This Year Wasn't All That Bad

HuskerFever · March 9, 2017

It sounds crazy for a 12-19 (6-12) season that went off the deep end at the end of the season, but hear me out. We did some pretty special things this year.

- Coach Miles got to go back to his coaching roots and spend time with a plane full of University of Mary fans.

- We went into the Wooden Legacy tournament and fought our way into the winners side of the bracket for the first time in a long time.

- We played tough against a #14 5-0 UCLA team, keeping the game within six with three minutes to go, who finished #3 28-3 (15-3) in the regular season.

- We played #3 8-1 Kansas team in historic Allen Fieldhouse and got to relive the Big 12 days a little bit.

- We showed spurts of being a team that fought hard and didn't give up against really good competition.

- We beat Indiana on the road when they were #16 10-2.

- We beat Maryland for the first time since joining the Big Ten and did it at their place nonetheless.

- We started off the conference season alone in the #1 with a 3-0 start.

- We ended up beating Purdue and Maryland who finished the #1 and #3, respectively, in the Big Ten conference and went to overtime with the #2 Wisconsin.

- We made a palindrome of wins and losses through 15 games in the season.

- We ended the season with a Top 25 strength of schedule and were #1 and in the Top 5 most of the season, something that could not be said during non-conference play in the Doc era; it was exciting to watch elevated competition this year.

- We played in a lot of close games, nine games within four points and five games within nine points.

- It wasn't until 45% of the way through the conference schedule until we got blown out by an opponent.

- We have a roster full of underclassman who all showed spurts of promise for the future, with only one senior on the roster.

- We have had at least some level of depth on the bench for the first time in a long time.

- We have been recruiting some high caliber players throughout the year.

- We saw Tai grow so much throughout his career and finish off his time as a proud Husker and second-team all-Big Ten.

- We got a much-needed "big man" that we were in desperate need for a few years.

- We saw Jordy grow a lot throughout this season.

- We saw Tyronn Lue come back to Nebraska to see his jersey retired.

- The Nebrasketball community banded together and rebelled against the athletic department and continued the "Husker Power" chant.

- Brian Rosenthal became the official "official" source.

- Shawn Eichorst spent little-to-no-time announcing that Coach Miles will be returning to Nebraska next year, providing fans with less ambiguity, stress, and clarity than letting rumors take a life of their own over the off-season.

- We played a schedule with a combined record of 487-265 (248-182) as of March 8 (which is 65% and 58% respectively) with teams currently rankes 1, 3, 12, 23, 25, and 7 other teams receiving votes. Some of those teams finishing the regular season 1st in the Atlantic-10, 1st in the Summit League, 1st in the Big 12, 2nd in Conference USA, 3rd in the Pac-12, 3rd in the SWAC, and 4th in the Big South. Teams currently projected in the NCAA tournament are seeded 1, 3, 4, 6 (x2), 7 (x2), 8 (x2), 9 (x2), and 10.

It's hard not to find something good about this season. I don't know about you, but I'm excited to see what's in store for 2017-2018.

PimpMario · March 9, 2017

It was a wild ride the first
First 15 games.

Let's make the tournament next year

rwmctrofholz · March 9, 2017

All great points. I'd add that until Morrow got hurt, we were really in the thick of things in the conference. Not bad for a team projected last, or second to last, respectively. I don't think the impact of that Morrow injury can be overstated.

We also outscored UCLA in the second half of that game. Not a huge accomplishment, but I think it supplements the overall theme of your post.

ladyhusker · March 9, 2017

I almost wish, instead of win-loss records, we had a way to figure RPI or included our SOS ranking with the record or something for a better picture of the overall year. I loved Doc, but if our current team traded schedules with one of his teams, I don't think any of us would be upset with the win-loss record. For reference, because I was curious, I actually looked up the 2010-11 schedule, which was Year 5 Doc...we went 7-9 in conference, but made it to the NIT after only losing two non-con games...because we played USC, Creighton, Vandy (lost that one) and everyone else pretty much had a "State" or a direction in their school name.

Point being, it isn't really a true representation to compare wins and losses only between coaches sometimes, because I don't think anyone would argue that the level of competition was MUCH higher this year than basically any year in Doc's (or Barry's?) tenure. I'm not excusing the losses being as numerous as they were, but it only stands to reason that a harder schedule would yield more losses. If we wanted to be the SWAC champions again I'm sure we could, but this is the tradeoff for a better schedule, and honestly, considering the circumstances, I'm not really displeased about the results we got. The timing of the last slump was poor, of course, because that's what we'll focus on going into next year...but I'm glad someone brought up the cool moments and unlikely accomplishments this team had prior to the last two weeks.

