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I do believe that Tai started to elevate his game towards the end of last season. He played the same slashing type game that TP played and simply was second banana to TP. This year, I believe Tai will come into his own. He has a bigger body, and will be more physical. There has not been a question about his defense, especially last year. If he can develop even an average outside shot, he can likely be a major bonus for us this year.

Good - McVeigh, Watson, Morrow, Jacobsen. This is the foundation of our program. Keeping these guys around and keeping them happy, healthy, and motivated is paramount to our success under TM. Shavon Shields should see things open up for him if other guys step up. Hammond looked serviceable. Bad - What I had gathered/worried about AW is correct. Fuller continues to disappear. We can't shoot. Offensive transition/point guard decision making in transition (make or miss) is my favorite part of the game and the area I'm most critical on, and we're not great here. Indifferent - I don't think Webster can do what he did in Spain against D1 guys and the Big 10. He was taking advantage of smaller, weaker, less athletic defenders on his way to the paint... That's my hypothesis anyways. I've always felt a PG's offensive ability is more important than his defensive ability - I think Watson has to see as much minutes than Benny at the point.

Petteway was quite good while he was here....in a few years he'll be looked at as even better. To me he's a different type of player than White...much more aggressive about and better at taking his own shot though the downside is that there were a lot of those shots you wished he wouldn't take. To me, I see Andrew White as the Gallegos dream realized.....the guy who not only takes 3s for us but hits them plus brings more to the table in terms of length, rebounding, and being able to dribble purposefully. Can we delegate Petteway's work so that a guy like Tai or Shavon or McVeigh is slashing to the rim? That's hopefully what we got out of this...a way to cover everything TP did over multiple guys so that we function more as a team.

Now that we know that you took (and hopefully passed) a class on sports writing, we officially have higher expectations of your writing ability on this site as we move into the future. The bar has been set

White played behind two guys that went top 5 in the draft. Let's see what he can do when he doesn't have star players in front of him. I agree. My point was that ratings aren't infallible and it's early to suggest Patton is a bust. fwiw, I like the local kids a lot and still think Thurman was a steal for UNO.

Was fortunate and got to move to seats within my specifications in the 200 level from the 300 level today, so I'm a happy camper. I'm now in section 220, row 4 maybe next season I can move to what the optimum seats would be for me in section 219. Since I moved I can no longer access the site but a friend of mine can and he tells me there's nothing but a few scattered singles in the lower level and some pairs in the corners of the 200 level and lots of tickets in the 300 level.

Not that it's a fair comparison, but it's the closest proxy that we have: Opponent Nebraska BYU Margin (NU/BYU) Eurocolegio Casvi W 79-64 W 95-74 15 / 21 Albacete Basket W 66-63 W 75-52 3 / 23 European Basketball Academy W 106-73 W 102-74 33 / 28 CB Castelldefels W 71-65 W 82-55 6 / 27

This sounds like an ordeal. I'm glad I moved down to 200 level from what would have been the top of 300 level the first season in PBA. I'm guessing baring any major life event or sudden major ticket increase, I'll be sitting in these seats until they pry the tickets from my cold dead fingers.

Video Recap Game 1 http://www.snappytv.com/snaps/game_1-hd_720p_sajedl

And because I am bored, I counted the exact number of seats left in 300. 574.

Easily my 1A left on the board followed closely by 1B Arlando Cook. I feel we have a much greater chance of getting Horne for several reasons.

