first game we've had in a while that was worth commenting on. nothing against the past few wins, but they weren't exactly measuring sticks. this game was, and NU came up way short. <<<< deep breath >>>>
lets just set NU's terrible start aside and look at a point in the game when NU was actually "in the game", at least as far as the score was concerned. In the span of a few minutes, the end of hte first half and the beginning of the 2nd, we had NU defenders who had NO idea how to defend the pick and roll. We had guards, (Webster and Shields) with silly open floor turnovers, NU defenders closing out on Creighton players by literally running at them full speed only to watch them blow by for open shots, layups, and kick-outs to wide open CU shooters.....
guys......this team is not well coached. there are signs ALL over the place. last year it may have been masked by all the bickering we did about team chemistry etc. But it simply can't be denied. To make it as simple as possible, go back and re-watch the game, and count how many times you see 2 NU players occupying the exact same floor space doing the exact same thing. I counted at least 7 or so, and that was in the first 10 minutes of the game. then count how many times you saw CU players in that same predicament. zero would be a good guess.
So what does that actually mean when you have 2 players in the same spot? (and i'm not talking about 2 guys doubling down on a post player.) it means the players don't know what they are supposed to be doing. I saw McVeigh and Parker guarding the same guy. I saw AW3 and Webster standing a foot from each other because both made the exact same cut at the exact same time to the exact same spot on offense. Its all over the floor, all the time. 2 guys doing the same thing. It can come from lack of communication, lack of understanding, lack of vision, lack of a lot of things. but it all points back to coaching.
OFFENSE - my biggest concern.
On offense especially, there is no design. no rhythm. no flow. its just random chaos. I watched Webster dribble the ball for a few seconds, only to make a pass to Shields who was standing 4 feet from him. Webster made the pass and cut to the basket, only to run into AW3 who, from the exact opposite corner 3pt line was running ALL the way across the court to set a ball screen for Shields. Well after he and Webster collided, AW3 continued on his way and narrowly avoided setting a moving screen because Shields had already started dribbling, rendering the ball screen useless. I had to laugh and then i got mad and thought to myself "ok seriously, why the F is your best 3 point shooter wasting energy running the width of the floor to set a ball screen? what is the point of that?"
thats just stupid. and what has me absolutely worried is a guy like AW3 isn't doing that because he just REALLY wanted to set a ball screen, or he just wanted to help the team. the guy wants to help the team by doing what he does, and that is shoot. there is NO way he would do that jsut based on his own instinct. so who is telling him to do that? where is that thought coming from? because its not even logical. so that makes me wonder what in the world Miles is telling these guys to do on offense. it looks to me like he has set of guidelines or concepts....."you should be cutting, setting a ball screen, or moving"
i seriously hope his offensive game plan isn't simply "cut, or move, or screen". cause if so, does anyone wonder why half the time our team looks like they don't know what they should be doing cuase everyone is just doing whatever pops into his head. honestly, thats what our offense looked like tonight.
one last thing and i'll be done. I'm big on body language, when it comes to bball. go back and watch the first 8 minutes of the game and count how many times NU players caught the ball on offense, and IMMEDIATELY, i mean IMMEDIATELY dribbled, then shuffled their feet, but went nowhere. if you guessed 15 or so, you'd be probably be right. so what does that mean? it means the team is SUPER tight, probably even nervous. it also means the team, to a man, is unsure of what to do, and what their teammates are doing. that Immediate dribble, shuffle the feet, but go no-where bball move is a tell-tale sign of a guy who is burning adrenaline and nervous energy, and who is TRYING to get himself into the ready position of playing bball and being "productive" but without an idea of what to actually do to be productive. So you catch, dribble right away, do a few foot shuffles, go nowhere, and pass to the next guy. When you have people doing it 4,5,6 times in a row its just brutal to watch. i hope that makes sense.
these signs are ALL over the place. we don't see them in all their glory against Abilene Christian, but against teams like CU that force you to execute fundamental basketball plays in order to score, its much easier to see the flaws.
