HuskerBB

I wouldn't mind the scoring - I just hate the cheap play.

I would have put Fuller in just to hard foul Wagner at the first opportunity.

Roby really has a problem shuffling his feet when he starts to make a move. Had been getting away with it -but they are calling it today.

How do they not call fouls on Wagner? Kid should have fouled out by now.

Was going to say we had done a good job keeping Robinson from getting threes - then . . . ..

Kind of wish Jordy had taken a harder shot at Wagner there. Kid is kind of punk that needs to be given a taste of his own medicine.

Is it possible for them to call a technical foul on Simpson for flopping? That one was ridiculous.

Northwestern was very well prepared and obviously shot the ball extremely well today. Credit them a lot for taking Glynn out of the game. They did not leave him in the half-court but primarily I think making us play a half court game takes a lot of Glynn's game away as he likes to get 3's in transition as well. NW really made sure to get back on D so transition opportunities were really only there off steals - and they handle the ball very well so we did not get many turnovers. All that said - Gavin Skelly for NW is a punk - lots of cheap shots from him. Reminded me of a tall Grant Gibbs. Disappointing to drop this one because of the opportunity that we had to go 4-0 and really get a jump on the conference. All home losses hurt. But the team needs to keep their heads up and come back strong next Saturday to see if they can steal another road win.

Yes 1976 the NCAA was only a 32 team tournament - and nearly all of those were the conference champs. 1975 was the first year there were any "at-large selections" prior to then the only way you got in was to win your conference. In 1974 Maryland was ranked #2 or #3 in the country at the end of the year and did not get in the NCAA tournament. Not sure how many at-larges there would have been in 1976 - but definitely fewer than 10. The 64 team field did not come into existence until 1985.

Doesn't quite match all the criteria - but pretty darn close . Sure hope that happens because that would be a lot of fun. I am certainly not saying that we won't have games with great atmosphere going forward. We definitely can and I am confident that we will. Just pointing out how high a bar that Wisconsin game sets. I said that day I would probably never experience a game atmosphere like that again - and still think that is probably true (although I guess I hope I am wrong )

I would guess that I have been at 90% of the NU home games over the last 40 years. That would be somewhere north of 600 games. No doubt in my mind that the atmosphere at that no-sit Sunday Wisconsin game was the best we have ever had. In fact I can only think of one other game that would even come close (the NIT game that sent us to the NIT Final Four in the early 80's - when Dave Hoppen was a freshman - back when the NIT meant something because the NCAA field was much smaller). That Wisconsin game was sort of a perfect storm - Final home game of the year, new arena (2nd season), team on a roll, top 10 opponent, hugely important game for NCAA qualification for a team that had not been to the NCAA In over a decade. You are not going to have those things all come together very often anywhere. So not depressing to me at all to think we probably can't ever match that atmosphere again.

I think the concept of traveling in college basketball may have officially died at the end of the Kansas - K-State game the other night. Running backs on a 10 yard gain take about the same number of steps with the ball as that kid did before he made the layup.

As I said before I am pretty certain none of the refs saw the tip at all. I really don't think they had any idea the ball went in the basket at all until the Iowa coaches told them it did. Clearly they did not call goaltending because it was long after the play was over before they counted the basket. Yes, McCaffrey did not go nuts when he was asking for the basket. He was out on the court doing the made basket motion - as were several other Iowa coaches but really that was just asking the refs whether or not the basket counted (and the refs looked back at him like "what basket? the ball went in?). Then the scorers table said (mistakenly) that Jok had fouled out which was when McCaffrey lost his mind for a bit. That just added to the confusion overall and I think also made the refs focus on fixing that with the scorers table rather than thinking about how badly they had f'd up the call in counting the basket. In a game filled with bad officiating that made basket call was truly a Don Deckinger level mistake (old St. Louis Cardinal fans will understand that reference to the worst officiating call ever made in organized sports).

Just know that they wrapped his lower back - hip up during the game - assuming they were putting ice or heat on it. That was early-mid in the 2nd half. I was thinking it was his back but it was pretty obvious he was done for the night (although wasn't noticeably limping or anything) He actually came in after that for the last 2nd of regulation just to guard the guy throwing it inbounds. Again did not seem badly hurt then - but that was all he played.

