Nebraska Game Thread

[JacobPadilla]

Here's my post-game dispatch to go with my thoughts on the Bluejay Beat.

https://hurrdatsports.com/creighton-men ... -nebraska/

[Chicagojayfan]

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

[blueblood]

Somewhat short period of time but on my drive to work this morning no mention at all of the game on 1620 or 59 radio. Nada. Not one word.

[gocreightongo]

They discussed the game on 1620 during the first segment. In fact, they had a roughly 5 minute open of a compilation of John Bishop’s calls.

[T-bone]

And their phones are jacked up again so that takes the call in segment out of the mix

[drbluejay]

My standout player of the game has to go to Baylor. What a show he put on in the first half. Baylor is my favorite player and so fun to watch.

[go_jays]

Here's my post-game dispatch to go with my thoughts on the Bluejay Beat.

https://hurrdatsports.com/creighton-men ... -nebraska/

Another great write-up Jacob.

"I think our guys had a great understanding of who we can help off of a little and who we have to press up on.”

I think this is the key. For most of the year, we've had trouble pressing up on players. Knowing which ones you can and which ones you don't need to is crucial. I think we have been a little too willing to "'help" when we needed to press. This is a great step forward in the development of our defense and will really be a key for us down the road.

BTW... Mac putting Baylor on Mast was genius. I'm sure Fred wasn't prepared for that one.

[section202jay]

A fantastic game. I could only catch the second half, so shoutout to the awesome sports information/marketing department for putting out the mostly full highlights on YouTube. That is awesome that they do that.

Mac's quotes after the game were interesting, saying it was a "relief" to win. I feel the same way. You don't want a repeat of last season. Now we can move on and focus on the Big East.

Also, Scheierman is a beast. So happy he decided to come to Creighton.

[Outlaw_Wales]

Overall just a really satisfying game. It largely came down to coaching, gameplanning, and then execution by the athletes on the floor. We won all three of those areas.

I absolutely hate this game, every year. It feels like it is just virtually always a no win situation for us. The quotes from their own players highlighted how much of a super bowl this game is for them, and we just have to get through it every year. I would love to stop playing them, honestly. The irrational part of me feels like I need the team to win this game even if it meant losing every other game on the schedule every year (and yeah, I know that makes no sense -- irrational). The rational part of me understands that last year demonstrates how relatively meaningless to the overall team goals this game is likely to be, etc.

Time to move on to a tougher test next weekend with Central Michigan.

[BBfan]

Second part of Sam McKewon interview on AM590 was all CU - NU basketball. Good stuff.