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Until the advent of this site, I thought there were only about five true basketball fans in this state. Others were casual fans or band wagon jumpers. Seriously, if you tried to sit down with most Nebraskans, their eyes would tend to glaze over when husker (or even Creighton) basketball would be brought up. Now, I know that is an over-exageration; but this site introduced me to true, for the most part, deeply passionate husker basketball fans. We can literally discuss our team 24/7/365.

We'll have our program's first NCAA tourney win. That's it. That's the post.

Two years ago, we were coming off the worst three-year run in the modern history of the program. Maybe ever, but I'm not going to go back to the beginning to verify. Twenty-four wins combined in his first three seasons here and I'm of the understanding Fred thought he was done, which was why he didn't schedule a youth basketball camp that summer after his third season. The only thing that probably saved his job was a potential need to keep our powder dry in order to fire Scott Frost at the helm of the flagship football program. That spring, we picked up a portal commit from a Lincoln kid who wanted to come home and play his last season of college basketball in front of the hometown crowd. Turns out, that pickup was transformational, as Fred recently acknowledged in comments about Sam coming back to watch our game against Penn State. Sam Griesel, according to Fred, changed the culture of the team. It was unselfish ball, and it allowed people (including potential recruits) to see what the finished product was supposed to look like when we ran our system instead of running hero-ball. There was another Summit League standout who was looking for a new home that same spring. A kid who grew up just west of here. We tried to get him to Lincoln. And he was gracious in turning us down. He observed that, while we're starting to build a culture here at Nebraska (which was a nice way of saying we didn't have one), another team just east of us already had one established. Hard to hold that against him. After three of the worst years in program history, it would have been a tall ask to get anyone to believe we were on the cusp of turning things around. You could get a local Lincoln kid to spend his last season of college ball here because it's literally his home. But drawing a kid with more extended eligibility was obviously not as easy. Last season, though, we, as fans, could get a better glimpse of how the pieces fit together when the system was run the way it was intended. And so could recruits. Big men and backcourt players alike could watch our film and envision what their role would be in a Husker uniform. We have a system. We have a culture. We finally have an identity. So, a little more than a year ago, I suggested the following: Fred has said the way things played out last year and the success on the floor that we had at the end put us in position to land guys like Rienk Mast and Brice Williams. And, frankly, Ahron Ulis, but that's a different matter. We got everything from the portal that we needed -- a skilled post to replace Walker, a solid point guard to replace Griesel, and an athletic wing to provide some scoring punch -- we just didn't plan on the extracurriculars that would keep Ulis from participating this year. And now, this year, it's hard to argue the trajectory of the program. And, again, potential recruits can watch our film and -- IMPORTANTLY -- they can easily see how they would fit within our system. I think that's huge when it comes to recruiting. It's like sales. You want the buyer to envision driving that car or drinking that beer. And I think kids will be able to imagine how they would fit in our program and how they could contribute. And the doors we're unlocking with the way this season is playing out ... the NET might not factor in the story lines, but kids hitting the portal sure will. All of this is just to say I think we'll enjoy our portal experience this spring. We have a FAR better chance of landing the kinds of players we were just missing out on a year or two ago.

Amen, CWS. I stopped posting elsewhere, tbh. I had to cull my fervor a bit & pick 1 site and stick with it. HHC is that good, it's one big family in my book. GBR

I’m stunned by this. I figured every Nebraska basketball fan had heard the Nebraska basketball sucks sentiment 100s of times from other Husker fans. I experience it all the time. Huge Husker football fans constantly making jokes about about how awful we are at basketball. “Don’t care, don’t watch, they’re the worst program in P5”. Obviously it’s far less right now, but it’s been a constant since the Collier era. Pisses me off to no end. Hell I know plenty of NU grads that are now Creighton fans because “Nebraska is terrible”. Bunch of pansies.

Great post Norm. I would say though - and not to take anything away from Sam - but that culture change also doesn't happen without Emmanuel Bandoumel and Juwan Gary coming in with the play hard team first attitudes they exhibited. Also FWIW probably not without a leader like Derrick Walker coming back for another year when he easiliy could have left.

