Dean Smith

What I have is hearsay so it wouldn't hold up in court but I think there was some resentment and envy from both MJ and Ed vs each other, vs Jordy, vs Copeland knowing what he was probably going to do the next season as well as not happy with all the "Roby doesn't know how good he can be" talk. Maybe if Ed would have been taken out of the picture earlier, MJ could have been good for the Huskers. There is always such a delicate balance in team sports with all the attitudes and personal perspectives. I think our football team is a great example that addition by subtraction is a real thing.

Except that there is more to a player than what they do on the floor. MJ and Ed were not good teammates in the locker room and I'm not just talking about the fact they left. Team chemistry is important and those two were problems off the court.

Minnesota won but did they play Omaha in a rec center? Might be the ugliest floor I've ever seen.

I admit Brady looked better than I originally projected he would in the exhibition. I agree he will get better as the season goes on, but the caveat I see to your point is that as the season does go on we will be playing the Michigan and Ohio State's of the world and not the Wayne State's. He had a tremendous hight advantage last night which offset the issue with his playing weight at this time. As he gets better he will also be facing far superior opponents in both size and athleticism which will probably offset some of his gains. My final word on the subject is, we will simply have to wait and see how things play out.

I never post during games but I can't even focus on the basketball these two announcers are so bad. The "color" guys the worst but they both are making my ears bleed. Not only are they horrible they have no idea what they are talking about.

Scroll up to look at the Austin Allen highlights.

He made a living from short corner vs. zones. And Aurora would have a state title if the rest of the team could have been convinced to pass him the ball a little more often.

I agree with your assessment. Just saying we can have the discussion about what we need without eating our own at this point.

"It sure sounds like?" Does that mean you read something on this board or you heard Coach Miles say something? This is the problem trying to read the future. The board was wrong about Tai for years when projecting his future. If you look back at the beginning of last year JPJ was underwhelming to many after the first scrimmage. Does anyone actually have any evidence that Thor is going anywhere except many think he probably won't be able to help the team and assume he will be or they simply want him gone? That might be exactly what happens but it might be way too early to jump to any conclusions or totally write anyone off. Maybe I'm just soft but I feel uncomfortable throwing college kids (no matter how athletic they are kids) under the bus without any real evidence. If you want to disparage Jordy not being a team player I'm on board with that because that is what the evidence shows. Thor did not look like a world-beater last night and honestly, I watched quite a few of his games this summer with Iceland and was disappointed in what I saw in the way of progress. Part of that had to do with the entire team seemingly having no discipline with shot selection, meaning everyone took bad shots but I digress. I know people's opinions are what these boards are for but, I think we should be able to look ahead without walking over the bodies of those who are already here. I'm too excited about the coming season to get pulled into negativity already. Let's save that for the first crisis after we lose our first game before we start writing people off.

My take is Burke would easily be the fifth starter. If not he would definitely be one of the five to finish off games.

Ya, my son pointed out they had him guarding one of the Elk South kids, don't remember which one, but his comment was, "If that's who they told him to guard that doesn't say much about their confidence in his ability to guard anyone."

They scrimmaged while the T-shirt line was still around the corner, stopped went in for quite awhile and then came out for intros, warmups and the official scrimmage. Watson and Burke especially hit a couple of tough 3’s (Roby also on that team and hit) in the pre-scrimmage or whatever you want to call it. Everybody around me was oohing and saying things like, “They can’t keep shooting that well.” Then the real scrimmage started and proved them right, they did not continue to shoot anywhere near that well.

The official scrimmage shooting % was not the best, but did you see the scrimmage before intros. Watson, Allen Nana all hit a couple along with Burke and Cope and. Roby each hit one. Palmer was the only one who didn’t hit. The 3pt % had to be in the 70’s if not higher.

I don’t think the form on their jump shots are really comparable. I truly think his sort of awkwardish drives that get finished anyway, the penetrate to step back pull up, and his shot form from distance is almost identical to Reggie Miller. I’m sure he has a long way to go to catch up on his trash talking abilities though. The all time trash talk NCAA game had to be Reggie’s UCLA vs Fenis Dembo at Wyoming. Those two were barking at each other from the warm ups to after the post game hand shake.

