Assuming the game is still on, NU plays the Prairie Stars tonight at 7:00 EST. Oddly, the game is shown as an exhibition game on the Springfield site. The Stars are coming off a 10 point win over Purdue Northwest yesterday and are riding a 2 game winning streak. Renew your subscription to BTN+ for the game.
Springfield
- Thread starter NJCat
- Start date
D2 opponents are allowed to count these game as exhibitions, as opposed to the D1 team, that counts it as an official game. But they are also non-events as far as NCAA tourney selection is concerned.
I’m excited to have a live game, finally!
Hope everyone plays and scores tonight. Going forward, CCC has a very pleasant challenge on his hand to allocate minutes across this talented group.
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No. Still a project. Lacks foot quickness, no offensive skills, awful FT stroke. Really hard to see him being a factor this year or next.
He won't get any B1G minutes unless NU is getting absolutely blown out, which I hope never happens this year.
For those who's Accountant didn't allow them to buy the game, the first 4 minutes of the second half were awesome. Blocks and dunks galore. NU turned up the intensity and looked the part of a top half B1G team.
Otherwise the Cats kind of went through the motions. UIS played some 1-3-1 zone which really bothered the NU second team. Williams in particular struggled in the first half but got better in the second.
Not much to learn from tonight. One more warm-up game before the 1/2/22 opener against MSU. Hope the virus doesn't keep the fans away, the Welsh-Ryan should be a-rockin'
Otherwise the Cats kind of went through the motions. UIS played some 1-3-1 zone which really bothered the NU second team. Williams in particular struggled in the first half but got better in the second.
Not much to learn from tonight. One more warm-up game before the 1/2/22 opener against MSU. Hope the virus doesn't keep the fans away, the Welsh-Ryan should be a-rockin'
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If the bar is “being a factor” the kid is doomed to fail. He had a solid game. Were it against real competition we’d be salivating. But it was not.
Anyway, to me he showed how he can contribute. Grabbed boards, had a block, altered at least 3-4 shots. And that’s the future of MN at NU. It could be one of a solid contributor. Probably it won’t be.
Of course Nicholson can contribute. There is a long line of winning players who grabbed rebounds, altered and blocked shots and occasionally dunked.
Just not for Chris Collins.
Just not for Chris Collins.
Maaaaaaaybe 10-15 down the road. I agree his footwork needs help.
His aggressiveness also needs some help. I was behind the basket, and there were a couple instances where he should have been going after a rebound rather than watching the game around him.
I don't think I've ever thought that about a second-year guy.
However, a possible nice little hook. Also, to PWF's point, he affected some UIS shots.
I hope you are right but from what I have seen, he does not know how to use his size and strength yet. Maybe it's because he doesn't get any minutes (which is definitely a possibility) but he looks slow to react.
He looks slow to react but mostly slow reading the game. Which is something common to 90%+ of young players. But way more apparent in big guys. How many big guys have we seen as FR that are put in the game and foul at a ridiculous rate? They need to learn, and need to... Play? Pick their spots, know their role and how they can impact the game. Ryan Young came in incredibly mature as a comparison.
Hunger looks a lot more advanced than Nicholson. Hope he works on his footwork, will need to be able to move a bit to use that size effectively for us.
If the Cats want to play Division II schools, we've probably got a couple of teams in the PSAC who'd give them a better game than those guys. Could always use the money.
maybe watch this video from 4:32 to 5:05
As good as Ryan Young is, he's probably not grabbing a rebound under the basket, going straight up and dunking it one-handed.
He's also probably not floating in a left handed hook from 8 feet.
So, your "no offensive skills" comment just comes off as unfair, to be kind.
Terrific performance by Nicholson. The future is bright. Can’t wait to see him in next season’s pre-season exhibition opener.
This board’s obsession with Matt Nicholson is bizarre. He’s barely played and really shown nothing other than being tall, so I’m not sure why there is so much discussion about him. And it’s not just this thread. It comes up in a lot of threads.
Starting to remind me of when Wrassler was oddly obsessed with Jordan Ash for whatever reason.
