millerhusker

Poor choice of words by me by saying “everything in this post...”. There are a whole lot of things this team can improve on. And I believe we’ll get better as the year goes on and that’ll lead to some wins. But, if this team starts doing the little things and maximizes their talent, I still don’t think we’re a top half of the conference team. And that’s ok. I don’t think any of us expected to be this year. It’s all relative, I suppose. When I say we don’t quite have enough good players yet, I’m thinking about our roster compared to all other big ten rosters. We certainly have players who can be apart of a very good team. But we need more of them. And more are on the way.

Everything in this post, and other posts, indicates that we just don’t have enough above average basketball players yet. So I went back and looked at the roster of Miles’ most talented team (I actually thought the 17-18 team was better than the 13-14 tourney team) and checked their recruiting rankings. I was surprised to see just how much talent was on that roster. 7 guys on that team were Rivals 150 recruits. Before Glynn Watson, I don’t believe we had ever had a Rivals ranked player at Nebraska. Isaac Copeland - #23 (5*) Anton Gill - #50 (4*) Glynn Watson - #82 (4*) James Palmer - #99 (4*) Thomas Allen - #103 (4*) Isaiah Roby - #113 (4*) Jordy Tshimanga - #150 (3*) Watson was a third year starting point guard, Gill was in his third year at Nebraska, Palmer had sat out the year before, Roby and Jordy were in the rotation the year before as freshmen and Copeland had been in Lincoln for half a year. Our team this year has two Rivals 150 players and two more are coming next year. Bryce McGowens - #23 (5*) Dalano Banton - #80 (4*) Trey McGowens - #83 (4*) Wilhem Breidenbach - #132 (3*) Hopefully most of our core guys come back next year. More help is on the way. Keep building, not rebuilding, from here on out.

I didn’t think the effort was there for 40 minutes tonight like it was against Wisconsin. Closeouts and block-outs were lazy at times. Everyone is focusing on their big guy, but their guards/wings were getting into the lane at will for much of the game, and it’s not like we were running them off the 3 point line. Once Teddy caught fire, and other guys missed a couple open threes, everyone stopped moving on offense. Later in the game, the group that made the comeback (Dalano, Trey, Thor, Lakes, Yvan) were playing with purpose on both ends. Trey is the most explosive guard we’ve had since maybe Strickland. I love his mentality. His first instinct after a highlight reel dunk? Sprint back on defense. That’s pretty rare nowadays. Feel bad for Lat. He has no confidence right now and his body language shows it. He does play hard. If you take away the Nevada game, we’re shooting about 35% from three. That’s really not too bad considering our shooters - Lat, Kobe, Thor - aren’t making shots right now. Everything would look different if those guys were just average shooters right now. Again I thought Lakes passed up a couple early looks. I want him shooting with no hesitation.

Feeling good about today! We just lost by 14 on the road against a top ten team. We were ahead with 14 minutes left, didn’t really look overmatched and we know we can play better. Good times are ahead, Nebrasketball fans. Let’s enjoy the journey.

Feel like I need to clarify a bit, as it probably seems like I’m trying to dog on Teddy. Pointing out that an individual’s usage rate is too high is just as much of an indictment on the team as a whole as it is on one player. I actually never said Teddy shoots it too much. Usage rate also factors in free throws, turnovers and minutes. Right now, Teddy has the 16th highest usage rate in the country. He has definitely forced it at times where kickouts are there. But maybe Dalano and Kobe need to be more aggressive (they have the the highest O-ratings on the team and it’s not really close). Maybe we need to emphasize different things on offense. My whole point has been, having a high volume - low efficiency type of player with that high of a usage rate will not lead to more wins than losses against quality teams.

I really don’t know. I’ve seen guys do in-game windmill dunks in high school, but be below the rim players in college. It’s hard for me to tell whose athleticism can translate to the next level. Must not have an eye for it.

His upper and lower body mechanics, and his balance were pretty atrocious on his jump shot (it’s still not great). Upper body leans back and lower body kicks his legs out. It’s a two motion shot, so it’s slower than his set shot, which is one motion. It’s a jump shot, but he doesn’t have the ability to elevate much. He would not be able to get that shot off consistently at this level. You can tell Hoiberg has worked with him to make his shot more compact. The leg thing is probably because he’s so used to fading away and kicking his legs out (right leg further than the left in the video) on his jump shot.

This was a big three, to put us ahead in the second half. Every player on the bench stood up and cheered. Shamiel stayed sitting and didn’t show any emotion.

Agreed on all points. Teddy's usage rate is higher than Luka Garza's is for Iowa. And he's obviously much less efficient than Garza. Nobody on Wisconsin's team has a usage rate anywhere near Teddy's. For an NBA comparison, his usage rate is greater than Damian Lillard's (a lead guard who had to carry his team) was last year for the Blazers. This isn't ideal for Hoiberg's offense.

I expect our 3PT rate and tempo to stay up there. Our defensive metrics improved tonight, and we played on the road against a top ten team. I know what you're saying, though.

