Don’t have time for a long post, so here’s a few quick hitters:
1. We held Nebraska to 67 points, which is 10 points below their season average. But our offense was so pathetic that we still lost by 11 points. A kingdom for some three point shooters. PLEASE.
2. Game balls to Woolf (despite 1-5 on FTs) and Gavin, who played his best all around game of the year.
3. A lump of coal and dog crap for Hyatt, Cliff, Simpson, and JMike, all of whom played like utter garbage.
4. I hate opposing players who are (1) good; and (2) have punchable faces. On Nebraska, that’s Tominaga, Allick, and Wilcher.
5. Next year can’t come soon enough. At least we will have a chance to win games by putting the cylindrical object through the round hole.
The play by 3 of our starters , Hyatt , Derek and JMike was so so bad which made we question this starting lineup. Hyatt is 1-6 , and 0-5 from three and 2 critical foul shots missed and 2 points. JMike 0-6 and mostly bad shots including 0-3 from 3 which he should not be taking except on a kick out. Derek was 2-10 and another terrible shooting day but worse was his balance and footing was the worst of the year. His 2 fast break non converts hurt our chances to keep it close at half. I do not blame Cliff , who was just frozen out by his team. He literally was given the ball once all game on the block.
Why was JMike taking threes and early shots ? Why will Derek not play under control and set himself to shoot. He gets a nice steal and cannot convert on the fast break and threw another one up like a hand grenade. You couldn’t have a worse shooting and IQ game from 2 starting guards and our forward in the history of Division1.
Now I should be used to it but Hyatt is such a disappointment that it hurts my eyes when I see him on the court. Not only does he never hit an open three when we are struggling to score early , he doesn’t rebound as Nebraska missed a lot of their first 10 shots but Hyatt didn’t bother to jump for a rebound , he lets the other team get the rebound and the putback. Drives me nuts. Now second half comes and Pike designs first play for him for an open 3 and as he normally does , clank. Worse yet , when we are making the run , he misses 2 foul shots. You cannot have him starting or playing significant minutes. He does too many things to hurt us . I feel bad this is his senior year , feel bad for him , but his minutes must be limited. If he just has a decent game tonite , we likely win. But he never comes thru , especially on the road.
Pike likes his substitutions and likes to pull his starters after 4 minutes but playing Hyatt , Derek and JMike extended minutes was a recipe for disaster . We finally get a game where Wolf does a really good job offensively , on the glass , and defensively. We finally get a complete game from Gavin. He was active , he drove , he hit some threes , he rebounded and played good defense including some nice blocks.
Now why Pike didn’t play Cliff and Wolf together was disappointing. Jeremiah , Noah , Gavin , Wolf and Cliff maybe subbing in Austin for Noah should have been the players on the court. Bringing Derek and JMike and Hyatt back in the game and their playing significant minutes was a huge mistake in my opinion. Not letting Cliff become a part of the offense when a few buckets from him in the middle of the second half would have made a difference. Now Noah hit an early three and missed more but his failure to guard Kaisay during that 1-2 minute stretch also hurt. Maybe going to Austin to guard him would have made a difference.
10-19 from the line and 3 front ends comes back to bite us in the ass , for one of the few times on the road as we were 78% on the road compared to 61% at home coming into the game. Wolf hit his first one for and one but missed his next 4 including one and one’s.
Frustrating as hell as just another 3 or just a few damn offensive rebounds in the first half or just a conversion or two on the fast break or some foul shots and we get a different outcome tonight. All things we are capable of but fell painfully short tonight.
