by Chicagojayfan » Mon Dec 04, 2023 7:55 am
While most of what happens in a game comes down to the players on the court, last year I think Hoiberg came in with a great plan and gave them a great chance to win. This year, it looks like Mac came in with a great plan and we blew the doors off with how we executed it
A few differences from last year
As Jacob pointed out we took the same number of 3 PT shots, and only made 3 more yesterday:
10/40 vs 14/40
2 PT shooting:
10/25 (similar to the Colorado St. Game) vs 18/29
Last year we were 8/15 at the rim (either not getting there or not finishing). This year 15/19
FT's 3/5 last year vs. 11/13 this year
rebounding:
last year they outrebounded us 42-37. This year we killed them on the boards 48-37 w/ 14 offensive rebounds
turnovers 15 last year vs. 12 this year
Lots of improvements all over the court for our second real road game of the year:
Alexander - not his best game shooting again (he's been in a bit of a slump), but given how they tried to take him out of the game offensively, he did a nice job distributing and handling and had the 5 rebounds/5 assists and I think the rest of the team has learned to be more aggressive when they overplay him as it leads to easy buckets elsewhere
Baylor - Had quite a few rim out, this could have been one of those historically monster games. As it was 24 pts on 22 shots, 10 boards, 3 assists and good D is a still a very nice game
Kalk - They were desperate to not let him beat them inside, but 13 pts/12 boards/3 blocks and God knows how many altered shots is the kind of game that spoils us
Ashworth - Another nice game for him. Think he's starting to figure out where his shots come in this offense and his confidence seems to be growing game to game. As for the foul at the end of the first half, Hoiberg said they watched the video and that it was the right call.
Miller/Traudt - Miller seemed much healthier today and the two of them were very effective again. 10 pts (on 6 shots)/7 boards/2 assists and it was encouraging to see Traudt mixing it up inside a bit more with the 2 dunks and the work on the boards
King was effective again - you can see him growing from game to game and he's going to be very good for us next year when Kalk is off earning a non-NIL check
Bello had another excellent game off the bench with near starter minutes (28) 8 pts/1 rebounds/3 assists/3 steals 2/3 from 3 PT.
And while we've had some ups and downs defensively, the team did great work on defense yesterday. This was by far the worst offensive game by Nebraska this year 82.9 offensive effectiveness versus 122.9 for us. I think they finish in the 45-75 range in Kenpom this year, so this is a nice win (apart from all of the rivalry stuff). We just executed at a really high level which meant that a pretty average shooting night still lead to a blowout