HuskerCager

All those coaches in to watch Mike Edwards today.... his HS team is still playing? How late in the month are state tournaments in Michigan anyway? Or were all those coaches watching Edwards study?

Cager, here's what I said on March 10. Show me where Vooch had film remotely this good. Norm, yes, I realize you were high on this guy before others start offering, and I probably shouldn't have made my reply off of your post. I didn't mean to single you out. I've seen the film, which means very little because I'm a lousy judge of talent based off of a 2 minute clip. I do think my rule of thumb regarding players who suddenly become highly recruited the spring of their senior year applies 80% of the time, though.

When it is springtime and programs are desperate to make a stop-gap roster fill, there's no such thing as an under-the-radar guy. This is the time of year when an uncommitted player's reputation is more inflated than a late '90's dot.com stock. I'd like to see Edwards sign, but not sure that teams like Mizzou, GA, etc, are validation that this is a can't-miss prospect. Weren't we fighting the Illini for Vooch this time of year a couple of years ago?

It possible. Or it could also be possible Jack Mcveigh doesn't end up here either since he is only a verbal. Pure conjecture on my part.

We haven't heard anything about this player for a while. He ended up with 13 ppg and 8 rpg and 2nd team all-conference honors. Game-by-game stats below. http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2014-15/div1/players/brandonwaltersnwo7?view=gamelog

Ah, yes. If I remember correctly, Hoppen sunk 2 free throws right after Benjamin got a technical to ice the win. I guess if nothing else, we are 2-0 against Creighton in NIT games played in Omaha, right?

Whenever I start analyzing individual players, I always run the risk of making ignorant observations. But it just seems to me that the key to next year's success is: 1) Pitchford needs to become a 6-10 David Rivers. He's physically capable. The coaching staff and Pitch need to dedicate him becoming a consistent inside presence. No hanging around the 3 point line. We need him inside because we WON'T have anyone else that is ready to assume that role next year. Or at least the young ones - Morrow and Jacobson, are going to need a lot of help. 2) Petteway returning. It's been said a lot recently that we missed having a 3rd scoring option this year. Yes, we pick up White. But that gain washes back out if we lose Petteway.

Very hard for me to imagine a 5th year transfer scenario, given the relationship Miles has cultivated with the Petteway family. But the people bringing up the age issue has got me thinking the draft scenario is more likely than I thought earlier.

OK, I know some of you are going to groan when you see this title. This isn't a bitch and moan session. Just a forum for long-time Husker fans to reflect on. Where does this team compare to other Husker BB teams that have not lived up to expectations? What are your thoughts? Here are mine: Year (Total W-L, Conf W-L, tourney) 1) 1978-79 (14-13, 7-7, n/a) This is a twin of this year's team. Cip's 2nd to last squad was coming off a surprising 22-8, 2nd place Big 8 finish, and returned senior starters Brian Banks, Carl McPipe, Bobby Moore & Curt Hedburg. Not to mention future Big 8 POTY Andre Smith, Mike Naderer and a freshman named Jack Moore. Rated as preseason favorites along with KU. A preseason top 20 team according to S.I. In spite of the fact that usual rivals, KU, KSU and Mizzou all had sub-par seasons, the Huskers couldn't manage anything better than a .500 record in conference. OU ended up winning their first conference title since 1950. This team should have ended a 28-year regular season title drought, and is one of the reasons I still have yet to witness a regular season conference champion as a 45 year fan. 2) 2014-15 (13-18, 5-11, n/a) We might have a different perspective of this year's performance a year from now. Did this team under-perform, or did last year's team over-perform? I hope it is the former. As disappointing season as it was, it doesn't rate as high (low) as 78-79 because we are in the same conference with 2 top ten teams. 3) 1995-96 (21-14. 5-9, NIT champs) A team that could have been so much more. 3 future NBA players in Moore, Lue and Strickland, plus future Big XII POTY Venson Hamilton. They had 2 of everything. Avoids getting the dreaded #1 spot by finishing strong - winning 2 road games plus 2 NYC games in the NIT. 4) 1983-84 (18-12, 7-7, NIT 2nd round) A pre-season Big 8 title pick, based on a 22-10 performance the year before with a team that returned Hoppen, Ponce and Cloudy. Had a dandy freshman PG in Brian Carr. This wasn't a team that under-performed in my view, They just didn't adequately replace Claude Renfro's defense and rebounding from a year earlier. 5) 1989-90 (10-18, 3-11, n/a) Danny Nee's 4th team. Returned a lot of talent from a 17-16 NIT team the year before. A lot of household names on this team - Reid, Scales, King, Owens, Hayes, Pete Manning, etc. Had maybe an all-star lineup on the bench that was ineligible due to redshirts and transfers (Piatkowski, Chubick and Farmer). Nevertheless, they had enough depth and talent to make a step up in the league. Have to give the team a mulligan for playing in a league that featured OU, KU and MU, who took turns all season sharing the #1 national rating. OK, who am I missing, and is this in the right order?

