HuskerBB

I'll be the first to say it... those shorts look hideous without the tops (but maybe that's just me?). Does that mean I get to be the first to say those shorts look hideous even with those tops.

Name one person from our Men's basketball program who has gone from DOBO, video, or OPs who has been promoted to assistant coach here because I can't. No disputing the point really - but FWIW MIke Broughton was the Dir of Basketball Ops for Collier initially and then became a regular assistant (switched jobs at the time with Soupy Campbell who went from being an assistant to the operations job).

Would be interested if anyone can confirm Eaton and Owens leaving. That frankly would bother me more than Harriman as to me it is more indicative of some underlying behind the scenes problem. Harriman leaving can be explained as career advancement. Harder to buy that if you have wholesale changes in staff like this.

Sad to see what should have been an epic game completely decided by one-sided horrible officiating.

I had both these teams in brackets but Duke should be embarrassed by how they have been given this game.

Koenig gets hit much harder every time Duke sets a pick for Jones.

Should have been a charge on Winslow. Coach K has the officials seeing things his way Absolutely - refs are doing everything possible to keep Duke in this game. And then the flop. If you are Dugan how can you know how to play after those 2 charge/block calls.

Should have been a charge on Winslow. Coach K has the officials seeing things his way Absolutely - refs are doing everything possible to keep Duke in this game.

How can you review that and not make a call !!!!

I am guessing that Gino Auriema would agree that this game is "watchable".

I was disappointed with Pitchford's decision for sure, but this one is even worse. Really thought Tarin had a bright future here on the court and he seemed like a really good kid as well. This has been a really bad week for the program.

Really tough to be a college coach these days. I did not follow them closely this year not being in the same conference and know they struggled at times. That said they made the NCAA tournament this season - and Barnes has been by far the most successful basketball coach they have ever had at Texas over the long term. You would think his record of success would mean something but instead I guess he is a victim of his own success as it apparently just created higher expectations.

Maryland with awful luck tonight. Trimble gets hurt and they drew the worst refs in the tournament.

Great post. Lived through them all and you definitely hit the nail on the head with some of those seasons. Personally I would rate this past season below the other four you missed (meaning less disappointing to me). I really thought a lot of the optimism this year was unfounded based on overperformance last year. But obviously I did expect and certainly hoped for more this year I think it feels worse too many that it really is because it is more recent. The expectations for some of the teams you mention were legitimate. That 78-79 team was one that really should have won the conference and the 95-96 team had Sweet 16 potential but had a February from hell. One can legitimately argue that team had more talent than any other NU team, but they did not even make the NCAA. The NIT championship run was fun - but really in the end just pointed out how they underperformed in conference play that year.

Nailed it Norm (except IMO when he was sober and focused Jaron Boon was a better shooter than TP even at his best.) I think the only reason TP would leave is if he wants to be close to home for him mom next season. I don't thinkt hat would be in his best interest from a basketball career standpoint, but obviously would understand it if he made that decision.

I have dish and the feed was fine. I think it is a TW problem - but when I flipped channels to check those always came in.

Yeah I lost the feed after the Rice 3 and it still has not come back. Tried both HD and low def. Broadcast was really bad the second half with the screen freezing constantly. Not sure if that is BTN or Time Warner's fault. Were people having issues outside of Lincoln?

Some good points in this thread. Made me take a closer look at the actual numbers. Overall our shot percentage is down from last year - but really not all that much (42.7% to 42.0%). Three point shooting percentage is off much more dramatically - 33.3% to 28.7%. Petteway's shooting % from 3 is about the same (32.7% to 31.7%) - but Pitchford (41.0% to 30.5%) and Shields (31.6% to 19.5%) are WAY down in their 3 point shooting percentage. I was surprised that everyone in the regular rotation (TP, Shields, Pitchford, Parker, Webster, Rivers) is averaging more shots per game than last season. Obviously part of that is the loss of Gallegos you took 6.7 shots per game - and also Biggs who averaged over 7.5 shots per game while he was on the team. The primary "new" guy is Tarin Smith who is just at 3.7 shots per game. So the other guys have to pick up some slack (also getting fewer shots from the Leslie/Moses combination than we got from just Leslie last year). Still I would have expected that Webster shot more last year (he certainly played more minutes last year) but that is not the case - close but still slightly more shots/game this year (Tai's shooting %'s are also better than last year, but the improvement is from dismal to just bad). Overall we are taking just over 1 less shot per game compared to last year - but attempting not quite 1 more 3Pt shot per game on average. Not a positive difference given the shooting percentages but the changes don't seem that signfiicant either. But then you look at the individual players and realize that last year Gallegos took more 3 pt shots than anyone on the team and that over 75% of Rey's shots were 3's. So with Rey not in the rotation we have TP going from having 34% of his shots being 3 pt attempts last year to having him take over 47% of his shots as 3's this year. Despite their dramatic reductions in 3 pt shooting % - Shields has gone from having 19% of his shots be 3's last year to 25% this year. Walt took 52% of his shots from 3 last year - that is up to 60% this year. Even without looking at the numbers if you just compare the two teams you would expect the team with Gallegos to take more 3's overall than the team without him - or at least that is what you would want. That team had a guy who was purely a 3 pt shooter, a guy you definitely wanted to take most of his shots from outside the arc. This one doesn't have that kind of player - but for some reason we are taking more 3's than last year - individually dramatically more 3's - and perhaps not surprisingly we are not shooting them as well. I will say that some of this can be do that teams are simply doing a better job of defending us this year. Part of that is them figuring out how to deal with the TP / Shields combination. Part of it is also do to the fact that we are an easier team to defend without a pure shooter like Gallegos. I also think there is an element of this team just not finding a way to get quality shots - which to some extent is offensive system - but I think is just as much a reflection of the lack of confidence that the players have in their shooting ability right now - a reflection of the "hot potato" title to this thread. One example from yesterday that I think illustrates the "hot potato" mentality is a possessionin the 2nd half. TP has the ball on the wing and was trying to beat his guy off the dribble or get it to someone inside - both without success. The entire time Benny was standing in the corner on that side all by himself - I don't think there was an Iowa player within 15 feet of him - and he was right there for TP to throw the ball to for a wide open shot. But TP had no inclination to throw him the ball and Benny did not seem to want or expect TP to throw him the ball. On the one level that illustrates why we are an easier team to defend - and why it is more difficult for TP to get better shots because he has to also beat the guy helping off of Benny. At the same time when I looked at the stats this morning I realized that Benny has the best percentage on the team from 3 point range - 33.3%. That is not a "great" percentage by any means, particularly when you realize he only takes them if he is wide open. But still you have to wonder about being in a situation where your best % 3 pt shooter is standing alone outside the arc and he doesn't want the ball and the player with the ball doesn't really even consider throwing it to him.

