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I want to say thank you to the Nebraska Men's Basketball team for this season. Throw out wins and losses, throw out results. These young men have dedicated their lives to this program, this has been their world. They've given up their time, their blood, sweat and tears to be the best they can be and to try to elevate themselves, their teammates and this program. And for this as a mere fan of the basketball team that represents my state, I thank you. You have represented yourself exceptionally, as well as my beloved team and state.Thank you also to the coaches and staff of the basketball department. I am grateful for all the hard work you have put in to try to make our program better. Please continue your great work, and I can speak for myself that as a fan I will never give up loving this program. Good luck to all graduating seniors, thank you for being a Husker. We've come to know you all so well, and we will miss you, and I hope we see you again. Good luck to all players the rest of the year and over the summer, and I'm looking forward to a new season next year, and I truly hope to see everyone back, because I am proud of you as Huskers, and hope you are all glad you are here and want to finish your collegiate careers as a Husker. Thank you. P.S.,All are welcome to add your own thank you's and positive thoughts. Click here to view the article

OK, I know some of you are going to groan when you see this title. This isn't a bitch and moan session. Just a forum for long-time Husker fans to reflect on. Where does this team compare to other Husker BB teams that have not lived up to expectations? What are your thoughts? Here are mine: Year (Total W-L, Conf W-L, tourney) 1) 1978-79 (14-13, 7-7, n/a) This is a twin of this year's team. Cip's 2nd to last squad was coming off a surprising 22-8, 2nd place Big 8 finish, and returned senior starters Brian Banks, Carl McPipe, Bobby Moore & Curt Hedburg. Not to mention future Big 8 POTY Andre Smith, Mike Naderer and a freshman named Jack Moore. Rated as preseason favorites along with KU. A preseason top 20 team according to S.I. In spite of the fact that usual rivals, KU, KSU and Mizzou all had sub-par seasons, the Huskers couldn't manage anything better than a .500 record in conference. OU ended up winning their first conference title since 1950. This team should have ended a 28-year regular season title drought, and is one of the reasons I still have yet to witness a regular season conference champion as a 45 year fan. 2) 2014-15 (13-18, 5-11, n/a) We might have a different perspective of this year's performance a year from now. Did this team under-perform, or did last year's team over-perform? I hope it is the former. As disappointing season as it was, it doesn't rate as high (low) as 78-79 because we are in the same conference with 2 top ten teams. 3) 1995-96 (21-14. 5-9, NIT champs) A team that could have been so much more. 3 future NBA players in Moore, Lue and Strickland, plus future Big XII POTY Venson Hamilton. They had 2 of everything. Avoids getting the dreaded #1 spot by finishing strong - winning 2 road games plus 2 NYC games in the NIT. 4) 1983-84 (18-12, 7-7, NIT 2nd round) A pre-season Big 8 title pick, based on a 22-10 performance the year before with a team that returned Hoppen, Ponce and Cloudy. Had a dandy freshman PG in Brian Carr. This wasn't a team that under-performed in my view, They just didn't adequately replace Claude Renfro's defense and rebounding from a year earlier. 5) 1989-90 (10-18, 3-11, n/a) Danny Nee's 4th team. Returned a lot of talent from a 17-16 NIT team the year before. A lot of household names on this team - Reid, Scales, King, Owens, Hayes, Pete Manning, etc. Had maybe an all-star lineup on the bench that was ineligible due to redshirts and transfers (Piatkowski, Chubick and Farmer). Nevertheless, they had enough depth and talent to make a step up in the league. Have to give the team a mulligan for playing in a league that featured OU, KU and MU, who took turns all season sharing the #1 national rating. OK, who am I missing, and is this in the right order?

Given that you feel the need to take a shot at someone on the team in most every post you make, it's not a shock that you're underestimating the likability of Miles and discounting how much more rope that gets one in life. He's going to get an extension this year and he'll be back for year 5 even if he goes something like 9-20. Miles is going to figure this out and the administration here is patient enough to weather the bumps. There is no doubt that if you're posting here in three years it will be Miles and a new set of players to zing for now winning but not winning enough.

