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There once was a point guard named Webster. Whose freshman year was slighlty lackluster. He said never fear, I have three more years, To win every award they can muster.

Illinois Wednesday - first matchup One month ago they were 2-0 in B1G and #23 ranked All of a sudden you start losing and before you know it, you've lost 8 in a row They changed things up vs PSU, started 2 frosh, and looked more like #23 team We have a good game plan Coach Smith has a great scout ready Coach Hunter did a nice scout vs NW And Coach Harriman has guaranteed his scout will give us a win vs MSU, so that's good Rice? He's really good, he belongs in the B1G he's like Petteway, can go out and score 30 without blinking

Practiced today, how did it go? Solid practice Started slow but then got going We've tried to shorten practices Have to change the stimulus from time to time We have a running clock as to when practice will end, if they work hard up to the end of the clock, practice is over, if they don't work hard enough, practice is over, but we then spend time running after the clock is out We're at a point in time where we work on things we can sharpen up MSU-Wisky played Sunday, Izzo had two brilliant out of bounds plays So hard to get those plays when everybody knows you need a 3 and they got very good looks That doesn't happen by accident, you have to practice those things Sometimes have to practice fouling, when you have fouls to give, or you're trying to foul late when up 3 We're trying to address those types of issues Long breaks in schedule Glad they're over I hate them gaps in B1G schedule Like to just keep playing Can you address that with league We talk about it all the time at league meetings They say it's all set up randomly But it never happens to Ohio St Mark on the phone: Offensive type of question, guys like Pitchford & Webster, seems like they need to be more well-rounded players, can they get to that point? How urgent is that for next season? Excellent question I think there's no doubt Tai has had the biggest acclimation to American basketball He'll have a much better season next year You'll see great improvement Ball handling is fine creating for others is getting better, scoring needs work We have a lot of guys who need shots, and Tai can be the passer for us We talked about it, he agreed that his assist numbers can go up, we are working on making him into more of a playmaker, setting up others for shots, we'll worry about the scoring later Walt has been a perimeter guy his whole life, so it's hard to switch that I think what he needs to improve on is driving and playing off two feet, moreso than having a post up game Ubel did that well, drive, jump stop, flip ball up on the rim Walt has a nice face up jumper, but he doesn't get fouled because he doesn't drive into a post move Those are what we'd like to see him develop, then he can get fouled more We'd like to do those improvements in season, but it's very hard to do, those changes are more easily done in offseason Right now we're really working on making better decisions For example Terran sometimes makes mistakes when he jumps off one foot, we're working on making him jump stop and either shoot or make pass, more creative footwork with pivoting works better for him, we work on those types of things in practice Now they're seeing how those things we work on in practice actually pay off in rhythm shots and passes Ubel learned those things quickly, but wasn't a great 3 pt shooter Walt makes more 3s, but I think he'll improve in the drive in future

I would love it if Tai could get his 3 point stroke going, but this post is a pretty one-dimensional look at what a point guard does. it also ignores MIles' comments about Benny's contributions in the Northwestern game.

I've had the flu for the last couple of days and haven't been on a computer. What the hell? The lesson one can gleam from this is don't read HuskerMax when it comes to Nebraska basketball. Look what happens.

