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I'm happy to, JimmyKc. It is a poem from the great Carl Sandburg. Even though sport brings us together it is nice to be able to stretch a bit. The poem is accessed in the link below. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=40527

https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/article/nebraska-basketball-justin-bolis-walk-on--231449167/ Great article from Nebrasketball fan Brian Christopherson. Hard not to root for this kid. As a Lincoln kid I hope he lives out his dream.

At this point the depth chart is 1. Worster/Ulis 2-4 - Everyone else 5. Morgan/Meah At this time I see Essegian and Griffiths like I see Keisei and CJ: a couple of SGs where you play the guy with the hot hand. I think Essegian gets the nod because he's more experienced. I could see, with spots listed Worster(1)/Ulis(1/2) Essegian(2/3)/Griffiths(2/3/4)/Hoiberg(2/1)Janowski(2/1) Williams(3/4/2) Gary(4/3) Morgan(5/4)/Meah(5) Frager(Redshirt/3/4)

I see a lot of people with Essegian as the 3... I do not see him playing the 3 spot at all. He is definitely a 2 through and through IMO Starters Listed First () - minutes at that position 1 - Rollie(25)/Ulis(15)/Williams(Only gets minutes if there is foul trouble) 2 - Essegian(25)/Hoiberg(15)/Janowski(Redshirt or gets Hoibergs minutes) 3 - Williams(30)/Griffith(5)/Gary(5) 4 - Gary(30)/Griffith(10)/Morgan(Only gets minutes if there is foul trouble) 5 - Meah(20)/Morgan(20)

Rosters kinda clunky right now. We have sacrificed some shooting for some length which I think we needed to do. Don’t feel great about anyone after my perceived starting 5 + hoiberg though. A 4 man that could play 20+ minutes a night would go a long ways to shoring things up. IF GG is the guy recruiting services thought he was out of high school and he can start at the 3 then slide Williams to the 2 a lot of this would be a moot point to. Would just plain outscore people with enough length on defense to force a lot of turn overs and bad shots. That feels like a big If tho

Connor Essegian is the guy I'm looking at next year. Seems like he has the chance to make a James Palmer type jump

I guess we see it differently. To me we have more depth and potential than last year and last years team was pretty good. Morgan might not be Mast but the rest of the additions are or could be upgrades. Having a true PG (or 2) is a big deal to me as well. Doesn’t mean we will be better but gives me hope we can be better. If we do get a good stretch 4, I think we are much improved over last year.

When has a Nebrasketball season with high hopes ever worked out anyway? Seems our best seasons are the ones where expectations were cautiously optimistic.

While jucos can be so hit (Keisei) or miss (Jervay), might not be a bad guy to look at. Put some weight on him, and we could have something special. He can create his own shot, make tough shots, hit 3s at a nice clip, and he appears to be a willing passer. Plus, as Fred has collected much more "team player" talent than "me" talent, he can sit guys who get greedy and don't play within the confines of the system. Win-win if he's interested. Hopefully being from Nebraska (albeit not Lincoln), he'd have good buy-in.

Will have plenty of scholarships open in 2025. Seems like a good one to take a shot with.

Fred has been pretty consistent in his time at Nebraska with using an 8 or 9 man rotation, typically 9 or so in non-conference and 7 or 8 as the season gets down to February and injuries have happened. So let's ask it this way...if healthy, what's your order of confidence of a player being in the 8-man rotation at the end of the season? 1A. Williams (Brice and Juwan clear top 2) 1B. Gary (Brice and Juwan clear top 2) 3. Morgan (most skilled big man we have right now...has to play a lot) 4. Worster (I see no scenario where he ends up being on the bench given his well rounded game) 5. Meah (whether he starts the game or not I don't know and it doesn't matter (unless we really want to win the tip) 6. Essegian (one of our most proven collegiate offensive players but will he play defense? And there's a world where Janowski outplays him) 7. Griffiths (has a unique skillset but he'll need to shoot it better and play defense) 8. Ulis (I barely have him ahead of Sam...I don't know what to think of Ulis, he was just OK at Iowa and we have two guys I listed below that are warriors) 9. Hoiberg (I want to have him higher because I just feel like the dude will find a way to help us win games in February and March, and Ulis could be the one he bumps out) 10. Janowski (if he is not in the rotation at the end of the season I think we will have had a very good year because I think he can play) 11. Frager (if he is in the rotation at the end of the season we have likely had some bad injuries)

In Fred’s offense there is not really any difference in the 2-3 spots IMO. Doesn’t really matter except for who you can guard on the other end.

