It looks and “feels” different

[The Purple Knight]

This team looks and feels different. It’s more of a “team” rather than a group individuals players. Nance being gone is a good thing. He was an overrated soft player that was viewed as a star, but really wasn’t. Sure nice not to have a 6’-11’ shooting 3’s all game. Young on the other hand would have been fine on this team.

Boo “turnover” Bowie seems to be playing with more control and maturity. Still wants to heave up bad shots, but there are fewer of them and some go in. Audige and Roper are solid at both ends and Big Matt will be fine.

We’ll know more in 5 or 6 games, but some positives.

 

[elgatoloco_rivals308553]

This team is scrappy, for sure. Dig Barnhizer being first to the floor. That article in the Athletic was spot on.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I can tell you one thing that looked different. When Nicholson is in the game, he parks down in the block much of the time, but also will come out and set ball screens. Unlike Ryan Young, he can also stop before he sets the screen, break to the basket, catch a pass and dunk the ball. He can get to the offensive boards quickly enough when Buie comes off the Nicholson screen and shoots. Those things work with Nicholson. They didnt work with Young.

Barnhizer plays hard. So does Roper. And both possess good court awareness... some of our other guys really don't.

 

[clarificationcat]

This team looks and feels different. It’s more of a “team” rather than a group individuals players. Nance being gone is a good thing. He was an overrated soft player that was viewed as a star, but really wasn’t. Sure nice not to have a 6’-11’ shooting 3’s all game. Young on the other hand would have been fine on this team.

Boo “turnover” Bowie seems to be playing with more control and maturity. Still wants to heave up bad shots, but there are fewer of them and some go in. Audige and Roper are solid at both ends and Big Matt will be fine.

We’ll know more in 5 or 6 games, but some positives.

I would put this take up there with the one where you would rather have some high school quarterback than Justin Fields. Hard to top that one but you gave it a good try.

It sure is nice not to have the leading 3-point shooter in the B1G taking 3's all game and only hitting 45.3% of them. What a terribly efficient way to score points! Oh, and he averaged 3 3-point shots a game, so actually it would have been better if he took a lot more rather than trying to post up to please guys who like watching basketball from the 70's. And he can take his 6.5 rebounds with him! Nance was not a go-to scorer and he had no post-game but he did almost everything else well and if you were to switch him out for Verhoeven, this team would have a decent chance to go to tournament.

And I get tired of repeating this over and over, but the past couple of seasons, on average, Buie hasn't turned the ball over any more than any of the other point guards in recent history, including McIntosh. Unfortunately, he is really a poor finisher at the rim and I don't think that's going to get much better in his senior season. And I thought he played pretty poorly today. We will need him to play a lot better against good teams.

And if Audige shoots like he did last year, we probably lose this game. Our 3 needs to hit shots and he did today.

 

[Titanium999]

This team looks and feels different. It’s more of a “team” rather than a group individuals players. Nance being gone is a good thing. He was an overrated soft player that was viewed as a star, but really wasn’t. Sure nice not to have a 6’-11’ shooting 3’s all game. Young on the other hand would have been fine on this team.

Boo “turnover” Bowie seems to be playing with more control and maturity. Still wants to heave up bad shots, but there are fewer of them and some go in. Audige and Roper are solid at both ends and Big Matt will be fine.

We’ll know more in 5 or 6 games, but some positives.

We got legit team speed for sure! That is why we are looking good !

 

[GatoLouco]

The difference between the first and second half was mostly that we stopped allowing them to rush us. And I don’t mean rush us into quick shots. I mean rush us into bad decisions.

We have limitations on offense. We can’t afford to not play smart. Faster players will put a lot of pressure on our guys. Hopefully we are mature enough to stay the course and not panic. During the first half we panicked too often.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I would put this take up there with the one where you would rather have some high school quarterback than Justin Fields. Hard to top that one but you gave it a good try.

It sure is nice not to have the leading 3-point shooter in the B1G taking 3's all game and only hitting 45.3% of them. What a terribly efficient way to score points! Oh, and he averaged 3 3-point shots a game, so actually it would have been better if he took a lot more rather than trying to post up to please guys who like watching basketball from the 70's. And he can take his 6.5 rebounds with him! Nance was not a go-to scorer and he had no post-game but he did almost everything else well and if you were to switch him out for Verhoeven, this team would have a decent chance to go to tournament.

And I get tired of repeating this over and over, but the past couple of seasons, on average, Buie hasn't turned the ball over any more than any of the other point guards in recent history, including McIntosh. Unfortunately, he is really a poor finisher at the rim and I don't think that's going to get much better in his senior season. And I thought he played pretty poorly today. We will need him to play a lot better against good teams.

