Hello and welcome to Midweek Madness! This is The Floor Slap’s weekly CBB article from our CBB expert, Jordan Beckley… Hi, that’s me. Every Thursday, I will be recapping the week that was, the weekend ahead and doing so in a variety of recurring segments and superlatives. So, follow us (@thefloorslap) and have our site bookmarked to make sure you don’t miss a moment of the Madness all season long!
by Jordan Beckley
The Iso
Time to clear out and go 1 on 1 on this week’s Isolated Team.
What a week to pick to ISO on Nebraska.
Obviously, the headline grabbing win over no.1 Purdue will have Nebraska fresh on people’s minds. Many Husker fans are calling for Big Red to be ranked and some AP voters might cave and forget that the game before that Nebraska got ran out of the gym by Wisconsin.
Still, Nebraska is 13-3 and 3-2 in the Big Ten with home wins over Purdue, Michigan State and Indiana. The win over the top ranked Boilermakers was their first win over the no.1 team in 41 years. Overall, Nebraska is now 9-4 in their last 13 Big Ten games and 8-2 in their last 10 Big Ten home games.
We are seeing the signs of success as Fred Hoiberg is finally breaking through in Lincoln.
In my preseason preview for the Huskers, I wrote about Coach Hoiberg’s gamble this season of going for the 5-out, positionless look in the basketball-traditionalist Big Ten.
The general point I made was that for a school like Nebraska it is important to try to be different. The Huskers are not going to be better than Purdue at post-up offense or better than Wisconsin at defense. Differentiation in style gives them a better shot in the fight.
So, the question for this season was would the gamble work?
Fred Hoiberg had found something offensively last year by going with a more offensive focused approach and unleashing Keisei Tominaga winning 6 of their last 8 Big Ten regular season games. For the second straight offseason, Hoiberg went to the portal to retool his roster with that late season surge in mind. This time the former NBA head coach looked to maximize what he saw happen at the end of the season with a modern approach.
Coach Hoiberg grabbed a versatile 6’10 center in Rienk Mast who could operate on the perimeter, hitting long distance shots, drive on slowfooted bigs, and facilitate in dribble handoffs or pick and rolls. Fan favorite and local product Josiah Allick also came in as a mobile big with less perimeter shooting but with all the other right skills. He brought in 6’7 Brice Williams and 6’5 Jarron Coleman as extra ball handlers that fit that longer, switchable mold to put next to an undersized Keisei Tominaga to help defensively.
So, what has been the results of the shift of play style and roster construction?
The pros have been that Nebraska is one of the top three point shooting teams in the country. Nebraska attempts essentially 27 threes a game (34th in the country and the most in the Big Ten) and makes 9.6 of them a game as the 31st best out of 362. Big Red has sacrificed a main facilitator/point guard and instead a group passing approach has yielded a Top-50 assists per game at 16.2. The combined length of the team has made them an excellent gang rebounding team being in the top 4 of the Big Ten.
The cons are that the Huskers have sacrificed almost all rim protection with just 2.8 blocks per game. Similarly, they are 2nd to last in steals per game. Offensively they have very few opportunities at the rim and are near the bottom of the country in 2pt attempts.
Defensively the Huskers are only so-so. To make up for being slimmer at the 5, Hoiberg has had to send doubles early and often and focus on the switchable defenders rotating hard to open shooters on the kickouts. This has lead to mixed results.
Because Nebraska has sold out on doubles and help defense, teams are shooting the 36th lowest 2pt % in the country at 44.7%. Going along with that extra help, defenders aren’t fouling to stop easy baskets as Nebraska is allowing 30th fewest FTA per game at 15.2. On the other hand, opponents are also shooting a ton of threes and many of them are open opportunities.
Teams like Creighton (14-40 or 35%) and Wisconsin (13-26 or 50%) have feasted from beyond the arc on their way to blowout wins. However, teams like Indiana and Purdue — who want to score on the interior not the exterior– haven’t been able to do enough damage to win.
