Pitchford not playing next year....

[Red Don]

Best Wishes for your future success Walt! Thank you for taking a chance by transferring to Nebraska under a new Coaching staff and helping to make our NCAA tournament run a reality last year!

 

 

Edit:  I didn't realize that Walter had made the Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll (for the second year running) so in that light his decision may make a little more sense.

[gobigredbrah]

Gonna miss this dude

 

[royalfan]

Im interested to see who we get to replace him.

 

For as bad as he was this year, I struggle to definitively say we are better without him.   But I can also see how if we find a guy who can play in the post and knows his role, that we would be much better off.

 

I'm leery of our post situation next year.   While I'm not writing Hammond off, it's awefully tough to feel good about him next year.   Everyone else is a true frosh who is going to be lacking some size at this point.

Welcome back.  Hopefully you aren't back just because things have turned a little negative. You are allowed to post when things are rolling as well. 

[royalfan]

 

It will be okay Norm.  He wasn't making any progress and didn't seem to have the intestinal fortitude required to make it happen this year.  I have met the guy and even had a couple of beverages with him.  Likeable kid.  He was a very confident young man back then(little over a year ago).  Wish it worked out much differently, but he seemed to lose that swagger.  Tough deal, but at this point I don't think it will hurt our basketball team very much.  

This is a fair and balanced analysis IMO, Royal.  We'll see if it's true we "won't miss him".

I would have liked Walt to have been a tougher player physically and mentally.  We all would.  I think some here have interpreted that lack of toughness as being lazy and disinterested.  Sorry, I don't buy that in the least.  There's a difference between toughness and work ethic.  You'd like all your players to have both.  But just because you aren't tough, doesn't make you lazy.

 

The strange part is we will never know if we will have missed him or not.  We don't know what we would have been getting.  We could have got the very good shooting, confident Walt that we all loved.  Or we could have got someone that weighed down the program if his heart was in a different place.  All that I know is that I hope it was the best decision for him and our basketball program.  Usually it has to be one or the other, but in this case I think it may be good for both parties.  I don't think we will ever know for sure.

[HuskerFever]

Gonna miss this dude

 

 

...and this guy:

 

[Norm Peterson]

I've softened my attitude since yesterday.  Reading the piece in the LJS today, he's not just going to finish a degree in ethnic studies.  He's looking at enrolling in an MBA program and getting a masters in business.  And he says this is a decision that has weighed on him for a couple of years.  So, it's not just about Walt taking his ball and going home.  It's about Walt looking at life beyond basketball.  Because, afterall, most NCAA athletes go pro in something other than sports.

[Huskerpapa]

...and another thought...Walt could have "quit" and stayed on the team in order to retain his scholorship money.  What do I mean by that you ask?  Well, he could have simply remained on schollie, showed up and played yet not put the time or effort to get better.  Instead, he has chosen to move towards his future. This seems to me to be a very unselfish decision.  His passion shifted from a game to his business future.  That seems to be a very mature decision.  Just saying...

[FredsSlacks]

i feel like walt never got a fair chance on our team. he is a stretch 4 that was being forced to play Center. I think he could have been much more effective if we had a center that we could throw the ball into.

[atskooc]

Did he ever play center, though?  Not that I ever really saw.

 

And the entire team would have been more effective if we had a center we could throw the ball into.

[colhusker]

Did he ever play center, though?  Not that I ever really saw.

 

And the entire team would have been more effective if we had a center we could throw the ball into.

He got abused when he was asked to play post defense.  He was out of position big time there.

[TheKamdyMan]

 

Did he ever play center, though?  Not that I ever really saw.

 

And the entire team would have been more effective if we had a center we could throw the ball into.

He got abused when he was asked to play post defense.  He was out of position big time there.

 

 

It wouldnt have mattered who he was asked to guard he would have been abused.  He couldnt bang well in the post but anytime he got a switch with a SG/SF they easily beat him off the dribble when they had space.

[hhcmatt]

 

 

Did he ever play center, though?  Not that I ever really saw.

 

And the entire team would have been more effective if we had a center we could throw the ball into.

He got abused when he was asked to play post defense.  He was out of position big time there.

 

 

It wouldnt have mattered who he was asked to guard he would have been abused.  He couldnt bang well in the post but anytime he got a switch with a SG/SF they easily beat him off the dribble when they had space.

 

 

Agreed. At his best, Pitch was the mis-match for the other team. At his worst, he was a mis-match for us.

[jimmykc]

I'm glad we are starting to soften up on Walter. People make decisions in life. Some are good and some are not. Unless we can live inside someone's mind we outsiders can not truly know what prompts these choices. Many fans were shocked and angered when Barry Sanders walked away but time has a way of putting things into perspective. On the other hand Bison Dele left a successful career in sports and that certainly did not work out. Let us all hope that Mr. Pitchford has made the correct choice for himself.

[hhcmatt]

[nustudent]

 

Im interested to see who we get to replace him.

 

For as bad as he was this year, I struggle to definitively say we are better without him.   But I can also see how if we find a guy who can play in the post and knows his role, that we would be much better off.

 

I'm leery of our post situation next year.   While I'm not writing Hammond off, it's awefully tough to feel good about him next year.   Everyone else is a true frosh who is going to be lacking some size at this point.

Welcome back.  Hopefully you aren't back just because things have turned a little negative. You are allowed to post when things are rolling as well. 

 

I'm not concerned about the way things are headed yet.   I'm still pretty hopeful about Miles and Co. 

[Swan88]

https://twitter.com/huskerextrabr/status/583667477084643328

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[AuroranHusker]

https://twitter.com/huskerextrabr/status/583667477084643328

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That seems to imply that his schollie funds were no more...