Dean Smith

Defense is a total team effort. It is difficult to work hard for that guy next to you if you are still mad at him for that shot he just took.

All right let me clarify. I should have recognized in the over-dramatic, hyperbolic world we live in, where the meaning of "literally" has now become "figuratively," people would misconstrue the meaning of crossroads. Crossroads is simply a point in which traveling in two directions is possible. I have never judged the success of my teams and the success of the teams I root for based on the win/loss record. I base success on how close a team comes to reaching its overall potential. You can play well and reach your potential and still have a losing record if that is where your potential lies. This team is young, inexperienced and playing in what projects as the toughest conference in the nation. They are going to have trouble winning games no matter how well they play, but there is still a level of performance that they can still reach. Some teams do over-perform and some under-perform. Trying to stay with the drama people have attempted to turn my position into: There now seems to be a struggle for the soul of this team. It is possible to turn a team around once it has gone off course but it is hugely difficult. If they do not get these issues of rotations, roles, and attitude fixed this will be an under-performing team. If Coach Miles can get his team to "buy in" as he stated in his interview posted somewhere on this site today, then they have the opportunity to reach their potential or even over-achieve. This is the crossroads they are at. That does not mean that we should pack in the season or begin discussing how well of a job Miles is doing. Every season has a crossroads and some years you can have several. Sometimes it is impossible to identify when you arrived at that crossroads until the season is over and you can look back in retrospect. This season that is not the case. It seemed obvious to me (which is why I started this thread) that there was problems with the attitude, effort, cohesion and everything else that some just call team spirit. In reading Coach Miles quote it appears he has come to the same conclusion, I assume long before I did. Whether the Huskers win tomorrow or not will not answer the question as to whether we have these problems sorted. I mentioned I had questions after game 3 & 4 but no one seemed to care because we won those games. Winning did not change the fact that this problems existed and I'm sure Coach Miles was aware of them at that time. The losses just brought these issues out into the bright light. These are issues that can stunt the growth of a season or completely decimate a team if things do break down into an us against them within the team. I don't think our coach will allow that to happen. We are now at the crossroads. We can go one way and even though I'm sure we will win some more games, be an underachieving team. Or we can use the experience and pull together to start to make strides to reaching our potential. That would be the two directions we have available at this crossroads. You know, that place where it is possible to start going in one of two different directions. One direction being underachieving and the other being potential reaching. Should I have maybe used the phrase "fork in the road." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twqa9AppfeE

Remember when you called my comment the dumbest you have read on this board? Seems like we have a lot of dumb people on this board because people are starting to agree with me. I have yet to be impressed with one game of petteways. Yeah I do and I still think it was dumb. We are not better without him. It is even more absurd now than it was when I said it in early stages of game Thursday. He was very productive after that. I do not think we are better without him, but for four of the first five games his style of play has hurt the overall offensive effectiveness regardless of how many points he personally has put up. As a teammate you roll your eyes on those shots if they go in but you get mad and frustrated when they don't and you watch the other team pull away. I am not saying that Petteway=Melo. I'm saying the effect he definitely had on the Huskers this tournament is the effect Melo has had on the Knicks over his career there. If he has the attitude to learn and get better we can avoid this going forward. When I said crossroads it seems everyone is focusing on the "what if" we continue down this current trajectory. A crossroads means you can go either way. It is just as possible that the coaches, players and team as a whole learn from the experience and get better. That is, I think why we signed up for this tournament in the first place. To push ourselves against better competition and see where we are. I think it drastically pointed out issues that need addressed. We have a group of players that have a strong set of individual skills. If we can fit into a system as a team that takes those individual strengths and combines them into a cohesive unit we're set. Most really good teams are better than the sum of their parts, (even when they have really great parts).

