bball23

I see his Twitter up to 532 now. NU fans showing some love!

How many followers did he have on Twitter before his visit? I'm always curious to see how many NU fans will start following potential recruits. Especially one like Jordy that we badly need! I see he's at 499 now. Anybody see what his "post visit" # was?

I'm just throwing this out there. But do you ever think that Barnes may not always be telling the truth about what he knows about NU? Could he be bitter that Miles never reaches out to him about any coaching gigs? That he pimps himself up a LOT? Again, nobody but Andrew White knows what he is going to do. Not Adam Barnes, not you, not me, not any random person on a message board. I'm going to support White no matter what he does. I'm also not going to throw out crazy ass statements and then if it does come true I can say "See, I told you my source knew what was up." And if White does stay, you can also say "Man, my source is usually 99% right on these things." My source tells me that Andrew White will make the best decision for himself. And my source also says that I will support him either way. I hope he stays at NU, but I also know that 800 kids leave their schools each year which must mean that 95% of College coaches apparently are "circus shows"

There we go! This should make people much more happy! No guarantee's, but great they are both visiting!

Pretty accurate in my opinion.

CU may have some nice pieces coming in, but so does the rest of the Big East. Their "post Doug" years haven't been too kind to them. Their best year without Doug was 4 seed in the NIT. Sure Foster is a good player and will help. At the same time you just never know what to make of College kids/team chemistry, etc... Its kind of like NU football. You read enough "fluff" articles about our 4th string QB and you start to believe some of it. EVERY recruit has "potential" and is a "sleeper" for every team this time of year. As pointed out, we have some nice players stepping in (on paper) next year as well with Roby, Horne and Gill. Which team gels? Which teams stay healthy? So many things go into a basketball season. On paper a lot of people think their team is great. You know who else had a lot of hype a few years ago that didn't pan out? The team we cheer for in Lincoln. So let teams hype away all they want. At the end of the day all the preseason crap doesn't mean squat.

VERY classy by him to do that. Not all coaches would and I applaud him for it.

I actually thought KU got some calls myself. Which goes to show that depending on how you see the game, can be different. Even after the Grahm foul, Mason clearly double dribbled when he hit the big 3 pointer late in the game. Nobody mentioned it as it happened so fast, but he clearly put two hands on the ball as he was about to pass it, re-picked it up and then dribbled again. I for one was happy to see KU lose. I have NO sympathy for them not getting a "few calls" as they tend to get them all (at least through my eyes)

As much as I wanted to see more NU hoops, I totally understand why we aren't. I understand the extra practice time and games for the young guys would be nice, but those guys are going to get individual work/weights/etc done now too. Coaches always say the best players get better in the off-season with their skill/individual work. Well this give them all a chance to get going on it. And knowing this group of guys, they will work hard in the off-season. Hopefully this gives Miles some time to go find that big man we need too.

Now, for those who are interested, this is how you troll. And for those who are interested. this is how someone refuses to confront reality. I can understand why some people may think that we just had one "hot streak" But was recruiting Roby, Morrow, Watson, Gil, White also just a "hot streak" of getting top 150 talent to NU? Again, I understand the results weren't great this year, but let's see how these guys pan out before we pass too much judgement on Miles. Now, for eastofomaha, was Dougie just a "hot streak" for Coach Mac? Years post Doug aren't exactly great for CU. Two bottom half finishes in the league. That may be "refusing to confront reality" as you so put it.

There will always be "some" of anything. In general -- well, in the vast majority -- it's not close. A mere NCAA Tournament bid is enough for most fans. "A mere NCAA Tournament bid is enough for most fans." Ok, well he did that...in year 2. I honestly don't understand the fans that want Tim's seat hot right now. Don't understand it at all in fact. The guy has been here 4 years. Made the tourney in year 2. Call it a "hot streak" but in a power conference, isn't that how you get in? (see Wisconsin this year). I've said this before so I am repeating myself here. We have lost a lot of close games. We aren't just going out there and getting our butts kicked night in and night out. I understand at the end of the day its about W's and L's. But we have an EXTREMELY young team this year and I truly believe that young talent is pretty darn good. IF, and its a big IF we can get a decent big man, I think we have nice pieces around our roster. The other thing (and others have mentioned this too). Miles had NO clue TP and WP would leave like that. He also lost Tarin Smith who was playing big minutes. Then Craig Smith leaves, we hire another assistant and he leaves before even really taking the job. I'm not trying to make excuses, this is just the reality of the situation. I firmly believe Miles will get us that 1st NCAA win. And all the "haters" and so called "fans" will say "I always knew he would do it!" Which will be total BS. With social media the way it is, fans think they know everything and can now voice their opinions. One game we win (MSU) and Miles is the greatest! We lose the next game, and we suck! Its no different than sitting at Memorial Stadium and listening to our fans bitch one moment that we pass too much. We then run, that doesn't work and that play sucks too. On 3rd down we pass a bomb for 25 yards and all is good again. Its an emotional roller coaster with so many fans.

