Turned a corner?

[unl]

That's all.

Edited December 16, 2019 by unl

[HuskerFever]

We still have a long ways to go. But after seeing how we've competed against the state of Indiana, it gives me a lot more hope and optimism for the next 12-18 months.

[dskurz]

I say no, only because the lack of depth may do them in. But the last two games have been great to watch. 

[demone]

Would love to vote yes, but had to go with no. It's easy to be caught up in the moment and yes, the 1st 2 games of conference play give reason to hope. But there are at least 19 more of these suckers and the B1G is no slouch, regardless of opponent or location. I think we will compete more often than not, but we will have really bad nights on offense more frequently than if this was a veteran team. Alas, no postseason this year. 

[Huskerpapa]

We have made progress, but let's see if that progression continues.   No need to set expectations beyond game to game improvement. 

[hskr4life]

Let me tell ya about this team that was 8-8 and 0-4 in conference play.  They were also 9-9 and 1-5 in conference play.  The beauty who basketball is that anything can happen and there’s always a shot.

[49r]

#NoHypeGang

[Handy Johnson]

You can see the personality of this team taking shape, and with our guard play (Mack & Burke) we’ll be that team that NOBODY wants to play. Like I’ve said before the B1G is “soft” in the middle & we’ll have a chance to get our share of wins...

[jimmykc]

Beating Purdue yesterday was the biggest surprise I can remember since Moe Iba's team beat #1 Missouri at Columbia. With that said, I don't see this team making it to a tournament when the schedule begins to grind toward March. I'm just prepared to enjoy the bright spots like yesterday and wait until next year for postseason thrills.

[khoock]

No chance of a post season tourney imo. I think the 0-2 start could be what costs them a .500 record. 

 

I think they will be competitive in a lot of games but there are still a couple beat downs left on the schedule, especially when we play our first couple games against upper echelon type teams.

 

Still think my preseason prediction of 13 overall wins is a little too high.

[millerhusker]

Our non-con SOS and RPI will end up being historically bad. We’ll play ~8 teams that’ll end up 200+ in the RPI and a few of those will be 300+. There’s a good chance Washington State will be the lowest rated power conference team and Georgia Tech won’t be far off. And we’ve still lost 5 non-conference games.
 

Even if we won 9 conference games, which would be a giant accomplishment, our projected RPI is still 157.  I know the NET rating is what the committee uses now, but the RPI is a good predictor. To even sniff a play-in game we’d need to be top 50. If we only lost 4 more games all year,  we still wouldn’t climb high enough. Remember two years ago we didn’t have any bad non-con losses, went 13-5 in conference, and didn’t make the tourney. I’m not sure about the NIT, but I’d guess top 100 is needed.

 

Its kind of fun to be able to enjoy the games, see steady improvement and not have to worry about the postseason. And hey, maybe we get enough wins to get a first round bye in Indianapolis, and you never know what might happen... 

Edited December 16, 2019 by millerhusker

[49r]

This team just needs to worry about qualifying for the Big Ten tournament right now.

[REDitus]

I voted no in the poll.  I do not think they will make any tournaments.  I do have optimism for next year and the past couple of games give us a glimpse of what it can be.    I never had any expectations for this year other than I expect to see some progress as the year goes along.  I think we are seeing that.   I like the spacing and ball movement.  The faster tempo is fun.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by REDitus

[khoock]

You could argue that if this team was playing the first 8 games as well as it has played the last 2.5, they would have been 8-0 or 7-1 going in to Creighton.

 

Love what we are seeing and i hope we continue to see growth and competitive basketball the rest of the season.

[hhcmatt]

I'm just hoping we turn the corner to where this isn't the first team in Nebraska history with over 20 losses

[Norm Peterson]

1 hour ago, REDitus said:

I voted no in the poll.  I do not think they will make any tournaments.  I do have optimism for next year and the past couple of games give us a glimpse of what it can be.    I never had any expectations for this year other than I expect to see some progress as the year goes along.  I think we are seeing that.   I like the spacing and ball movement.  The faster tempo is fun.

 

Yeah, I'd be shocked if we get a post-season bid this year.

 

As far as optimism for next year, I think we're still a couple of pieces away. We need some shooters at the guard position. And some big guys who can wipe the defensive glass. Bonus if they can score a bit more than the occasional put-back or dump-down (i.e., have some offensive tools.) Double bonus if they're a shot-blocking threat.