But... but... aren't there more options? More than 400,000 NCAA athletes go pro in something other than sports.

Moment of the year, for Husker athletics, IMHO.

Avery's press conference was also a highlight, when he spoke from the heart about how proud of the team he was, and how he was cheering for Shavon. I'm not a crier, but I cried then.

Caleb Walker...dunking on Illi so hard they fired Bruce Weber and Meyers Leonard burst into tears.

In a basketball building process, injuries are crucial because depth is an issue. Crucial factors in how this season played out are the total loss of our two senior bigs for much of the season, along with their less-than-100% status for the entire season (Smith) and nearly the entire season (Old Testament). So, here's the "notice" to Tim Miles: do a better job of recruiting players that will be injury-free, because that will improve Nebrasketball's future performance and results. Perhaps there is a no-hair-on-legs type of identifier for this?

After living through the absurd amount of bitching on this and other boards for the last couple of years of the Doc Sadler era, I was expecting a coaching change would shut some people up. But after reading through some of the comments on the game thread today, I've reached a painful conclusion: Some people have their bitch boxes stuck in the "on" position. They apparently feel themselves entitled to a winning conference record, near-perfect execution at all times, players whose facial expressions never betray frustration, and free Runzas after every game. I'm sorry, but I thought the coaching change would shut some of you Debras up. Sadly, I appear to have been wrong. Sorry for those who might be offended. (Actually, tough crap -- I've had to endure your garbage these last several years so now you can endure some of mine. Or just not read this.)

Terran played his butt off each & every time, and for that we should APPRECIATE his talent & effort combined. The most frustrating part is the team either plays good O or good D, it never seemed to be both clicking at the same time this season. Thanks for being a baller, TP5. If you move on, we'll miss ya (even if some don't admit to it).

When people think about the Rebellion in Star Wars, they tend to forget the Empire kicked their butt in the second movie. Looking forward to the Return of the Jedi next year. Let's hope we use that European vacation to finally get out of the gate quickly

It was still a fun season no matter how you shake it. I got to spend time with my dad, who just turned 73, at the games. Yeah losses can be disappointing, but they are a part of the game.

I will agree in a sense... There are some good fans who get caught up in the moment and post some negative things. There are also those who post negative things in EVERY SINGLE GAME THREAD. There are also ones who post negative things EVERY TIME WE ARE LOSING OR LOSE. Those are the ones who Norm is mostly talking about. The "seasons over" comments halfway through Big 10 play... the Miles is a terrible coach here and there... the bashing of players with little support... I could go on and on. It gets old... and all it does is bring the board down. Yeah some call themselves "realists" but give me a "fakest optimist" over a "realist pessimist" any day of the week.

Congratulations to Husker recruit Maddie Simon on being named the Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year today! http://www.gatorade.com/poy/profile.aspx?id=15746

Miles is on notice, listen to sports radio. Thats the consumer speaking. No one is ready to jump ship but they don't want to see a repeat of this next season. Honestly, it's not. Not really. The consumer speaking is the attendance at games. When that dips -- and with PBA being new and cool, we're talking dipping to 11,000-12,000 -- that's speaking. NU averaged 15,569 at home. The team could be 5-25 and still get 8,000-9,000 in that building, so we're not talking Devaney standards. 11,000-12,000 would be noticeable. I totally agree, Im assuming most of those I heard in Brewsky's last night and on sports radiio today will back up thier words with actions. It's possible they may have been over-stating thier position after watching Penn St block 16 Nebraska shots last night. Not sure you understand the Husker fan base if you base it on the people who call into talk radio (and in some cases, the idiots putting on the show). That demographic is by nature hyper-opinionated (of course, so are message board posters. And if you go to some boards other than this one, you would also think the sky has fallen, the fans will disappear, and the coach should be fired). Same with mouthy guys hanging out in sports bars. We have a big base of good fans who have more patience than these boneheads, and who still enjoyed supporting the team this year. I usually find the vocal sorts you are listening to don't even go to the games. I will say that the angst of the "newbies" has been sorta funny to watch. I've suffered through seasons like this many times in the past. But the folks who thought it's all going to be different now due to last year have done some whining out of proportion to the problem. A bunch take it personally, and sound like they are entitled to great seasons every year.

