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I'm pretty excited for Nebraska football this week. Don't really know why. Maybe nostalgia. Late November game with bowl implications on the line. Pretend it is for the Orange Bowl instead of just a bowl. Can take down the goalposts with a win. There is way too much anxiety & dread from the fans instead of just having fun.

We were up 4 before that and Essegian missed a wide open three. That stretch probably cost us a 10+ point win against a team that will likely be competing with #3 Gonzaga for the conference championship. I also thought St. Mary's played pretty well yesterday while the Huskers really didn't. I think we can be very good. Hopefully we got the slow Creighton like start out the way with this game. That beginning stretch reminded me of way too many Creighton games. I was waiting for it to get out of hand and it never did. I'm hopeful we can give Creighton a game.

(FIFY) That's really polite of you to talk about Creighton in that way

Kent was on the microphone at the Coliseum the last time we played these guys in 1975, his second season. https://huskerhoopscentral.com/2024-25/RadioBroadcasts/2024-11-17 Nebraska vs St Marys.mp3

UPDATE on AW-3. I notice from a better photo of the players on the bench saturday night the she appeared to have a nasty bruise on her left knee and upper shin. So hopefully her injury is on the outside of the knee compartment not the inside. Let's see what happens tonight.

Griffiths will need to show he remotely cares about defense to earn more minutes.

N. Alabama played Kansas last time out and lost 81 to 64.

Louisville.

UTGRV at Wisconsin just underway on BTN. At the first break: UTGRV 10 Wisconsin 4

Yep. Only way Janowski sees minutes is if this season goes off the rails and they decide to start seeing if they have a potential starting point guard in him next year, which it sounds like they're trying to do with him.

By the time that happens post season hopes will be over so what's the point?

It's still crazy to me that somewhere in the offseason Fred Hoiberg really thought "I love a ball-handling, 3-point shooting, excellent passing 5. So I'm going to start a 7-1 guy who's never shot a 3 in his career and has 3x as many career turnovers as assists and he's going to play 20 minutes a game."

I figured we were going to have issues running two types of offenses or defenses but it turns out we have issues putting a guy who shouldn't play more than 4 feet away from the rim 4+ feet from the rim most of the game.

Brice is 31-34 this season on FTs. Has a decent chance to breaks James Palmer's make record and maybe a chance at the attempt record.

I'm going to point to one more thing that led to the loss--when we went up 5 in the second half and turned it over on 5 or 6 consecutive possessions. That was just unbelievably brutal. Involved no missed 3s, but was devastating.

Janowski was 1-6 from 3 in the intrasquad scrimmage and exhibition. I love his future, but I don't think he's ready. Before we decide this team needs shooting so badly to burn a redshirt, we need to start by giving more minutes and shots to Essegian, Griffiths and Morgan and less to Ulis and Meah.

This definitely can counteract our lower shooting percentage from deep. I mentioned it after one of the first two games and it has held true thus far. There hasn't been too many times this year where we have abandoned our bread and butter of getting to the rim and possibly the line. Past teams who have look disjointed on offense seemed to sputter at the end of the shot clock and put up a forced jumper or bad three. This team at least tries to get to the rim if the clock is running down.

Nebraska currently averaging 29 FT attempts a game (#15), and making 23 of those (#4) for a 79% rate (#25). Definitely need to get a few more 3s to fall, but until then, free throws are keeping them in games, especially this one.

The lineup for the last shot was Brice, Berke, Meah, Gary, and Rollie. It looks like the play was for Meah to screen so Brice could get up a shot. Seems like you could do the same thing with Morgan who at least would be a threat. I think you want Berke in there because he's at least a guy big enough to get off a shot. I think you want Rollie in there so you can get the ball up the court. You could have Brice do this as well. The question I'm asking is why was Gary or even Connor in there over Meah.

* we defended Kalkbrenner well last year --- without a 7'2" center. * I am struggling understanding Meah's exact role. I don't blame him. It really looks like Fred is struggling fitting him in; both offensively and defensively. * tied to the above, I think Juwan is struggling a bit offensively due to Meah's presence on the floor. Meah really absorbs space where Juwan likes to roam. Plus the defender does not to defend Meah on the perimeter. Tie that to our failure to hit open 3's, creates a lane filled with bodies. * yesterday was a close competitive game. You can easily point to two things (simplified) that led to our loss. Our sluggish start and St. Mary's ability to knock down open three's and our failure to do so. Also another side note on the threes...it really looked like our team thought the three point line was the white (NBA) line while the true line was the black line...did anyone else notice that?

