Swan88

Just got back from the game. Some thoughts: 1. Brandon won the opening tip!!! 2. Talley didn't score but came up big as the primary defender against their primary scorer--held their primary scorer to 2 of 11 shooting--and provided some stability and maturity handling the ball. Had 4 assists to 2 turnovers. 3. LOTS of walk-on minutes tonight--20 to be precise (27 if you count Menke). 4. Brandon Ubel needs to stop getting the ticky-tacky fouls because we need him in the game to be successful. However, it's fun seeing him having friendly chats with the officials when time is out. 5. This team is dramatically better now than it was in the opening exhibition game. Big improvements are coming from nearly everyone. 6. Andre is so good at absorbing contact that noone gets called for fouling him. On one occasion, he took a charge and didn't move a bit, but the charging player injured himself. No call, of course. He had 3 nice, clean blocks. 7. Ray shot 5 of 11, including 4 of 6 from three. 1 steal and 1 turnover. 8. Mike Peltz will continue to get minutes because of his defense and reliability with the ball. 9. Benny played well: 3 assists to 1 turnover and 1 of 2 from three. Had a great drive and finish on a break. 10. Gotta appreciate what Tim Miles and the staff are doing with this team so far--considering the multiple challenges they are dealing with.

Who knows? Perhaps he could become the Cardinal version of Florida's Terran Petteway or Duke's Bill Jackman.

Great read--as are all Coach Miles intereviews. Loved this exchange: "Q: How will you measure success this season? Record? Certain upset? Player development? A: For me, personally, it's going to be making sure our team is clearly better at the end of the year than we were at the beginning. Getting your ideals and principles in, and there's an investment from the players. Self-improvement in all areas and team above self. We're not going to get soft if things go well and we're not going to be overwhelmed if things go poorly. And, it's about team, not me." Heck, his team is clearly better at the end of the first game than a the beginning!

So . . . maybe we aren't quite as good. But close?

Ok. So here's a comparison: 1. Huskers beat Midland (a NAIA team) 68 to 40 last night, hitting 6 of 22 from the three point line; and 2. Louisville beat Bellarmine University (a Division II team) 65 to 46 last night, going 0 for 16 from three. Ergo . . . the Huskers must be just about as good as the Cardinals!! . . . let's make sure Akoy knows this!!! [smiley face goes here--can't get it to work]

Yikes, Norm! Kye Kurkowski is a redshirt sophomore--this is his third year on the team. Sergej Vucetic is a true freshman who arrived on campus at the start of this school year. In last night's game, Sergej shot 2 of 5 from the field and 4 of 4 from the line, with six rebounds, one block, and one turnover in 16 mostly-meaningful minutes. Kye shot 1 of 1 from the field with 1 block in three minutes during mop-up duty. Here's a thought: let's give the kid a chance before slapping bus tire treads on his back.

There is a difference, presumably, between undisciplined run-and-gun and a disciplined but fast-paced offense. What Miles wants from Parker is discipline in the offense. Here is the operative quote from Benny: "In high school, I was just up-and-down, up-and-down, and AAU, we were up-and-down, too. We never run a set offense like this before. This is something new for me."

Thanks for noticing. It's actually an albino ugly duckling.

Norm!! Say it isn't so . . . !!! "George Wendt has had to take time off work in light of a hospitalization on Sunday due to chest pains, according to the Chicago Tribune. The six-time Emmy nominee, 64, perhaps best known for his turn as Norm on the classic sitcom "Cheers," was cast to play Oscar in a production of "The Odd Couple" running at the Northlight Theatre in Skokie, Illinois, but will now be replaced by Broadway actor Marc Grapey."

Best line from a reporter: "Transition to Tubby Smith after Tim Miles--like being shot by a tranquilizer gun." Priceless!

Akoy isn't exactly a hot topic these days on the Louisville Basketball message boards. Other than the reaction some time ago to Tim Miles showing up at Central High School, Akoy barely gets a mention, it seems. Heck, in a recent thread on recuits who are expected to make the biggest impact, all the other Louisville verbals get some discussion, but the number of times Akoy is mentioned . . . zero.

Norm said: "Honestly (and I can say this on our private recruiting page) I was hoping we'd be looking at just a bit higher level of player." We probably all agree with this statement to some degree. Perhaps, however, one factor to remember in defense of Coach Miles is this: the curse of Akoy. It seems that Coach Miles has spent such a high level of time and energy and effort to reel Akoy in that the focus and attention he could have been making on other players of a similar type has suffered in the process. It has been a roll of the dice on long odds for Akoy . . . and all for naught (or so it seems).

Cool !!

The following are some scoring stats for Brandon Ubel from Huskers.com: 1. Three point percentages: .524 (11 of 21) as a freshman; .250 (7 of 28) as a sophomore; and .250 (5 of 20) as a junior. 2. Overall percentages: .411 (46 of 112) as a freshman; .516 (63 of 122) as a sophomore; and .517 (74 of 143) as a junior. 3. Free throw percentages: .796 (39 of 49) as a freshman; .792 (61 of 77) as a sophomore, and .825 (47 of 57) as a junior. Interestingly, (i) during his freshman year, Brandon shot a higher percentage from three than from shorter range, (ii) Brandon's free throw percentage has always been around the .800 mark, (iii) his exceptional three point percentage as a freshman dipped to a consistent .250 for the two subsequent years, and (iv) his overall percentages for the last two years are a full percentage point higher than his first year.

In the for-what-it's-worth department, here is a picture taken on my Blackberry along the sidelines around 20 minutes prior to the start of the Wisconsin football game--if anyone can figure out how to increase the size of this picture on this post, please do so. Anyway, of the two people in white t-shirts, the one on the left is Akoy and the one on the right is, I believe, Tre'Shawn. Immediately to Akoy's left is Coach Miles, who is chatting up a storm with Akoy--just as he was doing nearly the entire time I could see him at this event. In the picture, Akoy is shaking hands with someone unknown to me--and Coach Miles seemed to make sure that Akoy shook hands with a number of people along the sidelines, including Hawkins and Fuller.

Which one of these people is Norm, our designated media guy?

Thanks [i assume you meant mine]. It came down to a choice between this one and a similar picture of another swan who looked a little more jocular and a tad bit confused . . .

Am trying to see if I can post a picture from my Blackberry. This one is of Fuller, with what looks like his little brother, and Hawkins, among others, on the sideline at the Wisconsin game about 20 minutes before kickoff. Edit Question: Anyone know how I would get this picture to be bigger on the post?

Will Sam and Woody and Cliff and Frasier and Lilith be there?

Finally made it too.