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New to the chat and just wanted to say thanks for having me. Wanted to get some insight on this year team that I’m not too familiar with so I found this. As always, #GBR ~Steve Harley

Meet Roxanne the newest Nebraska Basketball Mascot and hopefully good luck dog. There's precedent

Just great to be back in my seats and watching my Huskers play basketball.

I’m going to have to disagree. First, they represent a quad 1 win opportunity. So that’s not like any other game on the schedule. Second, this game is Creighton’s red circle on the calendar game, and has been since the mid 90’s. And nebraska trying to downplay the rivalry and say it’s just another game is one reason why we get our butts kicked often. I guarantee you that Sam Griesel didn’t view it as no different than any other. And third, I’ve lived in Omaha my entire life as a diehard Husker hoops fan. I loathe the Jays. I loathe the sweater-vest and 3/4 zip wearing, snobby cu fans who make snide remarks the next day in the office. I’ve been putting up with it for over two decades as an adult. I hate that they developed into a relevant and nationally ranked program while their fans also cheer for 9 win seasons and bowl game appearances. I dislike that they built their program with a mixture of clean cut Korvers, Kalkbrenner, Dane Watts, and Grant Gibbs types countered by the P’Allen’s, Cavel Witters, Rodney Buford’s, and Mo’ Watson ilk. I loathe CU. I dislike Jayskers. I find them beyond annoying. I respect coach Mac as a coach but will never ever be a part of his plantation. Sorry to vent. I’m ready for Friday now. GBR!!!!

take it easy my brother. I played hard every night ~Steve Harley

A few thoughts here from someone who generally observes reactions on this board but rarely comments. For long tenured Nebrasketball fans this is kicking into "the sky is falling" mode rather quickly. The team has some issues to sort out, for certain, but there is a base of talent and coaching to work with here that give me more confidence than in the past. The compare to '14-'15 is apples to oranges in opinion. The nucleus of that Miles team was in tact from the prior season. This year's team is pieced together from the portal (like many this day and age) and will hinge upon its ability for the potential of its talent to show itself. I think that can happen, but it's likely going to take more than two games for us to see it. The two teams we've faced so far haven't had top tier talent, but seeing them both up close; they played hard and scrapped defensively. They were a bit helter-skelter schematically and possibly the most important piece...They didn't lack for athletes. Those two teams played their asses off and that should be recognized. I think some of the perceived lack of effort here is the two teams you played ran around with their hair on fire. Our inability to hits shots consistently is an issue. Though the 3pt misses I think even out over time, I'm far more concerned about the growing trend of not finishing at and around the basket. Last year's team had plenty of early issues with hitting from outside consistently (2-22, anyone?). But the past two seasons 13 and 51 could settle everything down and get a bucket on the block when needed, or facilitate for someone else who could. I haven't seen that yet, but it looks like Berke and Morgan both have that type of potential as they get rooted in the offense. Berke, specifically has huge potential. Braxton is a worker and I expect there will be games where his ability to impact possessions on defense are lauded here. He will never be the centerpiece of an offense and I agree the game slows down significantly when we play through him. But these first two games are incredibly valuable reps for him to grow for when he has to do it later, because that day is coming. The same thing can be said for everyone else who's two games in (Rollie, Gavin, Connor and most of all Berke). You don't like the rotations? I'm guessing Fred doesn't either at times. They're figuring it out in these first three non-con games because when are they going to get a chance after that? The vitriol around Brice is surprising. Dude went for 27 and 5 out the gate then had an off night with everyone else on Saturday. He may not lead or carry himself like Sammy G or whomever you want him to be, but this team is going as far as he takes them. I have a pretty decent view of the floor and I don't see the "body language" issues. He's just playing ball and that's how he carries himself. He looks the same as he did last year when they were upsetting Purdue and Wisconsin from my vantage.

I don't post off-topic posts on this message board. Others do and I tend to not get bent out of shape about it but for me this is talking about Nebraska basketball and sometimes the tangent subjects like other levels of basketball or anything going on about the university. This isn't one of those boards where I have an off-topic section so that 5 people can bitch at each other in some section. I do not apologize for that for one second. I guess to whatever cabal you visit with about such things, I have to say that this board has been less dramatic since the off-season. This thing where I run the board, free and as a hobby, and I'm put into some position where I'm supposed to feel bad about it or some nonsense is horse shit. I appreciate the guys that currently post here that don't make the time and effort I spend feel like I'm some sort of lesser person for doing so. End rant.

