Ron Mexico

Yep. It begins on Feb 1.

Jumping ahead a bit; we have one more opportunities for a home Q1 game and 3 more road game opportunities. I'll be curious to see the impact on our NET when we go 2-2 or better. 1. MUST MUST MUST win these home games 2. MUST MUST MUST avoid blowout losses The more I look at this block of games the more important they are, especially when looking ahead. We need to start stacking wins. We also need road wins, if for nothing else than to build confidence that we can win on the road in this conference. Go 3-1 or 4-0 with Wiscy coming to the vault, as we kickoff the 2nd half of conference play. That game will be exciting!

KSU NET is 69 and they are now a Q1 win.

We need to beat them. The blow out loss to Iowa dropped our NET to 53. This number absolutely needs to be in the mid 40's at a minimum. On a positive note KSU is doing work to move our win against them into that Q1 range. Currently we have 2 Q1 wins. Unfortunately, none of these next 4 games we go no help with Q1 or our NET unless we "blow them out."

Great description. When we are facing a team like Iowa that doesn't have a dominant center then there is no need to double down in the paint. If we are going to run zone then we needed to switch to 1-3-1, 3-1 and a chaser (chaser is best defender) or similar to protect against the 3. Either Lawrence or Hoiberg needed to be on Perkins (15 assists!) like glue to force the ball from his hands. The goal is to pressure the ball. I love our matchup zone as our base defense, however when we are getting beat at the perimeter we need to change it up to protect the perimeter.

Several of us where concerned about this being the hangover game and it was. Felt we celebrated this win a bit to long. Add to the fact that we swept Iowa last season made the outcome pretty predictable. Cold as ice from 3. Guys from Iowa going off that don't normally go off. Inability to adjust to zone defense after we got back into the game. This game reminded me very much of our game against Creighton, which is no coincidence since they are similar teams. Despite poor 3 pt shooting, we still shot 45% from the field and 72% from from 2. We dominated pts in the paint and where essentially even on rebounds. Evolution of KT to find other ways to score when 3's aren't falling. Overall just a poor performance. I felt we adjusted offensively by attacking them inside. 3 wasn't working We did not adjust defensively. 4 of our 5 losses have been by double digits with 3 of those being 15+pt blowouts. We need to do a better job of "staying in games" when we are struggling.

I'll take that 2-2, especially since one of those was against Purdue. We took a NET hit dropping to 53. To me it is obvious that in order to overcome this we are going to have to win a couple of road games and finish 12-8 or better or go on a run in the BIG tournament. I'm very concerned. Next 4: 3 of these 4 teams have a very similar resumes to us. We need to start separating ourselves. This is an extremely important group of games. Need to go 3-1 or better and must win both home games. at Rutgers (NET 94) - This is the most important road game for this block and is almost a must win and that is because Rutgers is at the bottom of the conference. NWU (NET 69) - This one is the most important of the 4. At the end of the season we could very well be competing with them for a tourney spot. Their current NET is 69. OSU (NET 47) - This one is a must win. See NWU. at Maryland (NET 99) - Similar to Rutgers, except with a better record.

Wife's family is from Iowa and I always blame Iowa for his death They do not enjoy my sense of humor.

I wish I could think that far enough ahead, but I can't. We have a lot of work to do yet and it can easily slip away if we don't remain focused on the next game. If we had lost this game we would have been sitting at 2-3 and in 9th place. Each game matters. Lose our next one and we are .500 and will drop to 6th or 7th. It's important to not get ahead of ourselves. We can enjoy this game for a day and then it's time to move on. The only impact this game has is that it gave us a guaranteed Q1 win and improved our net to 46. The larger impact won't be known until the end of the season.

First thing I did this morning was check if they have updated NET. Was extremely happy to see that 12pt jump. Those sorts of big bumps are rare this time year and will be harder to come by as the season progresses. A 46 NET is going to turn some heads. From NCAA resume perspective this was huge. Get ourselves into the mid to low 30's is ideal and likely the best we can hope for.

That is an incredible STAT. Purdue has been a good basketball team for a long time. 2 times during the last 22yrs Purdue has lost a game by more than 16pts. To put that into perspective we've lost by 16 or more 8 times during the last season and a half.

This will be very important for us going forward. I have concerns about how much this number is going to move in our favor this season. Road wins are going to be huge. Thanks for the info.

