OWH article on Mike Peltz

[Swan88]

Lee Barfknecht has a nice article in this morning's Omaha World Herald on Mike Peltz. Here is a link. The opening line from the article is this: "Mike Peltz has turned into the Nebraska basketball team's Swiss Army knife." The article fills in some blanks on Mike Peltz, such as, "he led Class B in scoring as a junior and senior" and he plays with a lot of knee pain from a "partially torn patellar tendon."

[Chuck Taylor]

The label on the story says "FOOTBALL."

Guess that was based on Peltz's play on the loose ball last week.

[Silverbacked1]

Mike is just lucky that

Doug Gottlieb

wasn't doing the color for that game, or you know what would have happened.

[Silverbacked1]

Also something to think about.

Mike Peltz 6'2" 199lbs

Lavonte David 6'1" 225lbs.

He is an outside linebacker.

[hhcmatt]

Also something to think about.

Mike Peltz 6'2" 199lbs

Lavonte David 6'1" 225lbs.

He is an outside linebacker.

There is a huge difference between 199 and 225 lbs

Sincerely, Lance Jeter

[#GATA]

Peltz....one of my favorite players of the year...any chance he sees playing time next year....probably not going to happen, but weirder things have transpired.

[Silverbacked1]

Well LaVonte has 25 lbs of heart and kill attitude.

[Huskerpapa]

I have nothing but respect for Peltz. That said, if he is playing significant time next year, we will not be vastly improved. In fact, if he is playing anywhere close to the minutes he is playing this year...one word...yikes!

[Norm Peterson]

I agree, CWG. Peltz is someone we need this year and I'm glad the kid is getting minutes. It rewards him for filling a need for us this year. But, having said that, we ... need ... more talent and more talented depth at his spot in order to be a good team.

The old saying about insanity seems to apply. If you play the same quality of players you've always played, you're probably going to get the same results you've always gotten. Therefore, if we don't upgrade our talent somewhere, we're not going to improve much. If at all. And that brings us back to Mr. Peltz. If he's still logging a similar amount of minutes next year, it'll suggest we're a team with a similar talent level to this year and we should expect similar results. Or worse since we lose a couple of beefy bigs and aren't sure how we'll replace them as yet.

Gotta have some better athletes with more skill. That's the bottom line.

[longtimefan]

I'm from Alliance and watched Peltz play his career here. It's so different watching him play today versus when he played here. As the article stated, he was the leading scorer in class B for 2 years. At NU he doesn't even act like he wants to take a shot. In high school he was thought to be kind of a ball hog and would shoot all the time. I know we don't want him shooting a lot at NU but he needs to take a few more shots just to keep the opposition honest. His parents have said that at the JR. College, the coach told him not to shoot or he would sit. His job was to distribute. Apparently that has sunk in. I wonder if Miles has told him to not shoot or create his own shot? And for what it's worth, he was an above average shooter.

[Swan88]

Here's predicting that Mike Peltz will play a meaningful role on this team next year, regardless of the talent level infusion. This is because he can do what Barfknecht calls the "hoops grunt work," and do it very well.

His walkon status is testament to a deficiency of one sort or another. But his value, nonetheless, to this year's team seems to be very real and very substantial. And so it seems reasonable to expect that the need for the high-quality "hoops grunt work" that Mike can provide will not vanish next year and will not be entirely filled by the newbies.

Heck, I seem to recall in the first exhibition game that the primary person to slow down the opposition's main scoring stud was not Biggs or Gallegos or Parker or Talley--it was Mike Peltz (but perhaps my short term memory issues are arising . . . again).

[Norm Peterson]

Good point, Swan. Hoops grunt work. You do need that. Don't know that Peltz's grunt work will outweigh what others will bring to the table in other ways. We shall see.

