What Happened To Nunge?

QuadCityHawkeye

QuadCityHawkeye

Well-Known Member
He showed some promise as a freshman. Took a red-shirt to work on his game. Supposedly got better, but he looks absolutely lost and like he has regressed. I know Jon Miller was very high on him at one point and so were others, but he appears to have taken some steps back. I know it's early but competition is going to be ramping up soon and if he can't contribute now, then what does his future look like?
 
I've never been sold on Nunge. He is playing out of position first of all. He is just too slow to be on the perimeter at the D1 level. He's not fast or quick. He can't get his shot off and he can't defend smaller quicker players. Which is pretty much everyone.

I'm not slamming the kid personally, so don't go starting the "everyone hates poor Nunge when he's trying the best he can" threads. I realize he's doing the best he can. Unfortunately, his best isn't good enough for B1G basketball. I thought maybe after the redshirt season he could get it together, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

There's gotta be a place for him somewhere. It just might not be on this team.
 
I think we should probably pump the brakes here a little bit. He played 10 minutes last night. He’s played 25 minutes on the season so just over 1 half of basketball.

Has it been pretty? Absolutely not. I think right now he’s a little hesitant and struggling to figure out his role. Garza is operating inside and Nunge isn’t going to be a highly effective guy on the perimeter on offense. He needs to one go in the post more and look for the ball, and two he needs to hit the glass way harder than he has been.

My biggest concern right now is he looks a lot slower than I expected. I don’t know if he’s just playing a little hesitant or that’s just his top speed. If that is his top speed we are in pretty big trouble because Kriener and Pemsl, and obviously Garza are even slower of foot than him. We can’t afford to be playing big minutes with Garza alongside either Kriener or Pemsl, it’s too big of a defensive liability. If Jack can’t guard 4 men in this league either, we are going to need to slide Pmac down to the 4 and play a lot of zone or Wieskamp down there and just play pretty small.

I found it funny all the ppl who were ripping Nunge in the game thread when he played 10 minutes, and wasn’t really any noticeably worse than anyone else. I guess the offseason hype is probably the reason for that. Jack was not going to be a big scorer, and that’s not what we needed from him in the starting lineup. We need Defense and rebounding, we have plenty of scoring firepower on this team.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
I think we should probably pump the brakes here a little bit. He played 10 minutes last night. He’s played 25 minutes on the season so just over 1 half of basketball.

Has it been pretty? Absolutely not. I think right now he’s a little hesitant and struggling to figure out his role. Garza is operating inside and Nunge isn’t going to be a highly effective guy on the perimeter on offense. He needs to one go in the post more and look for the ball, and two he needs to hit the glass way harder than he has been.

My biggest concern right now is he looks a lot slower than I expected. I don’t know if he’s just playing a little hesitant or that’s just his top speed. If that is his top speed we are in pretty big trouble because Kriener and Pemsl, and obviously Garza are even slower of foot than him. We can’t afford to be playing big minutes with Garza alongside either Kriener or Pemsl, it’s too big of a defensive liability. If Jack can’t guard 4 men in this league either, we are going to need to slide Pmac down to the 4 and play a lot of zone or Wieskamp down there and just play pretty small.

I found it funny all the ppl who were ripping Nunge in the game thread when he played 10 minutes, and wasn’t really any noticeably worse than anyone else. I guess the offseason hype is probably the reason for that. Jack was not going to be a big scorer, and that’s not what we needed from him in the starting lineup. We need Defense and rebounding, we have plenty of scoring firepower on this team.
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He only played 10 minutes because he looked really, really bad. I hope its mental and he can get going, but it sure doesn't look like it right now. He is just too slow to be out there with Garza. That's the combination we really needed to work and it's already beyond obvious that it won't.
 
PCHawk said:
He only played 10 minutes because he looked really, really bad. I hope its mental and he can get going, but it sure doesn't look like it right now. He is just too slow to be out there with Garza. That's the combination we really needed to work and it's already beyond obvious that it won't.
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The problem is Kriener and Pemsl are slower than Nunge as well. Basically our hands are tied.

One thing I might advocate for would be just playing small. Wieskamp at 6’6 with a 7’0 wingspan could probably play some minutes at the 4. Pmac maybe can steal some in zone. That would mean Connor plays more time at the 3 which would open up more play time for Toussaint. I don’t know why I am mentioning this because Fran would NEVER do it. He’s going to stick with playing all the guys.
 
"But I just felt I had a better chance at success at Iowa State." XF
That should stick in the University President's craw, the Athletic Director's craw, and the Head Mens Basketball Coach's craw, just like it does in all of ours...and the kid's not wrong.
 
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