This was the point of my thread. I don't feel nor did I intend my post to be negative. I didn't mention Coach Miles name at all and there was nothing in it that at this point had anything to do with him except that I was interested in seeing how he adjusts to the issues. I don't foresee that terrible things are now going to happen to the team this year. I've also had teams that pull together and use situations to pull together. I had these reservations during the second two wins, losing exacerbates problems. The two losses are not the problem they just highlight the problem. I hope not but it is quite possible that we will have 2 or more losses in a row going through the B1G season. That will not necessarily mean we have a problem at that time. Not every shot that goes in is a good shot. Sometimes those just encourage more bad shots. Not every win is a good win, but to the casual fan the W can mask the problems. The coach can only guide this situation. It is the players who will decide if they are in this together or for themselves. You don't need to be a "bad" person or even a "selfish" person to play selfishly. You can score lots of points and be hurting your team. One of the biggest keys to team success is not only having well defined player roles but that each player accepts and embraces that role. We have in my opinion some role ambiguity right now. I think Petteway needs to defer to Shields when it come to being the primary focus on the offensive end but I'll let Miles make that decision. I don't see them everyday in practice like he has for the last two years. Because of that and the confidence i have in him I will support whatever he feels will be the best role for each of his players. But regardless of whether Petteway becomes the primary offensive focus, I don't believe he can continue to play the way he has and have Nebraska possess a fluid, consistently workable offense. I still feel we are at a crossroads. I think and hope that they will, but if the players accept their roles and agree with them this team can go far. If one or two players do not agree with the role they are given or refuse to play that role you will soon see the team break into two or more camps and that is a certain recipe for disaster.

It hasn't stopped being that everywhere. Even UAB had some nice team possessions. People like Roy Williams & coach K run sets that allow players to take advantage of their individual skill set within a team concept. You see that at a lot of places where their are successful programs. You need to do that to be successful unless you 7 of the 5 star players & then that concept would still make it easier for the 5 stars to score.

For awhile I thought whoever knows the most basketball was the best coach. I learned the hard way that's not true. Way more to the job than that. I don't think this is an X & O problem. Its an attitude and effort problem and I will admit dealing with those were not my strength. I'm curious to see what if any adjustments, defensive, offensive or attitude takes place for our last game in the tournament. I admit the thread title was a little dramatic. I don't believe the sky is falling but these issues can quickly turn into a cancer if not dealt with. Winning cures most problems but since we lost the last two games I guarantee that there were some Huskers in the locker room that were at least thinking, "That guy is shooting too much."

And you might be right. I don't think it is a crossroads for the program but it could be a crossroads for this season. Again, I might be projecting because I experienced a promising season slip away because of one player who could score but at the expense of his team. Just like the board seems to be doing right now, his actions split the team in half and we became very mediocre. I think it is something that needs fixed and sooner the better. I trust Miles to deal with it. The crossroads doesn't mean the Huskers fall off a cliff, but it can be the difference from a very good season to a very mediocre one.

I think you might be right, but to carry my point Carmelo is most times the best player on his team but there are lesser players make other teams better. Petteway doesn't make his teammates better. He wants to take the whole game into his hands and he is no Melo. Both of those players need the ball in their hands so much to be effective that they detract from what the other players can contribute. I don't think it has to be permanent condition, but right now he needs to pass the damn ball and let the game come to him. For now the offense stagnates as soon as he touches it, and by definition motion offenses cannot do that and be an effective motion offense. What is best for him is not what is best for the team. There are times that this team will need him to go get a basket, but it can't be as often as it is right now. The offense operated the most efficiently today when he was on the bench in foul trouble and look at the end of the game again. He does hit a bad three but then misses on three consecutive trips and UAB got much easier looks at the other end of the floor and pulls away.