Still relevant

Yep. The Nebraska sucks sentiment has permeated the Husker football fan base for 25 years. Those people frustrated me so damn much in the Collier and Sadler years. But I almost get more frustrated with them in times like this year (and 2014, 2018) when they suddenly become basketball “fans”. Call me selfish, but I don’t think they deserve to enjoy the good times. I’d much rather talk hoops with a Jaysker than a fake Nebraska basketball fan who has no idea who Nate Johnson is.

Oh yeah, we enjoyed it! Place was about 70% Husker fans. Looking forward to the next 3

Still living in east central Nebraska, I strongly disagree. No one out here gives two squats about either one of them. It would have been a different story had they went to Nebraska. I don't fault them for their decisions. It's their lives. Good for them. Maybe they can get pats on the back in downtown Omaha. I'm sure you know people in Aurora and Grand Island who care. No one else does. I guarantee it.

I call them the casual NU hoop fan. They also don’t watch a lot of college basketball period so they have unrealistic expectations. I agree they are very annoying.

The original Jaysker started with KU hoops and NU football, so that's the dynamic that began the duality.

Sam Hoiberg is the embodiment of game changing juju generated from one's viewing area

Predictions like this leave me shaking my head. I’m sorry, but in current state, our metrics alone are too good for Dayton. Theres no top 35 in both resume AND quality metrics that’s getting sent to Dayton.

The hire of Nate Loenser began the transition from specialized assistant roles that clearly were not working to more traditional roles where all the coaches contribute in all areas. We formed a basketball identity instead of trying to bring in highly rated guys that often did not fit together. As noted that identity allows us to filter our search for new talent into skills and attribute that we've seen work here. Very encouraging that what we're doing isn't with highly recruited players and that it seems sustainable.

Looks like there was one idiot with some hot takes in this thread. Shows what I know ... nothing.

I have cheered doggedly for the Huskers all of my life. Still, by any measurable standard Nebraska HAS BEEN a basketball failure with a few outlier seasons along the way. MOST Nebraskans desperately want to cheer for the Huskers as opposed to Creighton but decades of disappointment has made MANY timid about it. Everyone knows the issues. Alas!!! - Nebraska has not won a regular season conference title since 1950. 1950!!!! That means not in my lifetime! We would be giddy about finishing as a double bye team! - Nebraska has only made the NCAA tournament 7 times and is the ONLY P5 conference team that has never won a game. This state would come unglued if the Huskers changed that this year. If Creighton won the NCAA title and Nebraska just won a first round game FEW in this state would be talking about Creighton. Almost everyone would be talking about the Huskers! - Despite playing every year, Nebraska has only beaten Creighton 6 times in this century (one of the wins was an NIT match). It SICKENS me to eat crow instead of Bluejay every year! There is not systemic reason why Nebraska has done so poorly. I don't think we have to be a Final 4 team. But this whole state is a spring wound tight ready to rally around the Huskers. It could be like no other program in the country. We just need some hope!If If Hoiberg can get this train rolling and Sam G/Derrick Walker are the hinges on which the gate of success swings then I say bless 'em and put up some statues! GBR!!!!

People who equate Nebraska basketball to utter failure often just listen to the click bait of "never won an NCAA tournament game" and overlook the fact that before 1985 we had great teams better than others in the tournament but Kansas won the bids to the tournament. By modern day standards, we've been to the tournament 7 times...which isn't great. But it's not in the realm of failure. There are 185 teams (even counting years before 1985) who have made it to the tournament at or below what Nebraska has. That doesn't even factor in fan support where we are in the top 15 of in-person support across the nation. But I digress.

Debbie can pound sand. LOL

As is demonstrated by the fact that, suddenly, all of our remaining home games are sold out.

