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We all need to appreciate just the kind of resilience CJ Wilcher has had to get to this point. Dude started 24 of 32 games for us last year, and got recruited over. Slid down our depth chart. Instead of pouting, he’s actually played the best basketball of his career and has embraced his role: FG%: 49.4% this year (39.9% last year) 3PT%: 40.0% this year (31.3% last year) He has gone from 27 mpg to 16 mpg and is matching his production from last year while also cutting his turnovers significantly. He is a revelation.

While I believe it was a little of the first, I don’t want to poo on how we played that night either. That was a battle of two teams who didn’t want to start conference play 0-2. Make no mistake, MSU wanted that one and they weren’t taking things for granted either. I don’t think they took us lightly at all. However, I’d much rather have played them when we did instead of now or February.

I cannot praise Potts enough. Heady ball player. Wisconsin’s big girl getting a T for taunting is the decisive point of the game. We are escaping with a W!

Real talk. I've been a part of the mob since the end of his 2nd season and I don't have any regrets. Even at the end of last season I still believed that he needed to hit a minimum of an NIT (still do btw). Depending on the day I also believe that he needs to make the NCAA. I don't believe that is the least bit unreasonable based on his body of work at Nebraska. The performance of that never quit group from last season, despite being severely undermanned did give me pause, however that was year 4. We've all been around sports a long time and know that these kinds of turnarounds are unheard of and I'm not talking about from last season to this season but from what we saw the first 3 seasons to now. Can anyone think of a close example in college basketball? I can't. So, with that said... IF.... IF he manages to turn this around and get us to the NCAA and *gasp* actually win a game it would be one of the most incredible turnarounds of all time .... OF ALL TIME. @Norm Peterson said the quit part out loud in his first sentence. All of us are thinking it, and none of us want to say it for fear of what that would mean if it where to come true or if the opposite where to also come true. The joy of the former, from a sports perspective, would be matched only by sitting at the Orange Bowl watching the Huskers beat Miami and the later being at the Orange Bowl watching the Huskers lose as a Byron Bennet field goals goes wide left the year prior. As for me I'm going to live in the moment. I'm looking at the season in blocks of games. Once we get through those games then I'll focus on the next 4 games. I can't bring myself to look to far ahead.

To be fair, the season could have went two completely different ways after that Minnesota debacle. FH teams of the past would have folded. This years team is different. We’ve been trained not to expect the season to go the way it’s gone.

I'm just quoting this because I can't upvote it a second time! CJ has been all class and a breath of fresh air in this transfer portal era where players cut and run at a little adversity instead of working to make their situation better. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony of CJ being a transfer)

Potts saves the day. Lackadaisical play all around and very poor situational awareness. A win is a win, though. Hope they flush this one out of the system quickly.

Ha, it is funny how much our perspective has changed since the Minnesota 2H debacle. I look back at my early posts in this thread and cringe. To be fair though, the 2H against Minnesota was one of the most pathetic 20 minute stretches I could remember in quite some time and that was against what I thought was a terrible basketball team. It turns out Minnesota doesn't appear to be all that bad of a squad. The Creighton game and the 2H of Minnesota appear to be an anomaly at this point (hopefully!). I guess the moral of the story is that fortunes and our perspective can change quickly. I'll try to remember after the next bad loss but this is precisely why fan is short for fanatic! Fortunately we don't get paid to make head coaching decisions or Fred would have been run out of here hundreds of times over again

Really glad to get the W on the road and get off to a 3-0 conf. start. Wins on the road don't come easy against anyone. We didn't seem to have the same sense of urgency as UW until about 5 min or so left in the 4th Q. Again we see Potts step up and saw hustle from her and Hake as well as White down the stretch. Fortunate to have that T called on them to help us pull away a little. Quite a bit that can be pointed out as critique but don't want to bore people with endless words. Hopefully we will execute better on Sunday as obviously we will need to. GBR!!

Who's forgotten that? His record is only part of the issue. It was the play on the court. He could have done what he did last season his 1st season and been competitive, but he didn't do that. Do your remember the play on the court? Remember the offense? YOLO 3 balls. No, I quit giving him the benefit of the doubt by the end of his 3rd season. He was in charge of that mess and we can thank Trev for forcing him to make the necessary changes that have resulted in this team playing competitive basketball. If he has the type of season that we are all expecting then I'm willing to reset everything and consider the '22-'23 season his year 1. Those first 3 years where so bad that it he would have win nearly 75% of his games for the next 4-5yrs just to get his overall record to .500.

