throwback

Looking at the beginning of the year, we were pretty fortunate thinking we wouldn’t have to play most of the teams in the bottom half of the league.  Oh how the tables have turned since then.  
 
now you’re left with games against teams like Iowa that are Q4 home games.  Sucks.

his only double digit scoring game in February or March was against us. Fits the profile of what we look for in transfers. 

B1G standings thru week 5:
10-2 Illinois
8-4 NU
8-4 Purdue
10-5 Michigan
9-6 Iowa
7-5 Indiana
6-6 Ohio St
5-7 Mich St
 
6-9 Maryland
6-9 Penn St
4-8 Minnesota
3-9 Rutgers
2-10 N'western
 
Week 6 B1G Schedule
Iowa at NU Illinois at Maryland Minnesota at Penn St Mich St at Ohio St Rutgers at Indiana Purdue at N'western Michigan OFF Remaining Schedule for Contenders
Illinois: at MD, vs Ohio St, vs Iowa, at Purdue (remaining opponent record 29-25) NU: vs Iowa, at Minn, vs Indiana, at MSU (25-26) Purdue: at NW, vs Indiana, at Mich, vs Illinois (29-22) Michigan: at MSU, vs Purdue, at Indiana (20-16) Iowa: at NU, vs NW, at Illinois (20-16) Indiana: vs Rutg, at Purdue, at NU, vs Mich (29-22) Ohio St: vs MSU, at Illinois, vs NW, at Rutg (20-28) Outside of OSU, we have the easiest schedule remaining by a little bit, but it's going to take some work to catch Illinois, especially if they win the series at Maryland this weekend. And don't sleep on OSU if they can win at Illinois, as they have the weakest schedule the last two weeks. Lots of games left where the contenders are playing each other.
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B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 10 weeks:
19 Nebraska (25-12) (-3 spots vs last week) 46 Maryland -- WLW (25-16) (3 H) (+7) 51 Ohio St (19-17) -- WWL (3 H) (-7) 58 Rutgers (23-16) -- LWL (3 A) (-12) 69 Purdue (25-15)* (+2) 70 Illinois (23-13)* (-1) 77 Indiana (22-18) (3 H) (-7) 96 Michigan (20-21)* (+7) 106 Iowa (22-15) (3 H) (+24) 113 N'western (12-23) -- WWW (3 A) (-6) 114 Michigan St (14-19) (3 A) (+4) 151 Minnesota (16-18) (3 A) (-10) 160 Penn St (19-17)* (-8) * NU doesn't play
 
Non-con opponents:
22 Oklahoma (24-14) -- L (1 N) (-3) 28 Texas Tech (29-13) -- L (1 N) (+9) 34 K-State (24-15) (1 H) (+4) 49 bluebirds (28-9) -- Lx (2 A) -- L (1 H) (-4) 65 Coll of Charleston (28-10) -- WWW (3 A) (+16) 68 South Alabama (23-17) -- LWW (3 H) (+18) 86 Kansas (21-15) -- L (1 A) (1 H) (+7) 99 Nicholls (27-14) -- WWW (3 H) (+1) 107 Grand Canyon (22-18) -- WWLW (4 A) (-16) 112 Wichita St (21-20) -- WL (2 A) (-11) 121 Baylor (18-20) -- W (1 N) (-4) 197 New Mexico St (17-22) -- WW (2 H) (+14) 215 South Dakota St (17-20) (1 H) (+4) 220 North Dakota St (12-22) -- W (1 H) (-19) 294 Omaha (12-23) -- W (1 H) (-5) The Pac-4:
64 Oregon (27-12) (-1) 92 USC (19-21) (-13) 174 Washington (13-19-1) (+16) 189 UCLA (13-24) (-23)  
What our quads look like right now:
Q1: 1-5 (7 total games) (0 change in total games from last week)
L – Oklahoma (N) L – Texas Tech (N) LX – bluebirds (A) LWL – Rutgers (A) Q2: 9-4 (17 total games) (-4)
WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) WL – Wichita St (A) L – Kansas (A) X – K-State (H) L – bluebirds (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WLW – Maryland (H) XXX – Michigan St (A) Q3: 11-3 (21 total games) (+4)
W – Baylor (N) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) X – Kansas (H) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Indiana (H) XXX – Minnesota (A) Q4: 4-0 (8 total games) (0)
WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) XXX – Iowa (H)  ---------
Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60 Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120 Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240 Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+  
We have several opponents dancing on the edge of Q2 / Q3, so those numbers may go back and forth a bit over the final month. We're also to the point where everyone has played enough games where you're not going to move a lot in RPI unless you have a really horrible or really dominant week. 
 
