Nebraska 80, Illinois 74 OT Postgame

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#752      
The emotions I had last night watching the WBB game ranged all across the spectrum from good vibes to bad vibes and I still had total admiration for their effort and heart displayed.........They came back from a horrendous 3rd quarter to tie up the game and send it to overtime.......Genesis B. scored 14 points in the 4th quarter and has a heart the size of the Rocky Mts.....She continued to will the team to OT victory.......

I said all of that to draw a parallel to the MBB game we all witnessed last night......I had a similar range of emotions across the spectrum but never had any feeling of the good vibes about the MBB game as it boiled down to a one step forward , 2 steps back ordeal........

Bad passes , combined with horrible shooting on 3's , led me to have a sinking feeling midway through the 1st half that we were going to slide deeper into the abyss of under performing our skill and talent level in another winnable game situation ........

I really really have to be honest in the fact that us coming back to force overtime really didn't sink in until DGL sank that 3 pointer to tie the game up at 70 all.........His 3 pter shook the cobwebs out of my forlorn and heavily medded up brain and I came back alive with a surge of optimism that we were going to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat.........I really really did..........

I figured those last 25 seconds of regulation would have an option to get the ball to the hot hand of Mr. DGL for a drive to the rim on a last second layup or foul to secure the win.........

Alas , that scenario didn't come to fruition........What dumbstruck me the most was no DGL on the court to start the overtime......I asked NL # 3 about it and she snapped back with a string of vulgarities that would tell you EXACTLY how she was thinking about the matter at hand.........

Our first 2 offensive possessions went nowhere and all the mojo of forcing OT went out like a busted balloon and we lost to a vastly inferior opponent yet again because of poor coaching decisions and playing the wrong players at the worst time imaginable........

I woke up this morning after tossing and turning through 4 hours of sleep with a gigantic headache.........I then had a doctors appt. at 9:45 followed up by a couple of hours reading all the keyboard cowboys opinion's about what went wrong last night......
it's good to see all the participation and opinion giving done here.....It's also comical at times on what is posted here.........but I support everyone's right to give an opinion no matter how farcical it is.........But , I do agree with the main thought of BH needs to be out of the starting 5 and his minutes slashed to half of what he now is getting....

I know he is trying his best but he just ain't cutting it as a player on a ranked P 5 team......I think my vertical as a 73 yr old is more than his and if he isn't hitting 45 % of his 3's then his overall game puts us at a disadvantage....

Final thought :

It would be so nice to see DGL in the starting 5 this Sunday and him getting 30 + minutes.....I have other ideas about rotations but my headache is still throbbing and it's time for my meds............

The life as an Illini fanatic is not an easy road to follow , but it's the only road I want to be on.....It really really is.............

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I'm still getting closer to my home....................

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#754      
To back up your analytics argument even further, when it comes to Ben on the offensive side of the ball, there's data even more damning than the shooting percentage.

So far in B10 play, Ben individually contributes to about 1.07ppp for the possessions he actively participates. The problem is that not only is this lower than the team's average 1.09ppp on offense, it's that he only contributes to 13.7% of possessions in 29mpg. That means that on offense for the 52 offensive possessions per game he's on the court for, he actively participates in only 7 of them! That is practically invisible! Especially considering he is terrible at assisting and offensive rebounding for his size.

And just to give people an idea of how unbelievably passive Ben has been in B10 play this year, Ty Rodgers, who we can all agree is not an offensive dynamo and in fact had a large portion of the fanbase up in arms about "whenever we play him it's 4 on 5", these are his offensive efficiency metric comparables in B10 play:

Ben: 1.07ppp, contributes to 13.7% of possessions, 47.6% Total Shooting, 4.2% Offensive rebounding pct, 3.6% assist rate, 10.4% Free Throw Rate
Ty: 1.19ppp, contributes to 17.5% of possessions, 57.2% Total Shooting, 11.6% Offensive rebounding pct, 14.4% assist rate, 40.4% Free Throw Rate

So basically, if Ty had the same minutes as Ben and had similar metrics to last year, he individually be contributing 3.3ppg more, along with just about triple the offensive rebounds, and quadruple the number of assists and drawn fouls. That is so far beyond damning it is vomit inducing.