Wins over Michigan St and Illinois. Oh yeah, and the ugly win against Cincinnati.

Penn St 54 Nebraska 46

Indeed. And I just did.

Sounds like fun. Hopefully the players will use good judgement and not enter a bull run. Hard to play quality basketball when you've been gored in the rear.

Norm, I hope you will forgive me for being historically anal, I realize this wasn't the main point of your post. But it's ironic you brought up Rich King's 40 point performance. It was actually against Northern Illinois - not Eastern Illinois. And in fact, it was a very good Northern Illinois team. Oh, and by the way, look who was coaching Northern Illinois per below. ********************************************************* NU's King in Rhythm To Tune of 40 - Point Day Omaha World-Herald (NE) - February 19, 1991 Author: Lee Barfknecht, WORLD - HERALD BUREAU If you're fretting about Nebraska center Rich King being out of gas for Big Eight play after Monday's 40 - point performance against non - conference foe Northern Illinois, relax."Some people worry about fatigue," the 7 - foot - 2 senior said after tying the school scoring record and rallying the Huskers to an 82 - 73 victory before 13,698 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports Center."But when I play games, I get in a rhythm. I think more time off hurts you than a lot of games in a row. Because when games come bang - bang - bang, you get in a rhythm of playing, having one practice and playing again. I think it will be good for us." King had his rhythm Monday night, drilling 12 of 16 field - goal attempts and 16 of 19 free throws to top his previous scoring high of 31 points last season against Harvard. "The game plan wasn't to get Rich King 40 points," NU Coach Danny Nee said. "That's just how it unfolded. "I never felt the rest of the players ever got into a fluid game. And that was because of the good defense of Northern Illinois." NIU was ranked second nationally in fewest points allowed at 55.4 a game, and had let no team top 69 points this season. But the Huskies, who gave up six inches at center and an average of four inches a man, couldn't stop King. "We needed that kind of performance," Nee said. "Otherwise, Nebraska gets beat." King's 15 points in the final eight minutes of the first half kept 22 - 4 Nebraska within seven points of 20 - 4 Northern Illinois at halftime. King's three - point plays with 15:55, 14:37 and 11:34 left in the game prevented NIU from building any second - half leads bigger than eight points. King's two free throws with 5:41 left tied the game at 70, just the third time 13th - and 14th - ranked NU had evened score. King's 15 - foot jumper with 4:27 left gave Nebraska its first lead of the game at 72 - 70. King then added three more points in the final three minutes to match Jerry Fort's 1975 school record of 40 points against Missouri, shatter the Devaney Center record of 39 points held by Omahan Ron Kellogg of Kansas and Raymond Dudley of Air Force and finish any NIU upset hopes. "King is going to be a pro," Northern Illinois Coach Jim Molinari said. "If he played against us every night, he'd be a lottery pick."After going 1 for 2 from the field the first 12 minutes, King scored 38 points in his final 26 minutes of playing time. He also had seven rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots. "It had to be done," said the former Omaha Burke all - stater. "There was a job that needed to be done. "This was not a game we could afford to lose because we want to go to the NCAA tournament and keep winning." The win helped Nebraska tie its school record of 22 victories in a season. The only other Husker teams in 95 years of basketball to reach 22 wins were in 1919 - 20 (22 - 2), 1977 - 78 (22 - 8) and 1982 - 83 (22 - 10). But the magnitude of that was overshadowed in the locker room by the relief of avoiding an upset. "When a team like Northern Illinois gets you down," Nee said, "it's easy to quit. We could have easily been upset. "People who see the score and didn't see the game will think Nebraska won handily. But it wasn't that way. We had to fight and scrap for everything we got." Unranked Northern Illinois had