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Surprised no one had this up yet. It's tradition, guys. C'mon. OK, so, down 2 starters from the get-go. Wasn't expecting much. Had some good shooting to get us going and actually led 25-22 at one point. And then Northwestern went on a 38-12 run and that was pretty much the turning point of the game. We had them on the ropes but for that 38-12 run. Take away that 38-12 run, and we'd have been right in that thing. Credit to Northwestern. They have some players. They play hard. They did a good job of scouting some of our tendencies. And they are one of the best teams in the Big 10 right now and ranked #43 on Kenpom. Which, by itself, is kind of surprising considering their coach only won 8 games and went 3-17 in conference play in his 7th season at the helm a few years ago. I mean, any sane program would have fired him right then and there. Don't know what Northwestern was thinking. Five straight losing seasons before this year. How did that guy even have a job? He should have been flipping burgers at Burger King, amiright? Right next to Tim Miles, whose San Jose St team is now just 14 spots behind us in the Kenpom rankings. Anyway, did you know Jamarques Lawrence is shooting 41% from beyond the arc in league games? It's true. And he had a solid line tonight, too: 4-9 FGs; 4-8 3ptFGs; 2 bds; 3 asst; 1 TO; 12 pts; 33 minutes. Acquitted himself quite well. Don't anoint him some kind of savior of the program, but give him credit. He's not terrible. He's not like this year's version of Elijah Wood. He's got some game. I kinda like this Lawrence kid. And Keisei continued to show he's serviceable. Better than serviceable. Calling him serviceable at this point is like damning him with faint praise. He deserves some credit. Biggest difference in the game (other than turnovers) was rebounding. We got murdered on the boards. And I kinda feel like that wouldn't have happened if we'd had our two hurt guys. Did you really think we'd win without them? Do you think we might have had a chance with them?

Sam and Derrick are forcing it way too much and making bad decisions. We went on our run with those two on the bench. Even if we weren’t making shots during that run, still looked way more fluid and the ball wasn’t sticking.

Lawrence has a nice shooting stroke.

Facts for your consideration: Fred is 34-78 overall and 12-57 in the Big Ten. Your emotions and your gut also are worthy of consideration.

This is good but I also feel like a hypocrite because if Miles didn't have those injuries that team is likely tournament bound and he doesn't get fired.

this was probably the main thing that got to me, referencing turnovers. Walker and Griesel tried fitting passes into small spaces quite a few times which led to turnovers damn near every time. Having 9 turnovers between the 2 seniors in the lineup can't happen.

End of the year discussion. Trev: Well, Fred, I know you had some injuries and you gave it your best, but sometimes ... Fred: And don't forget my best recruit was wearing a K-State uniform scoring 18 points per game. Trev: Fred: Trev: Like I was saying, sometimes you just have to run it back the next year and hope the basketball gods quit acting like dicks.

Call me crazy but I would be fine with Sam eating up whatever minutes Wilcher has left in him. I actually like the young guys. But, I’m not sure they are good enough to warrant giving Hoiberg another year. I don’t think there is any chance to turn this dumpster around. Trev might as well rip the bandaid off and find his own guy.

Derrick Walker: 7 pts 4 RBs 5 TOs (29 min) Sam Griesel: 8 pts 5 RBs 4 TOs (33 min) Sam Hoiberg: 6 pts 6 RBs 0 TOs (17 min)

I think a couple of guys found they can play tonight. Lawrence has looked pretty good so has well Hoiberg and Dawson some

One guy to blame for all that.

Just hopped in the game on ESPN Gamecast. KT doing some things!!!!

Its crazy just how much Keisei has surpassed Wilcher

These freshman do not hesitate. They may even be over-confident. I love it.

Looks like the Huskers have their eyes on this kid... https://journalstar.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/andersons-growth-coincides-with-pius-xs-hot-streak-as-bolts-big-man-attracts-college-attention/article_06285555-4b0c-5d8e-a523-01f801e6eac7.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

#3 on this interesting I did not know they could chart this stuff stat

CJ Wilcher looks absolutely lost out there. Disappointing as has been one of my favorites since he signed.

I counted B1G tournament game results in case you find yourself off 4 games

I’d want to see how the season plays out first. Unfortunately we lost a golden opportunity this year as everyone outside maybe the top 2-3 in the conference was beatable on any given night. We didn’t beat them… especially early… and that’s going to haunt us.

