B1G Game 7: Gophers visit Nebraska (1-20-19)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Freshmen Forwards

As the Gophers (2-4) traveled to accommodating welcome mat Wisconsin (1-5) ending a four game losing streak, Nebraska (3-3), following three straight loses, traveled to Illinois (1-5) anticipating a similar warm welcome. Neither team was disappointed. Minnesota quickly made themselves at home in Madison with a 78-50 wire to wire rout stretching the Gophers winning streak over the Badgers to 13. Illinois wasn’t quite as hospitable; but the Huskers emerged with a ten point victory. It was the Husker’s third consecutive win in the series with the Illini and their 12th win in the last 15 contests.

In the first five B1G games, Nebraska’s starters were familiar to Gopher fans. The five, Maddie Simon, Kate Cain, Hannah Whitish, Nicea Eliely and Taylor Kissinger played key roles in last season’s Nebraska 79-74 win in Minneapolis. Last season, Minnesota took a 74-73 lead with :38 seconds remaining. Nebraska’s Simon scored giving the lead back to the Huskers. Then Pitts and Wagner missed three point attempt’s on consecutive possessions while Simon and Eliely put away four consecutive foul shots sealing a Nebraska victory. Keke Bell led Minnesota with 30 points with Gadiva Hubbard chipping in 15 points and 8 assists.

However, last night in Champaign, 6’3” freshman Kayla Mershon replaced 6’2” Sr Maddie Simon in the lineup. Mershon and Simon both scored four points. But the leading scorer was another 6’2” freshman forward, Ashtyn Veerbeck, who came off the bench to pump in nineteen points. Bench production is not unusual for the Huskers. Their leading scorer in B1G play is yet another freshman forward coming off the bench, Leigha Brown. She put up 10 points in 20 minutes versus the Illini and is averaging 13.7 points in 20.2 minutes per B1G game. The Big Red’s second leading scorer is point guard Hannah Whitish (9.0 points per game). Whitish (32.2 minutes/game) is the only Husker averaging more than 24 minutes/game. Nebraska with eleven roster players consistently utilizes a solid nine player rotation.

Nebraska alum Amy Williams is now in her third year in Lincoln. Last season Williams led Nebraska to an 11-5 B1G record and the NCAA tournament. It was a complete turnaround from her inaugural season’s 3-13 record which included a 69-79 overtime loss to Minnesota in Lincoln and the transfer of Jessica Shepard to soon to be NCAA Champion Notre Dame.
It’s a team with a lot of options: As Williams said after last night matchup with Illinois:

“I thought we took a step forward today of our goal of trying to find ways to get everybody to contribute,” Williams said. “I thought we got that today. We made a little change, and I asked Maddie to be a spark for us, and she came in and got a huge steal and made a play on the defensive end of the floor that led to offense. We just had contributions from everywhere down the line.”

https://journalstar.com/sports/husk...cle_f6cd1cb0-292f-5955-aa09-1c51b2b01bc8.html

Some Numbers:

Nebraska averages 69.2 points per B1G game and Minnesota 67.5.
Nebraska allows 68.7 points per B1G game and Minnesota 69.2



B1G Wins: Michigan 70-56, @ Ohio State 78-69, @ Illinois 77-67

B1G Losses: @ Iowa 71-77, Maryland 63-81, Rutgers 56-63


Starters: With stats from last season’s Minnesota/Nebraska game.

