+/- for the Mistreatment of Michigan State

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I'm not one to gloss over the fact that we started playing better after Roper got injured.
That doesn't necessarily mean much when comparing Martinelli to Roper. It could just mean that we had 3 guards who were better than Roper and his minutes were subtracting from their overall performance.
Or it could mean that Barnhizer's additional minutes were better than Roper's. Or it could mean that Nicholson was improving coincidentally. All of those things are possible.

In the last 10 games of last season, Martinelli had the best ratio of "NU Points / Opponent Points" of anyone on the team, so he had established his quality, in my opinion.

So far this year, that distinction goes to Luke Hunger.

 

[SmellyCat]

The hell? Come next season, I promise you that you’ll pine for a fearless PG who goes killer crossover to floater at will.

Oh, I will. Don't you worry.

 

[IGNORE2]

Martinelli this year >>> Martinelli last year.
Roper last year was better than a freshman Martinelli. You also had a 4th year Beran and an emerging Barnhizer. No sense in burning a shirt for limited min when you red shirt him and get 4 better years. He needed the off-season to build some strength and work on his footwork. He would have benefited greatly from a red shirt. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t able to give good minutes. He is a much better player this year and I’d take another year of older Martinelli over his 10ish min a game and 2.6 ppg as a freshman. This is not saying he wasn’t valuable last year just he provides more value this year and hopefully over the next 2 years to the point you say at the end man I wish he had one more year.

Same with Pardon, having an extra year of junior or senior level Pardon would have been awesome. Especially when there where two seniors in front of him his freshman year. Injuries often change things and Barkley and Strauss are getting redshirted barring injury. Could have a couple contributors on the bench but with the experience and skill at the 1-4 right now there is not a ton of minutes to go around.

NU is a developmental basketball program. Its goal is to get old and stay old. Having good 5th year seniors can help a lot with that. Redshirting is a luxury provided by a good experienced roster.

In a portal world, it’s a harder game. If you can redshirt in Year one, you definitely hamstring the player - if they want to portal, they ride on HS performance and have to explain why they didn’t see the floor. But in the modern athlete, redshirt means they are out.

I absolutely love we have a few guys redshirting. I have said that redshirting freshmen would be a sign we have moved up a level (we aren’t getting the one and dones).

My concern is PG. We have a super star and seemingly no relief. He is gone next year - a vacuum. If CCC believed Clayton was on the verge, then he should be getting a lot more minutes to relieve Boo in games especially when the outcome is all but determined.

 

[IGNORE2]

And NU, because of university rules, can't bring in undergrad transfers with more than 2 years of college credits.
So Collins can focus on a) under-recruited late bloomers who have played one season at a lesser program and b) grad transfers who have good college academic records.

Disclaimer: I’m old

When I played, the most common departure period was after frosh and soph years. Too many reasons for after frosh to even list. After soph, you left because you outplayed your school or didn’t get PT.

I transferred in after soph year. I got money in a nonrevenue sport. My grades were pretty good but I was never going to Harvard. My HS was pretty good but I was never going to Harvard And my arrival did zero for NU revenue or DEI. (Though I graduated w honors)

The undergrad, underclassman transfer was definitely an option in my day. Definitely should be looking at guys finishing year one and two.

 

[IGNORE2]

He wasn’t going to contribute if Roper stayed healthy. You had an experienced Roper, Senior Beran, and an emerging Barnhizer ahead of him on the depth chart. So it’s still playing for this season.

I get the idea of transferring out issue but you have to play for this season and not worry about players transferring out due to a redshirt. Especially an under recruited Martinelli. If Strauss or Barkley transfer out after this season maybe you think about changing that approach.

I think Collin’s has no issue playing the freshman he thinks can contribute. Isaiah Brown saw action during the 1st tourney season. Hunger I believe was planned to get minutes last season until the injury. Especially given the lack of a scoring option inside. MN got better with each game and I think that limited some minutes for Hunger pre injury. Clayton was the plan to spell Buie during his brief rests but some defensive miscues and not taking care of the basketball got him glued to the bench. With a good old roster there’s only so many min to go around.

Strauss and Barkley had what other options? Now they compete against the HS class and the transfers that played and showed what they can do.

They can leave - but with no AAU, no game tape, a lot of experienced players out there - I wonder who they thinks takes them when they couldn’t break the NU rotation. MN is different - he’s got post HS tape that shows many strengths. Who is Barkley and Strauss…and Mullins and Clayton for that matter.

 

[PurpleFaze]

Nice to see Hunger getting rewarded with more PT. At least he has some touch around the rim. Frankly Nicholson has been a HUGE disappointment so far this season. I expected him to have a nice jump from last year, and been hard pressed to say he hasn’t been worse.

 

[CappyNU]

The point I was making is that some guys never see the floor here as freshman and one might make the assumption that they are just not close to ready yet. But, when CCC's hand is forced, one of those guys may get pushed out into the limelight and it turns out they aren't so far off. Martinelli was that kind of revelation for me last year. While Clayton has had his chances, I still think he might show us more if suddenly he were forced to play more because, god forbid, we lost one of our guards.

Let's just hope we never find out this season.

Also, see Pardon, Dererk. Expected to redshirt until Olah got hurt, and then in his second game he took ownership of the state of Nebraska with 28 points and 12 rebounds,

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Nice to see Hunger getting rewarded with more PT. At least he has some touch around the rim. Frankly Nicholson has been a HUGE disappointment so far this season. I expected him to have a nice jump from last year, and been hard pressed to say he hasn’t been worse.

A person connected with the team told someone I know his/her impressions of various NU players...

Something like "At first I thought Hunger was an arrogant jerk, but over time I've come to realize that he's just very confident in himself."

I found that interesting, because he's Canadian - and most Canadians don't come off as brash - but confidence is a good thing in sports.

I think Nicholson is coming around. My honest guess is that Ty Verhoeven was a good influence on Matt last year.

 

[PURPLECAT88]

A person connected with the team told someone I know his/her impressions of various NU players...

Something like "At first I thought Hunger was an arrogant jerk, but over time I've come to realize that he's just very confident in himself."

I found that interesting, because he's Canadian - and most Canadians don't come off as brash - but confidence is a good thing in sports.

I think Nicholson is coming around. My honest guess is that Ty Verhoeven was a good influence on Matt last year.

He's also a New England Prep school kid. Those places can bleed the humble out of even a Canadian.

 

[SmellyCat]

Also, see Pardon, Dererk. Expected to redshirt until Olah got hurt, and then in his second game he took ownership of the state of Nebraska with 28 points and 12 rebounds,

Wasn't there very briefly a Wikipedia edit for the state of Nebraska indicating that Pardon owned the state, or did I dream that?

 

[CappyNU]

Wasn't there very briefly a Wikipedia edit for the state of Nebraska indicating that Pardon owned the state, or did I dream that?

You did not dream it, however it came following Pardon's 19 point, 22 rebound, 3 block effort on Jan 26th 2017.

Nebraska - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org