Nebrasketball Game #22- @ #20 Ohio State (Monday, January 22- 7PM- BTN)

[teachercd]

This is a loser mentality. This team should have won this game yesterday. This is not a traditional year for the B1G, as numerous people  in the media have pointed out. Nebraska likely has to win out to even sniff the tournament bubble at this point. There’s only 2 games left against top 75 teams in RPI: http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_148_Men.html And with the way Minnesota is playing the only real opportunity for a quality win in there is Maryland.

In the most crucial stretch of the season, we scored 10 total points in the last 7:06 of the game after being up 3 with the momentum (and 30% of those 10 points were on a meaningless shot at the end of regulation). Tim Miles failed to draw up a play call out of a time out in a situation where we needed a basket, resulting in a shot clock violation. Isaiah Roby missed the front end of a one and one. Roby turned the ball over with a clear path to the basket. The team played hero ball while the best scorer and guy with over half your team’s points took 2 shots. That’s not just bad coaching, it’s bad basketball. And it’s part of the reason this team is so putrid in close games, especially on the road. 

Good post!

Winning out is going to be crazy hard.  Winning on the road in conference is just tough to do which makes last nights loss a bit more annoying because it was there for the taking.  You had a tired-worn out OSU team that was on the ropes and you have NU play with just one guy showing up.

 

[BIG ERN]

I think we finish 20-11 and will have to win at least 2 games in the B10 tourney which is def possible. We also get 4/5 starters back for next season. I am okay where we are at with Miles. I know many who are not which is understandable 

 

[BigRedBuster]

I haven't read any of this thread, but, I'm pretty sure this has been a topic of discussion.

We lost this game for the same reason why our HS team recently lost an important game.  For some reason, coaches and players think their way to winning is shooting 3s.  It drives me crazy.  Sure, you can win a lot of games if you have great shooters.  But, when they go cold, you have to create offense other ways.  Forget that 3 point line exists and take it to the hoop.  Drive, feed it inside, slash to the hoop on the back side.  Doing this opens up so much more offense.

The shots weren't falling.  DO SOMETHING ELSE!!!!

This isn't just a Nebraska thing.  It's a modern basketball thing that absolutely drives me crazy.  I like HS and college basketball.  This is taking away from the creativity in the game that can propel teams to win even more games.

 

[Mavric]

Not trying to pump any Miles sunshine, but do the assists go up if anyone other than Palmer can make a shot?

The rest of the team shot 27%.  Palmer was over 60%.

Yes, but Miles teams have consistently - back to his CSU days - been terrible at getting assists.  This would seem to be largely due to not really running an offense and just relying on guys who can create their own shot to do all the scoring.  We do precious little to help other guys get in a good position to score.

 

[pearljammer]

So we lost by 5 to a ranked team on the road. Given that we played terribly I don't see how you can be that upset and continue calling for the coaches head. Sometimes you have a bad night shooting, or the other team just plays better and beats you. I'd be really careful playing the coaching roulette game. Have some faith, we have the talent and this team has a ton of potential.  Don't forget that we just destroyed a Michigan team at home by 20 points.  

 

[teachercd]

So we lost by 5 to a ranked team on the road. Given that we played terribly I don't see how you can be that upset and continue calling for the coaches head. Sometimes you have a bad night shooting, or the other team just plays better and beats you. I'd be really careful playing the coaching roulette game. Have some faith, we have the talent and this team has a ton of potential.  Don't forget that we just destroyed a Michigan team at home by 20 points.  

When Michigan had a bad shooting night

 

[pearljammer]

When Michigan had a bad shooting night

Yeah it happens to every team.

 

[RedSavage]

So we lost by 5 to a ranked team on the road. Given that we played terribly I don't see how you can be that upset and continue calling for the coaches head. Sometimes you have a bad night shooting, or the other team just plays better and beats you. I'd be really careful playing the coaching roulette game. Have some faith, we have the talent and this team has a ton of potential.  Don't forget that we just destroyed a Michigan team at home by 20 points.  

Potential that a lot of us feel is barely being reached because of coaching.  This team could be scary good with a better coach.  Miles is what he is, an average coach.

