Norm Peterson

I think you need athletes who are skilled as opposed to skilled guys who have some athleticism. Athleticism without skill and you don't see the floor and transfer at the end of the year (Denim Dawson); skill without athleticism and you're a walk-on. I want bouncy guys who are long for their position. You can run a ~6 footer in there at guard and be OK, maybe two, but you better be long on balance because you need people who rebound well for their position. Offensively, I want at least 3 guys on the floor at all times who are threats from outside (mid-30s or better), and the other two need to be able to score in the paint. And scoring in the paint can either mean posting up by a big man or attacking off the dribble and getting to the rim. I don't really want to see certainly any starter who's inept at scoring at his position. Have to be at least adequate, at least a threat. And at least one -- hopefully more than one -- are good at attacking off the dribble. And it's great if one of those dribble-drivers is also a good perimeter shooter. At least one of your guys has to be a great rebounder and at least one of them has to be a 17+ ppg scorer. You have to have at least one guy who can get you a bucket when you absolutely need to have one. End-of-game situations when you're nursing a tiny lead, you cannot have empty possessions. You gotta have that James Palmer-type guy that their best defender just can't stop. Seems to me, for the defensive system we run, your players don't have to each be this great individual defender, like a Bandoumel, as long as you understand your assignment and are committed to playing your role with a high degree of effort. Having a shut-down defender is nice, but not everyone has to be that guy. But they all have to be system guys. Which means understanding your job and executing it with intensity. If you're as skilled as the other team, but on balance, more athletic, you probably win more often than not. Here's a hypothetical roster that would have fit my bill: PG Glynn Watson SG James Palmer SG Andrew White PF Isaac Copeland PF Isaiah Roby This is Miles' last team except with Andrew White instead of Thomas Allen. We don't have that great rebounder, but it would be guys who are long and bouncy and everyone has at least some ability to score the ball.

Lemme ask you a question about NIL. I understand Trev and the coaches can't be involved in decisions about how to spend the NIL money. BUT can Trev do anything to recruit donors? Can he, for instance, call up Howard Hawks and say "thanks for your commitment to NU football. I know you like Creighton hoops, but it really helps our football program if we're perceived as having generally successful programs across all sports, so please allocate some of your wealth to our hoops program, too"? Or does the NIL thing have to be completely and totally separate from the AD? Also, does anyone know who's kicking in the money to Creighton's NIL program and whether they're donating to ours also or just to theirs?

Wofford has 3 players in the top 50 transferring. Suprised they didn't wait until Wofford finished their deep tourney run to annou Oh, wait ...

More importantly, how does your WIFE feel about State College, PA?

So it sounds like Big Ten officiating, while it might help the conference blue bloods stay at the top of the regular season conference race, hurts the conference in the post-season when the players/teams that are used to getting all the calls are no longer getting all the calls and can't adjust. Poetic justice.

This you?

So, it sounds like we have money, right? Can we afford to buy those other pieces we need?

So, if you were a Northwestern fan sitting there last year at 15-16 (7-13) thinking "we need a complete roster overhaul in order to make the dance next season" you would have been wrong. I'm sitting here as a Husker fan this year at 16-16 (9-11) thinking we have a few guys who can clearly play at this level and, yeah, we need to find a few studs in the portal, probably, but I think it's a manageable undertaking.

Northwestern was a 7-seed and made the round of 32 in the NCAA tourney this year. Last year, they were 15-16 (7-13) with a roster that looks remarkably similar to the one that danced this year. Notably, ALL of their top six players this year were on their roster last year. Last year's top players: Pete Nance Boo Bouie Chase Audige Ryan Young Ty Berry Robbie Beran GP MIN PTS REB AST STL BLK TO FG% FT% 3P% 30 27.2 14.6 6.5 2.7 0.3 1.1 1.5 49.7 76.8 45.2 31 29.5 14.1 2.5 4.3 0.8 0.1 1.9 39.7 79.6 34.1 24 26.8 9.8 4.2 1.9 1.8 0.3 1.3 33.8 71.7 25.0 31 17.1 9.0 4.2 0.9 0.4 0.3 1.2 55.9 67.6 16.7 31 22.1 7.4 2.3 1.1 0.7 0.1 0.7 38.8 66.7 38.8 31 21.9 6.4 4.3 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.7 46.8 75.0 36.6 This year's top players: Boo Bouie Chase Audige Ty Berry Brooks Barnhizer Robbie Beran Matthew Nicholson GP MIN PTS REB AST STL BLK TO FG% FT% 3P% 34 34.9 17.3 3.4 4.5 1.1 0.1 2.4 40.6 86.9 31.8 34 34.4 14.1 3.4 2.9 2.4 0.6 2.4 36.8 83.2 32.5 34 28.3 8.5 4.8 1.1 1.4 0.1 0.8 34.2 81.4 29.1 34 24.2 7.6 4.9 1.1 0.8 0.4 0.8 41.0 83.6 31.0 34 25.8 7.5 4.5 0.6 0.5 0.7 0.6 36.9 84.8 34.5 34 21.0 6.3 5.4 1.2 0.6 1.2 0.9 61.4 47.8 0.0