And if Audige shoots like he did last year, we probably lose this game. Our 3 needs to hit shots and he did today.

There are a lot of old issues that are last year's news and I am trying not to re-hash all the things we did wrong...
Nance obviously was a good player and did what he was told to do. Buie is above average for the league, but alarmingly erratic so far this year.

The only thing I will disagree about is that we probably would have lost if Audige hadnt gotten hot. Last year that may have been true. But I'm assuming Nicholson would have been in the game, Georgetown unable to stop him.

 

[clarificationcat]

The difference between the first and second half was mostly that we stopped allowing them to rush us. And I don’t mean rush us into quick shots. I mean rush us into bad decisions.

We have limitations on offense. We can’t afford to not play smart. Faster players will put a lot of pressure on our guys. Hopefully we are mature enough to stay the course and not panic. During the first half we panicked too often.

It would be great if we could finish our easier fast breaks as well. We lose 4-6 points a game by not converting 2 on 1 fast breaks. Buie cleared out the defender on one and then still missed a wide open shot. And Barnhizer kept the tradition alive of missing an uncontested layup in the half-court offense. We are not talented enough offensively to give away easy baskets.

 

[GatoLouco]

It would be great if we could finish our easier fast breaks as well. We lose 4-6 points a game by not converting 2 on 1 fast breaks. Buie cleared out the defender on one and then still missed a wide open shot. And Barnhizer kept the tradition alive of missing an uncontested layup in the half-court offense. We are not talented enough offensively to give away easy baskets.

Agreed. Roper (who showed really good signs today) also fumbled while all alone on the fast break. We only stand a chance against B1G teams if we are composed.

 

[SDakaGordie]

We won this game predominantly at the 3 point line. We made 7 more (and took 10 more). It’s just an inherently different approach to the game than Georgetown took and it served us well. (Of course, we may not shoot this well, but boy, we do have a lot of options each night).

We had other good things, like offensive rebounding and good defense. We met and exceeded their intensity level, and to Gato’s point, got to a point where we also calmed down and played confidently under their pressure.

 

[clarificationcat]

Agreed. Roper (who showed really good signs today) also fumbled while all alone on the fast break. We only stand a chance against B1G teams if we are composed.

Agreed. Roper (who showed really good signs today) also fumbled while all alone on the fast break. We only stand a chance against B1G teams if we are composed.

That was the one I forgot. He had nobody within 10 feet of him. I really like him, though. He and Barnhizer were both stars on great high school teams and I think they are comfortable in high pressure situations.

 

[The Purple Knight]

I would put this take up there with the one where you would rather have some high school quarterback than Justin Fields. Hard to top that one but you gave it a good try.

It sure is nice not to have the leading 3-point shooter in the B1G taking 3's all game and only hitting 45.3% of them. What a terribly efficient way to score points! Oh, and he averaged 3 3-point shots a game, so actually it would have been better if he took a lot more rather than trying to post up to please guys who like watching basketball from the 70's. And he can take his 6.5 rebounds with him! Nance was not a go-to scorer and he had no post-game but he did almost everything else well and if you were to switch him out for Verhoeven, this team would have a decent chance to go to tournament.

And I get tired of repeating this over and over, but the past couple of seasons, on average, Buie hasn't turned the ball over any more than any of the other point guards in recent history, including McIntosh. Unfortunately, he is really a poor finisher at the rim and I don't think that's going to get much better in his senior season. And I thought he played pretty poorly today. We will need him to play a lot better against good teams.

And if Audige shoots like he did last year, we probably lose this game. Our 3 needs to hit shots and he did today.

You can try spin it any way you want, but it’s no secret that Nance was a huge disappointment. The 6’-11” big guy playing 30 feet from the basket doesn’t work, especially in the big ten. Cats needed Nance to be a force inside and he was just a soft outside shooter, plain and simple. He would ruin the chemistry on this team.

Anyone with eyes could see Buie has played loose with the ball the past couple years. Unreliable in crunch time, with turnovers and stupid low percentage shots. This year he looks different so far.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

You can try spin it any way you want, but it’s no secret that Nance was a huge disappointment. The 6’-11” big guy playing 30 feet from the basket doesn’t work, especially in the big ten. Cats needed Nance to be a force inside and he was just a soft outside shooter, plain and simple. He would ruin the chemistry on this team.

Anyone with eyes could see Buie has played loose with the ball the past couple years. Unreliable in crunch time, with turnovers and stupid low percentage shots. This year he looks different so far.

