Dean Smith

No excuse for NU but baseline out of bounds are an emphasis for McDermott. Some years they have as many as 50 BLOB's in the package. Mac see's them as a great way to get an easy basket and runs enough for them to be virtually unscoutable in those situations.

I remember a different team in 13-14 than you do. There was the same angst going on that year at this time for their early season failures. I thought the offense was just as ugly then as it was in 14-15 but then in conference play Petteway made a higher percentage of his tough shots, Pitchford got hot down the stretch and the ball going in the hoop covers a lot of ugly. I thought at times this year have been the best the offense has looked in his tenure, but certainly not consistently.

When Benny penetrates and kicks the ball out, it generally does not lead to an open shot because 90% of Benny's drives initiate on the wing, not at the top of the key. 80% of the time he does not drive to the basket, but rather dribbles to the middle of the free throw lane about 10 feet from the rim. The weak side defender does not sag off his man with the drive starting on the other side of the court, and since he doesn't go to the rim he doesn't draw any help off any post defenders. The weak side defender should already be sagged off if the ball is on the other side of the court?

After reading your post, I all can say is I hope you never root for me.

I like Watson but Tai is a much better defender right now.

We can keep wishing but I am thinking that will not happen other than when he is playing Xbox Hindsight - you regret that post now don't you?

So it's a fluke that Miles went the NCAA Tournament with four Nebraska kids? It's a fluke that South Dakota State has a redshirt freshman averaging 11.5 and 6 ppg for an 8-1 team that won at Minnesota? It's a fluke that Omaha has a kid in the top-10 in the nation in steals and another who is as athletic as any 6-7 kid Nebraska has? The Thomas kid from Benson is a fluke? How about that point guard from Iowa (I know this is not Miles fault). Is he a fluke as well? Sheesh. Lot of talent playing in a ton of places; none of them Lincoln. So it's a fluke that Miles went the NCAA Tournament with four Nebraska kids? It's a fluke that South Dakota State has a redshirt freshman averaging 11.5 and 6 ppg for an 8-1 team that won at Minnesota? It's a fluke that Omaha has a kid in the top-10 in the nation in steals and another who is as athletic as any 6-7 kid Nebraska has? The Thomas kid from Benson is a fluke? How about that point guard from Iowa (I know this is not Miles fault). Is he a fluke as well? Sheesh. Lot of talent playing in a ton of places; none of them Lincoln. Just curious, when Collier went the "Nebraska" route with Muhleinsen, Dourrisseau, Enright, Wilkinson, did they take us where we wanted to go? I mean after all, he did get some of the better players in the State to come play for NU. I think that was more of a coaching problem than a recruiting problem. Hmm....I don't think any coach could have gotten that group to be successful in the tournament.

At this time our 2014 NCAA qualifying team had lost to UMass and UAB, were about to get thumped by Creighton and showed serious problem with team chemestry. Wish we could have closed out the two close games but I like where we are right now.

Obviously I couldn't watch this one but I would take exception to your "not the style per se" comment. I don't know what style you prefer but I would say this team is 100 x's better to watch than last year's team and from strictly a style perspective for me, more enjoyable than two years ago. I know we made the dance but stylistically, too much standing around and 1 on 1 for my taste. This team runs more and shares more in the half court, back cuts and assists, things if beauty for me.

Thanks and I agree Wilbrand was slow and a little bit uncoordinated but he was taller and longer. I haven't watched Tanner play that much and he may be able to help the program. It's just that where I would like to see the program, neither of those two can get us there.

I don't want to always be a contrarian but if it was always that easy and simple to break a press, everyone would be doing it and no one would be pressing. Personally I did like to get the ball out as fast as we could but you can't go so fast as your team is not in position. If that happens you are basically throwing you ball handler under the bus or at least telling him, "Good luck" and then standing back and wishing him the best. A quick reversal like you suggest in your pass back many times is effective, but regardless of what press breaker you run you have to teach your players how to break a press. If they don't know how to do that, the best press breaker in the world won't help. And really all real press breakers do the same thing by giving your ball handler three passing options. One forward pass up a the sideline on one side of the trap, one option splitting the trap, and one safe option backwards out the opposite side of the trap. Your scenario might be effective against some teams and not against others. Regardless, it's always necessary to have a plan B. And yes, we need to get a lot better at breaking presses.

