HB

Seriously, with the names? At this point of the season, multiple references on this thread alone to "Blanton", and now "Ivan ". Your way of trolling?

Jimmy, half-full isn’t allowed. That’s against the rules. You have to be completely full, until after 3 years. You must not have gotten the memo.

There’s plenty of reasonable evidence right now. You and Art can try to set an arbitrary timeline for it, but you’re not the sole arbiters.

I’m just saying that for a team that has lost 26 straight conference games, with some putrid non-conference losses, the criticism hasn’t been that sharp. Certainly not by message board standards, although this one has always been better than most. So when there is a well though-out post, respectfully articulated like Diehards, I’m going to defend him. Ok for people to disagree with him, or me, or someone who even thinks Banton will play in the NBA. But people should be able to post like that without recrimination. Yes, we’re only in the second year. On the other hand, the performance has been the worst of my long lifetime, by far. To suggest that we might want to tweak a few things already in the face of that shouldn’t subject one to attack. My guess is any other coach we would have brought in wouldn’t have such a hands off standard. But Fred is the Mayor.

Yeah, the board is hilarious. Hilariously wrong most of the time. But no one comes on and says “man, was I wrong by a mile.” Instead they tend to attack those who are more accurate.

Why was the second year “just thrown together”? If these guys are all that, they could have done better. Anyway, time will tell. And I predict some changes in the off season. And I also hope you are right and these guys prove to be awesome.

Carry on. If you think we have a good recruiting staff right now, go for it. I'll go by what I see when they play minutes on the court.

Who has called for Fred to be fired? I don't recall one post like that. If you think the current staff is perfect and off limits, fine, but general assertions to the contrary aren't out of left field. We have brought in some players who flat out can't play at this level, so everything needs looked at. Losing 24 straight or whatever it is, even early in a tenure, isn't good. If someone would have suggested in October of '19 we'd not we'd lose all but 2 in year one, and the first 8 in year 2, they'd have gotten 100 down-arrows and a boat load of ridicule. So the mild critiques on here aren't really that bad under the circumstances. The mild suggestions for Fred pale in comparisons to those for Frost, once a returning golden boy, in his second year, even though the on the field result was better than this. So please tell football fan poster to have some patience also.

Nobody has "trashed" the staff. Raising concerns with the product we have out there is different then trashing. Diehard's critique is well thought out and articulated, quite respectfully. I've yet to see anyone say Fred should be fired and not given more time. On next year's class I hope you're right. Not sure it looks great on paper for this team in this league--doesn't add a true big or a true point. However, the class could grow. Hoping for the best. The comment about keeping Nebraska kids isn't that odd. With Fred's reputation, close proximity to where he grew up, played and coached, and $5 million a year--one would hope any success with local talent wouldn't be chained to past failures. Nee overcame a past of not winning consistently, it's not crazy to have hoped that Fred's cred could have gotten a guy or 2. I don't think it's unfair to be somewhat disappointed with the in-state recruiting so far. I've said for a while that I think Fred blew it when he hired his first staff. This is a hard place to get dudes. He had the budget to go after some bigtime recruiters. So he gets 2 old guys who don't recruit, retains Gates, who is looking to be a lightweight--what connections does he have and who does he bring in--and has an east coast guy who dominates the transfer market as the only real recruiter. If the transfers were supposed to lessen the turn-around time for a decimated roster and allow for a quicker fix, well, it isn't looking so good. Go around the league and see much more effective transfers. I think some changes should and will be made in the offseason. Fred may have to spend more time and attention personally to recruiting. Need another big-time recruiter on staff. I'm all for being patient, but we are a long, long way from fielding a competitive team. It's one thing to need more time to make tournaments, but right now we can't win one damn game. Hopefully we'll change up some things, and all be happy in a few years.

Well meaning, but delusionally optimistic. Who guards the post in the Big 10 in either lineup? Does defense in the Big not matter? Oh yeah, but 5-out. Let me know when that wins consistently in this league; when it happens I will stand down and salute. And no true point guard (I guess you're saying Bryce is, will be interesting to see)? Yeah, that's going well. In the first, there is one shooter, maybe 2. In the second, maybe 3 if the newbies can actually shoot consistently (let's just say a lot of people thought we had more shooters' coming in this year than we did; see recent post by Padilla on Bryce shooting stats). Problem is every year people look at some highlight clips, and think the new guys are all that. Well, I hope you're right, and I'm just the old board curmudgeon.

Excellent post, NU Diehard. Nailed it on all fronts. As to anyone watching Yvan's film, and not seeing the obvious: Makes one wonder if Fred really watched it, vs. just letting Matt A. do Matt A.? I mean, it is indeed troubling wondering who and how did our coaches think some of these guys could play at this level?

Thanks.....I never would have gotten it.

Yeah, I definitely lack youth. But that was mostly "emo twitter". I have no idea what that is. I vaguely heard of the Star Trek thing, but perhaps not being able to connect it to a message on the original post is a denseness problem in addition to age.

You know I'm too old old to understand a word of what you just said.

Good, thoughtful post. Technically Thor is eligible to return. I assume you'll put him "in doubt"? ( Man, have you watched Wood play? Player to build on? Wow. I guess I get the "he's Bryce's buddy" thing, but if he ever plays significant minutes at this level, I'll eat your hat).

Transfer prospect

No, I am not forgetting it. This is worse

I am not incredulous as it has been obvious for a long time. The Nevada game was the wake up call. Could tell there was something dramatically wrong with this bunch. Not great talent wise, but truly the worst mental approach to the game I have ever seen.

Well, we looked like this before the break also. I could take a 5 year break and shoot better free throws than these guys. We haven’t won a conference game in 13 months, yet the board is the problem. Sure.

He’s injured and out for the year

Not buying it from what I’ve seen.

Nothing. Fred has to revamp his staff immediately after season over. Get some recruiters and some players

Congratulations on not having to watch it

And most of our staff and players

This is way worse. Been following it for 56 years and this is the worst.