 

[pearljammer]

Potential that a lot of us feel is barely being reached because of coaching.  This team could be scary good with a better coach.  Miles is what he is, an average coach.

I totally get the point of not taking full advantage of our teams potential. I just fear going back to the Doc Sadler days where we have zero talent be the team is no fun to watch.

Hopefully this is just us being beat by a ranked team on the road and we go on a nice run to finish the season.

 

[teachercd]

I totally get the point of not taking full advantage of our teams potential. I just fear going back to the Doc Sadler days where we have zero talent be the team is no fun to watch.

Hopefully this is just us being beat by a ranked team on the road and we go on a nice run to finish the season.

The hard part now...the rest of the season sets up as all potential bad losses.  That sucks

 

[seaofred92]

So we lost by 5 to a ranked team on the road. Given that we played terribly I don't see how you can be that upset and continue calling for the coaches head. Sometimes you have a bad night shooting, or the other team just plays better and beats you. I'd be really careful playing the coaching roulette game. Have some faith, we have the talent and this team has a ton of potential.  Don't forget that we just destroyed a Michigan team at home by 20 points.  

This was the biggest game of the season. And they completely blew it. Did you watch the game? I'm not accepting it as okay because "we played hard". The team had probably its worst night shooting wise of the season outside of Palmer in the biggest game we've played this year. Take out Palmer's career night and this team shot 28% from the floor and 17% from 3. If we played well and were beaten then I wouldn't be this upset. We didn't play well. Not only did we not play well, we played awfully. Worst since St. John's. What does that say about our coaching staff?

We had absolutely no plan for the final 7 minutes of the game. None. There is STILL no offensive set, even after timeouts, that can get us a good look. The biggest possession of the entire game and season we came out of a time out with 9 seconds on the shot clock, dribbled in place for 6 seconds, threw a desperation pass to the corner to a guy who was covered, and got a shot clock violation. I mean that is RIDICULOUS. It's the football equivalent of coming out on fourth and goal down by 4 and getting an intentional grounding call. Its insane people have no problem with this and think I'm being too hard on Miles for crap like that. We haven't even discussed the fact that defensively tOSU got to the rim at will the entire second half.  

Here are your results in games that were within 2 possessions with 3 minutes to go (score at 3 minute mark in parentheses):

Eastern Illinois (NU 60 EIU 57)-- NU win 72-68

UCF (UCF 53 NU 47)-- UCF win 68-59

Creighton (I can't find a play by play for this game but in this recap I can find it was 55-54 Creighton with 4:52 to play)-- CU win 75-65

Kansas (KU 66 NU 65)-- KU win 73-72

UTSA (NU 92 UTSA 86)-- NU win 104-94

Stetson (NU 58 Stetson 52)-- NU win 71-62

@ Penn State (PSU 61 NU 60)-- PSU win 76-74 (benched best player last 15 minutes of game including OT)

Illinois (NU 57-Illinois 55)-- NU win 64-63 (Palmer bail out buzzer beater after blowing a 4 point lead with under a minute to go at home)

Ohio State (OSU 57 NU 54)-- OSU win 64-59

So the only teams Miles has been able to put away in these games are Eastern Illinois, UTSA, Stetson, and technically Illinois. This while getting out coached by UCF, Creighton Kansas, PSU, and tOSU (I'd even argue Illinois) down the stretch of those games. I'm really not seeing how people can continue to defend this just because this team "almost won" a game on the road where they played so poorly. In no other sport at NU is this level of incompetency by a staff accepted, except the Men's basketball program, especially regarding performance in crucial moments. This team (and coach) are mentally unstable in pressure situations. Its probably part of the reason this team is 1-6 on the road this year and getting beat by an average of 73-63.

 

[RedSavage]

I totally get the point of not taking full advantage of our teams potential. I just fear going back to the Doc Sadler days where we have zero talent be the team is no fun to watch.

Hopefully this is just us being beat by a ranked team on the road and we go on a nice run to finish the season.

