swmckewon

No intel, no special insight, just a sense: Nebraska WBB has a chance to make a push that does good things for right now and moreso for the future. I'm a believer that the "big games" aren't the ones that keeps things from falling apart, but the ones that take you from a plateau to a newer peak. If Nebraska wins the last four here, and then 1 or 2 in the tournament, that's maybe enough to get in the NCAAs, but it's more importantly a big springboard into next year, and this team - its best players especially - could use that sense of momentum. And they're good enough to win the last four, too, including at Iowa, a perfectly fine team that nevertheless isn't so good Nebraska can't beat them. Iowa will probably be 13-8 when Nebraska plays them, and Nebraska, if it handles business, will be 13-9. It's an even-up game in an empty arena. Nebraska's sort of been in one spot since 2018-2019. Surprise win, surprise loss, barely survive Wisconsin or Illinois, Iowa and Indiana are "too good," early exit from Big Tens, etc. It appeared it'd be in that spot for certain - or possibly worse - this season, too. As it turns out (thanks to a 1-2 scoring punch who compliment one another instead of taking shots from each other, thanks to Bourne getting really good really fast (which, she is), thanks to Cravens, thanks to good leadership from Cain) there's a chance here for another level right at the end. It's a real opportunity.

Ohio State's...laconic...first half helped, no doubt. But Nebraska got Ohio State's full effort in the second half and withstood it. It's a really tough team. Especially Cravens. They've lamented not having a player like her for years. Now, they do, and from Eastern Washington, no less. Her contribution cannot be underestimated. She does precisely what the team had needed for a long time.

Foecke won it 5 times. That's pretty good. Caitlin Clark's all that and a bag of chips as a scorer. I just get a chuckle out of how Maryland's excellence works against it for that award.

The Big Ten is not thorough at divvying out awards for player of the week...well, really in any sport, but especially not WBB. They tend to get stuck on stats and certain players/teams. Caitlin Clark has been player of the week three times. The player and freshman awards have been rotated - since the beginning of the season - between Iowa, Michigan and Rutgers. That's it.

They have many sports psychologists.

It’s my understanding that, when Cayton can play, she’ll be pretty good.

Myriad. But at top is guard recruiting/acquisition. A team with LB and TK is pretty good; about as good as last year. The 14-16 year IMO was a tactical error in scheduling. That was a 17, 18 win team minus five true road games - all Ls - in non con play.

People can check my track record on what I think of recruits - the people who I said would be good. Said it with Leigha and Isabelle and Annika. I think all that has borne out to be true. (Criticism of Stewart, four games into her career, is really odd.) At any rate, next year's recruiting class is excellent. Coley's really good. Alexis is really good, and she'll really care. I don't see why Weidner can't be as good as Emily Ryan is at Iowa State, only more of a scorer. Moriarty is an elite defender. It goes without saying that this year is going to be a tough journey. Hard to win a lot without guards, and recruiting/transfer work hasn't been as good as it needs to be...until next year.

Dillard absolutely will.

The reason that matters is Nebraska has had its share of “what am I doing here? How did I get here? Do I want to be here?” posts over the years.

One thing about Yvan: I believe he cares. I think he really wants to get better, and did, and isn’t ambivalent about the game.

We’ll see by the time the season rolls around. We also don’t know how many followers of a star athlete are bots. Probably a decent share. Projecting the earnings of a market one year before it’s slated to begin - post-coronavirus- seems a little like a dart throw.

Not that young. Cain, Kissinger, Scoggin and Cayton all pretty seasoned. Cravens too.

OK, they didn’t square off against each other much in this game, but their teams did. Both played well, but Stewart (with 36) was the best player on the court. This video gives you a sense of what she can do. She’s 30 in blue. (Coley is 32 and can really shoot.) Stewart is underrated. I don’t know what accounts for recruiting rankings in WBB but I think she can be pretty good right away.

They’re all gonna get waivers. NCAA will approve it

Attrition was expected after this season. but brown wasn’t part of that expectation.

It's a huge blow and it was not expected. There's always a chance some combination of players transfer in to make a similar impact to Brown but I'd be surprised.

It might be closer than you think, Eliely tips it hard, obviously, but even she didn’t have the season she wanted. The team lost its consistent mental edge - or perhaps never really had one - this season. Some of that is on the departed players. One of the challenges at Nebraska is that the student athletes are treated so well, cared for so much, that creating urgency can be tough. I think it’s been an issue in football that Frost has to untangle and reset.

The key is Bourne. There's a lot of potential there. 15-17 ppg, 7-9 rebounds. She's good and needs to play a lot of minutes. She's going to now.

I believe the above two might be the end of it. Veerbeek is a making a life choice. Her HS is 9 miles away from Dordt.

Kate Cain has improved. no question. It isn’t her improvement -or lack thereof - that would be in question.

That said, WBB is a guard game. (So is MBB anymore)

Stewart's going to be pretty good, too. No fooling. Better than her sister because she can shoot. Had a big senior year on a loaded team, and her teammate is one of top guards for 2022.

Porter's pretty good. Bourne's going to be really good.

I did. It's a good post.