throwback

All I know is if you tie Jack Moore on some sort of free throw record, you can feel pretty good about your performance. Very impressive.

Yeah that play by Rice was pretty cool - and the subsequent crowd reaction, a loud mixture of groans and "WOW"s was pretty good too - I loved the sh!+ eating grin on his face on the way back down the floor - has to feel pretty good to make a play like that and then get that kind of reaction out of the opposing crowd. Of course that was the last point he had until a late garbage bucket as Parker took him out of the game after that - so that grin didn't last long. At least he didn't cry.

MSU 68 Neb 58

You know, I think I sat near this guy last night - whined while Parker was in the game and wasn't scoring, paid no attention to what he did on the defensive end, and then left with 5 min to go ... just as Parker's defense was completely taking Rice out of the game.

Good news! We're undefeated under Miles in Big Ten games when we're a favorite ... of course this is only the 4th time we've been favored in a league game the past 2 seasons. Miles' teams are a very impressive 19-10-1 against the spread in Big Ten reg-season and postseason games, including 8-2 this season. So I guess that means we win the award for being the most successful underrated/undervalued B1G team by Las Vegas.

Up vote for mentioning one of the all-time greats

NCAA RPI rankings thru Feb 10: http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-rpi BIG TEN 7. Wisconsin (+5 spots from last week) 10. Michigan State (-3) 16. Ohio State (E) - L, W 17. Michigan (-3) - L, L 23. Iowa (-1) - L 41. Minnesota (-3) - W 69. Nebraska (+3) 70. Illinois (-1) 78. Indiana (-11) - W 98. Northwestern (-13) - W 107. Purdue (+4) - L 114. Penn State (-16) - L Non-Conference 11. UMass (-2) - L 13. Creighton (-5) - L 14. Cincinnati (+1) - L 112. Miami (-15) - W 113. Georgia (+27) - W 169. Florida Gulf Coast (+16) - W 174. UAB (-35) - L 191. Arkansas State (+2) - W 203. Northern Illinois (-4) - W 262. Western Illinois (+7) - W 335. South Carolina State (-23) - W 347. The Citadel (-1) - W NU vs Top 25: 1-7 NU vs Top 50: 2-7 NU vs Top 100: 4-7 NU vs Top 150: 6-9 NU vs 25-50: 1-0 NU vs 25-75: 1-0 NU vs 25-100: 3-0 NU vs 50-100: 2-0 NU vs 50-150: 4-2 NU vs 101-200: 4-3 NU vs 150+: 6-1 NU vs 200+: 4-0

That's it - Coach has so many stories that they have a hard time fitting in all of the commercial breaks.

Illinois Wednesday - first matchup One month ago they were 2-0 in B1G and #23 ranked All of a sudden you start losing and before you know it, you've lost 8 in a row They changed things up vs PSU, started 2 frosh, and looked more like #23 team We have a good game plan Coach Smith has a great scout ready Coach Hunter did a nice scout vs NW And Coach Harriman has guaranteed his scout will give us a win vs MSU, so that's good Rice? He's really good, he belongs in the B1G he's like Petteway, can go out and score 30 without blinking

