Chuck Taylor

No kidding. This year is especially bad because of all the combinations with the weak schedule. We're winning games, and that's more fun that losing. That's as complicated as I'm gonna make it.

I really think Terran's reputation suffers here because of how it played out at the end. He led the conference in scoring and was a first-team selection. He was named on preseason all American teams heading into his junior year. I get why everybody loves JPJ right now, but he's a step below Terran at the same point in their careers.

Don't know who you talk to, but every Jay fan I know bitches that they don't make the SS. It's their white whale, like our NCAA schneid.

NU 54 RU 49 Winning ugly!

And against Class A competition!

NU 64 OSU 68 Gonna take a breather, get back on it against Rutgers.

Our defense is getting flat-out nasty. Offense has been up and down a lot of the time, but the D has just been getting better and better during conference play. All hail Mo!

Basically it's possible for anyone to develop and make it, so I guess Jordy's a possibility too. But I'm still gonna say Copeland is most likely to play in the NBA.

Funny KenPom stat: the luck factor, which compares what your stats say you are vs. what your record is. We're 63 and Illinois is 343.

NU 67 Mich 64 Keep winning fugly!

Love Isaiah, but his career high in scoring is 12 points and he's a sophomore. Projecting him to a first round draft pick is a real stretch. Shavon had a 29-point game as a freshman, for example. Also keep in mind that IR's never the focus of opponents' defense, since he's usually the third or fourth option. I like IR's game, has good tools, but he hasn't even been starting for a mid-level Big Ten team and doesn't have one skill at an elite level. Can he get there? Sure, but he's probably in a pool of about 200 players who could "if they develop." Palmer has a lot going for him, but he's really inefficient as a high-usage guy. Very similar to Terran in that regard, but TP was better and didn't get drafted. So I'd go with Cope. Good size, think he could get his shot off against elite competition.

Baylor. Merd.

Neb 71 Ill 59 12

Part of the problem in seeing player development is that we’ve had damn few four-year seniors under Miles. Tai would be the biggest success story. I was going to add Shavon, but his shooting % was almost identical his freshman and senior years, and the two in between stunk. I don’t think Glynn’s arc has been that good, to be honest. He averaged 8.6 pgg as a freshman and had a better ast/TO ratio than so far this year. Has he really improved beyond what you'd expect would happen by junior year? Jack’s arc isn’t good either. Do we count the transfers? Both Terran and AWIII were pretty highly touted coming out of high school, but didn’t blossom till they got here. Is it because they became high-usage players here or because they were developed by the staff? IDK, that's open to debate, I guess. I’m not willing to say the staff doesn’t develop players, but I would say it’s hard to find evidence, based mainly on the fact that we haven’t had many 4-year players.

Bringing facts to a discussion has become a disturbing trend on this board.

I'm in the "give them something to cheer about" camp mostly, but your Pet Peeve #2 really hits home. I've got some newbies behind me that start up from the tipoff. Honestly, they start crapping on players on the first missed shot (sometimes players miss?) and the first rebound we don't get (sometimes it bounces to the opponent?). And I see the same thing when I turn around and look at them: Dude, have you ever played anywhere besides the driveway? Bad language, which Mrs. Taylor doesn't enjoy, and just constant negativity. I'd gladly take a row that leaves early and claps politely over the whiners.

I'm with Silver's wife. Let me rephrase that, I think Silver's wife might be on to something. He's really playing poorly and just wants the game to be fun. Maybe he doesn't see the game being fun if he's struggling against Big Ten centers. And if he feels that way, and somebody close to him says, "Don't blame yourself, blame the coach ... "

Wow, that reads like a observation of my playing career.

I tried not to overreact to this initially, so this is a reflective overreaction. First off, yeah, I'm surprised he couldn't make it to a game earlier and it reinforces what I see as a constant shortcoming of this program: It just isn't a priority here. This board is blessed with people who care. I guess there just aren't enough of us. Second, his quote just rubbed me the wrong way. "So I look at our record, look at the conference and, just taking a first brush at it, I feel like we’re in a fairly good place.” It's tough for an AD to say anything without getting it misinterpreted, so I'm not pulling my hair out over this. And I don't know what else he could have said. But nevertheless, the quote sent a message of complacency to me. This season is a referendum on for Miles. This is his sixth season here. My god, we've been patient. His conference record is under .400. He's never beaten Creighton, and that matters. Look at his history. He's never finished higher than 4th in either the BIG or the Mountain West. He's 51 years old, so it's not like he's young and learning. I'm not willing to give him another year for an NIT bid in a year when the conference is the worst since we joined. I'm sorry if those standards are too high, but if they are, then it explains a lot about Nebrasketball.

4 star recruit on ESPN.

Academic issue, rather than an injury, so it's OK to cheer the news.

Close enough, take a bow!

They have NBA, NHL and NFL franchises that they give a s**t about. College sports is limited to alums in Minneapolis, unless they're making noise on the national stage. NU is blessed by great fans, true, but a large part of the reason is the single focus on us.

NU 71 PSU 59 We're on a roll!

No kidding, it's going to be like this for the next 3-4 weeks. Picture should be pretty clear by then.