lets just set NU's terrible start aside and look at a point in the game when NU was actually "in the game", at least as far as the score was concerned. In the span of a few minutes, the end of hte first half and the beginning of the 2nd, we had NU defenders who had NO idea how to defend the pick and roll. We had guards, (Webster and Shields) with silly open floor turnovers, NU defenders closing out on Creighton players by literally running at them full speed only to watch them blow by for open shots, layups, and kick-outs to wide open CU shooters.....
guys......this team is not well coached. there are signs ALL over the place. last year it may have been masked by all the bickering we did about team chemistry etc. But it simply can't be denied. To make it as simple as possible, go back and re-watch the game, and count how many times you see 2 NU players occupying the exact same floor space doing the exact same thing. I counted at least 7 or so, and that was in the first 10 minutes of the game. then count how many times you saw CU players in that same predicament. zero would be a good guess.
So what does that actually mean when you have 2 players in the same spot? (and i'm not talking about 2 guys doubling down on a post player.) it means the players don't know what they are supposed to be doing. I saw McVeigh and Parker guarding the same guy. I saw AW3 and Webster standing a foot from each other because both made the exact same cut at the exact same time to the exact same spot on offense. Its all over the floor, all the time. 2 guys doing the same thing. It can come from lack of communication, lack of understanding, lack of vision, lack of a lot of things. but it all points back to coaching.
OFFENSE - my biggest concern.
On offense especially, there is no design. no rhythm. no flow. its just random chaos. I watched Webster dribble the ball for a few seconds, only to make a pass to Shields who was standing 4 feet from him. Webster made the pass and cut to the basket, only to run into AW3 who, from the exact opposite corner 3pt line was running ALL the way across the court to set a ball screen for Shields. Well after he and Webster collided, AW3 continued on his way and narrowly avoided setting a moving screen because Shields had already started dribbling, rendering the ball screen useless. I had to laugh and then i got mad and thought to myself "ok seriously, why the F is your best 3 point shooter wasting energy running the width of the floor to set a ball screen? what is the point of that?"
thats just stupid. and what has me absolutely worried is a guy like AW3 isn't doing that because he just REALLY wanted to set a ball screen, or he just wanted to help the team. the guy wants to help the team by doing what he does, and that is shoot. there is NO way he would do that jsut based on his own instinct. so who is telling him to do that? where is that thought coming from? because its not even logical. so that makes me wonder what in the world Miles is telling these guys to do on offense. it looks to me like he has set of guidelines or concepts....."you should be cutting, setting a ball screen, or moving"
i seriously hope his offensive game plan isn't simply "cut, or move, or screen". cause if so, does anyone wonder why half the time our team looks like they don't know what they should be doing cuase everyone is just doing whatever pops into his head. honestly, thats what our offense looked like tonight.
one last thing and i'll be done. I'm big on body language, when it comes to bball. go back and watch the first 8 minutes of the game and count how many times NU players caught the ball on offense, and IMMEDIATELY, i mean IMMEDIATELY dribbled, then shuffled their feet, but went nowhere. if you guessed 15 or so, you'd be probably be right. so what does that mean? it means the team is SUPER tight, probably even nervous. it also means the team, to a man, is unsure of what to do, and what their teammates are doing. that Immediate dribble, shuffle the feet, but go no-where bball move is a tell-tale sign of a guy who is burning adrenaline and nervous energy, and who is TRYING to get himself into the ready position of playing bball and being "productive" but without an idea of what to actually do to be productive. So you catch, dribble right away, do a few foot shuffles, go nowhere, and pass to the next guy. When you have people doing it 4,5,6 times in a row its just brutal to watch. i hope that makes sense.
these signs are ALL over the place. we don't see them in all their glory against Abilene Christian, but against teams like CU that force you to execute fundamental basketball plays in order to score, its much easier to see the flaws.
Last edited:
uke:
