Norm Peterson

Someone needs to go capture a clip of a fan's reaction during the last couple minutes of that first half. Texas started a drive at their own 4, drove it nearly the length of the field, converting on a couple of third downs. Drive it down to about the TCU 25 and the kicker hooked a FG attempt wide left with about 1:30 to go in the half. TCU then took over and marched it right down and scored another TD in about 5 plays. And it's halftime. After the missed FG, the camera goes over to a couple of Texas fans, one with his head in his hands and the other patting him on the back. The one guy then sits up and you can clearly read his lips: "Let's leave." Boy, if Texas comes back in this one, they're going to really regret leaving at halftime.

TCU up 37-zip at the end of the first half. Is this real life?

So do they have anyone in particular in mind as a transfer or is that just a back-up plan if neither of the current targets bites?

This is all getting very, dare I say, cryptic.

When would such a transfer be available? Wouldn't that guy have to sit out a year? And if they don't transfer until after this year, that means they wouldn't be available for the next two seasons. I doubt we're looking at trying to get some guy for two years from now who isn't a high school junior.

Parker/Watson has to be all kinds of better than Parker/Smith. Smith was a good player but he wasn't nearly as good as his father thought he was. Watson actually might be as good as Smith's dad thought Smith was. I'm going big lean toward Parker/Watson with a senior Benny Parker and a Rivals 4-star in Glynn Watson at the point. Petteway of 14-15 was not the player of Petteway of 13-14. Still, he could reliably score and create his own shot and when you absolutely had to have some points, Terran could still get them for you much of the time. We'll miss having a guy who can score nearly at will. Plus, he was an intense and solid all-around player. Didn't get beat on D very much. I like Tai. I think Tai looks much improved over his freshman and sophomore campaigns. Still, he's no Terran. Advantage to last year on this one. White/McVeigh this year are going to probably be able to give you as much as Shields did last year. Shavon slumped in his shooting last season. White should be a substantial upgrade over Shavon's abysmal 19.5% from three from a year ago. Aside from his offensive slump, though, Shields is a totally solid player on both ends of the floor and that's worth something. McVeigh, though, is surprisingly skilled and athletic and I see him getting in the rotation right off the bat. White/McVeigh has a small advantage over last year's version of Shields. Shields/Morrow has a big advantage over Rivers. A healthy Smith would probably rate higher than a combo of Hammond/Jacobson. But we didn't have a healthy Smith. And Pitchford would be solid if he's hitting his outside shots, which he wasn't last year. And Abraham, it turns out, had stone hands and missed a bunch of games as a result of breaking one. I don't think Hammond is great. At this point, he's no more than serviceable. But, considering how limited we were a year ago due to injuries and egos, I'd say I'd give the edge to Hammond and Jacobson over Pitchford et. al.

I'm going to modify this OP somewhat and go 9 deep for this year's team. I'm going to trade Fuller for McVeigh and add Jacobson behind Hammond on this year's team. And to balance things out, I'll add Abraham behind Pitchford and Smith on last year's team. I'll make the changes in the next post and, in the post-Spain trip environment, do you feel any differently about the comparison between this year's rotation and last year's?

So, does Rick Pitino slick his hair with Teflon? Be interesting to see if any of this sticks to him. Assuming any of it is true, of course.

All kidding aside, LK1, that's a good question. One thing that you have to factor aside from standing vertical reach -- a 6'7" guy with a short neck and really long arms might be able to reach as high as a 6'10" guy with a really long neck and not so long arms -- is overall body mass. These guys are throwing their bodies into one another all game long and mass matters in such situations. If you're leaning against a 210# guy and you weigh 250#, you're eventually going to wear him out no matter how strong he is. Hell, Aleks Maric was like 270# at his peak and was strong as an ox, to boot. There weren't a lot of dudes out there who could body up against him all game long. I don't care if your 6'7" kid has a 15 foot wingspan. If he doesn't weigh a good 240-250#, he's going to have a tough time holding down the paint. Typically, the taller the person, the more mass they can carry and still maintain good basketball conditioning. When I talk about a center or a big man, in my mind, what I'm thinking of is a guy with basically Moses Abraham's dimensions or larger: 6'9" and 250#. He needs to carry that weight and still be athletic and strong. As an added bonus, it'd be nice if he had soft hands and some skill, which Moses was a bit short on.

