Tom Jones

i hope you are right, Papa. But after watching Iowa vs. Maryland a bit ago ..... why would she spurn offers to participate in action like that in favor of suffering thru average to above average play as a Husker? What are the advantages of coming here?

Gotta a whistle a foul on that comment. Considering just the one game in the tourney is unfair. We have to consider the entire season in which the Huskers were 8th of 14 - right in the middle. Besides, we were the THIRD team out. I know that every team has injuries and i don't know how to "rate" the severity of injuries among the teams. I do know that three Husker losses were without Haiby and eight or ten or so were without Weidner.

Huskers will go far in the NIT

AM will never hit a high percentage of those bank shots from so far away from the rim. 2nd half - we will have to contend with #14 who has been sitting with 2 fouls

three possessions - three turnovers. now four

GOOD CATCH, HUD! Looks like 22 red hit an obstacle in the form of a hip from a player twice her size

i disagree that she traveled on the winning shot. I think that traveling presumes that the player first has possession and control of the ball. Clark stopped the ball and was taking a steps or two while she gained control. When she had control, she landed, planted, and shot. If her motion on that shot is going to be called traveling, then passing the ball to a player in motion is going to disappear from the game.

Hey, although i was there, i missed the reason for Amy's technical. what was the call or no call? And what did Amy say or do?

DANG! and, ummm, this team beat Iowa! What I hope to see now is one or two wins in the BIG tourney and then march thru the NIT the way they played tonight. Would be great fun for the seniors and something good to look back on when practice starts next summer. Heck, if they had a ton a fun in a post season tourney maybe Izzy and/or Jay would think, "dang, that was fun - maybe I am not thru with this team"

DANG! and, ummm, this team beat Iowa! What I hope to see now is one or two wins in the BIG tourney and then march thru the NIT the way they played tonight. Would be great fun for the seniors and something good to look back on when practice starts next summer. Heck, if they had a ton a fun in a post season tourney maybe Izzy and/or Jay would think, "dang, that was fun - maybe I am not thru with this team"

i recall actually going to a "performance" of the No Coast Derby Girls in which the printed program listed the stage names of the players. Some of them connoted pretty rough play ... especially "Kelly Ripanippleoff ".

Worse than Roller Derby girls?

i have seen that and a few other Petrie clips. She looks as "ready to play D1" as any recruit we have had in years. Size, strength, speed, dexterity, court vision .... she seems to have all that PLUS under the basket moves. There has been talk on here about freshmen as impact players. She could be one. Curious about who #4 is and if she has ever thought about taking up residence in the middle of cornfields.

that's good work, 12 Dozen!

I think the Huskers are 40-60% to win at Illinois at their place and 90-10% to defeat Northwestern at home. That leaves the Huskers 15-14 heading into the tourney and therefore at least a .500 record regardless of what happens there. I think the NIT is in our future

We can say what else we want about Bluder, but we gotta admit she can rope in the recruits, she can develop them into players, she can weave players into a team, she can coach the team to success, and she can keep her recruits home.

Another difference. (And perhaps readers are tired of seeing me harp on this). FH started the season with 16 or 17 healthy players. AW had nine. Yes, the injuries hit the men's team hard, but once they did, there were other players to turn to. And there are nine freshman "under development" who will probly be available to step up next year. Having bodies is where it must begin. Failing that, nothing else that we discuss here (coaching, motivation, player development) matters.

I guess it depends on how one defines "impact player". Cain, Kissinger, Haiby, Veerbeek, and Brown were all on the same team. And Eliely was as valuable as most of those. It doesn't seem plausible to me that a team can have six impact players and have a 14-16 season. Five or six impact players on one team - that would be like the most successful UConn teams. I totally agree on Markowski having had an enormous impact. Maybe my definition is off base, but I think of Kelsey Griffin, Jordan Hooper, and Lindsey Moore as being impact players

Why stop at head coach. Mom can be mayor!

Other teams don't do it "all the time". They do it occasionally. But it's clearly the exception, not the rule. And, generally, they do it with top 25 or so in the nation HS players. And, again generally, teams who do this are adding these impact freshmen to an existing group of older high achieving players.

On the matter of the best path into the future for UNL and HCAW ... I will start with what I don't know. I don't claim to have a keen eye for talent or athleticism, or the process of developing and refining girls right out of HS in bb fundamentals. Nor am I any kind of expert in the X's and O's What I think I might know: AW's teams don't have enough players Too many players (my opinion) don't get much better as they move thru their years of eligibility The Huskers fail to execute in some basic situations that opponents seem to do well at. Prime examples are getting the last shot at the end of quarters and getting good shots on out of bounds plays (I know I am repeating) We don't have enough players. AW is in her seventh year. She had four-good-not-great years in SoDak. I can't think of any coaches who, after eleven years of better than average head coach achievement, suddenly experience skyrocketing improvement in recruiting, player development, coaching fundamentals, motivation, etc and then, in their 12th year, go on to greatness. While there may be exceptions, in general, what they are in their 11th year is as good as they get. So ..... ADTA, after taking note of the improvement in so many Big 10 teams, has a decision to make. Is he content with a fine and well behaved gentlewoman, players who stay out of trouble and who graduate, a team that occasionally pulls an upset, better than average fan support, but a program that consistently dwells below midpoint in conference standings? In making the decision, he also must bear in mind that some coaching changes intending improvement, end up doing the opposite.

Before AW's injury we did lose to Creighton 51-77 and Drake 62-80. Those were bad losses.

While it is basically the same team as last year, there are some notable exceptions. We miss Bella more than I thought we would. We miss her rebounding, and she had some "fight" that seemed to have rubbed off on her teammates. We miss Brown's enthusiasm on the bench - she seemed to be the leader of the entertaining 3 point conversion antics. Mostly, though, we miss AW - this is anybody's guess, but I think three or four of this year's losses would have gone the other way had AW been on the court. But while that is true, it has to be considered in the context of other teams also having had injuries to key players. I am coming to agree with those who say that this staff has reached its plateau and that middle of the Big 10 pack is the best we can reasonably expect unless changes are made.

i stand corrected on her age. It's just difficult to understand why her play in her first few games seemed so promising.

think back to when the clock was winding down at the of the 2nd quarter. Huskers had possession and an opportunity to hold for the last shot. Sam shot too soon - leaving Minni with the last possession. At which MM committed a needless foul after which MInni hit two free throws. As has happened so often with this team, the opponent scored on a possession that never should have happened.