I understand all of the frustration with this season. I really do. But to say we have hit rock bottom is a bit extreme. Rock bottom would be a team that quits. A team that when it gets down folds up camp and matters get worse. This team has not done that one time all season. Maybe the Samford game because we just had no energy all night long. Again, I'm not a moral victory guy. But as I have stated in a previous post, we are literally a few bounces away from having easily 3-5 more wins (NW, OSU, Maryland, Miami, PSU). Yes, it sucks. Especially when you are so close. Can these young guys next year find a way to win these close games? I sure hope so. Confidence and momentum can go a long ways with athletes. We just for whatever reason haven't been able to get over the hump. Also, Indiana and Iowa must have hit rock bottom with their losses to this awful PSU team you speak of.

Jay Wright just got a warning. And why wouldn't he?

Here my issue with the technical fouls this year on Miles. Why the hell then can other coaches go absolutely ballistic on the sideline and nothing is done? Vs Maryland Turgeon went crazy....warning? I watched the Iowa vs PSU game before our game with Indiana. Fran lost his mind as well....warning. That same night I watch Duke play and Coach K dropped 4 straight "F-ing BS!" to the ref. Directly. Nothing. I get it, he's Coach K. But why have the quick trigger on Miles all the time? And to go further, I see players all the time lip "That's F-Ing BS!" Clear as day. Nothing. Again, I have no idea what Miles is saying, but they sure do seem to have a quick trigger on Miles.

This. The thing about the year we made the dance was that we won a lot of the close games. This year, we have not. We would all be singing a different tune had we pulled out the 3-4 games we felt we let "slip away" That's how close we seem to be. Even last years group got their butts kicked and quit on numerous occasions. This years group has not. And that is a credit to the players and coaches. And for them to do so with 3 freshman starting is a good sign for the future (I hope!). I do wish Morrow was healthy. You hate seeing him miss so much valuable game time that he would have gotten, especially with Shields being out. This team lost their 4 year starter on court and off court leader for the last 4 games and we have played well enough to win 3 of the 4 games he has missed. Unfortunately, we have only won 1. But I hope that this learning experience for our young guys will make them hungry for next season. The other thing I really like with this group is they don't seem to back down from anything. Watson is going to be a stud for NU. McVeigh is showing signs of being damn good and Jacobson is getting better and better each time out. I think they all have extremely high basketball IQ's as well. Then you throw in the leadership of White, Gill coming in and add Roby and we could have something brewing in Lincoln. With all that said, I'm still excited to see these guys play out this year. For the first time in a long time I go into almost every game thinking we have a shot to win. Hopefully we can end the year strong and make some kind of postseason play.

Anybody that thinks Miles isn't doing a good job (in my opinion) has no clue what they are talking about. I understand that our record may not be where we want it to be. But we are a couple bounces away from wins over Miami, Maryland, Ohio State. Then all of a sudden we are sitting 17-11 with some very winnable games left. Heck, we had NW down 12 2nd half and let that slip away. College basketball games, especially in conference tend to be very, very close. You look at a team like Maryland and how many close games they have won. Say they lose 2-3 of those and their record all of a sudden take a good dip as well. The other thing that I think a lot of people forget is that NU for the first time in a LONG, LONG time lost 2 guys to the draft. Whether or not they should have left is another topic. But when Miles was putting together his classes I'm guessing he didn't plan on TP and Pitch to jump ship. That lead us to have to play freshman a lot of minutes that they maybe wouldn't have had too. You throw in Tarin transferring as well and it put a loop in the classes. Then we lose a couple of assistants as well and here we are. Then you lose Shavon for the past 4 games as well as a dinged up Morrow. Now, I understand these things happen to a lot of teams. But a team like NU without a ton of history has a hard time making up for all of that. I know it sounds a lot like I'm making excuses for Miles, but these are just the facts. Losing TP and WP put us a year further behind. Had TP stayed this year, I have to think we would have had a DAMN good team. You have three scorers in TP, SS and AWIII with Watson running the show....that's pretty damn good.

