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OFFENSE: D+ Nebraska scored a borderline acceptable 63 points (based on the opponent) but how they did it was again not impressive. The Big Red connected on just 40% from the field (including 35% in the second half) and left thirteen points at the free throw line (20-33). The Huskers also finished only 20% from downtown (3-15). Once again, way too selfish and some very forced shots. Even more were some very odd offensive decisions that could easily go under "Ball Handling" but we'll put here. Number one, the 4 on 1 with Shavon Shields taking the ball the entire way down the floor and getting bailed out by contact. Horrible spacing, yes, so I'm not entirely blaming Shields, but that has got to be like clockwork for this team, not like a Chinese Fire Drill. Number two, the decision to throw the alley oop pass late in the second half with only a four point lead that resulted in a turnover and one of just two second half timeouts taken by Tim Miles. A lot of this stuff is honestly just youth and inexperience, but as we keep saying, the free throw shooting has GOT to improve, at the very least, if NU is going to be able to survive this year with its current offensive setup. DEFENSE: B I thought Nebraska was good on defense and while Coach Miles said on the post game he thought the interior defense was poor, I didn't see it as that bad. Overall, the Huskers held Northern Illinois to a solid 58 points on just 37% shooting. Free throws also go both ways - NIU left nine points at the line (19-28) and while its true that nobody is going to make all of their free throws as a team, NU is lucky they didn't decide to connect on 24-28 or this would cap off a thoroughly bad sports weekend in Nebraska. BTW, I'll have to go back and check, but I think Nebraska did force a season high 16 turnovers, so props for that. REBOUNDING: C The two teams shared the exact same rebounding numbers - 12-26-38. I'm going to go ahead and give Leslee Smith the Player of the Game, even though Deverell Biggs (18 points) certainly could be considered for how he helped carry NU after Shavon Shields fouled out. He was NU's go to guy down the stretch and without him, NU may not have won. However, I'll argue the same for Smith, who made some big plays early in the game and had a team high nine rebounds to go along with 13 points. Add in the fact that Smith has become a team leader and I think he deserves the nod in this one. BALL HANDLING: D- Early on, Nebraska looked pretty good with the ball in its hands, but the Huskers finished with a season high sixteen turnovers on just ten assists. Add in the above mentioned poor spacing several times and bad decisions of when to shoot and when to force/slow tempo, and I think the "D-" was well earned. COACHING: C- I know Coach Miles really trusts Shields, I know he didn't expect this to be a 40 minute game and I know that Shields and others need to learn to play with four fouls. However, why in the world would you bring him back out in a single digit game with 9:00 remaining on the clock? I don't understand that and the decision backfired. I have noticed a trend on Miles not using timeouts when "the going gets tough" in the second half of games this year, too. NU didn't use its first until after the horrible decision on the aforementioned alley oop. If you're struggling over and over, and playing with such a young team, why not call time outs more frequently to "instruct" and help ease the team through the growing pains? I'm not going to be harsh on Miles for his team having some mental errors and coming out flat, however. The team is coming off of a mini break and a long week, playing an early game in front of a less than enthusiastic crowd against lesser competition. Plus, seeing some other Big 10 teams struggle yesterday (most notably Illinois) has me not really being that worried. OVERALL GRADE: C- Nebraska played a lower end of average game, just above "poor." I'm not very concerned, as every Big 10 team has 2-3 games like this out of conference and Northern Illinois isn't awful. Plus, NU won - its not that big of a deal in margin of victory within college hoops unless you win, especially when you're destined for NIT or bust anyways. I'm fine with today and expect to see a much better effort against Miami on Wednesday night. PLAYER OF THE GAME: Leslee Smith 2013-2013 PLAYER OF THE GAME TOTALS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 3 TAI WEBSTER - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 1 SHAVON SHIELDS - 1 This post has been promoted to an article

...my daughter just missed out on the ticket, but she was not disappointed, she couldn't attend if she got it. She also gets an A+ for effort today, she had the flu, and wouldn't miss the game. She isolated herself a bit and suffered.

My son was in the front row of the student section, and scored a free $130 Jay Z ticket for being among the first 75 admitted. But, he wouldn't wear the new HHC In Miles We Trust T-shirt I bought him. Could be because he currently, at this life stage, thinks dad is the biggest dork around these parts. But that shirt would have helped us.

