Mr. Red

That's why he's a major media figure, who else could crank out hot takes like that!

me after we finally scored
 

Does anyone know exactly how long it took to build Rome... trying to figure out how many liver donors I might need

Let's look on the bright side.  We weren't going to make the postseason this year anyway, so this loss doesn't really hurt us.  But it will drag our RPI down into the gutter, meaning when we upset Creighton and Iowa later in the year it will count as a "bad loss" for them and keep them home in March, too!

How shitty must the teams in Italy must be.

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I don't know if I'll have the energy/desire to keep up with putting the KenPom prediction up every game this year, but...
 
KenPom says:
 
285 UC Riverside at 96 Nebraska Nebraska 79-64 (92%) 9:00 pm
 Big Ten Network  Lincoln, NE
Pinnacle Bank Arena  
 
non-con wins: 8
Total wins: 13

Saturday will be a special game for me, and let me explain why.
 
But before I do that, six quick thoughts on tonight.
 
1. Tonight will absolutely be rock bottom. Losing by double figures to a sub .500 Big West team without their best player at home was miserable. Cal Riverside will be lucky to hit 13 wins this year. We had no energy, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and didn't look anything like a team on offense. It was individual play. We are young and don't have defined roles or defined leaders/letter winners yet. This will come with time.
 
2. We will get a LOT better as the season goes on. Because:
 
3. We have the right guy at the helm with a terrific coaching staff.
 
4. There are 4 guys on this roster who will be a big part of our NCAA Tournamen team in year #3. That's good news for the future but not good news for this year. Because:
 
5. The rest are mostly place holders and guys who wouldn't see the floor by then.
 
6. I love this team and program, and I hope negative energy Husker fans from football will stay the hell away. I heard a few boo's after a possession where we missed a few layups late in the second half. I heard mock Bronx cheers on made free throws. I get it, I get it. It's frustrating. It was brutal. But come the hell on. It's season one, game one and this has nothing to do with football.
 
Next, let's talk about Southern Utah.
 
I'm sure I made this same post a decade ago when we last played them, but here's the info.
 
From 1988-1990, I was 8-10 years old. My Dad was the Music Department Chair at Southern Utah University (SUU) in Cedar City, Utah. He directed the pep band and we went to ALL the football and basketball games.

This is where I fell in love with basketball as a kid. I became a ball boy for SUU.
 
1988-1989 was their first Division I season (as an Independent) and they struggled. Our second year there, 1989-1990, they won AT Xavier, who was in the Top 25. I'll never forget being 9 years old and listening on the radio. They also played Stacy King and OU and KSU and lost those by about 45 points each. Even lost to a D2 team at home that year. Go figure. 
 
They had pretty good basketball teams for several years after that. Their coach at the time (Neil Roberts) got arrested for stealing a $15 tie during a road game at Idaho State and was fired. He was the coach when I was there. Bill Evans took over (now at Idaho State) for many years and took SUU to the NCAA Tournament in 2000-2001 where they almost beat Boston College as a 14 seed in their one and only NCAA Tourney.
 
Football wise, they've been REAL good in FCS. Several guys have gone into the NFL. Basketball, they've never had an NBA player. They're a Big Sky team. The Thunderbirds. This is a legendary Native American bird that didn't exist but in their tales, were "canyon birds." Pretty sweet mascot and the only Thunderbirds (or T-Birds) in existence. 
 
Southern Utah University is in Cedar City and is 45 minutes from Zion National Park, 2.5 hours from Las Vegas. It's BEAUTIFUL and they play in a small arena that the Utah Jazz used for training camp a few times.
 
I have quite the cool connection to this small D1 school. I've always followed them from afar. From their times in the Mid Continent Conference to Summit League, to nowadays, the Big Sky.
 
They are much better than Cal Riverside and are expected to compete in the Big Sky this year. 3rd or 4th pre-season. I believe they'd beat Riverside by 10-12 points head to head.Their head coach is a very nice guy named Todd Simon who for a brief time was interim coach at UNLV. He's a great recruiter with a Big 10 background (he grew up in Michigan as a Big 10 fan). 
 