Worster is more loose with the ball than I expected him to be. He has a very good career assist to turnover ratio but it's been the opposite so far here. Needs to get it going. Berke used all of his 7'1" wingspan to be disruptive and impactful defensively today. 3 blocks, 3 steals, several deflections, altered shots. Was his best overall game to date, all while going up against two very high level frontcourt players. He handles the ball a lot for a big, yet has only turned the ball over 3 times total in the first four games. Shooting 60% from the field and 83% from the line. I'm just so impressed with him. I really hope he and Mast are both on the team next year. From 10 minutes left in the first half on, we actually played better than I thought we were capable of. Might be a hot take to some, but that St. Mary's team could win the Big Ten this year. They very well might end up with a higher tourney seed than any Big Ten team. They're the same as they always are (very good), but they might've found their next Patty Mills in Mikey Lewis. Clutch free throws by that kid at the end. We played flat out awful the first 10 minutes. St. Mary's played pretty well, I thought. And we were still in it until the end. That makes me confident we can compete with anyone in the conference this year if we clean some things up. Most teams in conference this year are solid, but none are great imo. Speaking of the first 10 minutes - and speaking of beating dead horses - what the hell, Fred? It's obvious to all there is no offensive flow when Meah is in the game. In the starting group, Brice is forced to be ball dominant (he's doing an admirable job of it), and the guys he has to kick to are Meah, Gary, Worster and Berke. Rough deal. Morgan played better today. All in all, I don't feel discouraged after this one. Not a bad loss by any means. However, not winning this game can absolutely be the reason you're on the wrong side of the bubble (not sure that'll matter this year). 9-2 in the non-con (with no quality wins), plus 1 loss in the conference tourney, and you probably need to go 14-6 in conference to make the tourney with our non-con resume. I'm not sure 13-7 would do it (remember, we once went 13-5 in the Big Ten and weren't even close to making the tourney). Beat St. Mary's on a neutral court and you can probably go 12-8 again and make it. I think it makes that big of a difference with a schedule like ours. We also won't have any opportunities to beat the #1 team in the country this year.

Updating this table after a long hiatus... NAME CLASS POS HT HOMETOWN (SCHOOL) STATUS Britt Prince 2024 G 5'11" Elkhorn, NE (Elkhorn North) Signed Kennadi Williams 2024 PG 5'4" Lincoln, NE (Southwest) Signed Amiah Hargrove 2024 F 6'2" Christopher, IL (Christopher HS) Signed Alberte Rimdal 2021 (will be a Senior) G 5'9" Koge, Denmark (U of Florida) Signed Olivia Hamlin 2025 G 5'9" St. George, UT (Snow Canyon) Committed Aubrey Shaw 2025 G 6'2" Overland Park, KS (Blue Valley North) Offered Divine Bourrage 2025 PG 6'0" Davenport, IA (North) Nebraska not in top 6 Mckenzie Mathurin 2025 G 5'10" Broken Arrow, OK (Broken Arrow HS) Committed (De-committed May 2024) Neleigh Gessert 2025 G 6'1" Omaha, NE (Millard West) Verbal to Creighton Norah Gessert 2025 G 6'1" Omaha, NE (Millard West) Verbal to Creighton Jenica Lewis 2026 G 5'10" Grimes, IA (Johnston HS) Offered Ashlyn Koupal 2026 G/F 6'3" Wagner, SD (Wagner HS) Offered Leelee Bell 2026 F 6'2" Minot, ND (Minot HS) Offered Cail Jahnke 2026 G 6'2" St. Michael-Albertville, MN (Albertville HS) Offered Finley Chastain 2027 PG 6'0" Selina, TX (Faith Family Academy) Offered Addison Medeck 2027 C 6'3" Papillion, NE (PLV South) Offered Maddie Vickery 2027 F 6'1" Topeka, KS (Washburn Rural) Offered Brinley Altenberg 2027 G 5'10" Sioux Falls, SD (Jefferson HS) Offered Khloe Nicholson 2028 G 6'1" Quincy, IL (Quincy HS) Offered