Whoever it was on it was really poor officiating. I am sure someone said something but it was not like anyone was trying to get in the refs face or being aggressive in any way. Another case of a ref looking for a reason to call a technical instead of doing whatever they can to avoid that situation. Similar (though not as bad) as the "boom" technical on Shields. I personally don't get that wound up (anymore) about bad calls during play or foul discrepancies. Bad calls happen because people make mistakes and there are usually other reasons that also play into differences in the number of fouls - many of which are legitimate. What I really hate is refs that have a bad attitude and try to make themselves the focus of the game rather than the play on the court. Calling that T last night was just a ref trying to show up the Nebraska bench and make sure everyone know he was there and he was "in charge". A good ref doesn't feel the need to do those kind of things.

Tai played with a lot of confidence in the 2nd half. He had a beautiful drive where he completely fooled his defender and made an uncontested layup. Later he almost had another one, but fumbled the ball a little on the way. I agree - the Tai we saw in the 2nd half last night is the player we need 25 minutes a game. I disagree with Miles on one thing - I think we need to go back to Tai starting to keep up his confidence and have him force things offensively early in the gaem. I think Benny is FAR more effective coming off the bench as a defensive sparkplug. I was a big defender of Benny back when everyone was down on him before our run last year - but he has too many limitations to be getting 25 minutes a game as a main part of the rotation. It takes away from the energy he can provide defensively. Last night we played with a sense of urgency in the 2nd half that we need to have at the start of games and try to maintain throughout. That is very difficult to do night in and night out. When we made our run last year we were playing close to that because the confidence gave us the energy - but it is really tough to replicate over the long run. Still given our other overall deficiencies and limitations as a team - we need that kind of energy to compete in the Big 10.

I agree that I have seen alot worse officiated games - even just this year. The only thing I really thought they missed was the no call on Benny at the end - but Benny also does alot of stuff defensively that doesn't get called. On the Kaminsky play I had a good angle and expected a foul call when the whistle blew and was really surprised when Valentine called a travel - so I could not get too upset when the guy came in to overrule that one. Terran always pushes off with his left hand on those drives and most of the year refs have let him get away with it. He got called for that a couple times last night which was different - but they also made the same call on Koenig to take away a 3. Terran could have gotten teed up pretty easily at that one point - and frankly his fourth foul was pretty bad when he grabbed the Wisconsin player and through him backward. Showed his frustration and lost his composure a iittle bit. Overall I did not see anything last night that was even in the same ballpark as the guy who T'd up Shavon in that earlier game (Minnesota I think).

That was right it front of me - if wasn't about "booing". Shortly before that one of the guys had gone onto the court yelling at the ref and his buddy pulled him back. He deserved to have the security guard come over. If his buddy had not pulled him back off the court I am sure they would have had him leave the game.

I agree. There is over reaction here - but not nearly to the extent that you seen on other boards. Of course, if the comparison is the rivals boards then it just being better than that place doesn't take much.

The problem when we tried that yesterday is not that they were close - but that MSU switched it up and did not guard Shelds throwing it in that time. They had been doing that up to that point, but took a different approach at that point.

The foul on Trice at the end was total BS. It looked like nothing in person and watching the replay on TV this morning it was clear Tai didn't touch him. Don't know about anyone else but I'm tired of watching us get bad calls on three point fouls at home. Good point. Went back and watched the game and there were 3 times yesterday where Trice totally flopped after shooting 3's. Twice he got the call from the refs. On the one at the end there was absolutely no contact by Webster but Trice did a good job acting his way into a free throw. We had the same thing happen in the Illinois game where a guy flopped on a 3. That is something that is becoming far to prevalent in college basketball. It is something they really need to make a point of emphasis for officials. You probably can't really penalize the guy for flopping in that situation but you certainly should not reward it either. Kind of reminds of when Jason Sutherland played at Missouri a number of years ago. Probably the dirtiest player I can remember. He had a trick where he would take a jump shot and then grab the jersey of the defender and pull the defensive player down on top of him. He got a bunch of phantom foul calls that way.