Norm Peterson

It'll depend on how well the rest of the Big Ten teams do in their non-conference games.

NUdiehard, I know you give a great deal of thought to your posts and I don't always think things through as carefully as you do. I respect the fact that you think pretty deeply about stuff before you post. Having said that, I have some responses: 1. JPJ was about 36% from three until the Wisconsin game and kind of went ice cold from three for the rest of the season. But through 2/3 of the year, he was shooting pretty solid numbers. The only way to get out of a slump is to shoot your way out of it. And even when Palmer was not shooting as well, he was still getting to the line, so it justified having the ball in his hands. 2. You say Isaiah was was vastly underutilized the last 2 years but your basis for that is his efficiency as a sophomore. Presuming that Isaiah's efficiency last year justifies a higher usage rate, then it necessarily follows that his lack of efficiency as a freshman would have justified less utilization. He more than doubled his 3-pt % from freshman to sophomore years. But, as a freshman, he only shot 20% from three. 3. Part of Isaiah's efficiency might have been due to the lack of utilization, and an increase in use might very well have resulted in a decrease in efficiency. In other words, it's probable that Isaiah was cherry picking the very best looks and only taking those while passing up other looks that might have been tougher looks but which he'd have to take in order to increase his usage rate. It's a fallacy to think his efficiency is linear with his usage rate. Take a look at Evan Taylor, for example. He led the team in 3-pt % last year at around 44%. But he hardly ever shot the ball. I think he had 16 makes on the year. Why not use him more? Well, it's almost certain if he'd taken more shots he'd have missed more shots. He was not a guy you wanted to take more shots than he did. I note you're not arguing he should have. I think Evan picked his spots pretty carefully and that accounted for his success rate. And he was smart, he knew his limits. His 3-pt efficiency was a chimera. It disappears if he shoots the ball more. Which brings me to ... 4. Isaiah didn't have a scorer's mentality for his first year and 3/4. It's not that he was underutilized. It's that he didn't trust himself to carry a scoring load. He wasn't looking for his offense. And that was fine last year because we had other guys to carry the load and Isaiah had the luxury of being able to be very selective about his shots. One of the things that Isaiah has talked about this year is that, because of his ability, Miles has told him it's actually selfish for Isaiah to pass up shots and not look for his offense. His team depends on him to carry more of an offensive load -- everyone has a role and that's going to be his -- and so he understands he needs to be looking for his shot more. I think you're going to see an Isaiah Roby who steps up to that role this year. It's not that the coaches held him back or that the system did. But Isaiah will have more opportunities this year and I expect to see his utilization rate go up significantly.

I am not going to miss the Sweet 16 game and I've told people to keep my schedule free.

That same 22 win team, with 13 conference wins, hailing from a Power 5 Conference apparently wasn't among the top 84 teams in the nation last season. Ranking us would seem to be a pretty strong acknowledgement we should have made the dance.

And you don't have to go to class or take tests. Booyah.

2:26. With an interruption.

Seems reasonable. Maybe a bit high to start out, but I'm much more comfortable with something to work toward rather than starting out too high and falling backward. I think Katz's #16 is too high with no history to back us up. Edited to clarify: When I say Vitale's ranking is "a bit high to start out" I'm saying #1 is the highest. Too high means he's ranking us higher than I would right out of the gates. I'd say 40-50, somewhere in there. We might end up better than that, but I don't think there's enough history to justify starting us out higher than #40.

Holy smokes, no non-conference home games for 2 years -- you're really not messing around. (Note to self: don't cross Blindcheck.)

Not Grayson Allen. Grayson was more whiny punk; this kid is more alpha male.

This freshman point guard kid, McClung, is freaking unbelievable. Rivals didn't have him ranked in the top 150 for 2018 and had him ranked as the #49 PG in the class. What the hell were they watching? This kid is unreal. Watch this film and tell me he's not in the top 150. He's 6'1" doing windmill dunks and two-hand put-back slams. Freak of nature. G'town got a steal with this kid. His next best offer after G'town was like Air Force or Drake. Offered by Yale, also, so he must be smart. Good work G'town recruiters.

