Norm Peterson

It's accurate but ugly. Very ugly. Coyote ugly. It looks like a chest pass. But it goes in at a pretty high clip and, if he has plenty of space, apparently he can get it off as well.

Holy smokes, it's a0t0w0! Dude, I thought you'd run off and joined a commune or something. Welcome back. How's the couch?

Doc also said he expected to have nothing to do with recruiting.

Does he sound nasal and higher pitched voice than the other guys in the booth? That could be him.

Definitely not Matt. Don't think it's McLaughlin, but then I don't know the names. Was McLauglin the guy who went to Italy? If so, then not him either.

Speaking of @Kent Pavelka ... Congrats, my man. Well-deserved honor for you. You're one of those rare, local talents who set the bar high for anyone who followed and spoiled us listeners. Keep it rolling. You've got the Hoiberg years to bring to our ears.

I don't mean to hammer him, but John Bishop was one who always rubbed me the wrong way. He tried too hard to be funny. That or maybe he just wasn't nearly as funny or clever as he thought he was. I'm glad he's PBP for Creighton and not Nebraska. If Kent ever retires, I hope Bishop doesn't seek the job because I wouldn't be able to listen. It would ruin the experience for me. I think Greg Sharpe has a great radio voice, but there's a guy who's on with him sometimes (and forgive me because I don't listen enough to know the names) who kinda has an unpleasant, nasal quality to his voice and it's a bit high-pitched as well. For PBP, I like listening to our very own @Kent Pavelka and Greg Sharpe. I miss Andy Markowski because I think his knowledge of the game as a color guy was superb. I think Matt and Kent had a good rapport that made their banter fun to listen to. We've been really lucky in this small market because we've had some REALLY good local radio guys who can kind of spoil you when someone not quite up to par comes along.

So, this brings up a question I've been interested in asking the assembled group, and maybe I should do a separate thread, but it seems to dovetail with what you're saying. There are guys we like in sports talk radio. But are there guys you just cannot stand to listen to? Maybe because they have a habit that annoys you? Or a voice that annoys you? Who do you like? And is there anyone you just wish would find a different career? Thoughts?

OK, I misunderstood you. I figured you were too aware to think Doc took over a good situation here.

That's not the way I read it, but if that's what he meant, it would certainly be more accurate because Doc inherited an absolute dumpster fire when he took over here.

Honestly, I'm stunned that you would say this. I know you've been around the program awhile. You're not a new fan. This is maybe the most factually inaccurate thing you've ever said on this board. Ever. Perhaps you just don't have a good memory. Let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? When Doc was hired in August 2006, the program was an absolute dumpster fire. To me, that summer when Barry Collier quit was absolute rock bottom. People talk about rock bottom during the Miles era, but nothing that happened under Tim is remotely close to the rock bottom we experienced when ... Steve Pederson put things in motion in Feb/March '06 to fire Collier and hire Rick Majerus but stupidly had dinner with him in public in Omaha, but then ... Collier wins a couple games in the Big 12 tourney to make it more difficult to fire him, after which ... Collier's ONLY recruiter, Scott Spinelli, leaves the team like a rat from a sinking ship and ... Collier can't find a replacement for Spinelli and eventually has to settle on Jamel White's uncle, and ... the only legit big man talent on the team, Aleks Maric, heads back to Australia and contemplates turning pro ... leaving us with a roster that consists of bad-knees Balham, Kyle Marks, Mike Smith, Marcus "Plantar fasciitis" Perry, Charles "5-9" Richardson and a couple of freshmen recruits virtually no one else wanted. Tell me a time it was ever lower than that. Tell me what the "very good team" was that Doc inherited in August, weeks before the season started, with no real time to build relationships or even find eligible recruits except for Sek Henry. Hell, in addition to re-recruiting Aleks Maric, Doc had to re-recruit Mike Smith or he might not have had enough players to practice 5-on-5. If that's your idea of a "very good team" I'd hate to see what you'd say was just average. Tim Miles walked into a great situation in comparison.

I could swear while he was still the head coach here, you'd go on about how you were a big fan of his. Do I remember that right? If so, what changed?

