Norm Peterson

Irrelevant. Deal with that at the appropriate time, which obviously isn’t now.

If the Board of Directors lacks confidence in the CEO, I guarantee they'll try to keep that as quiet as possible. What you think of the CEO is a very different question than the public face you put on your situation. Wall Street Journal reports your 3rd quarter sales failed to meet expectations. Do you say, "yeah, we sucked, we'll try to get better?" Or do you say, man, we did a hella fine job under some tough circumstances and we feel very well positioned moving forward? What you think privately and what you do publicly aren't necessarily going to be the same thing. I think there were some real opportunities to spin the end of this season into a major positive for the BRAND moving forward. Whether that brand is skippered by the current coach or not. I don't think we leveraged those opportunities and, in fact, I think we pissed them down our leg while the powers-that-be were off in the weeds wondering whether Miles is the right guy or not. Like it or not, he IS the guy. And do you undermine the brand in order to slow play the coach so that next year, when you start over, you can hand the next guy a dumpster fire? Sounds like a great plan.

1. Was there any positive momentum at the end of the season that could have been capitalized on and leveraged to advance the reputation of the brand? If so, did we do it? 2. Were there any potential negative implications in our season and our outlook moving forward that could have been mitigated with an appropriate PR strategy? If so, did we put the "best face" on the situation? 3. From the perspective of brand identity and protecting or improving brand reputation, how would you assess the AD's involvement in the program since the end of the season? Has our brand been strengthened, harmed, or no change?

I'd like people to think about our brand for a little bit. Forget about whether you think Miles is the long-term answer or the coach who can get us to the next level or not, and just focus for a moment on the brand. I'm glad I don't have to sell Jeeps. Everything you see about Jeeps seems to say they're cheap, unreliable pieces of junk. With 4-wheel drive. You don't sell Jeeps by saying we're going to give the CEO a 1-year extension on his deal and we'll replace him next year if he doesn't right the ship by then. You might actually do that, but that's not your PR approach. That's not how you sell the brand or improve its public perception. Think about our record this year and how you would have approached PR for our brand at the end of the season, and talk about if you think the decisions by the powers-that-be since the END of the season have advanced or improved our brand. Or not.

Jimmy, let's say you're the PR guy tasked with developing an ad campaign for ... Chipotle. Do you ... A. Run an ad campaign apologizing for all the e-coli that got people sick and promise we're going to try to figure out why our food is killing people and fix it; or B. Run an ad campaign talking about fresh, sustainable, free range, farm-to-table, great tasting fast food at an affordable price? Moos chose A.

See, this is precisely the problem I have with the AD decisions on Miles the last 3 years. How's a guy supposed to build something when you basically send him the signal that he's coaching for his job every year? You think the decisions he would make as a coach would be different if he thought his position would be secure than if he thought, hey, this could be it? Let me ask you this: If Deverell Biggs was on this year's team, would he get booted off in January? Turns out that was best for the long-term health of the team. But if you're coaching for your job and have to win right now, does the coach make a different call there?

Twenty-two regular season wins and a 4th place finish in the Big Ten should have been a launching pad into recruiting for the class of 2019, the guys we'd be signing this November. The success this year should have been something we could leverage in recruiting and, frankly, in replacing any assistants who might move on. It was a ready-made sales pitch: "Hey, look at what we just did! We climbed out of the cellar and into the penthouse of one of the top basketball leagues in the nation. But we want to stay there and we need studs like you to do it. Come join us, Nebraska is on the rise!" But, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Before I get to that, though, let's get something straight: Don't talk to me about money. A million or two per year seems like a lot of money to some average-Joe fan making $50,000/year with overtime. The university can afford it. Extending Miles doesn't have the effect of preventing us from moving on at the end of next year if that's what needs to happen. So, don't even go there. The question is what makes sense RIGHT NOW. And the answer, in my humble opinion, is that you do whatever you can to build off this season and leverage the success we had this year in order to build more success over the longer term. We could have done that if Moos had quickly cemented an extension of 2 years or even 3. The money doesn't matter as much as the appearance. We have plenty of money. They have a war chest they can go to if and when they feel they need to axe a coach, so, again, money isn't an obstacle. It's about establishing a veneer of confidence and optimism following one of the best seasons in Husker hoops history. Take that success, act like it's a BIG FRICKIN DEAL that we're very happy about and confident about and think we're the new studs on the block about to turn the corner for real. That's how you build buzz. That's how you get recruits excited. That's how you get your foot in the door with guys who might not have given you a second look in years past. And you do that by confidently and loudly extending your coach at the end of such a season (and if it doesn't work out, hey, you just fire him at the end of the next season and it's just money, which you have plenty of.) But, instead of allowing the program to build off this year's success, Moos -- pick your metaphor -- he crapped the bed, he screwed the pooch, whatever. We're now virtually assured of having to go through a coaching change in March or April of next year and we're going to have shit for a roster when we do it. Thanks a lot, Bill.