Even though we're still on the edge of hosting, we're going to have to play a lot better than we have in April to get there. This week is huge in that regard, as we can't lose home games to Q3 and Q4 teams without it costing us quite a bit, I would imagine. Plus we need to win the regular season to have any shot of hosting, so we really have to pick it up from here.
 
Great chance to win an emotional series this weekend to propel us into May on a high note. Lose the series this weekend to an Iowa team that is starting to round into form, and we'll still be on shaky ground heading into the time when you want to be playing your best.
 
Outside of a couple of big offensive performances, it's been incredibly frustrating to see our bats not heat up as the weather improves like we normally do. Until Sunday, we had so many weak, unconfident swings in key spots with RISP or 2 strikes. When you think how Columbus has been carrying us of late (and Brumbaugh and Sanderson to an extent), and all three of them have had long stretches were they weren't playing regularly through the first half of the season, it's a little frightening how much other guys have dropped off / stagnated since March. 
 
I know we changed up the pregame work a bit Sunday, so maybe that will be a turning point.
 
We should be scoring at a much higher rate than we are with how many runners we are putting on base. With an uncertain bullpen now, it's time for the offense to start pulling its own weight.
 
With the pitchers, it's been unbelievable how many poor results we're having after getting 2 strikes on the hitters. Not sure why we are giving up so many hits on 2-strike pitches, but that has to change if we're going to get back on track. Guys have to trust their stuff and hit spots. You start thinking about what the pitching staff would look like without Sears & Worthley (and Mac and Walsh much of the time), and it's pretty bleak. Again, a number of guys who've stagnated / regressed from where they were in March.
 
It just feels like we have a major confidence problem right now on the bump and in the box. Losing will do that, especially blowing a couple of multi-run 9th inning leads, but coaches need to figure it out and make the adjustments to get the mojo back. Maybe Sunday was the first step
 

People said we need to be more athletic like A&M. Well we just got a little closer. 

B1G standings thru week 5:
10-2 Illinois
8-4 NU
8-4 Purdue
10-5 Michigan
9-6 Iowa
7-5 Indiana
6-6 Ohio St
5-7 Mich St
 
6-9 Maryland
6-9 Penn St
4-8 Minnesota
3-9 Rutgers
2-10 N'western
 
Week 6 B1G Schedule
Iowa at NU Illinois at Maryland Minnesota at Penn St Mich St at Ohio St Rutgers at Indiana Purdue at N'western Michigan OFF Remaining Schedule for Contenders
Illinois: at MD, vs Ohio St, vs Iowa, at Purdue (remaining opponent record 29-25) NU: vs Iowa, at Minn, vs Indiana, at MSU (25-26) Purdue: at NW, vs Indiana, at Mich, vs Illinois (29-22) Michigan: at MSU, vs Purdue, at Indiana (20-16) Iowa: at NU, vs NW, at Illinois (20-16) Indiana: vs Rutg, at Purdue, at NU, vs Mich (29-22) Ohio St: vs MSU, at Illinois, vs NW, at Rutg (20-28) Outside of OSU, we have the easiest schedule remaining by a little bit, but it's going to take some work to catch Illinois, especially if they win the series at Maryland this weekend. And don't sleep on OSU if they can win at Illinois, as they have the weakest schedule the last two weeks. Lots of games left where the contenders are playing each other.
_____
 
B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 10 weeks:
19 Nebraska (25-12) (-3 spots vs last week) 46 Maryland -- WLW (25-16) (3 H) (+7) 51 Ohio St (19-17) -- WWL (3 H) (-7) 58 Rutgers (23-16) -- LWL (3 A) (-12) 69 Purdue (25-15)* (+2) 70 Illinois (23-13)* (-1) 77 Indiana (22-18) (3 H) (-7) 96 Michigan (20-21)* (+7) 106 Iowa (22-15) (3 H) (+24) 113 N'western (12-23) -- WWW (3 A) (-6) 114 Michigan St (14-19) (3 A) (+4) 151 Minnesota (16-18) (3 A) (-10) 160 Penn St (19-17)* (-8) * NU doesn't play
 