Losing a bunch of winnable games was a huge disappointment. Nance was unable to close games - to be "the man" - but he had a very good season individually.

 

[clarificationcat]

You can try spin it any way you want, but it’s no secret that Nance was a huge disappointment. The 6’-11” big guy playing 30 feet from the basket doesn’t work, especially in the big ten. Cats needed Nance to be a force inside and he was just a soft outside shooter, plain and simple. He would ruin the chemistry on this team.

Anyone with eyes could see Buie has played loose with the ball the past couple years. Unreliable in crunch time, with turnovers and stupid low percentage shots. This year he looks different so far.

It's hard to even respond to this because it's not based on anything related to facts. We were in almost every game last year (including against ranked opponents), so the offense worked fine up until then. We lost because we didn't have any players that could consistently get to the rim and score or draw fouls in the last few minutes of games. And because Audige shot 30% from the field and Beran was terribly inconsistent. Not because Nance made 45% of his 3-point shots.

If you are suggesting that we are better off not having a guy who starts for the number 1 ranked team in the country ... o.k. He had 18 points today on 6 of 9 shooting, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks. Again, you're killing it.

And Buie had 5 turnovers today and 6 against Chicago State. He's done an awful job of taking care of the ball so far this year. Last year, he averaged 1.9 turnovers a game and in the last 12 games of the regular season had 1, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0 and 1 turnovers. I don't know what your eyesight is like, but you might want to schedule an appointment. Try watching the games more carefully and not just reacting to the score.

 

[The Purple Knight]

I watch the games very carefully, and you like to spin the stats. Cats were terrible last year and the guy at the rim should have been Nance but he stood on the perimeter.
P.S. Carolina barely beat a winless Gardiner Webb team tonight by 4 points at home. If they’re relying on Nance they won’t be #1 very long.

 

[CappyNU]

I watch the games very carefully, and you like to spin the stats. Cats were terrible last year and the guy at the rim should have been Nance but he stood on the perimeter.
P.S. Carolina barely beat a winless Gardiner Webb team tonight by 4 points at home. If they’re relying on Nance they won’t be #1 very long.

I'm not sure what your deal is with some of our players, but a) if you're gonna trash a guy spell his name right, b) actually check his stats instead of spewing the same fact-free gibberish, and c) Nance is the 4th or 5th option on UNC and, oh by the way he scored 18 points tonight.

 

[SimpsonElmwood]

Let’s focus on the perfect start to the year! No Merrimack. We will know a lot more about the squad by the end of the month. I hope they are able to play and beat Auburn and their shady coach in Cancun.

 

[clarificationcat]

I watch the games very carefully, and you like to spin the stats. Cats were terrible last year and the guy at the rim should have been Nance but he stood on the perimeter.
P.S. Carolina barely beat a winless Gardiner Webb team tonight by 4 points at home. If they’re relying on Nance they won’t be #1 very long.

I am not spinning anything. If the stats get in the way of what you think you see, I'm sorry. So when Buie had no turnovers in games last year, he was still loose with the ball? And when he has 11 turnovers in 2 games like this year, he's playing better? Shooting 45% on 3's is bad?

Basketball has passed you by. You see a result and you strain to create an analysis that fits your outdated narrative of how the game should be played.

 

[ballerog711]

They play harder and are tougher than last year.they also making better decisions with ball.

 

[clarificationcat]

They play harder and are tougher than last year.they also making better decisions with ball

It's 3 games against 3 bad teams. It's hard for me to reach any conclusions at this point other than Beran is much improved, Barnhizer and Roper are nice rotation guys and Matt will have an impact on games against a lot of teams. If Audige can be an average shooter, we will win some games in the conference.

I don't want to push stats too much, but PER is an advanced stat that tries to measure player efficiency on the offensive and defensive side. Zach Edey and Keegan Murray led the country so I think there is some validity to it. Nance led the team and finished 90th in the country ahead of Davis at Wisconsin. Beran finished at 1,281 and Audige finished at 1,500. I think Berry finished even lower because I couldn't find him. I don't care how hard you play, it's difficult to overcome 3 of your starters playing that poorly.

 

[Secho99]

I watch the games very carefully, and you like to spin the stats. Cats were terrible last year and the guy at the rim should have been Nance but he stood on the perimeter.
P.S. Carolina barely beat a winless Gardiner Webb team tonight by 4 points at home. If they’re relying on Nance they won’t be #1 very long.

Nance attempted 233 2-pointers (about 8 per game) last year and 92 3-pointers (about 3 per game), so the narrative that he stood around 30 feet from the hoop all the time doesn’t really hold up. Also, Nance was 9th in the B1G and top-100 in the country in defensive rebounding % last year. And 8th in conference in block %. Neither of those things are indicative of being “soft.”

