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As poorly as everyone has been shooting at the Pinnacle lately, I wonder if the refs are going to start checking for underinflation of the game balls now.

And, to think, a lot of people had a whole lot of consternation that Trey Dickerson went with Iowa. Well, Iowa just got hammered at Wisconsin 82-50. Trey was their "player of the game" when he played 10 minutes w/ 8 pts, 1 assist & 1 steal. Nebraska is getting 20-30 minutes a night from Tarin Smith & NU has him for 3 more years! I think NU got the real gem & Iowa got a Trey-maker.

Officiating, and the attitude of the officials, was disgraceful. They thought we all paid our $21 to watch them. That said, we need to improve our attitudes. All of our reacting, emoting, body language, arm flailing, has pissed off the ones in charge. They were waiting for us, and not going to put up with it. As bad as they were, we need to just play. Let the coaches work them. We now have a rep.

1-0

That article is asinine. Hollins needs to grow a brain. Loose rims help shots go in numnuts.

Boom!

This was a street fight tonight. We played great defense, especially in the second half. But we were terrible handling the press in the first half...again. Enter TSmith, and the turnovers stopped. Free throw shooting...yikes. Rebounding...pretty darn good. Assists...better. Overall offense...very challenged. - Walt was a stud on defense and rebounded well. I wish he would look for his shot just a tad more. The T...I am not going to say anything. - TP is simply not having fun on the court...he looks stressed all the time. Dude, relax, enjoy your talent. - Shavon really struggled at times, then looked good, then struggled, then looked good...you get what I am saying right? - Benny...you have a left hand, ya gotta start using it. But you saved the day with your free throws. Thanks for hanging tough. - David struggled again tonight (after hitting the first shot of the game). We need you David... - I think Leslee had four points and two rebounds in about six minutes...when he gets into better shape he should help down the stretch. - Moses...was a no show tonight. Nothing more, nothing less. - TSmith...love ya man. Way to handle the pressure. Need you to hit your FT's, but a very good game. - Tai...way to come back from the abyss tonight. He flat out acted like stink in Hollins armpits in the second half. He looked like he got his confidence back...wonderful to see. We are kind of getting our rotation set for the run guys...this may get fun again

I have no problem with any Minnesota fans bitching about the refs tonight either. It definitely went both ways.

A positive for me tonight was Tai having some quality minutes.

Holy bricks! There's so much to say about this game... - I'll start here: There's a huge, huge, huge officiating problem in college basketball. This was as bad as I've seen and I've seen some doozies. - That T on Shavon was as absurd as I think I've ever seen. First off, it was a bad call on the initial foul, then when Shavon and Petteway reacted in frustration (and Shavon's not completely without fault, he let all the words fly, but he didn't direct them at the ref and by the time he turned around he appeared to be done), he stood, put his whistle back in his mouth and waited for Shavon to walk in his direction before he called the T. That's awful. Tom Eades, that's Karl Hess levels of ego. And then he apparently threw a "Boom" in there when he called it. I mean, how is that tolerated? I didn't see the on on Pitchford, but given how terrible the rest of the game was, I'm gonna assume it was sketchy, sketch. - Tai's time on the bench seems to have gotten his attention, he looked as good as he's looked in a long time. The points will come. I still believe he's going to be an important player in this program. - It's probably time to start Tarin Smith. Not a slight to Benny, but Smith's the best PG right now and I think Benny can be the spark off the bench again. I don't know if it happens for Saturday, but I think it happens sooner rather than later. - The team looks better when Leslee Smith. I hope he can carry more of the load as the season continues. He can actually do things occasionally offensively when he gets right. - Walter's a rabble rouser. - I thought Shields was too laid back in the first half. Would have liked to see him be more aggressive early. - Gotta get back to being a good free throw shooting team. - I was surprised how little of a post game Minnesota also has. - Congrats to Terran for getting 1,000 career points. That's all for now. Big, big, big game on Saturday. This post has been promoted to an article

-Amazing how an officiating crew can ref two totally different halfs like tonight. Brutal to watch the second half especially after what I thought was a fairly competent first half and a really well reffed Wisconsin game. Anybody catch Miles and Pitino sharing a laugh after a string of tough fouls in the second half. Eades turned and told them to stop. -That was the hardest I've seen Tai play in his time here. He broke down the zone with the dribble very effectively twice and avoided the ball handling turnovers that have plagued him. -Time for Tarin to start, time for Shavon to not be involved in bringing the ball up against the press. -I bet Shavon shoots 55% from 16 ft. So crazy that he's hovering around 21% from 3. -Think Moses's minutes we limited by matchups, not quality of play.

