Nebraska Thoughts

[kshoe]

- This one was not on the freshmen. Conklin and Cotto played very well. Our seniors shot 6 of 21 from the field and simply did not play well. They must perform better if we are going to win this year.

- I was surprised RM went with 4 guards for most of the game. Seemed like maybe we could have used our height advantage and pounded the glass. If nothing else, clogging the middle would have been nice given all the drives Nebraska had to the basket. That being said, BE and BT were ineffective the few minutes they played.

- Cotto finally showed what we expected out of him. He's still got a lot to learn on shot selection though.

- I thought the refs were pretty bad in the first half calling all the cheap crap on us and none on them (a typically homer job when you play at the Big 12). The 2nd half I thought the refs were fine on the whole. They certainly didn't cause us to lose this game.

- Still hard to know if Nebraska is any good. They could be decent but at the end of the day we still lost by 14 to a lower level Big 12 team. We'll need to play much better to have a shot against SIU.

[redbirdfan]

I would have been interesting to see what the Freshmen could have done out there by themselves. I was hoping that would happen when Liddle was sent out on his 4th foul, and Lisch was already out. But it didnt happen.

[Pvillebb]

I watch the game on ESPN360 and the announcers said that in the scouting report on SLU Mitchell drives mostly to his right and NEB was forcing him left causing him to make bad passes and poor decisions.

[GoBills]

The seniors have to lead the way, especially on the road, and they didn't. I was also surprised at how poor our defense was. Conklin was very impressive. Tough kid. Cotto showed some flashes. I think he will start making a bigger contribution. It seemed like it was around 7 points for a long time in the second half and I was hoping we'd at least keep it close for a tight finish. It ended ugly.

[AB34]

Just could never get that bucket to cut it to 4 or 5. As someone mentioned above, the seniors had off games and it's clear if both are off, as they were tonight, then it's more than likely we'll lose. I guess we went mostly small to counter their drive and kick strategy (BE and WR were too slow to handle the drives), which seemed to be the right move. But we just couldn't get that one basket to make it a tighter game after getting a couple stops. Tough shooting night.

We'll be fun to watch still, and competitive. I don't think Nebraska looked great, but they'll probably pull off an upset or two in Big 12 play. All in all, another lesson for the freshmen. I think we'll play better at Detroit.

Hang in there Bills. We'll be alright.

[Billiken75]

Tough night for the seniors. Lisch and Liddell combined for a total of 16 pts. For us to win, especially on the road, they need a combined 30 pts. Eberhard had 22 wasteful minutes - he needs to be more of a contributor - if not, let someone else get his minutes.

Great game for Conklin. I wonder what he will be like as a Junior.

Let's hope we rebound against Detroit. I would enjoy giving the Salukis a game.

[TRN]

We definitely let Nebraska dictate the game to us. I guess that is what happens when you have a young team on the road for the first time. I'd like to see us try to impose our will in future situations. Go after teams like this on the inside to get a foul/free throw advantage. The team should continue to get stronger and win quite a few games, hopefully that starts in Detroit and Carbondale.

[JaleJarr]

- This one was not on the freshmen. Conklin and Cotto played very well. Our seniors shot 6 of 21 from the field and simply did not play well. They must perform better if we are going to win this year.

This was a weird game. Really disappointed as Tommie was listless the whole game. Lisch was off the whole game.

This was a game that was played in a parallel universe as Tommie pretended to be Kevin Lisch by shooting jumpshots the whole game. Really bad jumpshots as he was settling for shots instead of attacking the rim. Kevin was over-penetrating partially due to his jumpshot being off. Tommie matched his points production vs Nebraska in the win over BC, but these 9 points were unproductive. When Tommie is attacking it creates opportunities for everyone including Lisch as his penetrations causing teams to collapse on him. This leaves gaps in the defense that guys like Reed can take advantage of, it also allows for kickouts to Kevin. Tommie shot poorly against BC but his misses were routinely rebounded by Conklin and Reed

I was surprised RM went with 4 guards for most of the game. Seemed like maybe we could have used our height advantage and pounded the glass.

I would have loved to see us at least try a zone defense against Nebraska. Their dribble penetration was killing us. If we played zone it would have allowed our big people to play more as they would have been responsible for a zone as opposed to their quicker players. We were caught out of position for the vast majority of this game.

Still hard to know if Nebraska is any good. They could be decent but at the end of the day we still lost by 14 to a lower level Big 12 team. We'll need to play much better to have a shot against SIU.

