Do we break .500 in nonconference?

[Chuck Taylor]

I think we'll get 9 or 10 and be pretty encouraged heading into BIG. The conference sked is what worries me, I don't see us improving much on last year's win total. New starter at point, not much size. Bad combination.

[jimmykc]

I like the movie idea. Let's pencil in Robert Duvall as Tom Osborne and feature a jealous, snarky,  over-the-top Will Farrell as Bo Pelini for some comic relief.

[ajb5856]

I think we'll get 9 or 10 and be pretty encouraged heading into BIG. The conference sked is what worries me, I don't see us improving much on last year's win total. New starter at point, not much size. Bad combination.

Not much size? No we don't add a whole bunch of big bodies but we will be better off in that department than last year. We add a bunch of length at wing in Petteway and Fuller. Pitchford is 6-10 and certainly adds length where ever he plays. Essentially we lost Almeida and Ubel and gained Pitchford and Smith at the 4/5. I suspect that Smith will play more minutes than Ameida ever did. Then we have a wild card in Vooch. Who knows what he has been able improve on working in the system for a year now. We don't have as many bigs as we would like, but its a slight improvement over last year.

[Milk]

 

I think we'll get 9 or 10 and be pretty encouraged heading into BIG. The conference sked is what worries me, I don't see us improving much on last year's win total. New starter at point, not much size. Bad combination.

Not much size? No we don't add a whole bunch of big bodies but we will be better off in that department than last year. We add a bunch of length at wing in Petteway and Fuller. Pitchford is 6-10 and certainly adds length where ever he plays. Essentially we lost Almeida and Ubel and gained Pitchford and Smith at the 4/5. I suspect that Smith will play more minutes than Ameida ever did. Then we have a wild card in Vooch. Who knows what he has been able improve on working in the system for a year now. We don't have as many bigs as we would like, but its a slight improvement over last year.

 

Disagreed.  We will miss Ubel more than people think I believe.  He was a better interior player than anyone we have on our roster right now.  I even think we will miss Almeida's presence on defense inside as well. 

[ajb5856]

I think we'll get 9 or 10 and be pretty encouraged heading into BIG. The conference sked is what worries me, I don't see us improving much on last year's win total. New starter at point, not much size. Bad combination.

Not much size? No we don't add a whole bunch of big bodies but we will be better off in that department than last year. We add a bunch of length at wing in Petteway and Fuller. Pitchford is 6-10 and certainly adds length where ever he plays. Essentially we lost Almeida and Ubel and gained Pitchford and Smith at the 4/5. I suspect that Smith will play more minutes than Ameida ever did. Then we have a wild card in Vooch. Who knows what he has been able improve on working in the system for a year now. We don't have as many bigs as we would like, but its a slight improvement over last year.

Disagreed. We will miss Ubel more than people think I believe. He was a better interior player than anyone we have on our roster right now. I even think we will miss Almeida's presence on defense inside as well.

Agree and disagree. I agree that Ubel will be missed. He was an underrated senior leader with a solid, and most of the time, under appreciated interior skillset. We will miss that this year. On Almeida, well I would just hope that Leslie Smith is an instant upgrade. Almeida just never lived up to what he was supposed to be. At times, effective, but injuries took a toll and his conditioning suffered as a result. Smith will be able to give us more minutes and I hear he's sneaky athletic. Time will tell what he's able to do for us and how Miles chooses to use him. At the very least, although still hurting for big men numbers-wise, the duo of Smith and Pitchford is a major upgrade in ability, talent, and athleticism. Ubel was a solid player with great work ethic and leadership skills. We will miss that. Hopefully, as the team gels, the new big guys are able to surpass in a fairly short amount of time what a player like Ubel was ever able to bring to the table. And that's not a knock on Ubel. He was great.

[Milk]

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[Milk]

Pitchford is more of a perimeter, front to the basket big.  With not seeing Smith play before I am just not sure if he can handle taking on big 10 bigs night in and night out. He played minimally before in a smaller conference and didn't have many major offers out of JUCO.  I think Almeida may have had more if I remember correctly. I am concerned on rebounding, interior defense, and post up offense. 

