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Quasi-related story. One year while in college a fellow Red Zoner and I drove down to KC for the Big 12 tournament. We bought some nosebleeds from a scalper, but 15 minutes before tip off it was clear that the section reserved for the Huskers' family and friends (basically the first 8-10 rows directly behind the Husker bench) were going to remain 90% empty. So we moved down to seats that were close enough to be awesome but not so close as to draw suspicion...probably around the 4th or 5th row behind the bench. Well just after we got settled, A.D. Tom Osborne and University Chancellor Harvey Perlman show up with their wives. They take a long look at us, a long look at their tickets, grin at us, and then proceed to sit in the empty seats directly in front of us. Clearly we were in the seats reserved for the athletic director and chancellor, but they were cordial enough to sit in someone else's unused seats instead.

Can you spot Bryce's pops at the Hornets game? Fairly certain it's him? Couldn't get a clear photo but also not sure who else would be completely kitted-out in Huskers gear behind the Hornets bench? Here's another Where's Waldo for you...

I'd expect to see Griesel, Bandoumel, Wilcher, Breidenbach and Walker as the starting five at this point. I think Breidenbach is more of a five than a four defensively, but they have two fives that are definitely going to play and he has a better shot of hitting perimeter shots than Gary does (though I'm skeptical of how good of a shooter Wilhem actually is). Wilhelm definitely has to play better than he did last year to hold onto that spot, but I think that's where they're at right now. Gary is more of a physical defender than a quick one. You want him on 4s and 3s; don't think he'd hold up super great on quick guards. That'll be an issue again like it was last year. With that starting lineup, Bandoumel will likely take the team's best guard and they'll figure it out with Griesel and Wilcher on the others. Keita and Gary will play, and I think they're trying to figure out the rest of the rotation from there. Two of Lloyd, Tominaga, Dawson and maybe Lawrence will fill the back-up guard/wing minutes. I do think there's a good chance we could see Jacobsen at some point, similar to what happened with Charlie Easley. I don't want to bump a bunch of old threads or start my own, but I've been putting together some scouting reports including video clips on a lot of the guys, both newcomers and returners, over the last few months. Finished my last one this weekend, so I thought I'd share them here if anybody is interested. Returners: >> Derrick Walker >> C.J. Wilcher >> Keisei Tominaga Newcomers: >> Sam Griesel (How his game translates to the Big Team is TBD, but I'm a big fan and I think he fits really well into what Hoiberg wants to do.) >> Juwan Gary >> Emmanuel Bandoumel (He showed some promise running pick-and-rolls at SMU, but I'm very skeptical of Bandoumel as a lead ball-handler.) >> Blaise Keita (He was almost purely a post-up and dunker spot big for Coffeyville; ran very few pick-and-rolls.)

Fred's transcript from B1G media days today: http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1025/1332/transcripts/125853.html

A few notes from Warren during B1G Media Days about USC & UCLA joining: Main remarks: One of our key focus points this year is to make sure that we flawlessly integrate both UCLA and USC into the Big Ten Conference. Our student-athletes have been our number one priority, and during this integration period, they will continue to be our number one priority. You'll be able to see it in how we schedule, how we handle multi-team events, the experiences they will be able to have by now being able to travel to play different institutions across the country. Q. When UCLA and USC join, how, if at all, the basketball tournaments, the season-ending tournaments would look any different? Where are you with football alignment? I'm guessing you don't know what you're doing, but what kind of stuff is on the table there? KEVIN WARREN: Regarding the basketball tournaments, quite naturally we have to look at how that works. We have individuals in our organization now who are working with those potential tournaments will look like. I know one thing, they'll be exciting. Now we have the flexibility to have them really anywhere across the country. So having two great basketball programs, the history and tradition. ... We'll look at ways to build that with our new family members in UCLA and USC, from a location standpoint. I think your question is about divisions, if we'll continue to have them in football. We're having meetings on that right now. The good thing about it we're in this what we're calling an integration phase. ... As I mentioned earlier, we're going to keep the health, safety of our student-athletes at the forefront of all of our decisions, but also provide our student-athletes with the excitement to be able to play some great teams. Q. The Pac-12 recently announced a legacy series with the SWAC, doing men's and women's basketball beyond the current format this season. Would the Big Ten think about doing something similar connecting with a black college? KEVIN WARREN: We've had some discussions about seeing what we can do to create some of these legacy series games. I know we've had some one-off games that have been played. But from a long-term standpoint, that's the beautiful thing about having UCLA and USC join us, there are some things we are working on now to continually afford our student-athletes the opportunity to play against Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I look forward as we bring that to life as far as what we could do from a scheduling standpoint. That's part of the many things on the table as we're looking through scheduling and expansion, what we can do from a unique standpoint. Q. What is the Big Ten's approach to expansion moving forward? Do you want to add programs? If you do, what are you looking for? KEVIN WARREN: The biggest thing right now and what we have come up with, what we're calling some of our can't miss priorities. One of them is to make sure we flawlessly integrate our new media partners, but the other one is to make sure we flawlessly integrate USC and UCLA into the Big Ten Conference. In the climate we're in right now in college athletics, you also have to be mindful of expansion. But our priority is just to make sure that we take care of our 14 member institutions now from a basketball standpoint, from a conference standpoint, and that we do everything that we possibly can to make sure we flawlessly integrate UCLA and USC. We have a lot of work to do. It's one thing to negotiate contracts, to make an announcement, but it's another thing to actually get the work done. That's what we're focused on right now. http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1025/1332/transcripts/125775.html

Not many schools can offer the “first NCAA tournament win” pitch. We’re in an elite group in that aspect.