Norm Peterson

All you people who like to leave at the 5-minute mark to get the best seats at Gate 25 or whatever it is you do when you leave the game early, I has some bad news for you.

I feel like if we're good enough to get to 11 wins in conference, we're good enough to drop no more than 2 games in the non-con. I mean, if we're good enough to win 11 in conference, who in the non-con would we lose to? There are only 4 non-con games that aren't "buy" games (and we should win all the "buy" games). K-state was as bad last year as we were and probably didn't fill their roster holes as well as we did (they have a good transfer from Missouri, though). And that one is in Lincoln. Creighton is also in Lincoln and they lost their entire starting lineup from last year's squad. Granted, they pulled some big recruiting coups last spring, but those kids will still only be freshmen in their 3rd game of their college careers when they play us. We have NC State on the road and Auburn in a semi-neutral setting. Those are the only excusable non-con losses AFAIC. I think we have to beat everyone else in the non-con.

Part of that, though, is tempo, and part of it is the quality of your depth. Virginia is notoriously slow tempo and their 5 starters last year averaged (AVERAGED!) 31 minutes. No one else had more than 15. And there were games in Miles' first season where we didn't sub at all in the 2nd half because you look at the bench and you can't find a single player who is better fresh than a gassed David Rivers or Rey Gallegos. It was that bad. I don't know what Fred did at ISU, although it's my understanding he sometimes went as deep as 9 in his regular rotation. It'll be interesting to see how big a drop-off there is after the top 7 or 8 players. My hunch is that we have the quality of depth that we can go as deep as the coach wants to go and so this year should give us a real good insight into how deep Fred likes to tap into his bench.

That's not really the uniform, though. But thanks!

The old saying, "Make hay while the sun shines" comes to mind here. This might be the most offensively gifted roster we've had since the 90s. If Bryce is being considered a lottery pick, we only get him this one year and we need to take full advantage of it. We have the shooters. If our shooters can play defense, we have the horses to dance. We absolutely cannot stub our toes in the non-con. We can't be having to make up in conference for an off-night where we dropped one in the non-con. We need to be no worse than 9-2 in the non-con and I feel like we need to have 10 wins heading into January so that we aren't having to make up ground when the sledding is toughest. Not saying we will. Fingers crossed.

I'll demonstrate. Roll dice: 2 = Eduardo Andre 3 = Wilhelm Breidenbach 4 = Keon Edwards 5 = Lat Mayen 6 = Bryce McGowens 7 = Trey McGowens 8 = Keisei Tominaga 9 = Alonzo Verge 10 = Derrick Walker 11 = Kobe Webster 12 = CJ Wilcher Once a number is rolled, you can't roll it again. Roll five times at random, re-rolling if you roll a number twice. Then roll until you get five new numbers. Who are your starters? Who are your reserves? Mine? Starters: Bryce McGowens Keon Edwards Wilhelm Breidenbach Lat Mayen Kobe Webster Reserves: Alonzo Verge CJ Wilcher Trey McGowens Keisei Tominaga Derrick Walker This was the exact order of my "picks." I didn't have to re-roll to get a non-repeat until after CJ Wilcher was "chosen" with the 7th roll of the dice.

I'll be honest. I have absolutely no idea what our starting lineup will look like this year. But, I do know this: You could practically draw five names at random to start, and the NEXT five guys in off the bench will still be killa.

A win against Creighton in the non-con should not be considered a steal this year considering they don’t return any starters from last year‘s squad. I’m not predicting that we give them a curb stomping, but it shouldn’t be looked at as being a big upset if we beat them either.

We have a charity exhibition against Colorado on October 31, Halloween. I was thinking about wearing a costume to the game but I wanted it to be Husker-related. So, I think I've decided to go as a Nebraska baseball fan, but I'll need to borrow someone's Eric Crouch jersey. Anyone set me up?

Wins or ranking?