That's way more info than you ever wanted to know about the Thunderbirds of Southern Utah. I'll be driving from KC for this game. Definitely going for the Huskers, but if one school has to beat us and have it help them (which their program could really use a shot in the arm), I'd much rather it be them than Cal Riverside. 
 
Go Big Red but if not, let this be our last loss of the season.

Hoping the Hoiberg era sees its first win against Southern Utah. 38 year old me, 30 years after my first year of ball boy in Cedar City, thinks it would be quite ironic and quite the small world if that happened.
 
 

TRIGGER WARNING: LOTS OF NEBRASKETBALL LOSSES IN THIS POST.
 
The masochist in me loves this sort of historical research. It's the same side of me that emerged last night after UC-Riverside went up by 15 and it was clear we weren't going to win. I started hoping every UC-R shot would go in just so we could point to this game as some sort of negative historical marker, something to measure our eventual success by. I know we're headed in the right direction, but I didn't expect the starting point to be so far back.
 
So in that spirit, here are Nebraska's worst regular-seasons since the end of World War II, compared with what Nebraska would have to accomplish this year in 32-33 games to equal the win percentage:
1962-63 (6-19, .240, which would be 8-25 this year) 1963-64 (7-18, .280, or 9-23 this year) 1951-52 (7-17, .292, or 9-23) 1959-60 (7-17, .282, or 9-23) 1955-56 (7-16, .304, or 10-23) 1972-73 (9-17, .346, or 11-21) 1945-46 (7-13, .350, or 11-21) 1989-90 (10-18, .357, or 12-21) 1961-62 (9-16, .360, or 12-21) 1999-2000 (11-19, .367, or 12-20) And the only seasons under .400 this century:
2002-03 (11-19, .367, or 12-20) 2016-17 (12-19, .387, or 13-21) Our lowest conference win totals:
Jerry Bush's 1963 team: 1-13 Doc's 2010 team: 2-14 Collier's 2003 team: 3-13 Nee's 1990 team: 3-11 Bush's 1956 team: 3-9 Harry Good's 1952 team: 3-7 Good's 1947 team: 3-7 Doc's 2012 team: 4-14 Nee's 2000 team: 4-12 Nee's 1996 team: 4-10 Nee's 1995 team: 4-10 Nee's 1989 team: 4-10 Nee's 1988 team: 4-10 Cip's 1973 team: 4-10 Bush's 1961 team: 4-10 Bush's 1960 team: 4-10 Good's 1953 team: 4-8 Good's 1951 team: 4-8 Again, this is pure masochism, but that side of me says, "If we're gonna be bad, let's be historically bad."
 
Luckily, as with football, my optimistic self prevails. I think we can beat Wisconsin in football, and I think we can reach 11 wins overall and 5-6 in the conference in basketball.
 
Go Big Red!

Funny little story...
So last night my wife receives of text from a coworker about the loss. He's a Creighton alum. I live in San Diego and still can't escape them, but I digress. Anyhoo, I tell her "meh it's an exhibition game and they probably were trying different lineups to get ready for the first game and it doesn't really matter blah blah blah." So, later when I get on the board I am thoroughly confused as I see unl's Vol12game1 post. Huh!?! Wait we lost a REAL game?!? Totally forgot about the secret scrimmage. In my defence I just started a doctorate program and have been detached from just about everything. My wife wasn't happy when I woke her up with a stunned, "Babe. We lost 🥺." 

Here is last night's audio for any masochists 
 
 

Last night was Iowa-State-is-going-to-erase-Hoiberg-from-their-records bad
 

 
https://cyclones.com/sports/2015/3/2/GEN_2014010145.aspx

TBH our entire conference can pound sand this year because it's not like it's going to matter for us.

We are in trouble people. If we can't run, we can't make baskets.
 
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Gonna start the season off with my favorite band. Some Led Zeppelin!!!!!!!!!!
 

Yep.

The NCAA offices awaiting requested paperwork:
 

Full Game (pretty much):
 
 

HUSKER HOOPS CENTRAL CHALLENGE IS BACK!
 
Believe it or not, we're 2 days away from November, which means college basketball is right around the corner. Now go out there, eat your candy corn, drink your pumpkin spiced lattes, and go pick out your favorite Fall sweater (not blue). We've got a new head coach. A brand new team. And some Year 1 Scott Frost-like energy going on around here.
 