I agree 100%. I picked this game as a lost in the prediction thread however I hoping for a better showing to gauge this team potential in its early season road games. Kevin and Tommie had better get used to seeing this type of defense as Nebraska essentially played the same defense Kent State did. The only difference is that Tommie attacked Kent State which led to alot of free throws by Tommie.

[Majerus Magic]

My thoughts on the game:

KM- Hates going left. Will always go right.

RC- You can tell he was the go to guy in high school. He isn't afraid to shoot the ball, especially if he makes his first shot. Probably takes more shots than he should.

BC- The best of the freshman, bar none. He will be a constant double double, maybe even this season.

BT- Slow, but a big body. Didn't play enough to get a read.

WR- I don't know why he didn't play more. Seemed like he was holding his own.

BE- Should never be on the floor. He is a terrible offensive and defensive player.

TL- like i said in the game thread, a disappointment. Doesn't look like he cares if SLU wins, ever.

KL- The usual.

Everyone else played but nothing really worth noting

[billiken_roy]

- This one was not on the freshmen. Conklin and Cotto played very well. Our seniors shot 6 of 21 from the field and simply did not play well. They must perform better if we are going to win this year.

This was a weird game. Really disappointed as Tommie was listless the whole game. Lisch was off the whole game.

This was a game that was played in a parallel universe as Tommie pretended to be Kevin Lisch by shooting jumpshots the whole game. Really bad jumpshots as he was settling for shots instead of attacking the rim. Kevin was over-penetrating partially due to his jumpshot being off. Tommie matched his points production vs Nebraska in the win over BC, but these 9 points were unproductive. When Tommie is attacking it creates opportunities for everyone including Lisch as his penetrations causing teams to collapse on him. This leaves gaps in the defense that guys like Reed can take advantage of, it also allows for kickouts to Kevin. Tommie shot poorly against BC but his misses were routinely rebounded by Conklin and Reed

I was surprised RM went with 4 guards for most of the game. Seemed like maybe we could have used our height advantage and pounded the glass.

I would have loved to see us at least try a zone defense against Nebraska. Their dribble penetration was killing us. If we played zone it would have allowed our big people to play more as they would have been responsible for a zone as opposed to their quicker players. We were caught out of position for the vast majority of this game.

Still hard to know if Nebraska is any good. They could be decent but at the end of the day we still lost by 14 to a lower level Big 12 team. We'll need to play much better to have a shot against SIU.

I agree 100%. I picked this game as a lost in the prediction thread however I hoping for a better showing to gauge this team potential in its early season road games. Kevin and Tommie had better get used to seeing this type of defense as Nebraska essentially played the same defense Kent State did. The only difference is that Tommie attacked Kent State which led to alot of free throws by Tommie.

jalejarr, tommie is not following through on his shot. it is somewhat reverted back to his freshmen form. you dont see that "gooseneck" follow through with his wrist at all.

as much as well want to pound on kevin and tommie for not having good games, the truth is that tommie and kevin were again just pounded on and double teamed like crazy. if you noticed, if tommie or kevin ever got a step, at least one other cornhusker was coming off their man to help. both tommie and kevin saw double and triple teams most of the night.

of course the thought is "well then someone is open". and brent conklin and cotto in the first half were the recipient of a lot of that. but also, as tight and physical as nebraska was bodying kevin and tommie, it is tough for them to see the floor.

personally, i dont blame the offense as much as the defense. imo no one played acceptable defensively. we saw kevin, tommie, mitchell, all of them giving up easy one on one baskets. basically nebraska just kept outstanding spacing and drove until we stopped them and too often that resulted in easy midrange and layup shots.

in particular, i thought that reed and cassity were very bad on defense. if cassity cant play up on his man any better than that and not get beat, he cant play at our level. granted it was one game, but he got beat a lot. reed got pushed around by the much shorter but considerably taller huskers.

ebrhardt was horrible. if that is all he can contribute, he should go sit at the end of the bench. i would much rather reed and thompson get experience minutes than watch another pathetic effort like he gave us last night. he is better than that. let's hope he bounces back saturday in detroit.

now i will say i was impressed with nebraska. it is a shame they dont have at least one big guy with some comparable athleticism as the rest as i really like all their guards. it will be interesting to see how they do in the big 12 this year when they meet up against the taller top big 12 teams. i am not ready to predict an ncaa berth for nebraska simply because of that lack of size, but no doubt coach sadler is doing the best he can with what he has.

the bottom line to the game is that unless the other three spots step up consistently to take the pressure off kevin and tommie, that game last night might be the norm once we get to conference play.