Non-con opponents:
22 Oklahoma (24-14) -- L (1 N) (-3) 28 Texas Tech (29-13) -- L (1 N) (+9) 34 K-State (24-15) (1 H) (+4) 49 bluebirds (28-9) -- Lx (2 A) -- L (1 H) (-4) 65 Coll of Charleston (28-10) -- WWW (3 A) (+16) 68 South Alabama (23-17) -- LWW (3 H) (+18) 86 Kansas (21-15) -- L (1 A) (1 H) (+7) 99 Nicholls (27-14) -- WWW (3 H) (+1) 107 Grand Canyon (22-18) -- WWLW (4 A) (-16) 112 Wichita St (21-20) -- WL (2 A) (-11) 121 Baylor (18-20) -- W (1 N) (-4) 197 New Mexico St (17-22) -- WW (2 H) (+14) 215 South Dakota St (17-20) (1 H) (+4) 220 North Dakota St (12-22) -- W (1 H) (-19) 294 Omaha (12-23) -- W (1 H) (-5) The Pac-4:
64 Oregon (27-12) (-1) 92 USC (19-21) (-13) 174 Washington (13-19-1) (+16) 189 UCLA (13-24) (-23)  
What our quads look like right now:
Q1: 1-5 (7 total games) (0 change in total games from last week)
L – Oklahoma (N) L – Texas Tech (N) LX – bluebirds (A) LWL – Rutgers (A) Q2: 9-4 (17 total games) (-4)
WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) WL – Wichita St (A) L – Kansas (A) X – K-State (H) L – bluebirds (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WLW – Maryland (H) XXX – Michigan St (A) Q3: 11-3 (21 total games) (+4)
W – Baylor (N) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) X – Kansas (H) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Indiana (H) XXX – Minnesota (A) Q4: 4-0 (8 total games) (0)
WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) XXX – Iowa (H)  ---------
Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60 Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120 Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240 Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+  
We have several opponents dancing on the edge of Q2 / Q3, so those numbers may go back and forth a bit over the final month. We're also to the point where everyone has played enough games where you're not going to move a lot in RPI unless you have a really horrible or really dominant week. 
 
Even though we're still on the edge of hosting, we're going to have to play a lot better than we have in April to get there. This week is huge in that regard, as we can't lose home games to Q3 and Q4 teams without it costing us quite a bit, I would imagine. Plus we need to win the regular season to have any shot of hosting, so we really have to pick it up from here.
 
Great chance to win an emotional series this weekend to propel us into May on a high note. Lose the series this weekend to an Iowa team that is starting to round into form, and we'll still be on shaky ground heading into the time when you want to be playing your best.
 
Outside of a couple of big offensive performances, it's been incredibly frustrating to see our bats not heat up as the weather improves like we normally do. Until Sunday, we had so many weak, unconfident swings in key spots with RISP or 2 strikes. When you think how Columbus has been carrying us of late (and Brumbaugh and Sanderson to an extent), and all three of them have had long stretches were they weren't playing regularly through the first half of the season, it's a little frightening how much other guys have dropped off / stagnated since March. 
 
I know we changed up the pregame work a bit Sunday, so maybe that will be a turning point.
 
We should be scoring at a much higher rate than we are with how many runners we are putting on base. With an uncertain bullpen now, it's time for the offense to start pulling its own weight.
 
With the pitchers, it's been unbelievable how many poor results we're having after getting 2 strikes on the hitters. Not sure why we are giving up so many hits on 2-strike pitches, but that has to change if we're going to get back on track. Guys have to trust their stuff and hit spots. You start thinking about what the pitching staff would look like without Sears & Worthley (and Mac and Walsh much of the time), and it's pretty bleak. Again, a number of guys who've stagnated / regressed from where they were in March.
 
It just feels like we have a major confidence problem right now on the bump and in the box. Losing will do that, especially blowing a couple of multi-run 9th inning leads, but coaches need to figure it out and make the adjustments to get the mojo back. Maybe Sunday was the first step
 

That's how you attack a team with a poor pitching staff. So many good swings today on breaking balls, fast balls, whatever. Lots of confident 2-strike swings. Complete 180 from yesterday.
 
Props to Walsh and Stone for setting the tone today from the jump, and the boys ran with it from there. Whatever the coaches did in pregame today, they need to bottle it.
 
Sets up a huge weekend with tons of emotion in the park, as Io_a is going to make every effort to save their season by coming in here and beating us next weekend. Friday will be a monster pitching matchup with many MLB scouts in the stands, and Saturday will be a huge crowd after the spring game. Plus it's a rivalry against a team that's had our number since Heller got there to the tune of 9-18 including a complete domination in a sweep last year in Io_a City. Taking care of business against UI would get the season back on track and set the tone for a strong finish. 
 

They do sometimes play each other midweek, but the midweek games are counted as non-con games. Oklahoma & Okla State sometimes do the same thing once a year, usually at Bricktown or Tulsa's minor league park, or at least they used to. I think OU & OSU even went through a stretch where they'd play the 3 conference games at home, on the road, and neutral within one weekend.
 

