Game thoughts

[torque-cat]

1. We hit shots. Shooting percentage (particularly from 3) is like turnovers in football. Usually a team with a substantial edge will win.

2. Buie must have the biggest gap between his typical performance and his lights out performances--if you just saw him vs MSU you'd think he was an all-american.

3. Nance. This is what he is capable of--beast on the boards, disrupting shots in the paint and hit some 3s for good measure. Oh yeah and run on the break.

4. Kopp and Audige had off nights and we still beat #4 MSU by 14 pts. Goes to show that we have about 8 guys who can be our best player on a given night. Tonight was Buie, Nance and Berry.

5. Team has phenomenal length, solid athleticism and we have multiple shooters from 3--Kopp, Berry, Buie, Beran and you can't really leave Nance, Audige or Greer alone or they will hit too. Most good 3 pt shooters I've seen. Only Berry is a talented finisher, Audige is ok. As always, we do still lack guys who can create offense off the dribble other than when Buie is hot. If Audige and Buie were consistent off the dribble scorers we could be talking tourney potential for this team.

6. I guess CC keeps his job until the next bad game (j/k), we are gonna have rough nights in this league but our top to bottom talent is the best I've seen at NU.

7. If this season doesn't count against eligibility I believe we have the following
Frosh: Buie, Berry, Beran, Young, Audige. Soph: Nance, Kopp, Greer. Junior: Gaines If guys stay for a couple more years and add some good recruits we could be very good.

 

[CSCatFan1]

1. We hit shots. Shooting percentage (particularly from 3) is like turnovers in football. Usually a team with a substantial edge will win.

2. Buie must have the biggest gap between his typical performance and his lights out performances--if you just saw him vs MSU you'd think he was an all-american.

3. Nance. This is what he is capable of--beast on the boards, disrupting shots in the paint and hit some 3s for good measure. Oh yeah and run on the break.

4. Kopp and Audige had off nights and we still beat #4 MSU by 14 pts. Goes to show that we have about 8 guys who can be our best player on a given night. Tonight was Buie, Nance and Berry.

5. Team has phenomenal length, solid athleticism and we have multiple shooters from 3--Kopp, Berry, Buie, Beran and you can't really leave Nance, Audige or Greer alone or they will hit too. Most good 3 pt shooters I've seen. Only Berry is a talented finisher, Audige is ok. As always, we do still lack guys who can create offense off the dribble other than when Buie is hot. If Audige and Buie were consistent off the dribble scorers we could be talking tourney potential for this team.

6. I guess CC keeps his job until the next bad game (j/k), we are gonna have rough nights in this league but our top to bottom talent is the best I've seen at NU.

7. If this season doesn't count against eligibility I believe we have the following
Frosh: Buie, Berry, Beran, Young, Audige. Soph: Nance, Kopp, Greer. Junior: Gaines If guys stay for a couple more years and add some good recruits we could be very good.

Gaines will need to graduate so we have room for PBJ.

 

[NJCat]

1. We hit shots. Shooting percentage (particularly from 3) is like turnovers in football. Usually a team with a substantial edge will win.

2. Buie must have the biggest gap between his typical performance and his lights out performances--if you just saw him vs MSU you'd think he was an all-american.

3. Nance. This is what he is capable of--beast on the boards, disrupting shots in the paint and hit some 3s for good measure. Oh yeah and run on the break.

4. Kopp and Audige had off nights and we still beat #4 MSU by 14 pts. Goes to show that we have about 8 guys who can be our best player on a given night. Tonight was Buie, Nance and Berry.

5. Team has phenomenal length, solid athleticism and we have multiple shooters from 3--Kopp, Berry, Buie, Beran and you can't really leave Nance, Audige or Greer alone or they will hit too. Most good 3 pt shooters I've seen. Only Berry is a talented finisher, Audige is ok. As always, we do still lack guys who can create offense off the dribble other than when Buie is hot. If Audige and Buie were consistent off the dribble scorers we could be talking tourney potential for this team.

