Norm Peterson

Isaiah's really grown up a lot this year. His two best games as a Husker have come in the last 3 games this season. He's peaking at the right time for us. Over the last 8 games, since the OT loss at PSU, he's averaged 58.7% from the floor and 36.4% from beyond the arc. In that time, he's also averaged 10.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 2.0 assists. When you have a guy scoring like James Palmer does, you don't need Isaiah to put up a ton of points. You need that guy who can fill the stat sheet with other helpful contributions, which is exactly what we're getting out of Zay right now. I kinda like this Roby kid. I think he'll be alright.

For the record, we lost to the St. John's team that beat #1 Villanova on the road, not the St. John's team that lost to DePaul at home.

No, that's not how it is. We start yelling "Husker Power" shortly after the National Anthem is done and, it just so happens, opponent introductions kinda happen at the same time. Total coincidence.

I hear what you're saying but not sure I agree with your point that the game can't be called both ways. Let me give you a quick illustration. Last year, when Tai Webster was making a living driving to the rim, there were video replays of times where he drove to the lane and was getting absolutely mauled and no call. The help D would rake across his arms -- the kind of deal where last night we were called for a reach-in foul -- and they'd hammer him with a body while he's in mid-air, knocking him on his ass when he'd land. Foul? What foul? Do you see any blood? That might be ketchup for all we know. James Palmer has attempted 181 freethrows in 789 minutes of play this year. Last year, Tai only attempted 136 freethrows in 1075 minutes. Both players made their living attacking the rim and both had the ball in their hands most of the time. I'd say, this year, maybe the calls are finally evening out a bit. In years past, we were just getting screwed.

People who aren't Nebraska fans are calling James Palmer the best 2-guard in the Big Ten. The guys filling in around him aren't exactly chopped liver. Neither are the top 2-3 guys coming in off the bench. Like some of us said before the season even started: deepest and most talented team we've seen in a couple of decades. We have the horses to compete like we've never had before, at least not in the lifetimes of anyone currently on the roster. We could legitimately win a couple of games in the tourney if we can get there. And I'm not talking about the asterisk play-in type game, either. What I see of this team is that they're as good as some of the Big Ten teams who've advanced to the Sweet 16 in years past.

This RPI stuff is a lot of garbage in/garbage out kinda stuff. They didn't think much of us to begin the season. Not sure where RPI Forecast had us ranked, but probably well outside the top 100 teams. So, to them, our success looks like us just playing over our heads for most of the season as opposed to actually being that good. Or even being BETTER than that but just not playing up to our potential. The fact that we keep winning more than they've predicted, despite the fact that we've already been winning more than was predicted, tells me that most of these computers are set up to assume that we are the team they thought we were to begin with and that if we win a game we're not supposed to, it's more of a "we snuck a win" situation than "we're better than you thought" situation. I say that because their predictions have not yet caught up with how good this team is and I would be SHOCKED if we only win 3 more games after what we did in the last 5.

I've been thinking it's possible for awhile now, just didn't want to jinx anything. We're good enough to win on the road at Wisconsin and Minnesota in back-to-back games. We beat Michigan by 20. It took a last-second three by Kansas to steal that one from us. We stubbed our toe a couple of times early, but we're a tough out these days, I don't care who you are. 11-seed play-in game might not be a bad thing for us. We'll have been off a week plus by that point and having a warm-up win (snicker, chortle, snort) against a *real* 11 seed before we take on a 6 seed my be a nice tune-up for us. Then we go medieval on some poor 6 seed before facing a 3 seed. Or possibly a 14 seed. How'd you like to play a 14 seed for a spot in the Sweet 16? Bottom line, this team can score and it can defend. We have a lot of players who are capable of putting points on the board in a lot of different ways. Not like you can just take away Terran Petteway and everyone else isn't good enough to beat you. This time, we're deep with talent.

That record is within reach. Not easily. But if he averages 8 made FTs over the next 6 games, that would put him at 185.

Michigan would have to win out and we would have to lose at least two for them to jump back in front of us. I agree that’s unlikely.

No.

Minnesota had two guys who could really score the ball and very hard for us to stop. But that's it. We had very balanced scoring and were really good in transition (for the most part.) Point being we were pushing the ball in transition and being aggressive. Got a little worried when they tied it up late, but then we go on a 6 or 8 point run to basically put the game away. Held them at arms length from there even with Mason hitting a couple of very late treys. Very satisfying win. I remember all those years we couldn't buy a road win in conference. Now, we're looking at 4 conference road wins with the possibility of a 5th at Illinois. I'm ready to believe. Anyone else?

Can't wait to see the next Kenpom update by @49r. Love seeing all the Ws in conference play.

As long as more than one of our scorers is "on" I think we stand a good chance. If we get 3 guys or more going, it'll probably be a repeat of what we saw in Lincoln.

I thought we'd gotten up to 56th but now we've dropped to 60th without playing. Big drop. Not sure what happened. Big wins by teams behind us?

Notre Dame NC State is kind of a push as far as I’m concerned. If Notre Dame wins that one, they are in possession of a Toer 1 road win?

Tier 1 wins. We’re all worried about not having any based on how teams are ranked currently, as opposed to how they were ranked at the time we played. Something tells me there are not a lot of Tier 1 wins to go around and that a lot of the Tier 1 wins probably belong to Tier 1 teams who are not worried about reaching the bubble because they are squarely in the field already. There are probably also a certain number of Tier 1 wins by teams who have no hope of making the field. So the real question is how we stack up against other potential bubble teams and my guess is that a lot of them have not fared any better against the top-tier then we have. Anyone able to come up with any status on this?