It's because Fred & Co. now have gritty, no-nonsense dudes who were born winners, not a bunch of guys looking for a pay check at the next level. It's the difference between Matty recruitin' and Fred now having a solid cast of experienced assistants who have brought the 'fit' to the roster instead of merely highly rated guys over a roster that fits together.... truly, it's remarkable the change Hoiberg has sustained under Trev Alberts 'The Process' AD instead of Bill 'Aloof' Moos. Nebrasketball is on the right path, let's see how far they go in 2024. GBR

I projected 2-3 in our first 5. We already have that with 2 more opportunities for wins in the first 5 conference games. But we've already cleared 2. I think we *can* win 3 out of each of the next 3 sets of five games, including a closing W in Ann Arbor, to get to 11 conference wins. I think 11 conference wins is in play. If the team that showed up against MSU, KSU, IU and the first halves of Minnesota and SDSU is the team that we see most of in the 2nd half of the season, I don't think we're going to have to talk about the bubble. I'll quote myself: "We're either good enough or we're not." Computers are irrelevant to what happens on the floor. We're either good enough to win the games we need to win to make the tourney or we don't belong in the tourney. And the team I've been seeing has enough pieces to make this really, really interesting.

Don't anger the gods

When KM came in during the 2nd half, it seemed our team defense picked up a bit. Nothing scientific, but it seemed we were more athletic, quicker as a unit. I thought she gave us a nice bump in the short time she played.

Well, not pretty; but effective. Good win ladies!

Potts was tonight’s MVP.

Husker Ladies find the intensity in Q4, that they lost in the third, and recover to win by 12 pts; 69-57 Particular Thanks to Natalie Potts, Alexis Markoswki and Darian White. Huskers start B1G Play 3-0 for the first time since doing it the first year they joined the conference in 2011/12. Final Stats: -------------------------- https://huskers.com/news/2024/01/4/huskers-beat-badgers-start-3-0-in-big-ten Final Stats (PDF) Madison, Wis. - Natalie Potts scored all of her game-high 16 points in the second half, while Alexis Markowski produced her 30th career double-double to power Nebraska to a 69-57 Big Ten women's basketball road win at the Kohl Center on Thursday night. With the victory, Nebraska improved to 3-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since NU's first season in the conference (2011-12), while moving to 11-3 overall. Wisconsin slipped to 7-6 and 0-3 in the league. As a team, Nebraska hit 43.9 percent (25-57) of its shots from the field, including 9-of-27 (.333) three-pointers. The Huskers also won the turnover battle, 14-11. NU held Wisconsin to 36.1 percent (22-61) shooting for the game, including 7-of-33 threes (.212). UW won the war on the boards 38-36, including nine rebounds to go with 16 points from Serah Williams.

Maybe Collison can bring Eric Chenowith with him the next time he goes to a game. In the 99 game in Lincoln, Kansas was up pretty big early in the first half, and Chenowith made a steal and went down for a very impressive dunk. Someone in my section yelled "Not bad!....For a pu**y!". Venson Hamilton outclassed him up and down the court for the rest of the night and I never saw him have a good game again.

A poor excuse. NU is the State school, and Husker fans in Omaha outnumber all other fans (C.U., Iowa, Iowa St., Kansas St., etc.) combined. Such a personal bias from the editorial staff is one of the reasons sports fans stop subscribing to that paper.

Love me some Righteous Brothers! Didn't know Bobby Hatfield was from Wisconsin. Thanks for challenging me, Bugeaters!

JA now has a defined role on this team which will get him a lot of minutes. I noticed after the flagrant when he hit both of his shots he stepped away and raised his arms like finely. Very self deprecating moment there. I don't care what the announcers said, that was a flagrant 2. It wasn't his momentum, he was intentionally reaching, first making contact with his face and mouth (almost fish hooked him) and then pulling him down by his neck violently. KT's game has evolved so much, especially that floater. He moves so well without the ball. What he does really well is dish the ball. Teams are so hyper-focused on his ability to make 3's that it leaves gaps in the defense for him to give up the ball for easy buckets by his teammates. He's also an underrated defender. Does a great job of jumping lanes and in general being a pest. Props to CJ for always continuing to battle. He's playing his role. Any word on his injury. I know for a fact that RM was no where near a 100%. He shouldn't have played. His presence has to be accounted for by our opponent. Quiet 15 for Bryce and 12 for JL. 9 players with 10+ minutes. Playing a team with the kind of length and height of IU and getting a win was big and will help us down the road. We where essentially even on rebounds with them.

Gotta wonder if this team is where it is right now if the injuries to Gary and Bandomel don't happen last year. I think those injuries helped get players like Lawrence, Hoiberg and Kesei confidence over the last half of last season. That is playing a big part in what we have now. Without those injuries are we where we are now?? maybe but its interesting to think about.