Worster is more loose with the ball than I expected him to be. He has a very good career assist to turnover ratio but it's been the opposite so far here. Needs to get it going. Berke used all of his 7'1" wingspan to be disruptive and impactful defensively today. 3 blocks, 3 steals, several deflections, altered shots. Was his best overall game to date, all while going up against two very high level frontcourt players. He handles the ball a lot for a big, yet has only turned the ball over 3 times total in the first four games. Shooting 60% from the field and 83% from the line. I'm just so impressed with him. I really hope he and Mast are both on the team next year. From 10 minutes left in the first half on, we actually played better than I thought we were capable of. Might be a hot take to some, but that St. Mary's team could win the Big Ten this year. They very well might end up with a higher tourney seed than any Big Ten team. They're the same as they always are (very good), but they might've found their next Patty Mills in Mikey Lewis. Clutch free throws by that kid at the end. We played flat out awful the first 10 minutes. St. Mary's played pretty well, I thought. And we were still in it until the end. That makes me confident we can compete with anyone in the conference this year if we clean some things up. Most teams in conference this year are solid, but none are great imo. Speaking of the first 10 minutes - and speaking of beating dead horses - what the hell, Fred? It's obvious to all there is no offensive flow when Meah is in the game. In the starting group, Brice is forced to be ball dominant (he's doing an admirable job of it), and the guys he has to kick to are Meah, Gary, Worster and Berke. Rough deal. Morgan played better today. All in all, I don't feel discouraged after this one. Not a bad loss by any means. However, not winning this game can absolutely be the reason you're on the wrong side of the bubble (not sure that'll matter this year). 9-2 in the non-con (with no quality wins), plus 1 loss in the conference tourney, and you probably need to go 14-6 in conference to make the tourney with our non-con resume. I'm not sure 13-7 would do it (remember, we once went 13-5 in the Big Ten and weren't even close to making the tourney). Beat St. Mary's on a neutral court and you can probably go 12-8 again and make it. I think it makes that big of a difference with a schedule like ours. We also won't have any opportunities to beat the #1 team in the country this year.

They still have time to clean that out with another off-season surgery

Points Starters Williams - 20 Berke - 9 Gary - 5 Worster - 4 Meah - 3 Bench Essegian - 18 Morgan - 9 Griffiths - 3 Ulis- 2 Made 3s Williams - 3 Essegian - 3 Berke - 1 Griffiths - 1

A bunch of new guys on the squad, many of whom are objectively good at basketball. Perhaps we should give them the noncon to gel before we start passing absolute judgments.