Benny had no turnovers I gave him a hard time, he made 2 shots vs Minny then 0 vs Ind I don't want to see that trend continue after making 2 shots at NW, keep making shots Doesn't turn ball over Very good in straight line to the rim in transition He has improved in a lot of areas Need to have him keep improving his outside shot Rivers played well? Big blocked shot - it was absolutely a block I asked him if it came off the glass first, i won't tell you what he told me Crowd question: How many assistant coaches? When you have more suits on the bench than players, you're in trouble Basically it's me and 3 assistants Only we 4 can do player development We can recruit too, for example I'll be out 3 times in the next 8 days for recruiting We are contacting guys daily We 4 handle the guys, handle the recruiting Then we have a director of operations, Olson, who oversees academics, scheduling games, scheduling facilities for practice, scheduling our travel logistics, a lot to do there, nothing that's fun We have a video coordinator, Eaton, he puts together clips of whatever we want to see, and he does it immediately, He shared some drills with Wyoming and they sent us some, he also works closely with Hudl so our guys can get a series of clips on their own playback device And then we have Owens, who handles all of our outreach, such as reading in a school or life skills things, fundraising, public appearances for me, Owens coordinates all of it, he'll make up a PowerPoint for me to use for speaking, and then he travels with me and runs it, Owens also handled our coaches vs cancer auction, "day with the Huskers", four different groups that he handles all day, he'll work with Husker Vision to make sure that all charity work/outreach is coordinated in the arena I am a bit of a control freak, so I want things done the right way, so I like having Owens available Shamus works hard for us in SID Husker Vision works hard for us Strength and conditioning coaches, trainers individualize workouts We try to be as state of the art as we can with that kind of stuff, did it at CSU, we do it better here at NU Andy from the phone: Social media, you have a good connection with players and bridging age gap, have you ever discussed some of your Twitter successes with Coach Pelini? I just act like I'm 16, I'm 47, that's how I say connected Never talked to Bo about Twitter I do know Bo is a heck of a football coach We live in the same neighborhood I asked Bo, I have no idea how to get in or out of our neighborhood He told me to go downhill, and it worked, i got to work on time No I just do my deal on Twitter, sometimes I'll work with Shamus on ideas, Owens will help me with some ideas, Kelly Moser (sp), director of Huskers.com does have some good ideas for us, I'm sure football team does some with them too Great Tweets with Bo walking onto the plane with the cat carrier I did a commercial at CSU trying to get a cat out of a tree & I tweeted that last week Superstition behind coat coming off? Certain time? Yeah I'm hot, I sweat, I'm the hardest working man in the baksetball business, the James Brown of basketball Immediately I just start sweating You come out on the court with a certain time on the clock before the game Yeah I try to leave the locker room at 3:27 each time First time I ever won a game as a coach I came out at 3:27, 7 is my lucky number and 32 was my uniform number, so I keep doing it Izzo gave me hell about waiting so long, wanted to know if I thought i was Coach Knight So Sunday I'm just hanging around him the whole pregame, maybe I'll pit out on him

Greg Sharpe asking questions: Big crowd here tonight after you get one road win? Just think how big it'll be after two? I haven't shaved, may let it roll till we lose Gutsy plays late to win last week You're asking about the NW game right? I was in Ann Arbor, but didn't leave hotel room, not sure what happened there Without Sobelewski, they flipped their identity Became strong defensive team with long athletic guys We had trouble getting to rim early, shots rattled in and out just 16 pts at half time We didn't let them get away from us & played well in 2nd half "Ps" played very well Petteway was great But Parker & Pitchford won that game for us Parker was great in creating transition, that makes us a different type of team Need more of that from him, more consistently With assists and steals figured in, I think he accounted for 9 pts in transition for us Built 8 pt 44-36 lead behind that We relaxed a bit and lost our edge Gallegos didn't go thru a screen hard Ran our offense looser and let them get back in it We need to learn to stay tough minded like we were to get the lead, and put the game away We're not quite there Team you have in Nov isn't same team you have in Feb? NW is great example of that Coach Collins wanted to run like Duke and pressure like Duke I've always said losing is my mentor, and after NW started losing, didn't take Collins long to figure out how to come up with a way to win After they tie it, talk about plays you made down the stretch Starting 2nd half we were more aggressive to the rim Shields made a couple shots, Walt made a couple shots We were just better offensively Didn't want to burn a timeout when they made 8-0 run because we only had 2 left, wanted to save them, really feel like you need to have at least 2 timeouts late Under 4 min timeout, Pitchford gets fouled on defensive reb He makes them both We force a miss, then Pitchford hits a 3 and we felt like we had breathing room up 5 pts With 23 seconds left we're up 3 and Petteway who shoots 47%? in the last 5 sec of the shot clock, and Pitchford shoots 45% the last 5 sec of the shot clock ..... (sorry I missed the number for Petteway, may have been 37%) So others will be letting them do their thing Saving possessions with timeouts? ...... (I think he's referring to one Tai took in the 2nd half when he fell down in the lane) At the time we were making a run, so I didn't mind that timeout to save the possession I think we ended up scoring out of it Between both teams and media timeouts, there could be 20+ timeouts in game There's only so much talking you can do But I do like to save a couple, so I'll tell the guys not to always burn one to save a possession, look to throw it off someone's leg or make a pivot move I like the 2 for 1s at the end of the half, the math proves 2 bad shots are better than 1 good shot, the more attempts you get, the better off you are We were playing the Div 2 Elite 8 at SW Minn St, playing Ky Wesleyan defending national runner-up Good game, we're down 3 or 5 our ball to end half Assistant wanted me to use a timeout to run a particular play We draw up the play Ky Wes threw out a 1-3-1 half court trap out of the timeout, something we had never seen them do, they had tinkered with it before the Elite 8 We go out there and inbound it, throw it away, and they dunk it and we're down 7 at halftime I look at my assistant and ask him if he thinks we're Duke After half we go on 9-0 run, then they switched back to 1-3-1 zone and we couldn't score I was mad at my assistant If we don't call that timeout, they never go 1-3-1 and we maybe win that game and win national championship as Ky Wes won it So if I don't call timeouts before halftime, that's why, still have nightmares NBA likes 2 for 1s more? We only get 2 stoppages in play vs 4 in NBA There's no doubt, if it's around 1:05 left, we'll try something quick to get a 2 for 1

