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1. I don't want anyone telling people on here that we shouldn't complain about the officials or that only losers complain about the officials or that the officials didn't cause us to lose the game or any of that other garbage. What's so special about officials that we, on a message board, shouldn't complain about them? We complain about the players, the coaches, the student section, the concessions, and people from the lower bowl streaming to the exits with 5 minutes to go. Heck, we even complain about the announcers calling the game. Are the officials above reproach? Do they never make mistakes? Do they never have bad games? Must we eat whatever little crap sandwich they decide to make for us and act like we're enjoying it? "Thank you sir, may I have another?" Anyone who says don't complain about the officials better not ever complain about how well some college kid, out there busting his butt to try to win, is playing. Anyone who says don't complain about the officials better never make comments about Terran Petteway's body language or Benny Parker's stature or Tai Webster's shooting percentage or Moses Abraham's stone hands or Walt Pitchford's lack of rebounding. Fair warning: Next time someone tries to tell me not to criticize officials, gloves are off and I'm coming back after you for the hypocrisy of criticizing people because they criticized other people. 2. What's wrong with applauding effort in a game we lose? Saw some of that yesterday. No moral victories. And I get that, but on the other hand, would you rather they rolled over? It is a legitimate point to say that the team upped their game and fought back in the face of long odds last night. That's praiseworthy. And I don't think there's anything wrong with pointing it out. Sure, we still lost. And, yes, we dug too deep of a hole to begin with and it would have been better had we not left ourselves with so high of a hill to climb. But would you have preferred the team just phone it in for the second half? If you want to drown yourself in misery following a loss and have no capacity to look for any bright side, then suffer by yourself. We all complain about the stuff that went wrong and no one says you can't do that. We do it all the time (except for the refs, who enjoy a special "kid gloves" status, according to some around here.) But don't bash people who found a legitimate positive in all the negative last night. They didn't phone it in for the second half. They fought back hard. They got within striking distance enough to make Wisconsin sweat it out a bit. And that showed some character. For all you people bitching about Terran Petteway's body language, I sure hope you gave the kid props for fighting all the way to the bitter freaking end. Peace, out.

I was extremely proud of the Huskers last night. Instead of quiting, they fought like heck in the second half. I echo Norm's comment and add a bit of additional flavor to it. I want to commend Tai Webster. That kid did not bury his head in the sand when he was benched. He did quite the opposite. He looked within and decided he wasn't meeting HIS OWN expectations, and then went out and did something about it. His play on defense is outstanding...did he get beat once or twice, sure, that happens when you are playing aggressive defense. His offensive play, has improved as well. Does he have a ways to go, sure...but you can see the improvement. Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. And oh yeah, Walt may have been offensively challeged again last night, but he played tough a** defense on an all-american player last night.

Silverback: Quit being a crybaby about the way this thread is going.

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I slept like a baby knowing our 20 pt. "Non-Blowout" streak is still intact.

There. I said it. Que both the group that agrees with me and also the sour grapes group. They flat out sucked tonight. Whether they are the reason we lost or not and independent from the thought that there were things we could control to give us a better opportunity--they still sucked.

I think most if not all of us know it wasn't the refs who lost this game. We are just, or at least I am, saying that this game wasn't called that well over all. And that many of us feel that there are certain referees that aren't very good yet get to continue to work and for some reason can't be called out for their poor effort during games.

He got lost a couple of times but I thought it was one of his stronger nights defending in the paint. He was part of Kaminsky only making 4 buckets and Nigel Hayes making none. Obviously the offense wasn't there.

I agree that I have seen alot worse officiated games - even just this year. The only thing I really thought they missed was the no call on Benny at the end - but Benny also does alot of stuff defensively that doesn't get called. On the Kaminsky play I had a good angle and expected a foul call when the whistle blew and was really surprised when Valentine called a travel - so I could not get too upset when the guy came in to overrule that one. Terran always pushes off with his left hand on those drives and most of the year refs have let him get away with it. He got called for that a couple times last night which was different - but they also made the same call on Koenig to take away a 3. Terran could have gotten teed up pretty easily at that one point - and frankly his fourth foul was pretty bad when he grabbed the Wisconsin player and through him backward. Showed his frustration and lost his composure a iittle bit. Overall I did not see anything last night that was even in the same ballpark as the guy who T'd up Shavon in that earlier game (Minnesota I think).