49r · March 9, 2017

@ladyhusker here is the KenPom info for that season. #326 (out of 345) non con SOS:

2011 Schedule

Date	Rk	Opponent		Result			Location	Record	Conf
Fri Nov 12	76	288	South Dakota	W, 76-68	74		Home	1-0
Mon Nov 15	81	338	Arkansas Pine Bluff	W, 83-40	64		Home	2-0
Thu Nov 18	67	33	Vanderbilt	L, 59-49	67		Neutral	2-1
Fri Nov 19	71	146	Davidson	L, 70-67	71		Neutral	2-2
Sun Nov 21	75	135	Hofstra	W, 62-47	57		Neutral	3-2
Sat Nov 27	73	56	USC	W, 60-58	61		Home	4-2
Wed Dec 1	72	281	Jackson St.	W, 76-57	57		Home	5-2
Sun Dec 5	64	98	Creighton	W, 59-54	64		Home	6-2
Wed Dec 8	61	341	Alcorn St.	W, 78-57	79		Home	7-2
Sat Dec 11	66	170	TCU	W, 70-56	65		Home	8-2
Sat Dec 18	64	261	Eastern Washington	W, 72-42	67		Home	9-2
Tue Dec 21	58	329	Grambling St.	W, 79-39	75		Home	10-2
Mon Jan 3	42	299	North Dakota	W, 77-46	64		Home	11-2
Wed Jan 5	38	263	Savannah St.	W, 68-48	61		Home	12-2
Sat Jan 8	38	81	Iowa St.	W, 63-62	66		Home	13-2	1-0
Wed Jan 12	37	43	Missouri	L, 77-69	71		Away	13-3	1-1
Sat Jan 15	38	2	Kansas	L, 63-60	66		Away	13-4	1-2
Tue Jan 18	36	54	Colorado	W, 79-67	67		Home	14-4	2-2
Sat Jan 22	34	121	Texas Tech	L, 72-71	67		Away	14-5	2-3
Sat Jan 29	41	49	Texas A&M	W, 57-48	56		Home	15-5	3-3
Wed Feb 2	39	32	Kansas St.	L, 69-53	65		Away	15-6	3-4
Sat Feb 5	44	2	Kansas	L, 86-66	70		Home	15-7	3-5
Wed Feb 9	44	80	Baylor	L, 74-70	67		Away	15-8	3-6
Sat Feb 12	45	73	Oklahoma St.	W, 65-54	61		Home	16-8	4-6
Wed Feb 16	48	144	Oklahoma	W, 59-58	60		Away	17-8	5-6
Sat Feb 19	47	5	Texas	W, 70-67	62		Home	18-8	6-6
Wed Feb 23	42	32	Kansas St.	L, 61-57	65		Home	18-9	6-7
Sat Feb 26	44	81	Iowa St.	L, 83-82	68	OT	Away	18-10	6-8
Tue Mar 1	43	43	Missouri	W, 69-58	66		Home	19-10	7-8
Sat Mar 5	41	54	Colorado	L, 67-57	64		Away	19-11	7-9
Big 12 Conference Tournament
Wed Mar 9	46	73	Oklahoma St.	L, 53-52	59		Neutral	19-12
Postseason
Wed Mar 16	48	27	Wichita St.	L, 76-49	60		Away	19-13
Home games played at Devaney Sports Center (13,595, 45th largest in D-I)

Strength of Schedule
Components:	103.0 68	97.4 76	101.3
Overall:	+5.62 68		0.00
Non-conference:	-6.66 326		0.00

Edited March 9, 2017 by 49r

colhusker · March 9, 2017

Biggest thing for me was the improvement by the young players. Watson, Jacobson, Morrow, and McVeigh all improved from last year. Jordy was a different player from the start to the finish of the season. Roby and Horne both flashed signs of being able to compete at this level. Clearly none of them are a finished product but if they can improve as much as Tai did from his first year to this year things will be bright in Lincoln.

Second would be outside the last two weeks of the regular season, we were competitive with anyone we played. Hopefully these guys figure out how to get over the hump in all those close loss games next year.

jayschool · March 9, 2017

Texas is 11-21 and finished last in the Big XII. Yeah, they won yesterday, but loss #22 is right around the corner. Might be worth a drive to KC just to root for West Virginia.

