Enjoy The Last Month Of The Miles Era

[hhcdave 448]

As I sit back and reflect on the past 6.5 years, I find myself nostalgic and at a tough time accepting that this program is where it’s at and that the Miles era will likely end with less talent on the next roster than where it started (assuming our stud JUCO doesn’t come and we lose at minimum of one of Roby and Allen). That is literally impossible for me to wrap my mind around. 

 

I never saw this ending as possible - never in a million years. Not last month, not last season, not 6.5 years ago. 

 

I remember watching the live press conference of Coach Miles being introduced like it was yesterday. I was fired up - I loved this guy!!!

 

My love grew to man crush levels in year two - culminating in No Sit Sunday. 

 

I was anongst the first to read and love the book about that season. At that point, the only worry I had was which job would Miles leave us for? How long could we hold on to the next big thing? 

 

There were times where I legitimately wondered if Miles were the next household name. But like most of us, much of that was wrapped into his enthusiasm, happy go lucky personality and quirkiness. Coach Miles is a decent man with million dollar charisma. 

 

However, the signs of failure were always there. We just loved him like one of our own - he was one of us - a Midwesterner with a dream. So we chose  not to see them. 

 

Transfers at a scary level. Yes, it happens everywhere, but it can’t happen when most of the guys you rely on are transfers. You tie up scholarships in guys who will play two years after burning a scholarship for a year as a redshirt. You absolutely must have four year program guys around them. This never happened for a variety of reasons, but the main one was that the majority of these transfers were put above the others in the program with a different set of rules. There was internal fighting on a good majority of these teams. Nobody wants to stick around for guys who score and pad their stats based on volume. This is a losing basketball mentality that doesn’t create teamwork, let alone an offense. The biggest failure in the Miles era ended up being taking on transfers and alllowing them to run the show and chase their NBA dreams. Drove off countless talented kids who wanted to be here. Only a select few saw it through. (Webster Shields Watson). 

 

In retrospect, the hot February and March of year two was fleeting. It was two transfers hawking up shots - many of which were forced and very bad (Pettaway took AWFUL shots). However, for six weeks they went in. Petteway in a way hurt this program imo by showing Miles the transfer thing worked. James Palmer became the new de facto Pettaway because that’s what worked before and Miles can’t truly coach offense at this level. The truth is Pettaway was two times the player Palmer ever was. Relying on and expecting Palmer to carry this team was always fools gold. Palmer will go down as the most overhyped player in this program since a guy who was way more talented than him - Jaron Boone. 19 PPG means zero when you take horrible shots, shoot 35% from the fiend, can never finish an and one and completely ruin the offense in the process. A good coach takes this team to the tournament because he knows Palmer is scoring option three or four. What’s that? Palmer can get to the rim? So could Lance Jeter. Also a much better college player. 

 

I bring up Palmer and Pettaway in this post because they are the symptom of the problem - Coach Miles. The transger thing - not retaining assistants - allowing a kid to declare for the NBA draft when he didn’t stand a chance at getting drafted - having no offense - refusing to play zone for five years - not using timeouts - not ever recruiting shooters or big men - and not keeping players because of “gunners” are why we are where we are. It shouldn’t be surprising if we look back and watch what went down. 

 

At the end of the day, we all loved Coach Miles. We are all shocked. And you know what? Even for all of his shortcomings as a coach, I still love the guy as a human being and always will. He will hold a special place in my heart. 

 

With that said, let’s enjoy the last five weeks of the Tim Miles era. Let’s treasure these last final moments of the dream we were living, knowing damn well that the alarm clock will soon bring us back to the light of the morning and reality. 

 

Thank you for your efforts, Coach. Man to man, there were some fun times. And we will always appreciate your efforts. Me typing this all out and at times being harsh isn’t meant to degrade you. It’s to try to understand how the heck we got to this heartbreaking end. Coping, in a way. 

 

I will be traveling back for the Iowa game to cheer on coach one more time, knowing an era of my own life will be ending soon, too, but being thankful that it happened. 

 

 

[tcp 1,327]

Dave, I know it was a rough night, but neither Petteway nor Palmer were JUCO transfers. Both were legit transfers from heavy benches at better programs. Pretty vanilla types of cases and common these days. The rest kind of reads like fan fiction. 

 

Obviously this ride is over. Almost every school in the country repeats this ritual the same as us after every failed "5 year plan". 

 

I hope Miles changes direction and takes an assistant gig with a top coach and improves his ceiling. He finally needs to spend time as the student rather than the master. Still has a long career in front of him if he wants it. It's just not going to be here. 

 

Everyone needs to just hang in there for another month and this will be over. Besides, with conference tourneys, there's always hope even for the pathologically optimistic. 

 

 

 

 

[Jugular 230]

JUCO’s?

