HuskerBB

That court looks ridiculous.

Exactly. If our program gets to the place it should be then we don't need to worry about how good Creighton is. 15-20 years ago we never competed with Creighton for recruits - we got the kids we wanted. Five years from now hopefully we will be back in that position.

This is way off-topic but WOW - can't believe you can say that if you actually saw Chad Gallagher play. Just look at the numbers - Echinique averges 10.6 ppg and 7.1 rpg. Gallagher in 90-91 was 19.4 and 8.8. Echinique has more "presence"?? Even though Gallagher averaged 2.2 blocks per game to Echinique's 1.3? Gallagher was an early 2nd round NBA draft pick - you think Echinique is going to get picked in the NBA draft? At the time Harstad and Gallagher were the #1 and #2 all-time leading scorers for Creighton. Very rare to see that happen at a school with two kids in the same class - and they were both seniors in 90-91. McDermott will likely pass them both on that scoring list obviously. But Echinique isn't even in the same category as a player.

Exactly. This is far more accurate than the original post in terms of the "reasons" behind where we are at right now.

Not really interested in debating over which of two CU teams is better and that was not really my point anyway. But Echinique over Gallagher - seriously ???? I can't even comprehend that comparison coming out that way. Personally I would not even put those two in the same category. Echinique is physical speciman and I know he had a double/double tonight but he is not anywhere close to as good of a player as Chad Gallagher was IMO. Several days ago someone asked me if Andre Almeida would compare favorably to Aleks Maric. I laughed out loud at that suggestion - but I have to say I would at least categorize those two Huskers as more closely comparable than Echinque and Gallagher. Obviously I would give you McDermott over Harstad (although Harstad was a helluva player) and would agree that this CU team is probably deeper overall than that one. But the real point was simply that the CU 90-91 team was clearly one of their 10 best teams - maybe even among their 5 best. A description that also fits this CU team.

Was really hoping we would make a better showing tonight and at least keep it close - but such is the state of things right now. It sucks that our program is in the condition it is in where we have to endure games like tonight and not view it as a complete aberration. No disrespect to Creighton as they have a very nice team - certainly one of the best CU teams they have had over the years. That said - the game tonight has alot more to do with where we are at in relation to where we should be than where Creighton is at as a program. Creighton had a very good NCAA qualifying team in 90-91 - very comparable to this group - and we beat them by 30 in Lincoln that year. Now admittedly that was one of our very best teams - but for those of you who can't remember more than 15 years ago -there was a time when we dominated this series in the fashion that decent major conference schools should in comparison to good mid-major schools. Frustrating that things have been out of whack for so long - but that is on us for letting happen. The good thing is that I am more optimistic than I have been for a very long time that we are at least on the road to recovery. Miles is doing a very nice job with ridiculously limited resources in terms of talent at this point. These kids play hard but we just don't have the depth, experience or star power to compete at a high level without getting breaks or having abnormally hot shooting nights. Obviously neither of those happened tonight. Specific points about tonight: Creighton fans are SO incredibly obnoxious it is hard to bear. That said if I was in their shoes maybe I would act the same way. Would like to think I would be more respectful to my state school but like alot of fans I can be pretty emotional at games in the heat of the moment and maybe that is what it is with many of them. Again if we don't like dealing with that from CU fans it is our job to fix that problem by getting our program back in form. #22 for CU is a real twerp - and I thought that even before the ridiculous scrum w/ Peltz at midcourt. At my emotional worst in the early stages of the game I mentioned to my friend that we should have suited up Kenny Bell to set a good "screen" on Dougie. Not serious about that obviously, but I think this #22 is one of their younger players right? If so he needs to grow up before future games or we may need someone to put him in his place. We really need Benny Parker to step up his game on the offensive end. Teams that really spend time game planning for us as CU obviously does will recognize that they can take Ray out of the games when we have so few other offensive options. I think Shields will step up a little bit on the offensive end as he gets more comfortable and that will help. Pelz works really hard but he is just too limited offensively and teams recognize that they don't really have to guard him. Parker needs to take over the role and get that minute distribution at that spot at least 30-10 in his favor. CU did not really play Parker honestly either but he certainly did not make them pay. I did feel like our kids really battled at times tonight and showed some emotion that was good to see. That was something that was absent with Collier teams - particularly in the CU games. He never "got" what this series was about and it wasn't much different under Doc. I think this one will stick in Miles' craw a little bit - and also am pretty sure that we set the stage for our young guys to take this game seriously. Rivers and Shields in partcular took some emotional shots in the gut tonight that they are going to remember. As we have said all along - this is going to be a long year and we are going to have more games like this. But I hope people don't give up on this team because they deserve our support and giving that effort as fans now will help them take those steps forward that we have been waiting for all this time.

Agree with 1 & 3 - but as others noted I think parking and traffic is likely to be far worse at the new arena than it is at Devaney. But I park 200 yards from the door of Devaney (just across 14th street) and drive in and out without stopping nearly every game - so personally I have never really understood the complaints about traffic at Devaney. I do think it is going to be a nightmare at the new arena. I hate going to the Haymarket area now simply because parking is so bad there in general. The new parking they are building will not come close to accommodating the number of extra cars that will be there during Husker games if we get decent crowds.

