Swan88

Wow. What a shame: an Aurora, Nebraska, kid gets drafted into the NBA and shows up at Memorial Stadium to celebrate his accomplishment . . . "on the Colorado side"?!! That's sad for him, in my book. Really sad.

????

Rothstein predicted last July that Nebrasketball would finish 13th out of 14 Big Ten teams. Instead, Nebrasketball finished 3rd out of 14 -- behind only Purdue and Illinois. Now, THAT miss from reality is an epitome of brutality for a self-proclaimed expert on college basketball. This season's Rothstein prognostication of Nebraskteball at 14 out of 18 is a slight improvement: moving up from 7.14% away from the bottom last preseason to 22.22% away from the bottom this preseason.

Maybe an injury to his shooting arm or hand?

The only disappointment I've had in watching a few minutes, here and there, of Berke's games is this: he's no Josiah Allick when it comes to going after loose balls.

I tuned in for a couple minutes at the end of the third quarter. The first thing I saw was Berke backing his defender down and getting a dunk. Then, a little while later, he got a steal on the other end. Then, it looked like he was injured a little. He went out of the game for the last minute or so of the third quarter, and Spain went on a run--from down three to up by three in Berke's absence.

Here's a June 6, 2024, report at Huskers.com: Former Husker men’s basketball performer Lat Mayen was named as one of 25 players selected to South Sudan’s preliminary Paris Olympics roster this week. Mayen, who has played professionally in Australia and New Zealand since graduating from Nebraska in 2022, is currently playing for the Wellington Saints in the New Zealand National Basketball League, averaging 17.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game in nine games this summer. He played for Cairns in the Australian National Basketball League in each of the last two seasons. South Sudan has two games scheduled before the Olympics, when they will travel to London for matchups with Germany (July 18) and the United States (July 20). This will be South Sudan’s first Olympic appearance, as the country has been recognized by FIBA since 2018. Previously Mayen played for the Australian U18 team in 2016 FIBA Oceania Championships, averaging 7.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in helping Australia to a runner-up finish.

Huskers at no. 19 on this one:

Huskers are No. 22:

It seems that Trev is good at managing coaches: e.g., he hired Rhule and didn't fire Hoiberg, and all NU sports teams seemed to improve under his leadership. But the business and change-management parts of the job are huge these days: and whether he is up to handling those parts remains to be seen. At Nebraska: Trev was highly visible (as compared to Troy Dannen, who isn't)--whether that is a good thing or bad (or if they even let him do that) remains to be seen at Texas A&M; Trev's stadium expansion initiative will move forward at Nebraska--in a modified form--but it had some questionable elements, including the total cost and whether Husker Nation would get behind it; Trev had some odd views on NIL, which seems bizarre in this NIL-crucial environment; and Trev seems to want a large role in the rapidly-changing college sports world, but in his highly-visible role at Nebraska, he created more of an "Aw-Shucks" image than one of high-competence in that area of responsibility.

My impression has been, from a BYU basketball message board, that they viewed this recruit as a Plan B to Berke.

Everything is changing. Teams must adapt to flourish. Those who don't . . . will fall behind.

Additional anonymous reporting on another site, with alleged insider access, is that (I) the coaches feel good about their chances with Berke, but it’s not a done deal, and (ii) they are talking with other players too—but won’t take someone just to fill a spot. So . . . what I typed above must be at least fourth-hand hearsay.

Nice find. Here’s the money sentence on Berke from the article: ”Berke may not be on the top of BYU’s board but he is a guy they are pursuing.”

Here is an article by Nebraska Law College professor Josephine Potuto, who has been at the center of discussions around college athletics. The article is published by Inside Higher Ed and is titled, “NCAA, Heal Thyself.” It’s an interesting take on what has happened and the changes that are coming. Here’s how the article opens: “If there is any chance for real reform in college sports, it will have to start with autonomy for the largest, most well-resourced programs.” And here is a discussion around basketball: “A considerable hurdle to establishing a new division, and one that killed its creation a decade ago, is the men’s basketball tournament. The tournament is open to all comers in Division I, and that is part of its charm and popularity. It produces the great bulk of all NCAA revenues, shared with all NCAA institutions but on a formula that greatly favors Division I. It also produces additional revenues for a university with a team that competes in the tournament, with increased payout the further a team proceeds. A separate division may upend the current revenue formula for Division I institutions. It also very likely will provide more benefits to the new division’s athletes, further increasing the talent advantage of the best-resourced institutions and lessening the possibility for a Cinderella team to advance far into the tournament.”