Can you believe it? Basketball season is almost here! HUSKER HOOPS CENTRAL CHALLENGE IS BACK! If you're unfamiliar with Husker Hoops Central Challenge (HHCC), no need to worry. Just join. It's that easy. And if you didn't get a prediction in from the start of the season, don't fret. Just join. There's still many opportunities to climb up the leader board. And more importantly, gain bragging rights by outsmarting our celebrity college basketball statisticians. Just make a prediction for each game. It's that easy. The more participation we have, the more fun it becomes. So you're a big part of the success of HHCC this season. The rules remain the same as last year. We will continue to have opportunities to earn bonus points throughout the season. Last year's Top 10 finishers were: 1 aphilso1 2 UnicamMan 3 BjoeHusker 4 Nebrasketball1979 5 Vinny 6 AuroranHusker 7 hhcmatt 8 Crush78 9 nuhusker7 10 demone *11 KenPom *17 Bart Torvick Another successful season keeping Ken and Bart out of the Top 10 standings. We need to continue that trend and show these experts that we know more about our team than they do. Now that we're all on the same page, let's go out there and make some predictions! Game on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HHCC SCORING AND RULES If you want to be part of the HHCC, all you need to do is guess the score of each game. Participants with at least one entry will be included in the overall standings. There will be a thread available following the completion of the previous game. Scoring is based on how close you were to each team's actual point total and the margin of victory. HHCC GAME SCORING: The object of the game is to have the lowest accumulated points at the end of the year. Scoring is taken from three variables (margin of victory, actual score, correct game winner); with possible bonus points. Margin of Victory: This is how many points either team wins by. Scoring: Difference between Actual MoV (Husker score & Opponent score) Predicted MoV (Predicted Husker score & Predicted Opponent score). This is then multiplied by 2. Bonus: There is a -5 bonus for correctly predicting margin of victory. To get the bonus two things must happen. 1. Your margin of victory must match the actual margin of victory. 2. You picked the correct winner. EXAMPLE Prediction: NU 79 Opponent 72 Actual: NU 72 Opponent 62 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (Actual (72 62) = 10 - Predicted (79-72) = 7) = 3 * 2 = 6 MoV = 6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Actual Score: This is the final point totals of both teams. Scoring: (Predicted Husker score vs. Actual Husker score) + (Predicted Opponent score Actual Opponent score) Bonus: There is a -5 bonus for correctly predicting either the Huskers score or the opponents. EXAMPLE Prediction: NU 79 Opponent 72 Actual: NU 72 Opponent 62 ------------------------------------------ (79 72) + (62 72) 7 + 10 = 17 ------------------------------------------ Game Winner: Picking the correct winner. Scoring: Zero points for correct winner. 20 point penalty for incorrect choice. The final score for this game would be 23. Correctly predicting the actual game score nets all -5 bonuses and a -25 bonus, for a best possible score of -40. Missed Game: Your score for missing a game is (the highest score of picked games + 25 points). End of year: Your highest score will be subtracted from your final point total. No Games Missed equals a -25 bonus to your final score. HHCC RULES: All new HHCC game threads will be posted following the previous game. The first game will be up after the last exhibition game. Post your prediction in the HHCC thread. All predictions must be in by the scheduled tipoff time (noted in the thread's title). Any corrections to your prediction should be done in the HHCC game thread. If you are unable to edit your score, just quote your previous score and post the new score underneath. All score updates will be posted throughout the season.

Brice is the one guy on the team where can shoot whatever we wants and over the course of a season it's going to fall in about 40% from 3 and 50% from 2. In a lot of regards his production is remarkably consistent. I think the frustration boils down to him just going Toney McCray at moments and throwing the ball to the other team or some other random brain fart thing you don't want to see from the guy who is supposed to be your best player.

Our bigs. Meah - I was worried from the very first possession of the first game, when he missed that dunk. Got fouled (mayble), but should've made the dunk. But that alone didn't bother me. After the missed dunk, he lazily/nonchalantly walked around the paint for a bit, smiling and laughing, before he made his way to the free throw line. Then clanked two free throws. That whole scene was a microcosm of years 1-3 of Fred here at Nebraska. Last night, he did the "too small" gesture after dunking on someone a foot shorter than him. We were losing to Bethune Cookman at that time. Read the room, guy. He also had Brice laughing on the court last night. If there's one player you want to be locked in at all times, it's Brice. He's prone to losing focus, and is much better when he doesn't. I want Brice pissed off when we're not playing well. All these things are signs and symptoms that remind so much of Fred's first three teams and it worries the heck out of me. Culture matters, and Fred's timeline here is proof of that. Morgan - isn't a very good defensive rebounder, which I suppose is to be expected. He wasn't a very good rebounder at NDSU either. Doesn't have the vision or passing ability to play the Mast role. The staff thought he could stretch the defense when they brought him on, but he has only made 17 threes in his entire college career. And we haven't ran anything to get him a perimeter set shot, like we did with Mast. Just more of a traditional post player. Can definitely still have a role in the rotation, but there's a reason he isn't starting or getting starter's minutes. Berke - Does have the natural vision and passing ability to play the Mast role. The handful of times he's been in that spot, he's looked pretty damn good. Kind of surprisingly, he looks like our most sound interior defender, as well. Meah has long arms and will block some shots, but he gave up at least 4 layups last night. Berke has a wide base, long arms and defends without fouling in the post. He looks much more comfortable as the 5 on both ends of the court. He looks bigger than Mast to me. Certainly longer and more athletic. I hope we don't continue to insist on playing him at the 4 for 22 of his 27 mpg. Our "finisher lineup" is Rollie, Connor/Sam, Brice, Juwan, Berke. Yet I'm pretty sure we didn't see that group play together at all in the first 37 minutes. If that's your best group, how does that make sense? I suppose Fred didn't expect a barn burner with Bethune-Cookman. It's pretty clear to me that our best five is that group, with Connor in the 2 spot. Connor only playing 14 minutes in that game is inexcusable. I don't care that he went 0-fer from three. Still had 8 points in those 14 minutes and he's the ONLY player on our team that constantly makes the defense work with his off-ball movement, similar to Keisei. He's also our best shooter - can be hard for a shooter to get into a rhythm coming off the bench playing spot minutes (see Connor's freshman vs. sophomore seasons). I know Fred doesn't want to go small with Gary at the 4 in conference play, but I think we're going to have to. We can still be a good team. Can still go up to Sioux Falls and beat St. Mary's. But we have a lot of work to do.