Kinda surprised we're on page 4 and nobody's posted this yet:

A few of my favorite moments - Avery Harriman being cancer free again and going to get signed up as a donor during halftime of the AveryStrong game and finding out that they had used all of the kits already - The Husker Power chant showing up at most every single game - Watching #Nebrasketball trend on twitter at 2 am (and being awake) because we were playing a game in Hawaii - The only time I can recall a team rushing a court because they beat us - being able to attend 20+ games in a great facility with my family and teaching my 2 year old daughter how to not only say "Shotclock" and "Jump Ball" but also the hand motions. We're currently working on "travelling"

Nice thing for the kids is he will have a degree in hand to fall back on. Props to him for this!

By the time Miles is done at NU, they will be singing folk songs about him in the sandhills and erecting a statue somewhere in PBA for taking us to the tournament and winning a game or two or three.

...soooo...does Coach Miles need to hire security since you put him on notice???

Ya you lost me on that he's on notice comment too.

I like the analogy. I also believe that help is on the way. The "Miles is on notice" I don't agree with! He will be ok. Brighter skies ahead my friends.

He's fine.

I have said this forever, and will believe it until the day I die. We live in such a football State, that fans (of both CU and NU) get overly worked up after wins, and overly worked up after losses. In College Basketball you play 30 plus games a year. You will look really good in a lot of them, really bad in some of them, and very average in some of them. That's basketball! Unless you are the Kentucky's, Dukes or the world, that is the reality. I don't think I have ever posted during an in-game thread because people are an emotional roller coaster during these games. I just sometimes wonder what some of the people behind the board are like in real life. Do they quite immediately when things get tough? Gloat when things go well?

Best analogy I've read in three months. Missed a trip last week with a leg injury. Didn't play a lot during next game. And didn't look like he could run much today and we went up tempo. So I think that is why we didn't see any of Him in the second half. Too slow and too hurt. JmhoBesides doesn't he have one more Sorority to date yet?

OK, for next year, we need people who can catch corner kickouts and hit the trey. Not catch the corner kick, pump fake while the defender is hustling over to close out, drive forward about 5 feet and attempt an off-balance, mid-range jumper off the dribble. No, actually catch a kick to the corner in rhythm and shoot (and hit) the jumper. Same with kickouts to the wing. We need to be able to make teams pay for leaving our shooters open.

Wait Hal that was thought out and insightful. Get out of here now! I will say that I feel that the board has changed some this year, but much like the basketball season next year will be better. And we still have the women to worry about, because we know they are going to get screwed with their seeding. Did I really just read a post by Silverbacked about our women getting screwed?

Wait we are the best fans in the countr... When the win.

If true I think the chances of him staying are much better. Will be interesting to see what happens...with that tweet I lean towards him staying at NU. When you say "rumors floating around" are you reading this on twitter, other sites, talking to someone, or what?

Hal, you're currently up 60 points over gobigredbrah and his Miles needs to go speculation drivel.

I'll go with Iowa by a comfortable margin. Then again I know nothing I wasn't going to say anything. But then I changed my mind. Scoreboard 49r. Faux Sandhills guy falls to the authentic version.

He'd be stupid not to check it out. But I suspect he won't like the feedback.

Well?

And as a glass half full type guy, this year pretty much assures there will be no increase in ticket prices next year. so we have that going for us.

Does it count if you put a ghillie suit on Benny?

