Fullbacksympathy

There are so many opportunities in the city of Lincoln for children to experience and incredibly wide range of things via public education. It's actually incredible. Sports is just one of them. But I will always scream to the rooftops that private donations to public schools (i.e. paying for this theater to be built for this specific school) should be completely illegal and instead go to LPS pot to be distributed evenly.

I can only speak from personal experience. There are pros and cons to both based on what I've seen. Pros of teacher-coaches: the educator is 1) available during the day 2) generally more reliable in terms of communication skills 3) typically is aware of building culture and what standards to uphold. Cons of teacher-coaches: they don't always know how to coach. Pros of non-teacher coaches: 1) the coach is usually going off multi-year relationships with players/families before they ever begin high school (they are constantly coaching in and out of the HS system) 2) they typically have good relationships with personal trainers to hook up their players with in the offseason to continue establishing good individual skills. Cons of non-teacher coaches: they are often undereducated and communicate in a substandard way (think basic grammar in some instances). They also tend to approach the culture as a representative of their AAU program rather than the HS. So, in their mind, HS is almost an extension of their program, sort of like a fun exhibition. It's interesting. So it's really a wash at this point as far as what's best for the kids. I'm the rare educator that only coaches AAU at this point. I've seen the beautiful and ugly on both sides.

I'm not sure that's true. There are the Erick Stricklands of the world who could go pro in three sports, and the just good athletes who need the advanced skills required to have their college paid for at a lower level. More kids in the area are getting opportunities to play collegiate sports because of specialization. I understand your sentiment though.

and he and Armon weren’t allowed to coach how they wanted to until Matt was gone. We played pretty well after Matt left. Oklahoma will be interesting to watch this season. That said, Fred brought in some absolute masterminds and I give him full credit for that.

He’s a less refined Bando for sure. Very apt comparison. And I loved having Bando here.

I don’t think he is anywhere near Verge offensively (once he bought in) or Mack as a passer. There’s nothing about his game or numbers to this point that points to either of those guys. The perfect PG for Fred will still be able to shoot. Sam wasn’t an elite shooter, but he was a threat and hit some big shots. But I’m a defense first person anyway. I definitely wanted Sallis here and am disappointed we didn’t get him. You always find room for kids that athletic and that kind of ceiling. I just don’t think this is a Keyontae situation. Not even on the same planet of tragic.

I love Sallis as a defender and transition player, but the other true transfers we have so far are better basketball players at this point. Sallis may never pan out as an offensive threat because of his shooting. The kid is a 25% threat from 3 with a 1:1 a:to ratio.

Yep. I’m thinking Lawrence, Lloyd, and Kesei could be really good with the 6’7” guard we are already bringing in. Wouldn’t mind adding Sallis’ athleticism to that bunch, but no need to settle for anyone at this point unless we don’t have Keisei back.

I’m not sure if this has changed all that much. It was happening when I was playing 20 years ago. That said, AAU was really just picking up then and basketball was becoming a year round sport. I’m watching in real time now as youngsters start specializing. It really does separate them quickly in terms of skills, and they become closer with the kids that don’t play baseball, for example. The very best athletes can still do it all though. I think, moving forward, there probably won’t be as many transfers in Lincoln because anyone worth their salt plays AAU and gets the same training now. There will be too many good players for transfers to make much of a difference in playing time. But right now, in this moment, the first kids that got the crazy amount of training are shopping around and talking to one another in the spring/summer on their AAU teams.

I’m glad class A finally got a shot clock. I’m also fine with kids going to school where they want. If transfers weren’t allowed last season in Lincoln, a lot of starter level players wouldn’t have gotten nearly as many minutes. These are kids that play AAU year round and work very hard on their game. The drama of the above scenario is that high schools are observing who is running youth AAU teams and hiring those coaches in hopes of a pipeline, so most high schools are now directly or indirectly affiliated with at least one AAU team. This leads to outright recruiting. I know for a fact there have been tampering complaints in Lincoln with a coach texting kids on other teams during the season. The problem is probably impossible to manage on an Omaha scale considering the NSAA didn’t do anything about Lincoln. I’m sure there will be another free agency shakeup this summer.

Great points here.

Hoping this goes well. I’m guessing he’s priority #1 as of now.

I think WB can learn a whole lot from Mast and still has plenty of upside. Remember WB is a pretty gifted passer. If he can become a little bit more of an offensive threat (improve outside shooting and 1v1 skills) I think his passing will be more effective. He needs to add 20lbs and decide to be a full time 5 though. He has no business athletically playing any other spot. I think he can be a very serviceable backup C with a serious summer.

They are very similar. Keisei is a little quicker, but this kid is a lot bigger, a better ball handler, and has a scary midrange post game to go along with a similar outside shot.

This kid can ball. He is an elite one on one scorer and shooter and needs basically no room to fill it up. Probably won’t be a great defender, but he’ll outscore most of his matchups from day 1.

I think we're trying to get both him and Hugley.

I’m gonna guess Fred pulls off Williams/Sallis/Hugley, which would be nuts.

Yes please to Sallis.

Yes? Yes.

That’s why I was careful to say home court player! I would expect some serious duds on the road and huge upsets at home.

I hate Creighton intrinsically. It’s spiritual.

They also aren’t soft like most Euro players.

Kriisa is an outstanding player. Would be an amazing home court guy with Keisei. He’s also a solid ball handler and fantastic in the pick and roll.

Transfers are so much more important than high school recruits now. The top to bottom levels of skill and defensive athleticism is crazy in the tournament. I love it. I think this will ultimately benefit Nebraska because bluebloods can no longer be what they once were. Of the sweet sixteen, transfer numbers were: Bama - 6 (two starters) SDSU - 5 (top two scorers) Creighton - 2 (BS 13ppg, 8rbg) FAU - 5 (3 starters) Tenn - 5 (1 starter) KSU - TWELVE (top 9 in minutes are all transfers) MSU - 3 (2 starters) Houston - 3 Miami - 3 (all starters) Xavier - 5 (4 starters) Texas - 6 (top 6 scorers) Arkansas - 7 (two starters) UConn - 4 (PG leads team in assists, steals, and average 10ppg) Zags - 3 (one starter, two rotational) UCLA - 0 Princeton - 0 --- Planning for transfers is no longer even remotely the exception or an act of desperation. It's a proven effective method.

We need to at least match last year's talent on the roster pre-injury. The talent this past season murdered Creighton. I think that's a pretty good barometer. It was probably an NCAA bubble team. Get the same type of talent (TEAM dudes who are serviceable athletically and tough) and we should have the philosophy in place to go to work. Our system on both ends appears to be pretty forward thinking. The defense requires a lot of intelligence and hustle and the offense only really requires one or two mismatches to work well.