swmckewon

Yori won 3 Big 12 tourney games in her first 7 years. Why? It was hard as hell. In 2008, for example, 8 (!) of the 12 teams made the tourney. In Nebraska's 30-win year, 7 teams made it, and 6 (!) were in the top 16 seeds. Yori won more conference tourney games in her first 3 years of the Big Ten than she did in 8 years in the Big 12. Now the Big 12 stinks (boy, does it) and the Big Ten's hard as hell. So it goes. The money's kicking in, y'all. (Maryland and Rutgers changed it, too.)

Hillmon's one of the 20 best players in college basketball.

It can; rarely does a AD put it publicly in quite those terms.

I think her buyout's up, and the AD was pretty blunt after last season. https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/college/purdue/womens-basketball/2019/04/25/purdue-women-basketball-needs-deliver-better-results-next-season-sharon-versyp-mike-bobinski/3577874002/ "It’s a performance-based industry and we have to deliver better results. That was clearly communicated.”

I'd guess the Sharon Versyp show is just about over. Top 3 players - by far - were seniors, may miss the NCAAs for a 3rd straight year, etc.

Kissinger's more capable of driving and developing a midrange game than she's shown. But point taken. A late-season surge can reshape a thing or two. Win 1 in Big Tens and a couple in the WNIT and 20 will feel a little different. As it stands: 5-12 vs. Top 100 RPI teams this year. 5-13 last year.

Kissinger being healthy. That's no small thing. That said, the half-court offense has to get better. Has to.

5 Top 100 recruits in the program vs. 3 for Nebraska, plus whatever you want to label Bourne. Not that rankings are everything.

Nebraska recruited...pretty good in the first two classes. I don't know that Brown and Haiby were ranked as Top 100, per se, but they've been really good through two years. Cain and Kissinger have tracked pretty well to this point. Bourne's clearly talented and would have been a top 100 recruit were she an American. Porter, too. Generally, I think NW/Indiana/Minnesota/Nebraska...that's all about the same talent level most years. NCAA Tournament bids hinge on half-court execution and hitting 3s. Now, if you're talking Maryland/Ohio State? Yeah, that's a different level. Maryland has built in geographic and tradition advantages; the team's top four players all live within 70 miles of the school. Ohio State made a...calculated...decision to hire the father of an eventual four-time All-American and pay him 134,000 per year for 4 years to be an assistant coach. But it worked and shaped the program. (It's worth noting OSU's top two posts are European recruits.) And I'd argue Michigan/Michigan State have more talented parts that tend not, for whatever reason, to add up to a greater sum. Purdue's hitting a hard reset button after this year. Invariably, Iowa's in the conversation, and that's fair. We'll see if they're at the tail end of their McCarville/Whalen era with Gustafson and Doyle, or if the next recruiting class keeps it going. Iowa's done a good job of going from Sam Logic to Doyle to perhaps Clark, who comes in next year. As for Nebraska...yeah, when it went, at PG, from Moore to Theriot to Romeo transferring to Doyle backing out...that was a hard transition. And it doesn't feel like the position has been great in the last two years. Because I think Jordan Hoopers are very, very rare - the versatility and output of her game, the fact that the best player had a personality that could complement any kind of coaching, any kind of teammate, any injury - you have to find great guards who can win late. Cain's had a stronger year than even her stats would suggest, but college basketball is a guard game.

Nor did I say you said they desired it. You just felt especially bad for them. And I've never had much of an indication they felt bad for themselves on the matter. But I understand. I've had a front row seat for every dysfunctional thing that's happened in the last decade or so, and I get the distinct sense that fans of many Husker sports are still really angry over things that happened from roughly 2010-2016, not to mention what happened in 2003. I think there are more men's hoops fans than anyone cares to admit who miss Miles, too - and don't think he was treated right - and will be lukewarm on the Hoiberg era until it wins big. Ditto for WIlliams. (And since Yori was leaps and bounds more successful than Miles, that makes sense.)