Icedraggon, can't believe I'm getting draged into this, but here goes ... 1. The dismal of Correy Hilliard. Where do you get the information that he wasn't involved? In the cell phone. And what makes you think that was the ony think he did wrong He had two thinks he did wrong and got in trouble with polise but you just heared one. So Miles had no choise in the mater. Correy had too go. If Miles just wanted to cleer space on his rooster, why din't he just get rid of David Rivers to? 2. Scheduling the Charleston Classic. I agree this was bade because playing good teams a the Charleston classic helped our rpi and make us look better now since we didn't win all the games. but beat Georgia and lossed to Massachuets. So really that helped are rpi now but that only helps if we make the dance or the INT. So if we win few more games then that was good that we went at Charletson because it helps our SOS but if we don't win few more games then we don't have to make NCAAs and then that's bad. So that's bad because we could have won better against badder teams and give us a good record that has bad SOS all over it. So maybe it was good going to charletson. 3. Not excepting trounemant offer. Well, you half to remember it was not the same team last year that it is this year. If we had went to trounement like CIB lsat year its Ubel playing and we play 7 guys and the only guys coming back from that group were benny Parker and Rivers and Ray and the tall guy who doesn't play to much. And shavon. Shields. So it probably doesn't help to much that we play in a trouenemtn last yaer If we could have played last year with Petway and Pitchford and Tai and al the knew guys, then playing in CIB would have been gooder than not but since we didn't have them I guess not. 4. Deverell Biggs. You want to reserve judgment? REally? Why? You already said it was wrong to dismiss Hillyerd but not Biggs? Hillyard didn't do anything for us He just played few minutes frehman year. but Biggs scored points and so he ment something on this team. If Miles didn't have reason to dimiss Hilyerd (2 criminal complaints) then why could he dismiss Biggs who only had one that he was given more hcnance after that. Makes no since. I think miles shuld have dimissed both Hillyard and Biggs because he was right to do it. And thay did wrong stuff to so they should go.

Agreed. If we can't find/land Nebraska kids, landing kids of Nebraska kids, especially talented ones, should be at the top of our list.

I'd also like to repeat this... Man, I miss Walker at times.

Im sure Red Raider and Gator fans said the same about Petteway and Pitchford after their freshman seasons.

This thread has entered full blown dumpster fire.

Be loud. Be proud. ....oh, and something about "Beat Texas."

In the 61 posts you made here you've made the point repeatedly that for whatever reason you think college basketball tournaments work like levels of Mike Tyson's Punch Out. If this is a continuation to a locked thread, to there it shall go.

Nothing you post makes much sense.

Good times...

That's it - Coach has so many stories that they have a hard time fitting in all of the commercial breaks.

Another classic case where perception trumps reality. In reality, other than the dip in FG%, Shavon's Per 40 numbers are better across the board. Also, in our last six games, Shavon is shooting a very serviceable 44%. Again, perception trumps reality. You have to remember, Shavon is really a wing learning how to be a big on the fly (In the Big Ten no less). Despite this, we are one of the best in the conference in defensive rebounding %. But of course Shavon finding bodies so that we can secure defensive rebounds doesn't show up in the box score. In other words, sending Shavon to the bench and reducing his minutes is not a good idea.

