swmckewon

Oh, if you wanna pay for it - $3 million and up - you'd open up some ears. I don't know that it's a sound investment - I actually lean toward "no," - but money can be a game-changer. When Miles got more money to pay for assistant coaches, that opened some doors.

We'll have a story tomorrow. We'll have plenty on the team as the season goes on.

The season opening presser is Wednesday. It's a Miles/Williams/players deal. Nebraska coaches and players are talking then.

It's hard to say whether it was on a persistent downhill slide; I'm not sure it was. Just that last year's 18-13 team might have been a 15-16 or 14-17 team in another league year. Then again, Nebraska got a raw deal of a schedule, too.

Mostly that 9 wins in this version of the league wasn't that big of a deal. The 2014 team might have lost 2 league games, and that's it.

The hows and why have been pretty hashed out, but know this: The Big Ten was not a good women's basketball conference this year. At all.

With all due respect, Max Bielfeldt isn't remotely the same. Not. Remotely. The. Same. Beilein said during Bielfeldt's final year at Michigan the kid was gonna transfer. Michigan didn't have a scholarship for him. Michigam released him in mid-April. It was the plan all along. Using Max Bielfeldt as some kind of point that "Miles does it too" is wrong on its face. Bielfeldt didn't do any of the nonsense White has done. I mean, look: If White had rolled into Miles' office in April and said "Hey, I'm gonna graduate, and I'm not playing here next year, even if I don't go to the NBA" that'd be one thing. That thing did not happen.

Worst case, if it doesn't work out...he's asked to transfer after the season ends. I don't think you'd see Nebraska ask a 4th year guy who was a "please join our team" signee to transfer under any on the court circumstance.

It may take some time. You have build relationships with AAU coaches where you may not have previously recruited. Kissinger is a key. You land her, and you have an anchor to the class.

Geno's seriously thin-skinned if those comments raised his hackles. Duke's coach is known to be...a little eccentric with quotes (while being mostly harmless) and Geno surely knows that, yet fires back anyway.

More indication that most kids go to a school because of the coaches recruiting them. Some of the top 5, top 10 schools nationally can get them by the schools stature as basketball factories. There are exceptions to everything of course. We have been doing pretty well attracting talent. Hope Coach Amy and staff can pick up right where we left off. Given they'll have to forge those relationships right now, over the next few months, it won't be easy. USD wouldn't have spent much time recruiting top 100 prospects before now, because they wouldn't have come to USD.

The other coach recruited Seekamp. Ryun Williams, who's now at Colorado State. Amy Williams has to prove herself as a major college recruiter. There's no reason acting as if she doesn't. She does. She and her staff either will or won't. We'll see. Taylor Kissinger would be a good start.

She wasn't making her decision until this week anyway. They graduate later on the West Coast.

Once Cayton makes her final decision, I'll probably get into it more, but I think here's the point: The program didn't feel right over the last year or so. Now, obviously, there were some things going on, etc, but I think the recruiting got off kilter. I think there's a certain kind of player who fits well under Yori, and there were a lot of players in the program who were just...uneasy fits. Some of them left, some didn't. And there wasn't the same kind of trust built up over there that there needed to be. And some of that is on having new coaches, and some of that is on Yori, too, right? Remember: A lot of the vets on this team were not recruited by some of these assistants. Somewhere along the way, the "why" factor kind of got lost. I think it was a coaching staff full of grinders, of "focus on the next 45 minutes in front of you" types. Personally? I'm probably more prone to be like that, to grind, but I purposely try to have a foot in the other world. (I don't always succed!). One of Amy Williams' strengths, I can already tell, is she's pretty good at, uh, epistemology. There will be clarity about why things are being done, there will be a startingly consistent message, there will be belief in that method, and it will not seem haphazard. Over time, she needs to get talent who can track with her worldview.

It's still theoretically possible Cayton sticks with Nebraska. If not, Williams just has to have a really fierce recruiting class for 2017.

Never tried it but I'm intrigued. Next time you're in LA: http://www.roscoeschickenandwaffles.com I might be mistaken, but wouldn't the southeast be the place to get a delicious plate of chicken and waffles? Possibly, but Roscoe's is world famous. I suppose it's kinda like Arthur Bryant's in KC...not the best KC BBQ by a long shot, but it's one of those places you gotta go just because of who else has been there. Bryant's is probably top six in KC. Still better than every place in Nebraska not named Phat Jacks.

Good luck to her.

I think Amy Williams will be a coach whose style players readily appeciate. She's very fired up and enthusiastic in games. Like any program in college basketball - men's or women's - it's about recruiting for talent and fit. I've already written this about Connie, and I'm comfortable saying it: I thought it got away from Connie a lil bit after the Cady/Sample/Teara/Brandi class. She aimed for a lil more talent, got some poor fits, and, until Rachel Blackburn came along in this class, I think there were a few classes there where she didn't get a natural leader with some attitude on the court. What interesting is, I think Britney Brown actually was a really good hire. I think she had things moving back toward what Connie built the program with -- athletes, hard workers, defenders. And Kathleen Doyle is a Lindsey Moore type. Britney got it.

It's the rhabdo deal at Iowa all over again. I can't recall if any of those players sued. I imagine they could have tried.

Doc Sadler outcoached more than a few coaches. Doc did not outrecruit them, however, by a long shot. As for Miles...there must be something to beating Michigan State each year, right? And something to consistently falling short vs. Iowa?

The two most important ones are the ones who are wavering. Go get 'em Amy. You need guards especially if Romeo transfers. Movin' on. They're important, but Mitchell is probably not properly rated, just as Hooper wasn't.

Yep. More and more will be coming on more and more schools.

he had a few. Tim says he's a good guy to work with and I firmly believe him. Had it been me, the quotes would have ended the day quote man took the job.

"Miles said recruiting connections will be a key for his new hire. Beckner landed no recruits while at Nebraska nor apparently left any direct leads."Might be hard to recruit many kids when you are on the job for only 9 months, most of which came during the season when time for recruiting is limited.Oh, the hell it is.Oh, Sam's riled up. Love it. Would love your thoughts on who they should look for in this situation and who could be some early candidates besides the 2 internal previously mentioned. I don't have any comment or even opinion about any of that. But this is highest level of college athletics. Recruiting and personality management is what you do. If you have time to seek out inspirational quotes all day, go find some talent.

"Miles said recruiting connections will be a key for his new hire. Beckner landed no recruits while at Nebraska nor apparently left any direct leads." Might be hard to recruit many kids when you are on the job for only 9 months, most of which came during the season when time for recruiting is limited. Oh, the hell it is.