Here'e the sort of night it was At one point one of the refs during a timeout stood there staring into the crowd. There were a few fans heckling him by this point because it was after yet another clown call. After sitting there staring and getting upset about it he started motioning over to the cop because it seemed like he wanted people in the 100 level thrown out. When it didn't happen the ref finally started just staring out over the court. I agree that we shot 20% from the field in the first half and once again were soft on finishes and that's basically why we lost this game. I also don't have a huge problem with the foul discrepancy...that's part of playing Wisconsin. The crowd booed these guys off the court and booed them back on the court because of that call on Petteway. They spent the rest of the second half overcompensating for it with questionable calls. A guy fell on top of Benny. A complete clown show out there tonight.

They were not the reason we lost. However, they were bad. It started with the charge on Terran in the first half. Frank bumped him three times on the way to the hoop, then the Wisconsin player was late to take the charge. Benny's no call on his lay-up was awful. You know the refs blew the call when half the Nebraska bench ran onto the floor, and the ref didn't give them a tech. The foul on Tai was a bad call when he trapped Koening in the corner. Wisconsin did that all night against us and the refs swallowed the whistle. The final play was when Kaminsky grabs the ball falls down after Shields tied him up. The ref 5 feet away with a great angle called a travel. The ref from 45 feet away overruled him, and called Shields for a foul.

I, for one am PROUD of this TEAM for Fighting Back, after being down almost 20!!!!!

Wisconsin is a very good basketball game. Dekker and Big Frank are very good players. If that team is who we are attempting to become...I am all for it. Kudos to Wisconsin for that win, especially in that enviornment.

These are my thoughts at the moment.

Absolutely one of my all time favorite coaches passed today. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12309855/hall-fame-coach-jerry-tarkanian-dies Two hall of fame coaches gone in less than a week. Sad.

This team would struggle SO much without TP. I get that he wears his emotions on his sleeves. I get that he can sometimes get too emotional. I get that he sometimes needs to calm down. I also get that this team would be a damn mess without TP. TP will go down as one of my favorite Huskers of all time! And quite frankly I get so sick and tired of people bitching out TP! Who the hell else is going to get shots late in the shot clock? Who else is going to drop 19 PPG, bust his ASS night in and night out for his teammates? Who else is going to guard the best player on the court a lot of times? Who else put this team on his back last year and took us to the NCAA tourney? Sorry to vent, but I get so damn tired of people bitching about TP. When TP is gone, I want all of you bashers to think damn hard about how much we miss that dude.

Even when Benny is in the game, it seems to me that more often than not, TP initiates our offense.

Look... you can use that excuse as it is the easy way to take the "We would have lost anyways" approach. The problem with this is simple. You do realize that one of the worst calls hasn't even been mentioned... the "And 1" that was called "on the floor" against Webster. We get that and it puts us at 16... They call the very next play a block against Wisconsin instead of a charge... Petteway hits them both... 27-18 doesn't look quite as bad does it. What was the score with 1:20 left again? 58-53 You add those 5 points and guess what... our comeback ties the game and it is a completely different game in the last seconds. EVERY bad call counts and it effects the outcome of the game, and those two to end the first half are a BIG reason why we lost the game

...and sometimes it is not the call, but how the call is made that torks me off. I was always told by a very respected official that one can tell a game is well officiated by not even recalling the job that that they did. We are not there to watch the officials, we are there to watch the game.