Spencer to Walker oop on repeat set to any music whatsoever. Yakety Sax would even work. We gonna try the husker power during intros?

Well, we might have been "lucky" beating Ohio State, Minnesota and Indiana at home OR we might have been "unlucky" losing to Penn State and Purdue on the road. I still say we're either good enough or we're not and if we are, we'll hold the home court the rest of the way. If we don't win out at home, we're not worthy or deserving of NCAA consideration. A team that is good enough will close out against what we have left on our home schedule. The best team left on our home schedule is currently tied for 4th in the league. All the rest of our home games are against teams in the bottom half of the league, including the last three teams in the current standings. The table just about couldn't be set any better for us to finish out the season. We've already played the toughest teams at home that we're going to play and we came through that with only a 1 point loss to Michigan, which is currently tied with MSU at the top of the league standings. Of our 3 remaining road games, 2 of them are against bottom half teams. To me, it's not about narrow odds or thin margins. The table is set and this team controls its destiny. No excuses. We're either good enough to dance or we're not. Period.

... for the remainder of his eligibility? He's turned into a pretty good role player for us. I'm happy for him.

We call that day "Thursday" at the HHC

They all bawled like babies in the locker room after the game, let's recall we were up by 30 at one point. Even at our lowest moments ( Michigan last week?) we always take our ass whuppins' like a man.

If you're looking to step up your Thai on Wednesday night, well, I've got a place for you...

Any reference to the Illini crying like little school girls makes me smile...

I was going to wait for the "Scouting Illinois" thread to post the KenPom rundown, but I'm not sure this thread isn't the scouting thread. So here goes... Illinois (#80) KenPom rundown 2-11-14. ======================================= Non-Conference (11-2): 275. Alabama State - W (80-63) 294. Jacksonville State - W (86-62) 149. Valparaiso - W (64-52) 197. Bradley - W (81-55) 285. Chicago State - W (77-53) 89. @UNLV - W (61-59) 172. IPFW - W (57-55) ---B1G/ACC Challenge--- 129. @Georgia Tech - L (64-67) 126. (n)Auburn - W (81-62) 244. Dartmouth - W (72-65) 32. (n)Oregon - L (64-71) ---Bud Light Braggin' Rights--- 46. (n)Missouri - W (65-64) 286. (n)UIC - W (74-60) B1G (3-8): 58. Indiana - W (83-80 OT) 94. Penn State - W (75-55) 17. @Wisconsin - L (70-95) 117. @Northwestern - L (43-49) 101. Purdue - L (58-66) 12. Michigan State - L (62-78) 14. @Ohio State - L (55-62) 58. @Indiana - L (46-56) 6. Iowa - L (74-81) 17. Wisconsin - L (63-75) 94. @Penn State - W (60-55) 77. @Nebraska

I sure hope this game sells out. There are still tickets available on huskers.com. I know it's a late game on a week night, but this team deserves an arena packed to the gills (something that has only happened 1-2 times this year). My wife is 39.5 weeks pregnant, or else I would be there! Go Big Red!

Gettin bucketsWow same time stamp lol must've beat me by seconds.

Tai gets buckets?

Great job, Throwback. I remember a couple of quick quips from Miles that should be added. One was when they asked him about Rivers' block. Greg Sharpe says Collins was really upset about the call and immediately Miles jumps in and says, "He'll get over it! He'll learn sometimes bad things happen to good people." It probably loses something being typewritten but Miles' timing jumping in there with that retort was hilarious. Had me rolling on the floor.

Once again, Tim Miles leads the way in identifying and pursuing and offering a talented player. It seems that, once Tim Miles shows interest in a player, others jump on board. Here is a recruiting strategy for a competing coach: wait for Tim Miles to identify a talent and then go after him. Or, if I'm a player and Coach Miles comes calling, I'd say, "Hallelujah!," and then sit back and await the interest from other coaches to come rolling in. Or, Coach Miles might consider showing interest in a less-than-talented player for the sole purpose of throwing other recruiters onto a dead-end recruiting trail.

