Swan88

Movement out the door is often most pronounced during a stop of action, such as a time out. Perhaps when such a thing happens, everyone still in their seats should start booing.

Now that Coach Miles has identified leaving-early as an important issue, perhaps there should be some education efforts on the subject to alert everyone that the time-honored Husker basketball "tradition" of leaving early is now frowned upon and considered rude behavior and an insult to the players, staff and other fans.

Norm said, "And seeing the name of a Husker player as B1G rookie of the week makes me wonder if that ol' worm isn't starting to turn." Another positive sign is the performance of Colorado St. this year with players signed by Tim Miles. Colorado St. Is 15-3 so far, with wins over Washington (73-55), Virginia Tech (88-52), and UNLV (66-61); and losses to Colorado (70-61) and #16 San Diego St. (79-72 OT). In their latest game (UNLV), for example, all of the 7 Rams who played were signed by Tim Miles, except for one who had 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 turnover.

You may be onto something, CWG. Autobiographical information from Will Shields at Huskers.com includes the following: "There were five Division I seniors on my high school football team. I wasn't one of those blue-chip, star-studded guys. I was someone who needed development and knew it." Will obviously developed dramatically after high school. Dramatic development upon reaching college may well be in Shavon's genes.

Groce being the most disappointing coach is based upon what? The answer to such question is in the original post above ("OP"). However, one correction needs to be made to the OP as follows: Groce has six Rivals 4-star players rather than four. Those six are senior guards Richardson and Paul and sophomores Shaw, Abrams, Henry and Egwu. If Miles had horses like that and ended up with Groce's initial BIG results identified in the OP, we'd all be wondering about Osborne's decision making process instead of giving Tim Miles a 98% approval rating.

With the Illinois game just around the corner, perhaps this is a good time to observe that, as of today, the most disappointing and under-performing BIG coach during the first weeks of the BIG season is none other than . . . [drumroll, please] John Groce! He may well turn things around beginning Tuesday night in Lincoln. But as of now, he is the hands-down winner. Consider this: 1. To begin with, he has four Rivals 4-star players signed by the prior regime and handed to him. 2. He has the horses to knock off Ohio State going away--74 to 55. 3. But those same horses lose to Purdue by 7, lose to Minnesota by 17, lose to Wisconsin by 23, and lose to Northwestern by 14. 4. And with those same horses he has the same BIG record as Nebraska, who cannot put any Rivals 4-star player on the court and has played a tougher BIG schedule.

Remember Shatel wondering which would happen first: a Husker Big 10 win or a Jay Valley loss. Both occurred on the same day and back to back. [Twilight Zone music playing in the background]

Chanel 6 has this Creighton grad doing sports in Omaha. He's obviously not a Husker fan in general and seems to frequently have something snide to say about Husker basketball or baseball, whichever is in season. Really don't like it!!!

The Rivers as a "big" comment was intended as a joke. Apparently it wasn't very funny.

In every Big 10 game this year so far, the hope and prayer has been that we don't get blown out. So, can't quite get to a place where a "win" seems even remotely possible.

Don't forget David Rivers. He's our newest "big" and can shoot 100% against big-time bigs.

The kid is obviously a terrific athlete and worthy of the scholarship attention for that reason alone. You don't see a lot of guys with his size and strength who can run like he can. He's just a physical specimen. However, he's also raw. And he needs to develop. Bigs take longer to develop than guards. You can take a big with the expectation that he'll need some time to develop. He's not going to come in next year and be a polished presence. He has some learning to do. But I could see him coming in and giving us some good freshman minutes next year (if he comes.) I've been teasing Swan back and forth about whether he's any better than Keith Coleman, our recruit from last year who ended up at North Texas. I've never said don't recruit the kid. But my uneducated, non-expert view is that we should temper our expectations for what he'll be able to bring to the table in his first season. All teasing aside, here is what we know for sure that Matthew can do: play defense, block shots, block out, rebound, run the floor, hit bunny shots and dunk. No one ever said he is good at dribbling, passing, or shooting beyond bunny shots. Apparently, Tim Miles and Co. are convinced that Matthew's defense, shot blocks, blocking out, rebounding, running the floor and close-in scoring are the priorities for this particular scholarship. Was Akoy a higher priority prospect for this position? Of course. But that ship sailed away. And since Nebrasketball put all its eggs in the Akoy basket for a very long time, we are now focused on a very athletic but raw-with-the-ball-in-his-hands alternative (I've called it the "curse of Akoy").