Emphasis on plural

Need bigs...

Nebraska lands their fourth commit out of the transfer portal with the verbal commit of Wisconsin transfer Connor Essegian.  The Indiana native, known for his 3pt shooting, has two years of eligibility remaining. 
 
Nebraska currently has open three scholarships remaining for 2024-25

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Video out there showing Spinelli caring more than Barry.   Those were sad times in the history of the program.  A mess at head coach and athletic director.

Yesterday was the poorest effort out of this team as they've had all season. Reminded me of a throwaway midweek effort from last season. Not good enough then, but lightyears worse in the present when you have a chance to clinch a conference series.
 
To let that soft thrower continually strike us out on late swings on high "fastballs" that would struggle to break glass was simply a team that wasn't ready to compete and didn't go to the plate with a confident mindset. Outside of Columbus, thinking too much, worrying about what could go wrong, instead of making things happen.
 
The coaches can't figure it out and are making decisions that make things worse. I mean the only positive out of a dumpster fire of an effort was Clark, but the coaches even ruined that. To leave Clark in there for another inning after a great outing to face the right handers when he was tiring, and he promptly gives up a 2-run HR, was simply idiotic. Clark is a guy who needs confidence, and he gained a lot yesterday, only to have the coaches leave him hanging out to dry and have him leave the outing with a bad memory. Absolutely terrible.
 
This team reminds me of some of Coach Anderson's teams -- not a compliment -- where they started the season OK, only to have multiple guys stagnate and regress instead of showing improvement. That's not a good look for the coaching staff. Now, this team started far better than OK, but the stagnation and regression, outside of a few guys, is pretty significant at this point.
 
I've got more, but I'll just say this for now -- lose today, and we'll spend May simply trying to hang on to a B1G tourney berth. Not something I thought I'd ever be typing at the start of April.
 

This team looks like they are going through the motions.  Horrible effort throughout the whole game.  We need to get our crap together.

The video of two of our guys literally playing grab ass (nuts), down 5 runs wasn’t encouraging. Starting to feel a little bubbly when it comes to the NCAAs, hope they pull out of the funk. 

This dude appears to be that sixth or seventh man who is a specialist.   Sort of a CJ type of player.  The hope is that he can come in and light it up from three point line and provides a hard driven 15 to 16 minutes a game.  I may be totally off base; but that is my initial reaction. 

Hopefully, but these kinds of decisions are made every day at portal time.   How far to go on NIL with each player/agent, figuring out what's real, drawing a line knowing that's effectively letting a guy go.   I'm probably stating the obvious, but this is so much about money now, rather than a better fit at a new program, etc.   And on the program end, there comes a point where the price is higher than the player is good, and you have to keep some dry powder.   
 
The good news is in the play for pay era, our new AD is totally committed to that, and will overtly support 1890 until the system changes and allows direct institutional participation or changes to an employee model.   Fred is very pleased with Dannen so far.   Fred has almost double what he had to work with on the pay players budget from a year ago.  We're all in on the current system.
 
We're really trying to get a visit from Payne, but the NIL demands are very, very high.  We're getting a visit from Essigian, assuming he doesn't commit to Indiana on his visit there.   Kyle supposed to come next weekend but concerned about Wake giving him a huge number, like they did Sallis.  

Wow. Awful news. Hope the best for him as he goes through the cancer treatments.
 

I really like his potential 

Nebraska lands former Rutgers transfer Gavin Griffiths from the transfer portal. The 4 star 6'8" sharpshooter was a big commit for the Scarlet Knights but struggled during his freshman year until the end of the season.  Despite the size look for Griffiths to slot at either the 2 or 3.
 
Griffiths will have 3 years of eligibility left and is the 3rd known commitment for 2024-25.  Nebraska currently has 4 scholarships remaining.

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Per his Instagram, Nebraska has received the verbal commit of 6'4" Utah transfer PG Rollie Worster who has one year left of eligibility.
 

Worster has played for former Nebraska assistant Craig Smith for his entire college career, starting in Utah State and following the coach to Utah.  The Montana native has started in 101 college game despite missing the second half of last season with an ankle injury.
 
This is Nebraska's second known commit of the offseason and the Husker have five more scholarships to fill.
 

 

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I wonder if Keisei will wear a satchel bag while shooting at the Final Four to give everyone else a chance.

Looks like Igor milicic is visiting today. Some heavy hitters involved here also. 
 
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/igor-milicicjr-1.html

I would welcome an Igor to assist Mast. The journalistic possibilities are unlimited.