hhcdave

Maybe we should avoid offering Omaha guys as sophomore's from now on. Doesn't end well. See Enright, Roy (JR)

Welcome, Evan! For those of us who remember the late 90s... Could this guy be a bigger version of Joe Holmes and play similar minutes? (although not start each half for 4 minute and never play again like Holmes did) Could he be a poor man's Lance Jeter for the newer fans? Glad we got him!

The fact that Andrew White thinks he has even a chance of sniffing the NBA is an even bigger joke than he has made himself. Truly a completely chicken ish move on every front. This kid is nowhere close to NBA potential and the sideshow here is clearly him, NOT Miles. Enjoy your six years in Europe, Andy, and having absolutely no legacy at any school you played at. Joke.

Not that this was truly ever in question. But I can 100% confirm that Tai Webster will be returning for his senior season. So that's good news and read into that as you may. Dave

GREAT get. IMO, the most exciting one yet.

Thought you guys might be interested in my thoughts on this and also, learn about my new website! Its 100% all Royals former and current player interviews and post game analysis. I'm very frank on tonight's game http://clubhouseconversation.com/podcast/april-23-3-2-w-over-white-sox-in-13-very-controversial-edition-with-very-blunt-thoughts/

Fair enough on all accords, Norm. And Lanigan, I hope you're right about Tai. He certainly improved his effort and understanding of defense this year and thus, became a (at times) very GOOD defensive player. Improved mightily. IF he can do 1/2 of that offensively, then maybe he can become more than a role player. But at the moment, a turnover prone "2" who can't shoot doesn't inspire me. Again, not bashing the kid, I like him and am glad he stayed. He has made big strides defensively. But we need him to do the same offensively. Fair or unfair, with the current situation and hand dealt, he NEEDS to take that next step next year. And let's hope he can.

Of course. But I see a lot of "If's" there.

The next (and I'll admit fair response) is: "Yes, but we by far have the best recruiting class since the early 90's. Maybe ever." 100% agree. My point is with this (and the post a made a few weeks back) is that if we have any more turnover of the new class... and recent history (Doc included) would say we will... we have razor thin margin for error, because after this year, we have very few upper classmen and what's more, our assistant coaches are a revolving door. At some point recruiting and selling is going to be difficult if we continue to have turnover, is my ultimate point.

Norm, Not counting TP... since I agree, our goal should be to get kids to the NBA. At least 2 of the other 5 who left early are better than any of the 5 who have stayed. Pitchford Tarin Smith The best of the 5 is Tai Webster. He is a role player. Not hating, just stating the facts and responding to your post. I believe in Miles - but if you aren't at least a LITTLE concerned with all the turnover, both on the court and with coaches, then I guess we'll just agree to disagree.

It is semi concerning that 6 of 11 players Miles has recruited have left the program prior to eligibility being up, one way or another. We can't afford turnover if it's not guys going to the NBA. Hopefully that is past us now because frankly, we have some highly touted kids coming in and frankly, we can't keep losing guys in bunches prior to graduation if we hope to get back to 2013-2014 anytime soon.

I hope you're right... but this is all written with the assumption TP is gone. However, I will not deny that the schedule lightens up this year and I also won't deny that we overachieved in 2013-2014 so, you never know.

Jeter could have played in the NBA - I firmly believe that. Same with Cookie Belcher and POSSIBLY, Nate Johnson.

Dimes, I'll admit, the first half of your post DID make me feel better. Maybe you should get into therapy/counseling?

The discouraging is in the present. The fact that '15-'16 is likely to be dismal. The positive are the two classes. HOWEVER, if we don't hit on BOTH classes, we will not have enough talent in the program to be ready to compete at a high level in 2-3 years. Then it becomes near impossible to duplicate these two classes for following seasons and the doldrums are back. Make sense? I know my post was kind of scatter brained.

Not really anything confusing about it. 2015-2016 was supposed to be a banner year for the program. As things are now, it's looking like the 2014-2015 Rutgers team, who DID have a couple of damn good players, too. If you disagree, that's fine and yes, a lot could change between now and October. But I'm going off of what we know right now and where we're at right now, and using the assumption not all 3-4 of the freshman will be studs right off the bat because well.. they won't. I don't think I mentioned any of the incoming players more than once, in response to the Morrow comment.