Ok. Let's call it 7.5 for 8 shooting.

On January 10 Matthew's Notre Dame Prep team played its first game in three weeks. They beat a Rice Academy 70 to 56. In that game Matthew had 10 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

Couldn't help chuckling during the Michigan St. game at our skinny-as-a-rail David Rivers, (i) guarding one-on-one the monster Spartan bigs, (ii) schooling those same bigs on the offensive end to the tune of 8 for 8 shooting, (iii) producing 6 rebounds, a block and a steal with 4 fouls and only one turnover, and (iv) never leaving the court--he played the entire 40 minutes. Pretty impressive!

As the old song says: If it weren't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all. Here is the video.

Since Matthew seems intent on taking his last two visits and appears to be waiting to see what additional interest might materialize, it seems preferable for the Huskers that such interest comes from the likes of Cal (who lost this year to Wisconsin 81-56) than from eastern powers like UConn and Georgetown.

Someone on the Stingtalk.com message board said in their recruiting thread back in November of 2012 that Geogia Tech had offered Atewe, but it looks like there was no further discussion about him until a couple posts yesterday about his Nebraska visit.

Here is an article from UConnReport.com dated yesterday that discusses Matthew Attewe as follows: Attention for Atewe Matthew Atewe has already used three of his five official visits, but the class of 2013 6-foot-9 power forward from Notre Dame Prep (MA), by way of Canada, is not ready to make a decision. "I like my trip to Nebraska a lot over the weekend, but I still want to spend my two other official visits," he told Rivals.com. As the unsigned senior has taken official visits to Kansas State and Auburn, as well, the Wildcats are out of the mix. Nebraska and Auburn are in good standing with a number of schools trying to step into the mix to get him on campus. Atewe wouldn't mind schools that get in late either, so for a school such as Georgetown, who recently missed on Kennedy Meeks and Dakari Johnson, that may make a fair amount of sense because of his size and defensive pedigree." Georgetown does not seem to be a good fit for him because Georgetown is loaded with 6'8" and 6'9" underclassmen. But, perhaps its the same issue we had with Agau, if he is enamoured by the big-time eastern schools.

And remember, he got a call from a Duke assistant! Now he's going to watch a game at UConn. That settles it, Swan. You've convinced me. Yay!! It's about time. You're a tough one, Norm.

Looks like Mr. Atewe truly wants to take all his visits. And it appears that he might be a more attractive prospect than we've heretofore believed, if the UCONN visit is a genuine opportunity for him. Anyway, if his opportunity for playing time is truly a factor, UCONN is not a very good fit for him, considering that they have three freshmen and one sophomore standing 6' 8" or 6'9", one of whom is a Rivals 5 star. That's all in addition to a 7'1" junior center and a 6'7" junior guard/forward. Plus, they have a signed letter of intent from a 6'8" power forward in the 2013 class.

Would like to see Ray Gallegos take fewer three pointers and more two pointers. So far this season, he is shooting 31.9 % from three and 58.1 % from inside the arc.

Nah. We're still in Cabo sunning on the beach. Our mother-in-law is still a couple thousand miles away freezing in the snow; there aren't any kids for several years yet; and the honey-do list is still limited to scheduling dinner, ordering drinks at the swimming pool bar, and various private activities! Coach Miles and the staff have garnered a lot of good will by superior performance in just about everything thus far, and the honeymoon period will survive the brutal Big 10 schedule (though by early March we will all be more than a bit frustrated).

Here are a few statistics that tell the tale of the game: 1. At halftime, we were shooting 40.9%--and the game was tied. 2. In the second half, we shot 33.3%. 3. Only six Huskers played more than 8 minutes in the game. Of those six, one had only 16 minutes, while one player had 40 minutes, another 38 minutes, another 36 minutes and two had 31 each.

Balham would be 8+ years before Atewe--he committed in September of 2004. So that part of the post is technically correct. Also, by way of similarity, Balham is originally from France and Atewe is, technically, a foreigner too (from Toronto). However, examples of differences include, (i) according to Rivals, Balham had offers from Alfred, Bradley, Dayton, Green Bay, Loyolla Chicago and Tulsa--at least Atewe visited Kansas St. who has been ranked this season in the top 25, (ii) Balham had medical problems from the very beginning (originally explained as a "weakness in the legs") that ultimately became debilitating--Atewe appears to have no such problems, and (iii) neither Duke nor any place like it ever made any inquiry of any type to Balham.