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I don't know how you can say Georgetown is a bad team. We weren't even favored.
The Hoyas slaughtered Wisconsin-Green Bay 92-58 while missing two guys.
Wisconsin just beat Wisconsin-Green Bay 56-45.

We beat a decent Division 1 team tonight. And we're going to stomp the Badgers.*

*as long as Nicholson plays most of the minutes

 

[clarificationcat]

I don't know how you can say Georgetown is a bad team. We weren't even favored.
The Hoyas slaughtered Wisconsin-Green Bay 92-58 while missing two guys.
Wisconsin just beat Wisconsin-Green Bay 56-45.

We beat a decent Division 1 team tonight. And we're going to stomp the Badgers.*

*as long as Nicholson plays most of the minutes

Fair enough. I don't think they are good team.

 

[jne381]

It looks like I am going to have to care about NU basketball again.

 

[GatoLouco]

Fair enough. I don't think they are good team.

I'll go on the record myself saying they are a bad team. Ewing has a lot of work to do. They might become better, there's that chance. But, right now, that is a chaotic team of guys dribbling around and doing something. It's not organized basketball. Ewing might be in over his head. Good chance that's happening.

Having said all that, they pose a much bigger challenge than NIU. Wahab and Akok are more along the physicality that we'll face. And, amazingly, Nicholson seemed to physically not only match them, but surpass them. Good sign.

We have to like that Beran is more decisive and not hesitating to put it up. I really wished he would figure out how to get something going attacking the rim. If we watch last night's first half, he tried. And every single time, with no exception, he failed. It goes back to last year, that is not in his game. When he (rarely) attacked the rim last year, he did not know what to do. He just tried to go hard, throw his body against defenders and see what happens. Last year, as well as last night, he got blocked, he missed... I hope he figures something out. That would be great to get going on top of his evolution on pulling the trigger from outside.

 

[NUCat320]

I hope to watch my recording but haven’t yet. Let’s just not get so ‘Nebraska in Dublin’ excited after beating a program coming off a winless season.

I hope it’s different. I’m shocked by Beran’s assertiveness (looking at stats only), and NU won’t win many when Audige is shooting nine three-pointers.

Georgetown would prefer to be 3-0. Last night was a good night.

Dave Eanet still has to say Berry, Beran, and Boo Buie in the same lineup all the time. That’s rough.

 

[Hungry Jack]

We beat a decent Division 1 team tonight. And we're going to stomp the Badgers.*

*as long as Nicholson plays most of the minutes

I want to see our big, stiff white guy stomp the snot out of their big, stiff white guys with goofy haircuts.

And wherever Brad Davison is (probably the stands), I hope Big Matt swats a floater so hard that it rockets 15 rows deep and hits Davison square in his beak and bloodies his Cracker Jacks.

 

[GatoLouco]

I want to see our big, stiff white guy stomp the snot out of their big, stiff white guys with goofy haircuts.

And wherever Brad Davison is (probably the stands), I hope Big Matt swats a floater so hard that hits Davison square in his beak and bloodies his Cracker Jacks.

Davison, Stefanovic and Bohannon were dudes I was convinced would still be playing college ball by the time I went 6 feet under

 

[CSCatFan1]

It's hard to even respond to this because it's not based on anything related to facts. We were in almost every game last year (including against ranked opponents), so the offense worked fine up until then. We lost because we didn't have any players that could consistently get to the rim and score or draw fouls in the last few minutes of games. And because Audige shot 30% from the field and Beran was terribly inconsistent. Not because Nance made 45% of his 3-point shots.

If you are suggesting that we are better off not having a guy who starts for the number 1 ranked team in the country ... o.k. He had 18 points today on 6 of 9 shooting, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks. Again, you're killing it.

And Buie had 5 turnovers today and 6 against Chicago State. He's done an awful job of taking care of the ball so far this year. Last year, he averaged 1.9 turnovers a game and in the last 12 games of the regular season had 1, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0 and 1 turnovers. I don't know what your eyesight is like, but you might want to schedule an appointment. Try watching the games more carefully and not just reacting to the score.

Hello, 911? I’d like to report a murder.

 

[PURPLECAT88]

I want to see our big, stiff white guy stomp the snot out of their big, stiff white guys with goofy haircuts.

And wherever Brad Davison is (probably the stands), I hope Big Matt swats a floater so hard that hits Davison square in his beak and bloodies his Cracker Jacks.

