Cookie Miller Wasn't Dirty

Mizzou beats Kentucky. That should move them up and out of the Last Four In for Lunardi. Darn.

Why would committee members lie about using conference standings? If they did use them, why wouldn't they just admit it? Why wouldn't they just put it on the team sheets? If you're saying that a high conference finish could subconsciously inflate the perceptions of a team then I can get behind that. But I do not believe standings are "discussed and considered" in the way you mean it. They do care about how you did out of conference (which is why they put the non-con record on the sheet). So really, a great conference record might actually be seen as a knock against a bubble team since it implies they didn't do well out of conference.

Sorry ladysker, gotta disagree with you on this one. While a recruit is rarely ever going to say that the facilities are the reason they came, there are associated subconscious feelings that go along with the facilities and improve the overall experience of an official visit. Seeing our facilities can give a sense of wonderment and improve the feeling of the visit, which is huge. Of course the relationship building is key, but it all matters.

Johnnies win!

Good point, St. John's winning does help improve the Big East RPIs. But Duke losing hurts the ACC RPIs. So I see that as a wash. The tiebreaker is that St. John's helps us in multiple facets: helps our RPI, improves our worst loss, and in the same vein, keeps St. John's from moving down to a Quad 3 loss.

Houston actually beat UCF, which was not good for us. Agree on Notre Dame NC State. I'm actually glad to see ND lose that one. Their slide from being ranked top five in the country continues. Kansas goes down. Darn it. That offsets the potential St John's upset. Speaking of which, they're only up three now

First Four Out! First Four Out! Lunardi must have done some digging since his most recent comments on Nebrasketball.

Yep, unfortunately being offset by KU still down 9 to OSU and UCF down 7 to Houston.

Yikes Kansas. Down 12 at home...

I kind of avoided that one since it was obvious and I figured someone else would bring it up. I also can't help but think about the fact that I attended pretty much every home game for four and a half years, then graduated in December of that season and moved away... so I had to watch that one on TV.

Really appreciate you doing this, @HuskerFever . A couple things I'll add: Duke/St. John's - St. John's is currently at 118 in RPI. Need them to be better than 135 to stay in Quad 2 South Carolina/Texas A&M - I think it'd be better for A&M to win. Better chance they both get in if SC wins this game. Minnesota/Michigan - I think we definitely want Michigan - need our best win (and possible best two wins come Selection Sunday) to look better, even though a Minnesota win helps keep our road game against them in Quad 2. Hopefully they find other ways to stay there. Providence/Marquette - up for debate (Providence #10 vs. Marquette bubble) - agree, I'll probably root for Providence to really give the kill shot to Marquette for losing at home

As we inch closer to the end of our seven day hiatus, I want to be reminded of some of the coolest moments in Nebrasketball lore. I have four games that really stand out to me, all from the Doc era. 2011 vs #2 Texas I remember the #1 team in the land fell earlier that day, so Texas, stacked with Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Gary Johnson, and Jordan Hamilton (and yes, Matt Hill) was set to move up to #1 with a win. Doc's crew had other ideas. We were up 11 with 1:41 to play. Me and the rest of the student section were all set to storm the court. Then over the next 34 seconds we missed four free throws, gave up four offensive rebounds, and turned it over once to allow Texas to tie it! We were in absolute shock and thought we were toast. But Brandon Richadson ended up icing the game down the stretch with some clutch free throws and the storming of the court ensued. 2008 vs Creighton One of the games I traveled up from Omaha to see as a high schooler. Dagunduro with the layup with two seconds left to win by two. This was at my peak of Creighton-hatred. 2009 vs #16 Texas Another game I traveled up from Omaha to see. Dagunduro had a (somewhat of a) dagger to go up four with under a minute left. The place was going nuts. 2008 vs Charlotte (NIT) Traveled up for this one as well, as we wanted to give a nice send-off to Aleks Maric as it'd likely be his last home game. I remember we were sitting close to his parents and after the game, my dad led us over there to thank them for their son's contributions and to wish them well in the future. Man, I really loved some of those Doc teams and wish he would have succeeded. His '08, '09, and '11 teams were some fun bubble teams.

2012 - Arizona (23); Oregon (22) 2013 - Maryland (22) 2014 - Missouri (22) 2016 - South Carolina (24)

I've hated Creighton more than any team in sports since I was in grade school. No need to worry.

I know. Isn't it crazy that people still misinterpret it??

Haha I totally get what you're saying. I'm sure it looks like I'm just hating all of this with my skepticism and all. I'm enjoying every minute of it, though. I went to the Wisconsin game on Monday and had a blast. It's just easy to start arguing about semantics when there's a week off from games.