You're taking the max possible of B1G teams making the tournament and the min possible of Big East teams between two conferences with non-equal amount of members as an argument? ATM Bracketmatrix.com has in 7 of 14 B1G teams (50%) 5 of 10 Big East teams (50%) I do think that the B1G is tougher than the Big East. However, it's still a power conference that is in the league of ACC, B1G, B12, SEC, etc. Very true. A lot will depend on these final 2 weeks, conference tourneys, etc...I just think the Big East (personally) is very top heavy. Nova, Xavier and Providence, and everybody else. But again, I guess we could say that about the B10 as well. I just think the overall depth of the B10 is much better. Again, my opinion and obviously I'm biased. Plus, the B10 tends to do well in March, where the "New Big East" so far hasn't.

This is a completely inaccurate statement about the Big East and how teams are chosen in general. Dimes I always respect your opinion, but I'm curious as to why you blasted my opinion. "Conference reputation" simply isn't a criteria. Also as noted elsewhere, there are some ratings that have the Big East higher than the B1G. This: The Big East as a conference may be rated higher in the RPI, but as somebody wrote a few weeks back (I can't remember the author) you have to take that with a grain of salt. You take Rutgers and Minnesota out of the B10 and the conference RPI would be much higher. Now, I know that you can say take Rutgers and DePaul as well. But the article went on to say how 6 and possible 7 teams from the B10 may get into the dance, where the Big East could end up with only 3. I know we have 14 and they only have 10, but the point of the article was to say don't look at RPI as much as you think it matters. Tom Shatel had an article yesterday and Bruce Rasmussen who is on the committee said the RPI is actually barely considered when it comes to the NCAA tourney. They look at the KenPom and stats like that more. They look at schedule. He used Indiana for example. He said they only play the top half of the B10 like 5 times total, where Wisconsin has 9 games vs them. I actually am in agreement that I don't think the Big East is that great this year. You have Xavier, Nova and Providence, then a bunch of mid-tier type teams this year. GTown is down, CU is "ok" but not great by any means. Butler is a flash in the pan type team. St. Johns and DePaul are awful. Seton Hall is another "flash in the pan" type team. Marquette is "average" at best. If things play out poorly for the Big East, it could end up just being a 3 bid league.

And sadly, this year we have had those chances. Miami game, Maryland game, and then throw in the stinker vs Samford. Some how you find a way to win those 3 and we are sitting 17-9 with quality wins over MSU, Miami and Maryland. Oh so close. I just hope we play well down the stretch and see what happens.

Just curious. What is your obsession with all of this? The constant CBI talk? The "Our RPI will suck no matter what" talk? Just curious if you want to be that guy that says "See, I told you we wouldn't make the NCAA or NIT" Just curious your angle? So let me say it now in case it does happen. "Good job Pimp Mario! You were right!" There ya go buddy! Happy Valentines weekend!

On top of all of that, I have heard he's a great kid. I know he has been to about 8 NU game already this year. So that's gotta be a good sign in a way? He's young and I'm sure will explore his options. But I for one would absolutely love to have him at NU!! Him and Arop together would be great for NU and for keeping that in-State talent home.

What people forget about this year as well is that the classes Miles had, he didn't plan on Petteway and Pitchford leaving us. This year could have been a heck of a lot different had Petteway stayed (as discussed in the other thread). But when Miles was putting together classes, he probably wasn't thinking about Petteway leaving, although there was a chance of it. But think of the starting five if TP had stayed: Watson TP White Shields Jacobson That's pretty damn good. And the thing is, we have struggled this year with ball screens as well as doubling down in the post. Well when you double down with TP instead of Benny Parker, that's a heck of a lot tougher passing angle you have to make to get it over a 6'7 guy instead of a 5'9 guy. Same can be said on the ball screens. You hedge hard, then reccover. Well when the recovery man is 5'9 Parker instead of 6'7 TP, that again makes a huge difference. I think Miles had been outstanding. Our attendance has been great, we are brining in better players than we ever have. This year we were thrown a curve ball by Walt and TP leaving early. Now he has a very solid core to build around and we just have to hope they all stick together. They have a chance to be very good.

But the question was "Who will improve the most" Not "Who will improve and CONTRIBUTE the most." So people saying Johnny Trueblood could improve the most is fair. Doesn't mean he ever contributes a ton, but say he goes from bench warmer to playing 4-5 spot minutes a game because he does enough little things to give the starters a break? I understand your point that you don't want to be building a program around the hope that a walk-on has to play a ton of minutes. But it doesn't mean they can't improve the most. I believe a few years back when we were in the B12 Texas Tech had a player (Jackson I believe?) that by the time he was a senior had earned a scholarship and I want to even say lead the team in scoring? Not saying Johnny Trueblood is all of as sudden going to be putting up 15 PPG, but who knows, maybe by his senior season he does improve a lot and comes in from time to time and knocks down a couple 3 balls, ala Drake Beranek, Paul Verlander.

MSU opens up as a 14.5 point favorite.

Golfer? You there?