Okay, here we go with todays KenPom rundown. So, we get a win over a top-50-ish Minnesota team and yet drop to 91. SMDH. At least we leap frogged Michigan into 10th in the league. A couple of things jump out to me in today's rankings, namely the UIW loss continues to be the boat anchor on our ranking, and likely will remain that way barring some more W's against the top 30 teams we have remaining. Fortunately we have a few more of those opportunities coming. But as much of an anchor as UIW is, it's amazing to see how impressive the Cincinnati win continues to be for us. They're now up to 31st, even more impressive to me simply due to the fact that they lost their Cronin for the year. I gotta say I'm a BIG Bearcat fan this year! Here are today's rankings. KenPom rankings as of 1-21-15. =========================== B1G (3-3): 4. Wisconsin - L 16. Maryland 22. Ohio State 23. Michigan State 44. Iowa - L 53. Minnesota - W 54. Indiana - L 71. Purdue 73. Illinois - W 91. Nebraska 95. Michigan 122. Penn State 133. Northwestern 149. Rutgers - W Non-Conference (8-4): 242. Northern Kentucky - W 349. Central Arkansas - W 68. @Rhode Island - L 273. Omaha - W 193. Tennessee-Martin - W ---B1G/ACC Challenge--- 141. @Florida State - W 110. Creighton - L 179. Incarnate Word - L 31. Cincinnati - W ---Diamond Head Classic--- 159. @Hawaii - L 263. LMU - W 221. Ohio - W

I really like the ball being brought up by Tarin. He's a natural, an above average ball handler, and had an excellent high school coach. A fresh Benny is a change of pace and a nightmare for a tired opposing team. I'm guessing they switch roles for Saturday. I was happy for Tai. I think Molinari is really working on him defensively. I think he has a lot more natural talent to be a defensive specialist than a scorer. He played well, and was much more composed/balanced on defense. He was keeping everything in front of him for the most part. It's hard to find a lot of individual bright spots in a game that was so poor offensively. That said, the defense was, once again, a thing of beauty and continues to give us chances to win. I hope in the future that Shavon starts aggressively looking for that elbow jumper against zone. He should be a zone buster every time from that spot. I love Terran, but I'm really sick of the "dagger" three he takes (and usually misses) every time we have a tiny bit of momentum. I like the aggressiveness, but I'd much rather see him take it to the rack when we have 4-point-lead adrenaline.

Huge the last couple of minutes. Really struggled prior to that. Was a big liability on offense, and frankly his defense struggled also. But he deserves credit for pulling out of it and coming up big when we needed him.

Not sure if it was mentioned anywhere but the halftime show the "Olate Dogs" was pretty good...one of the best of the year.

There were only 5 or 6 fouls in the 2nd half before the t on walt, then it seemed that the refs decided to "take control" of the game by blowing their whistle on nearly every possession. It made an ugly game even uglier.

Loved that the refs got the crowd into the game. Without their technical assistance (which only cost one point per technical--thanks to Minni's ineptitude there), the crowd might have been much less intimidating. So, a big thanks to the refs for providing a huge assist to the Huskers (normally, refs do that with close calls in favor of the home team) but the opposite got the crowd going tonight--big time!! Edit: just now saw the "Boom" video above--wow.

Minnesota finished 8 of 20 from deep. They were 8 of 32 from inside the arc. Nebraska was 4 of 19 from deep, but 13 of 23 from inside. And, yes, there were 31 turnovers (16 for Minnesota) and 43 fouls (22 on Minny). Oh, and Wisconsin 82, Iowa 50.

I'm gonna have to T you up for asking those questions. Come to think of it, probably 2 techs since you asked 2 questions. Sorry, not sorry, but you're going to have to observe the remaining posts from the locker room.

In game thread post game thoughts- I liked that move by tai I switched to the SOTU ADDRESS I was roped in by a fun, self made drinking game GOT TOOO DRUNK to understand how important the last posession of the game was We won. Sadly, I think I can draw some parallels between the state of our great union and the state of our much loved program. Obama award- The bench players for constantly giving us the hope and support to believe in our dreams. Misguided or not. Boehner award- The Pitinos for frowning all night, possibly using unnatural means to look younger Biden award- Tai Webster. I'll never know what to think, but it's hard to hate. Democratic attendance award- OKAY probably not true, but the crowd. You stood when it wasn't easy. Republican attendance award- SIT YOUR ASS DOWN MINNESOTA. NOTHING TO CHEER FOR. Unsung hero award- Nebrasketball. We all carry our crosses. (I hope that didn't seem too political. I prefer to take the IDGAF approach)

We have to be the worst offensive team in the Power 5 conference. Imagine if we played ourselves on defense. I don't know if we would score.

Bugs, I think you should also give a little synopsis on the season so far, a prediction of tonight's game, thoughts on the new wide receivers coach, and why the president's plan to increase taxes on the wealthy is a non-starter in the Congress. BTW, the boss gave me tonight off so I think we can get this thread to double digits quite easily!

