PimpMario

Shields 15/15 ties a record! I am just happy right now, this is the sort of game we traditionally lose and we didn't! Yipee! Which one of our players is leaving early to the NBA; I couldn't tell tonight, Petteway or Shields? We just need to be loose on Sunday and go into MSU and have fun. No pressure, just see if we can steal one. The Penn State, Purdue and NW games are huge. 3 more wins and we are in the NIT!

Crowd has been dead to end the half. We gotta do better next half.

We have to overcome our first half ineptitude. 4 points in 4 and a half minutes sucks.

Illinois wants it more. Crowd is dead

So what seed in the NIT do we get if we get to 16 wins this season?

Petteway, Pitchford and Smith are my current 3.

I think the problem with this game is our fan base doesn't see it as a big game, they see it as a game we should win.

We need this game. Lets not get cocky because of our opponent. The team is going to need us so lets give them a reason to play hard.

Isn't Lundari one of the worst bracketologist around? Having said that I look at his bracket a lot because it is the easiest way to click through to ESPN's RPI.

No timeouts and no really any incentive to foul so I am assuming we can't do a lot of offense/defense. The opponent is average on defense and they run average sets therefore they don't pressure unless they are in desperation.

We need to figure out how to inject some intensity into this game from the beginning--because as we all know, but are not all willing to admit is a problem--we struggle in the first half offensively.

Sadly I fear it will be a quiet crowd to start the game. I am worried that people think that we will win this game and won't understand that just because Illinois is in 12th place that doesn't mean they can't beat us. 55% chance we win the game with us favored by 1 or 2 points.

:lol: OK. I am a longtime diehard Nebrasketball fan, what do you expect of me. I have seen our team climb into bubble consideration time and time again and piddle it away, usually against inferior competition. If we lose at home, to Illinois, our bubble is probably popped.

This year it does seem like any lineup we put together is patchwork at best. We don't seem to have 3 "big ten starters" much less 5. I think we are 3 players away, BUT some of those players may be on the team already. This team could really use: Established Big Man Point guard that has some ability to lead the offesnes, get assists and is a threat to score. Shooter, we need another one (In addition to Ray). Weather that is Hawkins, Fuller or some kid shooting 3s in a Sydney Iowa gym right now. We need to be able to punish teams for packing the paint and someone who Shields, Petteway and our PG can pass it to when they drive.

IF, and I do mean IF we beat Illinois on Wednesday we will be tied for 6th place for at least a day because none of those other teams play until Thursday.

I nominate this for annual "lets get our hopes up" thread of the year. I can't help it either. I am probably one of, if not the most reserved poster in terms of keeping a level head but even I am starting to think that maybe this year can be special.

Here is the situation. No one on our team has more than 3 fouls. There is just under 3 minutes left. Both the Huskers and the opponent is out of timeouts so subbing is going to be tough. The team we are playing is average on defense and offense. Who do you send out on the floor and why? For me its: Petteway Gallegos Shields Pitchford Smith Rationale: I don't have a "true" point guard because Gallegos and Petteway can bring up the ball, and lets be honest, they both pack more of an offensive punch than Parker or Webster this season. And if they need to dump the ball Shields can help break some pressure. I have Smith in the game to rebound, play defense, give us our only legitimate post offense and more importantly shift Shields to the 3 position where he can better drive to the bucket.

Hopefully next year we bring in a great Point guard and big man and Shields can come off the bench. Or hopefully, in the offseason Shields improves a whole bunch. We all wanted him to be the savior of the program and that was probably unfair to the kid. It is hard for me to imagine him not being a starter next year. And as we have discussed if he could move to the 3 than I think he would do better. Good PG Petteway Shields Pitchford New Big Man

I originally thought benching him might help a little but with the loss of Biggs I am not so sure. Shields just may never end up being a an all B1G player. We might have to accept that he is just a really good role player.

Maybe I am just being nitpicky but we cannot keep having terrible first halves or it will catch up to us and cost us. Where would we have been in the second half id Petteway AND Pitchford didn't get hot? I love that we are such a good basketball team that we can already view Illinois as a trap game. I still remember when teams use to think of us as trap games.

LOL. Its like we have Stockholm syndrome.

Winning the Northwestern game didn't make our season, it kept our season alive. We can't take Illinois lightly. And unlike some in this thread, I don't think scoring under 20 in the first half is a good idea. Maybe the crowd can give the boys some energy to get them going in the first half. Something has to change.

I will say this first, Nebraska has often played spoiler when other teams have started to make runs (see Iowa last year). We are usually the 11th or 10th place team that no on takes seriously. In other words, we can't take Illinois lightly. This game is our season. We have somehow scratched and clawed and held on for a very long time. This team just won't go quietly in the night and they keep finding a way to win ugly. Win this game and then we move on to the next. Lose and our whole world collapses. I think we are the better team but that doesn't mean we will win. Winning the Northwestern game didn't make our season, it just kept it on life support. It is easy to play the what if game and say what if we win a bunch a games. But now we got a road win, it is put up or shutup time.

Benny had a great game and helped us beat Northwestern. He also had a huge game against (Indiana?). He is developing into a solid role player. Role players don't always have big minutes but they can help. If a role player gets hot he can really help us win. But if role players are cold than we weren't really counting on them in the first place.

Huskers had 21 at Mythagain (not 19) in the 1st half (albeit UM had 49)... D'oh! I need to change my title to 18.67. (Kinda missing the point).