If I'm Miles, and you're the AD, and you do what you say and I kick ass next year and win an NCAA tourney game, and you then approach me about a long term deal, I'm going to say, "Long term? Like what? Two years instead of one? So generous. Thanks, but I'm going to find a 7 year deal somewhere else and good luck with the coaching search to replace me." If I'm Moos this year, I come out PROMPTLY after the Final 4 with AT LEAST a 2 year deal if not 3. Maybe structure buyouts in such a way that I can cut ties a little more easily next year if things go south. But I bring Tim forward at a press conference and praise him effusively for the great season we had this year and how we got screwed out of an NCAA tourney appearance the team had clearly earned. What do we have instead? The good feelings that should have carried us forward into next year following one of the best regular season runs in program history have COMPLETELY dissipated. Gone away. Gone. No good will; no good feelings; no positive momentum carrying us forward into next year. None. Completely screwed the positive momentum that would have given us a foot in the door in recruiting. The way this has been handled has been a complete cluster fuck.

1) By what analysis do you come to that conclusion? Industry standard is a rollover, adding a year onto the end of the contract every year, keeping coaches with a set number of years on their contract. Always. For a coach to burn 2 years off the end of a contract, then produce a very strong record and only get a one-year extension, says the same thing to recruits as it does to everyone else: his time here is done after next season. If he does well enough not to get fired, it'll be good enough to attract other offers that he'll consider before choosing one. The chances that he's back after next year seem almost miniscule. No question in my mind this situation hamstrings us on the recruiting trail. Convince me I'm wrong. 2) OK. Maybe. Next year, we'll still have, hopefully, a team full of studs. But the year after that? Guess we'll see. I have my doubts. You think 14,500 fans would show up every night to watch our 2000-2001 team? 3) By what analysis do you come to that conclusion? We're spinning our wheels for a year. We're screwing recruiting in the right here and now. We lose, at a minimum, the seniors, plus probably Roby at the end of next season. Those are spots Miles would be recruiting to fill right now. Those potential recruits are guys who won't be signing with us in November because they have no idea where Miles will be when their college careers start or who the coach here would be. Fire Miles this year, and you get moving with a roster to work with. Extend Miles and you signal to everyone this is our man (unless you have to buy him out early, which, OK, fine, so what?). This one-year extension, IMO, is the absolute worst of all possible scenarios. With all the players we for sure lose off next year's team, we're going to go into 2019-2020 giving serious minutes to walk-ons like Ross Buckendahl and Craig Wortmann. For the record, I believe Miles earned a reasonable extension with this season. I respect that there might be those who would disagree with that opinion, in which case, fine, fire him now. But, for the love of all things Holy, make a decision one way or the other -- extend for real or fire him. But don't leave us in this state of suspended animation with a coach on life support and a program teetering in the balance.

OK. I'm sold.

Not generally. Actually, not ever that I've seen.

This is a little bit of a relief to me. I'd been asking myself how am I going to put up with watching his ugly jumper for the next 4 years, and now I won't have to. C'mon, it's a little silver lining; you gotta give me that.

You forgot 2. You put down 4 twice. You asked.

Should never have not been extended under Eichorst. Should either have been fired or amply extended by Moos. Period. If Moos comes out with a 1-year extension on this, I'll consider it a joke. Like what the hell? Who's going to come here to replace Kenya if the head guy only got a 1-year extension? And the failure to move decisively on this before now has to have contributed to Kenya's decision to strike while at least one of his irons was hot. And the loss of Kenya and the uncertainty of the head coach's future has almost certainly factored into losing one of our top recruits.

Yeah, what the hell was that guy doing? Did Bruce Dickinson produce that video and tell them "I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more flugelhorn?"

I have the perfect solution: Just go to Barry's and they will continue selling you booze until you've lost consciousness and will feel no pain. Or angst. Until the morning. But at least you take the night off, right?

For anyone interested, that happens to be an actual photo of the elephant in the living room that no one wants to talk about, which is now swinging in the breeze.

And still let me keep my seats? Asking for about 15,000 friends.

