In other news, Nebraska is quite bad.
Archie flirting with disaster.
Reverse jinx. 
5 Likes
Will Neb get their first conf win here?
Will Archie get fired tomorrow?
I understand itād be extremely frustrating to play for Nebraska and lose every gameā¦ but not a sparkling last couple minute for him
I get that Hoiberg is a Great Plains guy, or whatever, but for the life of me I still donāt understand why he took the Nebraska job.
This has been a pretty fun Game so far. Morsell is playing really well in his first game back from having a crater in his face.
Edit: guess it is his 2nd game back. My bad!
1 Like
Yeah that was not a great idea. Nebraska has decent potential as a program because they have a really good fanbase, but they lost every remotely decent player before he came in. Then combine that with historically deep B1G for both seasons, you spend the entire season getting your face kicked in night in and night out.
It was actually probably kind of fortuitous for Miles to get fired so he didnāt have to experience the reckoning that was coming after he failed to make the tournament.
I wonder if Hoibergās transfer strategy doesnāt work as well now that so many other teams are also hitting that market. It used to be an inefficiency he could use to build his program, but now everyone knows.
If Banton sticks around they could be decent next year with him and Bryce McGowan. And maybe āhigh potentialā older McGowan can improve.
3 Likes
Chol Marial was once considered a top 10 recruitā¦
Watching Cockburn against Marial is something. Marial is built like a twig.
Yeah I think we need to wait until next year to get a real idea of how this is working out for Hoiberg. Last year was a disaster but there was literally no universe where it wasnāt going to be.
This year is obviously going to be a disaster record wise and turning over the whole roster again isnāt a good sign, but the team itself is massively improved from last year both from the eye test and advanced metrics (up 43 spots on KenPom, 67 spots on Torvik). If the season were to end today, Hoibergās Torvik ranking would be higher than 4/7 Miles teams.
Last yearās roster was full of players who looked like overmatched up-transfers. This yearās roster looks like it has high-major players on it. Allen is a chucker but heās above a 100 ORTG on 31% usage, so while heās a black hole heās at least heās not a disaster. Banton is above a 100 ORTG and looks like a guy who has a lot of potential and could get better. The rest of the team is full of sub-100 ORTG guys, but Nebraska does have a top 75 defense to Torvik (although itās 113 on KP) and most of the remaining rotation players are within spitting distance of a 100 ORTG. So theyāre not complete disasters like last year where the majority of their roster were sub 90 ORTG guys.
Like you said, next yearās team could actually be halfway decent. Allen, Banton and the younger McGowens all project to be solid to good players. If the rest of the supporting cast can marginally improve and get themselves closer to a 100 ORTG, I could see them moving up a tier in the B1G. And if someone blows up maybe even move towards the bubble.
Thatās still not ISU levels for Hoiberg, but itās clear improvements years 1-3 and momentum to build on to keep building the program.
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Wait really!?! Thatās embarrassingā¦
Ayo clearly stepped on Scottās foot. Illinois doesnāt need help from the refs to beat Maryland.
Impressed that Maryland is hanging around here despite not having Ayala.
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Donta Scott is so impressive to me. He was a 3 star and barely a top 150 recruit out of HS but had a 115.7 ORTG last year in over 50% of minutes as a true freshman, albeit on sub 14% USG. Now this year heās almost a 130 ORTG guy on almost 20% USG. Heās now hit 22 3ās on the year after this half on 51% shooting, after hitting 25 last year on 32%. Heās upped his OREB rate, almost doubled his DREB rate, close to tripled his AST rate, upped his STL rate, over tripled his BLK rate, almost doubled his FT rate, halved his FC/40, and is shooting 63% from 2.
Literally the only negatives are a drop from 85 to 77% from the FT line and a slight uptick in TO rate, which is still under 15%. Itās insane how good he is.
7 Likes
He got a passing mention in Sam Vecenieās mock as a breakout sophomore who could pop up on draft boards this year or next
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I havenāt been following any NBA mock stuff yet but thatās good to hear. Both because he deserves it and thereās no reason the NBA shouldnāt want him, but also because I donāt want to see another year of him.
Watch Kofiās post-ups down on the low block. He typically turns in to his man and sticks his elbows out, and heās so massive itās basically offensive foul for displacement every time. Right into the chest/face area every time. Surprised doesnāt get called more often, but this is the B1G!
Curbelo is so smooth