Hello All, It's been a few months since I last posted... life has gotten REALLY busy... but I've been lurking nonstop and want to say Dimes is doing a great job with the board and as always, I'm enjoying the conversation around here. I wanted to sit down and put my thoughts "on paper" about the end of the 2015 season (I haven't posted since around the Creighton game) and in particular, on the VERY disappointing let down that has been the revolving door the last week (and probably will continue with Petteway departing). First of all, last season... I thought it was just one of those years that. A. The team chemistry was WAY off and B. The team just wasn't near as talented as the February and March run the year before had made us believe it was. I liken it to the 2003 KC Royals... Two amazing stretches, including a 16-3 start and a run in August... but in the end, it was getting hot for awhile, a bit of smoke and mirrors and catching teams at the right time... The team was well under .500 the rest of that year and going into 2004, signed Juan Gonzalez, Benito Santiago, Brian Anderson, Curtis Leskanic, etc. and expected to compete. They thought they were GOOD from 2003, when in reality, it was fools gold. I think that's what happened here. It threw expectations off and then our entire team mentally collapsed, which created friction and issues. Now, do I think we should have been as bad as we were? NO. I'd say we underachieved 3-4 games on the year (Incarnate Word, Creighton and 2-3 other Big 10 games). HOWEVER, I certainly don't think we were better than a fringe NIT team, talent wise. How many other NCAA or NIT teams out of the Big 10 had David Rivers, Tai Webster, Benny Parker, Moses Abraham type players in their rotation? Answer: None. Moving on... Miles GREATLY overachieved in year two... so he's good in my book with a bad year. Not mad or upset at all. It happens. His success created fools gold (and the players, duh). But back to expectations... I believe EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US expected 2015-2016 to be "THE ONE" - where we made the Sweet 16/Elite 8 run... I mean, let's go back BEFORE the start of the 2014-2015 season. Think of this, back when we had still had reason to believe Webster could be more than a role player at this level (which is all he'll be - nothing wrong with that, he's a good kid and we need those - but we needed him to be THE MAN. He hasn't and won't be). But think of this a year ago. PG - Parker (SR) Webster (JR) Watson (FR) SG - Petteway (SR) SF - White (SR) PF - Shields (SR) C - Pitchford (SR) Off bench: Graduate transfer big or Hammond (SO), Tarin Smith (SO), Fuller (SO) and a bunch of highly talented young kids coming in. Tell me we didn't believe 2015-2016 was THE YEAR. I mean, THE YEAR. Now, as we sit here, I struggle to believe this team will be more talented than year one. NOW, before I get into that, let's acknowledge our incoming recruiting class is LIGHT YEARS ahead of year one, and legitimately the best class since the early 90's. However, we have yet to ink McVeigh, and if guys continue to flock out of the program as often as I go to the bathroom, whose to say he's a lock? Still, we have three big time incoming kids coming in - two of which should play right away. I expect Watson to be similar to Tarin Smith in ability as a freshman and Morrow to be REALLY good, even right away. Jacobson, could use a redshirt year from what I hear - but won't have that chance. McVeigh, let's just hope he gets here. My point is, right now, we are HOPING and BELIEVING this class is way more talented - but we heard the same thing about Tai Webster (and I hate to keep bringing him up). But the same stuff I hear about Watson, I heard about him. In YEAR FOUR of Miles and THE YEAR, we are looking at this rotation as of right now: PG - Benny Parker (SR)/Glynn Watson (FR) SG - Tai Webster (JR) SF - Andrew White (JR) PF - Shavon Shields (SR) C- Graduate Transfer/Jacob Hammond (SO) who couldn't get off the bench before Kye Kurkowski. Throw the unknown of (possibly) Fuller and a few freshman, and this team doesn't look much better than Rutgers was this year, who ALSO had two really good players (and a bunch of nobodies). From the outside, that's exactly what our team looks like. Guys, I'm EXTREMELY disappointed and concerned... here's why. 1. This will likely be the last year we see a complete sell out of the arena if we struggle (which I expect). 2. The newness of the building/practice facility will slowly wear off, as the arms race of college athletics continues. 3. If we have a 4-14 year, and we're 4 years in, with all the attrition and STILL no players going into the NBA (Petteway won't right away - no chance), how does Miles recruit? It's getting more difficult. 4. MOST IMPORTANTLY. The program hinges on THIS CLASS and NEXT YEARS CLASS. The good news is we have a guy I trust with all my heart (Miles) and a LOT of open scholarships... he has ONE MORE CHANCE to get this right (like this year should have been - THE YEAR). However, if we whiff on one or both classes, and we're sitting in years 5-6 of Miles, and 5 years into the building with a declining fan base... no, itll never be like the 7,500 at The Bob. But even getting down to 10,000 will be a big difference... IF that happens over the next two years... we are in deep trouble... and so is Miles.. and we risk going back to the "same old Nebraska" which we have gotten rid of after the Tournament appearance, new facilities and general national attention Miles has garnered us. My point in this post is to say... I'm very concerned right now. And we need to put 50% of this on Miles. We all love him. We all think he's the guy. We all still believe he CAN and (likely) WILL get it done here. But you'd be a fool to not realize how pivotal these two classes are and if he misses on these kids (like we have so many times), or has more attrition of KEY YOUNG PLAYERS (you CANNOT lose a Smith), we are in deep trouble and things could unravel. the positive mojo is still there for now - shake it off as one bad year. But that's the only reason we can still sell recruits. facilities. fans. and ONE BAD YEAR with immediate playing time. Turn that into 2 and 3 bad years and well... it's back to "same old Nebraska." P.S. can we stop recruiting guards from NYC? Last three have all bolted out - Tarin Smith, Jamel White, Mike Smith

So who do we think was the better recruiter. Doc or Barry?

And if we were/are so fatigued. Why did we use only one timeout the first 39:50 of the game?

as hard as Benny played right there and we have stepped it up both in overtime and the first five minutes of the second half last night... I have to wonder why we haven't been playing harder. If playing at 80% so you don't have to sub is the answer that is completely unacceptable.

Is it bad that I feel like we lost even though we won?

Just what the country wants. Five more minutes of this gunslinging basketball.

Really inspiring ball we are playing this year

This is beyond Embarassing for many reasons. I worry about recruits who want to run and score points and make the nba watching this team this season.

Still a lot to be concerned about but tonight isn't the night to talk about that. Rather, our kids battled and battled and went 50 minutes with just seven guys. And really, four guys played nearly the whole game. They played through sprains and eye cuts and fatigue and through some VERY questionable officiating to GET THIS DONE. In the first ten minutes, they appeared as if they were playing for their lives. As fatigue set in toward the end of the first half and the rest of the game, it was tough to fend off Cincy, but they did it. Very nice win tonight. All you can do from here on out is one game at a time, play as hard as you can. Was surprised Miles didn't go to the zone in the first 17 minutes of the second half. It had been nice in the first half and got a few stops when Rivers went out with the eye cut. Rivers was HUGE. HUGE. HUGE. Pitch played better and tougher. Tough night for Shavon and Terran with the ball in their hands. Saw some nice things from Tai tonight. Parker sloppy. Overall, a nice night and a big win.