Nebraska is running a volatile playstyle. The Huskers get hot and can beat anybody even Purdue. Big Red goes cold and they can lose by 29 at home to their rival Creighton.
The Purdue upset is a perfect example of Hoiberg’s system firing on all cylinders.
The offense was fueled by a barrage of three pointers with Tominaga’s five, CJ Wilcher’s hot night or the bigs like Allick and Mast forcing Purdue’s towers out of the paint with their three treys. The 14-23 onslaught from outside opened up easy driving lanes for Juwan Gary and Sam Hoiberg.
On defense Nebraska had the double on Edey drilled into their brain. The Husker players knew where the help was coming from and who offball was going to shade where to cover multiple shooters/passes. The rotations came fast and furious after the kickout with their positionless scheme preventing worries about mismatches on switches. It made Purdue a jump shooting team which also prevented them from being a free throw team. Purdue only had 15 attempts at the line well below their average of 24, and Edey only attempted 5 total free throws, nearly half his 9.6 average.
The upset shows that Nebraska finally has the personnel needed to make March Madness, but also they have the great coaching to make it too.
Before the season, many publications, podcasts and writers wondered if this was Fred Hoiberg’s last season at Nebraska. Most people looked at the macro and said that the Hoiberg era isn’t working and maybe he should be gone.
Not enough people had been watching carefully enough to see that after years of fidgeting Hoiberg had finally found a path to winning games and potentially turning the corner.
After a program victory against Purdue, the Huskers are one step closer to making March Madness and potentially getting their first ever NCAA tournament win.
Fred Hoiberg has turned Pinnacle Bank Arena into a location opponents hate to go to. For Nebraska to punch their ticket to the dance, Nebraska will need to get up for the games on the road too. One upset won’t get them in the tournament, with games at Iowa and at Rutgers next up, Nebraska needs to prove they are a good team outside of Lincoln.
For now it is just a whole mess of fun for Nebraska fans to have a player like Keisei Tominaga to root for and for their basketball team to be relevant.
Oh and by the way, those same publications that were saying Hoiberg should be fired for not making the tournament are saying he should win Coach of the Year for making it.
All or nothing. Just like Nebraska’s scheme.
Good Game Bad Game
Loosely defined as a weekly game where I name one (or more) good game and bad game from a player, coach, ref, mascot, towel boy, jumbotron operator or anybody in CBB.
Good Game: Connor Essegian, Great Osobor, Auburn’s Versatility
Quick shoutout to Connor Essegian who has had a tough sophomore year, but seems to be fighting his way back. Partly from injuries and partly from doghouse, Essegian has seen his minutes slashed, but he has started to earn some of them back and with 12 points and 4 made threes versus Nebraska he could be earning more. Essegian could offer yet another wrinkle to an impressive and growing Wisconsin offense.
Sometimes I see a Jon Rothstein tweet and think, “He has to have made up this name.” That was the case a few weeks ago with Utah State’s Great Osobor. However, Osobor has been… great and must be acknowledged. Osobor is averaging 18 points, 9.4 rebounds, almost 3 assists and a block and a half a game for a 15-1 Aggies team. He posted a 20pts/14reb/3ast/2blk stat sheet in a win over ranked Colorado State. PS: Keep an eye out for first-year coach Danny Sprinkle as a name for bigger jobs after moving to Utah State from a successful stint at Montana State.
Finally, let’s celebrate Auburn’s Versatility. The Tigers blew out Arkansas in Budd Walton Arena on Saturday 83-51 with 10 players scoring and 4 in double figures. Then Bruce Pearl’s team squeeked one out against Texas A&M on Tuesday 66-55. Auburn’s best player is probably Johni Broome, but they also have 4-5 guys who can be the leading scorer any night. Auburn is up to the 4th ranked KenPom team with the 13th ranked adjusted offense and 5th ranked adjusted defense. Hey, Vols and UK fans, the Tigers can win the SEC too.