6’3” F Fr Kayla Mershon
6’5” C So. Kate Cain (8 points, 6 rebounds in 29 minutes)
5’ 9” G Jr Hannah Whitish (14 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 turnovers in 30 minutes)
6’1” G Jr Nicea Eliely (14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 6 turnovers in 25 minutes)
6’1” G So Taylor Kissinger (9 points, 6 rebounds in 18 minutes)

Others:
6’2” F Sr Maddie Simon (18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists in 31 minutes)
5’9” G Fr Sam Haiby
6’1” F Fr Leigha Brown
6'2" F Fr Ashtyn Veerbeek
 

ESPN2 decided to go with two dud Big Ten games this Sunday and this is one of them. Penn St at Maryland is the other one.
 

https://hailvarsity.com/s/6000/love-or-hate-husker-lineup-tweaks-shot-selection-and-more/1

Another look at Nebraska's lineup (Derek Peterson at Hail Varsity):

Four of Amy Williams’ top five scorers this season are underclassmen. Three of them are freshmen. All three of them come off the bench. It’s been a weird year.

The Husker women’s basketball team has struggled to maintain last season’s success. It was somewhat expected, given the losses of key guards Jasmine Cincore and Janay Morton and the makeup of the roster (45 percent of the locker room is new players), but maybe not to the extent the Huskers have actually struggled. Starting 2-5 after a breakout 21-11 campaign is a little jarring regardless of circumstance.

The starting lineup through the first 16 games (a 7-9 record) was reliant on the upperclassmen and the women that have been a part of Williams’ program for long enough to know what she wants. Junior point guard Hannah Whitish, junior two-guard Nicea Eliely and senior forward Maddie Simon looked like stalwarts in the starting five regardless of performance. You can probably factor sophomore center Kate Cain into that group too just based on the minutes she has already logged as a second-year player.

Freshman guard Sam Haiby is currently averaging more points, more rebounds and fewer turnovers than Whitish while out-shooting her 44 percent to 32 percent. Whitish has Haiby in assists but the offensive rhythm is noticeably different when Haiby is on the floor, in a good way.

Haiby is the team’s second-leading scorer at 10 a night. The leading scorer is freshman wing Leigha Brown, another bench producer. Brown excels offensively while Eliely is more of a defensive-minded guard. The decision to go with Eliely in the first unit is more of stylistic preference for Williams. Ashtyn Veerbeek — fresh off a career-high 19-point, eight-board performance against Illinois — is outscoring Cain and nearly matching her rebounding. Cain gives rim protection on defense, Veerbeek gives floor-spacing on offense. I’m not ready to say Veerbeek is the better of the two, or say that about any of the freshmen for that matter, but that we’re even having that discussion is somewhat surprising.
 

You guys are talking about other Big Ten games but not this one?

7798367-E-FAC4-456-B-9334-0-DA1-C1-C7-DA13.jpg
 

Guess who made a buzzer beater three at the half?
AE5-FEEC0-35-A8-44-CC-B7-C0-EF5-C8-B65-EC5-C.jpg


27-26 MIN at the half
 


Perez another three! Seems like she’s approaching starter minutes.
 

Costly turnovers here in the 4th. Bell taking over and we need all of out FT's.
 


Of course they are heating up from 3 now ugh
 



This team is HARD to watch. Got to be the worst shooting team in school history. Next to the men’s team that is.
 


Lol, this years team really misses Hubbard. Not enough consistent shooters to overcome good teams. Bell was forcing her game which lead to more TO's. Tough loss when they had a decent lead.
 

This one on coaching, don’t know why they went into a slow deliberate offense so early or maybe they couldn’t solve the defense. Horrible second half on Bell, horrible decisions.
 



Dirty loss. Got complacent, you cannot leave it in ref hands to make call. No decisiveness on play calls, to much standing around waiting for Bell to do something. They had to know after Illinois game when other team is on a run the ref swallow whistles. Lamke and Bell with sloppy passing. No inside drives. That isolation where they had Brunson who is barely a scoring threat shoot a flat three, you could just tell it was over. No fight back or effort to match Nebraskas energy level. Team is underacheiving. That Nebraska team was not better than the Gophers, almost as dumpy a loss as Illinois. They let them rally and had no answers.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk
 
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Katogopher said:
This one on coaching, don’t know why they went into a slow deliberate offense so early or maybe they couldn’t solve the defense. Horrible second half on Bell, horrible decisions.
Click to expand...