Starting to remind me of when Wrassler was oddly obsessed with Jordan Ash for whatever reason.
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It's a combination of one poster's obsession, with the fact that he is the odd man out in CCC's expanded rotation. Considering how many guys get minutes this year, it stands out when you are the one non-freshman who isn't getting minutes. I think last night showed us why. He is just no where close, sadly.
Nicholson will be fine and probably pretty good. Can't coach size as the cliche goes. Wasn't so long ago that with a guy that size he was considered pretty good athletically his first year if he could keep up with everyone else just running back and forth on the court.
Hey, it would be awesome if Nicholson turned into a good player for us, even if it's just a rotational guy that gives 10-15 minutes. That's very valuable in a conference that historically has a lot of good big men. And yes, you can't teach size...but there is a LONG list of guys that have been really tall and never put it together in basketball. At this point, while I am obviously hoping the kid keeps working hard and becomes a contributor, there's zero evidence indicating he'll "probably" be "pretty good". Not trying to be a jerk about it, just being realistic.
Kind of like a +/- discussion breaking out in every thread. Funny how that happens.
I certainly hope you're right, but... That grabbing rebounds part is a real question mark for me. His hands are just not good. Sure he'll get some rebounds against UIS just by standing there, but against B1G talent where you have to go up strong and really take charge of a rebound, I'm not sure he has the manual coordination to do that effectively. I see a lot of those rebounds getting fumbled slightly and poked away by quicker, more co-ordinated B1G centers.
Why did last night show us why? I was at the game and he had a really nice move with a left handed hook for 2 and he had a lot of rebounds. He also affected a lot of shots at the rim on defense. Of course against a team that was overmatched but anyone who watched him in last nights game and concludes that game shows us why he is "nowhere close" must not have been watching very closely.
There is obviously a reason he isn't playing in games that are competitive but I actually liked what I saw about how he gets up and down the floor and his potential. Hopefully he becomes a big contributor after this year.
On a side note, it was pretty funny watching him last night when he would grab the ball after the whistle. The ball is like a baseball in his hands.
Nicholson is better now than Barret Benson ever was.
Benson was a positive contributor to our NCAA tournament team back in 2016-17 as a freshman.
Whats bizarre is the overwhelming desire of certain regulars to criticize Nicholson at literally every opportunity, then blame that obsessive malice on other people.
Benson was a positive contributor to our NCAA tournament team back in 2016-17 as a freshman.
Whats bizarre is the overwhelming desire of certain regulars to criticize Nicholson at literally every opportunity, then blame that obsessive malice on other people.
I wonder how he performs against his teammates? I believed it's referred to as "practice"? It's my understanding that when guys excel in practice this will often times translate into actual games.
Not sure if you are referencing me as one of those posters criticizing Nicholson, but this is literally the first time I have commented on him. And it's more of a reference to how often he is discussed compared to how little he plays. Having a discussion or two about it? Sure. But it comes up A LOT. It's just odd to me.
And for me, I am rooting hard for him. He's got great size of course and every indication is he is working really hard to get better and become a contributor. I'm all for it. Just skeptical at this point if he'll ever get there and be a regular contributor against Big Ten competition. And the "against Big Ten competition" is the key part there. Since you brought up Benson, when he went down to SIU for a year, he started and actually was a reasonable player averaging 10.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. I saw him play in person in a game against Drake here in Des Moines and he had a great game (18 points/10 boards) against Liam Robbins when he was a freshman at Drake before transferring to Minnesota.
I feel Nicholson could probably do that in a conference like the MVC or Horizon League, but the question is whether he can do it at the top level of college basketball. That's where I'm still a skeptic. Doesn't mean I'm not rooting for him though.
I agree that folks should not be negative on Nicholson just because you're annoying. However, the statement re: Benson is just false.
I have to agree with TheC. His nice move was fun to watch, but it was painfully slow. In my mind I try to translate any action in a game like this to Big Ten speed and size. I don't think that move works against many D1, let alone Power 5, teams. There's no doubt, he has size, and perhaps he can be a contributor in Big Ten games, but I have not seen anything to make me think so. As for the rebound thing, I commented on that in a previous post.