I think you just have to look at this through the lense of "why did they come here?" and go from there. For instance, I promise you, Worster did not come here, from Utah, to ride the bench or play 2nd fiddle to Ulis. If anything Ulis is coming off the bench or we have some two PG line-ups depending on defensive match-ups and whatnot. Essegian and Griffiths are similar. Both are coming from somewhere that they absolutely showed "something," but ultimately it did not work out and they know they need a fresh start. That's why I have no problem putting them into a position where they know they'll have to be competing for time. Morgan and Meah, had Mast been returning, I am on the fence with. But as of now you almost have to pencil Morgan into the starting line-up. I do not think Meah is a starter or fits what we want to be doing most of the time. His time will be determined by match-up and game-to-game needs, imo. 1. Worster 2. Williams 3. Gary/No idea 4. No idea/Gary 5. Morgan That's all I can confidently say right now.

Oversized guards who can shoot 3s are to Fred Hoiberg as Swedish made penis pumps are to Austin Powers

I'd say in a perfect world we get an usable PF out of the portal, we stay relatively injury free, Bolis redshirts this season, and he eventually becomes good enough where we give him a scholarship. For this season seems like a 'break glass in case of big man emergency' addition.

Most of these PWOs are receiving NIL money that essentially works as a scholarship. What that amount is or what % over their education it covers, I can't answer.

NIL

According to Patrick Reusse, Payne got North of 500K to go to A&M. Ben’s ENTIRE NIL Budget for the rest of the Roster is in the 340-350 neighborhood.

I remember when he was an NU commit. Can't believe he finally made it to the bigs - good for him.

In one of Berke’s highlights I saw him shoot imaginary arrows into the crowd after a made shot and it gave me nightmares

I just want to hear Kent Pavelka pronounce "Buyuktuncel"!

I hope / expect Bolt and NU's AD will be in contact with the B1G office this week to gain some assurances that Purdue won't be able to pull the BS it did a couple of years ago by pretending it was going to rain and leaving the tarp on the field to avoid having to play their final game to steal the #8 seed. We better get some assurances that the B1G will be deciding -- rather than the PU coaches and officials -- whether weather stops PU from playing at any time that final weekend if the race remains tight. The chances of everything lining up so that PU could win the league by not playing on the final Sunday are small, but PU's coach is a @&*$@#$@ and will try to do it if he can get away with it. Whether the B1G cares enough about baseball to make sure that doesn't happen remains to be seen.

Offensive system we run is much more of a fit for him than Wisconsins, and they were a top 25 efficiency offense most of the year. Way they get their shots vs us fit his play style. Having positive size at that 2 spot also helps. I think one of him or Gavin need to take a leap to "day in day out contributor you can count on". Doesn't really matter who to me. There's reason to believe both could, but they just need to do it.

I see GG as the X factor on the team. If he reaches his potential we could be pretty darn good if everyone else stays healthy and plays as expected. As of right now, I don't think he will start though.

Boosters aren't going to pay up now because they don't have faith in Johnson. The question is if they'll get involved if Minnesota decides to get serious and hire a big time coach who demands NIL big bucks. St. John's boosters did and they got Pitino. Now they're going after big portal names.

Thanks, I was not familiar with that poem. I hope they are 6'9" and 6'10".

We are going to be very disappointed if GG is having to play 10 minutes a game at the 4 position in Big tens games I think. Or he’s gonna have to live in the weight room until November to not get eaten alive on defense as a 4

His numbers from 3 look impressive (124-274) By comparison, Keisei in his final year at JUCO was 48.7% (94-193). It looks like he can create his own shot and can score from multiple levels. Fred will heckle him for those step in long 2s. I like kicking the tires though, could be Brice Williams 2.0 Speaking of Brice Williams 2.0 go look up picture of Terran Petteway today, he could be Williams doppleganger.