Barry's in a bit of hot water but didn't get their liquor license yanked, so I guess lucky for them. http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/barry-s-found-guilty-of-overserving-allowed-to-remain-open/article_75ca51d5-b3bf-5d2e-b064-12424a16a135.html Just curious what people's experiences there have been. I don't get to Barry's much at all. It was probably about a year ago last time I was there, and there was definitely a problem with a guy being overserved, and it really kind of pissed me off, to be really honest about it. My wife and I were on a "date night," and had gone out to eat and decided to get drinks and enjoy the evening. It was during the week sometime, like on a Tuesday maybe, and the place wasn't very crowded. The upper deck area was open and there was a some guy who was obviously celebrating his birthday there and was dancing with this blonde woman and dancing a little erotically and was obviously very inebriated. Due to a combination of noise, chill in the air and a little attitude from the bartender upstairs (who my wife thought looked like the Channel 8 weekend weather girl), we went downstairs. At some point while we were down stairs, the birthday boy comes STUMBLING down the steps and is very, very plastered. Unsteady on his feet, stumbling around, etc. He finds a booth nearby and sits by himself, barely conscious and eventually passes out on the table. Several moments go by and a bouncer comes over, wakes him up, and kicks him out. He offered a little bit of resistance, but not much. Mostly just noise. And I'm thinking "OK, great, so now what's he gonna do? Get in his car and go kill someone?" So I, just a simple patron of the place, ran back upstairs to try to find the people he'd been with, located the woman he was dancing with who confirmed "Yes, that's my husband." And notified her, "Well, they just kicked him out." Couldn't the dickhead from Barry's have done that? Couldn't the dickhead from Barry's have at least asked the guy if he was there with anyone? And then gotten them to take him home? Apparently not, because after serving this guy to the point of falling-down-drunkenness, they tossed him without bothering to do any of the above. So, while I like the sort of history of the place as being an old Danny Nee haunt, and while I think they certainly have upgraded the exterior and given it some street appeal, they haven't seemed to adhere to the obligations of responsible bar ownership, and hopefully this latest trouble will serve as a wake-up call.

I'll be honest, I've watched the drills they do with the big men before games (which is about as much practice as the average fan is going to be able to see) and I haven't really liked it. If you haven't seen it, one of the things they'll do is a big will pop out to the high post, receive an entry pass (in the high post, not the low post), they'll kick it back out as though they weren't able to get a shot (legit purpose -- it gets them used to repositioning), then they flash to the opposite post and make a move from there. Which is fine for teaching them to freelance, but they don't develop good footwork, which they need to know by rote. I'm no expert, but I'd like to see them practice diagonal entries to the low post and have them alternately practice pivoting toward the middle of the lane for a shot or toward the baseline for a shot, and then go "live" against their teammates doing the same thing. First live would be token defense just to get a body in the way; second live would be full out, try to score against me while I try to stop you. Can you post up? And can you defend the post? Only one way to find out.

Ignoring the acerbic response of your inquisitee ... I haven't seen practices (dang it) and I'm not an insider. What I would base that same conclusion on is: a. It's my understanding Kenya was in charge of the bigs; b. On defense, our bigs while Kenya was here have managed to make the other team's bigs routinely look like all-Americans; and c. On offense, our bigs have yet to demonstrate the development of good post offensive skills. As to "b" above, you can almost completely blame the losses to Incarnate Word, Samford and Gardner-Webb on our horrid post defense by the position players. For example, against Incarnate Word, Traylin Farris, a 6'8" true freshman, scored 12 points on us in 16 minutes on 5-7 shooting in the paint. See, also, this discussion:

When does the current dead period end?

Mark Turgeon played at Kansas; Bill Self coaches at Kansas. The two coaches appear to have been in a bidding war involving actual money -- illegal money -- for the services of at least one recruit. If these allegations prove true, it would be a HUGE stain on the reputation of Kansas. I'm not hoping for it. In fact, I'm hoping it isn't true. Turgeon's dad is apparently a great guy who lives here in Lincoln and, if memory serves, shines shoes at Firethorn country club. He's married to Maddie Simon's dad's mom. So, there's a bit of a Husker connection there. But there is some irony in the situation that former Jayhawk star Turgeon's bag men (allegedly) paid DeSousa to go to Maryland, but current Jayhawk coach Self's bag men (allegedly) paid him more. And, in a strange way, the one guy who (allegedly) used unethical means to obtain a commit has no standing to complain that someone else (allegedly) used even more unethical means to get him to decommit. I think the saying is "there is no honor among thieves."