Practice

[The_Vault]

Can students watch practices? I think it'd be pretty cool to watch.

[Huskerpapa]

Many of us have been begging to attend a practice. So far, no luck.

[Concrete]

if there were ever a year where attending practice would be totally worth it, this is the year with all of the guys redshirting. I'd love to see Biggs/Pitchford/Petteway and 2 others against our starting 5. However, due to the uniqueness of the situation i totally understand why practices are closed.

[The_Vault]

Have they ever been open in the pass?

[Huskerpapa]

Under Doc, and prior to the new practice facility, they were open. But because there is nowhere for fans to sit or stand in the new facility (and perhaps other unknown reasons) practices have been closed.

[uneblinstu]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

[jimmykc]

I think in this day of instant video posting, disgruntled players accusing coaches of verbal and physical abuse, sensitivity about the use of salty language, and extreme coddling of potential recruits that we will never again see practices which are open to the public. The risk/benefit ratio is just too high for the head coach and I could never understand Doc's reason for permitting it unless it was an attempt to prove that he was not "soft".

[Norm Peterson]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

[nebrasketball10]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

Be thankful for that... Collier's practices were as exciting as... well the creative juices aren't flowing yet this morning, but they weren't very exciting. At all. Long, drawn out, and lots of standing around.

[Silverbacked1]

Okay here are a few I came up with we can add as the day goes, because it is a slow basketball day.

Molasses on a cold day.

A sloth on antidepressants.

A snail going to the dentist.

Come on people we can do this.

[Huskerbb73]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

If it were up to Collier, the games would have been closed to the public too. I have heard stories about how he kept to himself all the time and was one strange dude.

[Norm Peterson]

Okay here are a few I came up with we can add as the day goes, because it is a slow basketball day.

Molasses on a cold day.

A sloth on antidepressants.

A snail going to the dentist.

Come on people we can do this.

as exciting as ...

... a lecture on the benefits of composting horse manure?

... a 30 minute infomercial for depends undergarments?

... shopping for a new plunger?

... waiting in line at the DMV?

... playing "Go Fish" with a narcoleptic?

... driving across Wyoming at night?

... waiting for your Immodium D to kick in?

[uneblinstu]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

Interesting. That was before my time (i.e. I hadn't graduate from high school yet...) I bet Nee's practices were interesting...

[nebrasketball10]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

If it were up to Collier, the games would have been closed to the public too. I have heard stories about how he kept to himself all the time and was one strange dude.

I don't think he was strange... Very nice guy. But was rather quiet, and not very personable. Not sure how the guy ever recruited... oh wait...

[Norm Peterson]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

Interesting. That was before my time (i.e. I hadn't graduate from high school yet...) I bet Nee's practices were interesting...

The one I remember going to was mid-90s. Gary Bargen ran a lot of the practice and Danny pretty much stood in the corner throughout practice and just watched. Then, at the end of practice, the team gets together in mid-court and Danny comes out and just obliterates one of the players with this profanity-laced tirade that just took me by complete surprise. In all the practices of Doc's that I went to, I never once saw Doc treat a player the way Danny did. Doc was kid gloves in comparison. So, when that player boycott occurred, it was no big surprise to me.

[Silverbacked1]

When Bargen left, we went in the tank.

[Swan88]

When Bargen left, we went in the tank.

This!

Any assessment of the Nee years cannot be complete without an acknowledgment of this reality. Bargen (and another assistant who left around the same time) provided discipline and focus and management skills and attention to detail that Nee could not (or, at least, did not) provide himself or replace with other assistants. Nee seemed to recruit very well, but he apparently could not manage the team well (the player walk-out is but one example). And he never repeated or even came close to replicating his Nebraska success at any subsequent job. But the negatives tended to persist with him, it seems.

[PAhusker]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

If it were up to Collier, the games would have been closed to the public too. I have heard stories about how he kept to himself all the time and was one strange dude.

Let's not forget that GQ or whoever's ranking of "One of America's 50 Sexiest Coaches"

[Huskerpapa]

I attended a Danny Nee practice one day and he was all over Dapreis Owens. Just riding his a@# the first part of the practice, and sadly, Dapries was not responding. Danny pulled him from the floor and made him stand on the sidelines holding five pound dumbells in each hand while his arms were extended. Brutal. Didn't seem it would be until the time kept going, and going, and going.

[efhutton]

I don't think Nee even had an out of bounds play after Gary Bargen and Jeff Smith left. It was sad to watch.

[cipsucks]

I don't think Nee even had an out of bounds play after Gary Bargen and Jeff Smith left. It was sad to watch.

Welcome to the board, Mr. Hutton!

[HB]

I always got the impression that was a Doc thing. I've never heard of any other coach letting that happen.

Danny Nee's practices were open. Barry Collier closed them. I remember calling the coach's call in show when Collier was first hired and asking if he was going to keep practices open like Nee did. Collier responded with a very brief and to-the-point "no." And I didn't go to any more practices until Doc arrived.

Interesting. That was before my time (i.e. I hadn't graduate from high school yet...) I bet Nee's practices were interesting...

The one I remember going to was mid-90s. Gary Bargen ran a lot of the practice and Danny pretty much stood in the corner throughout practice and just watched. Then, at the end of practice, the team gets together in mid-court and Danny comes out and just obliterates one of the players with this profanity-laced tirade that just took me by complete surprise. In all the practices of Doc's that I went to, I never once saw Doc treat a player the way Danny did. Doc was kid gloves in comparison. So, when that player boycott occurred, it was no big surprise to me.

These tirades were the rule rather than the exception. I saw him get after Eric Johnson one time that made even me blush. And once I had a board meeting for a group in the press room off the Devaney floor. While we were waiting for lunch, a couple of the nice ladies from the group, mid 50s, made the mistake of walking to the floor to take in a bit of practice, right when Danny went off with one of the most unique combination of F bombs, directly in the face of some poor player, that I have ever heard. I'll never forget the look on the ladies faces when they came back into the press room. Eyes like saucers and the color drained from thier faces. Of course, I saw Danny do the same thing to Janet once also. He was a great guy to have a drink with, but he had a, shall we say, aggressive side as well.