A combo guard?! What’s with that (although 45.3% from three isn’t bad)? Edit: An Omaha Bryan product?!

B1G Remaining Opponents Illinois: Iowa, @Purdue Nebraska: Indiana, @Michigan State Purdue: @Michigan, Illinois Indiana: @Nebraska, Michigan Iowa: @Illinois, Non-con Michigan: Purdue, @Indiana Mich St: @Minnesota, Nebraska Maryland: Non-Con, Penn St OSU: Northwestern, @Rutgers Penn St: Rutgers, @Maryland Minnesota: Michigan St, @Northwestern Rutgers: @Penn St, Ohio St Northwestern: @Ohio St, Minnesota Interesting finish as a bunch of teams at the top all play each other and the bottom mostly play each other. Officially eliminated from B1G tournament play is Northwestern. They started really well and fell off a cliff. Rutgers must sweep to make the B1G tournament. 2/4 wins for them are against us. Wahh wahhh. Wasted opportunity. Maryland and Iowa have the least chances to move up as each had just 1 remaining series. Our series this weekend is HUGE. That didn’t appear like it’d be the case 2-3 weeks ago, but Indiana turned it on going 7-2 in their last three B1G series. They started off 5-3 in B1G play. Would greatly benefit us for Illinois and Purdue to lose 1-2 this weekend. Purdue is most likely to sweep. Iowa will be throwing everything they got to try and cement their B1G tournament spot against Illinois. That last weekend could be big with a chance at a sweep for us AND Purdue and Illinois likely beating up on each other.

Po: If I may be so bold, could you interpret your "tagger" for me? It is driving me crazy like one of those personalized license plates in front of your car which are too cryptic. Thanks, and welcome to the board.

Corey Montgomery was Danielle Pages replacement, so to speak when Danielle graduated. She started the year Kelsey missed on IR. The next year they went undefeated

Baseball using margin of victory is unequivocally idiotic. Great teams win close ones, good ones blow one team out then lose a close one to a great team.... NCAA needs to figure their shit out with the post-season criterion for MOV.

Ugh - just a brutal approach at the plate today. Lazy fly balls are never the answer, but especially against a team that kicks it around as much as Minny does. Make them field it and throw it. Kind of reminded me of what that soft thrower for Maryland did to us, as it felt like we chased a lot of high stuff again. 2 runs on a Sunday is going to be an L 99.9 % of the time. Really disappointing as we've been much better at the plate of late other than against elite pitching. We didn't see that today. We had a chance to really stamp ourselves as the favorites to win the league today. Going to be a tight race to the B1G title. Probably ends our chance to host, too, save winning out plus at least getting to the final unscathed in Omaha. I assume Brockett starts Tuesday - I wonder if he has it going well again whether we get him out of there after 3 or 4 innings and he gets the ball next Sunday. Or maybe we roll the dice and just give him the ball next Sunday. I'm good with either approach at this point. Walsh certainly isn't losing Sunday games for us of late -- the offense is doing that -- but he's not giving us the best chance to win either. I liked Christo out of the pen today in a shorter burst - we probably just left him in there too long. Hopefully he can embrace that role the rest of the way.

Sam as a viable offensive threat from the outside makes him playable with our PGs and enables us to play Brice at the 4 as needed

If I had a dollar for every time I said those exact words when a certain soccer thread rears its ugly head...

I see a lot of 2 deep predictions. Thinking back to last year at this time and how I felt about the portal class I would say I feel better about the portal class this year. I state that to state this. Color me skeptical if we go 8-9 deep Sam Hoiberg isn't in that 8-9. And I reject any notion that means something bad. I said what I said!

He usually doesn't comment on someone unless there's legitimate substance.

You should see Dirk coach his son’s youth basketball games. He’s the Bo Pelini of youth basketball.

This is the case.

Unfortunately for us she is going to Iowa State. I thought we had a great chance to get her. Oh well I hope we have another post in mind or a way to stay healthy with the ones we have.

Let's hope we get to find out. I so wish we had a lead in this matter. Do we have a legitimate shot at him (and/or) another player. I think NU really needs a stretch four in light of Mast's bad-fortune.