[Donkey]

Back in the mid-late 90's, Kentucky had this walkon guard named Cameron Mills. He originally joined the team as a student manager but Pitino added him to the squad because the kid had heart. Tubby Smith even kept Mills on the team after Pitino left. Back then Kentucky had 3-4 first round picks a year and many of them left school early. Kentucky played in three straight NCAA finals while Mills was there and there was a real need to get younger players minutes because the starters left so early.

It was once asked why Kentucky gave up a bench spot for Mills. The answer was simple: he pushed the more talented players in practice. The guy had a lot of heart and pride and knew the importance of playing at Kentucky (similar to Nebraska walkons in football). He made sure some of those star players understood the need for hard work and relying upon teammates.

Players like Mills and Peltz are needed on teams to keep everyone else grounded. They are just happy to be there and to be playing for the school the love. I have not been to a game or watched all of the games on tv this season, but I noticed in all the games I have watched that Peltz plays hard no matter whom he is against. He does not do everything right, but he definitely tries. That kind of attitude can resonate in the locker room as well as on the court.

[Huskerpapa]

Back in the mid-late 90's, Kentucky had this walkon guard named Cameron Mills. He originally joined the team as a student manager but Pitino added him to the squad because the kid had heart. Tubby Smith even kept Mills on the team after Pitino left. Back then Kentucky had 3-4 first round picks a year and many of them left school early. Kentucky played in three straight NCAA finals while Mills was there and there was a real need to get younger players minutes because the starters left so early.

It was once asked why Kentucky gave up a bench spot for Mills. The answer was simple: he pushed the more talented players in practice. The guy had a lot of heart and pride and knew the importance of playing at Kentucky (similar to Nebraska walkons in football). He made sure some of those star players understood the need for hard work and relying upon teammates.

Players like Mills and Peltz are needed on teams to keep everyone else grounded. They are just happy to be there and to be playing for the school the love. I have not been to a game or watched all of the games on tv this season, but I noticed in all the games I have watched that Peltz plays hard no matter whom he is against. He does not do everything right, but he definitely tries. That kind of attitude can resonate in the locker room as well as on the court.

No issue with this take, none whatsoever. However, at this point Peltz is playing significant minutes out of need. I will return to my point. If this is necessary next year, we will be hurting.

[hhctony]

No issue with this take, none whatsoever. However, at this point Peltz is playing significant minutes out of need. I will return to my point. If this is necessary next year, we will be hurting.

Or, CWG, heaven forbid he get better. And, gasp, be one player we can rely on to do good things. I think we should keep saying on here that he can't play -- or isn't good enough -- it'll probably make him better.

[HB]

No issue with this take, none whatsoever. However, at this point Peltz is playing significant minutes out of need. I will return to my point. If this is necessary next year, we will be hurting.

The one thing we don't know is just how limited Peltz is with his partially torn patellar tendon. I suspect it is quite a bit. I realize that shouldn't affect his shot, but it likely affects all other parts of his game. So, if off season surgery fixes that, perhaps the next year Peltz is a different guy than the this year's Peltz.

[Norm Peterson]

The one thing we don't know is just how limited Peltz is with his partially torn PCL. I suspect it is quite a bit. I realize that shouldn't affect his shot, but it likely affects all other parts of his game. So, if off season surgery fixes that, perhaps the next year Peltz is a different guy than the this year's Peltz.

You speak truth, Kemo Sabe.

[Handy Johnson]

If he led ANY class in scoring, that implies that he must have been actually shooting the basketball. Jesus Christ kid, line it up and let it fly!

[Huskerpapa]

Per an article in the LJS, he has the green light to shoot. I read somewhere on this board that he did not have that permission. Anyone see Cool Hand Luke...

Coach Miles: You gonna get used to wearing them chains after a while, Mike. Don't you never stop listening to them clinking, they gonna remind you about what I been saying for your own good.

Mike: I wish you'd stop being so good to me, Coach Miles.

Coach Miles: Don't you ever talk that way to me. (pause, then hitting him) NEVER! (Mike rolls down hill; to other players) What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men.

[Silverbacked1]

Greatest movie of all time.

Just in my humble opinion.