aphilso1

@hhcmatt 1. Incredible find from 2019. Total boss move. 2. You're cold! Remind me never to get on your bad side. @Handy Johnson no hot take goes unpunished lol

I’d consider those to be different disciplines.

Zendejas is doing USMNT proud in the Liga MX playoffs. Dude just put on a show while scoring to put Club America up 1-0 in the semis.

It's summer grilling season and basketball talk is dwindling. Give your top 5. 1. Chicken breast. So versatile. Dice it up and put on a salad, or have it on its own next to some vegetables, or put it between two buns for a chicken sammie. Cavender's Greek Seasoning is my go-to here. 2. Burgers. A classic that remains in the regular rotation. 3. Phillies. Thinly shaved ribeye + Lawry's + diced onions & peppers + provolone = perfection. Gotta do this one over either a copper grilling mat or a griddle cover. 4. Salmon. Old Bay over a copper grilling mat and finished in butter. Crisps up the bottom to perfection while leaving the rest tender. 5. Hy-Vee brats. This is one of the foods I miss the most after moving out of state (although not nearly as much as I miss Runzas during Temperature Tuesdays). The pineapple brat is the ultimate IYKYK, but really their whole selection is solid. Yes, I recognize I didn't list any steaks. I'd put a nice bacon-wrapped filet at #6 if I could, but a top 5 is a top 5.

The change in playoffs format for 2023 may benefit us. Only needing to crack the top 9 teams to get in means that we are only 4 points out of playoff position despite a historically awful start. Plenty of time to make up that ground and start posturing for seeding. The key playoff seeds to get to are: 9th. Duh. If you're 10th you don't make the post-season, but if you're 8th or 9th you get to play in the single-elimination wild card round. 7th. This means you avoid the wild card game, and start off with a best-of-three playoff series. 6th. There are two teams that I would much rather only have to beat once in a single-elimination match rather than have to beat in a best-of-three series. Avoiding LAFC and Seattle in the opening round is key. That likely means getting the #6 seed will be significantly better than the #7 seed. 4th. Home field advantage for the best-of-three round. One other thing to note is that the match rules change by round. Wild Card matches will not go to extra time, but will instead advance directly to a PK shootout if tied after regulation. Same thing for the next round, with the main difference being it's best of three rather than single elimination. The conference semis are more like what we are used to seeing, with a single game that advances to the traditional 30 minutes of extra time if tied at the end of regulation. Conference finals and MLS Cup Final follow the same format as semis. I think SKC could be the beneficiary of the emphasis on PKs to decide the winner of early round matches. Melia is the GOAT of penalty saves in this league.

Ligue 1 is incredibly top heavy, and the bottom half of the league is not any better than your average MLS side. Their scrubs really are bad by top flight league standards. And that's not really a hot take when you look at salaries for the two leagues. There's a bunch of dudes starting for Ligue 1 sides making $300k and less, just like in MLS. I would contend that the average team from England's Championship is significantly better than the average Ligue 1 (or MLS) side. Honestly I would put the Championship as the fifth best league in the world, and would probably put the Eredivisie above Ligue 1 too. But I also look more at a league top to bottom when considering strength, while I realize most people look mostly at the strength of the top teams while mainly considering results in Champions League and Europa. And from that point of view Ligue 1 is fifth rather than in that 7-10 range like I contend they should be. One other quibble -- Scottish Premiership better than MLS? Really? We could send our best MLS teams to get smashed 7-1 in Champions League action just like Rangers does. The difference is that the gap from top to bottom in MLS isn't nearly as large as the gap in Scottish Premiership. Scotland has only two teams with a pulse many seasons. I do agree we need promotion and relegation though.

I had to pause for a second when you called the French Ligue 1 "a top 5 league." There's an obvious top 4 that is heads and shoulders above everyone else in the world. I guess France could make the argument that their domestic league is #5, given the recent-ish success of PSG. But it feels weird to call a league with one superpower and a bunch of scrubs as a top 5 league. That's like calling the WCC a Top 5 college basketball league simply because Gonzaga happens to be a member.

I am ashamed to not have mentioned Ade myself. He really was the key to making Doc's Mighty Mites team work in '09. Special player.

Sam is not the same quality of defender as someone like Bandoumel or Gary. He's a gambler and thankfully those gambles paid off in key moments, which is what makes them memorable. But overall his defensive style looks more like Alonzo Verge than it does Bando. He's not a lockdown defender, and he tries to make up for that by timing doubles and cutting off passing lanes.

I would recognize Bol but couldn't pick Raiola out of a lineup. Many reasons for this. I care far more about Husker basketball than Husker football, individual recruits are more impactful in basketball since they are 1 out 13 schollies rather than only 1 out of 85, a basketball player's face is visible in his highlight tape while a football player is wearing a helmet, etc.

HUGE!

Tough to list just one, as there are three that hold significance for me. Lue. My first Nebrasketball experience was attending a 1997 NIT game with my dad. I still remember Washington had an enormous front court, and I was amazed at the wizardry that little #10 could do in the lane when surrounded by human giants. Maric. There's always a special place in the memory bank for whichever player was The Man during your time at DONU. For me, Aleks was that guy. I also still remember being in a class with him, and he looked like an adult trying to fit into a toddler chair. Shields. He just did things the right way, from the moment he stepped on the court as a freshman until his last game as a senior.

9.1 PPG, 37% from three, 84% from the line, 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, and at one point was ready to call Lincoln home. That checks all my boxes for a point guard in our offense.

I have watched Brice Williams, but clearly you haven't. First you compare Williams to Griesel despite their playing styles being very different. Now you are comparing Brice to the JPJ/Petteway mold of dudes who can will their way to a crunch time bucket? C'mon. Williams barely dribbles the basketball. He plays in the Klay Thompson mold. If you're looking for a comparison with a current Husker it would as a taller and more accurate Wilcher.

In all seriousness, Lloyd may very well be the player who sets our team's ceiling this year. Everyone needs a guy who can go get a bucket in crunch time. I hope Ramel's that guy. If he's not, then I don't think we have that guy on our roster.