Grab a rebound!!! Nicholson had so many chances to grab the ball. Don’t bat at it. Use both hands. And box out. I already accept they can’t finish around the rim. And they miss a bunch of free throws. Do your job.
Big Guys
- Thread starter clarificationcat
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Big Matt has been awful this year but oddly he made a few big plays against MSU and Penn State down the stretch. Go figure. But yeah he’s gotta be much better for all his minutes.
Not just him. In 35 minutes, our centers combined for 3 defensive rebounds.
It almost takes a special talent to be one of the biggest players on the court and avoid the ball like that.
In many cases their role is not to rebound but to block out so others can get the RBs
Interesting. So all the good centers are not doing their job when they grab a bunch of rebounds?
Nicholson has never been a particularly good rebounder, but it seems like he’d be good at volleyball.
Happy he got a few dunks tonight though.
Happy he got a few dunks tonight though.
You’re right. Just an observation from few moments of frustration.
I don't think there is one person among us who isn't disappointed with Nicholson's play so far this season.
I thought for sure the coaches would be able to teach him some post moves. I thought for sure he would learn more about rebounding. I thought for sure our offense would include deliberate touches in the paint. None of that happened for Matt... but I do think he has been better the last couple games. Not giving up on him.
I really was commenting on all of our big men. They need to do a much better job on the boards. At both ends.
He was a liability again in the first half but after he came out for awhile he came back and he was last year big Matt again. A nice oop flush from Boo and some good boards and impacting lots of shots around the rim.
Of course, Hunger is just starting to be a really good player by himself, so it’s hopefully all trending up.
I think Nicholson does have the size that impacts parts of the game especially against other Bigs that may not always show up in the stats sheet but have an impact on the game. Having a couple of good Bigs has been beneficial to keep them from being tired or in foul trouble and the team has benefitted this year
What makes it more baffling for me is that he is a decent ball handler and passer for a big man. The fact those skills don’t translate into post points is very frustrating.
MN was a plus 9 and helped with the second half comeback. Made a couple of nice passes.
Hunger was a minus eight and Lanborg struggled all night.
I would cut MN a little slack. Did his job.
Oh yeah the TEAM won the game,
Hunger was a minus eight and Lanborg struggled all night.
I would cut MN a little slack. Did his job.
Oh yeah the TEAM won the game,
This is correct. They need to box out effectively and eat space to allow others to clean up the board. Would be happy w zero C rebounds and zero O rebounds by the other team.
Now, on the offensive boards, different story - they should be getting put backs and disrupting D rebounding.
A few more pounds and MN's offensive rebounds are down 50% from last year. He is more foul prone and less of a lob threat.
He's still a valuable member of this team. Hella important! Just frustrating he not only failed to improve over the last season, but also regressed.
We played a good stretch without any of our 3 bigs during the second half. I don't think it was Collins who initiated it, it was matching Wahab sitting down and no big for PSU. The ginger guy was guarding Martinelli for quite a while and I thought we would set Nick up deep to get the ball against him. We did it maybe once.
He's still a valuable member of this team. Hella important! Just frustrating he not only failed to improve over the last season, but also regressed.
We played a good stretch without any of our 3 bigs during the second half. I don't think it was Collins who initiated it, it was matching Wahab sitting down and no big for PSU. The ginger guy was guarding Martinelli for quite a while and I thought we would set Nick up deep to get the ball against him. We did it maybe once.
He is slower so while he is highly effective in certain circumstances, in others he has trouble
The immediate question is how well with Matt, and the others, stack up against Crowl on Saturday? Matt has 30 pounds on him, but that could be a positive or a negative at this point.
It looks like the Badgers rotate a decent amount as only one of their guys sees more than 29 minutes on the court on average, and I don't know how Crowl's backup is/are.
It looks like the Badgers rotate a decent amount as only one of their guys sees more than 29 minutes on the court on average, and I don't know how Crowl's backup is/are.
They have a deep rotation, but the roles are set.
Crowl's backup is Nolan Winter, a skinny 6'11" freshman who in theory can shoot the 3, but is much less of a threat than Crowl.
Same with Wahl, his backup is Carter Gilmore, who is invisible on offense.
Their wings/off-ball guards are AJ Storr, a transfer from St. John's, who is a very high-volume shooter though not particularly efficient, Max Klesmit, a typical Wisconsin recruit who can get hot from 3 but generally is the 5th option on the floor, Connor Essegian, who played a lot more last year as a freshman 3-point specialist, and John Blackwell, a freshman who has contributed immediately.
Chucky Hepburn is the PG, who is rarely spelled by Kamari McGee. With the addition of Storr, Hepburn isn't forced to be as much of a scorer and is having a better season being more of a distributor on offense, while being a ballhawk on defense.
A few keys as I see it: 1) Can't let Crowl get hot from outside - he's shooting 60% from beyond the arc this season. 2) Need to figure out how to handle Wahl - Barnhizer and Martinelli are both giving up multiple inches and pounds, and Wahl is excellent at getting to the line where he's an 80% shooter, along with being an excellent rebounder. 3) Hepburn is the weak link in their depth. Iowa was able to stay close because he got in foul trouble and only played 25 minutes, though the Badgers eventually pulled away. Can we do anything to get him off his game? 4) We need to take advantage of Wisconsin's poor 3-point shooting defense.
Good thing is Collins knows how to win at the Kohl center and our guys remember winning there last year.
I think he does better later in the game because the game itself slows down more than he does. He seems to get in foul trouble early which I think has to do with not being able to keep up with the frenetic pace of the early minutes. That would be a reason to start Hunger and save Matt for later, which Collins seems to be doing. It also allows Matt to keep out of foul trouble and be more aggressive later when he can keep up.
