Swan88

From today’s Baltimore Sun: Nebraska’s fans Three years ago, when Maryland played at Nebraska for the first time as a member of the Big Ten, the Cornhuskers were on a seven-game losing streak. The game was close to a sellout. Two years ago, when the Terps came to Nebraska ranked No. 4 in the country and the Cornhuskers were hovering right above .500, the place was packed again. So it made sense that Tuesday’s game at Pinnacle Bank Arena was a sellout. It’s right up there with basketball hotbeds Purdue, Indiana and Michigan State in terms of atmosphere. Which means it’s way better than what the Terps will return to Saturday night when they face Big Ten bottom-feeder Rutgers in an 8 p.m. start. Sad, but true.

Yes. And Rutgers beat St. John's in an opening-season exhibition win (one of those early charity games) when St. John's was at full strength.

And how does a team come in at #21 with three lop-sided losses in the last nine games: by 14, 20 and 22?

We don’t have a Tier 1 win only because of a technicality: the Minnesota win was over a #14 team at full strength—the refusal to recognize and value this fact is a defect and bias in the system. And there are some massively-overrated teams ahead of us in the RPI, which also reveals the defects and bias in the system. Examples are St. Bonaventure, Buffalo and Vermont. And how can a team be rated 23 with losses by 14, 20 and 22 in the last 9 games? “Bias” is the answer. It’s the same bias that won’t recognize the value of our first Minnesota win and that continues to say (without any means of verification) that the B1G is “awfully down.” And, speaking of "awfully down," we must note that one of our lowly B1G cellar dwellers, Rutgers, has beginning of the season wins over two Big East teams: St. John's (when it was at full strength) and Seton Hall.

So . . . Shatel's headline this a.m. references 20 wins and declares, "but Miles should be safe." I'm probably alone on this, but that headline struck me as incredibly tone-deaf. There are no Huskers, anywhere, this morning pondering to themselves: "Is Miles safe yet?" Not one. Those musing simply aren't happening. So . . . when I read that headline, I kinda looked in disbelief and wondered, "Who the heck do you think your audience is?" Those wearing blue is, apparently, the answer. Because it certainly isn't those wearing red!

St. Bonaventure has wins over Maryland on a neutral court in overtime, at Syracuse and at home against UMass. No other major wins. They’ve lost to Niagra, TCU, Dayton, Saint Joseph’s, Rhode Island and Davidson. Their other wins are over Jackson St., Md.-East. Shore, Siena, Buffalo, Canisius, Yale, Vermont, Northeastrn, Fordham, Saint Joseph’s, George Washington, George Mason, Duquesne, Saint Louis and Richmond. And these dudes are ahead of us in the RPI?! I call foul!!

Too much math. Too much precision. Too much sophistication. Committee members vote, and each member’s vote is based on his/her own priorities and values and biases. There is no monolithic Committee position on anything, other than on the broadest of generalities. Predicting is fun and creates discussion and interest. But predictions are based on assumptions that are often faulty. Here’s to enjoying the ride and to hoping that tonight’s result enhances, rather than detracts from, Nebrasketball’s chances.

So . . . Huskers came within an inch on the last shot of toppling the # 6 seed. That should count for something.

Despite all the talk of a down B1G, all the remaining Husker games are against tough teams. There aren’t any easy ones.

Buffalo is 28?! That’s bizarre. Their record is 18-6 overall and 10-1 in Conference. They’ve lost to every power 5 school they played: Rhode Island (Exhib.), Cincinnati, Syracuse, Texas A&M. And they lost to South Dakota St. They beat UAB in overtime. And that’s it for anyone significant outside their conference. Other victories include Daemen, Canisius, Jacksonville St., Niagra, St. Bonaventure (oops, that was a loss), Delaware, Central Penn, Robert Morris, NJIT, Toledo, Ball St., Akron, Miami (Ohio), Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, Easterrn Michigan, Ohio, Kent St. (oops, that was a loss too). And the computers rank these guys substantially higher than the Huskers? For real?!

Yikes! Creighton was darn-lucky to beat DePaul by a single point just now. That Husker loss in Omaha is starting to move toward bad.

Yeah. One similarity between this team, so far (let's not jinx them), and the prior Dancing Nebrasketball team is that everyone is reasonably healthy. That means a lot as the season goes along and the daily grind takes its toll.

