Chuck Taylor

Daum had offers from Wyoming, Air Force, Lehigh, a few Summit schools and other low majors. I'm not saying nobody would have second guessed offering him, but many would have been happy that we were offering a big at that point. And he's a Nebraska kid whose uncle played for Osborne. The stories about him coming out of nowhere are just that, stories. It wasn't like he was playing in Siberia or something. He got a workout in Lincoln and apparently didn't impress anyone. Maybe he had a bad day, looked intimidated, whatever.

That's the problem with using "young talent" as a reason for this season. PSU's talent is in its freshmen, while ours are sophs. Minnesota has talented sophomores, and they're in the NCAA. We should have been trending up at the end of this season. One year to fix it.

Teddy Allen, although there are questions about how he'll adjust to college life. I'd put Chandler second, with the same questions. For class of 2018, Ed Chang. Brady Heiman's getting a lot of interest and has at least 3 lower level offers. Gotta bulk up and see how he does in the summer.

I'm with you. I'm amazed how much time people are spending on trying to come up with ways to get better next season. After this crappy year, it would make sense to just take a few months away from analyzing NU hoops. Pretty impressive, although it raises the question of whether any of us have lives.

He wouldn't leave for Illinois. CU doesn't have to disclose his contract details as a private school, but rest assured he has enough security to not have to go chasing jobs like Illinois. I wouldn't be surprised if his agent floats his name in order to get his boss to pass the hat for a raise.

I don't want to see anybody leave but somebody has to. We need a point guard. With Copeland playing, there won't be enough playing time at the 4. Do we want to go to the tourney next year or not? There's plenty of talent, but this roster doesn't make a good team.

That's my view, but I won't look ahead to 18-19. The core will be juniors next year. If we don't make the NCAA, then that means AT BEST we'll get one tournament team out of this heralded recruiting class. If that's the case, then clearly the coaching is an issue. An NIT team next year with a strong finish doesn't cut it. And to echo others, I appreciate the general positivity of the site. Sure, views here vary but it's not just a continual bitchfest. Very upbeat considering the season we just suffered through.

You'd be surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for Trev at UNO. First off, there's the fact that he killed wrestling and football. He also fired a locally popular baseball coach. He swung for the fences with the arena, but hockey and basketball have been so-so (frozen four before Baxter opened) and their revenue has fallen short. An NCAA bid in basketball would have been huge for his popularity. From the outside, he looks like he's doing a great job, but there are plenty of grumbles among Mav fans. Kind of similar to Bill Byrne when he was here, I guess, and he seemed to be sought after.

My 2 cents on Daum/UNO kids: Daum didn't come out of nowhere, this is from the LJS: Did anyone see this trajectory? No, but he was a talent out there to evaluate. Wyoming offered him and they were an NCAA team in 2015. We were looking for big men at the time, but this doesn't sound like he got much of a look. I put this in the same category as Patton and Thomas. It's one thing to evaluate and pass, it's another to not put in the work, and that's where I question the staff on these three. Regarding Thurman, I love him and think he could have played here. But is he better than the 5 other guys we have at that spot already? No, and it wasn't a position of need. Regarding Hollins, he had a lot of personal baggage. Frankly, I'm glad he got his life together and I'm fine that he did it at UNO. Hahn is a terrific scorer but very limited on defense at BIG level.

Whoa! We're gonna hire the warden from Shawshank?

I don't think it ramps up the odds that much, but one thing that might appeal to Altman is that he still has a lot of family here. In my mind, that's the only reason he'd come. I don't think he has any love for NU, based on rooting for the Huskers as kid. He'd have far more loyalty to Creighton at this stage in his life and wouldn't want to compete against them.

Absolutely agree, although his best position is also the 4. I just don't see how that logjam ends in a good way. Somebody transfers? Some of them play somewhere other than their best position?