For all you regulars and all you newcomers, the Husker Hoops Central Challenge is back at it again! Whether you've played every season or you've never played before; whether you made your picks since Game 1 or you're just not starting halfway through the season; whether you're here to prove you're smarter than Ken Pomeroy or you're just here to beat everyone else on the board, then this is the place for you. Seriously, the more people, the better. And if you're reading this in January, I've seen people join in late in the season and still make a deep run on the leaderboard, so don't let that deter you.
 
This is where legends and leaders are born. Bragging rights are on the line. Don't live a life 10 years from now thinking, "Boy, I wish I had played in that HHCC game back in 2019-2020." Let this challenge be your distraction from the chaos we're about to see this season.
 
The rules are the same as last year with more opportunities to earn some bonus points throughout the season.
 
Last year's Top 10 finishers were:
1    Nebrasketball1979
2    aphilso1
3    demone
4    75unlgrad
5    4NUfans
6    tcp
7    emwilliams
8    hskr4life
9    UnicamMan
10  Ralph Wiggum
 
*11    KenPom
MVP  HuskerFever
 
Now let's go out, have a blast, and enjoy this season for what it may be.
 
Game on.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
HHCC SCORING AND RULES
 
If you want to be part of the HHCC, all you need to do is guess the score of each game.  Participants with at least one entry will be included in the overall standings.  There will be a thread available following the completion of the previous game.  Scoring is based on how close you were to each team's actual point total and the margin of victory.
 
HHCC GAME SCORING:
The object of the game is to have the lowest accumulated points at the end of the year.
Scoring is taken from three variables (margin of victory, actual score, correct game winner); with possible bonus points.
Margin of Victory: This is how many points either team wins by. Scoring: Difference between Actual MoV (Husker score & Opponent score)  Predicted MoV (Predicted Husker score & Predicted Opponent score). This is then multiplied by 2. Bonus: There is a -5 bonus for correctly predicting margin of victory. To get the bonus two things must happen. 1. Your margin of victory must match the actual margin of victory. 2. You picked the correct winner.  EXAMPLE                                     Prediction: NU 79 Opponent 72
                                    Actual: NU 72 Opponent 62
                                    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    (Actual (72 62) = 10 - Predicted (79-72) = 7) = 3 * 2 = 6
                                    MoV = 6
                                    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actual Score: This is the final point totals of both teams. Scoring: (Predicted Husker score vs. Actual Husker score) + (Predicted Opponent score Actual Opponent score) Bonus: There is a -5 bonus for correctly predicting either the Huskers score or the opponents. EXAMPLE                                      Prediction: NU 79 Opponent 72
                                     Actual: NU 72 Opponent 62
                                     ------------------------------------------
                                     (79 72) + (62 72)
                                     7 + 10 = 17
                                     ------------------------------------------
Game Winner: Picking the correct winner. Scoring: Zero points for correct winner. 20 point penalty for incorrect choice. The final score for this game would be 23.
 
Correctly predicting the actual game score nets all -5 bonuses and a -25 bonus, for a best possible score of -40.
 
Missed Game:
Your score for missing a game is (the highest score of picked games + 25 points). 
 
End of year:
Your highest score will be subtracted from your final point total. No Games Missed equals a -25 bonus to your final score.    
HHCC RULES:
All new HHCC game threads will be posted following the previous game. The first game will be up after the last exhibition game. Post your prediction in the HHCC thread. All predictions must be in by the scheduled tipoff time (noted in the thread's title). Any corrections to your prediction should be done in the HHCC game thread.  If you are unable to edit your score, just quote your previous score and post the new score underneath. All score updates will be posted throughout the season.

A Freethrows is basically a mid-range jumper.  Since we don’t practice that and don’t want to shoot those, expect that percentage to continue.
 
/sarcasm

I was in the band when that happened.  @Dead Dog Alley is correct, the refs that day were technically not blind.
 
So, after the ref issued the warning to the band, every time there was a call against the Huskers, the entire crowd chanted "THREE BLIND MICE! THREE BLIND MICE!"

I’ll bet a Sek Henry headband we win more than 17...!

Can this be rock bottom?

Doc is my spirit animal.