GREAT perspective, Nighthawk. Cherish every moment. Best time you could spend. Sharing the highs of beating Cincinnati in 2-OT in the same week as the lows of losing to UIW & CU summed up how topsy-turvy the life of a Nebrasketball fan can be (seems like those particular outcomes felt 'extra' for some reason). On a personal note with a myriad of things going on in life's travails & trials, I was just glad to be able to watch & share the moments with my best bud, my bro. Life is good when you can experience the wacky world of Nebrasketball (& Husker football, also wacky) with a fellow fanatic! GBR

Not sure I agree with Brian on the expectations being tempered next year. Two years ago we had a bunch of questions marks and no one expected us to do anything. This year we had a bunch of knows, so there were expectations. It would seem that a lot of how next year goes hinges on new comers who will once again be question marks. Right or wrong, I don't see how we're picked to finish above 10th place when next year's media poll comes out and that will certainly influence fan expectations. I would agree that the team's expectations and goals will be loftier. 10th would be fine, IMHO. Underdog mentality seems to suit us better at this stage of program development.

Why would he leave? Is he going to graduate? He has already transferred once and used his red shirt. So he either goes over seas or transfer to a lower level school or just goes home. Am I missing any other way to look at it?

GREAT perspective, Nighthawk. Cherish every moment. Best time you could spend.

I think it was a combination of over performing last year, and under performing this year. We should have probably been an NIT team both years. It's a funny thing, that confidence. I think it had a lot to do with our winning streak last year, and the lack of it had a lot to do with our losing streak this year.

13 you know I think you may be right. I just try to be positive about things so I guess I should have said I hope that it was because he had a bad leg and didn't just give up on his team mates and himself.

The only good thing about the season being over is the fact that I don't have to read the negativity in a game thread for 8 months. The bad thing is now I have to read all the negative threads that are going to be started for the next 8 months.

Given TP's relationship with our coaching staff (which seems to be very close) and the fact that we provided him an opporunity when others doubted him, it would have be a pretty strong reason for him to finish his college career elsewhere. I do give that a chance though, as that strong reason would be to get closer to his mom. I do not believe it would be any sort of financial pull. TP seems to be a very high character kid. Before this season, he worked his butt off. I also seem to remember some sort of bet with Coach Miles regarding post-season. Again, I may be totally off-base, but I kind of believe TP will be back and hell-bent on NCAA tournament wins next year. Is there a chance he could leave, sure...but I also believe there are two or three other players who may be more prone to transfer rather than TP.