I don't start a lot of threads preferring to try to offer what I hope is useful basketball "stuff" and opinions to other's ideas. I thought about adding these thoughts to one of the many threads discussing the team after the last two games but since I truly believe we are now already at a crossroads for this season I decided to start my own. I mentioned after the first couple of games that people might be overreacting on the positive side and felt that some would do the same in the other direction after a loss or two. We may be at that point now. Maybe this is all an over-reaction but here we go. Some here downplayed the lack of assists. I think I was the first to mention that absence and that I thought it might be important because assists usually mean easy baskets and to beat good teams you need easy baskets. I don't remember who said that it didn't matter because we were winning and scoring, but we were doing this against lesser teams. This inability to create easy shots for teammates will haunt us against better teams. I have seen the look on the Husker's faces the past two days on some of my own players in the past. In my case that look has always meant that we were about to take a giant lurch one way or the other. The team must decide who they are and whether they are going to pull together or pull apart. Are they going to continue to try to get everything on their own or will they start trusting each other. There have been times I've seen players take shots these past two games that I believe they really didn't want to but knew if they passed it they was no chance it was ever coming back. There was one play in particular that stands out in my mind. David Rivers had the ball on top, slightly to the left of the basket. Shields was at the top of the key with his hands in the obvious "throw me the ball" position. Petteway was on the left wing with his hands in the same position. They were both equally open. Rivers looked at one and back to the other and back again. You could see the pain on his face. "Who do I pass it to?" His shoulders dropped as if defeated and he finally passed the ball to Petteway who promptly did exactly what David knew he would do - drove and shot it. From that point on it seemed to me that the whole team just accepted that shots were now going to be jacked up regularly. This acquiescence seemed to suck the energy out the team that showed up mostly on the defensive end. There was a three with just over a minute left that saying it was forced would be an understatement. At the next time out, Miles with his mad face on got in Petteway's face and if I read his lips correctly yelled, "We don't need that! We are only four points down! Play ball!" UAB pulled away when he put up three bad shots in three possessions late in the second half. Many have claimed the Petteway was the player of the game the last two outings, but I believe that he was one of the main reasons we lost both games. Petteway can offer much to the team. He gives us something that we haven't had for a few years, but he needs to get it to fit into the team concept or he will destroy the team. Right now he is our Carmelo Anthony. Anthony can get buckets and yes he has an NCAA title because his talent was just that much better than everyone else. Now in the NBA where there are so many talented players, he is good enough to score massive points but not good enough to get his team to win on a regularly enough basis to come close to a title. Petteway may work very hard in practice but he has got to admit to himself at least that this is not "his team." I think penetration is great but we need to play as one not as five separate entities. I saw Tom Brosnihan demonstrate this once by asking for a player volunteer. He held up his open hand and said that here are five players playing for themselves and then hit the player right in the chest hard enough to knock him back a step. He then closed his fist and said this is five players working together. He looked at his volunteer who just shook his head and sat back down. I don't see all doom and gloom and it sounds like Petteway is well respected by his teammates. They did vote him captain. If he comes to the conclusion that he can't do it all on his own and admits he is the one that needs to step back and trust his teammates. We could take this experience and use it to became a better team than we could have ever been without it. Pressure makes diamonds and all that stuff. Maybe I'm way off. Maybe I'm just reading my experiences into this situation. We all tend to project. Maybe those faces they had, the posture they held, the look in their eyes was just in response to a loss and it all really means nothing serious. But I do know the first time I saw those signs in my team and told myself it was nothing I then watched my team in fits and starts, slowly fall apart and watched what had been a promising season go down the drain. As I said in an earlier post, I still plan on sitting back and enjoying the ups and downs of the season. Just hoping and cheering for the best

That's not they way it ever worked when I coached. Just like the same good shot in the first 4 minutes becomes a bad shot in a close game in the last 4 minutes - officials' calls also do change to fit the time & situation. You coach your players to expect that. I've held off on commenting on the new foul rules but at this point I'm fed up. I've talked to both a college & high school coach yesterday and they had the same take on it I do. They are just bad for the game and encourage and reward bad play. The college coach said they have been forced to stop teaching taking a charge all together because no matter what a college ref shared with him that they have been told to call the block 98% of the time. He says it pains them but they now tell their players to just try to block shots. "I never thought I'd be teaching bad defense." And offensively the new rules encourage and reward out of control players . And that positive stimulus to bad behavior just encourages more bad behavior in the way of selfish play. Even when whistles aren't stopping play this rewarded one on five behavior kills the flow of offense. It all just turns to create bad basketball on both ends of the floor. I don't care how many points are scored it all leads to aestheticly unpleasing basketball.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400509956 The thing that jumps out to me is the team total of 6 assists. Against better teams we need more assists because those are usually tied to easy baskets. The penetration is nice but we can't have that much of our offense self-created and beat quality teams. Must get easy buckets.