And I know some people are going to look at this and defend Ben by comparing him to the lackluster play of some of our other guys, and I want to say, I have absolutely nothing against Ben. Honestly, I feel for the kid- he probably saw things going a lot better this year and he's struggling. But, objectively, on offense, he has been almost invisible outside of the threes he shoots.

I like that Brad and Tyler have analytics in mind and focus on them, they should do that. But analytics can also be misused for confirmation bias, and at some point you have to get over it, look at the data objectively, and say "this pains me but it ain't working" and come up with an analytically better solution.

I feel for Ben, I do, but Brad has to start pulling minutes until Ben can figure out how to contribute more on a possession by possession basis and hit his shots at a reasonable rate, because he's not even playing at a B10 replacement level player right now.
Was it Churchill, there are lies, there are damned lies and then there are statistics?
 
#755      
We are actually like the best team in the country at not allowing teams to beat us with the three for what that's worth.
We're probably also the best team at stopping drunks on skid row from beating us.

I suggest we look at our conference record (6-5) as the best indicator or where our tattered, haphazard, last-best-hope this year is at. Solid. Middle of the pack. Battling. Just a bit short of where Coach and we hope.

And oh yes? We have injuries and illness and hateful officials out to get us? So does every other team. Overcome, or relish your whining!

(Wow, that was a little bit more savage than I thought it would come out. I apologize, Champaign -- that was NOT directed at you personally. Prolly directed at the big bruiser, Bad Brad.)
 
#756      
Did anyone hear why Brad had bandages on his hand? Guess his hand met a locker or something at half time?
-He took something to the Pizza Hut parking lot at half even though he has lost his fire and doesnt have passion about coaching these days :rolleyes:
-BH is not making 7 figures and is not guaranteed playing time, the things people throw out there on here and people run with is silly.
-Brad had a bad day at the office yesterday, but he is the right guy for the job here. The same people on here talking about the final four and potential national championship after are the Oregon road trip are the same as now Brad just doesn't have it anymore. May I suggest you wait 24 hour to post after each game win or lose.
-We lost ALL 5 started last year and we have been playing without one of the most important pieces to the team for almost 2 weeks now
 
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#757      
I obviously didn't understand the NLI $$$ until now. If I am a coach, I am hitting the donors for a war chest to get players, not a donor for a specific player. Ben H. is getting his NLI, starting or coming off the bench. The idea a donor is mad is silly. They should be donating mainly to build the best TEAM, for team success, not a certain guy, or at least be honest enough to understand when the guy is playing bad.

Maybe Ben H. is putting too much pressure on himself because of the NLI $$$. Who knows? When your ONLY true tool is shooting and you are really bad in most games. Maybe it's getting him to do dumb things like forcing shots, trying to play hero ball. A nice period a 6th or 7th man, hoping to be instant offense might help. But will Brad do it?

All I know is this is reminding me WAY TOO MUCH of my Cardinals the last few years. Contracts gotta play, even when they have sucked for quite a period.

Dumb, just plain dumb.
 
#758      
This is not basketball related. I had a guy tell me on a Cardinal fan page this week that according to analytics Lars Nootbar is top 5 in all of baseball at his position. I will leave it there without further comment.
 
#759      
As former President Harry S. Truman said "the buck stops here". That is why a lot of people including coaches have difficulty delegating.
 