Worth noting: The two best recruiters in the last 40-50 years of Nebraska hoops (perhaps ever) were Danny Nee and Tim Miles. Nee leveraged Prop 48 and jucos to assemble competitive recruiting classes; Miles has leveraged the transfer market to do the same. I agree with the complaints about his iso offense, but good recruiting has allowed us to offset that criticism this year. Would people rather have Doc's or Barry's system offenses with their recruiting? Prolly not. So, let's see what Tim can get done with this group. And if he gets us into the tournament and wins a game or two while there, then you've clearly jumped the gun if you've ever called for his termination at any point before then, because he would have produced the single-most successful season in Nebraska basketball history. Frankly, I'd prefer if we could all just sit back and watch where this one takes us and enjoy the ride for awhile because right now we're winning. Bigly.

Yeah, I mean, I think a coach can win here. My expectations are higher than where we've been. Miles hasn't gotten us there yet, but I think if you look at the big picture, I don't think it's clear that Miles has maxed out yet. And the trajectory we're on this year is very encouraging. I thought it was premature to say he should have been fired a year ago. If we had done that, we wouldn't be seeing the success we're seeing now; instead, we'd be at the beginning of another six year plan. I'm not willing to accept mediocrity, but I just don't think turning over coaches every six years is the way to make progress. You have to look at the coach's resume with a little more depth because a superficial "look at the skid we went on end of last season" and "3 losing seasons" doesn't really tell the whole story. Not in my opinion.

Some of you guys who are still "on the fence" with Miles, or are certain we could easily hire someone else to do better, must be pretty young. I'm not. I ain't gonna live forever. I want to see this NCAA tournament winless drought end. I'd like to see it go down this year and, if we make the tournament, I think it will. I think we're good enough to win at least a first-round game. Our resume might prevent us from proving we could do it, but just get this team in the tournament and I think they'll show they're a match-up nightmare for the Dance. If you read my posts over time, which some people probably do and a lot probably don't, you'll note that I'm usually an optimist, but a guarded optimist, really. You haven't heard me pronounce every team over the last dozen or so years (since I found this site) to be the best team in a generation. I've basically said that for the first time, though, about this squad. And it clearly is. But a generation is a loooooooooong time. By the mid-90s walk-out time, I'd felt Danny Nee had run his course here. When he thought he was going to get the Rutgers job and announced that he basically never felt like he wanted to be here, he lost the fanbase. When they finally fired him, I was extremely hopeful. But, as some have pointed out recently, from about the very first game under Collier (or, really, even over the summer when we saw the recruits he was bringing in) it was like, oooh boy, what have we gotten ourselves into? Collier was here six years before he took another job. Wasn't fired; would have been here a 7th had Butler not offered him the AD position. Doc was here six years. Miles has now been here six years. And if you don't think Miles is the right guy or are on the fence about him, how many more coaches-times-six-years are you willing to wait to find that right guy? How confident are you that we just need to open up the check book to bring in that coach who will put this program on the proverbial map? How certain are you that it's just that simple? It's been 18 seasons since Danny Nee was fired. In that 18 years, we've been .500 or better in conference play just twice: once under Doc Sadler; and in Tim Miles' second season. We're about to go over .500 in conference play for just the third time in 18 years. Two of those three under Tim Miles. And people are on the fence. We're within striking distance of making the NCAA tournament field for just the second time in 20 years. Both would be under Tim Miles. And people are on the fence. If you motherfuckers can't live with a couple of down seasons every now and then while a guy tries to build a program, and demand we fire the coach every six years, I am going to be dead before we win an NCAA tourney game. And if that happens, I'm going to be really pissed. And I will haunt this board with error messages and banner ads for "Bluejay Pest Control" for all eternity. Got it?

Someone had to hold the camera.

Silver, I'm curious if there's anything that prompted you to ask these questions. I haven't seen/heard any rumors about JPJ or Copeland pulling an Andrew White on us and transferring. The team seems to have good chemistry and I guess I would be SHOCKED if either guy decided to transfer. And I'm of the same opinion as Coach's Kid and Dimes that, really, neither of them are quite ready to get drafted. Seems to me both have some work to do, and, so, as far as I'm concerned, they both should be back. As far as the coaches, I think everyone but Molinari and Miles are always looking for promotions. The season we're having kind of helps them burnish their resumes, so I guess I wouldn't be surprised to see one or more get bumped up a pay grade or two with a career move in the off-season. That would be an expected by-product of having success this season. So, was your OP a more or less random set of questions or was there something more behind it that prompted you to ask?

Who's Jimmy?

One thing that needs to be factored into the whole odds of winning out thing is that teams with nothing left to play for tend to not play as well down the stretch. Teams that should be better than they are spin out of control. Some players press too hard; others throw in the towel. Personality conflicts are amplified and flaws in character are revealed. Happened to us last year. Happened to our football team this past season. So, while Minnesota might have represented a probable loss earlier in the season, they might now be ripe for the picking. Same with Illinois. Same, frankly, with Rutgers at our house. Our goals are still reachable and we HAVE to win; their goals are pretty much already beyond reach and so they're only playing for pride, which isn't much motivation for some people.

What if they get to the front of the bubble in year 6 and win a game in the dance? What do you do then? Is there anyone who says that's not within the realm of realistic possibility?