Nebraskas 1-3-1 forced them to slow down. Minnesotas incapable of beating a zone right now.
 

I don’t think the girls played like they wanted to win the game. Need more enthusiasm and determination
 

Just when I was thinking we need to bring in a defensive coaching specialist we had four minutes of the ugliest crunch time non-offense in years.

Haiby kept getting to the bucket just like the Illini guards did. So it's not like it's something new.
 

Bell with 5 TO,s seemed like they were all in the 4th quarter.
 

Katogopher said:
Bell with 5 TO,s seemed like they were all in the 4th quarter.
Click to expand...
Bell was getting hammered on some of those turnovers. Where did the high screen low post plays go? We saw the Gophers beat them in the post after Nebraska fronted a three. This team needs to learn how to beat a team down and keep pounding on them until they cry uncle.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk
 

We pretty much had the game won with a 6 point lead and 4 minutes and change left. Then we let them have two undefended threes, which they made, and I told myself game over - we lost, given how bad the refs were.

It didn't help any that we let their point guard drive to the hoop at will, undefended. Does anybody else wonder why the backup defense stands idly by and watches these plays unfold? All they have to do is step over and take a charge.

Aside from the latter giving them a golden paved path to to hoop, that 2/3 court pressure defense had them on the ropes for a while.

Then once they tied, as others noted, too much Bell one on five offense. A Bell drive from a tightly covered 1 of the 1-3-1 right into the 3 of the 1-3-1, is not a good play choice. Especially when the refs declare no-whistle open season on Bell.

They need to learn to play the whole 40 minutes. With this and the Illinois game, they pretty much snagged defeat out of the jaws of victory. It stings a bit.
 
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I could only watch the first 3 quarters. Recorded the game and intended to watch the fourth after I got home. But after reading the comments/summary of the last few minutes of the game, I think it will be too painful to watch. Perhaps I should just erase and move on.
 

I watch all the Gophers men's & women's bb games on TV. They're good entertainment, but the results are depressing. Without rehashing the results, I wonder why MN men's & women's teams can't get better talent and depth. Why do they fail year after year at any significant recruiting of better players? Or why do the touted recruits not produce? Any ideas?
 

Per Twitter, "#Gophers forwards were responsible for 15 of the team's 19 points and 10 of the team's 13 rebounds in the third quarter!"

Per Twitter video, Gophers led 53-45 at the 6 minute mark after the Pitts made three. In the last 6 minutes, Huskers outscore Gophers 18-4. [That's a Gopher scoring pace that extrapolates to 27 points per 40-minute game (e.g., 7-point quarters). Recall that, when they fed their forwards, they scored 19 points in the 3rd quarter alone, which is a scoring pace that extrapolates to 76 points per 40-minute game.]

Bell is amazingly capable of almost singlehandedly winning a game if we're behind in the fourth quarter. In that situation, the team should play loose and confidently, and let Kenisha lead the charge to victory.

She is also capable of almost singlehandedly losing a game if we're ahead in the fourth quarter. Especially if the rest of the team aids the loss by turning the ball over and falling down on D. If I were assistant coach, my recommendation in the latter situation (when we've all but got the game won) would be to put Bell on the bench for the last 5 minutes of the fourth quarter, and challenge the rest of the team to complete the win.
 
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Minnesota had 17 turnovers to Nebraska's 13. That's much of the game story. I guess Nebraska had unforced turnovers, since they led Minnesota in steals, 9 to 3, a +6 steals margin.

Nebraska also had a +9 blocks margin, 9 to 0. That's a +15 blocks+steals margin.

Probably 8 of those 9 blocks were blocked bunny shots. I guess I'm sounding like a broken record, but I think I was griping about the 7 blocks in the Wisconsin game just the other day. Of course, probably half of those "blocks" were half-ball/half-hand-contact bad calls, enough to reverse the game outcome by itself (no Gopher scoring drought necessary).