Bad Game: Houston Offense, Top Ranked Teams
Houston suffered their first loss of the season on Tuesday to Iowa State 53-57. The Houston Offense scored 21 first half points and scored just 2 points in the final 3 minutes when the game was in the balance. The Cougars defense and rebounding has been unreal under Kelvin Sampson, but the offense has been the limiting factor from them having more success in March. Could that happen again this year?
Beyond no.2 Houston and no.1 Purdue it was a bad week to be a top ranked team as no.3 ranked Kansas lost to UCF, no.5 Tennessee lost to Mississippi State, no. 9 Oklahoma lost to TCU, and no. 11 Marquette dropped another one to Butler. College Basketball is so much fun. Get ready for the color commentator of the next game you watch to say that there are “no great teams” this year!
Award Winning Wings
A rotating selection of made up superlatives and awards. Named fondly after how every restaurant has ‘award winning wings’
The “This is Fine” Team of the Week
Here is a new award for me to be able to discuss what’s going on at Michigan because what the hell?!
The Wolverines are on a four game slide with losses to Florida, at home to Will Wade and McNeese State, at home to Minnesota and at Penn State where Juwan Howard let Phil Martelli be the head coach in an “amazing & classy move.”
That is a real Michigan Athletics statement. What?!
Oh speaking of weird statements, this is Dug McDaniel’s official announcement that he would be missing the next 6 road games.
Let’s not ask why somebody would be suspended for just road games, okay? Just respect it!
It’s like Michigan and Juwan Howard saw what was happening at Louisville and decided they wanted to be a bigger train wreck.
Meanwhile, Michigan AD Warde Manuel is looking down the barrel of potentially replacing his Head Coach in Basketball and Football, like:
Wait, What? Upset of the Week
Purdue might be the pick if we didn’t already talk about them and Florida Atlantic has for the third time been nominated for the award after losing to a .500 Charlotte team. With respect to Colorado State dropping successive games in what seems to be increasingly tough Mountain West play, this weeks Wait, What upset will be a .500 Southern Miss team upsetting no.21 James Madison.
Not long after reappearing in headlines for having a triple double for the Golden Eagles, former Illinois player Andre Curbelo is back in them for knocking off undefeated James Madison with his 15 points, 9 assist and 3 rebound performance. It’s a loss that pretty much guarantees no one will think about the Dukes again until they are a tough 6 or 7 seed in their favorite teams bracket, but it is also a loss that helped to end all the undefeated teams left in CBB.
Houston lost to Iowa State on Tuesday and Ole Miss was blown out by Tennessee on Sunday. 65 days into the season and nobody is left without a blemish. God bless College Basketball.
Ethan Morton 3 Point Tracker
This has probably been the biggest week for the Ethan Morton three point tracker. Morton has been ACTIVE with 5 total three point attempts in his two games which was more than half the attempts he had the rest of the season. However, he only hit one three and is now down to 3-14 or 21.4%
Did Louisville win a game this week?
Yep!
I had a bit written about whether or not Louisville was destined to finish last in the ACC for the 2nd year in a row because of Notre Dame already grabbing two ACC wins, but then the Cardinals went and beat reigning ACC champion Miami in Coral Gables.
Is this win a sign of a turnaround for Kenny Payne or another red herring? Tune in next week to find out!
No Explanation Power Rankings
I am just the humble mouthpiece for the No Explanation College Basketball Committee, who release their weekly Big Ten Rankings to me. I provide their rankings with… no explanation.
After an eventful Big Ten week, seems like the committee kept the top 3 the same despite the TSJ suspension and loss to Purdue and the impressive Wisconsin wins over Nebraska and OSU. Okay, Northwestern jumped OSU, right. Michigan is down to 13 seems like they could be below Penn State since they lost to them, but alright… Minnesota up to 9 wow, good for them. Huh, well wish there could be more of an explanation.
That’s it for Midweek Madness this week! Make sure you check out The Big 3 articles on Monday now recapping the Weekend of CBB. We will be back next week with an ISO on a team with an animal mascot.