HuskerBB

Certainly did not expect a win today. Hoped to be competitive - but obviously that did not really happen. But there were a few somewhat bright spots - Thought we had a little better effort from Mack today - nice to see him get a couple steals. He needs a lot of work with his on-ball D (helps that against Iowa we let him play off of Toussaint so much) - but maybe the steals will make him realize he can also impact the game on the defensive end. Thought we got some very positive contributions from Green. He has lots of talent and I do think can be a key contributor next year. Really glad to see Arop get meaningful minutes - hope that continues for the rest of the year.

I agree with the comments that Cam Mack has the talent to be a really special player. He can do things on the floor that are all-conference caliber and is the best passer we have had since Brian Carr. At the same time his lack of an interest or intensity on the defensive side of the court is infuriating. While his indifference to trying to play any defense may have peaked vs. PSU I would not agree with the comment that said his defense needs to be more "consistent" - frankly that has been the most "consistent" part of his game - unfortunately though it has been consistently lacking. (Drives me crazy also the way he constantly motions for the crowd to get more intense when we are on D - but then fails to play defense with any intensity at all.) From my perspective he has been given more of a pass from Hoiberg and the NU crowd for his play and behavior than he would have gotten anywhere else - where his talent and positive attributes might not stand out as much. He should consider himself lucky to be playing here where we know we need him on the floor - but at the same time he needs to dedicate himself to improving all aspects of his game and learn what it really takes to succeed at this level. Reminds me of all the stories we have been hearing in the last week about the work ethisc that Kobe Bryant had about basketball and the intensity that he had for all aspects of the game. Kobe Bryant had more talent for basketball than virtually anyone else on the planet - but he knew that did not give him a pass - but instead he dedicated himself to try to work harder at his game than anyone else did as well. Cam could learn alot from paying attention to those stories about Kobe.

Great defensive game plan - at least as it worked out. Force them to beat us from 3 -and then watch them miss 16 out of their first 17 attempts - and 29 out of 33 overall. Certainly help that Bohannon is out for the year and the guy they have shooting 50% from 3 (23/46) - Frederick was injured and did not play tonight. But watching them play Penn State the other day Toussaint seemed very effective - announcers in that game were raving about him - and then we decided we did not need to guard him at all. Looked it up and realized he was just 4-22 from 3 on the year before tonight - so a good move not just because he doesn't hurt you shooting from there - but playing 10 feet off of him also limited his opportunities to drive to the basket which is what he wants to do - and also took away passing lanes to Garza. Had Wieskamp hit the jump shots he took in the first half the strategy likely would not have worked - but he wasn't hitting and they had no one else on the floor that would be considered a jump shooter. Not sure if it was Doc or who that came up with the plan but it worked brilliantly. Obviously also helped that we shot very well - at least in spurts - and hit big shots when we needed them.

What happened ? I was just following live stats. How does someone shooting a Free Throw get a technical foul??

NM St beat Colorado St in overtime in game one. Loyola up by 6 at halftime of game two. Got that off ESPN. Logged in here hoping someone had a good approach to getting this game on TV - or knew of some bar in town that was airing the tournament games - but looks like I may just do the radio thing too. Will bring back memories to listening to Kent on road games back in the years before pretty much every game gets televised.

