Fullbacksympathy

I think it's incredibly important to have legitimate 3pt threats at the 2-3 and possibly 4 spots if at all possible. 35% and up. There isn't a player in the country who can stay in front of Watson with no help, and I think we'll learn early on just how good Allen is in pick and roll situations. Having 3 pt threats is also going to allow Jordy to go to work one on one in the post, where he can learn to be unstoppable. We'd also be able to run iso plays for Copeland or Roby in those scenarios. If Evan can shoot the 3 effectively, he becomes our best 2 guard option immediately, in my opinion. If he can't spread the court on offense, I think the 2 spot is a total crapshoot between Evan and Palmer. The nicest thing of all is that these are wonderful problems to have. I think all of the players being mentioned alongside Watson are serviceable B1G players. I just want one guy on the court at all times who wants to live outside of the 3pt line and belongs out there. We have been desperately missing a Gallegos-type the past few seasons. Those guys are exhausting to guard, even when they don't get the ball.

I see your logic defensively. I don't think Jack can get open against a 2, and he is a liability as a ball handler against quicker players. Against a zone, maybe.

I don't have a W-L expectation in specific numbers, but I will say that this better be the year that Miles doesn't let his team lose to a gut wrenchingly awful team at home. There is literally too much talent and depth on the roster for that to be a legitimate possibility again. We need to get used to beating those teams by 20+ points, and not pull our starters until we do. Create a step on the throat culture there. Respect all of your opponents.

Agree with this assessment. I also agree with your starting lineup prediction of Watson, Taylor, Roby, Copeland, and Jordy. I think this lineup will be fun to watch, and very stout defensively. My only concern, as usual, is shooting. If Taylor can become a 35% 3pt threat, he transforms into a pretty high level B1G guard, in my opinion. He does everything else--defense, ball handling, passing--well. This lineup is going to be hard as hell to score on. I'm fine with that. I don't think there is any circumstance where Jack plays the 2. I think he's best at the 3-4. I also think Nana is solidly a 3, but we'll see. It's interesting to think of all of the shooting we have coming off the bench in Allen, Palmer, Nana, McVeigh... that's a great sign.

After reading up.. I think it'll be a more fluid rotation at guard: 1-2 Watson Allen-Palmer-Taylor-Gill... I think we'll rotate them however we need to based on matchups. 3 Roby-Nana 4 Copeland-McVeigh 5 Jordy-Duby-Tanner

I'm tellin yall.. he might be a good enough shooter/athlete to crack the starting lineup at some point. Nana will contribute for sure. If he gets his ball handling up to par, look out. I don't know what Jack does that he won't do better at the 3. This is going to be the most interesting year ever. I don't even think the starters matter.

This is exactly what he is, and I totally agree. I love GWIII and everything about Allen looks great, but a scoring point guard can sometimes have a difficult time getting teammates going. This kid is strong, athletic, and smart. We haven't had a lot of true distributors at point. Brandon Richardson and Jamar Johnson come to mind. I might throw Lance Jeter in that mix. But Xavier really plays like an alpha quarterback--athletic distributors who can finish at the rim are extremely annoying to guard.

I gotta think Xavier Johnson's commit helps the cause. Kid has great upside, especially with his touch on the jumper.

I like his passing a whole lot.

Not sure on exact height, but very long reach and excellent leaping ability. I'd say he plays at 6'4" - 6'5" regardless of height.

Phenomenal get. This kid is a great passer, super athletic, strong, and lanky. Definitely an upper D1 player. Another 4* for TM. Unreal. He's a TRUE point guard.

I'm comparing them in their respective years, actually, which is why I mentioned Self wanting Allen to be next in line. I would be shocked if Allen only averages 5.7ppg this season like Graham did at as a freshman at KU. Glynn averaged more ppg as a sophomore than Mason III did his sophomore or junior years. I'm expecting similar production based on, well, statistics.

Consider me guilty of the football talk. I'm a much bigger basketball fan, to be clear. I agree that they are intertwined with the hire, though, and I don't it's coincidence that our best years of football also coincided with our best years of basketball.

I didn't say that, to be clear. I said either the Nebraska I or triple option. I don't think it's splitting hairs to separate the two. I wouldn't mind Frost as HC because he understands those principles and incorporates a lot option into his spread schemes.

Allen is listed at 6'1" I think, so he's probably an inch shorter than Graham, who is probably 6'1". lol.