Agree with this - but I do see the danger in people getting overly excited at this point, particularly those who have not followed the program closely. CU is much better than USC and it would take another over the top performance to bring home a victory Thursday. Not saying it can't happen - but for this group to beat CU even on our home floor is more than anyone should expect. Just remember even if we lose Thursday the "future looks very bright" statement will still be true. I am very confident that this will be the last time we play Creighton in Lincoln where I do not expect us to win - and also think next year might be the last time we play them in Omaha where I don't expect to win. Miles will return us to the pre-Collier days where it was no big deal to beat CU - just something we expected to do nearly all the time.

Norm I think you will see Shields take it to the bucket when he gets more confidence and a better feel for the offense and his role. You are correct that we are only 8 deep short of an emergency situation (which will likely happen with foul trouble at times) but Miles has already shown a lot of different combinations among that group which should make it workable. Besides didn't we have a jr high girls coach on here a while back that told how cutting down to an 8 man (or little girl) rotation was the secret to his success - or something like that

Fun game to be at tonight. Crowd was not great in comparison to back in the old days but it wasn't bad under the circumstances and we got some energy going toward the end. While we struggle at times this team seems so much more efficient offensively than we have been the last few years. They run a true motion offense with good hard cuts that have a purpose - not just going through the "motions" as we have seemed to do in the past, if you will pardon the pun. Good job defensively as well. Team defense is very good and we have good on ball defense as well. Talley seems like a completely different player on the defensive end than he did a year ago. Refs tonight were AWFUL. I am usually not one to get worked up after the game about the refs but the only thing consistent about these guys was that they got more calls wrong than they got right - and in this case they seemed very one-sided against us as well. I bring it up mostly to give credit to our guys for playing through it and staying focused and credit to Miles also for not losing his head and staying in the game. Lots of good coaches would have gotten T'd up at least once tonight - but in the end we could not afford to give up free points or possessions. We are going to take some lumps this year when the shots are not falling against decent teams. But from what I have seen so far I am excited about what Miles might be able to do here in the future.

I agree. It is easy to say we shot too many 3's when you go 3-22. But those were the shots they were giving us and there were not too many occassions where we took a 3 and I thought it was a bad shot - a couple maybe but most of those were shots we need to take when they are there. The fact that we were 3 for 22 is a reflection of a poor shooting team having a poor shooting night. Downgrade us for not shooting to our potential - but if your are grading on a scale take into account what we are working with. There are going to be alot of games this year where we have to make those shots to stay in the game. Sometimes we will make enough to keep the score close and maybe steal a couple wins. Sometimes we will shoot poorly and when facing a quality team we will get blown out as a result. Credit us for finding a way to score 75 points and still get a win when our shots were not falling.

Hope you are right. If that is where we end up then Miles will have done a fantastic job as this team has far less talent to work with than we had last year.

I don't know what is going to happen for sure and I agree that in general we need to focus on developing the players we can get. That said, and I hope I am wrong but I don't see Vucetic developing into a player that we will worry about having for a 5th year. In my view if we are not able to get players who are at least closer to being ready - or show more signs of potential we are going to be starting over again in another 5 years. But in my view all signs are that Miles will be able to make a difference here and move us forward.

But you have to be comfortable on the floor and feel confident enough to make plays. I think Rivers is much improved in those areas over last year - but he also still has a long ways to go. HB is correct in that he is a poor ball handler for this level at this point so I am sure mentally he just isn't thinking about driving to the basket. Hopefully Miles will show him the things you saw and get him to develop that mentality and continue to improve.

I think this is right on point in both counts. Vucetic is a LONG way from being a Big 10 quality player - but we pretty much have to use him a little bit this year for two reasons - we need to have someone fill in a few minutes, particularly in the inevitable games when Ubel and Almeida are in foul trouble. Probably even more true next year when Pitchford appears to be our only big and ANY minutes he gets this year will maybe help him be a little more effective next year. That said - seeing him for 5 minutes in the exhibition game was enough to realize he is very likely not a long term answer. He can play this year and next year only because we have no depth inside. If this program is going to get back to a decent level - we need to find better options for the future so I have no concern about having this guy for a 5th year. FWIW the comparison between Vucetic and Diaz is ridiculous. The skill level of those two at their arrival at NU is not even in the same universe.

I was really encouraged by what I saw last night. This team is certainly going to struggle this season. But I saw offensive movement that resulted in some open looks in ways we have not seen here for a long time. We also had a very good defensive effort. Clearly Valpo had an "off" night shooting - but some of that is attributable to good defense. In a sense it is a sad reflection on our program to be encouraged by a 2 point home victory over a mid-major school. But that is the position that we are in right now and for the group that we have this was a very nice win.

The difference I have seen is the Doc was trying to make Ray a spot-up shooter and Mile's offense gives him shots off the dribble or shots coming direclty of screens. Ray has always been able to shoot off of motion but for whatever reason he is a very poor shooter if he is stationary spotting up somewhere when he gets the past. The difference to me is now Ray is getting the shots that he is comfortable taking and that he can make.

Check out this link to pictures of UNL basketball players. The kid that did them is a UNL student just starting a photography business. Really talented and creative. http://www.wynwileyphotoblog.com/2012/11/07/basketball/

Taking out the pro players in the NBA exhibitions - the two best coilege players that I saw play in person were Waymon Tisdale and Kevin Durant. Always said Tisdale was the top, until Durant came along and he was better - not necessarily during his one game at Devaney - but overall in college (FWIW I also saw Durant play live in Austin and at the Big 12 tourney). In my mind there is a pretty big gap after those two. If you count NCAA tournament games we were not involved in then Darrel Griffith at Louisville would probably the next one I would list.