jayschool

Is Penn State a bad team? They're not great. Are they 0-14 bad? Hard to imagine, but it's staring them in the face.

Lions take another one straight in the grits: Purdue 99, PSU 90. Final.

Purdue and Penn State are a combined 18 of 30 from deep in the first half. Purdue up 50-44 at half in State College.

We're there with you, Brother Dusty.

I prefer to think of it as tied for 64th.

To be more precise, we're not the worst P5 (or P6) team in terms of overall winning percentage, just in NCAA Tournament winning percentage. From the old Big 8 alone, we have a better all-time win percentage than both Colorado and Iowa State. In the Big Ten, we have a better winning percentage than Northwestern and Rutgers. Here's the list of Power 6 teams who have the same or worse overall winning percentage than Nebraska (.527): Baylor (.496) Clemson (.505) Colorado (.520) Georgia (.522) Georgia Tech (.527) Iowa State (.509) Mississippi (.500) Northwestern (.419) Rutgers (.507) TCU (.466) Washington State (.512) So let's not pound people with the "We're the worst ever" line because it's true only in a narrow sense of the game, and it tends to diminish the successful seasons we've had, both before and after the advent of the 64- to 68-team NCAA Tournament.

Plus, coach Hoiberg will have some game film of him so Fred can make a proper assessment. ?

Seriously. I try to elicit sympathy from friends about the team's plight, and I get stuff like this: Friend who's a grad of Indiana: "IU is horrible this year, too. It's gonna be a long winter." Indiana? You have no idea. Friend who's a KU grad who also works for KU: "The NCAA Tournament isn't that big of a deal." Iowa friend, Hawkeye fan: "I know, right? Fran just has to get this team into the tournament this year. It's been such a long time." Thanks, everybody, for sharing my misery. It's good to know someone understands.

Nebraska 58 Illinois 77

A-fricking-men, brother. Amen.

Gene Hackman's still alive.

I assumed it was the OWH and the Falls City Journal.

Who are yours? Wo(o)den? Thor? (Of course) God Shammgod? Alaa Abdelnaby?

And one last strategy:

Bronny James is 14 years old now, so maybe we just get him the ball starting in 2023.

Can we run some sets for Tom, too?

Back up the truck, hire the guy with the baggage, put some of the truck money in the baggage and go get yourself a team. What's the worst that could happen? We have to "vacate" an actual championship? We'll still have the t-shirts, the videos, the memories. Think anybody in Louisville is lamenting having to vacate a title? Hell no.

Wisconsin 66 Nebraska 58

True. Actually, from here on out, I'm pretending it's 2009 or 2013 and we're the underdog in every game. I expect to win nothing, so any victory will be a joy. Just like the old days. No expectations.

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019.

I hope Harris will be ready soon, too. While not a 4 or 5, we'll need more off the bench, and even if we don't make postseason, assuming the players stick around after the coaching change, it will be good to get Amir and Nana as much time as possible. (Caveat: I'm wallowing in self-pity right now, so the assumption Miles is gone and we won't make the postseason is just a reflection of my despair.)

Dwayne Stephens

I mean, if it's autumn, summer or spring, I'm on the bike, on the course ... doing something else. But it's negative 6000 degrees wind chill here in god-forsaken Iowa, so I watched THAT.

Exactly my feeling. My emotional investment in the program — which goes back a full 50 years — will be minimal until I see that the players care as much as I do.

Sigh.