Norm Peterson

My feeling is this: Palmer and the boys are going to settle in. Might take a game or two. (Since we've had an exhibition, this would be game #2 for purposes of this discussion.) But when they settle in, the shots are going to come around. That was my big concern about this year. Four for 23 from deep in the scrimmage (or whatever the numbers were) won't get us anywhere near the dance. But once the guys settle back into a routine, the shots are going to start dropping again. Besides, I'd rather have Palmer finish this year shooting the way he started last year. So if he has to start this year the way he finished it last year, I'm good with that. So long as he's mid-30s during conference play. Until then, he can make a living at the rim and the freethrow line.

That's just straight out of the analytics playbook. A trey is worth 1.5 times what a regular FG is worth. If the percentages from 17 feet are only slightly better than the percentages from 20'9", then it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to take the 17 footer. Either step in closer and get a higher percentage look, or back out a few more feet and make the payoff better.

Kenpom factors in scoring margin, right? And Kenpom is among various ratings utilized to determine who gets bids? If those statements are both true, then, yeah, we need to blitz the opponents we should be able to blitz. Covering the spreads like we did last year would be a good start, especially since we're going to be favored more than we were a year ago.

That's just over 35%. And from the hudl video, he has NBA range and occasionally is popping shots from out there. He's not afraid to elevate over people and get shots off with a hand in his face and a defender in the same zip code. That will be a refreshing change of pace for us to have a player who can get a shot off without needing a lot of space, but can also hit that shot.

Could be bad. Could also be very good. Remember year #2 of Miles when we introduced a bunch of newcomers to the roster and they coalesced into an NCAA tourney team? I like what I saw of Dachon Burke; I like what I've heard about Jervay Green. I think Amir Harris is going to be a defensive stopper who can distribute on offense and get to the rim. Thomas Allen is taller than Glynn Watson (so all the gnashing of teeth about his size is a bit overplayed, in my opinion) and he could easily be that dead-eye shooter you want to have. Our backcourt should be pretty good. If we happen to get Roby back for his senior year and can find a grad-transfer PF in the mold of Copeland, we could yet be in business next year. Granted, some things will have to fall into place in the front court, and it might take 10 games before the players figure each other out (just like last season), but it might not be as big a dropoff as one might fear.

Frost is definitely playing chess, not checkers, with that offense. That pass to Austin Allen where they used Ozigbo as bait in the flat and then rolled Allen wide open down the sideline was tactically brilliant. And that's only one example of many, many you could point to.

Listened to a little bit of the Nebraska Basketball Show last night. Greg had Michael Lewis on as his in-studio guest. I wish I could have listened to the whole thing, but one part stood out to me: The coaches have a lot of confidence in Tanner Borchardt. He put in a hell of a lot of work to transform his body, and that work has produced dividends. Coach Lewis says he can play at this level. My fears about front-court depth abated somewhat after that. I'm still worried about our perimeter shooting, though.

I think this is exactly what happened. And while I'm not into moral victories, the Ohio State game has to be a confidence boost, especially to the players who were around under Riley. To see that they can hold their own against an Ohio State program that steamrolled them the last two years has to tell them if they do their job, they can go toe-to-toe with anyone. Upset alert on the Michigan State game. I could see us running the tables from here on out.

That's awesome. With him and Dachon Burke, Thomas Allen and Amir Harris, we should have a pretty solid backcourt in the first year post-Glynn Watson. Still worried about that front court, though.

I think you underestimate the value of getting your feet wet. Ohio State had a crap ton of game film on us and look how we did with them. I don't think giving CU one extra game to look at us would have given them as much of an advantage as having a game under our belts would have helped us. With a new coaching staff and totally new schemes, we needed the experience of that first game before facing CU. It's just crazy bad luck that the only weather cancellation in more than a century of football happens at the worst imaginable moment: what would have represented a probable win for the team in the first game of the first season of a new coaching staff. Could have happened at virtually any other time in program history and it wouldn't have had the impact I believe it's had.

If we had played Akron, we don't play Bethune Cookman. I agree. I think we'd be 5-4. I think we beat Akron, work out some of the kinks and are better when we face Colorado, and pull that one out. I think we would then have beaten Troy. We'd have been 3-0 going into Ann Arbor, gotten our butts handed to us by Michigan, but we'd have rebounded with some swagger against Purdue. If we had been able to play against Akron, I think we win either Purdue or Northwestern, and possibly both. And I think we'd have three more shots at being bowl eligible, needing to win just one more game to get there. We'd probably have wins against Akron, CU, Troy, Purdue or Northwestern, and Minnesota. I think we'll beat Illinois either way, but that would have made us bowl-eligible. As it is, I think getting 5 wins is still in the cards. The offense that hung 31 on Ohio State is continuing to improve. The question is whether our defense can stop anyone. But, in our final 3 games, I think we can probably outscore whatever those guys can do and I think we can go on a 3-game run to end the year. Oddly, 5-7 might get us into a bowl game this year, which would be amazing, especially considering we'd be a far better team than our record would reflect.