I think Miles has said anyone taller than 6'9" is pretty much a big. Not sure whether that's with shoes or not.

Dimes, I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. I'm furthering the point and the discussion by saying, basically, whatever you get, they need to be players. Players make plays. So I'm saying, whether they're 6'7" or 6'11", we need to be able to field a team of guys who can make plays.

Very good point.

We're recruiting nothing but big men with our last roster spot. We are compensating by recruiting length at most every other position though. With the right group of players we can turn our lack of 6'9"+ players into a competitive advantage. At the end of the day, though, you need guys who can flat-out ball. Whatever their other shortcomings might be, the two commits we have for this class can do that. Horne you can say is undersized and I cannot disagree. And maybe he could be more explosive as well. But the kid is a player. He's beefy, he's skilled, and he has touch. And range. With his frame, he could easily add 20 pounds or more and be more explosive at a higher weight just because of his build. I've already seen in video how he knows how to use his body to gain space. And he seems to be a good passer with good floor vision. He's a player. He gets it done. Roby is physically the opposite. He's svelte, extremely long, and, for his size, has some explosiveness. For his size. But he's also a baller. Both of them are. Whereas Horne is a kid who can bang a bit inside and spot up from distance, Roby is a slasher who can take people off the dribble and get to the rim. I think these two will really complement each other. I'm almost more excited about the '16 class than I was the '15 class. Almost. Put these two classes together and we've really got something.

I wonder how McVeigh would have rated if he was a stateside kid. Maybe close to the 150-ish range??? Easily.

Oh, and, Swan, in the remote chance something happened like what you describe -- I still wouldn't leave a 'ship open just in case -- if the player was high-value enough of a target, then you bring Scholarship Player #13 in to your office, remind him of his lingering issues with night sweats and bone spur-itis of his, y'know, pituitary thing and tell him it might not be his heart, but one should take no chances; grant him a medical hardship allowing him to remain on scholarship as a valued member of the ... student managers; and tell Mr. High Value Recruiting Target that a space on the roster just became available.

No, Swan, you're incorrect. My response was definitely responsive. I said that the possibility of what you're suggesting is so remote that you wouldn't and shouldn't intentionally leave a spot open just in case someone fails to gain admission into Wisconsin. And, besides, I believe at the time that happened to the FB program, it was after the deadline to inform student athletes of a scholarship non-renewal. You should infer from that answer that my response is basically you'd have to pass on the guy. And, further, you should infer from my response that I'm saying it would be dumb to leave a spot open just in case a prospect happens to become available by virtue of being denied entry to another school. If you have space available through some sort of attrition and you just happen to be able to take on another player, fine. But you shouldn't "save" a spot just in case some hot shot 5-star Center can't gain admission to Duke or something.

Well, jimmy, there was that time that me and silverbacked worked the beer tent ...

So, srsly, what to do with that last spot? Hold it for another year?

We need to add "VC" to the thread title and pin this baby to the top, yo.

Raw as sashimi. That's funny. Actually, the free throw thing I think was just due to the fact that he's a fiery player. You can just see it in his manner that he's got a little bit of swagger. It showed up in other plays too. And I think you want a big man locking down the middle who has a bit of a mean streak to him. Until he's committed somewhere else or for sure isn't eligible or whatever, I'll continue to look at this guy as long as we still have scholarships available. This dude is an athletic freak in the paint. That right there is enough to be intrigued.

Hammond spent some time in the rivals 150 but he was not there in the final rankings his year. Therefore, I did not include him.

Complete list of Rivals 150 players in the history of Nebraska basketball prior to 2014: 1. Complete list of Rivals 150 players in the history of Nebraska basketball since 2014: 1. Andrew White, III 2. Glynn Watson 3. Ed Morrow, Jr. 4. Anton Gill 5. Isaiah Roby 6. Jeriah Horne

Sorry, can't get tweets to post (keep forgetting how) but he has a GREAT graphic showing him in a Husker uni dribbling the ball. Nice photoshop. Awesome. Welcome aboard, Jeriah!

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