2024-25 Season Notes
- Thread starter Mavric
- Start date
admo
New member
At some point and hopefully before next year, Nebraska has to address the elephant in the room.
The Fred Hoiberg offense (or lack of...)
He plays small ball, so that creates a issue with rebounding. Plus defending inside the paint.
So if you are going to play that, you need to have to attack offensively to keep up. Fast paced guards and good shooters.
We have Brice and that's it. Sometimes Gary helps. Sometimes Conner gets hot, and we see Morgan or Berke contribute.
It's a circle motion offense and there is no threat between the PG and the screener (usually a big). And a few guys run circles. So if the PG cannot be a threat, and your best player/shooter (Brice) is being defended - what is plan B, C, D ?
Don't be so confused as if they score well. I mean it's basketball and all teams score. But home court has provided wins and happy feelings (like 19 in a row at one point). But the offense sucks. And I feel bad for the players that have to run Hoiberg's dribble offense "get ball to Brice, get ball to Gary".
His seat isn't hot but it should be getting there, and Hoiberg needs to change his offense or it will be the same results next year with different players wearing the jerseys.
The Fred Hoiberg offense (or lack of...)
He plays small ball, so that creates a issue with rebounding. Plus defending inside the paint.
So if you are going to play that, you need to have to attack offensively to keep up. Fast paced guards and good shooters.
We have Brice and that's it. Sometimes Gary helps. Sometimes Conner gets hot, and we see Morgan or Berke contribute.
It's a circle motion offense and there is no threat between the PG and the screener (usually a big). And a few guys run circles. So if the PG cannot be a threat, and your best player/shooter (Brice) is being defended - what is plan B, C, D ?
Don't be so confused as if they score well. I mean it's basketball and all teams score. But home court has provided wins and happy feelings (like 19 in a row at one point). But the offense sucks. And I feel bad for the players that have to run Hoiberg's dribble offense "get ball to Brice, get ball to Gary".
His seat isn't hot but it should be getting there, and Hoiberg needs to change his offense or it will be the same results next year with different players wearing the jerseys.
ECisGod
Active member
At some point and hopefully before next year, Nebraska has to address the elephant in the room.
The Fred Hoiberg offense (or lack of...)
He plays small ball, so that creates a issue with rebounding. Plus defending inside the paint.
So if you are going to play that, you need to have to attack offensively to keep up. Fast paced guards and good shooters.
We have Brice and that's it. Sometimes Gary helps. Sometimes Conner gets hot, and we see Morgan or Berke contribute.
It's a circle motion offense and there is no threat between the PG and the screener (usually a big). And a few guys run circles. So if the PG cannot be a threat, and your best player/shooter (Brice) is being defended - what is plan B, C, D ?
Don't be so confused as if they score well. I mean it's basketball and all teams score. But home court has provided wins and happy feelings (like 19 in a row at one point). But the offense sucks. And I feel bad for the players that have to run Hoiberg's dribble offense "get ball to Brice, get ball to Gary".
His seat isn't hot but it should be getting there, and Hoiberg needs to change his offense or it will be the same results next year with different players wearing the jerseys.
Hoiberg made a conscious decision to get bigger this season because he felt like they got out rebounded by "bigger" teams last year. Unfortunately, he went for size but didn't get enough skill. Hopefully next year he gets both.
CBS ran a story yesterday about coaches on the hotseat. He's not on it, but one of the recurring themes as lack of NIL money. I suspect Nebraska isn't in as bad a situation as Iowa or Colorado from a basketball NIL situation, but they aren't where a lot of other major college teams are either. Over the years there has been a lot of lip service from the athletic department about wanting to be "great" at every sport, but then they don't give the teams the resources to actually be great & basketball has consistently been one of those sports that gets short changed.
College basketball hot seat rankings: Where 17 underwhelming coaches stand as high-major carousel picks up - CBSSports.com
admo
New member
That's a good point about the Athletic department. I would assume it's because to pay for better players it's nearly a "one-and-done" investment on those great players. And then repeat each year becoming costly.
I know they got size with Meah, Morgan and Berke. But you are right again, because the skill is average-to-good (morgan & berke). Subpar for Meah. And yes he's had a few good games.
Offense still sucks. There is no ball movement. No consistent shooters outside. And the transition game is pretty weak. Plus the offense chews up a lot of clock and allows defenses to get settled.
ECisGod
Active member
Part of it is the "one & done" nature of basketball, but more of it is "Football is King" & "Volleyball is Queen" and the rest of the sports are afterthoughts especially in NIL. I'm hopeful that with the reduction in the size of the football team (down to 105 from 150-ish) there will be more money for basketball. I understand that every major college team will be reducing the number of football players, but very few had 150 so there is more "spare" money.
I think Berke has a lot of potential. His stroke is smooth, but he lacks the consistency needed to be a consistent contributor. I agree that Meah is just "ok" - he was pretty good a couple of years ago, but had a pretty significant injury last year and doesn't seem to be back. Morgan kas surprised me with some of his post moves, but I thought he's shoot more 3's (at least 1-2 per game). His stroke looks good and he shoots 31%. I know that's not great, but it's good enough for a center in college.
I think Essegian season has been very similar to Tominaga's fourth year (2nd at NU). Very streaky, can shoot you into or out of games. Hopefully he can make the jump in consistency that Keisei did. He's not going to be as "exciting" as Keisei was, but if he can be a consistent outside threat, it will help next year.
They will have eight scholarships available next year (at least) because there are six players out of eligibility and scholarships increase from 13 to 15. Hopefully they get more players in line with what Hoiberg normally wants to do on the offensive end. I think this year he compromised his offensive vision to try to fit in with the perception of how the B1G plays and it hasn't worked out as well as everyone hoped.
I think he changed his vision for the team - including the offense - a couple of years ago because he was fielding some of the worst teams in the program's history (which was no small feat).
We made progress last year - partly do to different philosophies - but also probably got some help from a conference that was lacking in top teams - only six B1G teams made the tournament last year. A little bit of the same story this year in that the league doesn't have many (any?) really weak teams but don't have much at the top end either. A lot of solid teams but few great ones which means most teams have a chance to win most nights. ESPN has 11 B1G teams making the tourney this year (including two newbies) but Nebraska, Indiana and Ohio State are three of the last five in right now so that number could drop.
At any rate, it seems to me that some of the "improvement" has been other teams getting worse. Not that there hasn't been progress. But there was quite a bit of progress needed. Tim Miles won 22 and 19 games his last two years and won and had a combined one win in post-season play to show for it (in the NIT). Hoiberg's last two years are basically the same at the moment - adding an NCAA tournament appearance but minus any post-season victories.