The idea that we are a team that plays to the level of our opponent is a really optimistic take :) Sure hope that is true, but kind of afraid that we may be in for a rude awakening when we get home from Cayman and start playing some of those better teams. This might well be the worst rebounding team I have seen in 50 years of watching NU basketball - although to be fair when you miss that many free throws you do pad the other team's rebounding stats a bit. But offensive boards were something like 25-3? Hard to comprehend that happening against anyone, much less a SWAC team. While the clock was running we did seem to find our shooting touch though - and the team is fun to watch at times, and they do play with enthusiasm on the offensive end. It does make it a little less stressful to watch games in seasons like this where expectations are low and any win against any team can be viewed as a positive. Let me preface my next comments by saying that I love watching Cam Mack play and appreciate his talent. Might be the best passing point guard we have had - at least since Brian Carr which is something I really appreciate as a fan. Love players who see the court so well. All that say - boy do I wish he would cut out all the hotdog celebrations and just play the game. I don't want to take away his enthusiasm - and I don't mind some celebrating as long as it does not detract from the game. But at times his show boating extends to situations where he should be focusing on the game and defense. The wicked crossover that broke the guys ankles was fun to watch - but after it happened he was more focused on pointing at the guy to emphasize what he had done, than he was at taking advantage of the situation and going past the defender who was on the floor. I would not have argued if the ref had blown a whistle and t'd him up for taunting on that play - and frankly in the long run it might have done him good if that had happened. The other thing that bothers me is how much time he spends waving his arms to try to get the crowd involved. That is a good thing for players to do in some situations - but again he seems more focused on waving to the crowd than he is on playing focused. Last night his guy just went right past him while he was doing that. As a fan I am more likely to stand and yell if I see players working hard and really focused on playing defense - than I am if the players seem focused on getting me to stand and yell. Again I love most of the things about Cam's game - just wish he would keep his focus more on playing the game - than calling attention to himself. If he plays hard on both ends believe me the people in the stands at NU will notice and appreciate him without him asking them to do so all the time.

We looked very good when we got out and ran in the first half. This team can compete if we can get in fast paced 80 foot games. Lots of that tempo was created by defense in the first half. They need to understand how much playing defense can help this team offensively. That was also evident in the second half when our defensive intensity was nowhere near what it was in the first half. Fortunately we had enough of a lead and hit some shots in the 2nd half that they never got back in the game despite the fact that we stopped playing defense at anything close to a high level. Great to get the first win obviously - but we are not going to be able to get away with not playing hard for the full 40 minutes against very many teams on our schedule.

Overall another VERY disappointing loss. Did see much better effort from the perimeter guys (Dashon at least) on defense that we had last game. At one point Cam Mack just took over the game for about 3 possessions - but then he really struggled after that point. Green showed some things. Cross does have ability to finish around the basket which we need -but we have to make him understand we need him to be in that area more instead of just looking to take 3 point shots. He also seems only mildly interested in rebounding or playing defense. We are a horrible rebounding team - can't afford to have our 5 men not focused primarily on rebounding. We were certainly better in most phases this game than the first one. But we had absolutely no idea how to attack a zone. Fred needs to fix that in a hurry. Maybe Stevenson is the answer to that problem - but I don't think we can wait for him to arrive before addressing that issue.

Well I am pretty sure he designed it pretty much the way it happened - and it actually was very well-designed. No I don't think he told Jervay to try to dunk one-handed - but the play design really worked if the pass and catch had been executed. I actually thought it was the best designed offensive possession we had all game. Unfortunately that is a very low bar.

Yes. My expectations for the season were not high at all - but I certainly did not expect to get blown out on our home court by UC Riverside. Hopefully it turns out to be a teaching tool and at least somewhat of an aberration.

Hard to take anything good out of this one. I agree Yvan did some good things - but his hands are a problem, fumbled a couple of passes that should have been easy buckets. I actually liked a couple things Jervay did defensively - not so much in terms of effort which was lacking team wide - but he does show very quick hands knocking the ball loose and also quick jumping ability to block shots. Cross was a nightmare. Someone needs to introduce him to his teammates and explain that they are on his side and he can actually pass the ball to them. Plus when his shot wasn't there he played with zero energy or effort on defense. One time clearly was in the best spot for a rebound but just stood and watch the UCR guy get the ball instead. Most shocking thing to me was seeing Arop and Easley go in at the end. I was assuming that Arop was going to redshirt for sure - and could not understand why we would blow his redshirt with less than two minutes less than this game. I was also thinking maybe we were considering redshirting Easley because he had not played to that point. I expected him to be getting minutes in the regular rotation - particularly on nightmare nights like this when no one else can make a shot and the team has lost its energy. Easley is a kid that will always play hard and who can make a jump shot. If you are going to play him why not do it earlier in this game when we still had a chance to regain momentum and come back to possibly save that disaster. Not saying that necessarily would have happened - but certainly nothing else was working in the 2nd half. In the end we just need to learn what we can from this embarrassing performance and then forget it and move forward. It may be a very long season - hopefully there will still be a bright spot or two that we can use as we build for the future.

