Norm Peterson

"Honey, does this mean you're not going to kiss it and make it feel better?"

He has the tools of a Hoiberg stretch 4. Hope we start getting kids like this.

Agreed! 100%! I caught a little crap for this view a couple of years ago when it was Yvan playing for France, but he *really* needed the reps with *our* coaches.

For the TL/DR crowd, what was the deal?

There's so many ways people spell Peterson. But there's only one right way.

Yes, let he who has never been tempted to look at boobs cast the first stone.

And what do you think they have to do to do that?

Norm Stewart accused Danny of being a bush league coach. Or was that Billy Tubbs? I know there was zero loved lost among the three of them. Either way, there wasn't the sense of collegiality among coaches back then that seems to permeate the industry today. Nowadays, when a school goes to fire a coach, all the other coaches in their conference jump forward to say what a great coach the guy is and what a huge loss to their school it would be if he gets fired. Back then, they would have said, "that guy can't coach his way out of a paper bag and I'm shocked he lasted as long as he did."

As long as we’re off topic, I’d hate to be the guy that caused the colonial pipeline shut down.

We didn't have the players to run Hoiberg's system. I think we will now. CJ can shoot lights out when he gets hot. So can Keisei. If you were worried about Bryce's shooting based on what some Creighton fan posted about him, keep in mind he came in 2nd in the 3-point shooting contest for the functional equivalent of the McDonald's AA game, which included the very best players in the nation. And don't forget about Keon Edwards because I think he could be a pretty good shooter, too. Also, did you know that every player with more than a single 3-point attempt who shot less than 33% from 3 has left the team except for Dalano Banton? And that every single player who shot better than 33% has returned except for Teddy Allen? And now we add those other shooters?

Is there a stat besides scoring margin that is a better predictor of win/loss record than rebounding margin?

And, hey, that's what I'm here for. Here goes: So, what has to happen (within the realm of reason and reality, and given our current roster structure) for the men to go over .500 in conference play this year? And I mean just controlling for what we can control. Obviously, if the starters for half the league teams were all ruled academically ineligible for the season it'd help, but that's not within our control. I'll start: 1. Bryce McGowens has to be the real deal. I think that's necessary but, by itself, not sufficient. In other words, we need more than just to add Bryce. But we need him to be a guy who can end scoring droughts. That guy who, when you absolutely need a bucket, you can put the ball in his hands and feel pretty good about your odds. And "real deal" doesn't mean 18 points per game, but it probably does mean double figure scoring with efficiency. Bonus if he can also distribute. 2. I think it would be really helpful if the team could increase it's 3-point shooting by 3% from just over 33% to just over 36%. That would put us in the top half of the league based on last year's numbers. I think Lat's shooting will go up. I think Banton's will either be a lot better accuracy or a lot fewer attempts. I expect Trey will still be a low volume perimeter shooter but reasonably accurate. I think the key is going to be the trio of new guys that includes CJ, Keisei and Bryce. And possibly also Keon Edwards. If they're as accurate as one would hope based on what we've seen of them coming in, then it could well be more than a 3% improvement. 3. I think we also have to be better at FT shooting. We can't miss front-ends late in close games like last year and hope to significantly improve our W/L record. Closing out games and holding onto leads in close games happens at the FT line. We gotta be better. 4. We lost our best rebounder in Yvan. We have to have some guys step up and board for us. In conference play, the team that won the rebounding battle won the game 15 out of 19 times. The times the team with fewer rebounds won: Michigan State by 7 when we beat them 31-29 on the boards; our OT loss to Illinois when we outrebounded them 40-39; our win against Penn State where they outrebounded us 39-35; and Northwestern who beat us by 1 but lost the boards to us 30-29. And there was one time against Maryland we tied on the boards and lost. When the rebounding disparity was 5 or greater, the winning team had more rebounds every single time. So, I think Eduardo Andre's development is going to be key. It's crucial that he add some good weight and builds strength. We need both him and Walker to board. And we need another couple of guys to step up and rebound their position better, including Lat. According to the official Big Ten stats, we were 2nd to last in the conference in rebounding defense, which I assume is some measure of how well we prevented the other team from getting offensive rebounds. You can talk about the merits of giving up offensive rebounding in order to prevent opponent fast break points. I get that. But there's no corollary when it comes to defensive rebounding. Throw a body on somebody and get the damn ball. We can't get outrebounded regularly and hope to come out on the winning end more often than not.

Hey, I've gone through phases where it seemed like people were handing them out to me like candy. Like circa 5 years ago on the women's board when I questioned the wisdom of firing Connie Yori. Too soon?

Harsh but fair

So pretty high stakes.

Here or there?

Allow me to suggest beer.

Then: Jeff Borzello on Twitter: "DePaul transfer Keon Edwards has committed to Nebraska, per source. Former ESPN 100 recruit." / Twitter Now: Jeff Borzello on Twitter: "Texas A&M transfer Jaxson Robinson has committed to Arkansas. Former ESPN 100 prospect that reclassified from 2021 to 2020 and played one season for the Aggies. Good size, can really shoot it from the perimeter." / Twitter Stats for the guy they got: STATS 2020-21 GP MIN FG% 3P% FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS 14 9.7 35.5 28.6 0.0 1.1 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.7 0.4 2.1 Stats for the guy we got: STATS 2020-21 GP MIN FG% 3P% FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS 5 7.8 33.3 33.3 100.0 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.2 1.8

Both Gach sets things up pretty well for anyone who wants to do a basketball version of "Who's on first?" Which Gach is leaving Minnesota?

No offense to anyone, but I’m not joking about this. If we had a kid who was projected to be a one-and-done lottery pick and that kid decommitted from us, I know I’d be sick. Remember how I was about Roburt Sallie?

Is there a box score from the event?

I don't know where it was, but it wouldn't have been Iverson level.

A good job for their dad or their uncle?

One-and-done projections continue for this kid as he vaults up the recruiting rankings. Creighton fans have to be sick that he decommitted.