How will the crowd respond to Mike Gessell?

[jimmykc]

Hopefully by a polite smattering of applause accompanied by a few good natured boos. Maybe an HHC insider could hold up a Notre Dame logo. Then he should be treated like any other visiting player. He seems like a nice kid and will have family there. Raining down boos and trying to get into his freshman head would seem a bit much as far as I am concerned. Remember, if he were a Husker then Doc would still be the coach and I think we are probably in a better place for the future as things turned out.

[Norm Peterson]

I think he probably is a nice kid.  I could do without the boos, personally.  Though it's the most disappointing recruiting miss of an in-state kid I can remember, I can understand why he chose Iowa and I don't hold it against him.  (And it didn't come down to how "up-tempo" Iowa plays.)  

 

But more than hoping not to hear boos, I'm hoping we don't see him go off for a career night.  Seems that's the fashion.  Nebraska kid returns home to face the Huskers and puts up good numbers in front of the Nebraska crowd.  Like Eliason when he came in last year.  Save the boos and hopefully Gesell looks mortal when he's out there.

[hhcmatt]

boo

[FredsSlacks]

gesell, webster, shields, agau, woodbury. That could of been fun.

[cipsucks]

I don't care how he performs as long as Nebraska gets the W.  He'll get booed some. 

[REDZONEDAN]

I won't boo him......maybe throw food at him.....but definitely won't boo him.

[colhusker]

Won't wish the kid good luck, as a matter of fact, I hope he goes 0 fer the game (hen again, all of the Iowa kids can go 0 fer as far as I am concerned).  He chose to go elsewhere so my hopes of him doing well went with him, I will wish good luck to the kids that wanted to wear red.

[cozrulz]

Hopefully Doc wouldn't have been the coach if Gessell signed.  Good thing Gessell didn't sign if that is the case.  He is just any other player.  Not sure how many actually follow recruiting that closely.

[HuskerFever]

I'm sure the student section will remind him of the Notre Dame game...

[FredsSlacks]

Hopefully Doc wouldn't have been the coach if Gessell signed.  Good thing Gessell didn't sign if that is the case.  He is just any other player.  Not sure how many actually follow recruiting that closely.

gessell>benny parker

[colhusker]

Hopefully Doc wouldn't have been the coach if Gessell signed.  Good thing Gessell didn't sign if that is the case.  He is just any other player.  Not sure how many actually follow recruiting that closely.

gessell>benny parker

Maybe, doesn't mean I have to wish the kid luck.  He picked to wear pee yellow.

[Rome4Lyfe]

With loud boos and then greeted with a big L, and a bum ankle! It was awesome!

[uneblinstu]

Kids going to be a really really good player.  Don't know if he'll ever be all league, but he's steady and will make any team he's on better.  That said, I have no problem with Husker fans heckling the daylights out of him.  He picked the conference rival over us and the gloves are off when he plays in our building as far as I'm concerned.

[Huskerpapa]

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Pass, catch boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[waverlydude]

i sat right behind mikes family at the game had a nice chat with them at half time mike really wnated to come to nebraska but got turned off an his offical visit by doc he said all doc kept telling him was nebraska was a football school

[kldm64]

i sat right behind mikes family at the game had a nice chat with them at half time mike really wnated to come to nebraska but got turned off an his offical visit by doc he said all doc kept telling him was nebraska was a football school

 

I can't blame him as I wouldn't wanted to play for Doc either.  Can you image if we would have hired Miles a year earlier like many people wanted and he was able to land Gessell and Woodbury.  That might have helped our chances to land Agau as well.  Still might have not gotten him but couldn't have hurt.  I'm so glad T.O. finally pulled the trigger on Doc but it was a year to late in my book.

[uneblinstu]

Were we even in on Woodbury?

[Daledangdarn]

Were we even in on Woodbury?

Not really.

