royalfan

Take it with a grain of salt. Pimp simply doesn't have a good grasp of the significance of the RPI or lack thereof. He didn't even think Nebraska would make the NIT if we won out starting with Wisconsin. He was correct by being grossly incorrect. We were in the NCAA tournament had we done that. No need to worry about someones thoughts on something they don't understand very well. As for KenPom versus RPI late in the year. KenPom is far more accurate reflection. Even more so now, with more data. We would be significant favorites over UNO. We would be minor underdogs against Creighton on a neutral court. I have nothing to base this opinion on, but I do not believe that the selection folks place as strong an opinion on the RPI any longer. I think it has become more of a secondary tool since they realized folks could "game the system" like the Missouri Valley teams used to do rather well.

Saw the video of the Aurora game conclusion in overtime. Was a cool two handed pick and roll dunk at the end of the game by Austin Allen to seal it for the Huskies.

I don't agree with anyone that thinks that it is a bigger game for Wisconsin. If the goal is to make the NCAA tournament, I think it is more of a must win for us than it is for them. Until we cannot get an at large bid, that will always remain my goal. That being said, it is somewhat hard for me to envision us winning in Madison without Shields. Just cannot seem to get a clear picture in my mind of how that will happen. An extraordinary game by White is probably the path. And Webster is going to probably have to play great. Mcveigh is going to have to get it done more than he has of late, especially on the glass. Those three things probably all need to happen.

If we won out we would be in the NCAA tournament rather comfortably. That said, I would like to hear more thoughts on Wisconsin. For whatever reason, I have not seen much of them this year.

Really dumb. Also I thought the clock stops when the ball hits the ground. Is that not correct? If so, the game was over.

Terrance Badgett grabbing a rebound and then "hustling" so hard with his head down that he just dribbled all the way through the other end of the court, not knowing where the basket was.

I have been wondering many of these exact same things.

I think KZ is correct, in that we do need to try to free White up. Think to Miles first year here, we really tried to get Gallegos looks at all costs. Granted, we thankfully have way more firepower than that outfit, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to get our best shooter a lot of shots. We also have more guys that can get their own at the end of shot clocks, so spending more time trying to get White a wide open trey might be worth exploring. It is a fine line though, as our offense is playing pretty well lately as is. Probably don't need dramatic change, but I wouldn't mind see White getting freed up a little more.

This is going to sound ridiculous, given the results of the Purdue bigs. We can beat that team. They played really well yesterday. I give them credit for that. Our defense was horrific. Especially the times we tried to front the post. That was never going to work. The zone was really awful as well. We need to do what we do best on defense against a team like this for the most part. The difference is we are going to have to double really hard. And sometimes triple down hard on the post. Show them different looks. But a 2nd player has got to come hard each and every time. And we cannot ever try to front the post. It is one of the main things you cannot do if you are playing any variation of the pac line defense. I believe if we came with stronger doubles from the get go, we would have got more turnovers and no way Hammons does that to us. THey might have got a few more good looks from outside, but as long as we are doing a decent job of identifying the shooters on our rotations, we can overcome that. This Purdue team is good, not great. I fully believe we should be able to beat a team like that when they come to Lincoln. Just because we are smaller is not a good excuse for playing such bad post defense. The double teams were very weak and many times non existent. We have more quickness and speed. Need to take the game to them and force turnovers. You have to make them uncomfortable. We didn't. Another thing I hated to see was sitting both White and Shields with 2 fouls. Game got away from us at the end of the half as a result. Halftime is such an arbitrary time in the game. Who cares about getting them to that point in the game with 2 fouls, while the game is in the process of getting to the point we aren't going to be able to win anyway. Many coaches do this, and it is really poor strategy IMO.

Lue the head coach of the East all star team as well. Very cool.

I'm certainly not the expert but I've seen a little basketball and I'm not sure what you saw to say we were badly out coached? I'm not saying we weren't but I'm curious to know what you saw that makes you say that. You can game plan for something but your scout team is not going to be able to duplicate what you see in the game at the speed it really happens. Sometimes there is a big gap between the gameplan and the player execution. Since I've not been to practice or meetings, I don't know enough to say one was more at fault than the other.We did seem to struggle adjusting to the post rim run throughout the game but I also think we made some good adjustments. What did you see that made you feel things were tipped drastically Michigan's way? They don't really do a lot of stuff, they just seem to do what they do very well. You don't necessarily have to have done a bad job of coaching to be outcoached. Michigan executed at an incredibly high level on both ends of the court. I am surprised you didn't notice. They didn't have more talent than we did. But we were having a tough time dealing with their switching everything defense. We didn't have the driving lanes we had been creating. What I saw was a team without elite talent finding open shots quite often, and back cuts quite often. They also played a great defensive game with a great defensive game plan. Not sure what you saw that would object to my take. No scout team is ever going to execute another game plan like their starters will so that is a little bit silly IMO. What I could get on board with is the term "badly." Perhaps, simply saying we got outcoached would be a little more accurate. I think that is a game we should have won. We didn't. I did think we gave effort, so there was a problem somewhere. To me it was in the X and O execution, and Michigan has one of the best coaches at accomplishing X and O execution. Miles wasn't the first and won't be the last to get outsmarted by him.