Ha! Good one. Sorry for being daft,

Probably not any time soon. UN-O stands, right now, at 7-17 overall and 2-6 in its conference. It's possible, of course, for them to hit an out-of-body experience and win the Summit League Tournament. But odds are much-better, right now, for Nebrasketball to get a win in the Tournament than for UN-O to do such a thing. The old jokes about UN-O being a better team than what the Huskers put on the court each night doesn't play very well right now.

We now know that Anton Gill and Evan Taylor give good interviews. We've had an opportunity to hear them both on the radio in the last couple games. 1. Anton Gill: During last night's post-game, I started listening to a player-interview but did not catch who was talking. During the interview, I was impressed with the quality of analysis and responses and wondered who might be talking. Anton Gill is the answer. Would like to hear more from him! 2. Evan Taylor. When Evan Taylor's interview ended after the Wisconsin game, Kent Pavelka suggested that he take up broadcasting. Then, after last night's game, I heard this reported: (i) during a BTN interview of Evan Taylor, the interviewer asked if Evan was surprised at Roby's performance; (ii) Evan promptly turned to Isaiah and asked if Isaiah was surprised by his own performance; (iii) Isaiah said, "No"; (iv) then Evan turned to the mircophone and said that he wasn't surprised either, since Isaiah always played that way in practice, and what we saw last night is merely more of the same. Now . . . that's a clever way to respond!

Yeah. I saw it the same way: Copeland went straight up on defense—he reached out the right hand but made no contact; and The Minnesota player initiated contact against Copeland’s ribcage and then purposely flopped to get a foul call, but I think the flop went awry—the landing sounded really violent on tv.

That three-pointer Evan drains near the end of the game, with the clock winding down and chaos everywhere, is pure genius.

The long layoff since the last game didn't beat us this time. But it, truly, has been a problem in the past -- especially in December. Here are a few examples. Last season: After losing at Kansas on Dec. 10 (and playing them even in the second half), we lost to Garner-Webb on December 18 at home 70-62. 2015-16: After beating Rhode Island on Dec. 13, we lost at home to Samford on Dec. 20 by 69-58. 2014-15: After beating Cincinnati at home in overtime on Dec. 13, we lost to Hawaii 50-42 in the Maui Classic on December 22.

And which basketball god declared such a thing? That’s a subjective opinion that’s been unverifiable for at least a month by now. And no team—or conference—is the same now as it was a month ago. Just look, for example, at our friends down by the river: in the last six games they have three double-digit losses (22 points, 14 points, and 20 points respectively). Or what about our Minnesota friends: going from a #14 ranking at full strength when we played them to their present diminished condition. And we still have the month of February before tournament time arrives: no team—or conference—will be the same then, as now, either.

Somebody over on Red Sea Scrolls posted about a rumor that Copeland is injured. That post got a little traction for a while. But it looks like that thread is gone.

Cip, Mo and Nee all did good things and had good results. If we had a 64-team field in days gone by, there'd be no talk in the present about no-tournament-wins. And even Doc had it going for awhile (he was 50/50, for example, with the guy now at Oregon), until the Robert Sallee fiasco killed his program. You can't usually fire your way to success. Usually, it takes a commitment to a coach and a process over-time and through-adversity to do exceptionally well: see, e.g., Tom Osborne. I still remember college-mates back in the late-70s (when Osborne toyed with the Colorado job) saying, "If Tommy wants to go, then Tommy should go." I thought they were ridiculous-or-insane at the time, and I now know they were at least one of those! And remember: Tom Osborne took over a program that had just come off of two consecutive national championships. Tim Miles had no such luck.

Ha! It takes a homer to gush so beautifully.

And everyone knows from the last coaching change that, according to the bulk of our fan base, we should have "opened the checkbook" and hired John Groce instead of Tim Miles! Whatever. But here's my assessment of Tim Miles's fatal error at the end of his highly-successful year-two at Nebraska: he let Craig Smith leave for a head coaching gig elsewhere. It's not that Craig Smith was so great (although he's turning out to be a good head coach) as much as it was the break-up of a duo that had been together--and succeeded together--over several decades. A good analogy is Scott Frost bringing his entire staff--who collectively achieved their prior successes--with him to Nebraska. That's what Tim Miles did, only to have a major success factor depart. Tim Miles had mostly-recovered by last year, until a major-player departure and a major-player injury put the season in the tank. But it looks like he's back in the groove with the current staff and team. Let's keep it going!