[B-town hoopsfan 310]

Leslee Smith is the only JUCO I remember us getting in the miles era? However I understand and am with you in the point of this post 

[jimmykc 2,654]

Had to use my first "sad" emoji on your post, Dave. Probably the title of the thread will stand, but other than the JUCO mistake, which you can edit out, I pretty much reluctantly agree with your thoughts. However, I will enjoy the month more by choosing to believe that we still manage to scrape together a run of "W's either in the remaining season or the tourney to liven things up. Here's hoping you get to witness one of those "W" s when you visit. 

[BjoeHusker 108]

Can still make the Dance.  It's not over until it's officially over.  

[Handy Johnson 1,000]

I thought Tim was going to be the Bob Devaney of Nebraska basketball.

[Huskerpapa 3,964]

NM

Edited February 10 by Huskerpapa

[hhcdave 448]

Obviously I know Petteway and Palmer and multiple others weren’t JUCO players. I saw Petteway play in person twice at TTU. No idea why I typed that but 1 AM and Danny Nee’s old friend Bud Light might explain it. Regardless, the point is the exact same. 

[jimmykc 2,654]

Probably better to let the founding father of the site start a thread when he feels the urge.

[tcp 1,327]

25 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Not meant to disparage, but this thread is somewhat redundant with the many others that currently exist.  Any way we could merge all of these into one or perhaps to locations?

 

lol this from the "high school basketball" and "Super Bowl" thread originator? I....I got nothing...:)

[B-town hoopsfan 310]

1 hour ago, hhcdave said:

Danny Nee’s old friend Bud Light might explain it

Ole bud light sure does have a lot of friends 

[jayschool 1,895]

2 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

I thought Tim was going to be the Bob Devaney of Nebraska basketball.

More like the Bill Glassford — took over an unmitigated disaster of a program, lasted seven seasons, some limited success, lots of players left the team, one humbling trip to the Dance (Orange Bowl).

 

I just hope we don't have to wait through our Pete Elliott and Bill Jennings phase before we get to OUR Devaney.

Edited February 10 by jayschool

[Handy Johnson 1,000]

Amen to that...

[HoiBall 66]

Whoever the next coach needs to have to ability to win the mental game. This isn’t an easy job, have to have a coach and team that are mentally tough to win here

[royalfan 1,203]

Miles did give me one of the better days I have ever experienced.  There will never be anything like No Sit Sunday against Wisconsin again.  It would be impossible to duplicate.  

[tcp 1,327]

35 minutes ago, royalfan said:

Miles did give me one of the better days I have ever experienced.  There will never be anything like No Sit Sunday against Wisconsin again.  It would be impossible to duplicate.  

 

He also gave vicarious birth to our dear friend Jean Peck. May she live forever. 

 

I wish we could also claim #hiphophogwash , too. but you can't have everything. 

[jayschool 1,895]

1 minute ago, tcp said:

 

He also gave vicarious birth to our dear friend Jean Peck. May she live forever. 

 

I wish we could also claim #hiphophogwash , too. but you can't have everything. 

I'll see your Jean Peck and raise you a Shim-Sham or two.

[tcp 1,327]

1 minute ago, jayschool said:

I'll see your Jean Peck and raise you a Shim-Sham or two.

 

How far back do those shakin' sisters go, anyway? Back to Collier? Or probably back to Naismith, I suppose, at their age. 

Edited February 10 by tcp

[jayschool 1,895]

1 minute ago, tcp said:

 

How far back do those shakin' sisters go, anyway? Back to Collier? Or probably back to Naismith, I suppose, at their age. 

I'm pretty sure they all dated Jumbo Stiehm at some point.

[kldm64 389]

On ‎2‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 1:25 AM, hhcdave said:

As I sit back and reflect on the past 6.5 years, I find myself nostalgic and at a tough time accepting that this program is where it’s at and that the Miles era will likely end with less talent on the next roster than where it started (assuming our stud JUCO doesn’t come and we lose at minimum of one of Roby and Allen). That is literally impossible for me to wrap my mind around. 

 

I never saw this ending as possible - never in a million years. Not last month, not last season, not 6.5 years ago. 

 

I remember watching the live press conference of Coach Miles being introduced like it was yesterday. I was fired up - I loved this guy!!!

 

My love grew to man crush levels in year two - culminating in No Sit Sunday. 

 

I was anongst the first to read and love the book about that season. At that point, the only worry I had was which job would Miles leave us for? How long could we hold on to the next big thing? 

 

There were times where I legitimately wondered if Miles were the next household name. But like most of us, much of that was wrapped into his enthusiasm, happy go lucky personality and quirkiness. Coach Miles is a decent man with million dollar charisma. 

 

However, the signs of failure were always there. We just loved him like one of our own - he was one of us - a Midwesterner with a dream. So we chose  not to see them. 