6. I guess CC keeps his job until the next bad game (j/k), we are gonna have rough nights in this league but our top to bottom talent is the best I've seen at NU.

7. If this season doesn't count against eligibility I believe we have the following
Frosh: Buie, Berry, Beran, Young, Audige. Soph: Nance, Kopp, Greer. Junior: Gaines If guys stay for a couple more years and add some good recruits we could be very good.

Two points:

Nace played like a grown man tonight. His best game in purple.

Audige needs work, played out of control in the first half. Shot selection needs serious work. Seemed to calm down in the second half.

 

[CSCatFan1]

Two points:

Nace played like a grown man tonight. His best game in purple.

Audige needs work, played out of control in the first half. Shot selection needs serious work. Seemed to calm down in the second half.

Audige still getting acclimated. He’ll get there. Only his 4th game with the squad.

 

[Alan Smithee_rivals156293]

Audige still getting acclimated. He’ll get there. Only his 4th game with the squad.

Was very glad that Collins was willing to send him a message early. Audige can be a real major help to this team, and the sooner he settles in the more playing time he’ll get.

 

[NUThump]

1. We hit shots. Shooting percentage (particularly from 3) is like turnovers in football. Usually a team with a substantial edge will win.

2. Buie must have the biggest gap between his typical performance and his lights out performances--if you just saw him vs MSU you'd think he was an all-american.

3. Nance. This is what he is capable of--beast on the boards, disrupting shots in the paint and hit some 3s for good measure. Oh yeah and run on the break.

4. Kopp and Audige had off nights and we still beat #4 MSU by 14 pts. Goes to show that we have about 8 guys who can be our best player on a given night. Tonight was Buie, Nance and Berry.

5. Team has phenomenal length, solid athleticism and we have multiple shooters from 3--Kopp, Berry, Buie, Beran and you can't really leave Nance, Audige or Greer alone or they will hit too. Most good 3 pt shooters I've seen. Only Berry is a talented finisher, Audige is ok. As always, we do still lack guys who can create offense off the dribble other than when Buie is hot. If Audige and Buie were consistent off the dribble scorers we could be talking tourney potential for this team.

6. I guess CC keeps his job until the next bad game (j/k), we are gonna have rough nights in this league but our top to bottom talent is the best I've seen at NU.

7. If this season doesn't count against eligibility I believe we have the following
Frosh: Buie, Berry, Beran, Young, Audige. Soph: Nance, Kopp, Greer. Junior: Gaines If guys stay for a couple more years and add some good recruits we could be very good.

#4:Add Young to that list. 3 guys with below average nights and we still were able to get a comfortable win. Young missed 2 or 3 that usually fall for him.

 

[GatoLouco]

Was very glad that Collins was willing to send him a message early. Audige can be a real major help to this team, and the sooner he settles in the more playing time he’ll get.

I think that sums it.

He’s the kind of athletic we usually don’t see in purple.

He was sitting on the bench one minute into the 2nd. After managing totake 3 bad shots in a quick succession

 

[HawkCat]

I have been critical of Nance. Tonight, we saw what he is capable of when he plays assertively. Very nice game.

 

[Figrating]

Did not remotely resemble the team that crumbled against Pitt.

CCC makes a good point, though - enjoy the hard-earned W tonight, but tomorrow the rest of the conference awaits and it's full of top 20 teams, so be prepared to play at this level the rest of the season or you'll get pounded into the floor.

Coach 'em up, CCC.

 

[ThatadultfromHolland]

1. We hit shots. Shooting percentage (particularly from 3) is like turnovers in football. Usually a team with a substantial edge will win.

2. Buie must have the biggest gap between his typical performance and his lights out performances--if you just saw him vs MSU you'd think he was an all-american.

3. Nance. This is what he is capable of--beast on the boards, disrupting shots in the paint and hit some 3s for good measure. Oh yeah and run on the break.