Well, sure. Nobody from the teams who made it ever ask how close we were to not getting in. My purpose isn't to say "gosh, flip those 2-3 games and we'd have been in." My purpose is to say, "how close is our roster to being the kind of team that won't need those breaks next year?" Part of that analysis, in my opinion, is trying to figure out how far from it we were this year. And it seems like we were close. Like instead of a complete roster overhaul, we're only looking at a couple of key pieces here and there. THAT is the question I'm trying to answer for myself. That's why the thread title is basically how close were we equals (or is an indicator of) how close are we.

Maryland lost. Had Maryland won, Houston would have been the only #1 seed left. At the time I posted, Maryland had the lead. But got boatraced after that.

Let's suppose Maryland holds on to win this one. Will it be the first time ever that only one #1 seed made it out of the first weekend?

I've never been a bigger Baylor fan than I am right now.

Another year and the Minnesota job he always wanted might be open.

Here's a hint: PG Verygood Playa SG Keisei Tominaga SG Jamarques Lawrence SG Ramel Lloyd or PF Juwan Gary C Imma Dunkonyu

Someone who's good at breaking down the numbers want to share with everyone how close we came to making the dance this year? Win the OT game against Purdue and what else? Win that game and we don't play Minnesota in the Big Ten tourney and, therefore, end up with no bad losses. How many more games did we need to win and which ones? Or was it more of an issue of not losing by so much when we did lose?

Somethings else.

Based on the above, what I think we need: PG (I have someone specific in mind) I think we have enough SGs to be successful, but I wouldn't turn down an athlete who can light it up, if one happens to want to come here. Big, and maybe two. Juwan Gary has durability issues and isn't the shooter I'd like to see at his spot. How about the Mack kid from Wofford? Is he athletic enough to play the Hoiberg Stretch 4 role? He certainly can shoot it well enough. And I would *really* like to see us land an athletic big man like a Julian Reese-type player: long, athletic, skilled. Yeah, they're about as rare as unicorns, but if one happens to pop up on our radar, that's one guy I hope we could land.

Yep, I'm not arguing with you. It's just kind of interesting how that stuff works out.

Could start on an NCAA tournament caliber Husker team: Keisei Tominaga Jamarques Lawrence Ramel Lloyd Juwan Gary Could be a rotation player on an NCAA tournament caliber Husker team: CJ Wilcher Wilhelm Breidenbach Blaise Keita Would not likely contribute on an NCAA tournament caliber Husker team: Oleg Kojenets Denim Dawson Quaran McPherson Not sure where to put Eli Rice. Unlikely to contribute on an NCAA tourney team as a freshman but looks like a player who could develop nicely down the road. The four guys listed as capable of starting might not start together. If Juwan Gary started on a Husker NCAA team, for example, it would likely be because Keisei moved on and we added a PG through the portal. But with the right combo of component parts, I personally think each of those guys would be good enough to start for a team that could theoretically reach the dance. It's just a matter of who we get to fill in around them, which might knock one or two of them into the rotation player level. This is just a visual for me to kind of see where I think we need to upgrade the talent in order to do what Northwestern did this year.

Sr. Keisei Tominaga Sr. Josiah Allick Jr. Juwan Gary Jr. Blaise Keita Jr. CJ Wilcher Jr. Rienk Mast Jr. Brice Williams Jr. Ahron Ulis So. Wilhelm Breidenbach So. Denim Dawson So. Oleg Kojenets So. Jamarques Lawrence So. Quaran McPherson Fr. Ramel Lloyd Fr. Eli Rice Just to kind of have a visual. I'll keep this updated as changes occur. * I'm listing Juwan and CJ as being in the same class because they've played the same number of seasons and both have a transfer. ** Wilhelm getting a medical redshirt seems like a foregone conclusion so I'm listing him as a So. If someone can explain why that's wrong, I can move him to the junior class. *** Obviously, this is scholarship players only. We don't have to keep track of the number of walk-ons. **** Underlined means new to the roster; lined-through means they entered the portal.

Look at Tim Miles. Did having success right away and leading us to an NCAA appearance in year 2 earn him the degree of good will and job security that it probably should have? Fred would have to reach the NIT twice and gain an NCAA tourney bid in the next 3 seasons just to match the post-season record Tim Miles had. And if he does that, he's virtually guaranteed an 8th year if he wants it. Put those post-season appearance in the wrong sequence, however, and you get axed after 7 years.

Need to make room under the salary cap. Fred has lots of experience doing that.

I believe the speculation was premised on the idea that we might not have NIL money to go around. If he’s not getting paid, the logic goes he will probably leave. Makes sense we would keep our powder dry and use funds for players we want to get through the portal rather than spending on an underperforming player we already have.