aphilso1

I like it. Although I think I would've liked a Herbie wearing cutoff overall jorts more.

This really isn't a hot take. It's the same info that was reported in multiple news outlets last season -- Q was supposedly our backup point guard before his injury. I put the parenthetical clarification in to point out that it was based on intel rather than my own eyeballs.

Expected 8-man rotation is starting to shape up. If our current roster was our final roster, I see a pretty clear distinction between guys we are comfortable with being in the rotation vs guys we'd prefer to be situational. Rotation: Keisei Tominaga Juwan Gary Blaise Keita Rienk Mast Brice Williams Jamarques Lawrence Ramel Lloyd Quaran McPherson Lawrence and Lloyd give you combo guard minutes, while Keisei is a pure 2 and Q is (supposedly) a pure 1. Brice is your starting 3 but can give you minutes at the 4 if you want to put an extra guard on the floor. Gary is your starting 4. Mast I would assume is your starting 5, particularly with Blaise's health concerns likely limiting his usage rate. Situational: Eli Rice - TBD. CJ Wilcher - extra shooter who will get minutes when hot and sit when cold, similar to how his usage fluctuated at the end of the season Wilhelm Breidenbach - extra big for when Keita is hurt or we get into foul trouble What is interesting is who gets bumped out of the regular rotation with more signings. An extra big does seem needed with Blaise being the new Chris Balham. That essentially would make a 9 man rotation when Blaise is healthy and an 8 man when he's not. But a PG signing would likely push Q to a situational role. Two guards would bump Q and...who? Not Keisei, obviously. Lloyd has been hyped up to the point that it would be surprising if he isn't in the rotation. Lawrence sure seemed more and more solid as the year progressed. That makes an interesting problem, with a lot of good-but-not-great guards vying for the same minutes.

I'm very excited by this pickup. This was the extra scorer I wanted. Not ball-dominant, an efficient shooter, willing to play a role, and has some length if we want to give him some minutes at the 4 to stretch the floor.

True, but those were known losses entering the season. I was purely looking at it as winning the Transfer Portal -- get more out of it than you lose into it. And if we do land all three of those transfers, and don't lose any additional players with remaining eligibility, then Hoiberg will have absolutely CRUSHED the portal this year.

This would be a home run haul especially considering the lack of serious attrition thus far. Replacing Dawson and Oleg with Brice, Hunter and Hugley would be a tremendous upgrade. If we can keep Keisei too then I think we could be contending for the Dance next season, which is hard to believe.

I'd say his numbers are just OK. 1.2 assist to turnover ratio. 38% from 3 and 42% from the floor. And while 16.7 PPG looks nice at face value, that number is inflated by being a volume shooter against the #225 ranked SOS. If we were looking for someone to step in and take a lot of shots then he would be a pretty solid candidate. He does shoot from all across the floor, averaging roughly an equal number of attempts from inside and outside the arc to get to his 14 shots per game. But I don't think that's the player we are looking for, unless Keisei leaves.

What a bizarre final three. Wrightsell feels like a kid that Minnesota needs, would be a luxury for us (unless Keisei leaves and then he becomes a priority), and no clue what role he'd play in Tuscaloosa. Gotta say I am shocked that Bama did more than just kick the tires on him.

I am going to assume he is our new starting 3/SF until proven otherwise. Welcome Brice!

I'd take him in a heartbeat.

Did the Starbucks go under? They used to have one inside a grocery store. EDIT: Just looked it up. It's still there. https://www.starbucks.com/store-locator/store/1006274/safeway-sidney-2555-1944-illinois-st-sidney-ne-69162-us

This. Only thing I can add is that he was expected to be a key contributor for UVA next year based on how well he was playing on the scout team while redshirting.

I trust Fred on this. I think he learned his lesson about accumulating sketchy talent. If Fred thinks Kriisa is worth the risk, then I'm good with it.

That's not the point. The relatively small number of people that care enough about basketball to attend a state tourney are not your average Nebraskans. If you want to know what kind of impact Sam had statewide, then ask a barber in Valentine what he thinks of Sam. Ask your cashier at a Milligan grocery store. Ask a waitress at the North Platte Applebee's. Or a barista at the Sidney Starbucks. Do you think those people would say they were impacted by either Sam or Creighton? I don't. And that's my point, that neither of the options have had a statewide impact on Nebraska.

Neither had a statewide impact. Your average person in Nebraska doesn't know who Sam Griesel is. And your average person west of Elkhorn doesn't care about Creighton in any capacity.