Gonzaga will heavily be in the mix here.

I don't think the seniors on the team would desire pity for what they'd consider to be full, meaningful careers. They stuck with Nebraska, played here, never transferred and have been strong ambassadors for the program. There isn't anything to feel bad on their behalf about.

It wasn't going to be either way. Team was hitting the reset button after last season regardless of coach.

It's exactly what happened. When a defense extends itself way beyond the 3-point line, sooner or later, it's like press coverage in football - you gotta beat them off the line, or, in the case of basketball, off the dribble. Nebraska tried, got to the hoop, got fouled, didn't get the fouls called, missed the shots. Because officiating in WBB is so...variable...you gotta make the shots, or get offensive rebounds, or force entry passes into the paint until it works. Multiple teams have done this to Nebraska, they know it works, and they hope the whistles aren't called. Nebraska just has to be tougher, more rugged and stop worrying about it.

Why? They stuck with Nebraska eyes open and were given the chance, like Cayton and Doyle, to sign elsewhere.

couple things. 1. The Big Ten is much more closely bunched together than it seems. Nebraska will have every chance to beat OSU, Indiana and NW. 2. A 3-5 finish is 18-12, which is one game off where I figured they'd be, 19-11. A couple years ago, I thought maybe this would be a 25-win team, but that forecast got revised down and then, in non-league play this year, one had to be a little concerned how smaller, badly overmatched teams could hang around by extending the defense and creating steals. Like, Nebraska beat Morgan State by 23, but it wasn't a pretty 23. 3. The seniors have agency in how the season turns out. You'd hope 2 4-year starters, final 10 Big Ten games of their career, play their best now.

4 and 32 both. Key is they get downhill and constantly attack. Sooner or later, even when they miss shots, most opponents get worn down by their aggression. Best offense was the fourth quarter when the ball got to 32 and she barreled in. Teams get tired of defending it, offensive rebounds crop up as a result.

If the defense is better - say, the mid-60s - Nebraska will be a bubble team. Amy's teams will generally score points. Need to rebound better. Give up offensive rebounds and there's no break. Transition 3s are best.

Relative to that, I don't think there's many concerns at all. The alternate universe where Nebraska does make the tournament last season and the former coach gets an extension doesn't mean the 2019-2020 team, under those circumstances, would have been very good. The assistant responsible for recruiting all but one of the best players on last year's roster was gone, Roby was probably gonna leave - wisely so, given the deal he got - and the team Nebraska would have had...it's frankly hard to argue it would have been more talented than the team it has now.

Right. Relative to what part of Nebraska basketball history? The Big Ten era? The Nee era? Relative to what future goals? I'm saying I know a KU fan who could write 15 concerns, too. But it's relative to KU's history. I will say on the 18U, I dunno, a lot of kids just don't ditch those competitions. International prospects grow up in it, it's a big deal to make those teams. The NU WBB recruit played in the 19u. (She's also better, relative to her competition, than Yvan is to his, and I agree he could use some stateside development from Fred and Co.)

Excitement and concerns relative to what?

She’s not on any hot seat. last year’s team was a 17, 18-win NIT bunch that scheduled its way out of a NIT bid. I dunno how much of that was on the new staff or the old one (feel like the drake and wazzu series predate Williams) but I’d expect the non-con this year wont include five road games at Power six conference teams.

Amy has a lot of fire this offseason. I think there's a sense they're close and could be pretty good next year if players make "the leap."

I don't mean this as a knock on Montgomery at all, great coach...but Stanford athletics transformed itself in the last 30 years. He had a big hand, others did, too, but Stanford's pretty great at everything now because it figured out a way to sell itself, really well, to recruits with its campus and its academics. It's coalesced in almost every sport on that campus and that all started in the 80s. What makes it harder in men's hoops right now is the whole Pac-12 ecosystem has fallen apart on several fronts.

I won't be surprised at all if Nebraska beats Iowa. Like the matchup. I equally won't be surprised if Nebraska loses at Northwestern. Don't like the matchup.