I hope you're right but I don't see it. Outside of a couple baby hooks that he fell into against other scrubs, he hasn't done anything. IMO, the times he has put the ball in the hoop have shown nothing other than the other team's scrub was 4 inches shorter and just as uncoordinated. I hope you're right but I don't see it. The kid's never gonna make any kind of contribution as far as I can see. Of the times he has been on the floor he's not once flashed anything other than the inability to move (laterally or vertically), shoot, handle the ball, or stand up straight. Insult me if you want and if you think Vucetic can't play than say so, but you don't need to be so snide and simply mean spirited. He's representing the university and I don't think anyone has insinuated that he has an issue with his work ethic so he doesn't deserve your sarcasm and derision. Right no (and maybe forever) Tim Miles doesn't believe he is good enough to help the team on the floor during games but was a fairly well recruited D-1 athlete. I assume that such as he is a college athlete he can move laterally, vertically, shoot, and handle the ball better than you and when he stands up he has a whole lot more straight then you do as well. Again, feel free to insult me or attack me personally. I'm an adult who voluntarily chooses to post on a sports board so I would be foolish to think that people won't disagree with me and at times not speak well of me. You can say that you don't think Sergej is every going to be a contributor on this team without being derogatory towards him because he hasn't done anything to deserve that. As far as I know he hasn't been pulled over while drinking, has not been in any public fights, publicly attacked his coach or teammates, flunked any class and hasn't even been caught in the park with his Vucetic out.

I need to feel good about how this thread is going...please provide names/examples.Mikki Moore, Roy Hibbert. Jeff Withey, Charles Oakley, John Starks, Latrell Spewell, Devean George, Scottie Pippin for that matter, Luis Scola, David Robinson and even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didn't play a minute until his second year. Alright except that last one all of the above had different levels of success but all qualify as late bloomers. Jabbar didn't play his freshman year because the NCAA wouldn't allow it.I'm assuming you knew that...but just checking.

I need to feel good about how this thread is going...please provide names/examples. Mikki Moore, Roy Hibbert. Jeff Withey, Charles Oakley, John Starks, Latrell Spewell, Devean George, Scottie Pippin for that matter, Luis Scola, David Robinson and even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didn't play a minute until his second year. Alright except that last one all of the above had different levels of success but all qualify as late bloomers.

I'm not a professional scout & if scouting was an exact science no one could fly under the radar and there would be no such things as a bust. Roy Hibbert was pretty rough for his first three seasons on campus. No one out side the Georgetown program thought he would ever be a player. I have no idea whether Sergej will be a major contributor at Nebraska. When his workout video was posted after he signed I thought he looked terrible, but I figured Miles had more than that.clip to work from. I understand speculation is the reason for fan boards like this to exist. If "In Miles we trust" is on the T-shirt then he probably knows a little bit more about his potential then out resident experts. Miles so far has always had a plan for what he does. Maybe his plan will be to move Serg on next year or maybe he is expected to supply big minutes. One way or the other I bet Miles has a plan in motion for Sergej long term.

[quote name="NUdiehard" post="41090" timestamp As for the officiating, like most, I don't like seeing a lot of fouls. But I am strongly in favor of the new rules. For all those who keep saying "How is this better seeing a lot of fouls?" Seriously? Do you really think that is the "intent" of the new rules and that it will "always" be this way. No. The coaches and players will adapt. The players in the NBA have already adapted and now the NBA is a far more pleasing game to watch than it used to be. Similarly, once the players and coaches in the college game adapt, the game will be much more pleasing to watch. I don't want to always be the contrary one but I don't think it is a more pleasing game to watch. The NBA was way more physical in the '80's and the scoring was much higher. Lots of teams averaged over 100 & the Nuggetts were at like 126ish a game. The college game was the same. Loyola Maryamount scored what, in the 130's & Oklahoma averaged over 100 & made the finals before Danny & the Miracles upset them. I don't think it's the officiating or the physical play, it's simply no one has the will. Everybody is a copy cat and a coward in coaching. Defense has been the emphasis and no one wants to do something risky that might lead to their firing. Paul Westhead had the courage or insanity to play that style. It is hard to recruit to that system because no one wants to work as hard as you need to to make that work. Every year the tolerance level for losing goes down. One bad year & you're out the door. No one wants to take the risk that trying to play a show time game style would be today.