That's up there with Saint Christopher being dropped from the liturgical calendar

Yeah, but he had to build the program his first two years, so really he's 20-33 (7-23) in these past 1.5 seasons. Wait...that doesn't help.

A couple other observations from last evening: * Perhaps I have been blind; but I hadn't seen Jacobson on the floor warming up until last night. Perhaps there are thoughts of pulling his redshirt. However, Sam Hoiberg's performance may further delay that decision. * Blaise did off-the-court drills in pre-game. He looks close to 100% * I was sort of surprised we didn't see Oleg with a bit more playing time. * CJ cannot play the 4. Of course, he currently is struggling playing the 2 and 3 as well. Man, I wish he could get it going.

What was disappointing to me last evening was the mental lapses that occurred. More so with our veterans rather than our younger players. Turnovers, offensive and defensive lapses kept occurring all night long. If we would have cut our turnovers down to a reasonable number, then it is a tight game. I guess I get it; the team lost two very important players to injury. Losing Bando now appears to have broken the team spirit. This is going to get real dismal unless and until the team as a whole steps up. Last night a couple tried to step up; but were sort of tripped up by those that did not.

If Hunter is going anywhere AZ would be his first choice because of how big of a role Tommy Lloyd played in his recruitment. And agree wholeheartedly on Thomas and Dawson. FWIW Thomas is no longer a part of Loyola’s program. No longer listed on the roster either.

To be fair, he hasn't really given anybody reason to believe either.

Yay, I beat KenPom this time!

i assume he'll get a year 5 in the same way that frost did, but fred has some serious work to do in the offseason for this to be an above .500 team next year.

If teams pass and space well and make 3's we are going to struggle - particularly with our two defensive stoppers out of the lineup. Northwestern played well and the Berry kid was absolutely unconscious shooting in the first half - probably had the game of his life - I assume his halftime total was a career high for a full game. Was kind of ironic in the 2nd half when he had a completely wide-open look he threw up an airball. Made me wonder if we should have just tried not to guard him before then :). All that said as Norm pointed out the real difference in the game (and in this game vs our past games) was rebounding. Early it seemed like the ball just never bounced our way - but later it was more a reversion to the old failures. Given those struggles the one thing that did not make sense to me was not having Dawson on the floor more. I think he just had 21 minutes and he is clearly our best remaining rebounder. Maybe Fred thought we needed more offense on the floor but there were several times I wondered why Dawson was not in the game. Is Keita ever going to play again? The last home game he seemed to be limping so was not surprised he did not play but did not notice that tonight. He is someone that we need to be giving minutes and he certainly could not have been worse than Wilhelm was tonight. One other positive I saw was during a first half timeout - Bandoumel was out on the court specifically coaching Jamarquez presumably on defense. Was good to see that from Emmanuel and I really hope Lawrence tries to pattern himself off Bandoumel's game. If he tries to become the player Bandoumel has been then I am excited about his future. We are going to struggle the rest of the season. Greisel and Walker are keys to the team obviously - but I think the whole team got their energy from Gary and Bandoumel and we really are going to miss that for the rest of the year. P.S. I thought on the radio that Fred said Greisel was +11 tonight - which seems impossible as that would mean we would have been -26 in the 7 minutes he as not in the game. Maybe he meant we were +11 with Sam Hoiberg on the floor ? FWIW I don't think those numbers are really statistically significant in a single game - too small of a sample - but does anyone know a website that shows the +/- numbers for players for games. Is that on huskers.com somewhere?

Can't give up 22 pts off turnovers and 16 second chance points - that is an utter disaster for the way this team is built. Those two numbers combined have to be closer to 15 total to give us a chance. Not a surprise, but it's hard to see another win or two on the schedule without the rebounding and defense of Gary & Bandoumel. The freshmen played hard, but they just can't replace the experience we're now missing. Have to find a way to not play Keisei & CJ at the same time. They kill us on the defensive end because they both need so much help on the drive and close out so poorly. Easier said than done when we have so few perimeter players left available. Maybe we can do something going forward with that scrambling 1-3-1 zone we tried toward the end, but I fear our success was more that NW simply lost interest in the game by that point. Going to be a looooong February. I don't envy Trev. As much as it seems he doesn't want to make a change here, it's going to be tough not to with the complete collapse that appears to be starting. It's too bad, because it felt like a few weeks ago that we were going to sneak out a few more nice wins. But those injuries are going to be far too much to overcome.