Girlfriend attends creighton and he waited to enter the portal until the first day of creighton's offseason. Previous comments about wanting to be closer to "loved ones" rather than "home." I don't think it's a stretch to say that they are in the driver's seat for his services

I remain cautiously optimistic about this team's chances of making a run in the playoffs. We may be the biggest beneficiaries of the expanded playoff format, as I expect our team to steadily improve as the season progresses and we finally start seeing healthy first-teamers on the pitch. Offensively, I think our biggest problem is that we only have three ways of creating chances: 1. Cross from wide left (Salloi, Thommy, or Sweat) 2. Shot from distance and pray the keeper spills it in front of one of our attacking players 3. Cross from Zusi That's really it. As much as Thommy looks good taking a defender 1v1 off the dribble, he hasn't been able to break down a secondary or tertiary defender like Russell can. He also hasn't been able to find a runner in the space that has been vacated by the helping defender. Salloi is still himself. He can do some marvelous things when surrounded by more talented players, but clearly is not "the man" nor do I expect him to be. Great complementary piece, terrible centerpiece. Agada requires good service, but also doesn't have the height and jumping ability to put a head on those crosses being snapped in from out wide. He's more of a poacher, and needs spilled shots and Russell-esque touch passes in the box to be effective. We know who Shelton is. We know who Roger is. Walter is having to play too deep to be expected to contribute to the offense. And that's it, all of our current forwards and mids. The way we are playing requires a striker like Pulido on the pitch. Agada needs players like Johnny around him. Kinda could unlock that attacking run from the middle of the pitch, like we used to get from Feilhaber. But we are seeing just how limited our offense is with Pulido, Russell, and Kinda out. and it is very very ugly. Throw in Ben Sweat-gifted goals for the other team (4 on the year, by my count) and it's no surprise that we are bottom of the table.

It's 100% confirmed that he is in Orlando. The Magic gave him a custom #9 jersey before their game last night.

It’s gotta be either Jose Ramos’ jockstrap or Danny Nee’s wedding ring. Honorable mention to Roburt Sallie’s summer school registration paperwork.

"Have some success" can be interpreted a variety of ways. I am choosing to interpret this question specifically as "how do you win your first round game, and potentially make it to the second weekend?" Answer as follows. Formula for mid-majors is pretty straightforward. Shooters = upsets. Shooters also = blowout losses when the shots aren't going in, but that's the whole nature of "live by the three, die by the three." And no one really cares if you lose by 5 or by 25, so you might as well go high risk/high reward. A couple of undersized Juwan Gary-esque rebounders helps, too. Formula for the non-top tier P6 schools is: positive turnover margin + made free throws = avoid upsets to mid-majors. If you're more talented than your opponent, then generally speaking you just need to win the turnover battle and not lose the game at the charity stripe. As mentioned above, shooters = upsets, so having more possessions than a good shooting opponent is key to avoiding that opening round loss. Formula for an elite team? Who knows. I certainly didn't see Purdue or Zona getting bounced opening round. Clearly there is some key to avoiding that opening round letdown that befuddles both me and Matt Painter.

I gave you an upvote for linking to a scene from the second greatest movie of all-time (Braveheart is #1, duh).

This was the portal entry I was most expecting. He got enough minutes during the season to potentially drum up interest from other suitors, but fell out of the rotation and thus likely has very little expectation of being a key player for us next year. I wish him the best and hope he finds a great fit.

Gotta say I am surprised that CJ is considering leaving. IIRC, he and Wilhelm were the two most vocal last off-season about wanting to stick around. And while his playing time and usage rate did dip, he found himself back in the starting lineup at the end of the season. Honestly we seem to be a pretty good fit for his skillset, and I am struggling to think of another P5 system that would be better for him. I just don't know what greener pastures he could be looking for. Maybe a smaller school where he can be the offensive focal point?

I don't see anything in his defensive arsenal that can be built around other than his motor. He does give you 100%. But he defends with his arms and hands rather than his feet, he doesn't know how to jump straight up, his first step is slow (and gets faked into going the wrong direction too often), and he has no recovery speed. He also needs to add bulk, but doing so would likely be even more detrimental to the rest of his list of defensive shortcomings. Honestly, I think he just doesn't fit into a man defensive scheme because I don't see very many P5 D1 players that he can hang with. If we primarily played zone, I would feel differently. I do think he has a nose for loose balls and zone rebounding, and playing zone turns his active hands into more of a strength rather than a foul opportunity. Throw him in Boeheim's system and you've got something. But you don't revamp your defensive philosophy based around one borderline rotation player, so that is a moot point.

Didn't say we should run him out of town. Agreed that he seems like a culture guy, which at a minimum is a major boon during practice. But I also hope we find enough capable 4/5 players to where he can be our emergency option, basically like Oleg was this year. I don't think you can count on him being a starter despite DW graduating and BK's constant health issues.