They should be embarrassed after that “effort.” This team isn’t “bad,” (I don’t think anyways…) - but boy do they do some atrocious things. We’re gonna get the brakes beat off of us by Creighton and St. Mary’s. Brice Williams needs to check the attitude/ego at the door. His body language is such shit. It’s clearly all about him out there, and if he doesn’t have it he’s checked out. Braxton Meah is not a good basketball player, and if he can’t figure out how to be 7’1” with a 20ft wingspan then he will be riding pine. I asked after the scrimmage, “does this team have mono?” And I’m starting to wonder if either I was onto something, or they all just hate each other. Definitely looks like 2 or 3 different teams depending on the line-ups. And certain guys play different when other guys are on the bench. Last thing I’m going to say - all I’ve heard is how smart of an offensive mind Fred Hoiberg is - when have you ever said, “damn Fred really dialed up some stuff tonight?” I can’t think of one game. His hot potato 5-out weave offense is so ridiculously easy to guard. These guys never space the floor and let actions happen/develop. No one knows how to draw two and kick, then use it. They never get solid kick-out 3’s (and if they do it’s to the wrong guys). I’m pretty fed up with what I’ve seen from this crew the first few games. Lazy, uninspired, too-cool-for-school basketball. Zero team chemistry. Get it figured out fellas

At least he wasn't riding a scooter and assaulted by a former NFL practice squad player who went off the deep end

Unless Fred has to win a certain number of games to keep employed I don't think burning redshirts is the way to go here. I have to think that if Janowski was remarkedly better than anyone else we're rolling out at the 1 or 2 that he'd already be playing.

we call that the Boogie talk

Here is what I would like to see: Starters Rollie Connor Brice Juwan Berke Bench Gavin Andrew Ahron Braxton

I watched the whole replay. Two things: Griffiths should have been on the court for the last 5 minutes. The more I watch him the more I like. I’d start him over Meah and have Berke start at the 5. He creates all sorts of problems that don’t show up on the stat sheet with his length and speed. He’s smart, unselfish, and helps the offense flow. He also has a good understanding of pro spacing. BC’s run to get back in the game was with him on the bench. His closeouts on defense are really good and he’s capable of switching everything. He also led our team in assists playing 13 minutes. I love Sam but he’s not a PG and GG deserved Sam’s minutes last night. I like Berke a lot. He’s smart, skilled, and tough. We need to give him a ton of reps as the 5 in the half court because he has the passing ability to get it done in Mast’s role. They also need to green light him from 3 and live with the results. He’s a good player. Juwan started being Juwan more this game. Good to see. Brice forced it but also played really well alongside Griffiths. They are a problem together. Worster was terrible offensively but he’s a great defender. I guess this week is layup practice. Wtf.

I blame Satterfield.

Yep after 3 hours and four dropped calls and/or stopped texts. My youngest son (30) tells me go to who ever the account is under and go in and change everything yourself. Took all of 10 min. I hate young people AND I HAVE TICKETS IN MY HAN… UH… UNL TICKET ACCOUNT. Now hope I can get it open so they can tear…uh… scan my ticket

My hatred of Creighton has waned a little bit now that I no longer live in Omaha and have moved out of state. I still get fired up for this game, but not as much since I don't have to listen to Jay and Jaysker fans chirp about their team incessantly. I want to win this game for the fans like you that are still living in enemy territory. You deserve a dub, my man. P.S. Grant Gibbs was a thug, and I am bothered by you putting him in the clean cut category. Wearing an accountant's hair cut doesn't change that fact.

No vent. Creighton has an exceptional program and they have a very complimentary team. They suck.