AuroranHusker · March 9, 2017

1 hour ago, jayschool said:

Texas is 11-21 and finished last in the Big XII. Yeah, they won yesterday, but loss #22 is right around the corner. Might be worth a drive to KC just to root for West Virginia.

OU had 20 losses this year, only a season after making the Final Four. Sooners had never had a 20-loss season 'til now. A distinction that still befalls NU, never lost 20.

hhcmatt · March 9, 2017

4 hours ago, ladyhusker said:

Doc's (or Barry's?) tenure.

Doc and Barry were scheduling to win games. Miles is scheduling to make the NCAA tournament. There is a difference.

ladyhusker · March 9, 2017

1 minute ago, hhcdimes said:

Doc and Barry were scheduling to win games. Miles is scheduling to make the NCAA tournament. There is a difference.

Which is exactly the point...if the goal is to have a good win-loss record, let's schedule every team in the Summit League and feast away (sorry, couldn't resist). But if the goal is to make the NCAA tournament, wins and losses just as numbers can't be a gauge for whether a season was good or not, and how the team plays must be considered as criteria. The last two weeks certainly don't sit well with me either, and the way we played was a pretty big shock -- which, I'd posit, was an anomaly to the rest of the year (which would seem to indicate something significant happening to affect it...which others have discussed extensively in other threads, and I probably don't want to wade into that again here). I'd just submit that purely pointing at our record and using that to define the last three years under Miles (as it stacks up to his predecessors) doesn't seem to be a good way to determine if someone is or isn't a good coach, or if a season is or isn't bad; the point of this thread, then, seems to be to find the positivity we can take from a numerically poor season, and I appreciate that kind of holistic approach. There's a lot to be encouraged by in this season, even if it didn't end well -- and that, at least in my eyes, actually includes the aggressiveness in scheduling and prioritizing a path to the NCAA tournament over the chance to pick up 22 (largely empty) wins.

(Before anyone points out the obvious: no, no one is arguing against all that yet; this something of a pre-emptive commentary. And yes, I fully know you need to actually win games to make the NCAA tournament, and we didn't do enough of that, I'd say probably for a myriad of reasons, some of which are under Miles' control and some of which are not. I'm just pointing out that, unless wins -- any wins -- are the ONLY goal, they also can't be the only criteria -- and in that sense, hanging our hat on some moral victories isn't entirely inappropriate.)

tcp · March 9, 2017

I loved this schedule. And a contending team should love it, too. Competitive players love to play other good teams--I did when I was young, and that mind set that the whole season is just one big tournament seems to be what separates the Dukes and MSUs of the world from the UNLs.

We had the chance to have a good season even with that non conf schedule. Really, because of that schedule. We did well for the most part. Has anyone been higher (rhetorical, don't answer that) on this program than they were after game 3 in the B1G?

We were such a different team in the back third of the season.

hhcmatt · March 9, 2017

3 minutes ago, ladyhusker said:

(Before anyone points out the obvious: no, no one is arguing against all that yet; this something of a pre-emptive commentary. And yes, I fully know you need to actually win games to make the NCAA tournament, and we didn't do enough of that, I'd say probably for a myriad of reasons, some of which are under Miles' control and some of which are not. I'm just pointing out that, unless wins -- any wins -- are the ONLY goal, they also can't be the only criteria -- and in that sense, hanging our hat on some moral victories isn't entirely inappropriate.)

It's the opposite for me; Makes me wonder if Doc or Barry's best teams would have made the tourney if they would have scheduled a couple of mid-majors instead of a couple of SWAC teams.

bigred4 · March 9, 2017

4 hours ago, 49r said:

@ladyhusker here is the KenPom info for that season. #326 (out of 345) non con SOS:

