Tom Jones

if i heard their UNL histories spoken yesterday, Bella has completed her master's degree and Sam is still working on her undergraduate. I would think that this decreases the probability for a Bella return and increases that of Sam

i am only reading tea leaves - I have no source of "inside" info. But I would be surprised in the extreme to learn that there were previous such incidents between player and coach. For that to be true, one of two co-existing facts would be required. Either such previous instances only came to be known AFTER the PSU game OR the head coach had to have a) known about it and failed to dismiss CL at that time; b) then failed to implement safeguards to keep it from happening again; and c) failed to inform one or both ADs who would also have failed to prevent it. Really hard to believe. And I do think that any revelations made here should consist of more than naked assertions. Something more than "I am not speculating". For my part, I will await the emergence of facts from sources whose qualifications are known.

she was not

oh, there will be more said. UNL will make the official announcement that he is gone for good along with some details of his separation package - which will generate some angst. She, and/or her media consultant, may (or may not) air complaints about the unfairness of the method of her dismissal. And those who know, or who claim to, will leak some tidbits as time goes by.

generally I am opposed to kidnapping. but in this case .....

never mind. the ticket office figured it out

Is anyone else having trouble loading their Sunday mobile tix? Tickets for the Sunday game never reached my Apple Wallet. This morning I got e-mail from the the UNL TO saying that new tickets were ready to download and I could get at them either by logging on to the Husker mobile app or going to the web site. But when I load the app, nothing happens - the opening face page just sits there. So I went to the web site, opened my account, went to the ticket pic where it said there are no tix for me. I e-mailed the ticket office but who knows if anyone will ever read it.

Oh, I hope it was a lesson learned. Use of TOs is the one thing about Coach Amy that I don't understand. I was shouting at the TV that it was time to stop the action and reset.

HoopHead said " Right, HoopHead. I had never listened to him before but this afternoon I tried a few episodes. PAINFUL! So full of no content filler cliches and he repeatedly cuts off and shouts down his guests. About the time they get to the point of developing a thought, he interrupts with a "but it is what it is" or a "at the end of the day" or a "be that as it may" which leads back to his thoughts not those of his guest.

KarlHess, Do you mean "I am NOT naming players here"?

i didn't get much from the radio dialogue - i tired of the endless series of cliches and vague references to vague ness and obscurity Seemed to be a lot of comment on very little content. I do not believe that AS was set up by the players. I have been at every home game and i watch the players. In the home game preceding PSU, the players were all loving on each other and AS was right in the middle of it - as it has been all season. I find CL leaving the room bc AS was in the room as implausible. If she was in there and he didn't want her in there, why did he let her in? If she came knocking on his door, the trouble avoidant reaction to not let her in and if she wants to talk, go find a more open area. And I don't the players were distracted during the PSU game. Heck, they played 33 minutes of really good basketball before the floor caved in from under them. And I don't think AS was thrown off the team. Not enough time passed between the event (whatever it was) and her removal. The procedure would have been to suspend her pending further investigation.

I am about half sad about this .... I was hoping it was Weidner's turn.

totally agree with Red Steve. There is no doubt that CL and UNL have an employment contract and that contract has a conduct/behavior clause. The tricky/awkward/delicate part will be proving that the clause was violated (if it was) without bringing emotional harm and humiliation to the student athlete. That's what makes this different than a corporate firing case.

yes, a tragic situation for all involved. and some who WEREN'T involved at all. ADTA comes immediately to mind. If (and noting the hypothetical) the situation is what many reasonably suspect it to be, ADTA and the UNL even higher ups will have to decide, in parting ways with CL, whether to take on the legal burden of showing cause to fire w/o compensation vs negotiated settlement - aka buy out. On the one hand buying out a coach who (if he did) behaved in such a way as bring shame on the program leaves a bad taste and terrible public perception. But on the other hand, a legal battle fought out in the light of day could expose all sorts of sordid accounts, facts and allegations for all to see. UNL has to be sensitive to the effect upon a student athlete of having details become public. Accompanying question: does the student athlete have a case against UNL? (failure to adequately supervise its agent) And if so, would her case be strengthened as a byproduct of UNL making its case against CL public. And there are coaches of other women's teams to whom UNL will have to emphasize the importance of making sure no such circumstances exist in their programs - lest others come to light which the athletic dept should have been concerned about given the current one. The lives of many totally innocent people can be complicated as a result of this. And will there be an effect on recruiting? Oh what a tangled mess!