I know who you meant. Reading tea leaves from the staff, I think the best bets on the offensive side are (drumroll) Wandale Robinson and Dedrick Mills. (OK, no drama in those picks.) Defensively, I think it's going to be Lamar Jackson. That doesn't violate my exception because he wasn't All Big 10 last year even though he was a starter. But here's why I think he takes a jump. And it's not going to be because he suddenly "gets it." It's going to be because he's already a good player and I anticipate a broad-based improvement on the DL. We have vastly improved depth up front and, while I don't think any single individual DL is going to suddenly become a super star, the increased push and QB pressure is going to mean our secondary won't have to cover as long and they're just going to look better. So, yeah, I'm saying Lamar Jackson is going to look like a stud more because of improvements in the overall DL play than improvements in his own play. But, to be fair, if you check out some of the stuff I've posted from PFF College, he's already among the top 3 returning corners in the B1G for forced incompletion rate, behind our own DiCaprio Bootle and the Okudah kid from Ohio State. And if the DL can amp up pressure on throwing QBs, which I think they can, then our corners will be the beneficiaries, and that includes Lamar.

This year, someone is going to emerge as a star who might take fans by surprise. Someone who wasn't a star last year will find his groove and become a playmaker. Who's it going to be? Name one on both sides of the ball. * Emerging stars are people who weren't stars before, so anyone who received any kind of post-season accolade last year doesn't qualify. And those guys would be Adrian Martinez, Brenden Jaimes, JD Spielman, Mo Barry, DiCaprio Bootle, and Carlos Davis. The exception, I suppose, would be if you think someone who was maybe no more than honorable mention all-conference a year ago is going to step up and be either 1st or 2nd team all-conference this year. Adrian Martinez still doesn't count because we already know he's a star.

That's the way I took it. He's seen Akol in practice but Cam Mack got sick right after he got eligible, so he and Yvan are a couple of a guys they haven't seen on the floor yet.

I've never done live crawfish but I've been tempted to have 40# live and purged crawfish shipped in. Mix it with shrimp, potatoes and andouille sausage so that you're not JUST having crazy expensive crawfish. (My stovetop is not adequate for the job, though, so until I get a high pressure burner unit, I'll wait on the live crawfish.) I've found that Super Saver makes some pretty decent andouille. In fact, as we speak, I'm sitting here taking a rest from prepping ingredients for gumbo tonight, which will include about 3 packages of their andouille.

Do you get live crawfish shipped in?

That joke never gets old.

PPG: Burke 14.0 Cheatham 13.0 Green 9.67 Kavas 9.33 Curtis 8.67 Stevenson 6.67 Cross 5.67 Banton 5.67 Thor 4.67 Easley 2 Piatkowski 1 Porter 0.67

OK, so probably 5 of the guys in the scoring column this trip won't see meaningful minutes when stuff gets real. Obviously, Dalano Banton will be one of those guys NOT getting minutes (due to transfer rules). Do Kevin and Yvan both make the rotation? I'd say you put Cam Mack somewhere near the top of the list and the first 8 guys outside of Banton are probably the rotation and possibly in that order. So, in other words, you'd have Mack somewhere. And then Burke, Cheatham, Green, Curtis, Kavas, Stevenson, and either Cross (which seems likely) or Ouedraogo. And if he goes 9 deep, then you have both Cross and Ouedraogo instead of just one or the other.

How long of a bench does Hoiberg typically use? If he goes 7-8 rotation, then the averages shift upward for the guys who play. If not, you add more ppl and shift everyone down a couple points.

It really REALLY sucks that Cam Mack got sick. If he'd been eligible to practice and then had gotten sick, he'd at least have had some reps with the team. But now he's missed the pre-Italy practices as well as the trip itself and all the opportunities for him to acclimate to Hoiberg's system have been lost. Just really, really sucks. For him and for us. And I say this because experience tells me that it typically takes a juco a little bit of time, generally a semester or more, to kind of get up to speed in the new system and P5 level of play. Mental reps are great, but there's no substitute for real practice and game minutes and it would have been nice to have him getting this experience. I know there's nothing we can do about it now, but it still is something that is an unfortunate turn of events for the young man and for us.

Also, sorry about the off-topic. I'll delete the thread once I get PMs so that I don't clog the board with OT threads.

Anyone have something like this? Please PM me; I have questions.