I’ve been around Omaha a long time, and I’m quite certain that the vast majority of the folks who say such things are fans of other teams. Also, history shows that, when Nebrasketball is even halfway good, Nebraskans jump on that bandwagon in a big hurry.

There is a stigma associated with Nebraska basketball that just never goes away in the minds of many Nebraskans. Granted, we have not been a great basketball program over the years, but we are not as bad as many think. I still hear people say how bad Nebraska is or make a joke about Nebraska basketball and everyone joins in and laughs like it is something you are suppose to do in Nebraska. Some of these people are even kind of fans but have no idea how the team is really playing or the schedule we are up against and so on. All of this filters down to the kids and they develop the same feelings toward NU hoops. It is a vicious cycle that never seems to end. Hopefully we can keep the program going in the right direction and things slowly start to change.

Love it. I had NU at 21-10 and 11-9 going into the season, and hardly anyone had predicted anything more that number of victories. I am now hedging on that as a bottoming out at that number. It's basically 2-2 for the remainder of the regular season. I'm hoping for A LOT of wins to close it out, including the BTT. This is our year, LET'S DO THIS!!

I couldn't decide on which artist to feature so I'm going with two this game. 1. Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Generally regarded as one of the greatest songwriters ever, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. Born: May 24, 1941 (age 82 years), Duluth, MN Hall of fame inductions: 1982, 1988, 2002 2. The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews, soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews, and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie Andrews. The sisters have sold an estimated 80 million records. They where from Minneapolis. Your up cip.

I'm surprised we don't rank better in shot selection. Of course, back when we were super high in shot selection, we used to lose a lot, so ...

Keisei effect lol

Fan of the year!

I would rather talk to anyone other than a jaysker. Sent from my moto g stylus 5G (2022) using Tapatalk

Here is our updated Team sheet. Note that the Minny road game is now a Q1 in current state while the game on Saturday will be a Q2!! A few other notes. - Getting that BPI into the 30's would be HUGE - Remember that a team who finishes with a sub 35 SOS and KPI has not been left out (I think I'm remembering this correctly) - While we are just 3-7 in Q1 currently, we do own a Q1A win (Purdue) which is a good thing. That win will still sick out on any resume. - Come on KSU... one more spot in the NET and we'd own another Q1 win... and a non-con road Q1 win to boot. - We're now nearly perfect in Q2 (4-1) and should Minny remain where they are in the NET and we win Sunday... our Q1 + Q2 record will be a solid 8-8 - Remaining games as it stands now- Minny Q2, Ohio St Q1, Rutgers Q3, Michigan Q2

That was half the rich kids at Lincoln East back in the 80s and 90s. They loved them some Duke. I grew up in Germany until I was a teenager so I had zero loyalties to anything in American sports outside of.....wait for it....Michigan and Iowa....(cue laugh track). Dad's family from Michigan, my sister went to college at Iowa when I was still a kid in Germany. Never even heard of Nebraska until my Dad managed to choose it over California as the place he was going to retire (thus ensuring his divorce from my German mother...lol). So, to shorten this up a bit, living in Bellevue in the ate 70s, I was introduced to Bluejay hoops by my stepdad and went to a ton of games before I even *set foot* in Lincoln for the first time. Yet, every football season, I'd start learning to root for the legendary Huskers as my Dad and I became fans pretty quickly (I played football in Europe before a tumor took me out of sports entirely). So Jayskers have existed for years and years, and technically, I would have been one of them! That would change soon enough as I would become a Husker in 1980 (and still remember watching Bo Jackson try to run on a rain soaked stadium field and failing!). Sorry for the bio, but I've always found this whole subject and animosity amusing here.

Idk how you can list Rutgers and not Minny though…

This is all Childress - work fast & attack the zone. Trust your stuff. Trust your defense. Let me call the game and focus on executing your pitches. There's no time for overthinking it and other nonsense, whether it's in practice, warming up in the bullpen, or with in-game situations. When it's time to work, we're going to work. It's paying dividends so far with most of the guys we're putting on the bump - newcomers and, after last night, veterans alike. And it doesn't hurt when you can teach kids how to throw the slider like almost no one else in the country. And I'm not trying to disparage what Christy did last year - what he did worked for some guys. Overall and staff-wide, though, it's just different with Childress in charge.