Aright, aside from the comments about how they're more bought-in than last year, I just learned that Wilhelm's nickname is "Heem" and he rides a skateboard to class. And I'm

I can't quite tell what the score is here, but it looks like the white team is at the very least keeping it close and making a game of it. MBB Scrimmage-September 24 - Image 15: Nebraska Cornhuskers guard Keisei Tominaga #30 MBB Scrimmage Nebraska Men's Basketball - University of Nebraska

I'm beginning to decide I could get behind a lot of different lineups. If you told me we're going to roll with Keisei, CJ, Bryce, Trey and Verge, I'd be like, "OK, 5-out, this should be interesting. Overwhelm them with 3-bombs. Hmmm."

YOU need to re-check the current roster because you're selling some of our players short with your height data. Wilhelm Breidenbach, I will have you know, is NOT merely six feet nine inches tall. He -- thanks to getting his height back with chiropractic -- is every bit of six feet TEN inches tall. Also, Bryce is 6'7, Derrick is 6'9, Verge is 6'3 (not really, but that's what they claim), Keisei is 6'2, and Eduardo is 6'11. Don't shoot the messenger.

Keon was singled out by HCFH twice yesterday: Once for his defense (moves his feet quickly and he's long); and once for his offense (shooter with handles, don't recall the exact verbiage.) He was an ESPN top 50 player for this year's freshman class. It's entirely possible he's that good. And, if he is, think about what that lineup would represent. You'd have two guys with handles and 3-level scoring ability who are both about 6'7. You'd have two guys both about 6'9, one of whom is a deep threat and the other with the upper body strength to secure the paint. And a 6'4 defensive stopper and low-volume shooter who can hit from deep when he's left open and strong and quick enough to get to the rim on the regular.

Kobe said a lot more. He laid out some big hints about buy-in compared to last year and guys committing to the system. I mean, you could almost say "shots fired" at a particular former teammate. "What did you learn about this team in the off-season?" "Our commitment to the system Coach is implementing is a lot better than last year and the willingness to embrace your role is better than last year."

Look at who would be coming in off the bench, tho. You talk about trying to win in a shootout. -A lanky 6'10 freshman with 3-point range. -A lanky 6'9 guy who once hit 86 out of 100 treys in practice and should probably be about 40% from 3. -An elite, 6'7 freshman with handles and 3-point range. -The Japanese Steph Curry. -An undersized, super-senior guard who can get hot from deep in stretches. -And a 6'11 rim protector who put on good weight in the off-season. I mean, that seems like "win in a shootout" no matter how you slice it.

It's niiiiice. Like a warm sweater on a crisp fall afternoon. He's the most talented true freshman big I can remember us having since Dave Hoppen. His skill level is really high. But, while I get the idea of him having the ability to draw Kofi away from the paint when we're on offense, we'll have to hit threes at a pretty high clip to make up for him making 100% of his dunks when we're on defense. As talented as Wilhelm is, he's not built to keep guys like Kofi out of the paint. I see him as a prototypical stretch 4, but if Fred thinks he's a fit at the 5, who am I to argue? Oh, and I fixed something for you. You're welcome.

Way ahead of where they were a year ago in terms of installing the system. Biggest change is shooting ability and then depth. A name we might not look at a lot who was mentioned twice is Keon Edwards, once because of his shooting and the second time because of his defense -- his ability to move his feet and his length. Depth, it's like in the past, if we had 8 legit players that could cover all positions, we felt pretty good. This year, there will be legit players who will almost never see the floor because our rotation won't go nearly as deep as our bench. In the past, our rotation was limited by the quality of the bench. This year, we could go as deep as we want and still have quality players who just won't get minutes.

That’s the way I remember it too.

They just now realized he's a perfect fit for the system they run. I'm sorry, but this joke never gets old.

Keisei looks surprisingly sizable in that photo.

That's actually a very good point. I was thinking he'd be distracted by not getting any. You're suggesting maybe he'd have thrown himself into his work to try to take his mind off the absence of action. Hmmm. That theory holds some water.

No particular ... what are you talking about? His girlfriend was *vegan*. You think things would have gone better if he'd been an incel for the spring semester?