I have only watched the reply at the game but I thought it was pretty clear the Iowa guy tipped it in - and that it was off the cylinder when he did. Regardless I am pretty certain that is not what they called. When McCaffrey and the Iowa coaches started begging for the made hoop (well after the play was over and after the ref had already reported the foul to the scorers bench) the refs just kind of looked at each other like what is he talking about. Then they huddled and decided to count the bucket. I am pretty certain none of them had any idea that the ball had actually ended up going through the hoop. When Iowa complained they must have thought - "Oh it went in? and assumed it was a result of the initial shot (which arguably came before the foul although not even sure about that part). I don't think any of them even saw what happened at the hoop later and it was pretty clear to me they were not even thinking goaltending was involved at all.

Not sure how many noticed but during regulation after Tai got his 3rd foul Miles switched the defensive matchups so Taylor was guarding Jok. Jok scored on two straight trips down the floor and Tai yelled over to Miles to put him back on Jok - which happened shortly thereafter. I wondered when Tai got that 4th foul if Miles thought about making the change but figured Tai would explode if he tried to take him off Jok at the end. Absolutely great game by Tai. Jok got a lot of points but many of them did come when switches or other defensive changes had him covered by other guys. Whenever Jok found himself covered by anyone other than Tai he knew he could score. He got some points off Tai also - but it was a battle and Tai won his share especially at the end.

I don't usually like to talk about the refereeing after games are over - but that was one of the worst games I can remember from a refereeing standpoint. In the first half they swallowed their whistles on numerous obvious calls and then they completely lost control of the game in the 2nd. Hard to blame the coaches for complaining at that game. I have seen Jr High girls games that were better officiated than what we had last night. (Actually that is probably an exaggeration as I don't go to Jr High girls games - but I am confident the point is true).

Following up on confusion in the game thread I tried to google the video review rules for NCAA basketball but came up blank. Some you tube videos popped up - but not up to watching them tonight. Would be interest if anyone knows what exactly the rules are - or can post a link to them. Looking for what calls can be reviewed - and to the extent it changes based on game time how that comes in. I know for checks on 3 point vs. 2 point shots they wait until the next dead ball to do the review - until the last four minutes when they will stop the game for that review. I also a pretty sure that inside a minute left they can review out of bounds calls but not before then. Obviously interest in whether the rules would have allowed them review that ridiculous call giving Iowa the basket in overtime. Obviously if they had looked at that replay they would have seen that was a mistake. But beyond that I am curious about what exactly can be reviewed? Is it just the things mentioned above plus flagrant foul calls and correcting clock time? Or are there other things they can review? One would think they would be able to review whether or not a ball actually went in the basket when they obviously have no clue like on that play tonight - but not sure if that is the case.

Hope the students are back for that one. Hated to see all the Iowa fans in the student section tonight.

Interesting. I will admit that I am one that kind of bashed Taylor at time. I do think there are times he hurts us by trying to do too much offensively on his own. But more recently I think he has done a better job of playing within himself and focusing on his role. When he does that he is effective and with Gill out we definitely need to be getting good minutes from Taylor. Maybe part of this is that when Taylor plays his role he gets 15+ minutes - but when he tries to create offense for himself out of the system he spends more time on the bench?

Nailed it with this post. . I have no inside information on this at all - but if I was betting I would say Player 2 would be Morrow. Again - just a pure guess not based on any factual knowledge.

Yes we do play this differently than I would have seen before. I think the main reason it worked today was Maryland simply was not prepared for it. As Miles said in his postgame this is now something teams will put in their game prep and we need to take that into account. I don't see the 1-3-1 ever working as our base defense but it is interesting to have it to throw in once in a while. The other point Miles made in the postgame was that he does not think our personnel fits a 2-3 zone very well - which is why he went looking into the 1-3-1. I do think he maybe views it as a primary zone option for now anyway with this team.

It worked. Remind me to talk him up some more if we play them again.

Ok - so I said Mello Trimble is really good - then he airballs a wide open three. So now I say Mello Trimble is REALLY REALLY GOOD. (Think it will work:)

Mello Trimble is really good.