Marcus Colbert
34K posts
Marcus Colbert retweetledi
500k followers giveaway pt 1!
My golf bag plus some @Titleist goodies
Comment, like, repost to enter. Must be a follower
Clubs not included unfortunately*
Still need those for my day job
English
Hello Eliot, that is us. And it is total BULLSHIT! Get him out of there!!!
20 minutes for the rest of our lives!!!!
Eliot Clough@EliotClough
There's an Iowa section behind the bench that is now counting the amount of seconds that Tomislav Ivisic is spending in the lane. They got to 11 seconds on the last count.
English
How does Nebraska only have 4 guys on the floor lmaoooooo
English
HOW ABOUT THOSE HAWKEYES!!! @upsideash ILL SEE YOU IN HOUSTON TOMORROW NIGHT!!!
English
Marcus Colbert retweetledi
Iowa / Nebraska (Houston)
Last but certainly not least. The “Face Only a Mother Could Love” game.
Some may see a game played nearly exclusively in the half court that lacks premier NBA talent. My fellow sickos and X’s & O’s enthusiasts will find a cornucopia of matchup wrinkles, in-game adjustments, and one of the best young coaches in the business finally getting his due respect after pulling the biggest upset of the tourney against defending champion Florida.
Both of these teams are elite at limiting transition and are in no hurry offensively. Nearly half of every shot in a Nebraska game is a 3pointer, on both sides. One of these matchups played to 60 possessions and ended 57-52 because both shot under 27% from 3. The other was at ~62-63 possessions at the end of regulation and a score of 70-70 because both teams ended up over 36% from 3. Just no way to bet a Nebraska game without wading into the dangerous waters of CBB perimeter shot variance
Both games these teams played during the regular season went down to the wire as Iowa is inherently a difficult matchup for Nebraska’s constant double teams. The Hawkeyes are maybe the least threatening ‘off-the-bus’ team left in the tourney, but what they lack in length and athleticism they make up for in both IQ and dribble/pass/shoot versatility up and down the lineup. Everyone is always in the right spot, spaced correctly, and can do a little bit of everything to an extent. You wonder why their higher profile transfers like Folgueiras & Hausen struggled to carve out consistent roles? Most of that is defensive-related with Folgueiras, but McCollum is a DIABOLICAL schemer, so he would rather a lineup with jacks-of-all-trades & masters-of-none, over having masters-of-one like Hausen is with his 3P shooting. If everyone can defend, dribble, and pass, then you don’t even need to really be able to ‘shoot’ all that well as these aggressive defenses will allow for easy shots on the backside if you can hold onto the ball long enough.
One of Nebraska’s advantages comes in the form of the aggressiveness they hedge ball screens with, which has been the quickest way to stall out this Iowa offense that is as lead guard centric as you’ll find anywhere at the P5 level. Stirtz is the no-doubt NBA prospect in this game (although Sandfort is rightfully starting to receive his due buzz) and the Ironman of college basketball when you are not only 5thnationally in % of minutes played, but also did it at a 26% usage rate, 28%+ shot rate, and signing up as the primary defensive stopper for multiple games this season. The conditioning is special, and he lit up the Huskers for 25 points in Iowa City but then had his lowest usage rate of the B10 schedule when they rematched in Lincoln. Corn has proven as capable as anyone in limiting him, and on top of that, we have seen some efficiency dips with Stirtz in recent weeks as mayyybe some of that workload is catching up to him.
An interesting aspect of their matchups was also the fact that Nebraska was generally a good defensive rebounding team when not playing the massive Michigans and Illinois of the world. But in the Iowa City iteration, the Hawkeyes actually grabbed over 35% of their misses. That, in combination with the fact that they somehow just outrebounded one of the 3 best teams nationally in that department, leads me to believe that their shot volume equity may be better than some perceive.
Should Iowa have success with shot volume, its 3P% splits the back half of conference play also make them a pretty dangerous opponent in a 3P shooting contest. Iowa hasn’t fallen on the right side of the perimeter battle as they enter at ~(-4.5) 3P% delta since the start of February that widens to (-5.7%) over the last month (8 games). Some of that could also have to do with the aforementioned Stirtz inefficiency in the same time period, which, should that take have legs, immediately takes a lot of teeth out of Iowa's offensive attack
Unfortunately, neither team swept the season series, so there will be no free value betting on the team that “can’t beat the same opponent three times in a season”. Both were close games, and for my money, I think McCollum is the better coach, so I would tend to favor that when getting a 3rd look at an opponent within a 6-week span. Not that Hoiberg is ‘bad’ by any stretch—I may have voted him National Coach of the Year with the job he’s done.
I have Nebraska +1900 to win the region because I thought they could pose matchup issues for every team in the top of the bracket. But I am pretty worried about this individual spot as someone who has also championed BMC since the start of the season, ten toes down. This is the exact type of matchup I am pretty scared to face him in.
My head says Nebraska is the rightful favorite and is set up pretty well to be the slightly better team playing in their preferred game script. My gut says McCollum will have new concepts and sets especially with the way Stirtz was limited in the last matchup. I don't know if they start him off the ball. I don't know if they run more through Folg. But I do think I know McCollum will have something up his sleeve that Corn hasn't run into.
Lean Corn but terrified. Under or pass, and ideally, these teams come out shooting well from the perimeter and we catch a better under number live.
>If you're into narratives, the last Iowa team who made the S16 had Cooper Koch's dad on it. And now he is in an elite spot as the primary, non-Stirtz 3P shooter off the ball against a scheme where he WILL get open looks. Took 19 attempts from the arc in their 2 games this year
>With McCollum being so scout-conscious, that cadre of non-Stirtz guys can see huge fluctuations in their minutes game-to-game, so it's always somewhat volatile betting their prop overs
YOU SHOW THIS MATCHUP ITS DESERVED RESPECT, DAMMIT
English
