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March Madness 2023


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2 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:
13 hours ago, Silverbacked1 said:

The Big 10 has looked slow and unathletic in this tournament 😐

In a cruel twist of fate, the B1G IS slow & unathletic. 

 

Fast + very good perimeter shooting tends to do well in March. Which was Hoiberg's original plan coming to Nebraska.

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30 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

In a cruel twist of fate, the B1G IS slow & unathletic. 

 

Building a roster to win in the Big Ten is not equivalent to building a roster for tournament success.

 

The Big Ten has a lot more size than other conferences and the refs let it turn into goon ball when you're driving it inside.  Unless you've got the right jersey on or have built up some respect as a player, you're going to get the hell beat out of you if you take it to the hole (and also you're going to take a lot of hits on the arm when shooting 3s).

 

Then teams get to the tournament, and all of a sudden they're playing smaller, quicker, more skilled teams that run and press more, and the games are officiated differently, so you see a bunch of quick exits.  Penn State got a 10 seed playing small ball, and Maryland wasn't huge, but they were the exception.

 

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I know this might be a novel idea, but it’s possible to have Size, Speed, AND Athleticism. Guard play is obviously the great equalizer, but it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. There’s numerous examples but I’m thinking like ‘96 Kentucky, ‘89 Illinois or even ‘91 Nebraska. 

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1 hour ago, Handy Johnson said:

I know this might be a novel idea, but it’s possible to have Size, Speed, AND Athleticism. Guard play is obviously the great equalizer, but it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. There’s numerous examples but I’m thinking like ‘96 Kentucky, ‘89 Illinois or even ‘91 Nebraska. 

 

The Flying Illini were pretty small up front; C Lowell Hamilton was 6'7", PF Kenny Battle was 6'6", SF Nick Anderson was 6'6", backup C Ervin Small was 6'7", backup SF-SG-PF Marcus Liberty was 6'8" (Marcus Liberty off the bench - the guy would have been one of the top 10 players all time here, and there he wasn't starting as a sophomore), backup SF-PF Andy Kauffman was 6'6".  Gill and Bardo did go  6'5", 6'6" in the backcourt, backed up by 6'4" Larry Smith and 5'10" PJ Bowman.  Their lack of size never really hurt them all year until there was about 4 seconds left in the season, when Michigan's 6'9" wing Sean Higgins simply went over the top of Nick Anderson to grab a Glen Rice miss, and then scored the game winner with time running out.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Dead Dog Alley said:

 

The Flying Illini were pretty small up front; C Lowell Hamilton was 6'7", PF Kenny Battle was 6'6", SF Nick Anderson was 6'6", backup C Ervin Small was 6'7", backup SF-SG-PF Marcus Liberty was 6'8" (Marcus Liberty off the bench - the guy would have been one of the top 10 players all time here, and there he wasn't starting as a sophomore), backup SF-PF Andy Kauffman was 6'6".  Gill and Bardo did go  6'5", 6'6" in the backcourt, backed up by 6'4" Larry Smith and 5'10" PJ Bowman.  Their lack of size never really hurt them all year until there was about 4 seconds left in the season, when Michigan's 6'9" wing Sean Higgins simply went over the top of Nick Anderson to grab a Glen Rice miss, and then scored the game winner with time running out.

 

 

That’s EXACTLY what I’m taking about. They were similar to the ‘96 Kentucky team of Ron Mercer, Antoine Walker, Walter McCarty etc where everyone is between 6’6” & 6’ 9” & interchangeable on the floor. These are the types of teams that are the most dangerous & hardest to defend. 

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5 hours ago, Dead Dog Alley said:

 

Building a roster to win in the Big Ten is not equivalent to building a roster for tournament success.

 

The Big Ten has a lot more size than other conferences and the refs let it turn into goon ball when you're driving it inside.  Unless you've got the right jersey on or have built up some respect as a player, you're going to get the hell beat out of you if you take it to the hole (and also you're going to take a lot of hits on the arm when shooting 3s).

 

Then teams get to the tournament, and all of a sudden they're playing smaller, quicker, more skilled teams that run and press more, and the games are officiated differently, so you see a bunch of quick exits.  Penn State got a 10 seed playing small ball, and Maryland wasn't huge, but they were the exception.

 

 

So it sounds like Big Ten officiating, while it might help the conference blue bloods stay at the top of the regular season conference race, hurts the conference in the post-season when the players/teams that are used to getting all the calls are no longer getting all the calls and can't adjust.

 

Poetic justice.

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35 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

So it sounds like Big Ten officiating, while it might help the conference blue bloods stay at the top of the regular season conference race, hurts the conference in the post-season when the players/teams that are used to getting all the calls are no longer getting all the calls and can't adjust.

 

Poetic justice.

Something I have preaching about for a while.

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Here's a fun fact: two basketball teams the Huskers beat this season (both by double digits; and one on the road) are still dancing--one in the NIT and one in the NCAA.

 

Here's another fun fact: Nebrasketball's attendance is very strong, notwithstanding adversity. 

While watching a bit of the game at Oregon last night, by contrast, cheers for the home team seemed feeble.  Turns out, they had only 3,300 people in attendance . . . and that included Wisconsin fans.

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On 3/20/2023 at 3:02 PM, 49r said:

Izzo's made a living in March playing 6'9" guys.

Right, he's also sacrificed some regular season wins to do so. A lot of wins as a middling seed. He could get guys to win the B1G and get a 2 seed, instead he sacrifices a few conference wins to get a team built for March.

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19 hours ago, HuskerFever said:

Intentionally left out the answer in case anyone wants to take a pass at it:

 

 

 

Bill Self, KU

John Calipari, UK

Rick Pitino (UK & L'Ville--vacated)

Scott Drew (Baylor)

Tony Bennett (UVa)

Tom Izzo (MSU)

 

Other recently retired legendary coaches--retired in the past few years--had won quite a few games & a slew of national titles combined, namely Duke's Coach K, UNC's Roy Williams, & Cuse's Jim Boeheim. **Also, Jay Wright (Nova).

 

 

Edited by AuroranHusker
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9 hours ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

Bill Self, KU

John Calipari, UK

Rick Pitino (UK & L'Ville--vacated)

Scott Drew (Baylor)

Tony Bennett (UVa)

Tom Izzo (MSU)

 

Other recently retired legendary coaches--retired in the past few years--had won quite a few games & a slew of national titles combined, namely Duke's Coach K, UNC's Roy Williams, & Cuse's Jim Boeheim.

 

 

Also, Jay Wright 

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