Bugsy, Penn State's overall record is 16-15 not 16-9. The thread title needs to be fixed. GBR I knew that, I must have missed it when I prove read it. Sorry about that guys.Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Guys, I decided to throw this together for you because I see a lot of misinformation and lack of understanding what a "motion" offense is. Hope no one finds this arrogant or thinks I am a "know it all." Just wanted to provide some insight and some information for the board, because I feel as if a few of you would enjoy this breakdown. Let's first learn what ISN'T a motion offense: Revolving Pattern Offenses Sometimes these can be hard to diagnose and catch onto, one, because if you do it right, you run them fast enough and with a solid enough pace that it just looks like good movement and good ball movement, and two, because with a shot clock and the 10,000 other sets teams have - a lot of the time teams don't flat-out get into their revolving pattern offense (I'll discuss this later). Every team has a revolving pattern offense installed one way or another. A revolving pattern offense is designed to give a coach an aspect of control, and players an aspect of familiarity. These are popular because it gives a great framework for coaches to plan practices around the types of shots they know they will get, the actions they will see, and points of emphasis to help develop players. Some examples.... : Flex - we should all know flex. Back-screen from the block, down-screen from the elbow, pop when you come off the back-screen if you don't get it, etc.... It keeps going and going and going. I personally love a lot of aspects of Flex. You will see cross-sreen/down-screen options on A LOT of teams play-books. It becomes flex (or some variation of it), when you find a way for it to continually revolve into the same motions and patterns. What we run - if you watch closely, the primary offense that we go to is a 3 out, 2 in offense (the 2 in is a formality), where the posts pop and get reversal passes to a 2 man wing side, the first wing will fake like they are coming off of a hand-off and go back door, while the next guy will come up and either get a hand off, or get the pass and receive a ball screen. Guy who cuts, cuts to the opposite corner, other post player pops on this action, then repeats to his side. Strengths - You know what shots you are going to get, and can typically be very effective in placing rebounders in statistically opportunistic positions. Some players tend to thrive in offenses like this where they are able to practice a specific shot they get out of their offense, whether it be off of a down-screen that is set every time, or something along that lines. You can really build your team and how you transition defensively and offensively off of how you run your pattern. Also, it can run clock until you either get the shot you want or until you have established your goal of slowing the game down and making it a possession ball game. Weaknesses - It breaks down and humans are not perfect robots. No coach or player is good enough to perfectly adapt to what the defense takes away every time and hit them with the perfect counter. Therefore it can be unreliable because of the timing and high level of execution it requires. Second, players get lazy and go through the motions. Notice how we rarely every get the back-cut on our offense anymore? We got that all the time last two years... Not to mention the other weakness of this, you are scouted easily. Opposing coaches get to game-plan to take away specific things you want to do. Thus, making it a constant trial and error, adjustment chess game. Continuity/Hybrid Offenses This is the middle ground between what is a pattern and what is motion. These offenses have a lot of guidelines, rules, and specific roles for players. The aspects and parts of these can be broken down and repped at practice very easily. A lot of teams offenses could be described in this way. Make this clear -- One could even argue what we run is more of a ball-screen continuity offense, which I would not totally disagree with. Some examples..... : Ball-Screen Continuity - LOTS of teams run this. Their bigs pop and swing the ball into ball screens just like we do. It has become the go-to of most NBA teams, and most college teams. Heck, I see it mostly everywhere in the high school level also. Ball-Screen continuity comes from a background of the triangle offense (I'll discuss), 2-game offense (I'll discuss that too), and spacing the floor aspects of the dribble drive and NBA principles. I love Ball-Screen Continuity, especially if you space the floor properly and are patient with the ball screens. That creates the spacing you need for the ball screen action, and long help-distances for 3pt shooters. If you have guys who can really manipulate ball-screens (we don't), athletic bigs who can catch and finish really well in a multitude of ways (we don't), and a good 3pt shooter or two (we don't), ball-screen continuity is a great offense to run in the half-court. 2-Game - I'm not sure who "invented" this or who was the first to run it, but Bill Self comes to mind when I think of 2-Game (or whatever you want to call it). You might remember 2-Game.... cough cough Doc Sadler cough cough. 2-Game is the ultimate hybrid offense. It has motion-style screens, ball screen-continuity, triangle offense concepts, and NBA style spacing. It allows for post-ups on triangle sides and 2-man sides. Problem is, when you do not have the dudes to make the reads and the counters, it's super easy to defend. Kansas looks so good in it, because he does not run it to get shots, he only runs it to get separation for his stud basketball players. When Doc was here, we ran it to get specific shots out of specific aspects of 2-Game. Which, in turn, basically made it a pattern. Did you ever go to a Doc Sadler practice? Our entire offensive practice was breaking down and trying to beat the motions and movements into our players. Failed miserably, in my opinion. Triangle - I love the triangle. Tex Winter, Phil Jackson - you've heard those names. The triangle is founded on spacing and getting post entries. It is the foundation for 2-game, and the foundation of a lot of NBA spacing and ball-screen continuity offenses. Triangle side with your best post, back-side 2-man game with your stud scorer and athletic post. Think Shaq sitting in the triangle, with