One of Milwaukee's greatest

I am 100% with you @Ron Mexico. He does get a tiny bit of grace due to COVID right in the middle of the rebuild, but those first two years were bad. Like, embarrassingly bad. It must be said though that the culture flip that has occurred over the last half of last season and the first half of this season should be enough in my eyes to earn a bit more grace. I don't think one can quantify what needs to happen this season (NIT, NCAA, etc.) for him to be retained. It's gonna be more of an eye test and vibe thing going in to the offseason that will ultimately determine his fate. I really hope he does enough for us to look forward to his return next season. If he somehow manages a top 4 Big Ten finish and say, get that elusive NCAA Tourney win, then we're gonna be REAL nervous going into the offseason because I think he'll have plenty of suitors willing to make him some pretty attractive offers. So, I say, let the man cook and stick behind him as best we can and let the season shake out as it will.

And if Fred does get us to the tournament and we actually win a game, our level of recruits will jump dramatically. Hoiberg's name still cares alot of weight. I agree it has taken longer than expected but think he has finally figured out what it takes to win in the Big 10 and how to recruit and build a roster.

People seem to forget the first two seasons involved completely rebuilding a whole roster during a pandemic. That is truly a once in a lifetime event (we hope). Yes everyone had to deal with Covid but it was much easier for experienced teams with a solid roster in place. Not traveling to recruit or have guys visit our facilities was killer. So I have always given him the benefit of the doubt for those years. I do agree it should only take 3-4 years to build a hoops program normally so I think he is on track for that if we take care of business this year. Never understood those that wanted him gone after year 2-3. Hope we never have to worry about it anymore.

Very inconsistent, for sure. Wisconsin was allowed all kinds of contact against the Nebraska ball-handlers in the 2nd half and then Nebraska got whistled for a few calls where an out-of-control Wisconsin player just ran over the Nebraska player standing in the way. Though they're changing the charge/block calls, I would think the defensive player still has the right to a spot on the floor when they've established position prior to the offensive player bowling them over.

Yeah, they will be out for blood when we meet them again in the Sweet 16, Elite 8 or Final 4 this year

It's just way to early to be handing out accolades (or even props) this early to a coach and team that have only tallied these wins against the 350th best non-con and 283rd best overall KenPom strength of schedule, I mean, 12-2 should honestly be about the expectation here. Even for Nebraska. As Nick Saban would put it this kind of stuff is "Rat Poison" and we need to be real careful not to pat ourselves on the back too early and declare this season a total success. Not saying it can't happen and we can't achieve all the goals we set out to reach...but coach of the year talk is just too premature IMO. Talk to me in about 10 days from now about this stuff.

Note how he used the word enemy. Tricky tricky Mitch. It's forces the reader into the binary of either he's our friend or our enemy. No Mitch, he plays for our direct competitor.

I just wanted to comment that the last game I participated in was Creighton, so I am bowing out the rest of the season for the good of the team.

Nebraska has broken into the top 50 in Pom and Trank with results last night. NET now into the 50’s. MSU is now a solid Q1 win for us while Minnesota is just 6 spots away from being a Q1 loss!

My dad and I talked about the importance of besting Michigan state when we did. They were figuring out rotations and roles on the court like has been posted above, but they will do the typical Michigan state thing and win like 19 of their last 20. Gonna become a really good resume building win come early march I think.

Efficiencies listed on Live Stats: Potts 21, Shelley 13, Markowski 13 and White 5.

2 pt game and the Badgers want it more. We have no execution on offense and getting out worked, out played and out coached. Get Potts back in the game!

Get White back in the game please. Alexis is getting worked by their big girl. We need a spark.

See my post elsewhere and the Coaches and the box for another point of emphasis that hasn't been emphasized.

Up 11 but we are getting out hustled. On a positive note we have the lead without Jaz scoring and Coley and Moriarity had 9 points.

Seems like Callin Hake has "Turned the Corner."

Who is this Hake gal?? She’s playing with such confidence!

Good to see the on court chemistry growing and developing. Having gone to every home game, it’s noticeably better and improved now than it was at the beginning of the season. And Allick is settling in very nicely as the first to the floor general

Another Milwaukee band...

I still believe most fans and some coaches within our league do not believe Nebraska has a basketball team. Time and success is the only way we change that narrative. Until then, most fans will be pi**ed off when they lose to us.

It's true. #362. Here's Hoiberg's numbers at Nebraska. He tends to be in the middle of the road but our depth probably explains things this season.

The Steve Miller Band is on tap for this one. Steve was Born in Milwaukee in 1943. Steve formed his band in San Francisco in 1966.

Many on this board may change opinions quickly if this season doesn’t progress as well as the optimists on here want. We all desire a high conference finish and that elusive NCAA bid and the ever elusive NCAA victory. I like the team but am not convinced, yet, that we can clear all the upcoming hurdles.