So the question is why did we look like a good team in December and not now? Some possibilities: 1. We're worn down mentally from losing. 2. We didn't improve as much or as quickly as the teams we're playing. 3. Similarly, teams we played early were still finding themselves. We never figured out who we are. 4. We don't have a floor general. 5. All of the above. I've bitched about the "fire Miles" threads and think that (barring something behind the scenes that we don't know) it would be a really bad move to fire him. However, I have thought about the program's shortcomings and one thing that comes up is focus. I love the kids we've recruited, but it doesn't seem like we have a coherent strategy for building a team. One thing is that Ed, Jack, Isaiah, Horne and Jacobson all seem best suited as 4s. Yeah, you can slide them over into other spots, but is that where they're most effective. We don't have a true point guard. (Glynn is a great scorer, but he shows no signs of being a floor general.) The best true point guard we've had has been Benny, and he was a Doc leftover. In Miles' fifth year, we finally have a center. We don't have shooters, although I think Horne or Jack can be if they settle into a role. And I just can't believe we haven't signed a local kid in five years while giving out scholarships to (fill in the names). I'm not playing the "we should have signed Daum" card, I'm saying there are about a number of local kids who have moved on to prove they can play D-1 basketball and it's like we don't even know who they are. I think the staff can evaluate talent, but I don't think they see the importance of helping to fill out a roster with kids right under their nose. Kids who are committed to the program and will stay. That creates roster stability. Regarding style of play, strategy, etc. I think it's the same thing. The board has had a lot of discussions about who we are and what we're trying to do. Should that be happening in year 5? I don't go to practice, so this might not be valid, but from a fan's perspective, there seem to be too many stretches where somebody doesn't play for a few games, then gets minutes and produces. This is one of those things that seems positive when you're winning, seems erratic when you're losing. There have been a lot of comparisons to Minnesota making a jump this year and so we can next year. Maybe. But their core was freshman last year, this year they're sophomores, just like ours. Plus they added the NBA-caliber Amir Coffey this year, and we're not adding anybody that level next year. So maybe the better comparison is this year's Minnesota team to this year's NU team. Depends on your perspective, I tend to think these kind of comparisons aren't worth much. In conclusion: give him another year and see where we are. If he gets fired, I'm going to write "lacked focus" on his tombstone.

I punched in about every possibility and my head hurts. I could see beating almost anybody except Purdue for the second time. I could see losing to everybody. If this were summer, I'd go mow the lawn.

That's where I am. This season is hard enough without seeing this thread constantly at the top. And "Fire Miles Talk (complete BS)" just grates on me. If it's complete BS, then why start a thread? It also grates on me that every time I complain about it, the thread goes back to the top. This is a grate season.

Sure they do, but I don't see Barfknecht posting here. I'm fine with Sam's opinions, it just seems unusual.

I'm just curious, why would a journalist would get into a conversation on a message board? Are you just here as a fan, or is this professional?

This season: Shaka, when the walls fell.

I'm not sure if I was in the minority or the majority, but I didn't expect much this year. We're young, and my hope was that the team would have it together at the end of the season so we could see how great things could be next year. But right now we don't have a realistic chance of getting to .500 and we're at 93 in KenPom. That's not much of a platform to build off of. Things can change, and the next win will make the clouds part, but for right now .... sad.

South Dakota wrapped up the Summit title last night, good job by Craig Smith. Local kids producing: Hagedorn with 10, Simpson with 14 (14-14 on FTs).

Central beat Norfolk last night in a battle between two of the state's best bigs. Chandler 15 and 9 in Central win, Strom 12 and 10.

That was the one for me too. At that point it looked like it hit the OSU players that they were going to lose.

One thing that gets overlooked on prep schools is the cost. You can get "scholarships" to some, but not all, and not necessarily to pay the full freight. And then there are travel costs, since most of them are out east. Obviously a top kid (usually one who's a stud but needs academic work) gets it paid for. I'm not sure an Aguek or David Wingett would. For some families, it's worth the investment to get a full ride to a better school. But not all families' finances can handle it. A JC provides a scholarship, but obviously you lose a year or two of eligibility.

They said it was based on where things are now, and that Purdue or Wisconsin would move up by playing their way to the BIG title. The seedings seemed to be based mostly on wins over top teams, and neither Purdue nor Wisconsin is very impressive at this point. Frankly, Purdue and Wisky are facing much what the midmajors complain about: Their conference this year doesn't provide enough opportunities to post quality wins.

Here are the BIG's top 10 in PER: Ethan Happ Wisconsin 34.02. Caleb Swanigan Purdue 26.73. Trevor Thompson Ohio State 26.54. Moritz Wagner Michigan 25.45. Mike Watkins Penn State 24.76. Peter Jok Iowa 24.67. Thomas Bryant Indiana 24.28. Isaac Haas Purdue 23.99. James Blackmon Indiana 22.710. Derrick Walton Michigan 22.4 For PER, the average player is 15, I think.