Borchardt might be a D-1 athlete but he's not a D-1 basketball player. Props to him for turning down some serious football offers to play basketball for his state school. He is a big thick kid but look at how his uniform hangs. He has an unusually long body and short arms and legs so he plays shorter than he actually is. Actual D-1 post players would eat him up I believe. Will see as the season goes forward. And if Trueblood every get meaningful minutes for Nebraska, I'm afraid that would not bode well for our prospects. They are what they are, solid walkons that hopefully are working their tails off in practice to make those in the rotation better. Good for them. I disagree with your assessment of Borchardt. A major part of athleticism is coordination (hands, feet, IQ), and he has a lot of those things. He also has an abundance of lineman strength, which makes a huge difference defensively and on the glass when no one can move you. He can be shot over, though, I'll give you that. But when I say D1 athlete, I mean someone who is athletic enough to play a D1 sport on scholarship. He is athletic enough, in my opinion, to play D1 basketball, but his current build is tailored to football. With a decent diet and cardio, he morphs into a very strong post-body that can utilize the superior strength and physicality of his football background. Even now, his post defense is better than Hammond or Morrow (at the 5). He just can't run the court that well yet. I think conditioning is the only thing keeping him off the court. I don't think Trueblood gets meaningful minutes this year (nor did I say or imply that), but I think he's a hell of a practice player with a shot at contributing down the road. All I said was I'm glad we have him. First I am not a fan of bashing college kids and that was not my intent. I'm glad those two are on our team and working to make NU better at basketball. I do think we do them a disservice by holding them to expectation that they can not, nor should walk ons be held to, in all likelihood meet. IQ might have something to do with being a good athlete but I don't think it is part of athleticism. I also think when we are talking college athletes we are going to assume they have some coordination. I'm talking about lower body power measured in such things like lbs squated and vertical jump, upper body power often measured by bench and actively with a seated shot put, quickness often measured in 10 yd dash or a shuttle run. Then you need to take those things and use them successfully in athletic contests, in this case - basketball. Now there have been great athletes that couldn't play a lick and less athletic players who tear up the college ranks. But the "un-athletic" D-1 players are still athletic giants compared to the general population. Borchardt might be able to improve his athleticism but reshaping his body is not going to make his torso shorter and his arms and legs longer. They are what they are, walk ons. I think they are quality walk ons but there are reasons major D-1 programs did not offer them. I would guess they would agree. I was a walk on and I was made very aware of my limitation every day I went to practice. My goal for Nebraska is to compete every year for a Big 10 title and every so often compete for a national championship. We may never get there but I bet those are Miles goals as well. We can't get there with walk ons getting meaningful minutes. I would define meaningful minutes as actually being in the regular rotation. I'm sure many of you can point out exceptions but you know what I mean. Conditioning might be all that is keeping Borchardt off the floor, but if that is the case I think it says less about his potential and more about the current state of basketball at Nebraska. A walk on here and there can be a good part of a successful college program but they help in practice and are not on the floor for the Duke's and North Carolina's of the basketball world. We will have our ups and downs this year (I'm still predicting at least one big upset pulled off by the Huskers) but we need our scholarship players to get the vast majority of the minutes for us to be as successful as we can be.

Borchardt might be a D-1 athlete but he's not a D-1 basketball player. Props to him for turning down some serious football offers to play basketball for his state school. He is a big thick kid but look at how his uniform hangs. He has an unusually long body and short arms and legs so he plays shorter than he actually is. Actual D-1 post players would eat him up I believe. Will see as the season goes forward. And if Trueblood every get meaningful minutes for Nebraska, I'm afraid that would not bode well for our prospects. They are what they are, solid walkons that hopefully are working their tails off in practice to make those in the rotation better. Good for them.

Just like anything else, it gets easier the more you do it. It's a skill that can be taught like any other. At that point, it's not that tough a thing to do.

Yes those are the shots you want, but you need a plan B

Don't you think it depends on whether the catch and shoot takes place to a stationary player or whether it is to a player cutting in on the move into an open area? I understand your issue with the first but I have not problem with the catch and shoot on the flash cut.

I didn't see the hate coming for Tai. Yes, he had a really bad game but I have to admit it was Benny that had me yelling, "get him out off the floor" during the game. In the calm of the next day I can say nothing is as good or bad as you think it is at the time. Fans are the epitome of overreacting in both directions. The year will play out and the lineup may fluxuate as the freshmen get more seasoned but I think people need to face the fact that if we had players that were drastically better than Tai & Benny, Miles would be playing them already. We are who we are at this point and I'm still looking forward to the season even if there are going to be some bad days. I'll bet we have at least one huge upset victory this year.

At the very least Benny's shot looked decent. Tai...he's more likely to hit the backboard than the rim at this point. He goes full Chuck Knoblach out there as in pre game he looks decent shooting. I saw Benny shoot airballs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not trying to be difficult. Just trying to clarify. It may be something new but I am unaware of defenses that attack the gaps.What gaps on offense would you be referring to? I'm familiar with zone offenses attack a particular zone's gaps but not the other way around.

Technically since they find the truffles with their noses, being blind wouldn't be that big of a handicap.

Out here west of Lincoln, we call you a city slicker that sucks at grammar.... How do you know that I'm not farther west from Lincoln in a town smaller than Hampton? And it ain't grammar, its called a typo.

I had bone spurs on my heels. Hurt like the bajesus but no big deal. I had a chiro use ultrasound and some painful kneading to break them up.

I'm not doing any research on this but they used to have best of 3 first round series and there were best of 5. So maybe more games to make said threes. And even if they had the same number of games one person does not make a trend. That is what science calls anecdotal evidence. Because, "One time, I saw...." doesn't make it the truth overall.

The Jordan talking trash made me think of Petro. Drazen Petrovic was no Michael Jordan. I assume many of the younger crowd have no idea who he even was. But if he didn't die in a car crash at 28, everyone would know who he was. He couldn't shut Jordan down by any means, but he would never back down from the challenge. Petro was the one player I saw that no matter the effort Jordan gave, Jordan could not shut him down either. Whether it was Nets vs. Bulls or USA vs. Croatia, Petro scored on Jordan. Classic shooter (over 40% from 3 for his short NBA career) but also just a flat out scorer. A joy to watch play because you could see how joyful he was to be playing.

I know this is LeBron's 5th finals in a row or whatever and this is just an OK Cleveland team when everyone is healthy and Lebron "willed" them there. While I know you can't fix geography, something needs to be done to balance the East and West Conference. Lots of times the best series (most competitive matchups) are in the West before the Finals. You have teams in the playoffs in the East that have no business being there. Somehow things have just gotten too out of whack and it's time for the NBA to try to get better competitive balance.