Chuck Taylor

It's safe to say that we'll be dancing if we have two players taken, but I don't think it's safe to say.

I think the media is ranking Wisky (roster losses, bad culture) and Iowa (roster losses, idiot coach) too high. They're also rating NW too low, Cats have the second most returning minutes behind Purdue and an easy noncon to build momentum. They were young last year and lost a lot of close games. I think we could finish as high as 7th. if Indiana doesn't adjust well to a new coach and Rutgers' offense is more anemic than usual.

I've got us around 18-13 with 9-11 in the BIG. Our weak non-con gives us a chance to get off to a good start, and the league's definitely down from last year. I'd be very disappointed if we're not at least on the bubble.

Bart Torvik's preseason ratings have us at 66, about the same place. Katz has us 11th in the BIG, Torvik has us 12th.

Derrick "grew" an inch, 6-9 sounds better than 6-8 for a Big Ten center.

My thoughts as well. We might have missed on this round of local talent, but Fred has established that we're after them. We've missed guys in the past because we just didn't show enough interest. Good things ahead!

The John Johnson Era is over.

Now that we have a competitive team, I'm expecting all road games.

Don't they know that we hate each other?

Interesting to think about the game if they'd used a box, instead of a peach basket. Even weirder bounces off the rim, for one thing.

I'm glad we're giving the option. It's a mistake to go to all digital because it will cause some oldtimers to just give up on season tickets, and it will lower sales. I'll repeat my horror story from the NCAA volleyball tournament in the spring: Ticketmaster went to a new technology so your bar code changes every few seconds. Only way to use it was to put it in your digital wallet, rather than take a screenshot. It didn't work on some older phones, so there was a line of people standing to the side trying to get it to work. Like everything else, they roll out a new technology before it works well, and seniors just opt out. Look how many seniors still have cable because they don't want to mess with streaming. The idea of holding onto tickets isn't a big factor to young people. They keep their selfies from the game.

I agree, Husker hoops fans have been kicked in the teeth enough times to not let the last two years get them down. Plus, the future is VERY bright. But Covid has changed the formula, along with more viewing options. A lot of people don't want to tie up their money if they think we're going to be canceling games again. Others (mostly older fans) may have decided they didn't mind watching from home, instead of going out into the cold. I still think we'll have great crowds, but I don't expect season ticket sales to be what they were.

Coach K and Roy Williams are gone and Kansas is in limboland with realignment, so those bluebloods aren't what they used to be. Bennett has a national title is generally regarded as one of the top 5 coaches in college basketball. I'd say most kids would consider Va a top-level offer.

If I ever write a screenplay for a Western, the hero will be named Chance Westry.

A friend text me about it in the morning, but then I couldn't find anything about it. It's almost like the AD is a big, bloated bureaucracy that can't get out of its own way.

Excellent changes.

I'm sticking with "NIT or bust" with the expectation that we're at least at bubble team. So NCAA wouldn't be a shock, but I can't call it an expectation. Some sobering facts: We return 52.6% of minutes (according to T-Rank), which is just 8th in BIG. So we're returning fewer than average minutes from a bad team. There's no way to sugar coat a 3-16 conference record. And say what you want about Teddy, he and Delano are big losses. While we're much more talented overall heading into the season, we still are going to need time to put the pieces together. We're just a fairly experienced team. Bryce is going to be good, but as the No. 26 ranked recruit, he's not seen as transformation talent. Evaluators don't see him as a 2022 lottery pick, for example. So he's a HUGE addition for us, but probably not good enough to carry a marginal team. We picked up really good transfers in CJ and Keon, I think. But while there were extenuating circumstances to their unimpressive freshman years, it's also hard to project they're going to make a giant leap to stardom this season. To me, Verge is the key. He was a high-usage, not-so-efficient player on a mediocre team last year. Can he provide enough scoring and leadership to get us over the hump?

I heard he was transferring to Bell West. Also, Josiah Dotzler has picked up offers from Liberty (Shiloh Robinson there) and Drake.

So this isn't going to be a trend, right? We don't need to revisit my post that Sergej would average a double double by his sophomore year.

I enjoy the NBA and thought this year's final was terrific. It was nice to see some new blood in the finals. Not upset by the U.S. loss, France has 5 or 6 NBA players, including Rudy Gobert, and the other guys have played together internationally. It's not like the old days when the Americans could just show up and win on talent alone. All to the top countries have multiple NBA players and more international experience. I actually got more worked up watching the U.S. water polo team rally to beat Japan. Some of the offbeat Olympic events are fun, if you don't have to watch an edited version after you know the result. Seems like 5 or 6 channels are carrying stuff, so it's easy to find something watchable.

Philosophy 102...Trev is a great hire until we lose our 4th game this fall.

That was a fun play to watch, till I noticed the score.

I’ve been wondering how paperless tickets will affect sales. Lot of oldtimers aren’t into smartphones and might just decide to quit going to games. I’m sure the ticket staff is accommodating them during the transition, but you just wonder how many will say screw it. The NCAA volleyball in Omaha was a hassle because Ticketmaster had a new system that didn’t work well with iPhone 6s, and there were a lot of people who had to be helped through the process. Luckily, it wasn’t full capacity or it would have been a fiasco.

Bart Torvik projectometer bumps us from 79 to 66 with Verge. Back to bubble territory! https://barttorvik.com/rostercast.php?run=1&team=Nebraska&player=Alonzo%20Verge%20Jr.%3BArizona%20St.

Jimmy had a great post, I liked everything about it. Mwm89 and huskerbill 85 had really good likes, and millerhusker was awesome with the upvote.