Swan88

While waiting for Santa to arrive, I re-watched the first 10 minutes of the Atewe video above. By way of summary, it appears that he is an athletic player who works hard and comes up with some good plays when the ball isn't in his hands. At 5:50, for example, he does a nice job blocking out and getting the rebound but nearly has it stolen, then at 7:30 makes a steal but turns it over. He has a couple rebounds at 8:40 and 9:20. On the possession around 8:50, he makes three separate screens for guards, one of whom gets open and nails a three pointer. By the way, one difficulty in evaluating Matthew's defense during the first 10 minutes of this game is that the opposing team seems to have an aversion against going into the paint--except on fast breaks. Here are some Atewe events from 1:45 to 5:00: 1:45--Matthew takes an entry pass, is fouled, and makes one of two free throws. 2:40--he blocks a shot in an impressive athletic move, then beats everyone down the floor, but muffs the long fast-break pass to him--it could have been a layup. 3:10--gets a steal 4:25--is guarding the high post, who turns the ball over 5:00--gets a rebound. Around the 10:00 minute mark, he turns the ball over, then seems to become inactive and is subbed out.

Actually, Matthew Atewe looks more like a three-inch-shorter Willie Cauley Stein than like a one-minute sequence of Keith Coleman.

Here is the Husker basketball roster from Huskers.com for 1989-1990. This appears to be the year that Pike redshirted.

Norm said: "Edited to note: Coleman fouls at about the 1 minute mark of the above vid, gets pulled from the game and doesn't return. But in that minute, he looks to me like nearly the same player as Atewe. JMOO." Ok, Norm. I'll bite. That's a long video of Atewe's team, and I watched only excerpts. But during those excerpts, Atewe made a free throw, had a couple rebounds, had a steal, was setting effective picks for the guards--and won the tip. Coleman had no such results in the one minute video of him. Moreover, I saw Coleman play last season in Council Bluffs and believe that the comparison of Atewe to Coleman is off-base.

Why do people make such statements? If the guy isn't interested, let him go. Sheesh! And who knows why there is a lack of interest? Perhaps the Louisvilles of the world want him, like they did with Akoy. Or it might be as simple as Coach Miles doesn't have room for him as anything more than a walk-on, given the short list of available scholarships next year. Or, maybe the player has a dream school where he wants to go? As a post above indicates, Coach Miles often emphasizes that he is looking for players who want to be at Nebraska. So, it sounds like this player is already disqualified. Since this board is into old songs, here is a suggestion for this player: "Let it be."

Nathan Hawkins is rated a 79 by ESPN, while Jeff Carol is rated a lower 75. So, for what it's worth, Hawkins is viewed by the ESPN raters as a much better college prospect than Carol. Okie St. fans probably disagree with that assessment.

It's the "Curse of Akoy." We went all-in to land Akoy. Once he got away for certain and a "Plan B" player or two couldn't get qualified, we are scrambling for the best big still available--who just happens to be, in terms of ratings and rankings, somewhere WAY below the guys we were on from the beginning and closed. But hey . . . Tim Miles & Co. appear intent on getting this player in the fold as an athletic big to cause disruption in the paint on the defensive end--and who has potential to develop into something more. Here is some background information on Matthew from an article dated in December of 2011: "Matthew is of Nigerian decent and was born in Brampton, Ontario. He wasn’t anywhere as enthusiastic about basketball as some of his peers may have been--he admits he didn’t start taking basketball seriously until he was about 14, about the same time he hit a huge growth spurt. Matt now stands at 6’9, weighs about 225lbs and wears size 17 shoes."

A couple observations on the Biggs comments: (i) Coach Miles wasn't so much dissing Deverell as agreeing in a jocular manner with the man who called that Deverell has some strengths and weaknesses, and (ii) Coach Miles clarified that Deverell's inclination to attempt the spectacular play is a good quality. By the way, the quote Coach Miles tried to use in a recruiting subject context is this, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." The comment he was trying to make was pretty funny, but the fact that he wiffed on the quote made it hilarious!

Benny. Benny played 27 minutes: 1 for 2 from the floor; 2 assists; 2 turnovers; 2 rebounds; 0 fouls; 1 steal. Not bad for a bum knee--can't wait to see what he can do with some more experience under his belt and fully-functioning wheels.. Shavon.Benny's wounded compatriot, freshman Shavon Shields, played 30 minutes: 3 for 10 shooting; 0-fer 4 from three (every one of those misses had to crawl out of the bottom of the rim); 1 for 1 from the line; 4 fouls--at least 3 were charges (a bad call or two in there?); 2 rebounds; 3 turnovers. Shavon spent a large part of the game playing where Andre should have been playing. Once Shavon has the experience to slip away from those charges and once those long balls start crawling in instead of out, he should be a force on this team. So . . . here is a prediction: when both Benny and Shavon are healed up and have the majority of this season of experience under their belts, they will be major cogs on this team. So . . . hopes and prayers for their good heath the rest of the way!!

What's with the continued fascination with Groce based on performance to date at Illinois? The comparison is unfair to Tim Miles. The Husker job for Tim Miles has a MUCH higher degree of difficulty than Groce ever dreamed of facing. For example, the day Groce stepped onto the Illini floor as coach, he already had on that floor at least four Rival's four-stars--count 'em: Abrams, Egwu, Henry and Shaw. And he already had a Rival's four-star verbal commit in-hand from the prior coach: Hill. Tim Miles, on the hand, when he arrived had no Rival's four-stars on hand and none committed either. He had what we now see on the floor. Groce is sitting next door to a large urban area with many great basketball players. Miles . . . isn't. Groce has a great bunch of players to work with from day-one. Miles . . . doesn't. Groce has a very large margin for error with injuries to and underperforamance from several players. Miles . . . doesn't.

