bball23

Eastern Illinois had that game won too. Blew it late. Would have been a nice win for them.

I said to some friends after the 1st loss that the one positive is that we now have a chance to win 2 games. We did that. Today we looked awesome at times, and a bit "relaxed" at times. My biggest worry is our "killer" instinct. There are going to be plenty of games where shots aren't falling. That is where as a defensive unit we need to be flying around like crazy and causing chaos for the opposing team. I didn't see that in the 2H tonight. LBSU got to the paint almost anytime they wanted too. IF we can up our defensive intensity for longer stretches, I still think this team has the potential to do very well this year. Wednesday is a BIG game for us for numerous reasons. The obvious, you want to win. But its a chance vs a Power 5 conference team, and after this game we have a nightmare stretch coming up. If we don't come out ready on Wednesday, it could be a start of a tough stretch for us. Really gotta get this one Wednesday.

UCF is missing BJ Taylor (arguably their best players) and Dawkins (starting PG) so hopefully we can beat these guys. They do have a 7'6 monster that could be tough, so hopefully between Jordy and Duby we can keep him in check. Right now they are shooting (as a team) 24% from 3 point range, so hopefully they stay cold. This is definitely a very winnable game and I hope we play well and get the win. These "neutral" court games can be big boost for RPI.

I was thinking the same thing. But then again, 99% of people will find a negative thing to say over a positive for whatever reason. Its why we have 2 pages of comments after a win and usually 5-6 after a loss. Its sad really.

Texas Tech up on Northwestern at the moment by 27 points. NW hasn't looked great out of the gates to start the season. Texas Tech is actually a very solid team this year, but the score is surprising.

I've probably said this a thousand times. Who cares who starts? Give me the 5 best players on the floor in crunch time at the end of the game. IF a players bitches and moans about not starting, then right there you already have an issue. That's a "me" thing. Its a childish thing. Give me guys that will do anything that the team needs and we will have something. And this is by no means saying we have any guys on the team like this, I just think the fans put WAY too much into who starts and who doesn't. See who the coach has in when the game is on the line and that will tell you a lot. And obviously every game is different based on match ups and who's hot, etc...

Mississippi State and Iowa State may not be great, but we are also trying to put a lot of new pieces together early in the season. The thing I like about the Husker winning both of these games is that Copeland hasn't shot well in either game. Now, he's a streaky player in general, so when he's on, he will be good and when he's not, hopefully he can do other things to help the team. What I'm hopeful for this season is that when maybe 1 or 2 of the top guys isn't playing well we have some depth off the bench that can come in and maybe be that spark we need (McVeigh yesterday by box score may have been that guy). Sometimes guys like McVeigh can be better off the bench. Come in and look to hit open 3's. Be that spark plug off the bench. I just think this team is going to get better and better as the year goes on. Tough thing is we have a brutal schedule this year, so how do these guys handle adversity when it happens?

Any info yet on how the NU vs ISU game went today?

Well, my "source" on who would be starting to begin the year is true (at least for today). I think its a good sign that Palmer is starting, for guys like Roby who I'm very high on.

I have heard that our starting 5 will look like this at the beginning of the year. Watson Taylor Copeland Palmer Jordy Which to me is a good sign if they didn't have Roby in the starting as I'm a HUGE fan of Roby. Then bench is anybody's guess. Will have more to do with match ups and who's playing well. One thing is for sure, with our added depth, practices should be very competitive this year for playing time which is awesome!

Actually even Borchardt gets a mention when they talk about the 3 post players rumbling the floor together. In low-post workouts, the floor shakes in the Hendricks Training Complex when 6-foot-11, 268-pound Jordy Tshimanga, 6-8, 247-pound Duby Okeke and 6-8, 265-pound Tanner Borchardt get busy.

Oops! I didn't even notice him mentioned in the thread. My bad! I wasn't being a smart a$$, just thought he got left out and I'm excited about him.

Thomas Allen may wanna play also next year. I hear he's pretty good.

Great to see some good news for our Huskers! Good work by Miles and staff! Next up, find us a solid big man.

I'm going to go into next season (as I do every season) with hopes we prove people wrong. Will always support our coach (unless they do something criminally wrong). Losing Morrow SUCKS! But as a fan, I have to move on and cheer on the boys next year. I hope nobody else leaves. I hope the players that are here play with a little chip on their shoulder and prove the doubters wrong. I also wish Morrow the best of luck to wherever he lands next. I could piss and moan about it like the next guy, but what good does it do? I'm gonna cheer on the guys and the coaches that do want to be here.