The Gophers officially shot 40% from two - 18 of 45. If we could "have back" (and make) only 4 of those 8 "blocked" bunny shots (either by avoiding the block and/or the ref making the right call), that makes us 22 of 45 for about 50% shooting and a won game.

Minnesota won the rebounding contest 43 to 24, +19 margin. [Although individual stats don't match, maybe some team rebounds.] Moreover, we won the offensive rebounding contest 19 to 6, a +13 margin. Unfortunately, most of those extended offensive possessions ended up in blocked shots or missed shots or turnovers. Up to this point, I believe the Gophers have won every game in which they have had such a phenomenal rebounding margin.

The game was thrown away to turnovers, blocked shots, and (at crunch time) horrible play selection plus wimpy defense.
 
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http://www.huskers.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&id=6307589&KEY=

Amy Williams post game presser. Went to 1-3-1 because Bell was getting very comfortable finding avenues to make plays attacking the Nebraska man defense. The zone gave the Huskers the ability to "squeeze the dry gaps" and that Eliely played "effectively at the top".

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/sport...cle_9182a45a-1d30-11e9-a943-57ea5db9c837.html

The first three quarters were a struggle for Nebraska, and Minnesota’s defense was much of the reason for that.

“It’s a little bit frustrating, but in the grand scheme of things all of that was just credit to Minnesota’s defense,” Williams said. “They came in and they really made it difficult for us to get open looks from beyond the arc.”

...

Minnesota had a chance to tie the game with 53 seconds left after both teams combined for four straight turnovers. However, junior guard Nicea Eliely came up with a steal with 42 seconds left, and Haiby hit a layup to extend the lead to four points.

Eliely put the game out of reach on the next possession with her fifth steal of the quarter. This led to Haiby making two free throws to cap off Nebraska’s 15-2 run.

For Nebraska, the key to the run was turning defense into offense.

“Putting pressure up on the ball and turning them over created easy looks. We executed down the stretch,” Haiby said.

“It all started on the defensive end,” Whitish added.

Eliely had a career high six steals in the game, and her role in the defense as the “pirate” was crucial down the stretch.

“Their job is hard as heck,” Whitish said as to why the role is called the pirate. “They have to pick up the ball full court.”

Haiby was key to Nebraska’s offensive success, leading the team with 16 points on 6-10 shooting.

One area Nebraska struggled in was rebounding, as Minnesota outrebounded the Huskers 43-24. This was the biggest rebounding deficit that Nebraska has had so far this season.

“It’s incredibly tough, I told our players I don’t think you can overcome a 19 rebound deficit unless you’re forcing 17 turnovers like we did, unless we’re shooting 83 percent from the free-throw line,” Williams said. “There were some things that had to happen.”
 

How does a team manage to lose having a +19 in rebounding?

It seems like enough pieces are here (Hubbard would help), but it’s not coming together. Other coaches are making better adjustments.
 

Watching the second half of the game was a miserable experience. At this point, I'm about to just stop watching this team play...
- Tired of waiting until there's 10 seconds left to get things going in every half court set.
- The team needs to evolve beyond a pick-and-roll offense for Bell. Additionally, it would go a long way to choose someone to set screens who: a) can actually pick the other team; b) can handle the pass if they switch the pick; c) talks; d) isn't a turnover machine. Any or all of the above. Please.
- How, on Earth, is a D1 team with a coaching staff that has one of the highest payrolls for women's basketball, STILL struggling against zone defenses? Further, why are we watching them run the exact same play into it game after game after game... with under 10 seconds left each time...

The bottom line is that there are things to be fixed with this squad that I would have corrected with my middle school basketball team already. It's one thing to have a plan, play hard, and ultimately lose.

It's becoming quite another thing to watch this group do the exact same things every game and expect a different result...
 

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