basketballjones

My response to this is the same as it is to @Norm Peterson's theory. Both good ones - I just don't think you can name a curse after something that post-dates the curse itself still being in effect. I think it has to be what @aphilso1 has posited. "The Naismith Curse" - how do we cleanse ourselves of the curse? Burn peach baskets? I find no lack of irony that, the game that was invented at nearly an identical time as basketball on the other coast - volleyball - we absolutely dominate in. I think we're onto something fellas. I think it is our job to get a hold of Jack Mitchell and see if he can help organize something to rid ourselves of this curse? Is he on this site?

Holy shit it has to be.

Have we ever officially named our Basketball Curse?

If they wanted him, envisioned him there in the future, it was a ruthless but necessary decision. Not sure it will pay-off for them - getting your butt whipped as a young coach at a big school you weren't ready for can be a career ender.

Our personnel.

You've made a couple comments regarding this topic but this was the only one I could quickly find to quote. IMO - I think you're making too many assumptions of how we will operate in the half-court this year based off of warm-up drills. Everyone runs those things for warm-ups. I imagine our goal will still be to push it off of misses and turnovers, ala Creighton, but I foresee a bit more ball-control offense this year. Just my opinion.

I could see him having some splash games where he gets hot, for sure. But they'll be few and far between. But hey - we will need him come NCAA tournament time. Great guy for March.

1. Hopefully with more of a match-up look we're going to be doing a lot of rotating and switching, lulling teams into bad (more contested than they realize) shots. When you're big and long like this (hey o) you want to sag off, make the paint look unusable, and be late to close-outs contest. Dare teams into bad shots and suffocate them. 2. A good coach can and would! 3. I've stopped attempting to predict whether a Husker team is a good or bad shooting team. 4. Sure hope so! 5. Same as question 3 6. Honestly I was a bit thrown off by Walker returning. Obviously we will need/use him but it sure throws a lot of weird line-ups out there, limits younger/newer guys' opportunities, and creates potential chemistry issues with playing time. I love DW by the way. 7. No idea. Sure hope so. Would be huge. 8. I sure hope he doesn't HAVE TO have a role on this team. I was hoping he was a player that was moving on and making room for an impact player. But if he does have a role, I hope it is because he's shooting 45%+ from 3pt. 9. Sure hope so! 10. It will be more of a two man ball game. Saw it in the drills they were running yesterday. Pretty obvious where they are moving to basketball wise - and I like it. Bigs will be ball-screeners, hand-off guys, who play "yo-yo" basketball with guards. Almost a mover blocker style.

Sam's a lot better at guarding guards than you're probably giving him credit for. He's a big body with good length, allows him to give some space while still being able to contest.

You didn't ask for this post so sorry for quoting you personally haha. But personally... I've made a choice to drink the kool aid. I believe social media, "insider" boards, constant media attention, have taken a huge amount of the fun out sports and fandom. We've all become so fatalistic about our sports teams and it's really tiring and annoying. I've gotten to the point where I've chosen to start each season with a clean slate and be an optimist. I no longer see the value of being realistic, and, effectively, wishing (subconsciously and consciously) for your team to perform poorly so that it matches your opinion/beliefs/predictions. I see a lot of that happening. And I irrationally believe in the power of "positive energy." I think Husker Football, especially, has been doomed by all of the negative energy and camps that have been built up due to "Coach X" being hired/fired. There were people all over the insider boards who called Pelini's, Riley's, Frost's failure from the start. And it seems like they very much enjoyed their predictions being right. And I never understood why they relished in being so negative or "realistic" from the start. I guess I believe in the power of positive energy. Every team starts each year or era with obvious flaws/holes. I find it a lot more fun to believe our coach will fix those and let it happen. Maybe I get let-down? To me, personally, it's better than playing the "I told you so" game that so many of my friends like to play. I find myself during Husker Football and Basketball games being the "Dude - can we just watch and cheer the game? I don't care what you read on your insider board about why you know they'll fail." That's just me!

Whatever they do I hope that they do not settle on a starting line-up right away and then go with it for the rest of the season no matter what. Play with the line-up, plan ahead on line-ups you're going to try out, etc... Don't make a "promotion/demotion" thing - let the team know ahead of time you have about 3 or 4 line-ups you want to try and they're already predetermined.

No one. You ever watched a late season Iowa/Penn State football game?

Well after watching the press conferences I am correcting my record prediction to 25 wins.

You don't have to make things personal