#760      
Speaking of in-game adjusting..... despite the overall solid defensive efficiency numbers, every single high-major opponent (until last night) has steadily increased their scoring efficiency over the course of the game against us. That's EVERY GAME that our opponent has been able to make adjustments and then score more consistently, all the way through to the final whistle.
Whew! Fascinating. I think analytics are a great predictor of what will happen in a situation IF YOU HAVE NO OTHER INFORMATION specific to that particular situation. As a game progresses, you get more and more information, and I think pregame analytics will generally become less and less useful. If you are sticking with the pregame analytics, and not factoring in what you learn during the course of the game at hand, those analytics can become cement overshoes.

Do you consider that we outscored the opponent last night in the second half by 9 points - did BU not adjust better than Hoiberg?

I made the mistake of checking in on this thread - generally avoid the postgame threads after losses because I hate to dwell on the fact that we missed our chance at hiring a multitude of basketball experts that we should have hired instead of BU. The game is so obviously simple - BU must be a moron.
 
#761      
I've been watching Illinois basketball since the Bruce Douglas-Efrem Winters days. In that time I can not remember a more poorly played game in terms of the basic fundamentals. Honestly hard to believe what I just watched.
Exactly. I watched the Illini bball.since Harry Combs was the coach. Very bad bball play by the Illinini vs Neb Thursday night.
 
#762      
Someone please help me understand. If I am following correctly, we dare teams to beat us with the three, but that is our bread and butter? Is the point to rebound a lot of mixed threes to miss layups? # disappointed, #confused.
No, defensively we try to take away the three as much as possible. The opponent 3 point rate and 3 point percentage are both among the lowest in the country. The tradeoff is it's easier to drive on us. It seems like we fight over almost every screen, even against players that don't shoot well from the perimeter.

In terms of three point offense, the frustrating part is pretty much all our shooters have regressed from earlier in the season and earlier in their careers. Some of it is due to higher level competition, but I don't think that's the whole story. Our accuracy even on wide open looks is terrible.
 
#763      
You’d feel better if he threw Tyler under the bus and publicly called him out? I understand all the frustration with the offense, but I don’t want the HC of any team I root for calling out an AC publicly. What is the benefit of that?

People read way too much into press conferences. You think a HC wants to do a presser after a loss? You think you’re going to get some wonderful insight from a presser after a loss (or for that matter even a win)? As far as I know, the coaches are required to do press conferences just like those stupid in game and halftime one or two question interviews.

You seem to have said that behind closed doors BU is calling Tyler out. That’s how it should be done. We need adjustments being made that improve results. That hasn’t happened, and fans and press have a right to criticize that and be mad. We don’t need a HC publicly calling out an AC to make fans feel better.
It's not about calling out an AC. It's admitting and taking ownership that they are having an offensive adjustment problem to players being out. He won't do that because he won't admit that Tyler's plans have flaws that weren't patched. We have been out coached recently. Old Brad in post games admitted and took ownership of it and said they would correct it.
 
#764      
I rewatched the second half earlier today while listening to the Mike Carpenter 200 level podcast where he does second half commentary. It wasn't a very fun experience, and his reactions in real time were very similar to what we have all been saying on the board.

Honestly the parts of the game that were bar far the most frustrating on the rewatch (aside from Ben starting the OT instead of DGL) was the careless turnovers and the defense getting torched frequently by simple back cuts and BLOB plays.

The poor three point shooting was a much smaller concern especially when there were 4-5 possessions in the final 6 minutes where we had the chance to tie or take the lead but instead dribbled off our feet or chucked the ball out of bounds. Didn't even give ourselves a chance to miss a three.

One other note is that Nebraska is frequently lauded for its tough home court and raucous crowd, but I don't feel like they affected the game at all despite the final result. Obviously we didn't play well at all, but I don't think it was the crowd rattling the team, just lack of focus and effort.
I didn't think it was particularly loud at all. I do think the crowd would've left at halftime had we been up, and it was not a packed house to begin with. I will never like PBA as a basketball forum. Sue me. 🤷‍♂️
That being said, there was a palpable feeling after our final regular time possession that they had dodged the bullet. We came out in OT completely flat.
 