2011 Schedule

Date Rk Opponent Result Location Record Conf
Fri Nov 12 76 288 South Dakota W, 76-68 74 Home 1-0
Mon Nov 15 81 338 Arkansas Pine Bluff W, 83-40 64 Home 2-0
Thu Nov 18 67 33 Vanderbilt L, 59-49 67 Neutral 2-1
Fri Nov 19 71 146 Davidson L, 70-67 71 Neutral 2-2
Sun Nov 21 75 135 Hofstra W, 62-47 57 Neutral 3-2
Sat Nov 27 73 56 USC W, 60-58 61 Home 4-2
Wed Dec 1 72 281 Jackson St. W, 76-57 57 Home 5-2
Sun Dec 5 64 98 Creighton W, 59-54 64 Home 6-2
Wed Dec 8 61 341 Alcorn St. W, 78-57 79 Home 7-2
Sat Dec 11 66 170 TCU W, 70-56 65 Home 8-2
Sat Dec 18 64 261 Eastern Washington W, 72-42 67 Home 9-2
Tue Dec 21 58 329 Grambling St. W, 79-39 75 Home 10-2
Mon Jan 3 42 299 North Dakota W, 77-46 64 Home 11-2
Wed Jan 5 38 263 Savannah St. W, 68-48 61 Home 12-2
Sat Jan 8 38 81 Iowa St. W, 63-62 66 Home 13-2 1-0
Wed Jan 12 37 43 Missouri L, 77-69 71 Away 13-3 1-1
Sat Jan 15 38 2 Kansas L, 63-60 66 Away 13-4 1-2
Tue Jan 18 36 54 Colorado W, 79-67 67 Home 14-4 2-2
Sat Jan 22 34 121 Texas Tech L, 72-71 67 Away 14-5 2-3
Sat Jan 29 41 49 Texas A&M W, 57-48 56 Home 15-5 3-3
Wed Feb 2 39 32 Kansas St. L, 69-53 65 Away 15-6 3-4
Sat Feb 5 44 2 Kansas L, 86-66 70 Home 15-7 3-5
Wed Feb 9 44 80 Baylor L, 74-70 67 Away 15-8 3-6
Sat Feb 12 45 73 Oklahoma St. W, 65-54 61 Home 16-8 4-6
Wed Feb 16 48 144 Oklahoma W, 59-58 60 Away 17-8 5-6
Sat Feb 19 47 5 Texas W, 70-67 62 Home 18-8 6-6
Wed Feb 23 42 32 Kansas St. L, 61-57 65 Home 18-9 6-7
Sat Feb 26 44 81 Iowa St. L, 83-82 68 OT Away 18-10 6-8
Tue Mar 1 43 43 Missouri W, 69-58 66 Home 19-10 7-8
Sat Mar 5 41 54 Colorado L, 67-57 64 Away 19-11 7-9
Big 12 Conference Tournament
Wed Mar 9 46 73 Oklahoma St. L, 53-52 59 Neutral 19-12
Postseason
Wed Mar 16 48 27 Wichita St. L, 76-49 60 Away 19-13
Home games played at Devaney Sports Center (13,595, 45th largest in D-I)

Strength of Schedule
Components: 103.0 68 97.4 76 101.3
Overall: +5.62 68 0.00
Non-conference: -6.66 326 0.00

7 losses by 4 points or less on the road/neutral. If you win 3 of those, you are 22 and 9 and probably in the NCAA even with a not great non con schedule.

huskerbaseball13 · March 9, 2017

40 minutes ago, ladyhusker said:

Which is exactly the point...if the goal is to have a good win-loss record, let's schedule every team in the Summit League and feast away (sorry, couldn't resist). But if the goal is to make the NCAA tournament, wins and losses just as numbers can't be a gauge for whether a season was good or not, and how the team plays must be considered as criteria. The last two weeks certainly don't sit well with me either, and the way we played was a pretty big shock -- which, I'd posit, was an anomaly to the rest of the year (which would seem to indicate something significant happening to affect it...which others have discussed extensively in other threads, and I probably don't want to wade into that again here). I'd just submit that purely pointing at our record and using that to define the last three years under Miles (as it stacks up to his predecessors) doesn't seem to be a good way to determine if someone is or isn't a good coach, or if a season is or isn't bad; the point of this thread, then, seems to be to find the positivity we can take from a numerically poor season, and I appreciate that kind of holistic approach. There's a lot to be encouraged by in this season, even if it didn't end well -- and that, at least in my eyes, actually includes the aggressiveness in scheduling and prioritizing a path to the NCAA tournament over the chance to pick up 22 (largely empty) wins.

(Before anyone points out the obvious: no, no one is arguing against all that yet; this something of a pre-emptive commentary. And yes, I fully know you need to actually win games to make the NCAA tournament, and we didn't do enough of that, I'd say probably for a myriad of reasons, some of which are under Miles' control and some of which are not. I'm just pointing out that, unless wins -- any wins -- are the ONLY goal, they also can't be the only criteria -- and in that sense, hanging our hat on some moral victories isn't entirely inappropriate.)

Throw out the non con schedule...what we do within the conference in large part will determine if we are dancing at years end. And in the Big 10 we have gone 19-40 over the last three years and 9 of those wins were against teams with +100 RPI. Until we find a way to start winning in the Big 10 again it won't matter what our non-con schedule looks like.

