jimmychitwood

So late to this. I was sitting in a structural engineering class when our professor’s pager went off. He was part of the national search and rescue squad and said a plane hit the first tower but thought it was a test. About 30 minutes later, the state patrol walked into class to escort him to Whiteman for a flight to NYC. He left and the Dean of Engineering came in and told us to all go home. We still had no idea of what had actually occurred until we heard the radio driving home. Completely surreal. Professor was gone for around 7 weeks and was too traumatized to talk about what he saw when he came back. Two years later to the date, I leave the US to go live with my future wife in Australia. Mixed feelings about 9/11

The on court problems and results are on Fred, but can you imagine where this program would be without incompetence from the admin and outside sources? The Diaz English proficiency test, Robert Sallie, and two guys going to the tourney this year not on this roster due to the OWH and lawyers. Can you imagine this team with Keyontae Johnson and Adana Sanogo on it? Sanogo takes Oleg’s spot and although I love him, KT is playing in Japan this year to get Johnson. That is easily a tourney team. I know this is a post full of what-ifs, but that’s a reason why judging Fred’s success here isn’t as cut and dry as looking at the record.

I think Baundo is going to eventually be the man on this team. It seemed every time the team needed a bucket, he got one. He plays within himself and just appears to be an on-court leader.

First, to address the original topic, I’m tired of Sipple going in the radio and saying “wins matter” with regards to Fred when he spent football season on his knees for a coach that won 3 games (1 power 5 team in there). I’m fine with Fred getting next year. He’s going to finally have a legitimate amount of bigs to complete instead of managing time between Walker and Andre. He should also have ball handlers on the team. If things don’t improve next year, it’s time for him to go but with the incoming core, another year is needed.

Verge cannot be on the floor at the end of a close game. His hero ball completely kills any semblance of offensive cohesion and he thinks every off-balance prayer is a foul which leads to him pouting/complaining for half of the next defensive possession. Hopefully Trey’s return fixes that. The constant switching up top on defense needs to stop as well. Too often there is confusion on who’s guarding who or we are left in serious mismatches which give open driving lanes that just compound the problem.

Last season really dispersed that idea. After the Covid stoppage and Teddy dismissal, that team played exactly how he would have wanted it, even if it was every other day. Trey getting hurt completely destroyed this team. He was the only leader that can be there on and off the court. I’m actually encouraged that we are trending towards having up to 4 bigs that can play with shooters around them for the next couple of years. An inside threat will really help 3 point percentages.

My biggest issue is how poorly Verge attacks the pick and roll. If the lane isn’t completely wide open, he doesn’t go hard to the rim and seems to wait for the pocket pass to Walker. That doesn’t pull defenders to allow the quick swing passes to open 3’s.

I really didn’t feel like rebounding was an issue outside of the final 5 minutes. Up to that point, I only remember 2 or 3 possessions where we gave up big offensive rebounds. One thing that needs to be considered with rebounding stats is the number of turnovers we cause. That cuts down rebound opportunities. If we win points off of turnovers against second chance points, then it equals an overall stats win in my book.

I can’t imagine it was very enjoyable for the team. Fred’s body language during the game and during the media session looked like he was extremely pissed. On Monday he mentioned how hard they worked on rebounding and the lack of defensive discipline to find a body, not over rotate on drives, and protecting the weak side board went against almost everything he said. I won’t even mention the offense. It wouldn’t surprise me if the team has heard “I taught you how to play my way and you decided to do it yours. Look where that got us” a hundred times.

This falls solely at the feet of the Athletic Department for continuing to schedule teams from Illinois for the opener. I’m not wasting my time in Ireland next August.

Where was her letter about the football team? If I remember correctly, 96 of the 149 players currently on the team were brought in by Frost. That's pretty close to the 2 to 3 leftovers after Hoiberg's hire.

A large part of me wants the movie ending where Nebraska wins the NIT with 6 players and Miles quits during the post game interview. It would be the most Nebrasketball thing ever. Coach quits before being fired for tying the most wins in a season and best post season performance in school history.

Fine, if coach stays I’ll play.

If Miles is gone, that’s the biggest issue. What decent candidate is going to look at the external optics of how the administration has handled the last year and think this is a good place to coach or build their career? It’s a bad look all around. If what everyone outside the program sees is this bad, I can only imagine what is said in private conversations between any candidates and Miles and his staff is worse.

Two numbers to explain why we are at a "plateau"....17 ppg & 4.5 apg. Those are Xavier Johnson's numbers at Pitt this year. If this Administration really cared about basketball and didn't drag out the laughable 1 year extension after the most conference wins of all time, he could be on this roster. If they really wanted to win, give Miles a few more years for security (we only make 52 million a year from tv now) and give Kenya whatever was necessary to keep him and Johnson here. A player of his caliber completely changes this roster.

These last 10 games are a referendum on Nebrasketball’s future. The early work was done to get good enough “metrics” to make the tourney, but this team’s resume only consists of these games and the BIG tournament in the committee’s eyes. Fail and the only way to get that first win is to play the same dirty recruiting game as everyone else. Miles is respected enough in the coaching circles that any coach wanting to improve his career trajectory the right way will not come here. To paraphrase Bud Kilmer, every 40 minutes of these last 10 games need to be played like it’s the next 40 years of your life. James - your last name is Palmer, not Harden. Just be that guy from last year, we need nothing more than that. Glynn - You said before the year you wanted to make your impact on Nebrasketball history. Well, now is the time. We can’t win with you and Palmer going 3 of 98 on bad shots because you force everything. Roby - Wisconsin was a good start but we still need more. No more dumb fouls. Tanner - You’re getting a root canal after every game. Enough said. Thor - For Vahala or whatever inspired you to play like that, keep it up. Tom - Creighton wasn’t a fluke. You’re going to be the man next year so start it now. Finally Tim - Make these guys believe they are a better version of the gritty teams you used to coach. Sorry for another long-winded post but this season has really gotten to me. I have a separate bank account full of “traveling to see the first win” money. This was a year I believed and I hope the team decides to sooner than later.

One of the things that’s hurts the team in close games is Palmer cheating/freelancing on defense. If you look at a lot of the situations where the D has to go into scramble mode, it’s because he lost track of his man while trying to make a play on or watching where the ball is. A perfect example is when he lost Cowan at the top of the key for a layup because he was looking at the ball in the post. In a blowout those mistakes are hidden but giving up those two easy points were huge tonight.

Moos doesn't need a full year. He had that already. The guy was hired in the middle of October and didn't attend a game until Wisconsin in January. I look at that and think this guy just ignored the second highest revenue generating program for 3 months. That's some great AD-ing there. By the way, Frost was hired two weeks before the Kansas game and Moos couldn't drag himself to that. What it boils down to is that any of us could have been the AD to hire Frost as long as we let the puppeteers pull the strings and everyone behind the scenes do the legwork like Moos did. If Moos was a real AD he would have been at the biggest home game in years, especially since the football staff was already back at UCF. Everything about the way he handled basketball the past month stinks whether it be from not making Kenya an offer he couldn't refuse to stay and keep recruiting up or dragging the extension out over a month only to make it for a year. To anyone with a brain this seems like the puppeteers are pulling the strings again and they couldn't fire Miles after 22 wins so they decided to do the best they can to make it an impossible situation for future success.

GOOOOOOOOO BIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGG RRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!

I blame it on a lot of Nebraskans moving out of state. I played on one of the elite early 90's Class B teams and none of us have moved back home after college. If we stayed home, i'm sure our kids would be good in-state players in the next few years.