husker8282

This post will set a record for up votes I predict...

This staff is special. Now that this story is out, I can share mine. It amazes me how hard coaches work. And then to balance the usual grind when life gets in the way, it's truly amazing and shows the strength, dedication, and perseverance these guys have. I work in cardiac services at the facility where Coach Miles' father had his bypass surgery done. The day of the Illinois game Coach was in the house and it must've been a rough day following his fathers surgery that the article eluded to. He probably spent a majority of his night and day at the hospital with his dad, then had to get to Devaney, review film, go over game plan, meet with coaches, attend walk through and shoot around, do the pre game show, coach the game that night, do post game, etc. Coach sorta had a lot going on. So rewind a few hours and you can imagine my surprise when I found myself behind Coach Miles in the hospital cafeterias lunch line. I had no knowledge at the time as to why he was there. Visiting kids, visiting a family member, just wanted to eat hospital food...I had no idea. I decided it would be an inappropriate place to address him, again, I didn't know why he was there. He purchased 2 scotch-a-roos, turned and introduced himself to me, then asked where the plates were. I said something like, 'good luck tonight Coach.' He said thanks, then told me that his dad just had bypass surgery, and I said something like, 'good luck to your father, too, Coach.' I can't imagine dealing with family situations like Miles and Harriman have going on, yet carrying on going a thousand miles an hour like normal. We have tough minded coaches with great personality. These guys will get us that tourney win. I'm confident.

The +/- might be overrated in terms of evaluating a player, but it has to mean something that we are doing poorly when he is in the game relative to the other bench players who have about as many minutes. I guess we'll see how it changes going forward as our competition increases and we add Shavon Shields to the mix.

Purdue would have to get a few wins against the top 4 of the league (Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio St) and for sure go 11-7, odds at about 10% for all of that to happen, plus the committee punishes you big time for weak non-conference schedules, so they have that going against them as well when they're going up against other bubble teams

KENPOM: Nebraska 204, Jacksonville State 214. I'm sorry these two teams are not that far apart when it comes to talent. In fact, Jacksonville State was clearly the more athletic team if you ask me. That being said, the one thing I agree with that's the most disappointing was the mindset once we were up 15, we seemed to stop playing and that was very bad.

I'm a stat nerd and I love the ole (+/-) stat, here they are for our team through 3 games
Brandon Ubel +33
Dylan Talley +30
Ray Gallegos +27
Andre Almeida +25
Benny Parker +20
Mike Peltz +9
Trevor Menke +3
Jordan Tyrance +1
Sergei Vucetic -2
David Rivers -14
Of course the obvious, we will struggle when our starters aren't on the floor, no depth. Mike Peltz hasn't killed us when filling in for Benny Parker. But the thing that stands out is David Rivers at -14. It doesn't seem like he has done anything in particular to hurt us. He was -16 in the Valparaiso game, I wasn't able to attend or watch the game because I was in New Orleans so maybe someone can explain why we struggled when he was in the game. The only thing that maybe makes sense is we have to go smaller when he's been in, so as a team we've really struggled when Brandon or Andre or both are on the bench and he's just the innocent bystander. This is a small sample size, but I'll keep a close eye on these during the season, see if anything stands out