This started like a limerick, so I read it like that the rest of the way. Maybe we could do a limerick challenge on this thread

There once was a point guard named Jack Moore who had a dismal freshman season. It's probably unrealistic to expect the same kind of progress from year 1 to year 2 that Jack made in the late 70s. But from the sound of Coach Miles tonight, he expects we will see a lot of improvement next year. And why not? I'm sure he had a lot of transition to digest moving from NZ ball.

Yes he's being recruited as a slot receiver

I love this coach his show is the best we have had ever. Could listen to miles all night

If interested here's a very informative site that keeps you abreast with all the happenings around the Big Ten reguarding baseball. From team revenue reports to news to player features etc. you name it, it has it covered. I read it all the time. http://b1gbaseball.com/

He has 5 teams from the SEC in the tournament. I have trouble believing that the 7th best RPI conference gets that many teams in the tournament.

Hello, Doc Sadler! It's nice to see you have found some time to visit us here on Husker Hoops Central. Sounds like your Iowa State Cyclones are having a really nice season this year. Good for you guys! I bet it's lots of fun! Here's hoping you have continued success. Don't forget to root for Kansas State tonight...if Kansas loses a few more games, you guys are right back in it for the conference title! How exciting!!!

Good question. Ersty gave a statistic at the banquet--I didn't catch it all but he said since we joined the league it has gone from 16th to 10th to 6th or something like that in terms of conference power ratings. Said several schools are building or putting in major facility renovations. Implied they are doing it to keep up or catch up with us. He likes the competition. So it should follow that the Big can be more than a one bid league. I haven't yet looked at the lineups for other schools to get a feel for 2014, but i do think we'll get in this year.

Icedragon101>Tim Miles at RPI manipulation strategy

Late game time, so there will be plenty of time to fire up a little booze pregame. I'm starting in a couple of hours.

I'm a little sad to see the rhymes go, After all, the huskers put on a solid show. I kid. Great win on the road. Glad to see Walt put up some offensive numbers. I think he's capable of doing this more often, so hopefully this is the start of a good run for him and the skers.