4. Kopp and Audige had off nights and we still beat #4 MSU by 14 pts. Goes to show that we have about 8 guys who can be our best player on a given night. Tonight was Buie, Nance and Berry.

5. Team has phenomenal length, solid athleticism and we have multiple shooters from 3--Kopp, Berry, Buie, Beran and you can't really leave Nance, Audige or Greer alone or they will hit too. Most good 3 pt shooters I've seen. Only Berry is a talented finisher, Audige is ok. As always, we do still lack guys who can create offense off the dribble other than when Buie is hot. If Audige and Buie were consistent off the dribble scorers we could be talking tourney potential for this team.

6. I guess CC keeps his job until the next bad game (j/k), we are gonna have rough nights in this league but our top to bottom talent is the best I've seen at NU.

7. If this season doesn't count against eligibility I believe we have the following
Frosh: Buie, Berry, Beran, Young, Audige. Soph: Nance, Kopp, Greer. Junior: Gaines If guys stay for a couple more years and add some good recruits we could be very good.

Buie plays very similar when he’s on and off the difference is his shooting percentage. Very similar shot selection and penetration. Similar mistakes. He’s an extremely streaky shooter but play style is the same.

Kopp had an “off” game. He’s not one to create his shot so when you game plan to take him out like MSU did he’s not gonna get his looks as much. He played really well despite not getting his shots up. He only attempted 3 shots. How NU teams can you said would beat a team with their leading scorer only scoring 5 points? Let alone a top 5 team.

Nance played like he did towards the end of last season. Dude has the talent and the skill. It’s a matter of if he shows up.

When we lose our next game remember this game as to how much the talent gap has closed compared to other B1G teams. It’s still there but we just soundly beat the 4th ranked team in the nation. Not just by shooting hot but clamping down defensively and on the boards. We lead what felt like the full game.

 

[NUera]

We lead what felt like the full game.

Pretty much. We took a 7-4 lead about four minutes in, on a Buie three assisted by Kopp. And were briefly tied about four minutes later at 16-16. That lasted roughly 20 seconds. From there, we never looked back. I’m too lazy to do the math but I think we were down or tied for all of 5 minutes in this game, and never after 11:19 in the 1st.

 

[bringbacktherantboard]

My only thought was that this is better than beating Pitt.

 

[Kat burglar]

Nance played like he did towards the end of last season. Dude has the talent and the skill. It’s a matter of if he shows up.

In the press interview Nance said that he didn't really work on his game the first two years. Now he has been working with coach James and he is putting in more time and focus. I hope he keeps that attitude the whole year. He had a great back door dunk late when MSU was swarming the perimeter. That had to leave a mark...

Also, Collins said that he had not done a great job developing Nance the first 2 years.

 

[CatManTrue]

Pretty much. We took a 7-4 lead about four minutes in, on a Buie three assisted by Kopp. And were briefly tied about four minutes later at 16-16. That lasted roughly 20 seconds. From there, we never looked back. I’m too lazy to do the math but I think we were down or tied for all of 5 minutes in this game, and never after 11:19 in the 1st.

We only trailed for about 100 seconds when we were down 4-2.

After Nance tied it at 4-4, we never trailed again. Outstanding.

 

[BleedingPurple15]

Let's not forget that we were up on Pitt for most of the game. The collapse in the last quarter of that game was more mental than physical. We're starting to find out that we have the talent and skill to compete. It's learning to close that will differentiate this team from last year's (or not).

 

[GatoLouco]

Let's not forget that we were up on Pitt for most of the game. The collapse in the last quarter of that game was more mental than physical. We're starting to find out that we have the talent and skill to compete. It's learning to close that will differentiate this team from last year's (or not).

We were also up while not playing well at all. While getting absolutely clobbered on the boards.

We were also up against a team that, unlike it was often portrayed here, is a strong team. They might not be top ACC, but the ACC is very strong. It would be like playing Purdue and saying we blew it against a bad team.

But ultimately, as usual, we lost. Proof talent is there. Leaving the usual interrogations about coaching