MIles until this year had beaten Izzo pretty well. Does this make him a better coach than Izzo? The Creighton argument I understand being a rival. But CU didn't exactly get "coached" very well the final month of the year. I know they lost Watson, but a GREAT coach finds a way to get by with what he has? Oregon lost one of their top players and yet are still in the Final 4. Maybe CU made a mistake letting that guy go? Just some food for thought.

Now with 2 open spots, we almost HAVE to find a solid grad transfer that can shoot it.

Was hoping he would stay. Hopefully we have no more guys leave. Horne and Fuller were the two I thought "may" leave. Just have to hope nobody else now.

I'm just happy nustudent is back! Usually takes some down times to get him to post consistently, so the struggles of NU hoops have brought him back!

Amazing what a couple close losses/wins can do for a program. National media is talking about NW being on the "up and up" (rightfully so) and here we are trending the wrong way. Had we just pulled out the two heart break losses, we would be 5-2 and in 2nd place in the B10 and we may be the team getting some pub. NW has won their close games and it makes Collins a "genius". We have lost our close games and Miles is clueless. At the end of the day we need to win and unfortunately we haven't these last couple games. I honestly believe we would be 5-2 or even 6-1 with Morrow. Now, injuries are part of the game and I get that, it just stinks. Its a fine line with coaching. Had Tai taken care of the ball late vs Rutgers and had we hit some FT's vs OSU we would all be dancing in the streets. Instead, we lost them both in heart break fashion and frustration sets in. I for one hope Miles gets at least another year. As mentioned above, it would be one thing if I never felt we had a chance in games. This year more than any other I always think this team can win on any given night. In my 20 years of having season tickets this has been one of the tougher years because of how we have found ways to lose close games (Clemson, OSU, Rutgers). Just a shame we didn't find a way to win 2 of those and our outlook would be completely different.

Great post. I was just talking to a friend the other day about how in a way, its not terrible to play the first two games on the road in the sense that students are gone. Now, I don't know when UNL starts back up (so somebody help me here) but I'm hoping the students are back for Thursday night vs Iowa?

I'm just excited that we are all EXCITED for the next game. Considering where some on this board were after the GW and Southern games, its amazing what a couple win can do to jolt a fan base and also the team. I really hope the fans come out to support the boys on Thursday night vs Iowa. I really think they will for two reasons. One, we are playing much better, and two, its IOWA!!! I know some of you play the "what if" game just like I do. Can you imagine had we not laid the egg vs GW and also pulled out either the VT or Clemson game how this fan base (particularly this board) would be filling right now? Either way, we can't dwell on the past and hope to see our boys continue to fight, scratch and claw every night out. Let's go get that win Thursday night and keep the mojo going!

NU 75 IU 89 8 B10 Wins

THIS! Has bugged me and always will. Sadly we live in a society where we would rather find negatives in things than positives. I'm guilty of it just like anybody else, but it amazes me how many people come out of the wood works to kick us when we are down. Did we play great tonight? Probably not as well as we would like. But the guys found a way to win vs a team that wasn't "terrible" by any means and made quite a few "garbage shots" I thought the effort was WAY better than vs Gardner Webb. Kudos to Horne for having a big game for us. Now, some on this board said they worried about guys like Watson losing his confidence and getting upset with the coach for not playing him. Horne has barely played at all this year, comes in, does his thing and had a great game. I love seeing that. He could have felt sorry for himself (like many on this board I have a feeling would do) but instead he continued to work hard at practice, was given an opportunity and ran with it. Now, he's not dropping 18 points for us every night, but hopefully he does give us a solid outside threat come B10 play. The fun begins now. It won't be easy going to IU and Maryland to start the year, but I'm still excited to see this team grow. I still think by the end of the year we will be a team that on any given night can knock off anybody.

You hit the nail on the head here my friend. This team has ZERO confidence right now. One play in particular summed this up to me. We kick the ball out to Roby who is WIDE open and he doesn't even look at the rim. Passes to Tai who has to then shoot a contested three as the shot clock was winding down. Now, that is just one play of many that I saw tonight that shows these guys don't have much swagger right now. It makes you wonder if the brutal non-conf slate is getting to them a bit. The last thing I will say about today. I've been going to games for the past 20+ years of my life and the effort today was one of the worst I've seen in quite some time. Not until about 4 minutes left in the game did we pick up the defensive intensity. Had we had that intensity the entire game we win going away. A lot of this always is a direct reflection of the coach, but at the same time I'm throwing a lot of this on the players this afternoon. I hope a lot of them look in the mirror tonight and ask themselves if they played as hard as they possibly can. If they can look at the reflection in the mirror and truly say they did, then I can live with that. But I would venture to guess that about 3-4 of them won't like the reflection they see in the mirror.