Excellent: I'm going to single out Ed Morrow. While none of the freshmen disappointed -- and I should stress that they all at least lived up to expectations -- Ed Morrow's motor stood out. I love his tenacity and desire to make plays, whether by setting a solid screen or going hard after a rebound. He's clearly the player he was billed to be. Really Good: Depth and rotations. We are legitimately 9 men deep this year. Regardless of who ends up starting, we should have a bench that can come in and score. That is really nice to see. Pretty Good: I liked the tempo. I liked seeing them push the ball in their transition offense. Especially considering we don't have a post presence on offense where we can hope to find some points in the half-court, I liked seeing the ball movement and getting layups off of basket cuts. They were loving the rim even as they appeared to have a love/hate relationship with the three ball. Reasonably Good: Jacob Hammond was a mixed bag. At times, his defense looked sketch; his free throw shooting at times cringe-worthy. But we have Glynn Watson. And Jack McVeigh. And Jacob was smart enough to hang out near the rim to receive the dish pass so that if they got a step on their defender, he was available for the dish. That was good. He rebounded decently and had a couple of really nice blocks. For a guy who only played like 13 minutes all last year, he was a lot better than I expected he would be. Reasonably pleasant surprise there. Bad: The team 3 pt percentage sucked. Horribly. Which is really scary when you don't have an inside post presence whom you can count on to score with his back to the basket. Hard to open up those driving lanes when the defense can play a sagging, help D and we'd be hard pressed to force them out of it. They won't be chasing shooters over the top of ball screens because there'd be no point. Why bother? We aren't going to have anyone dribble behind a screen and shoot it. And, if they did, like they're going to make it? I wish that was something we could fix between now and the beginning of the season -- our perimeter shooting, that is. But too many unlikely things would have to happen for that to change to any great extent.

You forgot the ugly. It's a tie between the uniforms and the head camera.

hypertrophic cardiomyopathy The same condition that resulted in the death of Hank Gathers. As a result of that condition he redshirted his freshman year at Toledo, then went to JC for a year, then two years at Buffalo - so without a waiver to either play immediately or else get sixth year he can't transfer to a Division 1 school and have any eligibility left.

BYU hit 20 three pointers in the first two games. I would say that is probably the biggest difference between the two teams at this point. We just don't have very many deep threats. Agreed - I also am confident White won't be 3-for-17 on 3s at any stretch during the season like he was in Spain. It's a matter of finding a couple of other deep threats to add to White, whether that's new guys like McVeigh and Jacobson or guys like Shields finding his stroke or Benny and Watson stepping up and hitting 1 or 2 a game, just to keep teams more honest & open up those driving lanes. Regardless it was a rough performance from the longer 3-pt stripe in Spain all around & represents the primary area of concern coming out of the trip for me. I figured rebounding would be our biggest problem before the trip, but I clanged that prediction off the iron and over the backboard. Here's Andrew White's stats with respect to minutes played and 3 point shooting at Kansas in 2013 and 2014, split into the beginning of the season and the rest of the year. Minutes 3PM-3PA 3P% 2013 1st 8 games 39 7-15 46.7% 2013 Last 27 games 86 3-21 14.2% 2014 1st 4 games 45 7-12 58.3% 2014 Last 31 games 68 1-13 7.7% Hopefully it's a case of him worrying about getting playing time with all the talent at KU, and pressuring himself to make an impact when he got in a game.

Jamel White was my favorite player at one time so why not

I think he has the most pressure on him

Remember it was AW'S first game in a year

I'd say even more recently than that. The recruits we're bringing in now are head and shoulders above guys like Vucetic, Hawkins and Fuller, and even Webster. The staff has stepped it up big-time starting with the last class, and Roby is a continuation of that same caliber of player. Obviously, we know we've been unsuccessful in landing quality big men thus far, but the overall quality of the players entering the program now is pretty remarkable. I still see 2015-2016 as a rebuilding/developmental year with very little chance at an NCAA bid at season's end, but I look at the 2016-2017 team as a group that could do a lot of damage, especially if we can solidify the front court through recruiting between now and next year. It's an exciting time to be a Husker hoops fan for sure. Yes, there will be some teeth-gnashing and hand wringing this year from those who don't get the patience part of your scenario ("but we're in year 4 and blah blah/whine whine"). I can hear it now. Prepare for it. But we need to stay the course; I agree with your take. One caveat is in how many kids transfer out of the program next spring...spring after that...etc. We do need to stop the bleeding there some.

The only thing I'm looking at is playing time, because that shows what TM is thinking. Impossible to tell much else from the competition, since we have no way of judging that.