Basketball vs. South Dakota
- Thread starter Harry Caray
- Start date
Yeah, well, since Nebraska men's athletics sucks and you come here to point it out makes you the douche. Not our AD or Coaches or other admins...you, Harry.
Too bad Omaha U has to do our dirty work for us a week later even if it's another sport.
Mavs Beat Herky 98-89.
First win against a B1G team.
Mavs Beat Herky 98-89.
First win against a B1G team.
Calm down, tough guy. I didn't see a thread about the game and it wasn't televised, so I was just wondering how we let a 20 point lead disappear. The guys were probably looking ahead to Creighton and Kansas. Hopefully we can play well in those games and gain some confidence heading into the Big Ten. The conference is pretty wide open.
I wasn't able to listen. Can anyone tell me what happened that we blew such a big lead? Did USD get hot from three or did we go young and those guys struggled?
I'll try to explain the game as I saw it as short as possible.
Early in the first half, everything was dropping for Nebraska and nothing was dropping for USD. That's really how Nebraska got such a large lead in the first place. Michael Jacobson of all people drained two threes early, and everyone else was hitting too. Nebraska's D was pretty good and forced some bad shots, but nothing would go in for USD regardless.
Then in the latter part of the first half, that started to change a little. The shots were still mostly falling for Nebraska, but USD started hitting them too and hitting some threes while the threes stopped dropping for the most part for Nebraska, so they managed to whittle the lead down to 14 at half. There were some defensive breakdowns that allowed some wide open shots by USD, but they also just had a few guys who suddenly couldn't miss if they tried, even on well defended shots.
The second half started out decent, mostly just traded a few baskets here and there and a lot of possessions by both teams with no scoring. Nebraska was defending pretty well, but nothing was dropping for USD. Nebraska was having a hard time too, some bad shots taken, but good shots that just wouldn't drop too. Even so, Nebraska managed to grow the lead to 17 before USD made their run. Suddenly, nothing would go in again for Nebraska. Some was poor shot selection, but there were plenty of good shots taken that simply wouldn't go. On the other end, USD suddenly was making everything, no matter how ridiculous. Some breakdowns lead to easier buckets, but USD also had guys throwing up prayer reverse layups with three hands in their face, and seeing them drop.
They whittled the lead down to two, but Nebraska actually fairly quickly reasserted themselves, and grew the lead back up enough that the last minute was fairly comfortable. It helped that the refs had an epiphany at some point when the game got close and realized they could actually whistle USD for fouls.
That brings me to the last point, the refs. The first half I thought was pretty good. They weren't calling it too tight or too loose for the most part. They weren't perfect by any stretch, but not too bad. Fouls were 9 on USD and 6 on Nebraska.
Second half was a different story. USD was playing much tighter, "full contact basketball" as I like to call it, and yet somehow managed to get only 3 fouls called on them until just over 4 minutes left, when they got their 4th, including going a span of nearly 8 minutes between their 3rd and 4th. Not only that, but Nebraska got called for a number of pretty ticky-tack traveling calls, while USD suddenly seemed to be able to do anything (I would love an explanation of how someone could spin in three circles, while moving toward the basket and not dribbling, and not travel). My favorite was after the game had gotten closer, and the refs had rediscovered the ability to call fouls. USD was pressing and a pass was thrown to Michael Jacobson near mid court, a USD player ran over and "separated" him from the ball and it went out. In the process of "separating" him, Michael Jacobson was apparently magically slammed to the floor pretty hard, and stayed down for a few seconds. Foul? Nope, out on Nebraska, USD ball.
Early in the first half, everything was dropping for Nebraska and nothing was dropping for USD. That's really how Nebraska got such a large lead in the first place. Michael Jacobson of all people drained two threes early, and everyone else was hitting too. Nebraska's D was pretty good and forced some bad shots, but nothing would go in for USD regardless.
Then in the latter part of the first half, that started to change a little. The shots were still mostly falling for Nebraska, but USD started hitting them too and hitting some threes while the threes stopped dropping for the most part for Nebraska, so they managed to whittle the lead down to 14 at half. There were some defensive breakdowns that allowed some wide open shots by USD, but they also just had a few guys who suddenly couldn't miss if they tried, even on well defended shots.
The second half started out decent, mostly just traded a few baskets here and there and a lot of possessions by both teams with no scoring. Nebraska was defending pretty well, but nothing was dropping for USD. Nebraska was having a hard time too, some bad shots taken, but good shots that just wouldn't drop too. Even so, Nebraska managed to grow the lead to 17 before USD made their run. Suddenly, nothing would go in again for Nebraska. Some was poor shot selection, but there were plenty of good shots taken that simply wouldn't go. On the other end, USD suddenly was making everything, no matter how ridiculous. Some breakdowns lead to easier buckets, but USD also had guys throwing up prayer reverse layups with three hands in their face, and seeing them drop.
They whittled the lead down to two, but Nebraska actually fairly quickly reasserted themselves, and grew the lead back up enough that the last minute was fairly comfortable. It helped that the refs had an epiphany at some point when the game got close and realized they could actually whistle USD for fouls.
That brings me to the last point, the refs. The first half I thought was pretty good. They weren't calling it too tight or too loose for the most part. They weren't perfect by any stretch, but not too bad. Fouls were 9 on USD and 6 on Nebraska.
Second half was a different story. USD was playing much tighter, "full contact basketball" as I like to call it, and yet somehow managed to get only 3 fouls called on them until just over 4 minutes left, when they got their 4th, including going a span of nearly 8 minutes between their 3rd and 4th. Not only that, but Nebraska got called for a number of pretty ticky-tack traveling calls, while USD suddenly seemed to be able to do anything (I would love an explanation of how someone could spin in three circles, while moving toward the basket and not dribbling, and not travel). My favorite was after the game had gotten closer, and the refs had rediscovered the ability to call fouls. USD was pressing and a pass was thrown to Michael Jacobson near mid court, a USD player ran over and "separated" him from the ball and it went out. In the process of "separating" him, Michael Jacobson was apparently magically slammed to the floor pretty hard, and stayed down for a few seconds. Foul? Nope, out on Nebraska, USD ball.
UNO beat Iowa in basketball and Wisconsin in hockey on the road on the same day ...pretty impressive
That sums it up very well, Jedi. I could not believe that call on the sideline. The SDU player separated Jacobsen from the ball like a safety coming over to hit a receiver on a deep route on the sidelines. The student announcers, who are some of the best in the Big 10, were very confused a number of times as to the call. It wasn't because of them being young and not getting it. It was because of the inexplicable calls by the refs.
One thing though, Miles' substitution pattern leads to these sorts of issues. When SDU came back in the first half and started to build some confidence it was 3 freshmen, Taylor and Webster on the floor for NU. Then when Miles puts the starters back in it takes them a while to get back into the flow of the game, which here helped SDU even more. Miles' substitution pattern is a head scratcher at times.