throwback

Had a chance to catch most of O North-North Star last night - Patton was in some foul trouble, but just 4 pts, 3 or 4 reb, 3 or 4 blocks before fouling out. He does a nice job altering shots at the high school level, but tough to project whether he can do that at the D-1 level where there are many more players similar in size and much stronger. And the rest of his game needs work. Certainly doesn't seem to be someone who can step in right away and make a difference in most D-1 leagues. But then again big guys are typically projects. And he probably had a bit of an off night, as his numbers have been better in other games this season. Was trying to stack him up vs other bigs in recent Nebraska HS play, and am having a hard time. Not as advanced as Hill or Eliason at this point in their HS careers. Agou isn't as big as Patton, but Agou just seemed to affect the game more and was a better all-around player at this stage. Probably forgetting someone to use as a comparison.

Good point - he deserved the ejection Saturday, but the T he got against Minny occurred in part because he's developing a rep among B1G refs. They're watching him closely, and Saturday's incident will only magnify that. Refs will assume he's guilty before he's proven innocent. (Think Eric Martin a few years back for NU football.) And that's what I was trying to say earlier, that B1G officials could look at it and hand out another game at their discretion, even though there's no specific penalty spelled out. I don't think they will, but who knows? I'm not sure how the B1G looks at this type of stuff as we really haven't had to deal with it. He now has 3 tech fouls and an ejection in 7 B1G games - strangely enough all of which have occurred at home - so I'm sure league big wigs will be looking at the incident closely and may choose to send a message. And since big wigs don't work on Sundays we might not hear anything till tomorrow. Again, I'm 99% sure he plays at Michigan, but at the very least he'll be under close scrutiny from B1G officials going forward. Hopefully it's nothing more than that.

If you haven't read Chatelain's column on Tai in the OWH today, you need to. Pretty impressive attitude shown by Tai. http://www.omaha.com/huskers/chatelain-great-expectations-gone-webster-goes-from-worst-of-times/article_3ef6af10-820b-5545-80de-c39fa14a4ce9.html Here's a little bit: The key for him now is remembering how it felt to get benched and continue to use that as fuel to get better and to play with confidence. Refuse to slip back into old habits after tasting some success, which is always the toughest part for anyone. And I'd be surprised if he re-enters the starting lineup any time soon. Seems like the confidence/attitude he gained playing on scout team is sparking him, so if I'm Coach, I don't change anything with him at this point.

Quite a few guys stepped up for NU yesterday but #21 was huge too, recording his best numbers in more than a calendar year. Not bad for a guy not quite 7 months off an ACL injury: 7 pts was his highest pt total since 1/12/14 at Purdue 7 reb was his highest reb total since 1/5/14 at Ohio St 30 min was the most he has ever played as a D-1 player, either as a Husker or at SMU For this season in total he had played 34 min with 9 pts & 7 reb before the MSU game, so he basically doubled his season numbers in one game Tai's play came out of nowhere yesterday, but so did Smith's. We're going to miss Rivers' steady play for this week's road games, but it's really nice to have another senior to plug into the starting lineup.

Coach Miles continues to show an ability to find the right buttons to push with each individual player. He seems to be an expert at the "come to Jesus" meetings. First Parker, then Rivers, now Webster. Hopefully Tai can keep it rolling, especially on the defensive end and/or with hustle plays.

It appeared that the Michigan folks went all out today with the spotlight on them, poured a lot of emotion into the Wisky game from both fans & players. They played well, but a very emotional, tough loss for them. Maybe they'll be a little worn down with the quick turnaround Tuesday, maybe still thinking about the one that got away tonight. Another huge opportunity for NU Tuesday - hope we can take advantage!

Agree - I believe there's no guaranteed suspension for more games, but the B1G could hand down another game or two after a review of the situation by league officials. It's discretionary, depending on the situation. I wouldn't expect anything more, but who knows? New territory for us. I believe that's what Coach was referring to on the post-game - that Walt missing 7/8th of today's game was probably enough punishment and that he didn't expect the B1G to do anything further. If it had happened with 30 seconds left in the game, then maybe another game would be handed down.