the best fighters and scrappers much of the night. "We came in here wanting to prove we belong," Molinari said. "We wanted to win so bad to prove we should be in the NCAA tournament." The Huskies, leaders of the Mid - Continent Conference over Wisconsin - Green Bay, broke to leads of 4 - 0, 18 - 11 and 23 - 13. Donald Whiteside, a 5 - 10 guard, produced that 10 - point margin with 9:50 left in the first half on one of his five three - pointers. King, after scoring NU's first basket, didn't score again until there were eight minutes left in the first half. That was on an assist from guard Jose Ramos on Ramos' first appearance in the game. "Anyone could see that they couldn't stop Rich," said Ramos, who finished with four points, four assists and three steals in 16 minutes. "Every time he got the ball, it was a basket or a foul. "He was definitely my go - to man." From Ramos' first assist, King scored 15 of Nebraska's next 19 points to keep the Huskers within seven points, 43 - 36, at halftime. That was just the fifth time NU had been behind at half this season. "In the beginning," King said, "we were just playing and not following the game plan. "Then we were down seven at half, and the way they were shooting, we were going to be down 15 or 18 if we didn't start doing the job." Nebraska scored on 10 straight possessions midway through the second half, but still couldn't take the lead. Ramos' steal and layup closed the gap to 62 - 59. Ramos stole the ball again and fed forward Dapreis Owens for a layup and a foul to tie the game at 62 with 10 minutes to play. Northern Illinois bounced back behind 6 - 4 forward Donnell Thomas, who had 14 points and 14 rebounds, to lead 70 - 64. But King hit six straight free throws to tie the game. Then he stole a pass, and after forward Carl Hayes' miss, hit a 15 - foot jumper with 4:27 left to give Nebraska its first lead. Two possessions later, Whiteside, who had 16 points, hit his fifth three - pointer to bring Northern Illinois back to 74 - 73. But King answered with a layup and a free throw on NU's next two possessions for a 77 - 73 lead with 2:07 to play. "I know it had to be hard for our scorers to come down and turn down offensive chances," said King, who worked against NIU's 6 - 8 Randy Fens and 6 - 7 Andrew Wells. "But they did it. They got the ball to me. "That's a credit to our unity and unselfishness." NU guard Beau Reid said it also became a necessity with himself, forward Tony Farmer and guard Clifford Scales struggling. "When you've got three starters like me, Tony and Clifford shooting a combined 3 of 14," Reid said, "we would have been in big trouble if Rich hadn't had the game he did." HUSKER NOTES: Nebraska's basketball program will be featured in a 3 1/2 - minute segment tonight on ESPN during the halftime of the Oklahoma State - Kansas State game, scheduled to tip off at 6:30 CST.

I would be pretty shocked if one or more underclassmen did NOT leave the program at year end. It happens almost every year.

Hmmm.... didn't know Molinari was head coach. Do they know something we don't know???

So... without directly saying it, you think he's leaving this year, Kamdy?

Maryland 61 Nebraska 57

Right now, he's by far the best thing we've got going inside. We didn't get a lot of production inside this year with Smith-Rivers-Abraham-Pitchford. Like others, I'm looking forward to the players we have coming next year. But our inside game is going to go from sub-par to scary bad.

While I don't think it's unreasonable to question why Fuller doesn't get more playing time, your argument sunk into conspiracy-theory mode with that last paragraph. Just downright silly.

Illinois 71 Nebraska 52

Playing Ohio St tonight brought up bad memories. Last year, it seemed like we managed to turn the light switch on the program after being dead for 16 years after the Penn St game. Then - inexplicably - the light switch went off last March against OSU at the 15 minute mark of the 2nd half. It's been off ever since.

Holy cow. Petteway completely ignores a wide open Webster, then passes to Rivers to hit an unlikely 3.

nm

Dakich - "He just discards Rivers". Yeah. It's called a "foul"?