Things are never as good as they seem when its going good, and things are never as bad as they seem when they're going bad. Nebraska shot 67% for the game, and 77% in the second half, despite pretty decent defense from the Jays. I know some fans will disagree with me, and I know Coach Altman claims they are "simply a bad team right now". But there were several times that they held Nebraska to a rushed shot at the end of the shot clock, and twice where they threw up desperation threes. Both of those went in. The defense was decent, not terrible and not good, decent. I'll grant you there were too many breakdowns that led to open shots, but the body of work as a whole was not terrible.
To have a team shoot lights-out, and only be down 2 points with 6 minutes left, is awfully good. Typically, even against atrocious defense, a team might shoot 60% on a great night. 77% is once-in-a-season stuff. As I said yesterday, you don't need to look any further than March Madness to see examples of a seemingly inferior team winning. How do they often do that? Insanely red-hot shooting.
This does not mean Nebraska got lucky, or that they somehow pulled off a once-in-a-lifetime performance. They played very, very well in this game, and there's only a handful of teams that would have won in Lincoln Saturday night. Sometimes you run into a team that just has one of those nights. And remember two years ago, on a February night in Wichita when Creighton hit 80% of their shots in the second half to not only erase a big deficit but end up blowing out the Shockers? We've been on the other side of these before too, remember that.
Dana Altman had some very, VERY strange strategic moves in this game; several things I question. His substituting patterns are a mystery to me. With Nebraska having a four-guard lineup and really only one big guy, why would you not try to exploit that by playing Manny Gakou, Tolliver and Ty Morrison at the same time, at least for a few minutes to see if you can create a mismatch? For the love of God, why does the team set a team record by taking 32 three-pointers against such a small lineup? Why do you not drive to the lane and try to get the only big guy in foul trouble? Why does Morrison get only 3 minutes on PT, while Pierce Hibma at maybe 80% gets 17 minutes? Why does big Kenny Lawson not even get on the court? I understand going with veterans on the road, but one of the big edges in this game was their bench -- and when you don't play half your guys, that edge disappears.
That's a lot of questions. I don't often question DA, but it just seemed to me he didn't give the Jays the best opportunity to win in this game.
Nate Funk scored 28 points on 7-11 shooting from 3-point range. He was ready to go and nearly won this game single-handedly. And interestingly, Josh Dotzler returned and played 10 pretty rusty-looking minutes. As word has it, he played reverse psychology on DA, who has always said "You have to practice in order to play." According to quotes in the World-Herald, Dotzler said to Altman on the bench late in the first half, "I've practiced, so why can't I play?" And into the game he came.
His lateral movement is pretty limited, particularly on defense, and this will be something to watch going forward. Some doctors claim that players who've suffered his injury never return to their former level of ability. I remain optimistic that he's just not 100% yet, and also not in game shape. But time will tell.
The bottom line is, Creighton has a lot to work on, but they didn't play as badly as people think. Things are never as good as you think, and things are never as bad they seem. There probably won't be another team all year that shoots 77% in a half against us. Get to work, get better, and come out swinging against George Mason in a week.
Go Jays!
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