Jordan or Kobe getting ready to get the ball on the cleared out side. However, NBA analytics are finding out pretty quickly that this is a pretty inefficient offense if you don't have Shaq, MJ, or Kobe (go figure?). Strengths - Not as easy to scout since it's more based on reads, guidelines, and spacing. Allows players to make plays and cuts, without "breaking down" the offense, as you would in a continuity. Weaknesses - If the coach wants too much control, these offenses just become patterns. See Doc, unfortunately. And, with every offense the book has, if you do not have the dudes that can fit these roles, well, duh, you know what happens. Have you made it this far? I'm sorry this has become so long-winded. Motion Offense Oh the beautiful game of basketball.... Unselfish players, moving the ball, screening for one another to get open. Players sweeping around screens, giving space for one another, placing the perfect pass into a cutter for a wide open lay-up, or looking off the cutter and hitting a slip screen... Ah, just beautiful. These things all developed from motion basketball. Basketball in it's simplest (yet hardest and most complex) form. No specific spots or patterns -- just rules, guidelines, spacing, and actions. Maybe some roles for players. Players playing to their strengths and what works best for them, and their teammates doing there's, hopefully all working together for the best result. Bobby Knight, Tony Bennett, Don Meyer, etc... Motion has a lot of forms, 3 Out - 2 in, dribble drive, 4 Out - 1 In, 5 Out, Princeton (kind of), Mover-Blocker (my favorite), read and react motion, etc... The primary and most simplest way to state what they are doing -- 5 players trying to figure out what the defense is trying to do, and doing the direct counter against it. Motion offenses can have people specifically designated to screen, some specifically designated to cut, some specifically designated to post or set ball-screens. Motion is free-lance that a coach can emphasize certain things he wants. Strengths - Can't scout what isn't planned. You can only hope to take a way a few actions that they try to do. For instance, if a kid is really good at coming off down-screens, you can only hope that you've drilled it enough in practice to teach a couple defenders how to get through down-screens effectively. Problem is, most of the time they do not know when they are coming, or if they are coming at all. Weaknesses - It gets stagnant. Sometimes motion just does not work, sometimes it just does not jive. Like a band who just is not feeling each other that night and are off a beat. Switching defenses can also give your team a lot of trouble because it forces cutters to have to pop a lot, instead of getting to the hoop because the pass is denied, and slips are hard to hit. It also results in a lot of teams settling for shots they do not necessarily want. Eventually as you do become scouted, they may learn you cannot shoot the 3, so teams start going under every screen, pack it in, and give you a 3pt shot hoping they play the percentages right. And, obviously, with everything - you gotta have smart dudes that can make plays. Sometimes you do not have them. --------------- What I haven't talked about yet (and this is important), and where it starts to get confusing for a lot of people -- most teams run sets plays or specific actions in the half-court, that when they do not work, they naturally evolve into their go-to half-court offense. Therefore, a lot people get confused because they see a team come down the court, run something that they do not know what it is, and their team gets a shot. What offense was that? It wasn't "their offense," per say, it was a quick-hitter, or set that a team runs to get into their offense. This might get them a look early in the possession, or create separation for drives and kicks. 2-game is notorious for having thousands of sets and formations that end up right back into the continuity. Quick-hitters are the types of things that are in teams play books. These are one to two screens and passes, designed to get a specific person a specific shot. Good quick hitters are typically designed to allow teams to easily get back into their spacing and spots for their continuity offense or revolving offense or motion. On the flip side - a lot of teams like to run their transition offense right into their continuity or revolving offense (or even motion), if transition didn't score, and in the waining seconds of the shot clock - they will call a quick hitter or call for a high ball-screen (like we do nearly every possession). Would anyone like to hear more? As in what our typical possession looks like from an X's and O's perspective? Teams that just run transition breaks and run and guns? Let me know, I'm getting tired of typing and I should be working.... If you disagree with anything I said in here, I'd love to discuss it, go easy on me please.

The sad thing is you think its a sad thing. These are young men representing their university. They are not professional athletes where you move people in and out because its a business. You're talking about "dumping" someone who has (not counting the Iowa game) always represented his school well in all areas. If winning means selling your soul and using people up and spitting them out when you're done with them, then that's not a program I would want to root for. I would rather support a team that has integrity and makes the effort to do things the right way even if that means I don't receive the instant gratification of winning now at all costs. Some costs are too high and treating people decently shouldn't be the high mark it should be expected. And your reference to "Attitude issues and all" makes me think you've never tried to guide a team with attitude issues. Do I need to reference the Biggs situation?

I see us play and I see our schedule and I think the question is valid. Could we win a few more? Sure, maybe Iowa, @ Illinois who knows. A few thoughts: - Why don't Petteway & Shields ever try to post up? - Forget about Pitchford's lack of a low post game, he doesn't have a mid-range game either. - T. Smith is a bright spot. - I didn't expect much from our 5s this year, but we get even less. Did this team fall in love with it's press clippings? I don't think so. But, I do think those early losses to Creighton & Incarnate Word rattled our psyche to the point that we've never really recovered.