OFFENSE: B As have so many, this offensive report card is "the tale of two halves" as in the first half, NU scored a pitiful 16 points on 25% shooting and in the second, 37 points on 57% shooting. For the day, that was JUST good enough, with Nebraska scoring 53 points on 40% from the field. Really, the saving grace in this game can easily be traced to four things: 1. The play of Walter Pitchford, who is our "Player of the Game" thanks to 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5-8 from the field (3-4 from downtown). "Pitch" also hit two GIANT free throws out of the under 4:00 timeout with NU tied and in a dog fight after an 8-0 Northwestern run. 2. The play of Benny Parker, who is "runner up" in "Player of the Game" thanks to 5 points, 1 assist, 0 turnovers and 2 GIANT steals in 16 minutes. 3. Continued back breaking shots from Terran Petteway, who was just 5-16 from the field but with some big time shots (most notably the three in the last minute). The Galveston, TX. native finished with his normal 17. And: 4. Overall, NU shot JUST WELL ENOUGH from downtown, especially in the second half (7-20 for the game, but 5-9 in the second). I didn't think Nebraska had a bad game plan in the first half, although I liked seeing them isolate and use Alex Olah against Northwestern more in the second. The screen and rolls and curls all worked magnificently and so did isolating Petteway and Pitchford off of them. Love the 1-2 game. DEFENSE: A Nebraska has REALLY SURPRISED ME the last several games (sans Michigan) with its defense. I wrote just a few games ago that they were "not a good defensive team" and "one of the worst NU defensive teams we've seen over the last decade." Well, ever since then, they have been (outside of MU) damn good on the defensive end, and today was no different. First of all, the key to this game was holding Trey Demps to just 5 points on 2-6 shooting. I have watched Northwestern five or six times this year and he normally KILLS people down the stretch. NU's "assault" defense completely took him out of the game and held Drew Crawford (13 points) in check. I'm not worried about JerShon Cobb scoring 14. Benny Parker with two BIG TIME steals. Ray Gallegos with a BIG TIME charge after a turnover in the first half. David Rivers with a BIG TIME blocked shot. These are the defensive plays that stick out and helped save the game. The zone was even very effective the last four minutes of the first half with Nathan Hawkins at the to. One thing I'm noticing - I'm mentioning almost every single player as a contributor in this one. It truly was a TEAM win. REBOUNDING: B Rebounding was dead even - 31 apiece. NU held a 5-4 edge on the offensive glass, which is what we expected. Two costly missed rebound were when Shavon Shields had an easy one and just dropped it. This led to points. Petteway had the same thing happen in the first half. Petteway was again "nails" with 8 boards. This was a good game when he was third in line for "POTG" (behind Pitchford and Parker). BALL HANDLING: C Turnovers really hurt Nebraska in that dreadful first half. While the Huskers finished with a "solid" 12 for the game, 4 were in the first four minutes of the game and 9 in the first half. Petteway continues to turn the ball over at an alarming pace, as he finished with 5. Same thing with Tai Webster, who was virtually the only non-effective Husker today (1 assist, 3 turnovers and 0 points in 19 minutes). Nebraska must find a way to get Webster involved more - he DID have a nice drive today but couldn't finish strong around the rim. It would be nice to see his three point shot come back too, but we're in Ball Handling right now. Overall, he has been ineffective in recent games and turning it over way too much. Thank goodness for Benny Parker and the ability of Petteway to play the point, which was also key down the stretch. COACHING: A- I love to mention when Miles doesn't use his timeouts, so he had two left today and only used one "real" time out since the other two came to save possessions. Awful use of timeouts by Coach (I kid, I kid). To be serious, I saw virtually nothing to be upset about in this game. I think this is one of the top five games Coach Miles has overseen here at Nebraska from a tactical standpoint because: 1. He substituted to perfection. Three Huskers had 2 fouls at the half; Petteway had 4 at the 7 minute mark; and none fouled out. 2. He made BIG TIME second half adjustments with the screen and roll, and using Olah against Northwestern. 3. He went to zone at the right time and otherwise, ran his defense to perfection. 4. He went with the right combo at point down the stretch (Parker and Petteway). 5. Some nice set plays drawn up, though most didn't work (such as the lob attempt to Petteway the first play out of the half). It was there, though. Only two negatives were not changing things up offensively a bit sooner, but that's kind of being ticky tack. Also, what the hell was that awful defense at the end of the half? You come out of a timeout, 3.9 seconds left, and you allow Crawford to catch the ball 80 feet from the basket but dribble within 35 feet and get a mostly uncontested three? That was pitiful and it was lucky that didn't go down or it could have changed the whole game. OVERALL GRADE: A- Nebraska won against a "white hot" team on the road and did it by being TOUGH. This is what we've been harping on Miles and company all season for away from the PBA - they aren't TOUGH. They don't create their own MOMENTUM. They don't play DEFENSE hard. All of that changed today - Nebraska played under control, made adjustments when necessary, played smart and won the game down the stretch. Now, the schedule sets up BEAUTIFULLY for an NIT appearance and an outside chance at an NCAA Tournament run BUT. BUT. BUT. Wednesday night is first. That has "trap game" written all over it. This is the game Nebraska ALWAYS loses the last 15 years. ALWAYS. Mid to late in the conference year, off of a big win, with a perceived "easier" game next and a chance to start going places. And ka-bam. We lose. WE MUST STAY FOCUSED and NOT count on this as a win until we show up and play a complete 40 minutes. STAY FOCUSED. PLAY HARD. And good things will continue to happen. PLAYER OF THE GAME: WALTER PITCHFORD 2013-2014 PLAYER OF THE GAME RESULTS: TERRAN PETTEWAY - 11 SHAVON SHIELDS - 3 WALTER PITCHFORD - 3 TAI WEBSTER - 2 LESLEE SMITH - 2 DEVERELL BIGGS - 1 This post has been promoted to an article

I've been thinking the students need to bring the "Power Of Red" sign to PBA: Might look pretty cool pre game.

Melt-your-face, bleeding ears crazy. Most probably. Oh wait, they still don't serve booze. Someone should make a mash up of NU making Myles Leonard cry and techno music in order to pump up the fan base.

Noblesse oblige?

They have First Aid guys at the games, just saying...Also you would have a good excuse to leave at the under 5 time out. Name the baby after the player of the game. I you're lucky, vooch will have the game of his life

The University of Missouri football fans are saying the same thing.....