OSU/NU game on Saturday

[andyokstate]

Good afternoon, y'all. How the heck is everyone? I haven't been by here since a bit after Pelini was hired. I'm glad to see everything settling down with NU football.

 

First off, that was an excellent win against OU. You guys really pummeled them. I'm excited about our game tomorrow. Neither of us have had good seasons...but it's nice that we're both on some winning streaks. It's frustrating to think what might have been, had our teams played this way the entire season, eh?

 

Random rambling thoughts about the game...

 

Maric will abuse us inside. Our 'best' post presence comes from two true freshman (say that 5 times fast). Ibrahima Thomas is 6'11" and skinny. He's athletic, gets a few nice boards per game, fewer points, and is enthusiastic on defense...and is almost always in foul trouble. He does have a nice, mid-range shot. Martavius Adams is 6'8" and solid. It's been fun watching him develop this year. We don't run many (any?) plays for him, but he usually gets 2-3 trash buckets a game. Both of them will rotate on Maric and when they get into foul trouble (and they WILL get into foul trouble), Marshall Moses (6'8") and possibly Marcus Dove will be on him some. When we beat KU last weekend, we actually played a lot of zone (GASP!). Eddie never, ever did zone. Hey, it worked. I can see us using it quite a bit trying to slow Maric down.

 

I hope that our PG, Byron Eaton, will abuse Stowbridge (is Miller still out?). From what I've seen, Stowbridge is a solid defender. Eaton is THE key for our team. When he plays well, the whole team does well. If Stowbridge has a good defensive game against Eaton, we could be in for a long day.

 

I'm guessing that Dove will spend most of his time guarding Anderson, or possibly Dagunduro. Dove is noted for his defense. In the past, he's been an offensive liability, but has done a little better this year. He had a huge three with about a minute left in our KU game and was 3-3 3PT against MU. Those games aside, we generally don't expect much production from him.

 

Our leading scorer is James Anderson, who is a true freshman. He's 6'6" and pretty athletic (

). He settles for threes way too often. Then again, our whole team can have fall in love with the three. Not coincidentally, our 3PT attempts have been at the lowest point of the season on this 4 game win streak.

 

The other guard/forwards you'll see are Obi Muenelo and Terrel Harris. Both are capable of lighting it up, but have been very inconsistent. Harris is a foul machine this season (he had 15 points in 17 minutes before fouling out in our last game). Obi is at his best getting to the basket, but forgets that at times and launches away.

 

Coming off the bench for us are Tyler Hatch (All Big 12 Hair Team) and Nick Sidorakis. Tyler is a senior who started here as a walkon, but has since earned a scholly. Is usually good for a few minutes of defense and a couple boards. Sidorakis gets limited minutes at both guard spots.

 

I'll be joining a group of friends at Eskimo Joe's before the game. What is it with OSU/NU games starting at unnaturally early hours? First we had the football game start before noon in Lincoln, now this one is at 12:45pm. Bah! Anyway, if any of y'all are coming down for the game, zip me a note and we can have some morning beerskis at Joe's.

[Huskerballz]

Hey man, thanks for the great breakdown of your team. I'm excited about this game. Two hot teams battling for post-season play. Should be a barn-burner. Good luck to you and hope you guys play well, but come up a little short in the end.

[c-flush]

Ditto what Huskerballz wrote.

 

So relieved the Huskers didn't fall apart against OU without Miller. I'd like to see Maric really look to score first before kicking the ball outside. Hope Harley continues to play impressively. I'm still waiting for Dagunduro to really have a break-out game. He had some great dunks on Wednesday, hope he builds on that tomorrow.

[Blackshirt316]

Hey Andy great breakdown.

 

Few key points.

 

6'3 Sek Henry will most likely start at PG, (Cookie Miller seems to be about 80% and should see time in the game but won't start as Sadler will most likely wait till after the initial intense tempo calms down before he sticks Cookie in)

 

I'd anticipate Sutton will have Eaton slide over and cover our 2 guard Steve Harley to negate the height difference at the point using Obi or even Anderson to cover Henry to attempt to create a height advantage for OSU.

 

Dove should be locked on Ade and the two should be fighting for rebounds all night long on both ends.

 

Maric is a mismatch on Ibrahima Thomas, not just because of experiance but because Maric is a bigger body than Thomas and if he can move him around at will it will be a long night for the young man.

 

I also see OSU using a lot of zone in this game, we struggle setting up our half court offense when the opposing team is in zone and zone will also help Sutton switch up double teams on Maric to keep him off balance if possible.

 

I'm not exactly sure what to expect from Sadler in this game as OSU is so athletic that the slash and cut offense we've been seeing a lot of may be tough to execute, though I thought the same thing about A&M due to the size advantage and toghness they were bringing to the table.

 

Rebounding, expecially on the offensive side is going to be HUGE in this game though, if Maric and Ade can bang the boards NU should win, if OSU can get up early and use their crowd to control the game and their athleticism and size to control the boards and cause ball control issues for a NU team that sometimes makes ill advised, long range cross court passes and impossible needle eye passes it will be tough for NU.

 

OSU has the athleticism advantage and the crowd will be crazy, NU has the defensive advantage and in my opinion a good edge in coaching as I have been somewhat under impressed with Sean Sutton thus far.

 

This will be a GREAT game either way, I have no clue which way to pick this one at all but don't see either team winning by much.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

only thing i saw that i can disagree with was neither of us have had good seasons... of course, by your standards you guys are a bit down, but for us, hell, a lot of us couldn't be more happy about the huskers season

 

good luck to ya guys tomorrow should be a good game

[papersun87]

First off, that was an excellent win against OU. You guys really pummeled them. I'm excited about our game tomorrow. Neither of us have had good seasons...but it's nice that we're both on some winning streaks.

I'm not sure I agree with you on that one . . . I think NU's having a pretty darned good season.

 

Edit: I know an Andy who as an OK State alum . . . lives in Omaha . . . are you HIM?!

[andyokstate]

Well, not much of what I thought would happen actually happened. Our two freshmen who guarded Maric only had 3 combined fouls, while Maric was limited to play time (what, 9-10 minutes the first half?) because of fouls on him. I did not expect that at all. I was surprised Doc yanked him so early(2 fouls...could be bad, but still). He's huge, has soft hands, and is unmovable down low. I think he shot about 80% from the floor; get the man the ball.

 

Was it Dagunduro who had that awesome put back dunk? Whoever it was could fly. It really hurt you guys not having Miller back. Those turnovers were killer, as we found out for the first 2/3 of our season.

 

Papersun, I actually live in Stillwater...

 

Are you guys pretty happy with what Doc is doing in Lincoln? More than anything, it looks like you just need a couple more athletes on your team and you'll be right in the think of things.

 

Good luck against UT on Tuesday. Soften 'em up a bit for us, please, as we have to finish out our season against them on Saturday.

[huskerfan500]

I think I speak for everyone when I say Doc is doing a great job, I have only heard one person say Doc should be on a short leash, and that was during a 4 losing streak. I hope the redshirts can make up for losing Maric, Doc wouldn't even recuirt a guy like Maric but still has the whole team run around him. Depending on if Balham can stay healthy and how good Edwards (one of the redshirts) can play down low I expect the team to make the big tourney next year, but just NIT this year