Why would Davison be in the stands? Doesn't he still have four more years of eligibility?

 

[Hungry Jack]

Davison, Stefanovic and Bohannon were dudes I was convinced would still be playing college ball by the time I went 6 feet under

They are our Ben Johnsons.

 

[Titanium999]

I watch the games very carefully, and you like to spin the stats. Cats were terrible last year and the guy at the rim should have been Nance but he stood on the perimeter.
P.S. Carolina barely beat a winless Gardiner Webb team tonight by 4 points at home. If they’re relying on Nance they won’t be #1 very long.

Exactly

 

[Styre]

I think at this point it's pretty safe to say that NU won't be the 7-win garbage fire many of us feared, but beating Georgetown right now is like beating Minnesota or Nebraska. Obviously good to win the game, and there are some positive signs, but things "looked and felt different" last year too after we beat Georgia and Maryland and took Wake to OT.

 

[CappyNU]

Yeah, I had mentioned before the game yesterday that Georgetown's style is to invite other teams to take 3s and we took full advantage of that. Georgetown's 8 transfers in the rotation may eventually come together to play as a good team, but right now they're the worst team in a mediocre Big East.

Next game against IPFW may end up being more of a challenge than last night's game - IPFW is one of the most experienced teams in the country returning essentially their entire squad from last season which tied for the Horizon League title, which includes at least one 24 year old and one 25(!) year old, but they are definitely tiny, with only one guy 6'9" or taller and two 5'8" guards. Would like to see Big Matt dominate inside.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I think at this point it's pretty safe to say that NU won't be the 7-win garbage fire many of us feared, but beating Georgetown right now is like beating Minnesota or Nebraska. Obviously good to win the game, and there are some positive signs, but things "looked and felt different" last year too after we beat Georgia and Maryland and took Wake to OT.

I think it is too early to tell. Beran’s improvement, Big Matt and Roper all will contribute this year. It still comes down to our two best players, Boo and Chase. NU will go as they go. Additionally, NU can’t afford ANY injury as we are razor thin in depth.

 

[hdhntr1]

Perfe

Losing a bunch of winnable games was a huge disappointment. Nance was unable to close games - to be "the man" - but he had a very good season individually.

Perfect example of "Stats are for losers" Yes he had good stats but he was not the go to guy when it counted. That would have been fine and he would have been an integral part providing a sound foundation of a winning team if we had to go to guy but we did not. Audige showed something last night (that 3 point shot at the end of the shot clock that sealed the game) From what was said, Audige was injured all last year with a hip injury but is healthy this year. With this team, I feel Nance would have been a big asset. That said, Young would have been also and his game would have been more similar to Nicholson's so we would not have to run different Os.

 

[hdhntr1]

Agreed. Roper (who showed really good signs today) also fumbled while all alone on the fast break. We only stand a chance against B1G teams if we are composed.

Wasn't he out at the beginning of the year recovering from something? Could have had his timing off.

 

[hdhntr1]

There are a lot of old issues that are last year's news and I am trying not to re-hash all the things we did wrong...
Nance obviously was a good player and did what he was told to do. Buie is above average for the league, but alarmingly erratic so far this year.

The only thing I will disagree about is that we probably would have lost if Audige hadnt gotten hot. Last year that may have been true. But I'm assuming Nicholson would have been in the game, Georgetown unable to stop him.

The announcers indicate that last year Audige was playing hurt but this year finally healthy. Healthy he looks like he might be 10% better from three than last years 25% and that could make a HUGE difference. Maybe he can be the go to guy that we have been missing

 

[TheC]

Perfe

Perfect example of "Stats are for losers" Yes he had good stats but he was not the go to guy when it counted. That would have been fine and he would have been an integral part providing a sound foundation of a winning team if we had to go to guy but we did not. Audige showed something last night (that 3 point shot at the end of the shot clock that sealed the game) From what was said, Audige was injured all last year with a hip injury but is healthy this year. With this team, I feel Nance would have been a big asset. That said, Young would have been also and his game would have been more similar to Nicholson's so we would not have to run different Os.

Nance clearly never had that killer instinct and always seemed to be doubting himself. Of course, if he had that stronger mental make-up, combined with his skills, he never would have set foot on NU's campus. He would have been playing at one of the blue bloods from day one.

 

[Sec_112]

You can try spin it any way you want, but it’s no secret that Nance was a huge disappointment. The 6’-11” big guy playing 30 feet from the basket doesn’t work, especially in the big ten. Cats needed Nance to be a force inside and he was just a soft outside shooter, plain and simple.

Robbie Beran doesn't agree with you on this one, but I do.