I'm going to point to one more thing that led to the loss--when we went up 5 in the second half and turned it over on 5 or 6 consecutive possessions. That was just unbelievably brutal. Involved no missed 3s, but was devastating.

Proud of the effort and resolve today. I know they got little to no sleep last night with the fire alarm issue at the hotel. Liked our defensive effort. Coach’s offense still leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing happens off ball, and these guys are really bad at moving on other people’s drives/actions. I’m going to pass out if I have to watch Meah in the Walker/Mast role anymore. And then I’ll have an aneurysm if I watch us pre-double the post 12’ from the hoop to give up wide open 3’s. The book is out on how to beat it. Stop doing it.

We miss KT. Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

One of the silver linings of everyone shooting so bad from 3 is that it no longer phases me when Juwan takes a 3.

This message board told me a lot that I didn’t even know about myself.

Thank goodness basketball season starts tomorrow. No additional explanation required!

Good luck. I have found that nothing beats a face-to-face to clear things up, especially if you are of a certain age and appear amiable but slightly confused (which I find easy to do).

It's going to be even more painful this year with the football game the day after because there will be jayskers in my face shitting on Nebraska on Friday that will be in the trenches with me for the football game on Saturday. Screw all jayskers

I’ve been getting incessant texts from my Jaysker coworkers all day today. One sent a short video clip of Coach Hoiberg today calling out Jayskers and said “maybe if nebraska wasn’t so terrible at basketball there wouldn’t be Jayskers” Which means they only want to cheer on the bandwagon. I’ve been through seven levels of 2000-2024 nebrasketball hell folks. I’ve driven from Omaha to Lincoln hundreds of times and driven home dejected by crapping games away. I’ve seen 6500 at the Bob for years and watched us as we toiled under Collier and Doc - when Tim gave us a glimpse of what could be but couldn’t sustain. Never once did I say “it’d be easier for me to just cheer for Creighton because they win” but apparently some fans do…

I have to think it's pretty important for in-state recruiting. Crayton kicking our ass on the court most every year over the past couple of decades has to be a factor in our dismal record in head to head recruiting efforts with Nebraska kids. At some point we have to turn this around. It's an important game beyond the Omaha pukes strutting around the office after another Jay win.

I'm pretty excited for Nebraska football this week. Don't really know why. Maybe nostalgia. Late November game with bowl implications on the line. Pretend it is for the Orange Bowl instead of just a bowl. Can take down the goalposts with a win. There is way too much anxiety & dread from the fans instead of just having fun.

I agree with the Brice “body language”. He isn’t a rah rah or overly vocal type of guy. I remember that we often get uhh frustrated with the guys who shoot arrows and make the too small gestures. But also have trouble with a guy who shows no emotion but is arguably best player.

That was all Doc, he’s a defensive coaching genius. With the lack of size we had we had no choice but to be scrappy on defense.

No doubt we have quickness issues on the exterior. Although I am surprised at the quickness that Rimdal exhibited yesterday. But we have length and physicality that can offset that lack of quickness. In the league we are in, that may be more important. For example, I would argue that last year, Iowa did not have quick guards, yet they did okay. Our guard corp, with Britt healthy, should be a big advantage for us. By the way, our interior players seemed quicker this year than last. Potts and Hargrove move very well. AM has some nice quick moves, and Bozan has good feet. I think we will be okay.