 

Transfers at a scary level. Yes, it happens everywhere, but it can’t happen when most of the guys you rely on are transfers. You tie up scholarships in guys who will play two years after burning a scholarship for a year as a redshirt. You absolutely must have four year program guys around them. This never happened for a variety of reasons, but the main one was that the majority of these transfers were put above the others in the program with a different set of rules. There was internal fighting on a good majority of these teams. Nobody wants to stick around for guys who score and pad their stats based on volume. This is a losing basketball mentality that doesn’t create teamwork, let alone an offense. The biggest failure in the Miles era ended up being taking on transfers and alllowing them to run the show and chase their NBA dreams. Drove off countless talented kids who wanted to be here. Only a select few saw it through. (Webster Shields Watson). 

 

In retrospect, the hot February and March of year two was fleeting. It was two transfers hawking up shots - many of which were forced and very bad (Pettaway took AWFUL shots). However, for six weeks they went in. Petteway in a way hurt this program imo by showing Miles the transfer thing worked. James Palmer became the new de facto Pettaway because that’s what worked before and Miles can’t truly coach offense at this level. The truth is Pettaway was two times the player Palmer ever was. Relying on and expecting Palmer to carry this team was always fools gold. Palmer will go down as the most overhyped player in this program since a guy who was way more talented than him - Jaron Boone. 19 PPG means zero when you take horrible shots, shoot 35% from the fiend, can never finish an and one and completely ruin the offense in the process. A good coach takes this team to the tournament because he knows Palmer is scoring option three or four. What’s that? Palmer can get to the rim? So could Lance Jeter. Also a much better college player. 

 

I bring up Palmer and Pettaway in this post because they are the symptom of the problem - Coach Miles. The transger thing - not retaining assistants - allowing a kid to declare for the NBA draft when he didn’t stand a chance at getting drafted - having no offense - refusing to play zone for five years - not using timeouts - not ever recruiting shooters or big men - and not keeping players because of “gunners” are why we are where we are. It shouldn’t be surprising if we look back and watch what went down. 

 

At the end of the day, we all loved Coach Miles. We are all shocked. And you know what? Even for all of his shortcomings as a coach, I still love the guy as a human being and always will. He will hold a special place in my heart. 

 

With that said, let’s enjoy the last five weeks of the Tim Miles era. Let’s treasure these last final moments of the dream we were living, knowing damn well that the alarm clock will soon bring us back to the light of the morning and reality. 

 

Thank you for your efforts, Coach. Man to man, there were some fun times. And we will always appreciate your efforts. Me typing this all out and at times being harsh isn’t meant to degrade you. It’s to try to understand how the heck we got to this heartbreaking end. Coping, in a way. 

 

I will be traveling back for the Iowa game to cheer on coach one more time, knowing an era of my own life will be ending soon, too, but being thankful that it happened. 

 

 

 

Very well written.  I have the same feeling.  I was and to some degree still am a big Miles guy.  He seems to say all the right things that make you believe things will get better and yet they just never did.  He is handling this situation with class and still working hard to make the tournament.  Obviously, we need to get hot to finish the year starting now but the rankings still like us.  No matter what happens, I wish nothing but success for Coach Miles in where ever he ends up.

Edited February 12 by kldm64

[Huskerpapa 3,964]

4 hours ago, tcp said:

 

lol this from the "high school basketball" and "Super Bowl" thread originator? I....I got nothing...:)

Sorry, I am confused.  What do you mean?

[hhcmatt 8,554]

Probably the biggest failing not listed above is bungling the recruiting of the state of Nebraska. We aren't exactly swimming in talent here but that missing tenacity and buy-in to this program certainly was there.  Recruiting Deverell Biggs ended up being the start of a series of overcorrections that we didn't recover from until just recently.

 

That being said Miles made this program relevant locally and nationally again.  While the new facilities certainly helped, the guy still hasn't stop selling this program. 

[BmoreRed 46]

Coach Miles was hired the beginning of Spring my Freshman year at UNL. About everyday for 3 week I picked up his plate at the continental breakfast in the Embassy Suites downtown where I worked, often with a, "good morning coach" if he wasn't on the phone. 

 

Now I'm all nostalgic. I do wish Coach Miles had a longer leash than he was give, but this is big 5 college basketball and unless you get results and meet expectations, you get fired.

 

Looking back, one sour point for me: I think the team Andrew White transferred off of could have competed and possibly made the NIT. 

[B-town hoopsfan 310]

5 minutes ago, BmoreRed said:

 

Looking back, one sour point for me: I think the team Andrew White transferred off of could have competed and possibly made the NIT. 

Probably an ncaa bubble team. White was a 16 ppg guy and possibly the best three point shooter in the league his junior year. What coulda been