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And as long as we are adding random thoughts to this games' evaluation, Della Valle and Craft have now made my All-Irritating team for this year. Grant Gibbs is, of course, already the captain.

It's early in the rebuilding process. Certainly not taking longer than I expected. It's hard to fathom how anyone could have realistically expected it to happen faster. We finished last 2 out of 3 years in conference, after more than 10 years of futility. The new staff wasn't in place until April, so other than transfers, there wasn't anything out there to sign. And April is a late start in this day and age for the next class, most of whom sign in November. Unless we were going to go with a Huggins-type approach, it was going to be a long, slow climb to respectability. It's actually ahead of where I thought it would be, and I think next year we will see better results. Experience is important at this level and we didn't have any, through no fault of this staff. I'm shocked with the lack of patience expressed by many of our fans.

Is a stud. Need a couple more bigs like him and we'll be okay

For everyone assuming that this Shields-Pitchford-Petteway-Webster combo is THE group and whether they make the tournament is the end all to determining Miles' success need to remember that the goal of recruiting is to replace these guys with players who may be equal or even better to sustain the program. For example, I hope Hammond is the player we need to 'upgrade' Pitchford. But we have a long ways to go before we will know this. It is a process. We have a long ways to go before we even know if Webster will grow into the hype he came with or if Shields is even the player we thought he was after watching him on last years talentless team. We have a long ways to go to see how much Pitchford can improve and develop into the type of player we need him to be. We have a ways to go to see if Petteway continues down his current path. It is a nice group of young, imperfect, undeveloped talent with some potential. But for everyone anointing this group as THE group (to get us to the tournament or make Miles a failure if they don't) need to step back and realize its a process. This group may not all be together down the line. Someone could leave the program. Injury could happen. Or Miles could bring in players who are an instant upgrade over the current players. For me, there's just as much reason to believe that this could happen as anything else. He did assemble this group fairly quickly, an upgrade in talent, in short time. Enough of an upgrade in talent to make a lot of us have these expectations or beliefs that they should make the tournament. Time will tell. I'm still confident good things are on the horizon. Or maybe we just need to win Thursday to fire up the optimism and launch all of the "what would it take to make the NCAA tournament this year?" threads.

I ran across this web site while searching for a ref that does women's games. If this is not kohser to post then delete it. http://statsheet.com/mcb/referees

Holy Mackerel. UNO is higher now than we were all of last year? Can I be reading that right? That is astounding. Their coach, by the way, gets paid right at or slightly more than $100,000/year. And no car deal. And they've been D1 how long? That is very impressive to me. Good for them. A 2nd team in Nebraska that I can cheer for.

OFFENSE: D+ Nebraska scored just 53 points on 38% shooting from the field and only got to the foul line 12 times, missing five. It was nice to see Ray Gallegos get it going early with two connections from downtown and briefly, you had to think "this might be Nebraska's day," especially when they were up four points and had two chances to extend further with ZERO atmosphere from the OSU home front. However, Gallegos would soon disappear and so would NU's offense, mainly because of turnovers (which will discuss in "Ball Handling"). Nebraska finished with only seven assists and continues to play as a "one on one" team, as we discuss all of the time, from Terran Petteway to Deverell Biggs to Shavon Shields. Nearly all of their converted shots are off of individual drives - that's good in one regard, to have guys that can do that, but you ain't going anywhere in the Big 10 without team offense and well designed plays. The Huskers don't have either, sans small stretches, throughout the majority of the first 40% of this season. DEFENSE: D Not good at all. Fouling central, again, with NU sending OSU to the line 29 times. The Huskers, because of that foul trouble, played more zone than they would prefer, and that led to open jump shot after open jump shot. Shooters often weren't identified (see Della Valle, Amedeo). After the first 15 minutes of this game, it was almost guaranteed that OSU would either: A. Score each possession, either from the field or at the foul line. B. Miss a very makeable open shot or C. Create an unforced turnover on itself (though only seven for the game). Translation: the only chance NU had of stopping OSU was if they turned it over or missed an open shot or free throws. Nebraska forced very few legitimate stops in this game - probably less than ten. And the few times it played :30 seconds of good defense, OSU STILL scored (like that difficult shot from 9th year senior Aaron Craft in the second half with :03 on the shot clock). REBOUNDING: A- Nebraska lost the rebounding battle by only one (32 to 33) but dominated the offensive glass (10 to 5), though OSU obviously missed WAY LESS shots from the field. Our Player of the Game is a no brainer - Leslee Smith, who had a game high 10 rebounds (to go along with 11 points). No other Husker had more than four rebounds. BALL HANDLING: D A "D" might be harsh for only committing 13 turnovers on the road against a VERY GOOD "on the ball" defensive team. But the turnovers KILLED this game. Absolutely SLAUGHTERED IT. TWICE we couldn't get the ball in bounds? Yet we went to the locker room at 2:50 PM with three timeouts that we couldn't take home to Lincoln. A 5th year senior (Gallegos) almost got a third "5 second" call but instead, opted to heave the ball toward Aaron Craft on an out of bounds play, which of course turned into points at the other end. With about 2:00 left (maybe less) in the first half, NU was down 3. Due to turnovers, it became 10 by the half. Same thing in the second half - another couple 8-0 runs after key turnovers. Also, randomly, just thought I'd throw this in the report card (nowhere to really put it that fits). But how in the hell did Leslee Smith go from an "and one" on a drive in the latter stages of the first half to taking the ball out of bounds (which led to the above mentioned Gallegos turnover)? If he's not getting the shot to count, he doesn't at least get continuation and two free throws? How can your original call be THAT BAD? That was a three point swing (assuming Smith makes one of two and you take away the turnover and other two at the other end). You go in down 7 instead of 10. Just a random thought. COACHING: C Nebraska looked good in the first half. Prepared. Came out again with good energy. I'm not in love with the lack of timeouts taken today, nor how NU showed almost zero passion out of the locker room after halftime. They looked lethargic and brain dead, especially on defense. The second half was EXTREMELY disappointing - this has to fall at least a little on coaching. Only one timeout used to motivate the team in the second half or light a fire under their tails. No passion or great effort. No answers for OSU on defense. I think the Buckeyes scored on 8 of their first 9 possessions out of the half (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm okay with Miles taking out a couple key players in the final 1:30 of the first half to avoid three fouls. But was a bit curious having BOTH Nathan Hawkins and David Rivers on the court at the same time along with two other first year players. Game got away at that point. Not really criticizing this move; just pointing it out as potentially debatable. OVERALL GRADE: C- What looked to be a "B+" game had Nebraska battled in the second half and kept this within 13-15 points turned into a frustrating game that left you wondering what the hell happened in the second half. Still, turn the page and go win three of your next five, which I think is doable (Michigan, Purdue, Penn State). PLAYER OF THE GAME: LESLEE SMITH 2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 7 TAI WEBSTER - 2 WALTER PITCHFORD - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 2 SHAVON SHIELDS - 1 This post has been promoted to an article

No doubt that it's true, but I don't think I like Miles saying it out loud. He's essentially saying he's coaching well enough but the guys he already has recruited simply aren't good enough to compete with the B1G boys. Let's chalk that comment up to frustration. Fans might like a coach promising to recruit better, but players hear, "The guys I have aren't good enough to win. I'm getting new guys." Some players might take it as a challenge, others would take it as being thrown under the bus by the coach. I don't think Miles would want to take the chance on losing his team two games into the BIG season, so I don't think that comment was really well thought out.

Agreed, I wouldn't want to see what this team would be like without him! Great late pickup by the coaching staff!