jayschool

Proof that being good in JC, the Atlantic Sun, the Colonial or the WAC doesn't translate to Divison I, even against mediocre to bad competition: Cam Mack shooting percentages at JC: 45.6 FG, 33.7 3P, 64.6 FT. Cam Mack shooting at Nebraska: 33.3 FG, 18.2 3P, 50.0 FT. Jervay Green shooting at WNCC (2018-19): 54.7 FG, 39.0 3P, 53.6 FT. Jervay Green shooting at Nebraska: 29.6 FG, 23.1 3P, 50.0 FT. Dachon Burke shooting at RMU (2017-2018): 45.9 FG, 33.8 3P, 62.8 FT. Dachon Burke shooting at Nebraska: 35.3 FG, 13.3 3P, 87.5 FT! Matej Kavas shooting at Seattle (2018-19): 45.8 FG, 45.8 3P, 79.2 FT. Matej Kavas shooting at Nebraska: 37.5 FG, 40.0 3P, 57.1 FT. Haanif Cheatham shooting at Marquette: 47.2 FG, 36.7 3P, 78.9 FT. Haanif Cheatham shooting at FGCU: 45.4 FG, 36.4 3P, 65.0 FT. Haanif Cheatham shooting at Nebraska: 16.7 FG, 0.0 3P, 42.9 FT. I would guess these guys eventually find the range, but maybe not at the rate they were used to in inferior conferences such as JC, the Big East and the rest.

I've written this before, but it bears repeating. I covered the Miami Hurricanes just shortly after they re-booted their program in the mid-'80s. Bill Foster came from Clemson and was given a year to build a roster and let the players work together in practices and scrimmages. In short, they had a whole year to do that — Hoiberg threw together almost an entire roster in a month. THIS IS LIKE STARTING A PROGRAM FROM SCRATCH, but without the proper lead-in time. You're not going to be any good doing that unless you're Calipari or Krzyzewski recruiting a roster of one-and-done sure-fire NBA players. And even then it takes time for those teams to reach some sort of cohesion. We'll get there, and I'm guessing we'll look a lot different in February than we do now. We just may not win more than a handful of games between now and then. There are no one-and-done players, unless you count Cheatham and Kavas.

Jacks 79 Huskers 75

I'd prefer people learn empathy, but douches gonna douche.

I just want to stop getting ridiculous tweets and texts from Iowa fans and Jayskers. Is that too much to ask?

I got Southern, North Dakota, TAM-CC, and 1 of 2 against Northwestern. Those are my expected wins. I did not expect to win today. Still disappointed, of course. We improved our FG shooting from horrible to awful, though, so we're headed in the right direction.

Poop emoji. OTOH, this is going to make that first NCAA Tourney win even sweeter, whenever it happens.

At least I know where California-Riverside in located. Merrimack sounds like the planet Alf is from.

So Kavas' role should be limited those times when we might need a quick three. Run a couple of sets for him, and if he makes one or two, let him go until he doesn't. If he misses right away, limit the damage by getting him out ASAP.

So our starting five is our best lineup.

TRIGGER WARNING: LOTS OF NEBRASKETBALL LOSSES IN THIS POST. The masochist in me loves this sort of historical research. It's the same side of me that emerged last night after UC-Riverside went up by 15 and it was clear we weren't going to win. I started hoping every UC-R shot would go in just so we could point to this game as some sort of negative historical marker, something to measure our eventual success by. I know we're headed in the right direction, but I didn't expect the starting point to be so far back. So in that spirit, here are Nebraska's worst regular-seasons since the end of World War II, compared with what Nebraska would have to accomplish this year in 32-33 games to equal the win percentage: 1962-63 (6-19, .240, which would be 8-25 this year) 1963-64 (7-18, .280, or 9-23 this year) 1951-52 (7-17, .292, or 9-23) 1959-60 (7-17, .282, or 9-23) 1955-56 (7-16, .304, or 10-23) 1972-73 (9-17, .346, or 11-21) 1945-46 (7-13, .350, or 11-21) 1989-90 (10-18, .357, or 12-21) 1961-62 (9-16, .360, or 12-21) 1999-2000 (11-19, .367, or 12-20) And the only seasons under .400 this century: 2002-03 (11-19, .367, or 12-20) 2016-17 (12-19, .387, or 13-21) Our lowest conference win totals: Jerry Bush's 1963 team: 1-13 Doc's 2010 team: 2-14 Collier's 2003 team: 3-13 Nee's 1990 team: 3-11 Bush's 1956 team: 3-9 Harry Good's 1952 team: 3-7 Good's 1947 team: 3-7 Doc's 2012 team: 4-14 Nee's 2000 team: 4-12 Nee's 1996 team: 4-10 Nee's 1995 team: 4-10 Nee's 1989 team: 4-10 Nee's 1988 team: 4-10 Cip's 1973 team: 4-10 Bush's 1961 team: 4-10 Bush's 1960 team: 4-10 Good's 1953 team: 4-8 Good's 1951 team: 4-8 Again, this is pure masochism, but that side of me says, "If we're gonna be bad, let's be historically bad." Luckily, as with football, my optimistic self prevails. I think we can beat Wisconsin in football, and I think we can reach 11 wins overall and 5-6 in the conference in basketball. Go Big Red!

I like the "Year Zero" description. I was in South Florida when Miami revived its program in the mid-'80s after a 15-year hiatus. I started covering the team in 1987-88, Year Three of the Bill Foster era. Here's the difference between starting that Miami program from scratch and Hoiberg doing essentially the same thing here: Miami hired Clemson coach Bill Foster at the end of the 1983-84 season, set him up in a new basketball office at the Hecht Center, and gave him a year to build his team. Some players were already on campus during that "build" year, and they started practicing and working out together. Foster installed his systems, spent a full year recruiting, and his first Hurricane team defeated Georgia in game three of 1985-86, the 'Canes' third consecutive win in their first season back. Nebraska hired Hoiberg at the end of the 2018-2019 season, giving him less than two months to build a roster, install systems, etc. We're still in that "build" year, where Miami didn't have to compete against other Division I programs. The only players who have played together are Burke and Thor, and they were probably not working together much during practices last year, which featured entirely different offensive and defensive systems. So, yeah. We're in Year Zero and will have to wade through one of the toughest conferences in the U.S.

This is literally — other than the uniforms, Thor and PBA, as you noted — like starting a basketball program from scratch. Losing by 19 to UCR is shocking, but the reality is we're at Step 1 of a 100-step process. Let's let it play out.

Do you think they'll be able to clear the stench from last night at PBA before today's game?