OK, I'm going to highjack my own thread in a way that only I can. There is one smoking hawt lady cop in Lincoln who just has to be, far and away, the best looking female police officer in the free world. Kind of a ginger. Dark ginger? Maybe some of you know who she is. I'd say she looks a lot like Patricia Heaton except probably younger. And reddish, auburnish hair. She pulled me over one time. This was maybe two years ago. Gave me a verbal warning. In a very pleasant tone of voice. I was incapable of saying anything remotely coherent, let alone able to heap praise on her diligence. I mean I tried. But I got a little tongue-tied and words just failed. I drove away thinking that was the absolute most pleasant experience I've had with a cop, ever. Ever. Shortly thereafter, I got caught in a speed trap by a guy who was a jerk. So, it balanced out. See Norm it does pay to unbutton a few buttons and show off that chest some, it just ain't for females any more.

I have also seen him grab players and pull them away from the problem on the court. He is also one of the first to tell somebody that they just hit a big shot or played good d. I personally have no problems with anything he does. Could he tone it down? Maybe but I think that is what happened at Tech along with a coach who saddled him some and we know his numbers and the teams record too. He does nothing off the court to cause negitivity towards the school and team. He is known to always take pictures and talk with anybody who askes and does a lot of volunteer work. He is just who he is, and without him and his attitude we would be in a really bad place in Nebraska basketball history.

Dakitch seems to like us. Always says good things when he has our games. He's not like that with everyone. It was only a couple weeks ago where he had us in his top 4 of the conference after the Mich St win. Let's face it, that first half was tough to watch. I can't imagine having to call the game while trying not to harp on the terrible offensive performance we were putting out there.

If you think we are the only team in the NCAA's, Big 10, or even the only team on the court that whine, you are sadly mistaken. Both teams do, both coaches do it, and both sets of fans do it. I don't know how many times I hear AHHHHH AND ONE!!! After someone goes in for a layup. I think we just get the short end of the stick when it comes to that complaining that EVERYONE does.... which is crap to me! All teams do it.... every team we play does it... but we always seem to be the ones that get it taken out on us for doing it. Thanks for making my point. I never said I think we are the only team doing it. We do seem to be on the extreme end of that spectrum however. And I think (Petteway in particular) we get a reputation for it and it doesn't do us any good. Regardless of whether refs are out to get us (as you stated - "but we always seem to be the ones that get it taken out on us for doing it") it is up to us to suck it up and be better about it. Even the small things like - the ref calling for the ball and Petteway intentionally dropping it after going out of his way to pick it up just to spite the ref - are the little things that add up and psychologically harm your chances.

i don't care how bad the refs were. we still shot 22% from 3 and 35% overall. not good enough to beat wisconsin.

There was a Civil War General with the last name of "Reformatory"?

Ah yes, that was during a timeout in the second half. I actually saw 7 security guards, 3 of which were Armed form a wall to stop the lower section so the refs could leave, and each ref had an armed police officer walk them through the tunnel. The Bald one had a smirk on his face. What is his name? I'd like to have a chat with him. I believe he goes by POS, otherwise known as Brian Dorsey. The others, of course, are the VERY well-known Ted "TV" Valentine and Gene 'I do NFL too' Steratore. All had an off night, all around.

Like I said in the game thread (and I'll say it again now, because I have a full-sized keyboard), before the game, Kaminsky was hanging out in the lane working on post moves. Spin to a lefty hook, spin to a righty hook, dropstep J, etc. Meanwhile, Walt is clanging three point attempts. Which of those two players hit a trey during the game? The guy who was doing nothing but shooting threes in warmups or the guy who was practicing posting up? Walt, get your candy ass underneath the basket and start working on some post moves. All of our offense starts from beyond the arc in. We need some offense starting from the blocks out.

I hope they invested in some good knee pads, because their knees were hurting after this one.

Not a charge

I drink heavily WHILE watching this team.

...and there's your third video Norm. And 49r already with two assists in the early going.

The boss gave me the night off again, so I've had some time to do a little research. On February 10th, 1973 we beat KU in Lawrence 59-46. Feb 10, 1999 we beat 24th ranked KU 64-59 in Lawrence. Any chance we can move tonight's game to Allen Fieldhouse?

I'd like to embed Sam Ponder.

