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One thing that we need to remind ourselves is that part of coaching is just that, actually coaching basketball skills. We seem to get lost in thinking that Player A did this at his last school so that is exactly what he is and he can't be a different or better player for Nebraska and for Fred Hoiberg. Brice Williams was a 6th man. At Charlotte. He averaged 13.8 / 5.3 / 1.2 playing against AAC competition. He averaged 13.4 / 5.5 / 2.5 at Nebraska starting every game and playing in the Big Ten. Essentially you could say a guy whose role was Charlotte's 6th man in 2022-23 was arguably Nebraska's best and most important player in 2023-24 on the the best team we've had in a longggg time. He had more assists this season than he did in 3 years at Charlotte. No one last year would have been saying this guy would be doing all that. Rienk Mast shot 122 treys for us last year when his previous season totals were 92, 95, 68. Mast had 95 assists when his previous season totals were 37, 44, 70. He was more of an outside threat and distributor at Nebraska than he ever was at Bradley. Keisei Tominaga was not really a very good player for the first 1.5 years of his Nebraska career. Until Fred unlocked him and then he transformed his game into being a scorer both inside and out and getting to the free throw line. If you remember to 2021-22, he was not that whatsoever. Fred Hoiberg is our basketball coach. The Big Ten Coach of the Year and National Coach of the Year. He is by all accounts an offensive genius. Our system and sets immediately put our players in a better situation than they have probably ever been in in their lives. The difference between last year and previous years is he stopped just taking the highest rated player they could get or biggest name they could get and instead actually found skillsets that would complement each other and make for a tough, good team. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that the players he is bringing in is because he sees something in them that he can bring out.

Just you wait until I win one of those billion dollar Powerballs!

So…at this point, is it safe to conclude that Rimdal from Florida is the only transfer that the coaching staff is bringing aboard? Sigh. I’m sure the staff pursued other players in the portal this spring, and for whatever reason, those players chose to sign someplace else. I get it, that happens. I’m just very nervous about how much more difficult this conference will become next season.

This won’t be the lineup but: Brice 6’7” GG 6’8” Gary 6’7” Morgan 6’10” Meah 7’1” Just once I want to see this monstrosity.

Kind of hard to judge without knowing everyone they may have contacted. We know of a few but there could be more. I hope they went after players that would push the starters for their spot and just did not make the cut. If they are done then let's hope we do not have any major injuries for the up coming season.

Ditto

Essentially or Essegianly?

If no one more comes our way then I fear that the conference in general (and several of the teams) got better and we didn't. Yes, two of the frosh are great acquisitions, but they are after all frosh and their best contributions are probly down the road a piece. Wish we had acquired a player with more experience and maturity. I am disappointed.

i am guessing they are done. seems like it goes that direction once the staff hits the road to recruit. they know who is coming and who has chosen to go elsewhere (as far as contacts they have made). a bit disappointing. i thought with the great showing they had in the big ten tourney and making the ncaa's, they could find a "big".

Wilcher Sr. seems to enjoy it

About like most sports-ball teams, "Not My Money"! Buffett will sit in others' suites at football games, lol.

You know, I think this resembles what a lot of people were saying after last season about Mast replacing Walker. A lot of folks were saying we wouldn't find a big man who could distribute the ball like Walker did...but Mast came in this season and did a fine job of playing that role. I'm just kinda thinking that's more about Hoiberg and his system than it is about who is in it. If that makes any sense.

The way I looked at it is that Lilly T. prefers the power forward position instead of the center position. She wouldn't beat out Potts at Nebraska and will play alongside Crooks at Iowa State for the next three years. It came down to us and Iowa St. and they won this one like they did with their sixth year great point guard Emily Ryan. I think they also recruited Potts who I think is the better power forward.

Purdue is going to mix it up this year, they will play their 7'3" guy and their 7'2" guy at the same time once in a while

While I think any rational basketball fan would agree with you. Having a true point guard is a big deal. My counter to that statement... I think what made us so good last year was how different we were to the norm. Mast was our main distributor IMO, and Morgan is not going to be that. I am not going to downplay any of the guys we picked up, because I haven't seen them work together. I also am not going to say what we got is better than Wilcher and Lawrence either. With all that said, we could be very good or back to our old ways next year. Rollie is the key, and if he is a good distributor I think Williams and Gary could be pretty dominant next year. Oddly enough I think we may be better from behind the arc than our past season, but we won't have the same energy Keisei brought. Just like football (on the field)... show me on the court. The off season is for dreamers, I need actual proof before I say a group is an upgrade or not. I guess I wish we waited a little bit, and pushed harder for Milicic. I think part of the reason he committed to Tennessee is Morgan was already committed. He was definitely more the style I think Fred likes than Morgan. Obviously Fred took Morgan and sees something I do not, and I am going hold my hopes on that.

It looks like we’ll have lots flexibility & moving parts. I’m intrigued by: Worster Williams Janowski Griffiths Meah

Maybe when we play at Purdue. I’m sure they have a new giant ready to go now that Edey is gone.

