swmckewon

The golf question is missing a key piece: What hole the leader is on relative to you. Is the leader in the clubhouse? Then you could lay up, play for the short bird, trim to one and then go get a birdie on the last 3 holes. (Probably 18.) depends on what shot suits your game and eye. are you one group ahead? Then yeah, probably, you go for it, because you’re really down 3 strokes, given the guy can play 15 in 3 shots and you can’t. Anyway, if this is all a metaphor for deploying no-sit conditions for Purdue instead of Iowa, then, yes, Nebraska needs to go all no-sit on the 15th hole.

Remember what I said about Leigha Brown being underrated. This upcoming class is underrated.

She is.

Nebraska has...a chance...tonight. Purdue's gotta shoot poorly, but Nebraska should have a size advantage.

There's still time and I'd say seven of the games are pretty winnable (I'm excluding at UM, at MSU and at Purdue, which all seem like tall orders for every other Big Ten team, too.) Nebraska wins 6 of the last 10, and it gets in. 5, and it's a bubble headed to the Big Ten Tournament.

Why wouldn't he change with greater success? Do coaches not evolve?

If everyone stays - which may very well happen - it's a Sweet Sixteen-caliber roster. The best roster in many, many, many years. Miles' challenge will be recruiting the 2019 freshmen for the early signing period on the promise of what that roster will do, not what it has done. (Because the kids sign before the season.)

No, they don't prioritize the same thing. The question is whether they prioritize a coach's contract length. Which, maybe they do.

Yeah, I don't know if a name has ever been attached to that theory. The name I've heard volleyed about - which may not be the actual guy - would have been at a time when Miles had 4 years on his contract, back in 2016. I dunno that it was a reason the kid gave or his handlers or the Nebraska coaches. I dunno. It's a little different in hoops, I suppose, yeah. More handlers in basketball. More adults thinking like adults I suppose. That kid from Robert Morris seems OK with things. He can't even play next year.

I don’t think the disadvantage is that great. I really don’t. I think coaches believe it’s a big deal, and that belief affects things, but I’ve covered football recruiting for a long time. Coach’s contract lengths haven’t come up. Kids don’t think like coaches.

I don’t know that it’s “over,” and I don’t know why, should Palmer, Roby and Copeland return, that Miles can’t win big.

It was an honest answer. Merit-based rewards. I don’t think Miles got an extension after the NCAA Tourney year because he signed a 7-year contract at the outset. But he got a one year extension after the 2014-2015 season. had it been me I would have extended Miles one year after the 2015-2016 season. Prolly not after the 2016-2017 season. But what I’d do is tangential to what actually has an effect.

If Miles wins big next year, man, it'd be tough to walk away and rebuild it entirely somewhere else.

What’s my take on extending the Big Ten Coach of the Year? About the same as when Tim Miles was Big Ten Coach of the Year.

I think good seasons have a little more effect on a player’s decision than a coach’s contract length. When talking about the high quality recruits signed by Iowa, I think making six straight postseasons and 3 straight Tournaments is pertinent. Kids want to play in the postseason. They want to make runs in the postseason. Even conference tournament runs are exciting - see that run miles made two years ago, or the run Collier made that saved his bacon until he left 3 months later for the Butler AD job.

In 2018, yes. But the 2018 4 Star signed back in November - before the season had even begun. Iowa does have a 4-Star commit for 2019. Patrick McCaffrey. Fran’s son.

There’s a lot of truth in this post that shouldn’t get dismissed, and the more athletes get stipends/name and likeness, the less of a focus there will be on making sure coaches have super long contracts. It’s notable when people suggest the standard needs to be five years or else recruiting - in basketball, where transfers are rampant - will be unduly hurt. That said, coaches believe it has an impact, which means assistant coaches believe it, which means the media reports on it, which means, on some level, it’s real, even if, at the end of the day, kids probably don’t make a decision solely or even primarily on that. Patrick Chambers recruited well at Penn State and he only had 1 year left on his contract. (He is soon to be extended.)

Iowa also made six straight postseasons, including three straight NCAAs.

I'd have to chew on the national brand. Locally, I think it's pretty straightforward: Fans will continue to show up to PBA if the team wins, regardless of the politics around it, because it's a big-ticket event, people like the PBA and the Haymarket is a fun place to go. Fans have even turned out in losing seasons. Until that changes, the brand is "If Nebrasketball is playing, people will come." Like, even if fans aren't thrilled with the contract length - and I don't think all fans care about that - they're still going to show up, out of loyalty or habit.

Nebraska's brand locally or nationally? And if the answer is both, I think there are different answers to that. But in crafting these questions I assume you're looking at either locally or nationally. So I was curious which one it was.

At Montana, Moos replaced Stew Morrill with his lead assistant Blaine Taylor. Morrill won .652 of his games at Montana. Taylor won .681 At Oregon, Moos replaced Jerry Green with Ernie Kent. Green won .507 of his games at Oregon. Kent won .576 of his games and took Oregon to five NCAA Tournaments - more than the previous 50 years at Oregon combined. Basically, Kent was Oregon's Danny Nee, who won... .572 of his games at Nebraska. At Washington State, Moos replaced Ken Bone with Ernie Kent. Kent has been bad at Wazzu (just .379 winning %) but Bone was no great shakes, winning .482. Oregon was not a perennial bottom dweller under Kent, and Montana wasn't under Taylor. Washington State was a bottom dweller before and after Moos got there.

I covered the games. I was there. And I wrote it was the worst Nebraska team I'd ever seen, which I expect it to be. But the post I quoted and responded to had nothing to with the 2017 season. It referred not to where Nebraska football was, but where Nebraska football is, right now, with Scott Frost. If you'd like me to detail all the horrors of the 2017 football season again, I can, but you seem to know what they were.

The football program is not in bad shape. Riley lost many games but left little-to-zero scars. It all ended amicably. Players have bought in to Frost, who brought his entire staff and thus has great continuity. If there were a Joe Ganz on hand, 9-3 wouldn't be out of the question. The roster at this moment is pretty good, especially on defense. The football program was in bad shape in spring 2015 though. It was a mess. If Frost takes it where people think he can, the three-year Riley era will be a "nice guy, bad fit" shrug.

This doc is helpful for future reference:

That's fair, although Nebraska really impressed Kate. Cain is such a good fit for the program. I've long thought East Coast kids fit in nice at Nebraska. But maybe I'm biased. I had two roommates from NJ in college, and they liked it, stayed, built lives in the Midwest. I think some unusually harsh things have been written here about Jess, but she's at a new program, and Nebraska's moving forward and, what's more, Williams puts "fit" at a very, very high premium in recruiting.