[redbirdfan]

Are the box scores correct? It seemed Ruben played more than 8 minutes. I had him with 10 points. I didnt see Jonathan Parker playing or Paul. I am confused.

[bhayes520]

Paul definately played at least a minute. I remember seeing him out there.

Parker, I'm skeptical.

[Box and Won]

If we can take one positive out of this game, it's that we now all know that we should get ourselves checked out for colon cancer.

Coach Doc Sadler told us to about 10 times during the course of the game.

[redbirdfan]

Are the box scores correct? It seemed Ruben played more than 8 minutes. I had him with 10 points. I didnt see Jonathan Parker playing or Paul. I am confused.

I just read were it was a computer problem ( link below)That makes me happy, I was thinking I was crazy for a minute.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/billiken-...game-in-review/

[Pistol]

Worst officiating I've seen in any game yet this year, especially in the first half. They must have gotten a memo at halftime that they're making it too obvious.

Nark pointed this one out in the game thread, but when Tommie had the shot in the corner, the Nebraska defender landed on him- no call. Conklin shakes off his man to get the offensive rebound, so the defender does his impression of Conklin's backpack to prevent a put back and, of course, Conklin gets called for the walk. I had been groaning about the lopsided calls before that, but this one sent me into a fury that Buffalo Wild Wings has not seen in a while.

Conklin is an absolute monster. I stand by everything I said about this kid the first few minutes I saw him play vs. BC. He treats every possession like it's the last one he'll ever play. Watching Oregon get hammered by UNC on another screen reminded me that they should already be regretting not sealing the deal with this kid from their own front yard. He was getting hacked, pulled, and pushed all night (not called, of course) and didn't let it deter him. For that, I'll let his few defensive lapses slide.

They scouted Mitchell well, I have to hand it to them. But Mitchell still looks like our PG of the future and handled that suffocating press and half-court trap well for the most part. All of our guys did, for that matter- not perfect, but better than I expected. 13 turnovers against what they saw is respectable for a mostly freshman team.

The shots just weren't falling for Lisch and Liddell. It wasn't one of their best shot selection nights, either. But the good ones didn't go in for the most part, and that's a tough break. Tommie needs to take it to the dish more. He got through traffic a couple times and in his easy way got a couple layups- I don't know why he doesn't do that more often. With even a pinch of killer instinct in him, he'd be a guaranteed 18 points a night. I love the rebounding (can't believe he only had 6) but he's got to assert himself more.

Eberhardt was a non-factor. Every time I even noticed him out there, he was getting beat for rebounds or passing up easy shots.

Reed and Thompson weren't the players we hoped/expected they'd be against a shorter team. I like their presence on the defensive end and I know a lot of that doesn't show up in the stat sheet. They still need to battle more for rebounds and work to exploit matchups. This is another place where it would have helped to have halfway-decent officiating. Then again, they need to get used to the physical play they'll face. Thompson didn't play much, though, so it's tough to judge him on this one.

Cotto seems to be gaining confidence and he wants the ball out there. He looks like he's rushing it, though, and occasionally forcing his shot (how about that long two he banked in?). Cassity looked all right, if a little overmatched. He still didn't cough it up easily, and I'm surprised to see him getting over 20 minutes when he didn't even step in against BC.

Sek Henry of Nebraska is a nice player, easily the best on the floor last night. Velander deserves an Oscar for the flops he took. I can't believe we let Cookie Miller hit four buckets- he didn't even look like the 5-7 he's listed at. Tommie and Ruben had a couple chances to block his shots and they let him go, I don't get it. For as much pressure as we saw, they only turned it over 6 times. That's way too low, and after watching us play BC, I know we have the defensive ability to play way, way better than we did last night.

[cheeseman]

Thompson and Reed did not play more because they were slow and getting beat by their man. Reed is faster than Brett but he was letting his man get free. BE - not a good game and he will play less and less as the year goes on - maybe he sees that he can not compete with the freshmen in practice and that he simply has little motivation. I agree, the officiating at times was hard to figure out. If KM is going to be so predictable then it will be a long season for him/us. He will have to learn to go both ways or the other teams will have his number. Finally, we did not play like a 20 win team last night - this was my point in earlier threads, we will be up and down all year especially on the road with this young team. KL and TL have to carry the water so to speak but they are only human.