#767      
Do you consider that we outscored the opponent last night in the second half by 9 points - did BU not adjust better than Hoiberg?
Fair point! We did shoot way better in the second half. But other than thinking that we were doing something different in defending BLOB plays, I don't recall noticing anything different on offense. (I expect there were changes, but I never played even at the HS level, and just don't recall SPOTTING any). I did come back alive when it seemed that DGL might bring us back in the last eight or so minutes. That's why I (and apparently many others here) were demoralized when he was taken out at crunch time.

I guessed that DGL was taken out because BU didn't want to acknowledge that BH (and others) were having bad shooting nights from 3. I do generally like the idea of "don't pull a kid just because he missed a shot." But jeez.
 
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#768      
Brad was obviously very defensive in the post-game interview. He has to know a lot of the issues with this team are very much his fault, and yet he can't admit it to himself or anyone else. (Issues other than Tomi's mono, KJ's arm injury, or the appalling bad officiating at MSU.)

For example, regarding a question about our guards' lazy, casual, too-cool-for-school turnovers, Brad appeared to (intentionally?) misunderstand: "I write it down on the board before every game! We can't have 17 turnovers!" (Translation: It's their fault, not mine!) But the question was clearly not about how many turnovers, but rather about how come we have so many bad (unforced) turnovers. I think that's when Brad cheap-shotted Piper: Brad was acting-out from a feeling of defensiveness, and tried to shutdown Piper (who was too nice to go after Brad with a pointed follow-up question).
He should have followed up with "Could Tyler have made those shots?"
It was super icky to hear him demand the players grow up but then act like that to a reporter.

I still think we're ok and can flourish when Tomi comes back. I'm the meantime, more Riley and DGL.
 
#769      
In BU's post game, I was surprised that he emphasized Nebraska's foul and free throw advantage at home. Both teams had 18 fouls and 18 free throws, so it didn't really apply in this game.
 
#770      
In BU's post game, I was surprised that he emphasized Nebraska's foul and free throw advantage at home. Both teams had 18 fouls and 18 free throws, so it didn't really apply in this game.
So many times in these games fouls called and fouls committed are two different things. And I think home teams benefit.
 
#772      
Why is that the case though? The NIL money is a sunk cost, so why not just put the best players on the floor? Do coaches have to go out of their way to try to justify the money spent so donors don't feel like they wasted their money? If so, that isn't going to work.
Because you need NIL money next year and the next year and so on.
 
#773      
Do you consider that we outscored the opponent last night in the second half by 9 points - did BU not adjust better than Hoiberg?

I made the mistake of checking in on this thread - generally avoid the postgame threads after losses because I hate to dwell on the fact that we missed our chance at hiring a multitude of basketball experts that we should have hired instead of BU. The game is so obviously simple - BU must be a moron.
Did you miss the “until last night” portion of my post?
 
#775      
Did you miss the “until last night” portion of my post?
So you admit BU is doing better at adjusting, lol.

You should not expect a team to outplay the opponents when up by a large margin at half - so I am excluding all wins of more than 20 points here (OR, IU, PSU included).

Oakland - up by 7 at half, won by 12.
Alabama- down by 14 at half, lost by 13.
Arkansas - up by 15 at half, won by 13.
NW - up by 3 at half, went to OT.
Wisc. - up by 4 at half, won by 6.
Tenn. - down by 1 at half, lost by 2.
MO - up by 5, won by 3.
WA - up by 9 at half, won by 4.
USC - up by 3, lost by 10.
MSU - tied at half, lost by 2.
Maryland - down by 3, lost by 19.
NW - up by 22, won by 9.
Neb - down by 9, went to OT.

In the two highlighted games we were significantly outperformed in the second half and the coaching staff may be deserving of some criticism. But the other games not so much. I didn't highlight the NW game because we were up 19 with 2:40 to play - the late game surge by NW is not on the coaching staff (i.e. Will handing the ball to the opposing team under the basket and the team allowing unchallenged 3pt shots).
 
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