Norm Peterson

This. I've been thinking roughly the exact same thing. I'm not rejoicing in the fact one of their guys got hurt, but the thought had crossed my mind many times in the past that Creighton had enjoyed a lot of good fortune over the years and had avoided things like the injury bug, whereas we have Isaac Copeland blow a knee in a year where we might have otherwise made the dance. They've had games against us where they shot out of their minds. Where everything seemed to fall for them. That luck had to run out eventually. And maybe it finally has. And all at once. I'm sure their fans are probably pretty good at handling adversity, though, so they should take this all in stride. I always said that worm would eventually turn.

Farewell, Tom. I had hoped so much that we would gain that elusive NCAA tourney win while you were still alive to enjoy it. I prayed that you would live to see it. Sorry to see you go. I hope whatever you believe about such things, you've wound up in "the good place." This hits a little close to home for me. I'd only told a couple of people on the board that, back in the day, Tom and I knew each other. I had debated revealing to him that we were acquaintances way back when. I'm kind of a private person and that private side of me won out. There was a part of me that wishes I had told him, hey, do you remember a Toga Party at Mick's place when we found Roger passed out in a closet? Yeah, I was there. "Et tu, Buckhorn." IYKYK And may your soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, Rest in Peace, Amen. Edited to add: Speaking of Mick, he's also passed away. Cancer. A merciless and brutal killer. If you knew a Mick who died from cancer, I bet we knew the same guy. He was one of a kind. That circle of friends has gotten a lot smaller. Damn. Damn damn damn.

Thanks. I think I needed some down time. It's good to be back.

You might want to short Creighton stock right now. Torvik's predictive metrics have them winning 19 games and earning about a 7-seed in the NCAA tourney. I don't have inside information on Ashworth's injury, but I've lived it in person. It involved surgery and six weeks in a boot. And some rehab after that. They say he's gonna be out a while. If he's back, I wouldn't expect to see him until February. So, before Ashworth went down, Creighton had exactly six players averaging 3.5 ppg or more. Three of those six guys are 6'10 or taller. Then the guards: the Neal kid, Ashworth, and Pop Isaacs. Take Ashworth and his 16 pts/6.4 assists/4.2 bds out of Creighton's lineup, and it leaves a huge hole. He's far and away Creighton's best perimeter shooter. Take him out of the lineup, and you drop Creighton's TEAM 3-pt% by almost 4 percentage points from 30.7% down to 27.0%. Take Ashworth out of their lineup, and you leave Creighton with only two guards who've managed to score at least 3.0 points per game. And the next guard down the list is a true freshman who, so far, was only getting six minutes of playing time per game and hadn't attempted a 3-point shot. Before Ashworth went down, Creighton already lacked guard depth. This leaves them with essentially zero bench. That freshman is going to have to grow up in a hurry.

Well, I've been a Husker hoops fan for years but I have yet to see them win an NCAA tourney game and I was hoping this would be the year.

I sure woulda thought so, but the chyron at the end of the game said it was the first time we'd won consecutive road games in series history. I think you're right and the stats guys who come up with the chyrons need to do better research. Maybe they meant "this century."

Glad to celebrate a Husker win with everyone. That was sweet!

First time in series history that Nebraska has won consecutive games on the road. I can't believe that.

That was so awesome. Go Big Red!

It wasn't just us complaining about the Big Ten officiating this year. Other fans did too. And I often wondered if poor officiating in the Big Ten might affect the conference's recruiting. At the very least, I could see it having an impact on player retention and people entering the portal. The gripe wasn't about losing games and blaming the ref. The gripe was about having a level playing field and feeling like you got a fair shake. If you have a rule, but the rule isn't enforced evenly or equally, then you don't really have a rule at all. And if you only apply that rule against me and not against others, then I'm going to feel like the system is unfair. I grant that some of the most contentious areas are judgment calls that can often go either way. But the problem is when the calls always seem to favor the blue team over the red team. If the same action is a block whenever I'm on defense and a charge whenever I'm on offense, I'm going to lose faith in the officiating. And I have lost faith in the officiating. The officiating is bullshit, and I don't feel like they're even trying to make it look like they're being even-handed anymore. That's all. That's it. Thanks for letting me vent.

Look at the poster on the wall in the background.

I don’t mean to imply that he would not be a good fit with our team culture. I do mean to suggest that culture and fit should be priorities. And given his limited production at Iowa State, I wouldn’t just jump on the “he’s a former five star; therefore, he must be really good” bandwagon. I would expect the staff to do their due diligence in trying to assess what was going on with him that he didn’t succeed in Iowa State and isn’t sticking around.

Culture. Fit.

Les Mis, Wicked, Greatest Showman, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair could/should all be up there somewhere.

I am so in favor of giving everyone a 5th year. I might have mentioned that.

On3 is showing Fidler 100% to Nebraska. Anyone know anything?

Five of our top 8. The only rotation player to portal was a non-starter. We honestly wouldn't have to do a ton in the portal to improve our standing. At this point, Brice probably slides back to his 3 spot, Gary to the 4, Jamarques re-enters the starting rotation at the 2, and Ulis probably starts at point. Land that trio of Bellevue West guys, though, and I would feel pretty good about things, provided we keep those other five guys.

No, we've all reached rock bottom.

I'm hearing of another departure. Not from the rotation guys.

OUT: Keisei Allick Boogie Ramel* Eli* Blaise* CJ* IN: Janowski Frager I'm sure we've reached out to more than what's quoted above, but that's all I saw with a twitter search of "Nebraska portal." Ideally, I'd like to see us bring in freshmen and develop them over the course of their careers. In the era of NIL deals and the transfer portal, that appears to be an aspirational goal that isn't very realistic. So, the second choice would be to grab a kid who's got at least 2 years of eligibility left and has demonstrated some development already. Problem with that is that competition for those guys is pretty stiff. Transfers with one year seem plentiful but our success rate with them hasn't been great. And, finally, Jucos are still a possibility but they've also been more miss than hit for us. We've got a lot of spots to fill, though, so I'm sure the coaches are getting after it. * = portal departure

Looking back, this question almost seems comical. Like update the thread to say "if we only had five spots to fill ..."

A week ago, we had one more spot open. One more senior exhausting eligibility than signed recruits. Now, we have five more spots to fill. As long as we keep Mast, Gary, Williams, Lawrence and Sam H., I think we'll have a pretty solid nucleus that we can build around. So far, nothing has been like a gut punch losing a guy I really hoped we would keep. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

If being bashed for opposing the happening of a hypothetical event that is never going to happen isn't what message boards are for, then I don't know what is.

Yeah, um ...