Right now our three best team metrics, relative to the rest of the country, are: Adjusted tempo (28th in the country) 3P rate (32nd) Adj. defensive efficiency (57th) We're also getting to the line at a decent rate (87th) Our worst metrics are: Effective FG% (219th) 2FG% (201st) 3FG% (208th) FT% (268th) All other metrics are middle of the pack or better. This team has a lot of potential defensively, with our overall length and versatility (and Doc's coaching). We're in ok shape, and we'll keep getting better. Just have to make some damn shots. Note: these numbers don't include the Doane game, which would've kept our FT% the same and bumped everything else up a bit.

Disagree on Hoiberg's offense. We did not regularly get open looks under Miles. We relied on Petteway/Palmer/Tai/etc to make plays, often at the end of the shot clock. Our assists per made field goal is astronomical under Hoiberg, compared to under Miles and Doc. You said it yourself - Banton and Yvan missed back to back uncontested bunnies. Thor and Lat also missed layups. We're getting open shots within the flow of the offense. If you want to blame Hoiberg for not getting guys who can knock down open shots, that's fine I guess. But we are getting those shots.

- Was proud of our effort tonight. I thought we were locked in for 40 minutes. - Yvan looked like he did towards the end of last year. We need this version of him from here on out. - Lakes passed up two open in-rhythm 3's early in the game. He absolutely has to let those fly. Take the lid off the rim for us. I wouldn't mind seeing him in the first lineup with Lat off the bench. Get Lakes into a rhythm early. He out-rebounded Lat tonight. Lat is now shooting 27% from three and isn't giving us much else. - We only turned the ball over 9 times against a great defensive team. Great improvement there. - Free throws, man. - I actually thought our half-court offense was much improved tonight. For the most part, we ran our stuff and shared the ball. We had great looks throughout the game. They just didn't go in. If we make a few more of those wide open looks and a few more free throws, this game would've been very interesting. I didn't think they were far superior to us. They made a few more open looks and they made all their free throws, but I thought both teams were executing pretty well on both ends of the court. - Trey played hard, as always. He's a bulldog. - Banton is kinda quietly shooting 33% from three and 76% from the line. He should've had a lot more than 4 assists tonight. - If we play with this effort and intensity every time out, we'll win some games this year.

I actually thought our ball and player movement was really good in the first half. We’ve gotten good looks in transition and in the half court. Especially considering how Wisconsin forces teams to play.

Don’t Shamiel will be part of the rotation anymore. You can not afford to waste possessions against a team like Wisconsin. A shamiel three point attempt and turnover on back to back possessions led to Wisconsin points.

I’m officially frustrated with the preseason hype around Lat’s shooting ability. He’s getting all the open looks Cross and Kavas got last year.

Extremely important 4 minutes here

Only a Brad Davison-led team would get this play reviewed.

Very impressed with our rotations and help the helper stuff on defense. We have got to stay disciplined. If we let up for any amount of time they’ll make us pay. I like the looks we’re getting on offense too.

Davison got the foul call and still whined

Trevor passed up an in rhythm three. Don’t like that one bit

Feel good about our defensive effort. Gotta stay locked in.

I think that’s our question also. Our team is still learning and I expect us to improve significantly as the season goes along. We’ve had a hard time staying disciplined for 40 minutes so far. When we get impatient and force things, we’re very turnover prone. When we run the offense and share the ball, we’ve looked pretty darn good. I’m sure we won’t be able to speed Wisconsin up whatsoever. So it’ll come down to limiting turnovers and simply hitting shots. Can’t waste possessions if you want to have a chance to beat a team like Wisconsin.

Dalano is one of the most unique players in all of college basketball. He’s 6’9” with a near 7’ wingspan and he’s our point guard. He’s not just a 6’9” guy playing primary ball handler... he’s a true PG with great feel, vision and passing ability. Very unselfish. He’ll have a chance to lead the B1G in assists, and he’ll lead us in rebounds and blocks. He has a likeable game. I’ve watched a few games with non-Husker fan friends this year and it only takes a few minutes before they all decide #45 is their favorite player on the court. I’ve expressed my concern regarding Teddy’s high volume - low efficiency play. Husker fans are used to this, since all of Tim Miles’ primary scorers were that type of player. That was my biggest gripe with Miles. His offense was not set up to get players good looks. He gave the ball to his best scorer and let them go. I believe Hoiberg wants his highest usage players to be efficient, versatile Swiss Army knife types, like Dalano, Royce White, Georges Niang, Deandre Kane. But Teddy is gonna play the way Teddy plays. And some nights that’ll get us a win. But the points he generates for the team per possession is not good, considering his high usage rate. There’s a paradox with efficiency and usage rate numbers - when super-efficient scorers with great points per possession numbers lower their usage rate, their team gets more efficient and better overall even if the teammates aren’t as efficient as that star player. So, when a low efficiency player has the highest usage on the team, it never bodes well for team success. There’s a near perfect correlation (.97) between a team’s per-possession efficiency and wins. I believe this is why Wisconsin consistently appears to be “over-achieving”.

I thought you might say Petteway and Shields. They were the two best players on our last tournament team (2014). The last regular season game that year, against Wisconsin, was arguably the most important/exciting game in the last 20+ years for us.