Quite frankly it was egregious. The guy with the perfect angle had already made the right call, and this dumass races in to screw it all up. Thank goodness the game wasn't close... at the end, that is. Sheesh.

Worst call of the night, and he was bad all night

Any win over Indiana still means something with 5 natty banners hanging overhead. Doesn't matter their present situation, in my mind. Gotta keep beatin' I.U. -- that's probably how Indiana feels about beating NU in football, tbh.

I am from a generation where Indiana Basketball is revered. The 1976 Hoosiers were the best team ever until proven otherwise. Plus, I love the candy stripes.

It's very annoying, yes. The one call that ref changed the possession, and he was 30' away, that one was especially annoying. Because the dude was dead wrong!!

Christo putting his name in for a weekend starting spot. 5 scoreless innings 4 hits only 1 walk and 4 strikeouts.

Guarantee is a pretty strong word, cip. I wouldn't guarantee anything related to one's fandom. A lot of ppl like Scheierman, hard-care and even casual sports fans. Maybe I just know all of 'em, but I doubt that's true. Anywho, I agree that B.S. would have been a bigger star in the state of Nebraska if he had worn RED instead of blue. That's true, for sure.

We will be there Sunday for the first time this year. Will definitely be a no sit... or rarely sit guy.

I thought about starting a new thread for this, but royalfan said it perfectly. No Sit Sunday was a big deal for the Husker program and what Tim Miles did here. You can't recreate that. However, these next two Sundays can catapult the Husker program into areas we dreamt about in the early 90's with Danny! Everyone in attendance has to do their all to make sure Nebraska wins these games! I know you will! GBR!

Over the past few weeks, he’s posted this a couple of times. We’ve been inching our way north toward that green trapezoid. That’s a good thing! Where we are at, from what I gather, means we can play fast or slow if we need to, but we’re pretty efficient either way.

I feel like Fred stopped looking for Uber talented guys like Bryce McGowens and instead looked for guys who played with fire and heart. He has found that in guys like Gary, mast, Allick, his son, Keisei and sooooo many more. Guys who play with that edge and fire. They don’t care what the box score says, they just want to win. Don’t love we have to live in the portal but that might just be todays college basketball. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Someone on r/Huskers the other day (a Husker fan nonetheless) made a comment about the Skers being the "worst P5 men's hoops program of all time" and it sent me into an apoplectic rage. I had to correct him and point out that our overall winning percentage put us ahead of about a dozen other P5 programs. It's just the "never won in the tournament" narrative that so many folks cling to that gives them that impression. Like, I think people are genuinely surprised to learn that we have a better win % (and more wins overall) than Iowa State even though we've gone through 25 years of pretty pathetic records and Iowa State has been elite for 40 years now.

Regardless of exactly how the rest of the season plays out or how deep of a run we make, if we reach the dance and the following players return, we should expect to be ranked at the beginning of next year: 1. Rienk Mast 2. Juwan Gary 3. Brice Williams 4. CJ Wilcher 5. Jamarques Lawrence 6. Sam Hoiberg

Debbie still says to pump your brakes.

I actually think they don't have every excuse in the book this season. Really only have very few left. And with each win we cross another one off their list. Here soon they will have no list left.

We need PBA to be completely rocking these next two home games. Playing 2 very dangerous teams and can easily lose to either of them. The average fan might not realize it. We have to help bringh these guys home.

I wouldn't put much stock in that opinion... just my thought.

I don't agree with that, at all. NU will never be a #12 because the last 4 in are usually 11's. The mid-majors are typically 12's. I can see a scenario where NU can figure into Omaha, but it involves getting a bunch more wins yet. We shall see. I'm not counting us out, let's just say. When it doesn't happen, then it doesn't happen. My wishful thinking is personal in nature.