[Billikan]

Thompson and Reed did not play more because they were slow and getting beat by their man. Reed is faster than Brett but he was letting his man get free. BE - not a good game and he will play less and less as the year goes on - maybe he sees that he can not compete with the freshmen in practice and that he simply has little motivation. I agree, the officiating at times was hard to figure out. If KM is going to be so predictable then it will be a long season for him/us. He will have to learn to go both ways or the other teams will have his number. Finally, we did not play like a 20 win team last night - this was my point in earlier threads, we will be up and down all year especially on the road with this young team. KL and TL have to carry the water so to speak but they are only human.

This game really disappointed me in the sense that our seniors, who should be the leaders on the road, really played at a level less than is acceptable. Barry needs to hit the bench unless he improves his approach quickly. I would prefer to see anyone on the roster in the game rather than Barry at this point. Tommie made a bunch of mistakes on both ends and from my point of view his shot rotation is the worst we have seen since his freshman year. And his lackluster turnovers and defensive lapses might be understood if he was a freshman but as a senior they are just unacceptable. Kevin seemed to be playing hard but he did not have a good game. I give credit to Nebraska for its defensive scheme because they really took Km and Kevin out of their games most of the time.

Conklin is a warrior--wow! Cotto and Cassity both looked like freshmen, but good freshmen. Cotto is hyped up and really anxious to take shots but as he listens to the coaches I am sure he will improve his shot selection and he has real potential. Cassity had some good minutes but he is not ready to guard a small super quick guard in the open court and I assume that is why he did not play against BC. He is really a nice player on the offensive end and he will get better.

I thought the refs were awful and they made calls that favored Neb at crucial times when it looked like we might make a run. Some day I would love to get that kind of home cooking when we are at home but after many years I have just given up hope.

We will need to play better --- probably much better if we want to have a winning season. Did anyone notice that Liberty beat Virginia last night.

[Box and Won]

I went to the gym during the second half (thank God for treadmill-mounted TVs with cable) and listened to the postgame show on my way home. Moser called out the seniors for not showing enough leadership. He was getting pretty animated - said that when we were down by only seven, he could tell in the team's body language that they were defeated.

[JaleJarr]

My thoughts on the game:

KL- The usual.

What game are you speaking about. It can't be the Nebraska game as Kevin's usual prior to this game was about 18.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, and 3 apg. Kevin didn't come nowhere near his usual game. This was a poor game for all the seniors.

[moytoy12]

So if TL (or TL's shot) is regressing and BE hasn't improved, shouldn't RM get a little of the blame for this (as well as the player)?

Just trying to be fair. Under the previous regime, TL's shot improved drastically, and by some trained eyes it now looks pretty bad again. BE is showing less and less when he should be showing more.

[brianstl]

So if TL (or TL's shot) is regressing and BE hasn't improved, shouldn't RM get a little of the blame for this (as well as the player)?

Just trying to be fair. Under the previous regime, TL's shot improved drastically, and by some trained eyes it now looks pretty bad again. BE is showing less and less when he should be showing more.

With the exception of the KSU game and a couple of moments of the BC game when has BE showed anything?

He look OK a few times early last season, but as soon as opposing teams got nultiple games tapes of him he didn't do much.

[thetorch]

Eberhart has never played very well. He has had maybe 2 exemplary games. Other than his best was unspectacular.

I am at a loss about Tommie's shot. I saw it in the first 3 games. His form is totally gone, he looks like his freshman self. Why would Majerus let him revert back to this? He has to see it. Mitchell's shot is also poor. He shoots with the ball over his shoulder. I would correct that the first day I saw him play.

[slufanskip]

Eberhart has never played very well. He has had maybe 2 exemplary games. Other than his best was unspectacular.

I am at a loss about Tommie's shot. I saw it in the first 3 games. His form is totally gone, he looks like his freshman self. Why would Majerus let him revert back to this? He has to see it. Mitchell's shot is also poor. He shoots with the ball over his shoulder. I would correct that the first day I saw him play.

maybe they could have worked on KM's shot over the summer, but there is no chance you can take a kid in the middle of Oct and change his form during the season. It takes hours and hours of daily repitition to change it especially after a he's been shooting wrong for 10 years .... boo on his youth coaches