Huskerpapa · March 10, 2017

This season had a number of successes, but the negatives are hard to overlook. We have to be a bunch better next year. A bunch better.

khoock · March 10, 2017

It's almost mind boggling how many ups and downs we had this season. Good start with wins over LA Tech and Dayton. Played elite teams like Kansas, UCLA, and Creighton for over a half. Then we lose to Gardner-Webb. Then Gill goes down. Then out of nowhere we start off 3-0 and all of sudden everything is okay. Then Morrow gets hurt. After that we lose a bunch of games a lot of them close. Somehow we upset Purdue in the middle of all those losses and for a short period of time everything is okay. Morrow finally comes back and we win a couple games and have a lot to play for. But finish the season with 5 straight losses, 4 of them blowouts, 1 the biggest home loss ever.

I wonder which one of those teams we are closer to.

PimpMario · March 10, 2017

I will simply point out that miles scheduled the non con.

Norm Peterson · March 10, 2017

6 minutes ago, PimpMario said:

I will simply point out that miles scheduled the non con.

Point being?

hskr4life · March 10, 2017

43 minutes ago, PimpMario said:

I will simply point out that miles scheduled the non con.

Ok...... and.....

nustudent · March 10, 2017

Im guessing where he is going with that is that Miles was the one who lined it up and not that he was dealt a bad hand by it, because it was his responsibility.

While it was admirable we took on that slate, it shouldn't be used as the scape goat in lieu of wins either.

PimpMario · March 10, 2017

Im guessing where he is going with that is that Miles was the one who lined it up and not that he was dealt a bad hand by it, because it was his responsibility.

While it was admirable we took on that slate, it shouldn't be used as the scape goat in lieu of wins either.

Exactly. Going 12-19 and then putting forth the excuse that our schedule was hard doesn't make sense because Miles made the non-confidence schedule. And the big 10 was down.

And Gardner-Webb.

hskr4life · March 10, 2017

34 minutes ago, PimpMario said:

Exactly. Going 12-19 and then putting forth the excuse that our schedule was hard doesn't make sense because Miles made the non-confidence schedule. And the big 10 was down.

And Gardner-Webb.

The schedule was hard... that isn't an excuse, it is a fact. Yes we also made the non-conference schedule keeping in mind that we thought we had another Senior leader to compliment Tai. Not an excuse, that is a fact.

I would not necessarily say the Big 10 was "down." There was no dominate, top 10 type team this year. There also was less of a "bottom feeder" this year. The Big 10 certainly was not "down," but it also was not "up." It was a dogfight every night. I would say there were actually more teams that were "up" individually than "down" overall.

Gardner-Webb was inexcusable. No if's, and's, or but's about it. However, I do not get what you are trying to say with this ONE game. So if we go 13-18 with a win over GW, do you feel differently?

HuskerActuary · March 10, 2017

On 3/9/2017 at 2:51 PM, hhcdimes said:

It's the opposite for me; Makes me wonder if Doc or Barry's best teams would have made the tourney if they would have scheduled a couple of mid-majors instead of a couple of SWAC teams.

Bingo. I think 2008 Nebraska would have made it. That team was 19-12 entering the tournament with the #323 non-conference strength of schedule. It ended the season #39 on KenPom (far better than any Miles team).

rwmctrofholz · March 11, 2017

On 3/9/2017 at 2:44 PM, tcp said:

I loved this schedule. And a contending team should love it, too. Competitive players love to play other good teams--I did when I was young, and that mind set that the whole season is just one big tournament seems to be what separates the Dukes and MSUs of the world from the UNLs.

We had the chance to have a good season even with that non conf schedule. Really, because of that schedule. We did well for the most part. Has anyone been higher (rhetorical, don't answer that) on this program than they were after game 3 in the B1G?

We were such a different team in the back third of the season.

Makes teams better later on too. Case and point: GACC is in the D1 State Finals, as the 8 seed, with a 14-13 record with all but 1 of their losses coming from C1 or C2 schools.

PimpMario · March 11, 2017

Gardner-Webb was inexcusable. No if's, and's, or but's about it. However, I do not get what you are trying to say with this ONE game. So if we go 13-18 with a win over GW, do you feel differently?

Honestly? A little. Kinda like you knew Bo Pelini was going to lose an easy game every year Miles has adopted the reputation.

And going 9-7 at home is better than 8-8, at least psychologically at home.

As someone who drives from Omaha to all the home games knowing that there is a good chance we will lose to No Name St and not fair well at home isn't fun.

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