Crown Tournament

[jimmykc]

The LJS had a pretty optimistic article that NU will be invited to play in Vegas. I am beginning to warm up to this possibility, especially since it is sponsored by Fox and the games will all be on tv. The tourney should attract a fair number of fans of college basketball since it will not interfere with any NCAA games. Hopefully we will avoid laying an egg and perhaps even win it. What does everyone else think?

[Huskerpapa]

It would be good for the seniors.  It will give them the opportunity to provide a final push.

 

But it isn't the big dance 

Edited 4 hours ago by Huskerpapa

[LincecumFan]

5 minutes ago, jimmykc said:

The LJS had a pretty optimistic article that NU will be invited to play in Vegas. I am beginning to warm up to this possibility, especially since it is sponsored by Fox and the games will all be on tv. The tourney should attract a fair number of fans of college basketball since it will not interfere with any NCAA games. Hopefully we will avoid laying an egg and perhaps even win it. What does everyone else think?

Sounds like a great idea to me. As long as it isn't on Peacock. I already spend a small fortune on audio/visual subscriptions and I am not adding Peacock, unless I hit the lottery!

[HuskerFever]

13 minutes ago, jimmykc said:

What does everyone else think?

 

I think this is a tournament that FOX will fund and do whatever it takes to succeed. And in order to legitimize it, they need to attract teams by paying them.

 

If they're successful, the NIT just turns into a mid-major afterthought (as if it's not already trending that way; See: P5 teams opting out of the NIT in the recent past due to lack of interest, outflux to the transfer portal, etc.).

 

We'll see how ratings turn out, but they've timed the tournament well, have financial backing to it, and are doing the right things to make it far more attractive than the NIT. Time will tell.

[millerhusker]

Absolutely. Isn't there a pretty good NIL deal for participating teams?

 

Of course the big dance should be the goal every year. But I'd sure be happy if the program just gets to where we were in the 90s (with some tourney runs mixed in). Went to 5 NCAA tournaments and 4 NITs in the 90s. Won a conference tourney. Won an NIT. Was a 3 seed one year. Multiple NBA players. Had a Big 12 POY. Pretty damn fun decade. 

 

Steve Sipple gets on the radio and scoffs at the crown tournament and rants about how there's absolutely no reason Nebraska can't be in the tournament every single year, because he thinks Georgia and Oklahoma and whoever else are (he just doesn't notice those teams when they aren't). He thought Creighton had been in every year under McDermott. They've missed it four times. There are literally only three schools - Michigan St, Kansas, Gonzaga - who go to the tournament every year. All other programs, even the bluest of the blue bloods, miss the tourney (and the NIT) from time to time. UNC, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, UCLA, Syracuse, Louisville, Michigan, Texas have all had bad teams in recent years. Matt Painter and Greg Gard have had some atrocious teams. 

I don't see why Nebraska can't get back to what we were in the 90s, and that's a great place to be for about 95% of college basketball programs. Making the NCAA tournament and the crown tournament in back to back years is a good start. 

[hhcmatt]

The timing of this tournament for building next year's roster is the one downside to this event.  Not sure about other teams but for Nebraska it should have almost zero effect.  Connor, Berke, and Gavin are the only scholarship guys active next season that might leave between now and then.  We've known for 9+ months we've needed to recruit a ton of guys. As a season ticket holder I don't have to buy a home ticket and potentially see this team fold again at home.

 

46 minutes ago, millerhusker said:

Steve Sipple gets on the radio and scoffs at the crown tournament and rants about how there's absolutely no reason Nebraska can't be in the tournament every single year

 

Steve has developed this soft target schtick for Nebraska Basketball being a 'dream job' over the years because it 'has no expectations' which landed pretty well. The problem is that when you roll that out these days it's almost comically blind to the fact that the football team can't get out of its own way to make a bowl game.

[Navin R. Johnson]

1 hour ago, millerhusker said:

Absolutely. Isn't there a pretty good NIL deal for participating teams?

 

Of course the big dance should be the goal every year. But I'd sure be happy if the program just gets to where we were in the 90s (with some tourney runs mixed in). Went to 5 NCAA tournaments and 4 NITs in the 90s. Won a conference tourney. Won an NIT. Was a 3 seed one year. Multiple NBA players. Had a Big 12 POY. Pretty damn fun decade. 

 

Steve Sipple gets on the radio and scoffs at the crown tournament and rants about how there's absolutely no reason Nebraska can't be in the tournament every single year, because he thinks Georgia and Oklahoma and whoever else are (he just doesn't notice those teams when they aren't). He thought Creighton had been in every year under McDermott. They've missed it four times. There are literally only three schools - Michigan St, Kansas, Gonzaga - who go to the tournament every year. All other programs, even the bluest of the blue bloods, miss the tourney (and the NIT) from time to time. UNC, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, UCLA, Syracuse, Louisville, Michigan, Texas have all had bad teams in recent years. Matt Painter and Greg Gard have had some atrocious teams. 

I don't see why Nebraska can't get back to what we were in the 90s, and that's a great place to be for about 95% of college basketball programs. Making the NCAA tournament and the crown tournament in back to back years is a good start. 

 

It still amazes me even sports writers don't realize how difficult it is to make the NCAA tournament.  They see 64 (now 68) teams making it so must be easy not taking into account how many automatic bids go out to conference winners and if there are upsets it takes even more spots.  Add in the Big East conference and others that don't have football and teams like Gonzaga, San Diego State, St Mary's the field gets very crowded. 

[Silverbacked1]

I really would like for us to go to this.  With our “old players” that really aren’t going to be going anywhere, we could field a very competitive team.  Even if we lost a couple to the Transfer Pool we could still have enough around to be okay with being there.  
Heck maybe we could win two tournaments this year