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Setting a tone our 1st 4 conference games : IU, at UW, PU, at Iowa

Ron Mexico

By Ron Mexico
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Ron Mexico

Ron Mexico

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Posted

I don't start many threads, however I'd like to do something this season and look at our games in blocks of 4. Similar to baseball where overall performance is based on how a team does in a series along with their previous 10 games.

 

How we perform in these 4 games will  be determine if we are on or ahead of schedule or are playing catch up which is our typical mo. 

Realistically the best we can hope for is 2-2. 1-3 would make this just another Nebrasketball season, and 0-4 we are talking about who our next coach is going to be. 

Finishing 2-2 would be an incredible accomplishment.

 

Rather than the negative I want to focus on an unbelievable opportunity we have in front of us with 2 Q1 games right off the bat.

We beat IU and upset Wiscy and the vault is rocking for Purdue. Win those 1st 2 and we are playing with house money for the Purdue game.

Win 2 of those 3 with Iowa on the road and that's another Q1 NET game. 

 

We where very competitive when we played 3 of those 4 teams last season. Remember which one we weren't competitive with? That would be IU as we swept both Iowa and Wiscy and lost to Purdue at home in OT.

 

My concern of those 4 games is IU. We need to set a tone against IU. We need be physical and relentless. We want to let the rest of the conference know that we are to play and this isn't going to be like other Nebraska teams they've seen in the past. We are going to bring waves of players off the bench and we are going to grind them to exhaustion. 

 

In every group of 4 games there is 1 always 1 game that I believe is the most important. For these 4 games .... It all starts with IU. 

 

I know I said I'd be happy with 2-2 but I want to be more than happy. I want us to set a tone with these four games I want something that a starving fan base can cheer about. I want the conference to take notice. I want all that smoke.

I believe...I believe...I believe that will be 3-1 after our first 4 games.

 

What is your predication for the 1st 4 games? Thoughts on a minimum record we need for those 1st 4 games?

 

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Ron Mexico
Ron Mexico

IU game played out the way I was hoping it would. We set a tone. That Minny loss is now way back in the rear view mirror. Next up, a huge road game against Wiscy. This game to me was just behind

Navin R. Johnson
Navin R. Johnson

I would be happy with 2-2 unless we go 2-2, then I would want to be 3-1 and if we go 3-1 I would wish we would have been 4-0.   Looking at the games Purdue and at Wisconsin look to be very t

89Husker
89Husker

I agree with the idea of bucketing the games like this, but the problem is, most of us fans don't do it (or maybe won't abide by it). The last 4 game bucket for example: The fanbase was gone after the

Navin R. Johnson

Navin R. Johnson

Posted
Posted

I would be happy with 2-2 unless we go 2-2, then I would want to be 3-1 and if we go 3-1 I would wish we would have been 4-0.

 

Looking at the games Purdue and at Wisconsin look to be very tough (although we have played those 2 tough in the past) so that leaves a tough road game at Iowa and a home game with Indiana so it is looking like 1-3 but if we play well this team can beat anyone on any given night. 

cipsucks

cipsucks

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Ron Mexico said:

 

 

What is your predication for the 1st 4 games? Thoughts on a minimum record we need for those 1st 4 games?

 

 

My crystal ball can only see the first 2 conference games.  It says we go 1-1.  🙂

89Husker

89Husker

Posted
Posted (edited)

I agree with the idea of bucketing the games like this, but the problem is, most of us fans don't do it (or maybe won't abide by it). The last 4 game bucket for example: The fanbase was gone after the Creighton and MN debacles. Same ole NE team. The Michigan St game was evidence of that, as the crowd was sleepwalking for the first half of that game. Now, after we beat Mich St and KState, in retrospect, 2-2 for that four games was acceptable, albeit disappointing because of the MN 2nd half.

That's why I would hate to put all the weight on the Indiana game, because if we somehow figure a way to be 2-2 for these next 4, that would be more than acceptable.