Yeah I've gone from hoping he'd get some All B1G votes to "just try to be close to as good as last spring"
Very accurate scouting report - well done. I will add that:
- Crowl bumped knees with a teammate in practice this week, and even though he gave it a go last night in C-bus, he was pretty gimpy and far less effective than normal. How much he heals by Saturday, who knows?
- Wahl may be shooting 80% this year from the line, but he was in the 60s for his other 4 years - we Badger fans think it might be a mirage
- Hepburn was injured in the groinal regions in the last cupcake game before the new year and was questionable for the Iowa game. Seems to have recovered. As you stated, he's very important defensively.
I like this turn of the phrase.
I feel that the blonde streak in Hepburn's hair gets bigger with each Big Ten Network promo. Reminds me of the little strip of grey hair in Bill Cartwright's beard in the 1990s.
Nicholson only committed 16 fouls in our last 10 games last season.
In our most recent 10 games, he's been whistled for 24 fouls. (181 minutes)
Hunger has 18 fouls in those games. (111 minutes)
Preston has 20 fouls in those same games (he missed one of them) (89 minutes)
So Nicholson is the least foul-prone of the 3 bigs.
Its mainly a problem when Izzo and Painter start crying to the refs before the game starts and the refs do as they are told and call fouls on Nicholson immediately. 9 fouls in those 2 games. 22 minutes.
Some real mystery calls on Big Matt early in some games this year
I really was commenting on all of the bigs. I went back and watched some of the second half. The Penn State center went right over Preston and MH for offensive rebounds. The first led to a basket. The second didn’t hurt us because our guards stripped him. Both times our bigs had position. They were just lazy about backing their guy away from the basket. And Nicholson should have grabbed a bunch of offensive rebounds. It’s a matter of effort.
I thought maybe it was a Driftless thing--regional dialects, like we have in Northwest Indiana (Da Region).
I don’t know. They don’t have a lot of options. But I hope they made a point of it after the last game.
My issue last game is that even when they had position they did not move the defender away from the basket. Rebounds generally don’t pop straight up so having position a foot away from the basket is not ideal. Watch Matt on offensive rebounds, in particular. I think if he worked harder at engaging the defender he could get a lot more. He is often guarded by much smaller guys (like the red headed kid on PSU). In 4 conference games, Matt has had 2, 2, 1 and 2 rebounds. I know his minutes have been down but we need more from him on the boards.
I agree 100%. Matt is very frustrating to watch. Preston knows how to rebound and does okay for a guy his size, often battling bigger opponents. Verhoeven was the same sort of thing. Both came in as grad transfers.
I haven't seen enough of Hunger but I have seen enough of Nicholson to know that he should be a much better rebounder than he is.
There are several things at play. Nicholson is often away from the basket because we switch 1 thru 5 and the other team isn't stupid. On offense, he is mainly used for screens. That tires him out, slows him down and often means he is away from the basket when a shot goes up, which obviously negates his size. So there are some legit excuses related to where he is positioned on the court.... but.....
His technique is trash. He does nothing to assert himself physically to gain better position. He appears to rely entirely on his height to get a hand on the ball and hopefully bat it to somebody else. As you say, much smaller guys can box him out. He also does not react to the angle of the shot - no real anticipation to where the ball will carom - he doesn't move until the ball hits the rim. Some of this is inate ability, but some of it is supposed to be taught!
I have said before (and continue to believe) that our coaching staff is not really equipped to teach big guys the fundamentals of footwork, positioning, etc around the basket Collins, McIntosh and Battle are all former guards - this is not their area of knowledge. (Brian James? No.) Barnhizer is the son of a respected high school coach. He knows rebounding, footwork - he knows all of that stuff. He probably should be the one teaching Nicholson.
Beran never learned. Ryan Young came in and already knew what to do. Dererk Pardon was a natural. Pete Nance? No. That guy never bent his knees. Nick Martinelli? Has instincts for the ball and also seems to have good rebounding technique.
The point is - everybody should be taught the basics, if they don't already know them. If your job is teaching, you can't just say "Well he's a dunce." There should be progress here and there isn't.
Pete Nance was the son of an NBA player and the brother of one. Are you really concluding that his not being taught by NU coaches how to rebound properly was the reason he did not do it well? Pete, one of the more passive players we have seen, was just missing technical instruction? What happened at the blue blood UNC - he didn’t get it there either? Did Ryan Young get a lot better rebounding at Duke?
And do you really think the players don’t own any of their own development? I never heard MJ credit his coaches for all they taught him about making shots, defending and getting rebounds - it was his own work ethic and effort. Coaches lead, motivate/criticize and provide game plans, etc. Players develop their own individual skills - on their own.
Imagine how little the team would learn if every player had to have loads of basic technical instruction learned in 7th grade travel basketball. Imagine if every CEO had to teach every person their job each day.
Matt has regressed this year; others have improved, especially another big - Hunger. Feel free to keep blaming our coach for unfounded reasons.
And do you really think the players don’t own any of their own development? I never heard MJ credit his coaches for all they taught him about making shots, defending and getting rebounds - it was his own work ethic and effort. Coaches lead, motivate/criticize and provide game plans, etc. Players develop their own individual skills - on their own.
Imagine how little the team would learn if every player had to have loads of basic technical instruction learned in 7th grade travel basketball. Imagine if every CEO had to teach every person their job each day.
Matt has regressed this year; others have improved, especially another big - Hunger. Feel free to keep blaming our coach for unfounded reasons.
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