B1G standings thru week 7: 13-5 Illinois 12-6 NU 12-6 Purdue 12-6 Indiana 13-8 Iowa 11-7 Michigan 9-9 Mich St 10-11 Maryland 8-10 Ohio St 7-11 Penn St 7-11 Minnesota 4-14 Rutgers 2-16 N'western Week 8 B1G Schedule Indiana at NU Iowa at Illinois Purdue at Michigan Mich St at Minnesota N'western at Ohio St Rutgers at Penn St Maryland OFF Week 9 B1G Schedule NU at Mich St Illinois at Purdue Michigan at Indiana Ohio St at Rutgers Penn St at Maryland Minnesota at N'western Iowa OFF Remaining Schedule for Contenders Illinois: vs Iowa, at Purdue (remaining opponent record 25-14) NU: vs Indiana, at MSU (21-15) Indiana: at NU, vs Mich (23-13) Purdue: at Mich, vs Illinois (24-12) Michigan: vs Purdue, at Indiana (24-12) Iowa: at Illinois (13-5) We still have the easiest schedule remaining, although we missed a big chance to stamp ourselves at the favorite Sunday in Minneapolis. If Iowa can sweep Illinois this weekend, they'll be in the clubhouse with 16 wins and have a pretty decent shot of winning at least a share of the league, as crazy as that would seem. Maryland is going to be very interesting too. Their RPI is more than enough to be in the NCAAs, but if they struggle vs PSU in the final weekend, they could miss the B1G tourney and probably get left out of the NCAAs. Not likely, but who knows this season? _____ B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 12 weeks: 22 Nebraska (30-16) 35 Maryland -- WLW (31-18) (3 H) 61 Indiana (27-19) (3 H) 62 Illinois (28-16)* 63 Ohio St (23-22) -- WWL (3 H) 66 Rutgers (23-16) -- LWL (3 A) 69 Purdue (31-17)* 93 Michigan (25-23)* 102 Iowa (28-18) -- WWL (3 H) 103 Michigan St (21-23) (3 A) 120 Minnesota (21-21) -- WWL (3 A) 136 N'western (13-30) -- WWW (3 A) 149 Penn St (21-20)* * NU doesn't play Non-con opponents: 17 Oklahoma (29-17) -- L (1 N) 36 K-State (28-19) -- W (1 H) 53 Texas Tech (30-20) -- L (1 N) 54 Coll of Charleston (33-11) -- WWW (3 A) 60 bluebirds (31-14) -- LL (2 A) -- L (1 H) 64 Kansas (27-17) -- L (1 A) -- L (1 H) 65 South Alabama (27-20) -- LWW (3 H) 89 Nicholls (30-17) -- WWW (3 H) 90 Grand Canyon (29-18) -- WWLW (4 A) 112 Wichita St (24-26) -- WL (2 A) 133 Baylor (20-26) -- W (1 N) 151 New Mexico St (23-24) -- WW (2 H) 225 North Dakota St (16-25) -- W (1 H) 250 South Dakota St (17-25) (1 H) 291 Omaha (15-26) -- W (1 H) The Pac-4: 48 Oregon (32-15) 98 USC (22-25) 148 Washington (18-22-1) 196 UCLA (16-29) What our quads look like right now: Q1: 3-3 (6 total games) L – Oklahoma (N) LL – bluebirds (A) WWW – Coll of Charleston (A) Q2: 10-8 (21 total games) L – Texas Tech (N) WL – Wichita St (A) WWLW – Grand Canyon (A) L – Kansas (A) W – K-State (H) LWL – Rutgers (A) WLW – Maryland (H) WWL – Minnesota (A) XXX – Michigan St (A) Q3: 11-4 (18 total games) W – Baylor (N) LWW – South Alabama (H) WWW – Nicholls (H) L – bluebirds (H) L – Kansas (H) WWW – Northwestern (A) WWL – Ohio St (H) XXX – Indiana (H) Q4: 6-1 (8 total games) WW – New Mexico St (H) W – N Dakota St (H) W – Omaha (H) X – S Dakota St (H) WWL – Iowa (H) --------- Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60 Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120 Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240 Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+ Teams on our schedule with the best chance of shifting to a different quad (in case we want to know who to cheer for): Iowa +2 to go to Q3 Maryland +10 to go to Q1 Rutgers +6 to go to Q1 Kansas (A) +4 to go to Q1 Coll of Charleston -7 to go to Q2 Minnesota -1 to go to Q3 Wichita -9 to go to Q3 Tex Tech -8 to go to Q3 bluebirds (A) -1 to go to Q2 Hosting chances are miniscule at this point. Boyd's World gives us 0% chance of getting into the Top 16 RPI before the end of the regular season, but maybe if we win out and win a few in the tourney that'd be enough to be Top 16 RPI. And we may not need Top 16 RPI to get to host, as the northern teams nearly always get a little benefit of the doubt from the selection committee, as they really want to give northern teams a chance to host if it's really close. So I'd stay still a chance, but it's going to take a huge finish. League race is going to be crazy. Wouldn't surprise me to see co- or tri-champions. We probably need at least 4-2 to be in the mix. Won't be easy with Indiana & Mich St playing well, but with everyone at the top playing each other, it'll be a lot of chaos. And probably a lot of tarps on the field in West Lafayette. If PU wins Friday in Michigan to get to a .684 winning pct, they may try to avoid taking the field the rest of the year and hope everyone else finishes at .667. Only half kidding.

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

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.

I mentioned Halle Dolliver as a player to watch a year ago after her outstanding freshman season at Malcomb. Her club coach is Alex Markowski and I'm sure they have shown interest in her. She is a multisport athlete with great athletic DNA from both Dad and Mom.

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