Edited by 89Husker
Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, Ron Mexico said:

I don't start many threads, however I'd like to do something this season and look at our games in blocks of 4. Similar to baseball where overall performance is based on how a team does in a series along with their previous 10 games.

 

How we perform in these 4 games will  be determine if we are on or ahead of schedule or are playing catch up which is our typical mo. 

Realistically the best we can hope for is 2-2. 1-3 would make this just another Nebrasketball season, and 0-4 we are talking about who our next coach is going to be. 

Finishing 2-2 would be an incredible accomplishment.

 

Rather than the negative I want to focus on an unbelievable opportunity we have in front of us with 2 Q1 games right off the bat.

We beat IU and upset Wiscy and the vault is rocking for Purdue. Win those 1st 2 and we are playing with house money for the Purdue game.

Win 2 of those 3 with Iowa on the road and that's another Q1 NET game. 

 

We where very competitive when we played 3 of those 4 teams last season. Remember which one we weren't competitive with? That would be IU as we swept both Iowa and Wiscy and lost to Purdue at home in OT.

 

My concern of those 4 games is IU. We need to set a tone against IU. We need be physical and relentless. We want to let the rest of the conference know that we are to play and this isn't going to be like other Nebraska teams they've seen in the past. We are going to bring waves of players off the bench and we are going to grind them to exhaustion. 

 

In every group of 4 games there is 1 always 1 game that I believe is the most important. For these 4 games .... It all starts with IU. 

 

I know I said I'd be happy with 2-2 but I want to be more than happy. I want us to set a tone with these four games I want something that a starving fan base can cheer about. I want the conference to take notice. I want all that smoke.

I believe...I believe...I believe that will be 3-1 after our first 4 games.

 

What is your predication for the 1st 4 games? Thoughts on a minimum record we need for those 1st 4 games?

 

 

Just me, but I like dividing the conference schedule into fourths and look into how we might do in each 5-game stretch.

 

We've already played 2 conference games and are 1-1. If Rienk is 100% and available for IU, I think there's a good chance we start out 2-3 in our first 5 conference games.

 

The second 5, we'd need to hold serve at home against Northwestern and Ohio State and somehow pick up a road win against either Iowa, Rutgers or Maryland. Let's say we can go 3-2 in that stretch, and get to .500 in conference at the halfway mark.

 

The third 5, we have Wiscy, Michigan, and PSU at home with road contests against Illinois and Northwestern. Again, hold serve at home, and that's 3 more.

 

Final 5 is a grinder with must-win home games against Minnesota and Rutgers sandwiched between road contests at Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan.

 

If we somehow find ourselves with 10 conference wins heading into that final Michigan game, there will really be something on the line when we go into Ann Arbor. And I saw the stat recently that Michigan has played the fewest bench minutes of any team in the conference so far (IIRC), so maybe they've got some tired legs by then.

 

It obviously won't be easy, but I think we have a shot at 11 conference wins. If the team that beat Michigan St and Kansas St shows up the rest of the year, I think we can do it. If the team that got down by 10 points in the first half at home against North Dakota shows up for any of those "could win" games, we might not get anywhere close to 11 conference wins.

 

But we've got a puncher's chance to get to 11. Add that to 10-1 in the non-conference and we're sitting pretty good for a NIT 5-seed and a first-round game at Mississippi St.

tcp

tcp

Posted
Posted

I think we go 1-3 in those first 4, but that's just being emptionally self-protective. 

 

This team still doesn't quite know who it is yet but they're out of time to find out at the end of this month. 

 

With luck, the switch they just flipped on stays on. But we haven't seen that yet, so......

 

I do think we can, at the very least, start having ambitions beyond the typical basement slot we're usually allotted in this conference. And maybe we should be satisfied with that little bit of overachievement for right now and just let the fates do their thing. 

 

I mean, this is how Ihave to live my life anyway, so I'm kinda used to it 

 

GBR!