We're in danger of moving below 30% for the year and possibly becoming one of the worst 3pt shooting teams in Husker History. We shot 27.4% in the 2002-03 season as Andrew Drevo made the most treys that year. Brutal numbers. The one I can't figure out is Shields - his mid-range shot is so far above average, but he goes 3-5 feet farther out and this season he's been so far below average. Very strange. Have to think it's a mental thing now, as he was better behind the arc last season. When he takes a 3, it's a good look most of the time - he rarely forces it anytime, but especially from 3. If NU can get Shields going a bit from back there & Petteway can get over his FT mind block, they'd both probably bump up their scoring average by 3-5 pts per game. With the way NU is playing defense another 7-8 pts per game would be huge for this team.

To wash the memory of this root canal from my mind I will substitute a loser avatar with a winner as Super Bowl approaches. Not sure whether the loser might make an encore when we go to Minnesota.

Perfect description He's not shy about mixing it up a bit after the whistle, and I'm sure that has made the rounds among B1G officials, so they watch for it. Regardless of whether he deserved the T or not, it was a big moment in the game, as it really got the crowd going and allowed NU to push the lead out a bit. Had to listen to most of it on the radio - which, by the way, is a lot of fun every once in a while because Kent & Matt are great - and I thought they said Shavon earned his T with the "magic" word within earshot of the scorer's table/at least one official. For what it's worth. Ugh. So many 3s. This team cannot live on the 3-pt line. On the post game, Coach MIles took the bullet on the first half offense taking so many 3s, felt like he didn't call enough plays/actions. I'm guessing we'll spend most of our Sparty prep time working against zone, getting the ball inside. We're so much better - as are most teams - when shooting 3s off a pass from inside the lane. Inside-outside is key for this team's offensive flow. Amazing defensive effort carries the day again. Our ultimate success this season probably is going to end up depending on whether we can duplicate that defensive effort - without fouling - when we go on the road. It's pretty obvious teams are going to have a tough time scoring at PBA, but can we do that same thing on the road?

Tom Eades sucks as a human being.

The length of the or existance of a shot clock has no effect whatsoever on the fundamental ability of the players on the court.

Those numbers sound about right. Minnesota is a good 3pt shooting team and have an inflated 2pt percentage from their steals. Their half court offense is pretty awful and their big men aren't very skilled. Honestly Elliason looked the best/agressive in there and it was surprising he didn't see more playing time.

You are just a flat out stud. I have heard you are a top five in more than just your basketball picks Those days are way over. Now, it's just HHC

My almost pass out was from yelling "foul him" in the corner at the end, so they didn't rotate the ball and get a wide open 3. We didn't, and they did. Lucky miss for us.

Umm, tonight!

The pacers have a top 10 pick and pick # 40 overall in the second round. I'm guessing they would be looking at petteway as a second rounder? I'd guess so, although Draft Express currently lists him at #81 on their top 100 prospects list. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't come out this year. http://www.draftexpress.com/rankings/Top-100-Prospects

We have to be the worst offensive team in the Power 5 conference. Imagine if we played ourselves on defense. I don't know if we would score. Depends on the refs that would call the game. If these clowns did it, they would score. We might not have any players left after they called "boom" technical fouls on everybody for talking to the floor.

Tim Miles- "You need more gel in your hair, lil richard lol" Tim Miles- "Maybe Minnesota would have won if their mascot wasn't a punk version of a bunny lol" Tim Miles- "We executed..GOPHERS. WE EXECUTED GOPHERS."

I saw this game on BTN last week. I didn't think it was important tonight. OKAY all honesty. I was taking shots every time Boehner frowned during the State of the Union Adress. I'm beyond gone...s

Whew!!!! That was too close for comfort!! Good strategy of letting them run out the clock.

This game turned when Pitchford got the technical. Ever since then every trip down the court has been a foul. Seriously, Jackson what is a foul, now? Minnesota body checks Smith on the way to the hoop, no call. Tarin Smith grazes a shooters arm (I'm still not sure he touched him), and a foul. Leslie goes around a player who falls down, and he gets called for a foul.

Bad basketball, but the refs have ruined any flow to the game.

Why do we always get this crew? They suck green donkey dicks.

But he may have trained them ?

Tarin is one of the best last minute pick ups that we could have asked for last year.

Get the Huskers to drive the ball as well

20-18 Huskers. Time for a 12-2 Husker run.

kent's seeing a lot of daggers.

Holy Crap! A lot of Rutgers fans are leaving early from the Michigan game. They must want to avoid the heavy gunfire...

As long as he is as tall or taller than Charles Barkley I'm fine with it Norm! I'm also of the understanding he has something like a 7'0" wingspan plus a pretty decent vertical leap. Most importantly, he has a rebounder's mentality. He'll be going after the boards with some want-to.

While I'm not ready for this season to get over with...after reading this article about Andrew White, I'm really excited about next year already! NU men: White making strides, impressing on NU scout team