Was at the game last night....SLOPPY!! I think some of this has to do with the fact that we are rotating so many guys in as Fred's still trying to figure out rotations. So I completely get it. I was even sitting the crowd last night thinking "Who would I have in that can maybe give us some offensive flow?" Last night I'm hoping was just one of those games where for whatever reason it just didn't "work" Here is the optimist in me that feels we can still continue to improve as the year goes on. Brice and Rollie combined for ELEVEN of our 18 turnovers. I don't believe that will the norm by any means at all. I felt on numerous occasions we were able to get to the paint, but our decision making was very poor. I do believe with some film those are things that can be corrected. Numerous times we had guys get into the pain with shooters open on the wings/corners and for whatever reason didn't get the ball to them and forced up a tough two. Other thing. We missed SO many buckets at the rim. I saw Robin tweet that at the 1/2 we were 6/12 on layups/dunks. Second half I bet we missed 5-6 more. I really don't think that will be the norm with this group. Heck, Gary missed about 4 at the rim and that is not him at all. Defensively I do like our length. I do think as the year goes on we can be a pretty solid defensive team. Especially with certain lineups. Look, last night wasn't pretty by any means. I've walked out of the Bob/PBA on NUMEROUS occasions where we lose that game last night. We did find a way to win. Was it pretty? NOT AT ALL. Were their some things we can improve on....ABSOLUTELY! I do worry about how we may struggle to score at times this season, but every team goes through that. Its why in basketball you see upsets all the time! I believe I saw that in the Big East alone they have already lose 3 "buy" games and we are just in the 2nd week of the season. It happens. I also like that our schedule isn't "brutal" to start as we try and find those right rotations. I will be curious to see how this team does. I do feel we can still be a solid team this year. We may have to "ugly" up games this year almost the same way Doc did. I'm sure we will lose some we shouldn't, but I also think we can win some we maybe shouldn't either. Lets not hit the panic button though. I remember after a game one time Kent Pavelka after beating Indiana said to Doc "What do you feel you guys did to look so much better tonight." Doc simply replied "We made shots." Let's avoid the 4-22 on 3's and all the turnovers and see where this season takes us. GBR!!

I know some people hate this thread, but when a team secures their ticket to the championship match, there's no apologies for resurfacing this.

Southeastern Louisiana was a pretty good basketball team. Well coached and they played inspired and hard basketball. They had exceptional interior passing and went to the glass hard. On defense, they had a couple strong interior player and whenever the ball went to Markowski they brought down a guard to double. But in doing that, we were able to kick the ball out for some great looks on the perimeter. They were quick on the outside and rather big and physical on the inside. Honestly, I was impressed. We played much better ball in the second half. Good adjustments were made at half and we played with better tempo. If we have a weakness right now, it is our ability to handle quick guards. We seemed to adjust to that quickness in the second half. ** Potts is quicker and much more confident this year. If she continues to improve on the perimeter she is going to elevate to a whole new level of play. ** Caitlin did a good job handling the ball today. She has definitely improved her handles from last season. ** If there is a tougher individual in this State than AW I would be honored to meet him/her. There is no way she is 100%. No way. Yet she is out on the court giving it her all. You can see and feel her pain. Every time she goes down, I hold my breath. What a trooper. ** We need Britt on the floor...get well soon! ** Folks, we got ourselves a good one with Bozan! Just think, she has only been in the US and our team for a few months...just wait until her knowledge catches up with her talent!

By the way, UTRGV went 13-41 from deep and we still won by 20. Last year when we gave up that many 3s: Iowa 15-35 (lost by 18) Creighton 14-40 (lost by 29) Illinois 13-35 (lost by 11) Purdue 13-33 (won by 16) Wisconsin 13-26 (lost by 16) A&M 13-23 (lost by 15) So this was a funky matchup given their play style, and considering we were outscored 39-18 from the 3 point line and still won by 20, that's encouraging. In many other older worlds of Nebraska Basketball we lose that game.