[49r]

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Couldn't have said it better myself!

 

[kldm64]

 

 

I think we'll get 9 or 10 and be pretty encouraged heading into BIG. The conference sked is what worries me, I don't see us improving much on last year's win total. New starter at point, not much size. Bad combination.

Not much size? No we don't add a whole bunch of big bodies but we will be better off in that department than last year. We add a bunch of length at wing in Petteway and Fuller. Pitchford is 6-10 and certainly adds length where ever he plays. Essentially we lost Almeida and Ubel and gained Pitchford and Smith at the 4/5. I suspect that Smith will play more minutes than Ameida ever did. Then we have a wild card in Vooch. Who knows what he has been able improve on working in the system for a year now. We don't have as many bigs as we would like, but its a slight improvement over last year.

 

Disagreed.  We will miss Ubel more than people think I believe.  He was a better interior player than anyone we have on our roster right now.  I even think we will miss Almeida's presence on defense inside as well. 

 

 

I couldn't disagree with you more.  In my opinion, I don't think Ubel will be missed much at all as we have upgraded talent level in about every position.  I would even venture to say that if Ubel was back this year, he would struggle to be a starter.  He wouldn't start over Pitchford or maybe not even over Smith (jury is still out).  Ubel was a great kid and great representative of what a student athlete should be.  But as far as on the court, he was limited in his athletic abilities and think we have more athletic players this year that might have beat him out for playing time.  For what the coaches said last year is the 3 transfer players typically dominated the starters in practice.  With that being said, I do hope he has a great career over seas.

[uneblinstu]

Hmmm, interesting.  I don't know if he would have started (though I tend to think he would, at least at the beginning) or not but he would have been a significant contributor.  I have little doubt about that. 

[ShortDust]

I see us going anywhere from 10-3 to 8-5. But I think we can take Miami at home and FGCU, especially since the crowd will be pumped for the opener. Tough games as the tournament, Creighton, and Cincy. The tournament I can see us going 2-1 or 1-2.

[Norm Peterson]

I agree with Milk and disagree with KLDM on the type of player we're missing in Ubel.  But I think the team will be able to cope better with the absence of Ubel than what Milk suggests.

 

I think this non-conference season will be a window into the near future.  It's a tough non-conference schedule with many games away from home.  And, granted, we have a lot of new faces who haven't suited up for a Husker game before.

 

BUT ...

 

• Three of the new guys have already spent a year in the program (Piatkowski and Chubick (sp?) did the same thing and we went ape sh!t the year after they redshirted);
• The rules have changed and coaches get to spend more time working with players before practices officially start than ever before; and ...
• Let's be honest, our talent level has significantly improved, right?

 

So, the effect of newness and lack of experience (and the corresponding advantage of experience of opponents) will be blunted somewhat.  Won't say it won't still have an effect.

 

I'll be disappointed if we only go .500 in the non-con.  I'll barely be satisfied if we win only 2/3 of our non-con games.  I'd be happy if we go .750 in the non-con.

 

But I think that non-con slate is going to reveal what kind of coach we have.  Will we pick up some wins we aren't supposed to pick up?  Will we do better than we're supposed to?  I'm going to say the answer is yes.

[Handy Johnson]

Let's also remember alot of the teams we lost to in the Conference last year won't be NEARLY as good as they have been. That should be worth another 4-5 wins. Yes?

[uneblinstu]

Maybe, but a couple will also be better, like Iowa and, I think, Penn St., for instance.  It will be interesting to see how Illinois and Minnesota fare this year. they both lose a lot of talent and, in Minnesota's case, are almost starting from scratch with Pitino.  Groce loses a lot of talent too.  I wouldn't assume Indiana, Michigan, Michigan St and Wisconsin. will take significant steps back, though.  They probably won't be as good as they were last year, but they'll still be very strong.