NUtball

NU 77 FDU 66

Another slow start up through the last couple of minutes of the 1st half. Took care of business in the 2nd half. But, I think this kind of game may be more of the norm going forward. These early season 'patsies' are getting better players in the new transfer portal era who sometimes move down a level after decent but not extraordinary careers at larger schools looking for more playing time for their last hurrah. Guardine (sp?) was a talented player who could put the ball in the basket after spending some time at Temple. They also had quick athletes (same as SE La.) that cause NU some problems as mentioned by others. I think if NU can focus on controlling the turnovers and more consistent rebounding, it could be a pretty good season.

She really had a nice game, considering she was kind of thrown into the main ball-handler role with Prince being out. She handled the pressure very well. She's shown consistent improvement from year to year. She's not typically going to 'wow' you with the stats, but she generally plays contributes in many ways.

Cornhuskers 88 other team 66

I guess it's "Defense Optional Saturday" for the home team in Lincoln. Not a good effort on that end. SLU's quickness is making NU look foolish. Maybe they need to go to a zone because they can't stop them 1 on 1 and the pick-and-roll is killing them. Sloppy with the ball again on offense. Good thing 3 pointers were going in or this would be a double-digit deficit. NU's significant size advantage has been taken away by SLU. Markowski was almost a complete non-factor. 2nd half: Pretty good defensive adjustments and much better intensity. SLU looks to be pretty good but NU really shouldn't go down to the wire against that kind of team. Maybe a bit of a wake-up call which hopefully will be a good thing as the season goes on.

Agree. You play 1 second or 1 play in any other sport and you burn a redshirt. I don't know what the supporting argument is/was for the football rule, but it seems patently unfair to every non-football athlete. I also wonder if there aren't any Title IX issues for the female athletes.

It currently brings up a page that says the promo is paused. Ignore it and go through the signup process at bigtenplus.com. I used "UCLA24" and it worked. Of course, you still have to enter credit card or paypal info as it will be set to automatic renewal in a year's time.

Looks like Jaz was drafted as the 5th pick in the 3rd round (29th overall) by Phoenix. Congrats to her! Hope she has a great career, whether it's in the WNBA, back home in Australia or elsewhere overseas.

Yeah, I saw that also. I think the close loss disappointments and the coach's hot-seat situation weighed on them at the end of the regular season. It's widely acknowledged around here that he was getting fired if they didn't win the ACC tourney. Maybe winning the first couple of games in the ACC tourney made them believe they could actually win some games. They've also talked quite a bit about cleaning up some 'details' about the way they play before the ACC tournament started, primarily on defense.

I can imagine being an NC State fan right now. Finished grad school there in '93. I don't know what happened to light a fire under them to start them on this run. They weren't a bad team during the regular season, just extraordinarily mediocre. Lost most of their games by less than 10 points - could never quite get over the hump. I certainly thought they underachieved and this post-season run seems to back that up. It's been quite enjoyable - especially disposing of the Dookies twice and the Tar Holes once along the way (the vast majority of people in NC are Duke and UNC fans, so playing 3rd fiddle or lower to both gracious and arrogant fans for the past 30 years has been quite annoying). Facing Purdue is going to be tough because they haven't seen a dominant monster like Edey (I guess you can say that about any team facing Purdue). NCSU's bigs tend to get in foul trouble and they're only 3 deep. Might have to run some lightly used guys off the bench to absorb some fouls. Also, I think Burns will have a real hard time attacking Edey. His quick spin moves might get him around Edey, but since they measure his vertical with sheets of paper, Edey will probably be able to just block his shots from behind. Burns is a real good passer, but that's usually from a double-team. I don't think Purdue will double him much. But, Burns only had 4 against Marquette. Different guys have been stepping up during this run.

Huskers were overmatched by OSU's size and playing on their home court. I didn't think they had much of a chance after the big deficit to start. But, somehow, scoring only around 10 pts/quarter, they were still in the game in the 2nd half. I thought if they had made a couple of buckets in the 3rd quarter to get close, they might have a shot. But they couldn't hit anything, even with decent looks - nobody was able to make a game-changing contribution. Once they started making a few in the 4th, it was too late. Real good season with a couple of head-scratching performances peppered in. Hopefully they can build a stronger roster for next year and find a way to be a bit more consistent.

Tough one to swallow. A bit of an embarrassing way to end a fun season. Bottom line is NU gave up 156 points in the last 60 minutes they played this season to more athletic teams. That ain't gonna get it done anywhere.

The propensity for the 'lazy pass' against aggressive defense kind of reared its ugly head again. aTm was pretty bad on the offensive end except for the 1 girl. Seemed like Nebraska didn't really even try to make any adjustments to slow her down. She single-handedly brought them back and Nebraska didn't have much of a response. aTm was long and fairly quick, so it wasn't the greatest matchup for NU. It's not going to get any easier so they need to work on 40 minutes of consistent play. Hopefully, some of the less than stellar play can be attributed to nerves. I know zippo about the Beavers, but have to hope Shelley comes to play. She was pretty much a non-factor in this one. White looked good - looks like she's back near 100%. Nissley obviously had a nice game. Markowski did well after the early foul trouble. Thank the basketball gods for the aTm guard with the idiotic game-winning extended length hug on Nissley. You have to be pretty obvious about grabbing and holding the player to get the Stooges to blow the whistle in that situation, and she was. They had no choice. Monumental bonehead play to allow Nebraska to escape the epic collapse.

Late in the UVA-CSU game, they showed a CSU fan in the stands with a shirt/sweatshirt that said "VIRGINIA BASKETBALL IS IOWA FOOTBALL" or something close to that. I got a good chuckle out of that. They were brutally bad on the offensive end.

Well, I'll be dipped. Illinois is capable of fouling. Who'd a thunk?