Fred was on Big Red Wrapup on PBS / NPM this week: https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/series-media/big-red-wrap-up/season-24-video-15847/ohio-state-recap-50024407/ He starts at around 29 minute mark - summary - For us to get competitive at ISU right away was through transfers – back when transfers had to sit out – after we got good with the transfers, we started getting the right freshmen in our program Now everybody is in the transfer market – and then NIL is a whole different perspective – people are still trying to figure it out, especially with revenue sharing coming in next year – we appreciate 1890 in helping us build a team – have to have it to be competitive now NIL is important, but we still try to sell them on what we can do for them and how we can help them get to the NBA – we’ve had 12 players get to NBA out of ISU and NU Oldest team in the league last year and that played a big part in our success – even the year before, I think we’d have been a tournament team if we stayed healthy - that being said, we regrouped after the injuries and had some guys step up and had the best record in February that year – that momentum carried over to last year Last year, the players never had any agendas – everyone came to work every day – enjoyable to coach Our coaches wanted to set up this year’s team to be older again and I think we accomplished that With Sam, he’s one of the hardest workers – after Bandoumel got hurt, we talked on the plane ride back from PSU and he just stepped up and played well – been a staple ever since – he has the respect of his teammates because of how hard he works – he’s earned it – but sometimes I take a step back as a parent and it’s pretty cool to experience this We miss Mast a lot – he helped Keisei so much with his passing – Allick did a nice job too Meah & Morgan are completely different players than Mast along with Berke – we have different ways we can play with those 3 - Morgan is really good with his back to the basket – Berke can facilitate and score from 3 – Meah is a shot blocker – none of them replace Mast fully, but we can win with them Williams finished the year on a high note – played the best at the end – he’s going to be our go-to guy and we have to play through him a lot – benefited him last year playing the point to gain confidence in his ball handling for this season – excellent versatility for a 6-7 guy Feel good about point guards this season – You have Ulis who’s been a B1G starter on good Iowa teams – Worster has been great at Utah – talked to people in the Pac 12 and they love his attitude as a winner – he’s all about getting us organized offensively and defensively and getting everyone involved – both of them are in the 5th year and will be great for us League is a monster – no nights off, not going to face any team that’s a gimme – have to try to stay consistent through the highs and lows I like our non-con schedule – good tourney in Hawaii – St Mary’s is good – road vs CU – good mid-majors – I think the non-con will prepare us well for B1G play Gary hit some timely 3s last year even though he slumped later in the year – we want him to shoot the open ones – when he’s contested, we need to work on driving or making a play for someone else Biggest job for me and the staff this year is narrowing the rotation – don’t know that we’ll figure it out right away – may take some time like we did last year – I think we have 13 guys who could help us – can’t play that many – we always speak about keeping yourself ready as roles may change We have a lot of energy guys that can try to replace Keisei – Worster has good natural leadership skills – Sam too – Brice has grown in leadership – we need Gary to be that guy too – when things get tough you have to have a guy that can bring everyone together on the court – I tell them all the time I only have 4 timeouts, so you guys have to figure it out on the floor - we need that guy to help pull us through the inevitable ups and downs Our atmosphere is great – when we brought in Griffiths and Essegan, they mentioned PU and NU as the best places to play in the B1G – great atmosphere for us vs PU last year but also the big comeback vs WU – that was the biggest win of the season – crowd really carried us through that game

All interesting stuff, but for the rest of my life I will be traumatized by my conclusions following our destruction of Colorado in the exhibition game 3 years ago. My defense mechanisms now lead me to not put much stock in exhibitions....

I think Berke is a lot like me. You buzz your hair and as a result your body appears bloated a bit.

The good: - Man we’re big and long. Strong looking dudes too. - Even as average as we played, our defense is just tough to score on. - Thought a lot of dudes made some nice individual plays. - The high-low plays for Meah. I’d love to see a few more wrinkles on those. - Lots of steals and hands in passing lanes. The bad: - Definitely not 5 playing as 1 yet. Thats for sure. And I’m not talking about typical pre-season sputters. Far behind where they should be right now after this many practices. - I expected a lot more O rebounds. Especially on sub- 50% shooting. - Gave up 14 offensive rebounds to a D2 team…. Yikes. - Anything with Meah operating at the top of the key. Yeeesh. Please don’t try to force that. He doesn’t have any feel for it and does not have the skills for it. And we don’t have time for him to figure it out. The ugly: - Does everyone on this team have mono? Second time I’ve seen them, they look lethargic, uninterested, and bored. Maybe that’s a good thing? Need a bit more of a challenge to get our juices flowing? -Body language leaves quite a bit to be desired… whiney and uninspired.

Okay half time thoughts GVS is a scrappy bunch. We might want to watch to see how their season goes in DII even though the score is close. I am not worried much early. We can pass. Our D isn’t too bad for a first scrimmage. We are legitimately two deep at every position. the good When Brice and Gary are on the floor everything seems to run very well. both points guards will truly make this team solid Buyuktucel is good to very good we run good sets to have guys wide open in good spots to score we must’ve lived in the weight room because a few of these guys our big, big , big the bad 3 point shooting tonight is a bit off we look really tired like maybe we practiced earlier in the day or went hard last night rebounding could be better but I think it will with the addition of Morgan when healthy u already miss the state of Nebraska outline on the court and we need to quit shrinking the uniforms because a couple of these guys look like 5 pounds of sausage being jammed into ac3 pound caseing. also will need to bring my readers now because I am having a hell of a time reading these messages and can’t really see the keyboard so am making more mistakes than usual

In the transfer portal era it's not a waste of time to build relationships with potential transfer portal entrants. In the meantime, our NIL money is probably better spent recruiting the MVC.