Wow, I didn't expect today's events to unfold as they did. Still, I'm not sure this is over. The next 10 days will be interesting. Watch as people parse Eichorst's statement. Watch to see if we have aggressive action with recruiting. Watch to see what the Big 10's punishment will be for Bo's tirade about the refs--will it be more than Cook got? And see if Mr. "I apologize to no one" actually apologizes or at least expresses regret for his conduct beginning at halftime of the Iowa game, and continuing through the post game press conference.

Here's my bold prediction: We will have the smallest crowd ever in the history of Nebraska basketball at the game Sunday. Kidney will be there.

They are never delivered until they turn down the $$$...think Bubba Starling

All right let me clarify. I should have recognized in the over-dramatic, hyperbolic world we live in, where the meaning of "literally" has now become "figuratively," people would misconstrue the meaning of crossroads. Crossroads is simply a point in which traveling in two directions is possible. I have never judged the success of my teams and the success of the teams I root for based on the win/loss record. I base success on how close a team comes to reaching its overall potential. You can play well and reach your potential and still have a losing record if that is where your potential lies. This team is young, inexperienced and playing in what projects as the toughest conference in the nation. They are going to have trouble winning games no matter how well they play, but there is still a level of performance that they can still reach. Some teams do over-perform and some under-perform. Trying to stay with the drama people have attempted to turn my position into: There now seems to be a struggle for the soul of this team. It is possible to turn a team around once it has gone off course but it is hugely difficult. If they do not get these issues of rotations, roles, and attitude fixed this will be an under-performing team. If Coach Miles can get his team to "buy in" as he stated in his interview posted somewhere on this site today, then they have the opportunity to reach their potential or even over-achieve. This is the crossroads they are at. That does not mean that we should pack in the season or begin discussing how well of a job Miles is doing. Every season has a crossroads and some years you can have several. Sometimes it is impossible to identify when you arrived at that crossroads until the season is over and you can look back in retrospect. This season that is not the case. It seemed obvious to me (which is why I started this thread) that there was problems with the attitude, effort, cohesion and everything else that some just call team spirit. In reading Coach Miles quote it appears he has come to the same conclusion, I assume long before I did. Whether the Huskers win tomorrow or not will not answer the question as to whether we have these problems sorted. I mentioned I had questions after game 3 & 4 but no one seemed to care because we won those games. Winning did not change the fact that this problems existed and I'm sure Coach Miles was aware of them at that time. The losses just brought these issues out into the bright light. These are issues that can stunt the growth of a season or completely decimate a team if things do break down into an us against them within the team. I don't think our coach will allow that to happen. We are now at the crossroads. We can go one way and even though I'm sure we will win some more games, be an underachieving team. Or we can use the experience and pull together to start to make strides to reaching our potential. That would be the two directions we have available at this crossroads. You know, that place where it is possible to start going in one of two different directions. One direction being underachieving and the other being potential reaching. Should I have maybe used the phrase "fork in the road." If this is what you meant, than your post was rather pointless as a young team like this can go any number of directions every single day. Calling us over-dramatic when you picked one arbitrary game to deem a "crossroads" is a bit absurd. That being said, I now better understand what you are trying to say. I still disagree. You can disagree, but it still doesn't sound like you understand what I said. It was not after one game. I realize my questions were across multiple threads and I'm sure that lead to many people's confusion. I expressed concern after game two and again after game three. We of course won those so the vast majority saw no problem. We were (hopefully no more are) scoring almost entirely off of individual initiative. As the articles since the team meeting after UAB said at that point they were all concerned about the lack of assists. Assists usually mean easy baskets and as the first two tournament games showed, we will not be able to create and finish those shots against better teams. We have to create multiple easy baskets to be able to compete in B1G. I don't claim to have supernatural insight because I was a basketball coach, but I have lived this particular senerio. This was more than a day were a team can go multiple directions. I was not talking about a program crossroads or that we needed to bring Miles coaching into question. But it was a crossroads for this season. These are the type of things that spread dissent and distrust through players and creates a situation that makes team-building impossible. Players form into camps or simply individuals and pulls a team apart. I would like to say I was above saying, "I told you so." But I'm not. After reading about Miles intentions going into the meeting and what happened starting with Smith and then all the players reactions it completely echos my original concern. They realized how serious the situation was and that it needed addressed immediately for the sake of the season. And I would like to think I was above feeling the need to respond to you, but it does seem that I have not progresses past that pettiness. So even if you think my thread was pointless, based on the reactions of Coach Miles and the rest of the team they completely agreed with me. There is little doubt in my mind that Miles had these concerns before the first game. It appears that the players are reaponding in a positive manner, but as I previously said we are not out of the woods yet. I look forward to seeing how they react as a team the next time they are under real pressure.