NU 58 MSU 51

Interesting story on PSU - I do feel bad for the coaches/players when they're caught in something like that. They really hung around at MSU last night till the 5-min mark. MSU got called for its 7th foul to put PSU in the bonus at that time, and PSU had only 4 or 5 fouls, so you knew what was coming next. Two fouls on PSU on defense, MSU eventually scores in the possession to go up 2. Then an illegal screen on PSU's next possession right before the under-4 media timeout. MSU in the bonus. All close calls. Chambers went ballistic during the commercial break. Technical foul. MSU hits one FT to go up 3 and then nails a 3-pt shot to go up 6. Basically, game over, although PSU fought till the end. The life of a have not when playing at the home of a blue blood. And it's not limited to the B1G. I've been very surprised watching MSU the past two weeks how much they struggle inside. They miss Payne a bunch. Great 3-pt shooting team, although they were bad from beyond the arc at Maryland. And not a great FT shooting team - with our loose rims and poorly inflated adidas basketballs, we should give them a lot of problems with FTs. If we can stop them in transition, which we've been great at doing, especially at home, I love our chances Saturday. Can't have turnovers that fuel their running game.

Another tough loss on the road last night. Thought they had a shot late to win - again - but they kicked it away - again. How many losses in a row is that? 6? 7? 8? When was the last time a team went 0-fer in league play? They could be well on their way. They just look like a program whose coach and players are overmatched at a tougher level. Can't say I feel bad for them. Painful loss after painful loss after painful loss couldn't happen to a better fan base. Hopefully 0-18 is on the way. Of course I'm speaking of Penn State.

We're in danger of moving below 30% for the year and possibly becoming one of the worst 3pt shooting teams in Husker History. We shot 27.4% in the 2002-03 season as Andrew Drevo made the most treys that year. Brutal numbers. The one I can't figure out is Shields - his mid-range shot is so far above average, but he goes 3-5 feet farther out and this season he's been so far below average. Very strange. Have to think it's a mental thing now, as he was better behind the arc last season. When he takes a 3, it's a good look most of the time - he rarely forces it anytime, but especially from 3. If NU can get Shields going a bit from back there & Petteway can get over his FT mind block, they'd both probably bump up their scoring average by 3-5 pts per game. With the way NU is playing defense another 7-8 pts per game would be huge for this team.

Perfect description He's not shy about mixing it up a bit after the whistle, and I'm sure that has made the rounds among B1G officials, so they watch for it. Regardless of whether he deserved the T or not, it was a big moment in the game, as it really got the crowd going and allowed NU to push the lead out a bit. Had to listen to most of it on the radio - which, by the way, is a lot of fun every once in a while because Kent & Matt are great - and I thought they said Shavon earned his T with the "magic" word within earshot of the scorer's table/at least one official. For what it's worth. Ugh. So many 3s. This team cannot live on the 3-pt line. On the post game, Coach MIles took the bullet on the first half offense taking so many 3s, felt like he didn't call enough plays/actions. I'm guessing we'll spend most of our Sparty prep time working against zone, getting the ball inside. We're so much better - as are most teams - when shooting 3s off a pass from inside the lane. Inside-outside is key for this team's offensive flow. Amazing defensive effort carries the day again. Our ultimate success this season probably is going to end up depending on whether we can duplicate that defensive effort - without fouling - when we go on the road. It's pretty obvious teams are going to have a tough time scoring at PBA, but can we do that same thing on the road?

NU 74 Varmints 61

Agreed - need to get a bunch of wins the next few weeks. We can't make the NCAA tournament the next few weeks, but we'll either put ourselves in contention for the stretch run or we'll play ourselves out of it. As long as we put ourselves in contention in the next 6, then we can earn the bid with a few big wins in the last 7. Just hope we have enough energy in the tank for all of those road trips coming up. I'm thinking 5-1 over the next 6 is a minimum we need to get on the NCAA at-large radar. That'd include 2 road wins and a perfect home record in that stretch. Not easy. Then probably 4-3 over the last 7 - that would give us at least one road win down the stretch, as well as probably a really big win or two with 3 games vs Wisky & Maryland in that stretch. Again not easy. But neither was what NU did down the stretch last season. That'd get us to 11-7 in the B1G, but this year we may also need that 1st-round B1G win to get on the right side of the bubble to make up for the non-con hiccups and a slightly weaker/more muddled B1G versus last season. We certainly have made things tough on ourselves with a few of the results in December, but there's still time to make up for it. We just need a lot of things to go right, starting now. Anything less than 5-1 in the next 6 and it's going to require a few improbable upsets in the final 7 games and/or in the B1G tourney. It's fun to look ahead & project, but hopefully the team is fully honed in on Tuesday and the Gophers - all we have to do is fall back on our superior intelligence and superior firepower to defeat the Varmint Cong!

