point guard on this team. Sam Hoiberg - some of his minutes will be given to the new guys, at least to start the year. Always finds a way into the rotation, though. Braxton Meah - 10-12 minutes in a healthy Keita role as a defensive presence and rebounder would be great. I wouldn't expect much more than that.

Updated measurables today: https://huskers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster Janowksi 6'4" 208. Thought he looked bigger than his previously listed 6'3" 190. Juwan up to 226 lbs. Frager 6'7" 220. Griffiths shrunk an inch. 6'7" Rollie 6'5" 210. Big point guard. Meah 7'1" 264. Was hoping Henry Burt grew another 3 inches this offseason. Still 6'7", unfortunately.

Berke now listed at 6'10" 245 lbs on our roster

If everyone was healthy and available, who wins a round robin with these three groups? PG – Rollie Worster G – Sam Hoiberg W – Braden Frager F – Juwan Gary C – Andrew Morgan PG – Ahron Ulis G – Nick Janowski W – Gavin Griffiths F – Justin Bolis C – Rienk Mast G – Cale Jacobson SG – Connor Essegian W – Brice Williams F – Berke Buyuktuncel C – Braxton Meah

Pretty sure that is all 11 non-con games right there.