nustudent

The Big Ten is brutal this year. The irony of it all is the same reasons that left us out last year may get us in this year

That being said...Roby has been a thing of beauty in the second half

Impressive 4 for 24 thus far from our senior leaders

Think we are still a ways from the actual bubble, but we do have a shot coming up to get back on it. If we can find a way to go 4-2 down the stretch (@PSU, NW, Pur, IA) to get to 18-13 heading into Chicago, there's an outside shot. 8-12 doesn't look good. Everyone is comparing us to OU last year. 8-12 is worse than 8-10 and a lot of our wins aren't as good. I think we would need 2 in Chicago. If we can get to 20-14, while finishing 7-3 in our last 10 (not an official factor, but helps with perception) and have wins over Minnesota, Purdue, Iowa and likely another tournament team in Chicago...I think there's a possibility due to the Big 10's strength. We absolutely need Minnesota, Seton Hall and Clemson to continue their strong play though. Creighton seems to be a lost cause now at 13-12...but the others can play their way into the tournament yet. Indiana rebounding is big for us as well.

Only about 5 more weeks and this will be over.

More willing defender than Palmer. Won't take dumb shots. Get scoring off the bench from Palmer and Akenten

Watson Allen Harris Roby Borchardt

Considering it was a giant donor event and many of the people in attendance contribute to not only football but the entire Athletic Department as a whole, I'd say he made the right choice.

True. There's also going to be the opposite effect as well.

I think it means very little to players (outside of the blue blood schools). Recent history and relevance is what matters. I will say that I think tradition can help attract coaches (due to a history of success), which in turns attracts players though.

I don't view Nee as a bad choice. I think we would kill for his run of success right now. We would sacrifice virgins in his honor if a coach goes to 5 NCAAs, 3 NITs (including an NIT championship) and wins a conference tournament over the next 10 years.

Maybe. But I think we might be surprised how 'lucky' we might be, when we stop making bad decisions or limiting ourselves from making a good one.

I'll give you that in rare instances it matters. I.e. Blue Bloods. Nebraska football. Duke hoops. Kansas hoops. Places where there is a true aura around it. There aren't many of those and I don't think those are the places we are truly competing with in landing kids. But I don't believe a kid is choosing Iowa State because of something Johnny Orr did in the 80s. He's going to choose them because he believes in Prohm.

IYAM, it matters, because choosing the wrong coach to coach here is as much of a reason for the career killing as the program is. There's no doubt this is a tough job. IMO, it's not impossible for the right coach, we've just made 3 bad decisions.

Agreed. I think this one hurts more because there was actual belief and valid reasoning for the belief.

Possibly. I guess the point I was trying to make was....don't go out and spend $28M for the sake of spending $28M and think that means you are committed to winning. Spend what you need to. Identify your guy and get him. If school A, is willing to pay him $3M, and it's going to take you $3.5M to get him.....do it.

And I think it is more than that too. $ is only part of the equation. You have to know what you are paying for. If you are paying for an unproven guy, that's not necessarily the way to go either. Much better to overpay for a proven guy than pay market value for an unproven one.

Yes and no, IMO. I think we probably know how to do it in basketball, it's just that we haven't always had the desire or ability to do 100% of what is necessary. K-State wanted to be good in hoops again....they gave Huggins a second chance. We would have never done something like that in the past. We still might not. But it's the type of thing we need to do. Auburn did it with Pearl too. If you want to be good, maybe it means paying a guy $3.8M a year when he'd otherwise warrant $3M. Maybe it means giving a proven winner with past transgressions a second chance rather than a nobody a first chance. I've said a few times now over the last week or so that we need to look ourselves in the mirror and decide if we want to be good in basketball. It's going to take us getting away from our decisions in the past to do it. It CAN be done. Will it?

Does that automatically resign a football school to no success in basketball? There's a difference between expecting consistent elite 8s and expecting non sub -.500 records consistently. What about being a 'football school' disqualifies one from being good in basketball? There are plenty of football schools who are serviceable in basketball and vice versa.

Very good points. And some people will say history of winning and tradition. But the reality is....a 17-year old kid isn't going to choose a place to go play basketball for a few years based on events that occurred before he was born. He's going to choose based on what he feels gives him the best chance of being successful and that's going to be the current coach, who may or may not have been at the school for a while. All the same challenges here, apply in Manhattan and Ames as well.

IMO, not yet. Why? You still have new facilities that are among the best in the country. With the full share in the Big 10, you have the money to pay for what you are getting or even overpay for what you want to a certain extent and potentially have an admin with the willingness to do so. Those are some big pieces, we've either never really had the combination of before. Miles proved you can get talent in here. He just proved that he couldn't really push the right buttons with it. Recruiter and Coach don't have to be mutually exclusive. Nebraska isn't a destination job for many people. That doesn't mean it can't attract quality candidates. We've limited ourselves with our own self imposed restrictions limiting our pool more than anything. We've always half-assed our approach in hoops and never gone in head first. It's possible that fails too. But if it does, we're in no different a position than we have always been.

I'd also throw in low expectations as a caveat to your last point.

Very similar to that

Yep My opinion...and my opinion only....is we hyped that game up in our minds so much. That was our coming out party so to speak. We were unbeatable at home and we were going to knock off the top dog and move forward with a special season. When that didn't happen, we lost our edge and sleep walked through Rutgers. That significantly damaged our confidence and edge and Copeland's knee injury was the straw that broke the camel's back.

This.