Your MY favorite small town hack, Tony! Couple of things from this small town hack: 1) 590 said today they will carry all the baseball games. KFAB usually only carried weekend series after the first month or so of the season. 1400 does a good job of carrying baseball and so does 1430 out of GI, but KLIN's signal is as weak as a doublejay post and KRGI's signal disappears at sundown as fast as 2 Big Macs placed in front of Joe McCray, which leads to point #2. 2) Night basketball radio broadcasts might be a little harder to get in this neck of the woods. Although, as Auroran mentioned, 590's signal is much stronger than 1620's, it still fades more at night here than does KFAB's. It not really important for watching the game, but I like to listen to pregame. All in all, the change doesn't suck that much. And as far as KFAB's history with Husker football, I think they've carried them for all of the last 90 years with the exception of that 5 year period when 1620 got the rights back in the late 90's and early 2000's.

I thought the non-conference season was the foreplay. We're in conference play. The fans shouldn't need to be warmed up. Is the PBA reverting back to the Bob days? Not yet, but we do seem to wait for the team to do something to get the place really going, or a bad call helps. As funny/sad as it is, it's so true. A bad call seems to get the crowd riled up more than almost anything else! I remember when the two guys in front of me at the Bob only stood for the national anthem and when the free t-shirts or red basketball where thrown into the crowd. Only noise that they made all night too. Every game.

I promise you she would have ROCKED a volleyball uniform. Nodoubtaboutit.

Well, I think this thread has been shredded. But it has been useful in establishing the fact that Norm has a thing for those in uniforms. The only better thing would have been if she had been in a volleyball uniform.

I'd agree...Self-fulfilling prophesy. I think I saw the same event with Petteway but I didn't interpret it the same way as H4tS. Petteway didn't go out of his way to get the official the ball but there was nothing overtly spiteful about what Petteway did as far as what I saw. Why does he have to do anything else anyway? What's wrong with the ref? Is he crippled and not able to go pick up the ball himself? Until refs are replaced by robots with no emotions or feelings it's probably a good policy to have a respectful and courteous relationship with them because it just might make the difference on a benefit of the doubt call or a 50/50 call. One can either take up the stance that they can't win that battle or one can understand this and benefit themselves. I'm not advocating for us to swing to the Laimbeer/Gibbs side of dirty mind games....I'm advocating for us to not sabotage ourselves.

There has been times when I've yelled at Gene during a game just giving him crap, he will look over after hearing it, give some type of movement/jesture to me (usually a shoulder shrug, shake of the head, or a smile), and then keep going. Gene is actually one of the refs I hate to have, but he knows how to take jokes and deal with fans, especially before the games. However, overall, Officiating was terrible last night. Brian and teddy were terrible. Brian and teddy have never been good refs, both in it for themselves.

Pitchford could use about 10 minutes cut off his playing time. I think the bench might do him some good. Struggling plus putting in major minutes seems to be affecting him.

You weren't watching the same game I was, apparently.

So far this season is the reality check, gut punch, cold shower that I thought I survived through in San Antonio but realized it's going to last much longer.

Wisconsin is a really good offensive team, and it didn't feel to me they played very well on offense. We need to find offense, if that means pressing more, so be it. We can't keep scoring 13 points in the first half, and think we can comeback and win.

This

If Petteway stays the team wont better if he has to get his

50 shades of gray?

What makes you think this team will get to 13 points?

Bugs, it's alright. I deleted my post on the twitter thing before you somehow resurrected it. It's all good, my man.

For tonight's game in honor of the Red Zone's whiteout I wanted to post a video from Pete Townshend's album "White City: A Novel". One of my all time favorite albums believe it or not. The obvious choice would be the 8th track "White City Fighting", but it's not the best song for a game thread. So I chose the first track "Give Blood" instead. Yeah, it's a cheesy little song about giving blood and being charitable in general with lines like, "Give blood, but you may find that blood is not enough". But ignoring the message, I feel like the lyrics pretty accurately reflect what's gonna need to happen for the 'Skers to pull out a win tonight. They're going to have to give everything they have (blood), and that still may not be enough. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen...Pete Townshend!