Indiana steals another road win, 80-74 at Illinois The 3 conf teams that have beaten us are now 12-3 in league play. Our next six opponents in league play (3 each at home and on road) are: 1-5 3-2 4-2 1-5 1-4 0-5 Combined 10-23 - time for NU to make a surge! Then last 7 opponents (3 at home, 4 on the road) are 4-1 3-2 5-1 4-1 3-3 2-4 5-1 Combined 26-13 - so we can put ourselves in position with a strong next 6 games and then potentially have a few opportunities for the kinds of wins that turn the committee members' heads over the last 7.

Good response to a chance to start for the first time!

Rough math, I think we're only averaging 9 turnovers per game in B1G play & I think we've only had one B1G game where we had more than 10 turnovers (vs Illinois). Pretty amazing turnaround considering some of the fumble fests we had in the non-con. And a turnaround that's going to have to continue if we want to put together a big run the next few weeks. Kind of....that stat is a combination of us taking care of the ball and the type of defense Wisconsin plays. I'd be a lot more impressed with 10 or fewer turnovers against a team like Minnesota that pressures the crap out of you. True, turnovers per possession would be a better number to look at in B1G play, since the games slow down quite a bit generally in league play. I'm not doing that rough math though.

Rough math, I think we're only averaging 9 turnovers per game in B1G play & I think we've only had one B1G game where we had more than 10 turnovers (vs Illinois). Pretty amazing turnaround considering some of the fumble fests we had in the non-con. And a turnaround that's going to have to continue if we want to put together a big run the next few weeks.

When NU had 5 fouls in the first 5 min of the second half, the game was over. I don't know how close we had gotten at that point, but Wisky's game, especially at home, is getting to the FT line, and once that was going to happen for the majority of the 2nd half, it was over. Considering how poorly Wisc had been shooting the 3 the past few games, especially Kaminsky, NU did the right thing in trying to limit Wisc in the lane and see what they could do from 3. Unfortunately being at home and being ultra-focused after the loss to RU allowed Wisc to take full advantage and hit a high percentage from 3. When hitting on all cylinders, Wisc has an offensive threat everywhere on the floor. Rivers works extremely hard, but Hayes is an awful matchup for him (as he is for a lot of guys). With Wisky's offensive threats all over the floor, it's tough to double and help Rivers. In the rematch I have to think Moses will get a bunch of minutes vs Hayes; I think we just need to try a bigger body on him. Time for the "softest" part of the B1G schdule. NU needs to get rejuvinated the next couple of days and be ready to go vs Minny Tuesday. NU can't earn an NCAA at-large bid the next few weeks, but we can certainly play ourselves out of contention if we're not ready to go. NU has been better the last few games, outside of a couple of bad runs last night, so hopefully they can build on it starting Tuesday. Oh and Gasser makes my all-America team ... at flopping.

Yeah, 17 that seems high to me too. I was thinking 10-12.

Not sure what it means, or if it means anything, but maybe our B1G schedule so far hasn't been too bad: Indiana now 3-1 in conf play, tied for 1st Iowa now 3-1 in conf play, tied for 1st (with 2 road wins) Rutgers 2-2 in conf play, tied for 8th - beat then-#4 Wisconsin in next game after losing to NU Illinois 1-3 in conf play, 12th - beat then-#9 Maryland in preceding game before losing to NU NU's two conf wins both by double digits, led entire 2nd half in both NU's two conf losses, had a 2nd half lead in both The latter half of our league schedule will be very tough, but the opening portion hasn't been easy either, other than getting 3 of the first 4 at home.

Neb 55 Wisky 54

Me too, but then again the RPI formula doesn't care how injured they are.

Yeah when I saw this score flash, first thought = had to be a typo. second thought = Wisky is going to be extremely p-o'd Thursday & we're in trouble. But now seeing they played without Kaminsky & lost Jackson to injury & blew a 12-pt halftime lead, we may be catching them at a good time ... well, as good as it gets in Madison. If those two guys can't go Thursday, you have to expect the rest of the team to have quite a bit of doubt after what happened at RU - hopefully we can take advantage. Still going to be extremely tough & we'll probably be a 10-plus-pt dog, but a tremendous opportunity for sure. Hoping BTN would have a replay on of RU-Wisky sometime today, but nothing showing up. Can't blame BTN, I don't think anyone expected this one to be remotely competitive. Hopefully they'll schedule a replay at some point though - would love to see how RU pulled it off. They looked absolutely awful in Lincoln.

Absolutely right - plenty of opportunities to bolster the resume.