I would much rather we were playing the rest of our games at home. It is too small a sample size to judge. Teams have also shot over their heads in Lincoln. Speaking of which, man that Northwestern game stings. That damn banked in trey NW had to turn the game late is going to loom large down the road I am afraid.

Just did a little comparison of our Michigan game thread in a close frustrating loss to our neighbors here in Omaha in a close frustrating loss against Georgetown thread. Their fan base considers us to be rednecks, dumber, less classy and many other things. We know better. We know who the better people are. Jesus Christ name used improperly. Creighton 4 Nebraska 0 Players directly bashed. Creighton 9 Nebraska 2 Obscene f fbombs and other vulgarity Creighton 9 Nebraska 2 Direct Coach bashing Creighton 16 Nebraska 0. Thanks for keeping things classy over here everyone. Our board is a great representation of our great state. Creighton board is a great representation of Creighton.

Some tremendous thoughts here in my opinion, starting with brfrad on down specifically. I don't agree with the counterpoints quite as much, but they are valid as well. Nice work fellas. We have got to try to use their height against them. And we need to do it right away. Not let them get ahead by 12 and then start changing it up. We need to do what is smart from the get go.

We got outcoached badly. Michigan has one of the best though, so it happens. Give them credit, they played a hell of a game. We didn't. Effort was there, just wasn't enough to overcome the coaching edge and more importantly the shooting edge they brought. Have to buckle up and steal one on the road at Purdue to cancel it. Unfortunately, cancelling is not good enough at this point.

It is right up there. An overlooked game was winning at Indiana a couple years ago to set up that Wisconsin game. Went in there on senior night as 6 point dogs and came out of there with a HUGE win.

I love that. I will always remember having to do that back in the day for a Pacers game when I was coaching legion ball. Will never forget this epic 4th quarter.

After thinking it through after some more jack celebrating the win, I think Pike needs to be replaced with Hoppen. Lue, Belcher, Hoppen, Strickland. Surprised not more love for Belcher. He was a bad man and played with some wrist issues at times. Tough Cookie. In the counting categories(meaning not average) He ranks 9th in scoring all time, 2nd all time assists, 1st steals in a complete landslide. (Almost twice as many as anyone not named Strickland, digest that for a minute, amazing), 10th all time in blocks(amazing considering he was a guard), all time leader in games wearing a Husker jersey, and started 18 more than anyone else all time. He started 129 games out of 131 he played in. 8th all time in 3 pointers(to be fair he is 7th in attempts). Belcher seems like he belongs.

Not a snowballs chance in hell of my ass hitting a seat.

I neglected to mention Watson. Good call Norm. Just because he wasn't quite as aggressive in the 2nd half, does not diminish how important his first half production was to keep us in it during some potentially troubling times without White and Shields. Tai was also big at the end of the first half in this regard.

Sort of. However, the guys that we put on the line are not very good free throw shooters. They wouldn't project to make more than 13 or 14. We did not allow any guards to shoot any of them.

Give me Lue, Pike, Belcher and Strickland.

Some of my takes on the game. 1. Very impressed with our rebounding in this one. Michigan St. is a dominant rebounding team, year in year out. We got outboarded by about 25 or something against NW? We are doing a much better job. We are not getting exposed so easily on a simple pick and roll which is the key to it all. It was compromising our entire defense and rebounding position. We also are doing one hell of a job of tipping balls to each other, which is very effective. Jacobsen is nutting it up nicely. Proving me wrong on my thoughts about him. He is going to be very solid down the road. 2. Continuing to really look to attack when it is there. It is allowing us to play very confidently. 3. People are understanding what types of shots they are supposed to take when. We are not taking a lot of stupid shots early in the shot clock. 4. We did a pretty good job of mixing between bringing the double or not on the post ups. I generally think we need to double mostly as college big men are not typically good passers. Michigan St. did pass okay out of the doubles tonight though. 5. Michigan St did not play terribly bad. That is key. We beat them when they were not awful on the road. 6. Jack came up large. Going to be a good one I think. Young guys in general showing we can be pretty good down the road. 7. Coaching has gotten much tougher. We have started to play WAY better defense of late. And while the offense is even more improved, the key to the whole thing is playing good defense. Creates more run outs, which we are trying to get and I like. We have several guys that can beat a guy one on one in transition rather easily.

Incredibly important win if we are to drum up some serious hope of dancing.

I neat to eat a little Crow too. We were playing crappy, coaching crappy for a long long time in a row. But something clicked prior to Rutgers. And just in time. I like the taste of crow.