aphilso1

Love Tai. He's one of my top 3 favorite Huskers, along with Maric and Shields (which tells you I'm not old enough to remember the Ty Lue days).

Swanigan was a beast that absolutely dominated teams inside. The vast majority of his points came in the paint and at the free throw line (which was a direct result of bruising inside rather than jacking up shots from the perimeter). The fact that he also made a single three pointer per game doesn't negate the fact that he is a dominant traditional PF. Those are not good 3pt percentages for Wisconsin. Also, tell me with a straight face that Nigel Hayes scares you more shooting from the outside than he does when catching the ball in the low post. You can't. Minnesota looks pretty traditional to me, but I'll admit I only watched them when they were playing Nebraska. I agree with you on Justin Jackson and Maryland. That's one team that legitimately uses their 4 as a perimeter-oriented player. And Michigan uses all five players more on the perimeter, especially since Wagner logs more minutes at the 5 than the 4. So there's two teams. You stopped listing teams at an awfully convenient time though, since the other three B1G teams with winning conference records (Northwestern, Iowa, and MSU) all roll out a starting lineup with two post players. So out of the 8 teams with a winning record, 6 of them play a traditional PF. That's 75%. And one of the only two teams that truly relied on a stretch 4 was in the ACC when most of its roster was recruited. So yeah, I'd "seriously" say that the B1G remains a bruising league.

Yeah, because the B1G is known for it's stretch 4's way more than it's tradional PF's. No reputation at all as a bruiser league. Oh wait...

Realistic fans? Bury your head much further in the sand and you'll find China.

Their leg to stand was gone this year, they just didn't know it. Instead of passing the program off to a new coach at a time when he'd still had some talent to work with, we waited for Miles to chase everybody off. It's ludicrous. And it's not even like this is a "well, hindsight's 20/20" scenario. I said this was likely to happen back before the conference tourney even started, and I know I wasn't the only one.

I said it before but it bares repeating: Morrow and Jacobson were front-runners to be next year's team captain(s). Their transfers are a huge indictment of Miles, and two more in a growing list of key contributors who have left early. Time to give Coach Lewis the keys to the program on an interim basis and stop the hemorrhaging.

Assuming there is a fire behind all this smoke (big assumption, I know), I think if you're SE you have to be exceptionally careful to not settle on a Plan B or Plan C type of replacement. If you can't land a bona fide improvement as a head coach, then slap the "interim" tag on Lewis and let it ride for a year. If things pan out next season, then congrats because you look like a genius hiring The Next Big Thing and can make Lewis the permanent HC. If they don't pan out, then you've got a whole season to send out feelers and try to land a great coach. But unfortunately Eichorst has screwed the pooch every step along the way so he'll probably do the polar opposite.

Given the number of open schollies, I highly doubt Copeland's offer was contingent on anyone else.

Poop jokes aren't my favorite kind of humor, but they're a solid #2.

Completely agree. The "Ed wants to be a wing" talk has felt like an exaggeration all along. I would guess that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Could easily see a conversation between Miles and Morrow where Ed says he wants to sit a year to heal up and add some perimeter tools to his game, and Miles says I need you to bang in the post next year. From the coaches' perspective, the issue is Ed not committing to being the big man we need. From Ed's perspective, he knows he needs to add to (not the same as replace) his skill set. Plus, sitting out a transfer year really isn't a penalty if you could use that year to try and heal up

So who will be team captains next year? Because if you'd asked me a month ago, I would have said MJ and Morrow as co-captains. Do we even have any leaders left on this team?

I like that thought. Glynn plays his best with another ballhandler on the court with him. When Tai went out for a breather I rarely noticed Glynn "take over," either as a scorer or facilitator. Now who knows, he may improve leaps and bounds over the off-season and become The Guy. But I really like the thought of having two interchangeable combo guards on the floor, even if it means we give up a little size in our backcourt.

I agree. My memory may be fuzzy, but isn't that what Alford did when going from Iowa to UNM? And he was able to parlay success at UNM into a top-tier gig at UCLA. It's also similar to McDermott leaving ISU for creighton a year before he would've got the boot, and now he's also back in a decent conference. Voluntarily dropping down to a lower-level conference doesn't have to be a career-killer.

I'm confused how the "fire Miles now camp" aren't viewed as the level-headed ones. I'd say a more realistic way of looking at it is the "keep Miles camp" are living with false hope while we watch the program crumble before our eyes. I appreciate the great run in Miles' second season. I also appreciate the great strides the staff has taken to improve the talent-level on the roster. But at this rate, keeping Miles around for another year appears to only be handicapping his eventual replacement. I for one would prefer to turn the reigns over to a new coach while there's still some talent for the new guy to work with.

True, but we are an extreme underdog for both of these guys. Allen has been getting calls from bluebloods, including Kansas and Kentucky. The hope is that our long-term recruitment of him will payoff, but we have no such long-term connection to Makai. And with Makai being a top 40 player, one would expect that he will get an offer from every elite team with a PG need. If these guys are truly a package deal, then it probably actually makes it harder for us to land Allen.

Makai didn't just request a release, he received it. Original offer list was UConn, Louisville, Boston College, Providence, Rhode Island, and St. Bonaventure. Not sure how many official visits he has still available, if any.

You make it to every home game? That's a really long commute from Hogsmeade. Do you travel via portkey, floo network, or apparition?

Taking names out of it, the situation that the basketball coaching staff finds itself in is at least partially the A.D.’s fault. The relevant timeline: Spring 2016: AD doesn’t give basketball HC an industry-standard contract extension. Also of note, the basketball HC was not hired by the current AD. Calls into question whether the basketball HC is on the hot seat and results in negative recruiting against the basketball program. Fall 2016: AD holds press conference publicly supporting the football HC, which renders the AD’s “no comment during the season policy” null and void. Perhaps most bewildering is that the comment came during a season in which the football team showed improvement, and the coaching staff was widely known to be the AD’s top choice. As such, there was no real threat of the football coach being on a hot seat. Winter 2016-2017: Basketball team’s win/loss record shows no improvement, and team marches toward third consecutive losing season. Despite public support for the football HC three months prior, the AD remains silent regarding the basketball HC’s future. Widespread speculation in the media erupts. Spring 2017: Within seconds of basketball season’s conclusion, AD tweets that the basketball HC will be back.

How is Ed dunking in warmups helping the team? Whether you're a basketball coach or office manager, you have to constantly balance developing your personnel with using your human capital effectively. And we're not just talking about one player. The number of returning starters who have left early in the last few years is staggering. That's a trend, not an isolated incident. And trends, good or bad, can almost always be tied back to leadership or lack thereof.

Disagree. I wanted Doc to go when we fired him, but was exceptionally impressed with how he handled being let go. How you handle adversity matters. If Miles were to say he's voluntarily stepping down and moving into a Boehm-type of role, I would have a ton of respect for that. As would most people I know who want him to no longer be our HC.

Miles will not be fired, for the simple reason that Eichorst said he won't. SE doesn't strike me as the type of guy to publicly say "my bad."

HINT: The answer is no.

Do you manage, mentor, or coach anyone? If your employee/mentee tells you that they want to improve on a specific skill (wing play) in order to achieve a specific goal (play professionally), and you see them consistently miss opportunities to improve that skill (dunk rather than shoot in warmups) and you fail to correct them, then are you a good manager/mentee/coach?

Does Dikembe Mutombo have a son?

Hey @Ron Mexico, how's your keep-Miles-so-that-there's-not-a-mass-exodus strategy working so far? You know, the one that I showed you was asinine but you swore would work?