first, i will make clear that i have no inside info as to what is going on here. I do have experience having handled such matters in my pre-retirement work. From that I would surmise (and that's all it is) that AS's departure from the team was of her own choosing - that she voluntarily left the team on her own initiative (have i been sufficiently repetitive). I don't think that there is sufficient reason to suspect a set up. Somehow, whatever was between the coach and the player, if anything, came to light. There are a hundred ways this could have happened. In the words of one of my fave writers .... "There are cracks in everything .... that's how the light gets in"

i am reluctant to criticize coaching in general and I am a Williams fan in particular, but I make a few exceptions. Top of the list - I have long failed to understand this staff's under usage of time outs. A 13 point lead disintegrated as PSU needed less than two minutes to score 15 points. The one time out used came late in the that run and another IIRC, was available. To me, players looked stunned as the storm formed around them. An earlier TO and maybe another one with a "settle down" talk and a designated play and a break in PSU momentum - that seems to me to the recipe and what nearly any other coach would do.

for that to happen, she would have to displace one of Haiby, Shelly, or Scoggins. Unless one of them is injured, I don't see that happening. As effective as AW has been, Haiby, for the moment, is at least equal in ball handling, distribution, defense and scoring and she has the advantage of experience. Shelly more of the same. That leaves Scoggins who is also adequate in all those areas and whose spot up 3 point threat has to be respected I think that as long as our current three non-big starters are here and healthy, during this season, AW is the first small off the bench.

Fashion question: In last night's game, both teams wore their team colors - PSU in blue and Huskers in red. I noticed in another Big Ten game a few days ago that both teams were in their school colors. I have been watching for years and became accustomed to seeing the home team in white and visitors in team colors. I came to believe that this was a rule. Anybody know .... was it a rule that has now been changed or is it just a custom?

Native Nebraska girl round- ballers keep getting better. I have been watching for a looonng time. I once said that Maurtice Ivy was the best Nebraska raised girl BB player ever. Her #1 ranking, in my amateur mind, lasted all the way till I said that about Jordan Hooper. Which lasted until I said that about Jess Shepard. And then most recently Alexis Markowski - whose reign as #1 (in my amateur mind) didn't last any longer than watching Britt Prince in last year's state tourney. I know I left out a lot of players, especially Kissinger, and I know that making such an assessment about a girl at age 14 seems premature. But jeeezzze - how she can be a do-everything player and take over a game against girls two and three years older! Obviously I think she is a "must get - just gotta" for Husker WBB. She has been or will be offered by almost all the name programs. It's reasonable to think it will come down to a tug and pull between playing for a top program/legendary coach/national championship contender vs staying close to home and playing in front of family and friends. What will help is if DONU, in the next two years, can close the gap between being a mid level B1G team and being in the national top ten - thus making it close to a best of both worlds choice for BP. Two nightmare scenarios - IU and Creighton.

Right. My point was that minutes played and the circumstances under which they are played outweighs whether or not the player was a starter. Another commenter seemed to imply that if our best players (in this case AM) started, we would not pay the price of getting behind by 8 to 10 points early in the game. Of which this team has very little history. My pointing out that the only game in which this happened was one in which AM started ... I intended that only as irony and CERTAINLY not as being critical of AM. As Red points out she had nothing to do with UI's red hot shooting - especially all those threes. In a case like that, unless a team is sitting a world class defender, it doesn't make much difference which of its best 7 or 8 players were starters. I want to see AM get all the minutes that her endurance and the beating she is going to take permit.

I can't remember which games got off to good or poor starts in earlier years, but since this topic is about Markowski this year, i just checked 21-22 game histories. Looks to me as tho the only time an early deficit of 8-10 points happened this year was in the Iowa game in which AM WAS in the starting lineup.

yes, I had the same opinion about LB in the 19-20 season. That season's stats show that LB, despite not starting, had the 4th most total minutes played of all players - trailing only Whitish (playing the point), Eilely (often defending opponent's best scorer), and Cain (can't sit a six foot five shot blocker). I think that LB played as many minutes off the bench as she would have as a starter. I know that there is always an element of "prestige" in being a starter, but I think what really matters is not whether a player starts but how many minutes she plays. An important factor that is unknown to those of us looking in from the outside is how not being a starter affects the morale/attitude/self confidence of the player. We can only watch for player reactions to try to get clues. From having done that, I "sense"(or guess) that AM is more content coming off the bench than was LB. But again, I am going to go to a "coach knows best" approach.

i 100% agree that AM should get as many minutes as her endurance and foul status permit. But since that number of minutes is going to be limited, I don't see that it makes any difference whether or not she is a starter. She can play as many minutes off the bench as she can as a starter. I trust that coach knows best which game situations best suit her considerable talents.

YES! that worked. Thanks to all

no. do you have a link?