Just an observation but in basketball, you get a quicker return on your money so to speak. You're only sending out 5 players at a time. If I buy three studs then I can compete nationally surrounding them with the other players I got legitimately. A big three seems to be the standard needed for real success in the NBA today. I buy three football players and for the most part that just means that those three get the shit kicked out them every Saturday. Football brings in more money but its about the numbers. If you want to be successful using questionable means in football you need more money to get more players. If by any means necessary I get three top 20 players to commit to a school like Dayton, Cleveland State or Cadwallader University (Fast Break is a very underappreciated bad basketball movie), they are now nationally relevant and that means they are now bringing in big money. Nothing to do with the post but explains my Cadwallader University reference.

For whatever it’s worth, Dick Vital has Nebraska at 33 with four B1G teams in front of us.

This might not be popular but as great as he was for the Huskers I don't want TP on this team. There goes the balance. Maybe he would be able to adjust to a more team concept and not be the center of the offense but if not everything falls apart and I can see him and JPJ getting in a fight at practice as competitive as they both are. Shields would be a big addition to this years team and would make himself fit. I am really not sure TP would be willing to do that. The way the team played at the end of last season and the way we assume they will play this year does not play to TP's strengths as a volume shooter. Bottom line is don't think there would be room for both him and James on the floor at the time. I think we could/can make one of them happy, but two would be too many.

Everybody including Miles has started this season feeling that if Roby has a big year he’s gone to the NBA. But Miles has now reported when Roby overheard him discussing the Italy trip next summer, Roby interrupted with a, “That will be awesome!” So I guess that means it’s not a complete done deal.

The video says the new Iceman but I see someone else who was pretty smooth himself. Now in no way am I saying they two are equivalent, they just have similar styles and form. So I'm not saying they are the same. For instance, not once on the video did I see this kid make a choke sign to a fan.

Besides the Crusades and the Protestant Revolution?

We might be getting the cart before the horse on that one. Let's let him play a game or two his junior year before we send him off to the NBA. He certainly has the potential but potential means you haven't really done anything yet.

The Roby prediction will hopefully come to fruition, but I refuse to accept that every college basketball player's goal is to get out of college and into the NBA in as few of years as possible. There have been players that all the pundits said was "stupid" for coming back to college for their senior year because they "can't do anything but hurt their draft stock." But still, a few do return because they have not achieved all of their individual or team goals. There will always be few, albeit a very few, that go against conventional wisdom and choose not throw their name into the draft. I have no idea if Roby would be one of those few, but in the end, it is an individual decision taking into account multiple factors. Most do look at the evidence and chose the NBA, but there are exceptions to every rule.

You seem to think I'm throwing shade on Aleks. He was a big man and cast a huge shadow. I watched those years and know exactly how important he was. His tendency to miss bunnies at inopportune times frustrated me but the guy was an absolute stud for Nebraska. I just think Diaz's skill set would have made him just as effective if that phrasing allows you to stomach the claim a tiny bit more. He had drop steps baseline and middle, jump hooks with both hands, mid-range jumpers, and could put the ball on the floor against big men for a dribble or two. If you watch him after his Husker career you will see him knock down threes and surprisingly throw it down with some authority. He also showed the ability to effectively pass out of the post. I can find the stats for his Puerto Rican team as 14.5 PPG, 38% from 3 and 66% FG, 6.5 RPG and 1.8 blacks. He could do so much if he was healthy enough to move he would have been unguardable in the college game. Maric is one of the all-time Husker greats and I suppose I may have gotten carried away but I was always in love with Diaz's skill set and felt he could do so much more if his feet allowed him. My bottom line is a healthy Diaz would have helped almost if not every Husker team that took the floor.

A guy like Diaz would be welcome on almost every year's squad. If he had healthy feet, I believe he would have been one of the most successful Husker players in program history. I believe a healthy Diaz is a more effective player than Aleks Marić and we got a lot out of Marić.