 

You're not going to win a lot of games being outrebounded by double figures. And you're not going to be able to consistently rely on two of your guards pulling down a combined 17 boards. I think one of the reasons we were able to pull out a victory last night is that we rebounded EXTREMELY WELL at the guard position. But that's not going to happen every game. We need a guy who can compete with the other team's bigs to get rebounds.

 

I think we could be decent next year, but I would be surprised to hear our name get called on Selection Sunday unless we add a couple of those tools to our kit.

[REDitus]

You raise good points Norm.  One thing about next year is that they are adding another big body in Walker.   Yvan,Cross and Arop will have a year under their belt (weight room) and college experience.  Plus Stevenson will be playing.   Delano is 6-8 so he can help rebound as well.   I expect the rebounding to improve for those reasons.

 

I hope shooting improves.  They will continue to work at it so there's always hope.   I believe I see some changes in what players are doing this year vs last so I am encouraged!

 

 

[Nebrasketball1979]

21 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Yeah, I'd be shocked if we get a post-season bid this year.

 

As far as optimism for next year, I think we're still a couple of pieces away. We need some shooters at the guard position. And some big guys who can wipe the defensive glass. Bonus if they can score a bit more than the occasional put-back or dump-down (i.e., have some offensive tools.) Double bonus if they're a shot-blocking threat.

 

You're not going to win a lot of games being outrebounded by double figures. And you're not going to be able to consistently rely on two of your guards pulling down a combined 17 boards. I think one of the reasons we were able to pull out a victory last night is that we rebounded EXTREMELY WELL at the guard position. But that's not going to happen every game. We need a guy who can compete with the other team's bigs to get rebounds.

 

I think we could be decent next year, but I would be surprised to hear our name get called on Selection Sunday unless we add a couple of those tools to our kit.

 

Completely agree on all points.  However, it will be interesting how/if the narrative changes over the next month.  Our next 5 games:

 

vs. North Dakota

vs. Texas A&M CC

vs. Rutgers

vs. LoIowa

@ Northwestern

 

This is not exactly a murderers row of games and there is a conceivable path to get off to a waaaay better than expected start in conference play.  I don't think we get a postseason invite either but the next 5 games could give me a bit more optimism.  

[throwback]

On 12/16/2019 at 12:27 PM, Nebrasketball1979 said:

 

Completely agree on all points.  However, it will be interesting how/if the narrative changes over the next month.  Our next 5 games:

 

vs. North Dakota

vs. Texas A&M CC

vs. Rutgers

vs. LoIowa

@ Northwestern

 

This is not exactly a murderers row of games and there is a conceivable path to get off to a waaaay better than expected start in conference play.  I don't think we get a postseason invite either but the next 5 games could give me a bit more optimism.  

Not sure on the bolded - have you seen the size of Rutgers front court? And they're from New Jersey.

 

Just hope none of our guys end up in a rolled up rug at some point during the game.

 

[hskr4life]

On 12/16/2019 at 12:27 PM, Nebrasketball1979 said:

 

Completely agree on all points.  However, it will be interesting how/if the narrative changes over the next month.  Our next 5 games:

 

vs. North Dakota

vs. Texas A&M CC

vs. Rutgers

vs. LoIowa

@ Northwestern

 

This is not exactly a murderers row of games and there is a conceivable path to get off to a waaaay better than expected start in conference play.  I don't think we get a postseason invite either but the next 5 games could give me a bit more optimism.  

 

With Iowa losing Bohannan, the "row" just got easier in our toughest game.  The other nice thing is that our only road game is the 5th game in and also against the perceived worst team in our conference.

[49r]

Garza >>> Haarms though...

[huskerbaseball13]

I voted no. We are still playing with limited depth and not enough talent in the Big Ten to compete night in night out in the Big Ten IMO. I think our style of play will cause some teams fits but it’s going to be tough sledding. 

[hskr4life]

1 hour ago, 49r said:

Garza >>> Haarms though...

If we let Garza score 50 and hold everyone else to 20 total, we could do it!

[brfrad]

23 hours ago, hskr4life said:

If we let Garza score 50 and hold everyone else to 20 total, we could do it!

The way Iowa plays defense, we could let Garza score 50 and get away with letting everyone else score 35.

[kleitus]

Honestly if we get hot and make the postseason we should consider ourselves the luckiest fans on the planet.

 

Next year.  And that's disappointing but fine.