Norm Peterson

Walker with his second of the half. No Derrick from now until after halftime

In case you’re interested, I would say there is a smattering of people in the 300 level, a sparse crowd in the 200 level, and less than half capacity in the lower bowl. For a Big 10 conference game against a ranked opponent.

Is this about the time of the game we usually fall apart?

Found it. It was Michael Ray Richardson.

You sure he didn't say Asian *vegetarian* curry? Cuz I mean ... It's lunch time, what can I say?

I'm trying to remember the details on a story about an interview with some NBA player who was known for his colorful interviews. His team was doing poorly and a reporter asked him about it in the post-game and he said "The ship be sinking." And the next question was how far can it go? And he thought a moment and answered "The sky's the limit."

I remember the thread and I basically think you framed it backwards. I didn't disagree about our level of talent not being improved.

Can we all agree that the Matt Abdelmassih experiment has been a failure? I was openly skeptical of having a dedicated recruiter on the coaching staff who really has no coaching responsibilities. I mean, theoretically, you could make it work. But I've gone into more detail than I care to try to recreate about how the pieces he's assembled haven't worked well together. Just look up my post from a year ago where I described how each of our players was basically inept at some important skill pertinent to their position. Yeah, we have some guys with some recruiting service stars on their resume. But, do we have ... talent? Whatever the case, there's clearly a disconnect between the roster that's been assembled and the product on the floor. Either we're not getting enough of the right kinds of players for this system or we're not getting the coaching that translates that talent into wins. Or both. I think the question is whether Fred will continue to protect his buddy or whether he'll make the tough call that I think has to be made to move this program forward.

I didn't see the option "Bring him back another year but do a Frost-like restructure of his deal so he is: 1) paid less (more in line with lower division coaches); 2) has to flip some staff; and 3) given a reduced buyout." So, I went with just the "bring him back" option. I was concerned about where we come up with the money for a new hoops coach when we might have to come up with money for a new football coach. With all the buyouts to get rid of the old guy and other inducement required to lure a new guy in, canning the two biggest paycheck guys in the department in a single year seems like a bit of a reach. Maybe there are folks out there with big enough bank accounts to make it happen, but that's for Trev to figure out.

I don't know, ask Matt.

By the way, can anyone look up what the worst end-of-season Kenpom ranking has been for any Big Ten team in the last, say, 10 years? How about worst of any Power 5 team? I have a feeling we're nearing historic levels of futility.

Yeah, hi, Tom, it's Norm from NU fundraising, how's it going? Awesome! I see you've had a really good year. Company is doing GREAT, I see your stuff all over the place, congratulations! Absolutely! Hey, I'll cut right to the chase: We need some walking around money to go find a new hoops ... What's that? Tapped out, huh? Oh, yeah, I can understand that. That receiver had to cost some money. HOLY SHIT THAT MUCH? Well, yeah, I understand but that doesn't go through us so I had no idea it took that kind of ... Yeah, of course I understand these things cost money. But coaches do too and ... Try the guy from Crete Carrier? You mean Ton? Yeah, I actually tried him already and he's apparently busy cutting radio ads for drivers ... Yeah, I get that things are tough all over but do you think you could ... Tom? Tom, you there?

If they do let Fred go, I just wanna say I am available to coach this program and I will do it for 1/3 of what they paid Fred and I GUARANTEE I will come within 7 wins per year of what he has posted. Guaranteed.

How many wins does Fred need to have to get to 20 conference wins in the next 2 seasons?

Siri corrected me. What can I say?

OK, all you people acting like there was no silver lining in this game, let me remind you we lead 14-12. Alright, anyone else got anything?

Would have been nice if they just didn't foul in the last 10 seconds or so and let the clock run out and then we only lose by 10 and Eduardo stays in the game.

Trey ain't no point guard, though. We have Verge and maybe Webster for that role. That's why Verge plays.

The Michigan St Box Score. Someone at ESPN isn't good at the maths. STARTERS FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS M. Bingham Jr.F 2-3 0-1 0-0 0 4 4 1 1 0 0 0 4 G. BrownF 4-10 2-3 0-0 0 2 2 0 3 2 1 0 10 J. HauserF 1-3 0-1 1-1 2 4 6 4 0 0 2 0 3 M. ChristieG 5-7 2-3 0-0 2 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 12 T. WalkerG 2-5 2-3 0-0 0 0 0 4 1 0 2 0 6 BENCH FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS M. HallF 3-3 0-0 0-2 1 2 3 2 1 1 1 1 6 J. Marble IIF 1-2 0-0 1-2 2 1 3 0 0 0 1 1 3 M. SissokoC 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 J. AkinsG 1-3 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 A. HoggardG 2-4 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 1 1 1 5 1 4 TEAM 21-42 6-12 2-5 10 18 28 12 8 4 14 4 50 50.0% 50.0% 50.0%

Boy that's doing it in style. Good for the ladies. Great for the ladies. Maybe this will help them get the respect from the voters they deserve. And they're so young, too.

In his pictures, for whatever reason, he almost always looks sad.

Not those five. A different five.

I hate to say this. I REALLY hate to say this, but ... At 72-67 with 36 seconds to play, I was still thinking to myself, we're nowhere near out of the woods and there's a good chance we're going to find a way to lose. And, sure enough. So, I guess on the one hand, I was smart enough to maintain low expectations so that I wasn't crushed by the emotional impact of the loss. On the other hand, it sucks that I've resorted to expecting the worst in every situation so that I don't build myself up for disappointment anymore. One thing that pissed me off is that we couldn't inbound the ball on that 2nd-to-last possession in regulation and had to burn a timeout, WHICH we really could have used after Liddell hit that 2nd FT to tie the game. At that point, we had 8 seconds left and, if we'd had a TO, we could have gotten the ball across half court, called time, and had Hoiberg (or someone -- Abdelmassih?) design an inbounds play from the sideline to get literally anyone open. I think the last play of regulation was Kobe Webster trying to drive and missing and then Walker missing the put-back? I just don't think that was the shot we probably would have wanted. But, maybe it's as good as anything they would have designed if they'd had 5 seconds from the sideline. Maybe it's too much to hope that they could have designed something for a sidelines out-of-bounds play with 5 seconds left that would have given them any better of a look.

Would the Kevin Cross playing for Tulane in 2022 be the same version of Kevin Cross that we'd have if he had stayed here? Or does Tulane have version 3.1 whereas we'd have version 1.3? Anyone know?

My father-in-law was a tough, old Nebraska farmer who'd seen a lot of cold nights and days on the farm. But he always said he never experienced cold like he did when he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Coldest he'd ever been. Absolutely miserable conditions. Add to it the fact there were people out in those woods who were looking for you so they could kill you. A lot of young men made the ultimate sacrifice in that battle and in that war and it seems to me the least we, who inherited our freedom from the people who paid for it with their blood, could do is to stand respectfully for our national anthem when it's played, with our hands over our hearts, and remember folks like Russ Lyon who left to serve our country and didn't come home.