I agree, it could be worse so we do need to be careful in finding a replacement, if we go that route.  I have confidence the Moos will steer the program in the right direction, one way or the other.  

Hopefully you're right and Miles proves the doubters like myself wrong.

 

[pearljammer]

This was the biggest game of the season. And they completely blew it. Did you watch the game? I'm not accepting it as okay because "we played hard". The team had probably its worst night shooting wise of the season outside of Palmer in the biggest game we've played this year. Take out Palmer's career night and this team shot 28% from the floor and 17% from 3. If we played well and were beaten then I wouldn't be this upset. We didn't play well. Not only did we not play well, we played awfully. Worst since St. John's. What does that say about our coaching staff?

We had absolutely no plan for the final 7 minutes of the game. None. There is STILL no offensive set, even after timeouts, that can get us a good look. The biggest possession of the entire game and season we came out of a time out with 9 seconds on the shot clock, dribbled in place for 6 seconds, threw a desperation pass to the corner to a guy who was covered, and got a shot clock violation. I mean that is RIDICULOUS. It's the football equivalent of coming out on fourth and goal down by 4 and getting an intentional grounding call. Its insane people have no problem with this and think I'm being too hard on Miles for crap like that. We haven't even discussed the fact that defensively tOSU got to the rim at will the entire second half.  

Here are your results in games that were within 2 possessions with 3 minutes to go (score at 3 minute mark in parentheses):

Eastern Illinois (NU 60 EIU 57)-- NU win 72-68

UCF (UCF 53 NU 47)-- UCF win 68-59

Creighton (I can't find a play by play for this game but in this recap I can find it was 55-54 Creighton with 4:52 to play)-- CU win 75-65

Kansas (KU 66 NU 65)-- KU win 73-72

UTSA (NU 92 UTSA 86)-- NU win 104-94

Stetson (NU 58 Stetson 52)-- NU win 71-62

@ Penn State (PSU 61 NU 60)-- PSU win 76-74 (benched best player last 15 minutes of game including OT)

Illinois (NU 57-Illinois 55)-- NU win 64-63 (Palmer bail out buzzer beater after blowing a 4 point lead with under a minute to go at home)

Ohio State (OSU 57 NU 54)-- OSU win 64-59

So the only teams Miles has been able to put away in these games are Eastern Illinois, UTSA, Stetson, and technically Illinois. This while getting out coached by UCF, Creighton Kansas, PSU, and tOSU (I'd even argue Illinois) down the stretch of those games. I'm really not seeing how people can continue to defend this just because this team "almost won" a game on the road where they played so poorly. In no other sport at NU is this level of incompetency by a staff accepted, except the Men's basketball program, especially regarding performance in crucial moments. This team (and coach) are mentally unstable in pressure situations. Its probably part of the reason this team is 1-6 on the road this year and getting beat by an average of 73-63.

Wow you really aren’t a fan of Miles. Let’s let the season play out before we start jumping off bridges and such. 

You can put forward enough evidence to support either side of the argument if you are that determined to prove your point...

 

[Big red surfers]

The team has shown zero improvement all year.  You guys are all over the Michigan win.  Michigan not that good and was mentally and emotionally beat down when they showed up.  

  Tim miles in 5 years has not recruited a half a$$ decent shooter nor an big man that resemble a big man. 

 They are shooting 42% for the year, 70% from the line and 35% from 3 land and ranked 181st in assists. This team is made up of slashers and guys that think they can shoot. Once TM has put together uneven team.  Teams know they can’t shoot so they back the lane and make Nebraska shoot bricks, which they are more then happy to oblige. 

 

[NUance]

How long have you guys been following Nebrasketball?  This isn't Kansas or Michigan we're talking about.  Or even Purdue.   I can remember a LOT of years where there's no way in hell Nebraska would be tied with a top 15 team on the road with 3:00 minutes left, in a position to possibly win. 

Sure we're not at the top of the B1G.  But we're clearly not in the cellar anymore either.  Am I satisfied to be a middle-of-the-pack B1G team?  No.  But it seems like we're headed in the right direction.  It seems like it to me anyway.  /gets off soapbox.  pours a drink