It ain’t over but it might be getting kind of fun in here those that left might be embarrassed

Great idea to allow a team who may get fatigue to walk the ball up the court and dribble for 20 seconds. While the rest of the team gets to rest.

Sam Hoiberg now has as many points as Sam Griesel and 2 more points than Derrick Walker. That ain't gonna get it done. Against anybody

A team with 7 available scholarship players, two starters out for the year and two freshman with minimal experience replacing them doesn’t have the it factor? Ya don’t say?

Northwestern is shooting very well. It’s going to take some serious defense to have a chance in the 2nd half. NW is playing some good defense although I believe the officials are letting them be physical.

When you're a shooter whose shots not falling, its natural to question everything. He's also just getting exposed by not having 4 rebounders on the court with him

Sam is making the offense stagnant with too much dribbling

We miss bando and gary on the boards. If we were replacing them with an average rebounder we might be okay, but unfortunately Wilcher is awful

Why did CJ not attempt to grab the rebound that came right to him?

Tominaga is on his way to a Wilt type of night.

Radio is back. I guess Davison couldn't do that much damage...

Tominaga is fun. Dude is fearless! I love it

KT looking good early.

Gotta good feeling about tonight. The radio feed went dead. It's a reverse curse. What the enemy planned against you, comes back on them. Take that, evil bastards!

I'm pumped up to see these freshman thrown into the fire. Kind of like Shavon as a freshman, they have no choice but to grow up quickly.

There's a big difference between being negative and being realistic. After the Rutgers debacle, I looked at the schedule and was thinking it could be difficult to finish 0.500 overall. I figured at best 2-2 in the games completed since then which has played out. Lot of tough games left. As of now, I see probable beatdowns by Iowa (2) & Michigan; probable losses to Illinois (2); probable split (hope for a sweep) with NW (best case in these 7 is 3-4, but I just don't see that happening - more than likely will be 2-5 or 1-6). MSU almost beat Iowa a few days ago and I agree with you on the Goophers, so again maybe a split in those 2. So, either 3-6 or 2-7 to finish 15-14 or 14-15, respectively. Probably have to win a couple of B1G tourney games to see any further postseason action. Now, if they can start making 3-pointers again, they can beat anybody, but the recent trend of horrendous shooting doesn't bode well for that scenario. I think the Rutgers crapshow broke them.

Ditto on Dawson's defense. As good as Bando has been, Dawson has been just as good.

Kobe Webster ran out of eligibility

We're having a conversation about what we might do with the winnings in the unlikely event we win the lottery.

I'd definitely be ok with that. But if I HAD to choose between the two options, I think I'd still take my list. Love Chucky, but I think he's a bit overrated by our fanbase. He would help us, no doubt. His decision making and efficiency inside the arc are concerning. He's pretty high volume - might surprise people to hear he takes the same amount of shot attempts per game as Verge did - and low efficiency. He's also not adept at creating for others at this level. Not the pure point guard most see him as. In an offense with more freedom and less overall talent, I think these aspects of his game may look even worse. He's in a program that generally churns out good decision makers and efficient numbers. He is only a sophomore and should keep improving. Traudt looked really good in Virginia's overseas trip last summer, apparently. Was as productive as anyone on their team. I just can't see him transferring. He chose to redshirt to wait for some older forwards to graduate. I think he'd be a primary option for their offense next year. Hopefully he wants to live closer to his girlfriend, but not too close. Maybe an hour away? I like Friedrichsen and hope he ends up here, but wouldn't expect him to make a huge impact as a true freshman. I think he'd look more like Jamarques Lawrence than Bryce McGowens. Grant Nelson will be an NBA forward, whether it's after this season or next. If he transfers, everyone will want him. His portal recruitment will be like Scheierman's. Love what I see from Sallis in the opportunities that he gets at Gonzaga. He doesn't force anything and you can see the talent. Two years getting coached by Few is invaluable for a guard. If he decides to go somewhere to fully utilize his skillset, I think you'll see a James Palmer-like progression. In my mind, Tonje is the shooter CJ is supposed to be, while being a much better defender and rebounder. Could be wrong, haven't seen him play much. I do think all six of these guys fit into the current culture and mentality of our team. And that's the most important thing. Odds are none of them end up at Nebraska and I just wasted my time typing all this out...