uneblinstu

He plays the same position as Dekker and they already had a couple other highly ranked shooters in the class.

I'll be curious to see how Miles sets up his schedule next year. We don't know a ton about it yet. Trip to Creighton, holiday tourney (can't remember which one...) ACC team in conf. challenge, likely at home and a yet to be determined home opener vs. a team we've probably heard of. Beyond that there seems to be a lot of ways he could go with that.

But we'd need to win four just to get to .500...

Most of the All-Devaney team is dead? I don't think so.

There are five spots on the floor and coming into this season, we had a guy to plug into each of those spots. We had a PG (Benny), a SG (Ray), a SF (Dylan), a PF (Ubes) and a Post (Andre). Now there's been some fluctuation. We've pushed Benny and Andre out of the starting rotation and plugged Dylan into the PG spot, moved Brandon to Post and inserted Rivers and Shields into the lineup. But we still have all 5 spots covered. Who do we replace Ubel (and Andre) with going into next season? Vooch? Well, maybe. I hear he's on the practice squad that routinely beats the starters. But I tend to want to believe my lyin' eyes on that one. And who is going to replace Talley? He's a guy who plays D, can guard opposing guards and wings because of his size, can get to the rim and can hit the outside shot. I think you're hopin' for a lot from Mr. Biggs. What had we seen Ray do that gave us any hope he'd be a significant, capable contibutor? What about Talley thought he'd be the rock that he's been? Everyone thought Ubel was nothing more than a role player and we were asking an undersized freshman to play the point. C'mon now, your eyes hadn't seen any of those guys fill the roles they've filled either and the guys we'll be asking to be answers to these questions are thought to be more talented than the guys they're replacing, on the whole, right? I'm not asking a lot from Biggs, I'm asking a lot from the group. It's not going to be a complete roster, I'm not claiming it is, but I do think it will be better than the one we've got now, and generally, that leads to better results, not a guarantee, but I'll take the more talented roster every single time.

How many minutes did Pitchford have? Not many. But that's not my point. He's been in, now, two big time conferences, and two coaching staffs at that level, saw time in one of them, including in the NCAA tourney on a team that finished a game from the Final Four and was playing behind three experienced players in the paint for the Gators. It's not like he's coming in from Binghampton, there is a difference, that's all I'm saying.

I've mentioned it a couple of times, but do the SEC and Big 12 not count as significant experience? I know Pitchford and Petteway weren't mainstays for their teams, but that's not Summit League or MEAC teams they're playing. Petteway played 13 minutes a game last year. That's not insignificant.

Tim Miles remarked to a few boosters recently that he's concerned about fan expectations for next season being unrealistic. Losing Ubel and Talley will really hurt, we have no big men who can really play a traditional 4 or 5 role, and we have a ton of young, inexperienced players coming in. The staff definitely believes that it's possible that we actually could have a worse record next season than we do this season. Optimism can be fun, but it's very difficult for me, at least, to fathom a scenario in which Nebraska wins 10 B1G games next year. There's just no logical basis I can see for such a prediction. I find it hard to believe that a staff that believed they could win 8 games this year, fears that we will be worse next year. May I ask where you got that info? I'd rather not say where I got it, but the main gist of what was said was that fans should be realistic in their expectations given that we lose the team's leading scorer as well as the team's only true post players. Half of next year's scholarship roster will never have played in a B1G game before. There's only one scholarship senior on next year's team, and only two juniors, one of whom is a JUCO transfer who's only played in an exhibition game. It's going to be an extremely young team made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores. Next season is a huge wildcard. No one here really knows quite what to expect. How could we with so many new variables in the mix? I'm not saying the staff has a doom and gloom view toward next season, because that's not at all what I've heard -- just that they do have a bit of trepidation about how things will come together next year with so many new young faces in the mix and the team's only two real post players having departed. That's it? Think about the questions we had coming into this year. They were much bigger than the ones we'll be facing next.

I've heard rumors of an ACC team that made a lot of sense.

Easy. Kansas. No question. It's not gonna happen, but that's who I'd want.

I wonder if I'd have appreciated it as much if we were still in the Big 12, because, frankly, I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed watching a conference play as much as I have the Big Ten this year. It's broken a lot of stereotypes for the conference the past couple of decades.