Practiced today, how did it go? Solid practice Started slow but then got going We've tried to shorten practices Have to change the stimulus from time to time We have a running clock as to when practice will end, if they work hard up to the end of the clock, practice is over, if they don't work hard enough, practice is over, but we then spend time running after the clock is out We're at a point in time where we work on things we can sharpen up MSU-Wisky played Sunday, Izzo had two brilliant out of bounds plays So hard to get those plays when everybody knows you need a 3 and they got very good looks That doesn't happen by accident, you have to practice those things Sometimes have to practice fouling, when you have fouls to give, or you're trying to foul late when up 3 We're trying to address those types of issues Long breaks in schedule Glad they're over I hate them gaps in B1G schedule Like to just keep playing Can you address that with league We talk about it all the time at league meetings They say it's all set up randomly But it never happens to Ohio St Mark on the phone: Offensive type of question, guys like Pitchford & Webster, seems like they need to be more well-rounded players, can they get to that point? How urgent is that for next season? Excellent question I think there's no doubt Tai has had the biggest acclimation to American basketball He'll have a much better season next year You'll see great improvement Ball handling is fine creating for others is getting better, scoring needs work We have a lot of guys who need shots, and Tai can be the passer for us We talked about it, he agreed that his assist numbers can go up, we are working on making him into more of a playmaker, setting up others for shots, we'll worry about the scoring later Walt has been a perimeter guy his whole life, so it's hard to switch that I think what he needs to improve on is driving and playing off two feet, moreso than having a post up game Ubel did that well, drive, jump stop, flip ball up on the rim Walt has a nice face up jumper, but he doesn't get fouled because he doesn't drive into a post move Those are what we'd like to see him develop, then he can get fouled more We'd like to do those improvements in season, but it's very hard to do, those changes are more easily done in offseason Right now we're really working on making better decisions For example Terran sometimes makes mistakes when he jumps off one foot, we're working on making him jump stop and either shoot or make pass, more creative footwork with pivoting works better for him, we work on those types of things in practice Now they're seeing how those things we work on in practice actually pay off in rhythm shots and passes Ubel learned those things quickly, but wasn't a great 3 pt shooter Walt makes more 3s, but I think he'll improve in the drive in future

Benny had no turnovers I gave him a hard time, he made 2 shots vs Minny then 0 vs Ind I don't want to see that trend continue after making 2 shots at NW, keep making shots Doesn't turn ball over Very good in straight line to the rim in transition He has improved in a lot of areas Need to have him keep improving his outside shot Rivers played well? Big blocked shot - it was absolutely a block I asked him if it came off the glass first, i won't tell you what he told me Crowd question: How many assistant coaches? When you have more suits on the bench than players, you're in trouble Basically it's me and 3 assistants Only we 4 can do player development We can recruit too, for example I'll be out 3 times in the next 8 days for recruiting We are contacting guys daily We 4 handle the guys, handle the recruiting Then we have a director of operations, Olson, who oversees academics, scheduling games, scheduling facilities for practice, scheduling our travel logistics, a lot to do there, nothing that's fun We have a video coordinator, Eaton, he puts together clips of whatever we want to see, and he does it immediately, He shared some drills with Wyoming and they sent us some, he also works closely with Hudl so our guys can get a series of clips on their own playback device And then we have Owens, who handles all of our outreach, such as reading in a school or life skills things, fundraising, public appearances for me, Owens coordinates all of it, he'll make up a PowerPoint for me to use for speaking, and then he travels with me and runs it, Owens also handled our coaches vs cancer auction, "day with the Huskers", four different groups that he handles all day, he'll work with Husker Vision to make sure that all charity work/outreach is coordinated in the arena I am a bit of a control freak, so I want things done the right way, so I like having Owens available Shamus works hard for us in SID Husker Vision works hard for us Strength and conditioning coaches, trainers individualize workouts We try to be as state of the art as we can with that kind of stuff, did it at CSU, we do it better here at NU Andy from the phone: Social media, you have a good connection with players and bridging age gap, have you ever discussed some of your Twitter successes with Coach Pelini? I just act like I'm 16, I'm 47, that's how I say connected Never talked to Bo about Twitter I do know Bo is a heck of a football coach We live in the same neighborhood I asked Bo, I have no idea how to get in or out of our neighborhood He told me to go downhill, and it worked, i got to work on time No I just do my deal on Twitter, sometimes I'll work with Shamus on ideas, Owens will help me with some ideas, Kelly Moser (sp), director of Huskers.com does have some good ideas for us, I'm sure football team does some with them too Great Tweets with Bo walking onto the plane with the cat carrier I did a commercial at CSU trying to get a cat out of a tree & I tweeted that last week Superstition behind coat coming off? Certain time? Yeah I'm hot, I sweat, I'm the hardest working man in the baksetball business, the James Brown of basketball Immediately I just start sweating You come out on the court with a certain time on the clock before the game Yeah I try to leave the locker room at 3:27 each time First time I ever won a game as a coach I came out at 3:27, 7 is my lucky number and 32 was my uniform number, so I keep doing it Izzo gave me hell about waiting so long, wanted to know if I thought i was Coach Knight So Sunday I'm just hanging around him the whole pregame, maybe I'll pit out on him