Jugs, you're usually pretty insightful and I wouldn't be surprised if you have someone in your ear who knows things. So, I'm curious why you say this. If he's a senior and he's 6'4" or 6'5" and he's basically a post, he's going to be undersized for that role in the Big Ten. Won't he?

I go back to my assessment that his style of play reminds me of Jack "8 minutes of Jack" McVeigh. He's a decent role player on a quality team. He could be a star on a mediocre team. He'll never start for a really good team. He's definitely not the kind of player that would elevate a program. And this is not sour grapes because I readily admit I would have loved for us to have gotten a commit from Robbie Beran, who I think is really good and would have fit the Isaiah Roby role really well.

Bowen didn't commit to MSU either. Maybe money (or lack of the offer thereof) was one of the reasons why? OTOH, Duke got a kid who was apparently asking for money, and for many, there would be an implication that they were the highest bidder.

Absolutely correct. Good catch. My mistake, and I know better.

This is a good point. We're likely to fair a lot better early in the season than we did a year ago.

TBD my butt. Have to plan ahead. Don't come crawling to me at the last minute looking for Final 4 tickets to watch the Huskers. I'm giving everyone plenty of advance noticed. ?

I knew a coach of a non-revenue sport who was forced to resign over a minor infringement of an obscure rule that resulted from him trying to take care of his players like a good coach would do. Be interesting to see what the rule violation is alleged to be. Not every rule violation is "cheating" per se. Amazing how KU can spend maybe 100s of thousands if not millions (the ones we don't know about) on recruits and nothing happens, but a minor coach in a minor sport gets sacked for buying a current kid dinner or something similarly trivial.

Oh, great, we made the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/longtime-nebraska-womens-gymnastics-coach-suddenly-retires/2018/10/16/c65ac87e-d159-11e8-a4db-184311d27129_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.61fa3723abcc

Moos self-reported some NCAA violations. Kendig "retiring." Details forthcoming when someone (else) decides to post a link.

I noticed a flaw. Maybe it was a typo or just an oversight, but there's nothing on the calendar for April 2019.

Agreed.

That sounds reasonable to me. You might be able to tell from my earlier post with the video that I wasn't exactly enamored of this recruit.

Jaron Boone, Andre Woolridge and Amos Gregory off the bench. Frickin wow. Derrick Chandler would start on this team. So would Pike. Possibly Jamar, but not a given. Palmer starts for the '92-'93 team. So does Copeland or Roby. I'd say ... PG Watson SG Palmer SF Pike PF Copeland or Roby C DC SWAT Team

You would start Shields in that lineup over Pettaway?

I'll kinda throw out an answer to my own question: Last year, Gill started out hot but finished cold from three. His final 3-pt % on the season was 37.8%, but in the last 12 games, he was 13/55 for 23.6%. Thomas Allen, on the other hand, was only 35.4% on the season from three, but the last 12 games he was 33.3%, pretty much on par with how he started. And the way Gill finished the year was much more consistent with his historical numbers than the way he started, so the Gill we saw in January to March was probably the real Gill. I think TA is just getting started and came in as a very accurate three-point threat. Who's the better defender? That probably decides who wins at this position comparison. Gill was certainly longer but not by a lot -- 6'3" compared to 6'1". TA is now a sophomore, and an athletic kid. We'll see. Probably advantage Gill on defense. Evan Taylor connected on 44.4% of his three-point attempts, but only took 36 on the season, making 16 of them. His best attribute was his defense. I'm guessing Harris won't be anywhere close to Evan Taylor on 3-pt %, but probably won't be taking (m)any either. And, in the end, neither will have taken nor made many threes in their respective seasons for comparison. The word we're hearing seems to indicate that Harris might be a guy who can fill in for what we lost on defense with Taylor's length, and also do the little things on offense that make other players more successful. This one might actually be a push. Aside from that, the current roster has the advantage of age and experience over last year's roster at 4 spots. The big advantage that last year's roster had over this year's is size. And depth, particularly down low. Jordy and Duby combined for about 21 min/game last season. That's not nothin. We have really nobody to fill the void they leave behind. I think this roster is better, but I don't think it's better by a lot. And the lack of a big man clogging the lane could hurt us in some of our games. Overall, advantage to this season, but the advantage isn't huge.