I think you got that 99 game difference from adding up the records he gave. That is not accurate. Those are the all-time records of each of the coaches - not the records of the teams during the 20 years. If that was a 20 year time period - Duke would have averaged over 56 wins a year - don't think that is correct. FWIW Iba's record at Nebraska was 106-71. Nee's record at Nebraska was 254-190. That would pretty much cover Nebraska for 20 years I think. Not sure what Coach K's total record was during those years.

The "seat yourself" process for season-ticket holders to change or add seats is going on today. Before the process started this morning there was one group of six seats in row 8 available and several pairs in the upper rows of the lower level. I just looked and those are all gone by 11:00 am. Nothing left in the lower level except a few singles. Just a few scattered pairs in the 200 level left. Not my time yet and not much to pick from - but kind of fun to look. I did not expect much to be available this year with the added excitement from the coaching change and that certainly is the case.

Big 10 just lost to the MAC 21-19. Led most of the game but gave it away at the end. I don't think these teams have a "coach" but if they do the Big 10 one was an idiot. Happ was BY FAR the weakest player in this format and he was on the floor all but about 30 seconds. Other 3 rotated regularly. Pretty sure Watson was the high scorer. Murphy did well on offense but was lazy on defense. Happ was ridiculously inept both ways. Could not score and just got abused trying to guard guys away from the basket. Final bucket was the MAC spreading out and just let Happ's guy drive past him and beat him to the basket. If they would have just played the other 3 guys the Big 10 team would have won easily.

I think many on this board overestimate the players knowledge of and level of comfort with Fred Hoiberg. Tom Allen was recruited by a large number of schools. I am sure he has something of a relationship with other college coaches who were involved in his recruitment - and no personal relationship with Hoiberg at all obviously. Hopefully he keeps an open mind and gives Hoiberg a chance to "recruit" him to stay (assuming that Hoiberg is in fact the next coach) - but I don't think it is realistic to expect the players to immediately be thrilled with any coach they have never met - as opposed to other coaches out there that they probably got to know pretty well a couple years ago.

Horrible officiating in this game. They have lost control of the game and are just guessing.

Yes. Did not think a Butler team would play this way. Lots of cheap shots and punk behavior.

I thought I read he is able to graduate this spring/summer. I agree he would be better off not going to the NBA right now - but I would expect him to grad transfer if it is correct that he can - assuming MIles is gone anyway. I think the only chance he stays without Miles here is if he has a really good girlfriend in Lincoln.

Any chance Tom Allen might play tomorrow ? Is he day to day or definitely out for the tourney?

Wow that looks even way worse on the replay than it did live. Clearly flagrant - could be an ejection situation potentially.

That was awful - the guy jumped backwards to emphasize the flop.

Guess it is hard for Roby to block a guy out when he is allowed to spend the entire possession standing in the lane.

My feelings exactly. Just could not believe the lack of effort tonight. I have advocated coaching changes in the past. I have been very hesitant to do that this time for a couple reasons - first as I get older the thought of starting over all over again gets even more depressing. Second I will still maintain that Miles is the first coach we have had since Joe Cipriano who has taken the program a clear step up from where it was under his predecessor. (Of course I admit that is too a large extent due to the state of the program when he took over - being at the lowest point that I think it has been during my long lifetime.) All that said - I can't defend what we are seeing right now. Part of a coach's job is to inspire the players to play with maximum effort. Tonight's game is a pretty clear example of Miles failure to do that with this group.

That looked like the old Glynn - finally.

Roby gets some of the worst phantom fouls called on him. Would have been OK for Amir to foul there - but we did not want one called on Roby.