Here we sit at 2-1 in this block of 4, which hits my expectation with 1 game left in this block. Thus far we have hit one of my goals which was to get another Q1 win (NET). We now have 2 although that number will move up and down. KSU and MSU are both on the border. Purdue as of now is our only guaranteed Q1 win. Right now our NET is at 58. Not sure if this is actually current. Win at Iowa and they could end up being a Q1 game and a road game as well. To me this is the toughest block of 4 games.

NO!!

Great game and great win, HOWEVER we still have a lot of work to do. This gives us our 2nd Q1 win. No real impact on our NET, although I'm not sure if that is calculated in real time or pushed out tomorrow? The difference between this game and WI was our defense and points in the paint. 2nd half KT gets the ball and looks to shoot a somewhat contested 3, instead he dishes to SH on his right who has a wide open 3 and makes it. I can't express in words how much I like seeing that kind of unselfish play.

8pt L 4" - That's a lot isn't it?

Beyond the notoriety and respect, I would have to think it hurts them financially. I imagine Sam G coming home has helped him.

So far we are 1-1 during this block of 4 games. Chalking Purdue as a loss. Iowa on the road is going to be a big game. As of now it is Q1 game. Win that and we are 2-2. Of note, MSU win has now moved up to a Q1, which is big. Our NET is now 59 and RPI has increased 49 from it's previous low of 31. This is concerning and something to keep a close eye on. Going forward we need to do a better job of strategic scheduling. Those 4 300+ NET games are not helping.

You tell me we would shoot 49% from the floor and 46% from the 3 and we would lose by double digits I wouldn't believe you. At around the 12min mark WI had a nice little run to get the game to double digits and we just couldn't get back in the game. I don't like Mast attempting 7 3pt shots. We also only had 3 guys in double figures when we usually have at least 4. JG and JL did not play well. We only had 3 guys in double figures when we typically have 4+ The difference was points in the paint with WI having a 36 to to 18 advantage. We essentially played them even in the 2nd half. There was a couple of times during the game when I thought the wheels where going to fall off and fought back. This is just one of those BIG road games. Lets see if we can pull an upset against Purdue on Tuesday.

The culture flip is absolutely what gives him grace in my eyes. I've previously stated that last year is what I expected in year one from him.

Who's forgotten that? His record is only part of the issue. It was the play on the court. He could have done what he did last season his 1st season and been competitive, but he didn't do that. Do your remember the play on the court? Remember the offense? YOLO 3 balls. No, I quit giving him the benefit of the doubt by the end of his 3rd season. He was in charge of that mess and we can thank Trev for forcing him to make the necessary changes that have resulted in this team playing competitive basketball. If he has the type of season that we are all expecting then I'm willing to reset everything and consider the '22-'23 season his year 1. Those first 3 years where so bad that it he would have win nearly 75% of his games for the next 4-5yrs just to get his overall record to .500.

Real talk. I've been a part of the mob since the end of his 2nd season and I don't have any regrets. Even at the end of last season I still believed that he needed to hit a minimum of an NIT (still do btw). Depending on the day I also believe that he needs to make the NCAA. I don't believe that is the least bit unreasonable based on his body of work at Nebraska. The performance of that never quit group from last season, despite being severely undermanned did give me pause, however that was year 4. We've all been around sports a long time and know that these kinds of turnarounds are unheard of and I'm not talking about from last season to this season but from what we saw the first 3 seasons to now. Can anyone think of a close example in college basketball? I can't. So, with that said... IF.... IF he manages to turn this around and get us to the NCAA and *gasp* actually win a game it would be one of the most incredible turnarounds of all time .... OF ALL TIME. @Norm Peterson said the quit part out loud in his first sentence. All of us are thinking it, and none of us want to say it for fear of what that would mean if it where to come true or if the opposite where to also come true. The joy of the former, from a sports perspective, would be matched only by sitting at the Orange Bowl watching the Huskers beat Miami and the later being at the Orange Bowl watching the Huskers lose as a Byron Bennet field goals goes wide left the year prior. As for me I'm going to live in the moment. I'm looking at the season in blocks of games. Once we get through those games then I'll focus on the next 4 games. I can't bring myself to look to far ahead.

Don't anger the gods

Note how he used the word enemy. Tricky tricky Mitch. It's forces the reader into the binary of either he's our friend or our enemy. No Mitch, he plays for our direct competitor.