When I'm bringing up my concerns about qualifying, I bring up the two points that hurt us. That would be RPI and quality wins. And for every point the NW guy brings up in our favor, someone else will bring up points in favor of their conference. All I'm saying is that 22 wins, 4th place in the conference, an RPI outside the top 50, and one solid win at home is not going to guarantee us a spot. My opinion is that it won't be enough, but I do think that the committee could like what they see from our team and end up taking us. And if we have 21 or fewer wins I will say there is no chance we get in. Go ahead and save this message if you'd like, I'll eat crow if I'm wrong.

When did I say stats are the only factor? I've said multiple times that I know they are not. I've also said that the eye test absolutely matters and should benefit us down the stretch. But historically it doesn't overcome a 60+ RPI. All I've been saying that you disagree with is that finishing 4th doesn't matter (which, by the way, is a stat). We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Wait until after the selection show when the committee members discuss snubs and I bet you'll hear them say at some point, "We don't pay attention to conference standings, we care about the entire body of work." If they did, why did a 1st place Washington miss the tournament in 2012?

We struck out on two consecutive hires in Collier and Doc. The fact that they were the coaches for a combined 12 years might make it seem like an eternity, but missing on two coaches is no reason to accept average. And I know we were terrible before Nee, but no high school kid was even alive back then. That's irrelevant to the future success of the program. I don't think an extra base hit is all that far-fetched considering the facilities we now have and the fanbase that has proven to be one of the most impressive home-court advantages in the country. I know it's scary to think about going through another 15 years of tournament-less basketball, but I really think people are underestimating the allure of this job.

We've already discussed in multiple threads the fact that the committee doesn't care one iota about your conference finish. Yes, usually the 4th Big Ten team gets in because their entire body of work is worthy of a bid. This year is different. Our entire body of work (RPI, quality wins) may very well not be good enough with only 22 wins. Any expert that's commented on the situation agrees.

I get where he's coming from, I really do. But that was the same sentiment with Bo. "Be careful what you wish for, 9 wins every year is nothing to scoff at!" I'm willing to take the risk of losing out on average in an attempt to maximize our potential. I'd rather take some swings and misses before connecting instead of just accepting average. The way it went down for football is a perfect illustration of this. We canned Bo, ended up with someone worse, then hit the home run on the next try. Again, not advocating for firing Miles right now. Just speaking about the "be careful what you wish for" sentiment in general. That's a fear-driven attitude. Fortunately, our AD isn't motivated by fear.

When you compare it to the history of our program, yeah it's good. I just think we can be a program that consistently gets to the dance. Not saying Tim Miles won't get us to that point, but I'm not betting on it. Nor am I giving up on him, though. I have no idea what you mean regarding point 2. I'm not a Creighton fan if that's what you're implying.

So you're okay with the up seasons being: - 11 seed in 2014 - Completely blowing away an opportunity at a good season in 2015 - Being on the bubble in 2018 Yes, the history of Nebrasketball is pathetic. I know I've had to endure a smaller chunk of it than you have. But when the Chicago Bulls visit your campus to get ideas for their facilities... it's hard to determine if the recruiting success is due to that or due to Miles. We haven't had the opportunity to see what someone else can do with what we now have, and the longer we wait the more stale these facilities become. Again, I'm not advocating for firing him right now. I'm as desperate for a tourney win as the next guy, and this year and next year seem to be our best chances we've had since 1991. I'm just saying, should we really accept two bubbly seasons in six years to be that successful? And to me it seems pretty clear that those two teams were carried by the talent and not the coaching. I know he's the reason the talent got here, but man it's frustrating watching that team in Omaha play beautiful offensive basketball year-in, year-out when Tim's teams resort to isolation. The only reason it's working this year is because we have four legitimate playmakers to bail out Tim's sad excuse for offensive sets.

Regarding attendance, I think the only reason it would have been up for the last two seasons would be the arena. No doubt in my mind on that. I should have been more clear. I DEFINITELY want Miles back next season because if all goes well, I wouldn't be shocked to see us get a 5 seed in the NCAAs. I was just saying it wouldn't be the end of the world for me if he left. I'd be distraught about the missed opportunity for next year (assuming Palmer and Cope would leave, which I certainly think they would if Miles were gone). As for the long-term health of the program, I'm skeptical about Miles' reliance on the transfer market and I think we have the ability to do better than him. But yes, if Palmer and Copeland are coming back then I definitely want Miles back next year. But if they declare for the draft, I'd probably prefer Miles leave as well, which at this point would only happen on his own accord.

I could see the above scenario going down, and aside from flushing next year's promising season down the drain, I wouldn't be terribly disappointed if it did. But I'm clearly not as high on Miles as you are. It's hard to argue that he upped attendance... it was obviously better when the team was better (late 2014, early 2015, and now). But was attendance really all that good the last two seasons? My guess is not, and any improvements from the Sadler days are due to the arena being new and centrally located. My point is that of course the attendance is better when the team is on the bubble. Winning injects life into the program. The question is, could another coach win as much or more than Miles? I think so. I agree that the recruiting has been a big step up, especially from the transfer market. But it's not hard to outdo Doc in that regard. Are we really recruiting at as high of a level as we could be?