Having done nothing but watch college basketball all day, I'm left even more frustrated than before about the state of Nebrasketball in general, and particularly the job Coach Miles and his staff did this season.
I know that some of you have trotted out the old "lack of talent" argument, in part as a defense mechanism for Coach Miles and his staff. It's interesting, because "lack of talent" was what many of the Coach Pelini supporters argued until the very end. But now, word is Coach Riley has quietly told people he has as much talent to work with at Nebraska than he's had in his college career.
Back to Nebrasketball. I'm not arguing we have top 10 talent. We obviously have some holes, and I'm not even going to "blame" Coach Miles for not landing a true "big man." Those are hard to come by, and I'm hopeful he'll get his share in the next couple of years. But we're certainly as "talented" as many teams who are playing great, beautiful basketball. There are too many to name, and you'd agree with me if you watched many of them play this past week.
My bigger concern is the lack of discipline, poise and execution on the floor. Shavon Shields remains my favorite player, but watching him almost literally cry the other day reminded me of something you'd see in middle school. We all know about Petteway's pouting and head shaking. And Tai's obvious lack of confidence. Today Wisconsin didn't have ONE turnover until just a few minutes remained in the game. I think they finished with 3. Now, certainly, Wisconsin has better players than us. But they also have something we did NOT have this year -- good coaching. They move the ball, they cut sharply, they share, and their players ALWAYS improve from one year to the next. Look at the incredible development from year to year of Dekker, Kaminsky, Koenig and this year, in particular, Nigel Hayes -- who added a deadly 3-pointer to his arsenal.
When I watched Nebrasketball this year, it seemed as though I was watching a team that literally doesn't practice. It looked like a bunch of fairly talented guys who literally only convene every gameday to play.
I think Coach Miles is a great guy. And I think his success at smaller outposts gives us some hope that he can be great here. But only if he treats this season as a true "wakeup call" and re-evaluates the way he and his staff are doing things day by day. We can't shoot? OK, how much extra shooting are the players doing? While some could argue that good shooters are born, I would suggest ALL shooters can improve. It's muscle memory, and it comes from extreme repetition of fundamentally sound action. Just like a golf shot.
Watching all these games today and through the past week, there is NO WAY we are talent challenged to the point that we should have had the season we just had. We have a borderline NBA player and a handful of other good guys. Nick Fuller was a very good AAU player who played on the same team as Wisconsin's Koenig and was one of that team's best all-around players. Where is his development? How can Walter Pitchford have regressed so much?
Just still really disappointed because I was so optimistic good times were ahead for one of only a handful of programs to have NEVER won an NCAA tournament game. But we backslid so much, my faith has been shaken. I suggest that next year is the watershed year for Nebrasketball. I hope changes are made program-wide so that if nothing else, we see a fundamentally sound, mentally strong team on the floor.
I know that some of you have trotted out the old "lack of talent" argument, in part as a defense mechanism for Coach Miles and his staff. It's interesting, because "lack of talent" was what many of the Coach Pelini supporters argued until the very end. But now, word is Coach Riley has quietly told people he has as much talent to work with at Nebraska than he's had in his college career.
Back to Nebrasketball. I'm not arguing we have top 10 talent. We obviously have some holes, and I'm not even going to "blame" Coach Miles for not landing a true "big man." Those are hard to come by, and I'm hopeful he'll get his share in the next couple of years. But we're certainly as "talented" as many teams who are playing great, beautiful basketball. There are too many to name, and you'd agree with me if you watched many of them play this past week.
My bigger concern is the lack of discipline, poise and execution on the floor. Shavon Shields remains my favorite player, but watching him almost literally cry the other day reminded me of something you'd see in middle school. We all know about Petteway's pouting and head shaking. And Tai's obvious lack of confidence. Today Wisconsin didn't have ONE turnover until just a few minutes remained in the game. I think they finished with 3. Now, certainly, Wisconsin has better players than us. But they also have something we did NOT have this year -- good coaching. They move the ball, they cut sharply, they share, and their players ALWAYS improve from one year to the next. Look at the incredible development from year to year of Dekker, Kaminsky, Koenig and this year, in particular, Nigel Hayes -- who added a deadly 3-pointer to his arsenal.
When I watched Nebrasketball this year, it seemed as though I was watching a team that literally doesn't practice. It looked like a bunch of fairly talented guys who literally only convene every gameday to play.
I think Coach Miles is a great guy. And I think his success at smaller outposts gives us some hope that he can be great here. But only if he treats this season as a true "wakeup call" and re-evaluates the way he and his staff are doing things day by day. We can't shoot? OK, how much extra shooting are the players doing? While some could argue that good shooters are born, I would suggest ALL shooters can improve. It's muscle memory, and it comes from extreme repetition of fundamentally sound action. Just like a golf shot.
Watching all these games today and through the past week, there is NO WAY we are talent challenged to the point that we should have had the season we just had. We have a borderline NBA player and a handful of other good guys. Nick Fuller was a very good AAU player who played on the same team as Wisconsin's Koenig and was one of that team's best all-around players. Where is his development? How can Walter Pitchford have regressed so much?
Just still really disappointed because I was so optimistic good times were ahead for one of only a handful of programs to have NEVER won an NCAA tournament game. But we backslid so much, my faith has been shaken. I suggest that next year is the watershed year for Nebrasketball. I hope changes are made program-wide so that if nothing else, we see a fundamentally sound, mentally strong team on the floor.