This is a good observation about Copeland that's applicable to a lot of the guys on the team right now. We're throwing darts instead of lobbing grenades. The objective in shooting jumpers, though, is not to hit the rim; the objective is to get the ball through the rim. And when we're firing bullets right at it, the odds of the ball dropping in go down quite a bit. And that's what it looked like during the scrimmage. Got to get some arch on the ball. In addition, speaking of Nana, he has an interesting shooting form. I can see him getting into a rhythm and being able to shoot the ball well in a practice or something. But game situations might be different. A shot with normal tempo and development starts in your feet. As your knees bend, your hands start going up with the ball, drawing the ball up overhead in a continuous, fluid motion until you extend your legs into the jump part of the jump shot, by which point the ball and your hands should be overhead and begin the process of the shot and follow through. Most of the time, you're starting to deliver the shot before you've reached the peak of your jump. In other words, you're shooting the shot while you're still on the way up. A good basketball shot develops much like a baseball throw or a golf swing. If you have good rhythm and tempo, your hands and arms are moving in sync with the rest of your body. With Nana's shot, it's hard to describe. It has a bit of an odd tempo to it. It's like he starts the jump with the ball overhead already. Then, when he reaches just about the apex of his jump, it's a quick lock and load of his hands going back and then forward with the ball. There's no fluidity to his shot. His hands aren't moving in fluid rhythm with the rest of his body as he's shooting. Maybe that works in practice where he can get into a rhythm in something like a 3-point shooting contest where he's taking shot after shot after shot, and have some success with that stroke. But, in the course of a game, when you've been playing defense at the other end of the floor, to come down, catch a pass into the corner and be able to make those mechanics work to hit an open 3, I don't know. I guess I'll just cross my fingers whenever I see him shoot a jumper.

Just curious how much of a difference people think the only weather-related cancellation in program history might have had on things.

Actually, I'm not sure my praise of Martinez has been effusive enough. He's not just the best passing dual-threat QB we've ever had; he's maybe one of the best passing QBs of any stripe we've ever had. Just ask Zac Taylor, Sam Keller and Joe Ganz: Zac Taylor: 2005 Nebraska Big 12 JR QB 12 237 430 55.1 2653 6.2 5.8 19 12 115.9 *2006 Nebraska Big 12 SR QB 14 233 391 59.6 3197 8.2 8.6 26 8 146.1 Sam Keller: SEASON CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT RAW QBR ADJ QBR 2007 205 325 2422 63.1 7.45 73 14 10 13 133.7 51.7 56.1 Joe Ganz: SEASON CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT RAW QBR ADJ QBR 2006 7 13 122 53.8 9.39 31 3 0 2 208.8 99.3 98.8 2007 89 152 1435 58.6 9.44 62 16 7 5 163.4 78.8 85.3 2008 285 420 3568 67.9 8.50 69 25 11 21 153.6 64.5 68.5 Ganz had 420 passing attempts and only 21 sacks; A-Mart has been sacked 16 times on only 238 attempts. He's making some truly incredible throws across his body while running for his life. I think pretty much everyone who's not on the Rivals board or who thinks Riley didn't get enough time can see this kid is truly special.

That kid's twitter was a train wreck. After the "eff it" tweet, I had to go take a look. He had tweets in there about not going to class because he didn't understand what the eff the teacher was saying, and I remember thinking this one might not end very well.

There's not a single dual-threat QB in the history of the program who could have hit Stanley Morgan on the deep sideline route while rolling out and getting tackled. And he appears to be one of those guys who shows up for big games.

Damn, this kid is good. True freshman. He's having far and away the best passing season of any dual threat QB we've ever had, behind possibly one of the worst O-lines. Not saying our O-line is horrible, but compared to past lines? Think who Turner Gill had blocking for him: The guy for whom the Remington Award is named; Dean Steinkuhler, the first guy to win the Outland and Lombardi in the same season. Think who T Fraz and Berringer had blocking for them. Like a who's who of Husker offensive linemen. This kid is doing what he's doing with a porous line and only a couple of outstanding targets to throw to. Amazing.

Updated A-Mart Stats: SPLITS CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT This Game 22 33 266 66.7 8.06 46 1 0 1 144.4 Season 158 238 1922 66.4 8.08 75 12 6 16 145.8 Away 78 125 923 62.4 7.38 75 4 3 8 130.2 Conf 128 196 1522 65.3 7.77 75 9 4 12 141.6 November 22 33 266 66.7 8.06 46 1 0 1 144.4

Is that Molinari on drums?

Correct. Good memory. Did you look it up? Be honest.

The 10th anniversary of uneblinstu's post-game chatter got me thinking about how long I've been participating in message boards related to Husker hoops. Before I joined this board and the Rival's board, I used to just comment on World Herald articles. The comment section was pretty accessible back then and not very aggressively moderated. That's when I learned what an internet troll was (a/k/a Creighton Fan.) This was back during the Collier era and Nebraska would win a game and Creighton fan would be on with some snarky comment about how bad our opponent was; Nebraska would lose and Creighton fan would be on with some snarky comment about how bad we were. Made me really despise Creighton fans for awhile. Anyway, it happened one summer. Around June I want to say. Someone got ahold of me to tell me we were maybe getting a visit from a 5-star forward from Florida. Lefty. That prompted me to finally join a message board so I could participate in the discussion about this kid. He came for a visit; I think he signed elsewhere but never played in college; declared himself for the NBA draft, but went undrafted. Who was it?

Is this seriously volume 11 of uneblinstu's post-game chatter? Have we really been doing this more than a decade? Wow, where does time go? But then 11 seasons ago we were in the midst of Doc's tenure, which doesn't seem all that long ago to me. If my math is correct -- and usually it isn't -- we must be coming up on the 10th anniversary of the post-game chatter. We should throw some kind of party. Reunion. Invite Ryan Anderson and Ade Dagunduro to join us.

Yep. We played Southwest Minnesota at 2:00 today. It was great. They even sold beer at the concession stands, which was nice. Although, the lady told me they probably won't be able to do that for the "games that count."

Yeah. This should be a curb stomp. A boat race. 40-15 at half kind of thing.

If some douchebag from Southwest Minnesota State tries to take out our star player with a cheap shot foul on a breakaway dunk, I'm going to climb down out of the stands and kick someone's ass. Fair warning. Someone please check SWMinnie's roster and make sure there's no Creighton Prep grads playing for them this time around.