When was the last time Nebrasketball had all three of it's signed recruits included in the top 130 of ESPN rankings? It's a reality now--see this website! This is an independent confirmation of the success that Tim Miles & Crew are having at identifying and landing talent. Also, the University has done a superb job of branding with that big, bright "N"--and it looks great showing up three times on the ESPN list of top-130 recruits for 2013!

This! Any assessment of the Nee years cannot be complete without an acknowledgment of this reality. Bargen (and another assistant who left around the same time) provided discipline and focus and management skills and attention to detail that Nee could not (or, at least, did not) provide himself or replace with other assistants. Nee seemed to recruit very well, but he apparently could not manage the team well (the player walk-out is but one example). And he never repeated or even came close to replicating his Nebraska success at any subsequent job. But the negatives tended to persist with him, it seems.

Here's predicting that Mike Peltz will play a meaningful role on this team next year, regardless of the talent level infusion. This is because he can do what Barfknecht calls the "hoops grunt work," and do it very well. His walkon status is testament to a deficiency of one sort or another. But his value, nonetheless, to this year's team seems to be very real and very substantial. And so it seems reasonable to expect that the need for the high-quality "hoops grunt work" that Mike can provide will not vanish next year and will not be entirely filled by the newbies. Heck, I seem to recall in the first exhibition game that the primary person to slow down the opposition's main scoring stud was not Biggs or Gallegos or Parker or Talley--it was Mike Peltz (but perhaps my short term memory issues are arising . . . again).

As long as we are in a predicting mode for next year's team, here are my two cents worth (or maybe it's only one-cent worth): (i) the two freshmen, one sophomore and one walkon who see significant minutes throughout this year will also see significant minutes during the first half of next season because of experience triumphing over ability, but (ii) once the second half of next season arrives, experience will start to even out, and ability will prevail. As to who will have the greater ability next year among available players . . . no clue.

Lee Barfknecht has a nice article in this morning's Omaha World Herald on Mike Peltz. Here is a link. The opening line from the article is this: "Mike Peltz has turned into the Nebraska basketball team's Swiss Army knife." The article fills in some blanks on Mike Peltz, such as, "he led Class B in scoring as a junior and senior" and he plays with a lot of knee pain from a "partially torn patellar tendon."

The offers list in the OWH is underwhelming at best . . . Charlotte and St. Bonaventure, for Pete's sake. While the OWH article cites Rivals, it fails to provide the following additional information from Rivals: (i) the Rivals list of offers includes Marquette, (ii) Rivals reports that Atewe visited Auburn in October, (iii) Rivals reports Atewe as saying that, among the schools recruiting him the hardest are Georgia Tech and Miami.

Hey, Norm, you've gotta lighten up a bit. It's a game! And it's obvious that Nebraska is on the rise, with a steep trajectory. Some year soon, we're gonna be fighting toe-to-toe with the biggest of the big boys. And Tim Miles & Crew will lead us there. Stop fretting so much and enjoy the ride!

Hate to break it to you, folks, but we are going to experience a lot of nights like this in 2012-13. We don't have any margin for error: we are playing a lot of minutes with two freshmen and a walk-on, and we have some other significant issues. As to the price we are paying, it's for the lack of adequate recruiting over the course of several years. We will be able to pull off some more decent wins this year, like Wake Forrest and USC, because of the quality and creativity of the coaching staff in making the most out of what we've got. But there are limits to magic that any staff can pull off. So, we will also experience nights like UNO and Kent State--and when nights like those are paired up with a quality opponent, things will get ugly!

Yikes!!! Our prayers are with him! If I recall correctly, he had some health issues relating to his heart when he came out of high school.

November 28: Boise St. 83 at Creighton 70. December 5: Boise St. 55 at Utah 76. In the words of that great movie . . . "There's a chance!" In all seriousness, one benefit in playing a highly ranked team is that the Huskers have everything to gain and very little to lose, while the Jays have very little to gain and a great deal to lose. A lop-sided victory for the Jays will be mostly a non-event (other than for the local chatter), but anything else will have some degree of significance.

We are apparently after Matthew Atewe, the 6'9" power forward from Canada who currently plays at a prep school back east. He reportedly has offers from K.St., Marquette, Memphis, Auburn, Clemson and others. He's had some glowing things to say about Tm Miles and Chris Harriman.

Shavon Shields showed some promise tonight. Looked like he belonged out there. Confident. Fluid movement. Under control. Looked good!

There are two B section tickets for the USC game available right now on the ticket marketplace at Huskers.com.

Since we are into songs around this place, here is the line for the USC game: "Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies and everyone goes to Brother [Miles'] Traveling Salvation Show"! Here's a (the song starts around the 2:10 mark).

"Smith, a Kent, Wash., native, came to UCLA with McDonald's All-American honors and was ranked by ESPN as the No. 1 center recruit in the country. Rivals.com ranked him as the No. 3 center nationally and Scout.com ranked him as the No. 4 center nationally."(From yesterday's L.A. Times). So much for stars and rankings on this one!