Well, assistant coaches have said that on the radio more than once. Didn't specifically say who the 2nd team was, just that the second team runs circles around the starters fairly regularly. I believe it was Coach Harriman who gave the 2nd team credit for the Northwestern win because once they got a handle on the Princeton offense, they had better athletes than NW did so when they got to the game, what the Wildcats threw at them was simple in comparison.

I get that, but this is as good as the conference has ever been. Is it possible it gets better, sure, but it's not likely. This is the high water mark.

Ok, then. Who's going to replace what Trey Burke does for Michigan, for example?

I hear you, but there are too many difference makers leaving teams to expect true freshmen to come in and replace them all. We're talking about national player of the year caliber kids leaving. Most true freshmen aren't near that level when they step on campus, even the best ones. So, unless we're talking about a couple of Durant level guys, I can't see that being enough to raise the level of the whole league. I know Michigan has talent, but Burke is what makes them go. Can't see the being better without him next year, at least not right away.

I wouldn't make this assumption that a lot of the good underclassmen will be leaving for the draft. I can really only think of two who would go high enough to justify taking off: Burke and Zeller. True, others could go, but the standard advice is that unless you're going in the top half of the 2d round at the latest, you stay in college to improve your position. This conference is likely to be better next year. Highly likely. I did a quick look at rosters and I see four I'd almost guarantee will go pro, Oladipo, Zeller, Burke and Thomas, and two others that wouldn't surprise me, Hollins and Hardaway. Also, the list of playes leaving due to graduation is deep: Paul, Richardson, Griffey, Hulls, Watford, Nix, Mbakwe, Williams, Talley, Ubel, Crawford, Swopshire, Byrd, Evans, Bruzewitz and Berggeren. I know a lot of teams will be loading up with highly rated talent, but not all of these players will have guys ready to just step in and take over. I'm sure the conference will be very good next year, but it won't be as good as it is this year. Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin are going to have some massive shoes to fill next year. Also, two names that I thought were seniors and aren't: Craft and Marble.

I guess. There's a better than 50% chance PSU will land in that group, depending on how they decide those things. Also, Purdue will probably be pretty good next year.

LOL. My bacon number is 2. I always thought the man was a robot. Guess I was wrong. Apparently the "YOLO" motto applies when considering potential career suicide. Who's committing career suicide? You're right- I'm sure this will be looked at as the highlight of Perlman's vita. I didn't say that either. This isn't to impact Perls' career trajectory which is about as high as it could go at this point anyway.

I believe the teams we only play once this year will be come home and homes next year. That would mean four different teams will only be played once. Also, the Big Ten was ridiculously good this year. This season is an outlier. While there will be a lot of young talent coming in, there are also will be many top players leaving the conference. The conference will not be as strong as it is this year. We went through this a few years ago when the Big 12 had a very strong year. The level of play in the conference will ebb and flow. If the team is better next year, they'll win more games. This league will always be tough, but it will rarely be this tough.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/florida/basketball/recruiting/player-Walter-Pitchford-104363

Pitchford also had an Indiana offer...

I hate that this type of question inevitably generates this type of answer: How one group of players we bring in is probably worse than another group of players we bring in. That's fair. I think I was trying to say I think (hope) both groups are really, really good.

I'm just not convinced there will be a talent advantage (in a good way) for most of our freshman if what we've heard about the RS is true.

Usually guys that projected to be an early 2nd round pick at best don't leave school early unless there is other issues going on. McDermott doesn't have those issues. He'll probably enter his name for the draft to gauge where he'll go (like a lot of college players do, Ryan Anderson did) and then decide to come back. I remember Anderson doing that, but Doug McDermott is no Ryan Anderson. Like huskerbaseball13 said, there's not much else McDermott can do to prove his talent level. He's got NBA level scoring ability. He'll have to figure out how to defend at that level and he's not likely to be a Stephon Curry, but he's got a skill set that will keep him relevant in the league for a long time. I don't think it's unreasonable to think he leaves this year and judging from his comments over the weekend, it's something he's going to seriously consider, and he should. He's as ready as he's gonna get.

LOL. My bacon number is 2. I always thought the man was a robot. Guess I was wrong. Apparently the "YOLO" motto applies when considering potential career suicide. Who's committing career suicide?