I don't want to upset those people that say they can spot a players potential after about 10 minutes. That is way too small a sample size for me and I haven't seen enough to make a statement on Sergej's potential for this year and certainly not long term. In limited time without checking the stats I saw 1 maybe 2 rebounds where he secured the ball high & the running hook was a solid move. So I'm deferring to Coach Miles and those who see him everyday in practice for this one. Sorry no help here.

You are as knowledgeable as they come Dean Smith so it's tough to argue your viewpoint. I am pretty high on this team. No question about it. I base my opinion on a couple of things. 1. Shavon Shieds and Tai Webster are both all Big 10 quality at their positions. I think we have barey scratched the surface of how good Tai will be. He can get into the paint any time he wants and is a capable scorer and passer. 2. The role players are really good. Athletic, long, shooters, slashers, scorers, defenders, etc. Great balance and depth. Been watching NU basketball for over 25 years and this group sees comparable to some of Nee's best teams. And it is far better than any team Doc or Collier rolled out. No question they will be up and down due to being young and inexperienced, but the talent and conidence is there. I'm not disagreeing with you. Just echoing what some others have said about tempering our reaction to the first game. You have to look to find fault with the performance last night - FT's could have been better & I would have liked to see some more post ups but what they did certainly worked. Great first night in the PBA but there might be a couple of long cold winter nights coming. I hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Just saying I think the average fan gets too low & the highs create unmeetable expectations. Personally, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the season highs/lows/and all that in between.

I agree he looked quicker, but I would say that that had less to do with improving his quickness and more to do with improved confidence.

He didn't hurt anything but I'm not a big fan of diving & he definitely flopped twice.

I actually imagined the driver involved in the accident as kidney.

A friend shared this with me and even though I've never met Norm or know what he sounds like, the first thing that came to my mind was this has got to be Norm on a business trip. (If he takes business trips) So if you enjoy hearing other people enjoy themselves, then sit back and enjoy yourself.

I thought Peltz was our worst perimeter defender. He knew he was so much slower than the guys he was guarding he was always way on the wrong side of the help line & so was never in position to offer weak side help. & when his man started to beat him off the dribble he usually just resorted to the two handed push. His strength & rebounding is superior to Parker's. He doesn't turn it over because it seemed to me that whenever he got the ball his only thought was, "who can I give this to? And how quickly can I get rid of it." It is hard to turn it over doing that but you don't get any positives either. Just my opinion & the last time I saw him play he wasn't completely healthy I sincerely believe he will be a better player than the one we saw last year.

if we can get a spurs or even Georgetown type of offensive game, we may not need a true down on the block five man to pound it inside. If we can utilize proper spacing with Pitchford outside, and smith on the high block, we can constantly pound the middle with pick and roll, dribble drive penetration, draw fouls, and kick outs, without that true 5 in the middle. i feel with this team its possible. we may lose offensive rebounds, but if the officiating stays the same throughout the year, we may make up for it in plenty of free throws, or and 1's. We will need Pitch, Smith, Rivers, Shields and Fuller to crash the boards hard, and start the break. I don't get your references. The things that Georgetown & the Spurs have in common are that Pop & GTIII are smart enough to tweek the system to the the players they have to work with. Georgetown gets labeled a Princton school & they do run the high cuts but its not pure Princeton. Closer to a pure 5 man motion where everyone has to be a complete basketball player. Post have to be able to handle & pass & guards need to know how to post. Pop calls his a motion but it is more like coach K's quick hitters. He has changed the offense as Timmy has gotten older. It used to be all centered around his center posting, now you will see all five players post. Because of the Georgetown system I think Porter will be able to contribute right away. GTIII's is completely predicated by reads. Everybody is reading the defense and reading each other. That makes it incredibly hard to guard when it is working smoothly but it is also very difficult for players to master & run smoothly because of all the thinking on their feet. Of course the NBA runs set plays but due to the short shot clock & the superior defense, the players have to read and react to be effective NBA players. Porter will come in with that skill. Back to playing with no post. Neither of your examples do that. If they have a dominant post both coaches will run their offense through the low post player. If they don't have that player, they will adjust accordingly. You will see all 5 spots post up or like the Spurs did at times last year, you might see what the traditionalists would call the 3 posting up & the offense running around them. You can play without a dominant post but you need a post game from somewhere or like Pop, you can run the post from everywhere & all five players on the floor.