Dead Dog Alley

I was thinking about the Matta-Stewart comparison last night. Except that, when Norm was at age 64 after a bout with colon cancer he still looked much healthier than Matta does at 48.

Well, that will make five years out of seven as well as nine out of seventeen seasons at 0.500 or below. At least we should be used to it.

Forgot the officiating crew of Blind, Shady, & Crooked.

Can't argue with that. Plenty of chances to win this one. Wouldn't have mattered. Don't kid yourself into believing that this game was on the up and up. There was no way the officials would have let Nebraska actually win. They were going to do just enough to give this outcome.

Lamont Simpson is blind as a f**king bat. How does he get these jobs? Big Ten basketball is crooked.

The other ref is just a clown.

Lamont Simpson is a tool.

Kelly Phieffer is a c**t.

Nice f**king calls there.

When you have a roster full of goons like OSU, does it help you more when the refs swallow their whistles? If this is Big Ten basketball, give me something else. At least Wenzel isn't the color guy, that's the only thing that could make this product worse.

The last i heard is that he's not visiting this weekend. His brother that was going to accompany him is having a surgery done, if I recall correctly, so that precluded the visit. I don't know if it has been rescheduled.

In case nobody has noticed, these refs really suck.

Miles will get two more years no matter what, and will get a seventh year with making at least one NCAA tournament in the next two years. But, they really do need a breakthrough season next year or all the momentum from a fresh coach, new arena, new facilities will dwindle away. It's a lot easier to get over the hump in year five than in year six or seven because perception starts to become reality.

The key to jobbing one team is to make some bad calls the other way too, maybe on a three to one basis. Then when the desired team has a comfortable lead, you start calling it straight up both ways. That way, the settled opinion becomes that the officiating was bad, but fair, when in reality it pretty much dictated the outcome. Not that, for example, Nebraska was going to win an evenly called game tonight, but there were no chances taken.

Good f'ing God these guys are crooks.

These officials should be someone's prison bitch. That's where they belong.

Good thing we devote time to following a sport with crooked officiating.

These refs are crooks. Some ridiculously bad calls here.

If you go with Tai at the three for extended minutes, you have some problems. 1) It would necessitate getting some quality time out of Bakari - which he might be able to do, but who knows. 2) The Benny - Koenig matchup is a tough one, Benny had a hard time against him last year. What Wisconsin does on offense pretty much neutralizes Benny's strengths defensively, and Koenig can post him up, back him down, or just shoot over him. 3) Tai vs. Hayes does not look like a good matchup, they would isolate Hayes in the post quite a bit. If you go with Jacobson or Morrow at the four, the problems you have are maybe losing a bit of offense (but if Fuller is the alternative and he's afraid to shoot you aren't losing much), and that you might have to get meaningful minutes from Hammond. Jake has been around for a season and a half of Big Ten play and has a total of four points in conference play - with Shields out I don't know that you can have a non-threat at the five. So, maybe you start Fuller (since he's from Wisconsin maybe it will get him going), tell him not to be afraid to shoot it, give him the first five minutes unless you start to get behind, and then go with McVeigh. Give Fuller and McVeigh some of the extra minutes, maybe go with Tai at the three for five minutes or so, and go with Morrow at the four for five to ten. If AW III gets in foul trouble...I don't think there's any answers if that happens.

We are planning for the futur there. Walt has been channeling his inner Shawn Kemp, so there might be a string of athletic 6'9" kids in the area circa 2034.

Ramos was back the last time the 90-91 team was honored, back in 2011.

We Need a Center Where have all the big men gone And where are all the good posts? Where's the rebounding Hercules To clean glass when we need it most? Isn't there a wide bodied NBA type? Who can hold down the paint and live up to the hype? We need a center We're holding out for a center but there's none in sight He's gotta be big And he's gotta be strong And he's gotta be up to the fight We need a center We're holding out for a center but there's none in sight We've gotta find one And it's gotta be soon Or next year we'll continue our plight After the first line I was thinking The Kinks and not Bonnie Tyler. I was wrong, as usual.

Benny played better than usual, but: 90% of major conference guards would have gone off for 30 if they were defended a whole game the way Benny was last night. Playing with a stretch 4 only makes sense when it gives you a mismatch on the offensive end. When that mismatch is nullified by the opponent PF covering a guard that is no real threat offensively, it doesn't make much sense unless you are playing lights out on defense with that lineup.

A double from twelve feet away with a 5'8" guy when they are running a two man game... Never going to work.

They are 17-85 from 3 in the last four games. That's a team that won't beat anyone north of Rutgers shooting like that.