49r

49r

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Just me, but I like dividing the conference schedule into fourths and look into how we might do in each 5-game stretch.

 

We've already played 2 conference games and are 1-1. If Rienk is 100% and available for IU, I think there's a good chance we start out 2-3 in our first 5 conference games.

 

The second 5, we'd need to hold serve at home against Northwestern and Ohio State and somehow pick up a road win against either Iowa, Rutgers or Maryland. Let's say we can go 3-2 in that stretch, and get to .500 in conference at the halfway mark.

 

The third 5, we have Wiscy, Michigan, and PSU at home with road contests against Illinois and Northwestern. Again, hold serve at home, and that's 3 more.

 

Final 5 is a grinder with must-win home games against Minnesota and Rutgers sandwiched between road contests at Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan.

 

If we somehow find ourselves with 10 conference wins heading into that final Michigan game, there will really be something on the line when we go into Ann Arbor. And I saw the stat recently that Michigan has played the fewest bench minutes of any team in the conference so far (IIRC), so maybe they've got some tired legs by then.

 

It obviously won't be easy, but I think we have a shot at 11 conference wins. If the team that beat Michigan St and Kansas St shows up the rest of the year, I think we can do it. If the team that got down by 10 points in the first half at home against North Dakota shows up for any of those "could win" games, we might not get anywhere close to 11 conference wins.

 

But we've got a puncher's chance to get to 11. Add that to 10-1 in the non-conference and we're sitting pretty good for a NIT 5-seed and a first-round game at Mississippi St.

 

I think the team that showed up against MSU and KSU will appear some nights and the team that showed up against North Dakota and Minnesota will show up on others.  How that works out with the calculus of who it's against and where and how often we'll see each team will largely determine how good or bad the record will be.

 

But if we do go in to Ann Arbor with something on the line, that would sure be a good time for us to get our first ever basketball win at Crysler Arena.  Man, that is sad to think about considering how long we've been in the Big Ten.

roscoe

roscoe

Posted
Posted

Just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.

Need to finish with at least 10-10 in conference and/or get to 22 and probably 23 total wins after Big 10 tourney. You can break it down in whatever segments you like but we all know there comes a certain amount of cache' to get NCAA tournament committee attention/hype. I think there's going to be logjam of 6-7 teams at 12-8 to 10-10 in the conference and Huskers need to be in top side of that. Pressure doesn't start until get to 9 conference losses. Just have to hope that doesn't happen.  

hskr4life

hskr4life

Posted
Posted
41 minutes ago, roscoe said:

Just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.

Need to finish with at least 10-10 in conference and/or get to 22 and probably 23 total wins after Big 10 tourney. You can break it down in whatever segments you like but we all know there comes a certain amount of cache' to get NCAA tournament committee attention/hype. I think there's going to be logjam of 6-7 teams at 12-8 to 10-10 in the conference and Huskers need to be in top side of that. Pressure doesn't start until get to 9 conference losses. Just have to hope that doesn't happen.  

 
Currently, the bubble is shaping up to be pretty large, but also maybe a little soft… if that makes sense?  A lot of teams could be fighting but that’s because no one on the bubble really stands out so far.

 

That tells me that 11 wins (if they’re the right ones) or maybe better yet… having the right losses, could work out for us this year.

 

There is a huge MWC narrative going on this year though… they do have some

good wins… so ya never know.  I just don’t think we have to be astronomical this year.

Ron Mexico

Ron Mexico

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 12/29/2023 at 3:33 PM, hskr4life said:

 
Currently, the bubble is shaping up to be pretty large, but also maybe a little soft… if that makes sense?  A lot of teams could be fighting but that’s because no one on the bubble really stands out so far.

 

That tells me that 11 wins (if they’re the right ones) or maybe better yet… having the right losses, could work out for us this year.

 

There is a huge MWC narrative going on this year though… they do have some

good wins… so ya never know.  I just don’t think we have to be astronomical this year.

Agreed. What is MWC narrative? 

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