[Hooper]

Gesell is a good player. However, I feel really good about the guards we have joining the program next season. It's a shame he didn't end up in Lincoln because he could have helped us, but I'd feel a lot worse about losing him if he were a PF. Woodbury isn't a very dynamic athlete, but he could have helped us too. Imagine having Gesell and Woodbury instead of Parker and Vooch. Both would be substantial upgrades.

[Huskerpapa]

i sat right behind mikes family at the game had a nice chat with them at half time mike really wnated to come to nebraska but got turned off an his offical visit by doc he said all doc kept telling him was nebraska was a football school

Waverly, I truly am not doubting what you were told, but for the life of me, I cannot fathom Doc saying this...especially to a recruit.  It simply makes zero sense.  Even Dr. Tom bristles at that comment, I cannot believe that any of his coaches would have made that statement.

[Concrete]

i sat right behind mikes family at the game had a nice chat with them at half time mike really wnated to come to nebraska but got turned off an his offical visit by doc he said all doc kept telling him was nebraska was a football school

Waverly, I truly am not doubting what you were told, but for the life of me, I cannot fathom Doc saying this...especially to a recruit.  It simply makes zero sense.  Even Dr. Tom bristles at that comment, I cannot believe that any of his coaches would have made that statement.

I doubt Doc specifically said "this is a football school," but i could definitely see him trying to over use the football program as a selling point and rubbing some recruits the wrong way with that.

[jamar1700]

*shrug*   Doc has been fired.  We have a new coach. The kid is playing for Iowa.  

[waverlydude]

i agree jamar i just wanted to share what he told me

[kldm64]

Were we even in on Woodbury?

Not really.

 

Yes and no as it was no secret that Woodbury and Gessell wanted to play college ball together and if we could have gotten Gessell on board, it's very likely that Woodbuy might have come as well. 

[Norm Peterson]

i sat right behind mikes family at the game had a nice chat with them at half time mike really wnated to come to nebraska but got turned off an his offical visit by doc he said all doc kept telling him was nebraska was a football school

 

I can't blame him as I wouldn't wanted to play for Doc either.  Can you image if we would have hired Miles a year earlier like many people wanted and he was able to land Gessell and Woodbury.  That might have helped our chances to land Agau as well.  Still might have not gotten him but couldn't have hurt.  I'm so glad T.O. finally pulled the trigger on Doc but it was a year to late in my book.

Hindsight's 20/20, KLDM.  It's easy to say now that you wish we would have hired Miles last year but that would not have happened for any number of reasons.  First of all, we would have had to fire Doc after a season where he took a still-young team to the NIT.  We had a lot of our best players coming back from that NIT team.  And you're going to fire the coach?  Really?

 

Second, if we'd had an opening for whatever reason a year earlier than we did, Tim Miles wouldn't have gotten the job.  Wouldn't even have gotten a sniff.  You know what Tim Miles and Doc Sadler had in common two years ago?  They both had teams lose in the first round of the NIT.  So, what you are proposing, KLDM, is that we would have fired one coach whose team just lost in the first round of the NIT and replaced him with another coach whose team just lost in the first round of the NIT. No way that happens. No way.

 

And if Osborne would have hired a guy whose team just lost in the NIT first round, you would have been one of the loudest complainers.  You would have been bitching that we didn't go after a "name" guy like a Tubby Smith or a Kevin O'Neill.  Hell, there were plenty of skeptics of the Miles hire a year later after his team went to the dance.  I'm glad that Tim Miles is our coach but there's simply no way he would have become our coach a year earlier than he did. 

 

I also have to question what waverlydude posted about Doc's visit with Gesell.  Waverlydude, that may very well have been what the Gesell family told you.  And it might have been sorta what was said.  But I'm sure that what they told you leaves out a lot of context.  I'd heard Doc say things like how he would try to leverage Nebraska's name recognition in football to build a hoops program.  You make it sound like Doc was using "football school" as some sort of excuse for lack of success.  I don't buy it.  I really don't believe that's what Doc would have meant.