There isn't a "true" spread anymore. Every team incorporates some of those concepts, just like virtually all non-pro-style offenses incorporate some sort of option and, yes, triple option football. GT is considered a triple option spread. Air Force is a flexbone offense with many complex passing schemes (Calhoun was an NFL OC). They also use the Nebraska I fairly often. They gave Michigan fits. Navy is GT's exact system. I don't know enough about Army. You equalize talent disparity by chewing clock, not turning the ball over, and keeping your defense off the field. You create more isolation wide when you force defenses to live in the box. Damaryius Thomas Gained almost 1200 yards his last year at GT because he was against m2m coverage every play. We've never had a receiver go over 1000. Talent disparity is easier to compensate for in this system because the players you recruit to it are specialized. That means you get a top 5 running quarterback, good shorter run blocking mobile linemen, the best fullbacks, and good running backs who know they are going to get carries. Nebraska will never get an elite passer here at QB, and we will never get elite receivers either. Not in stock, at least. But we can get walkons willing to block and learn routes all day. Most importantly, the system is exotic for every team you play, and they have one week to prepare for it. Easier said than done. I think the triple option or Nebraska I are the only offensive systems ever developed that can be championship-level successful at Nebraska in 2017. It's too windy and the climate isn't sexy enough for everything else.

I've seen a couple of people make the option football comment now. What are you basing this on?

See above. I have already been corrected.

I'm wondering if our Watson-Allen duo can be similar to the KU guard of the past couple of years--Devonte Graham and Frank Mason, III. Allen reminds me a whole lot of Graham. Combo guard, Brewster Academy, 6'2", 40+% 3pt shooter. I think Self thought so as well. Mason and Graham were basically unguardable together the past two seasons. It helps when Mason shot a legit 50% from 3. I think both GWIII and Allen will shoot over 40% from 3 this season.

Osborne's recommendation (Solich) and hire (Pelini) both had .750+ winning percentages. Those are remarkably rare winning percentages. Solich was fired by a colossal idiot, and Pelini would've been given every chance in the world to succeed/update his staff had he not burned bridges. Regardless, even the Pelini hire was a very successful one given where the program was in 2007. Yori--upgrade. Miles--upgrade. Erstad--upgrade. New practice facilities. New arena. TO was a great AD by every known metric. The next AD can still be his/her own man and agree with the greatest coach in college football history. A great doctor typically agrees with other great doctors on diagnoses. etc.

I think the next AD will share Osborne's opinion on the next FB HC seeing as Osborne is already being consulted for the next AD hire. It will be a unified front. The press conference today signaled nothing less.

I think search firm hired will report back to Osborne on the candidates he wants searched. Their job will likely be to do thorough background checks on Osborne's candidates. 1. Frost 2. Triple option gurus--Johnson, Niumatalolo, Calhoun 3. Whoever the firm finds. I think Calhoun is the dark horse--NFL OC experience, loves the triple option, and has had 10-win seasons 2 of the last 3 years at friggin Air Force.

PLEASE.

Great proactive decision, IMO. Hopefully we won't get cute with the next hire(s). It's funny: the moron ADs who took the pretentious "academic" and "philosophical" approach to hiring rather than the blatantly obvious empirical one were Peterson and Eichorst. The middle guy--Osborne, who just so happens to have a doctorate in educational psychology--picked coaches with Nebraska ties because he understood the importance of culture and communication in this area. All of Osborne's hires--Pelini, Miles, Yori, and Erstad--have a Nebraska commonality, and all of them were more successful than their predecessor. None of them were celebrity hires, but they were all carefully considered and did not involve some public abstract esoteric boast of "understanding" of coaching philosophy. What's even more hilarious about the lack of boast is that Osborne is an actual coaching genius, yet he is time and time again dismissed by fans as someone the program shouldn't be seeking for advice. The claim of Steve Peterson was that our football program was gravitating to "mediocrity" two years from a national championship appearance and that our insanely innovative offensive system was antiquated. Idiot. The claim of Shawn Eichorst was that he knows championship-calibre football while hiring a coach with a horrendously worse record than the one he fired. Doofus. Hopefully when Osborne is consulted, we will do what he suggests, which probably means the subsequent hiring of AD Alberts and HC Frost. I agree with the notion that TM might have two guaranteed seasons now, including this one. Just don't hire some pretentious idiot who has their head so far up their own ass that they can't see what's right in front of them. PLEASE.

This year's roster has enough talent to really evaluate Tim Miles as an in-game coach. There are no massive roster deficiencies, so the microscope can fairly go on his coaching staff, in my opinion. I actually say that as an optimist. The fact that he has brought this sort of talent here is basically the first, enormous check mark for a real basketball program. I'm beyond impressed, and it's a huge accomplishment. Let's hope he can facilitate their success.