Greg Sharpe asking questions: Big crowd here tonight after you get one road win? Just think how big it'll be after two? I haven't shaved, may let it roll till we lose Gutsy plays late to win last week You're asking about the NW game right? I was in Ann Arbor, but didn't leave hotel room, not sure what happened there Without Sobelewski, they flipped their identity Became strong defensive team with long athletic guys We had trouble getting to rim early, shots rattled in and out just 16 pts at half time We didn't let them get away from us & played well in 2nd half "Ps" played very well Petteway was great But Parker & Pitchford won that game for us Parker was great in creating transition, that makes us a different type of team Need more of that from him, more consistently With assists and steals figured in, I think he accounted for 9 pts in transition for us Built 8 pt 44-36 lead behind that We relaxed a bit and lost our edge Gallegos didn't go thru a screen hard Ran our offense looser and let them get back in it We need to learn to stay tough minded like we were to get the lead, and put the game away We're not quite there Team you have in Nov isn't same team you have in Feb? NW is great example of that Coach Collins wanted to run like Duke and pressure like Duke I've always said losing is my mentor, and after NW started losing, didn't take Collins long to figure out how to come up with a way to win After they tie it, talk about plays you made down the stretch Starting 2nd half we were more aggressive to the rim Shields made a couple shots, Walt made a couple shots We were just better offensively Didn't want to burn a timeout when they made 8-0 run because we only had 2 left, wanted to save them, really feel like you need to have at least 2 timeouts late Under 4 min timeout, Pitchford gets fouled on defensive reb He makes them both We force a miss, then Pitchford hits a 3 and we felt like we had breathing room up 5 pts With 23 seconds left we're up 3 and Petteway who shoots 47%? in the last 5 sec of the shot clock, and Pitchford shoots 45% the last 5 sec of the shot clock ..... (sorry I missed the number for Petteway, may have been 37%) So others will be letting them do their thing Saving possessions with timeouts? ...... (I think he's referring to one Tai took in the 2nd half when he fell down in the lane) At the time we were making a run, so I didn't mind that timeout to save the possession I think we ended up scoring out of it Between both teams and media timeouts, there could be 20+ timeouts in game There's only so much talking you can do But I do like to save a couple, so I'll tell the guys not to always burn one to save a possession, look to throw it off someone's leg or make a pivot move I like the 2 for 1s at the end of the half, the math proves 2 bad shots are better than 1 good shot, the more attempts you get, the better off you are We were playing the Div 2 Elite 8 at SW Minn St, playing Ky Wesleyan defending national runner-up Good game, we're down 3 or 5 our ball to end half Assistant wanted me to use a timeout to run a particular play We draw up the play Ky Wes threw out a 1-3-1 half court trap out of the timeout, something we had never seen them do, they had tinkered with it before the Elite 8 We go out there and inbound it, throw it away, and they dunk it and we're down 7 at halftime I look at my assistant and ask him if he thinks we're Duke After half we go on 9-0 run, then they switched back to 1-3-1 zone and we couldn't score I was mad at my assistant If we don't call that timeout, they never go 1-3-1 and we maybe win that game and win national championship as Ky Wes won it So if I don't call timeouts before halftime, that's why, still have nightmares NBA likes 2 for 1s more? We only get 2 stoppages in play vs 4 in NBA There's no doubt, if it's around 1:05 left, we'll try something quick to get a 2 for 1

The Bracket Matrix ranks Lunardi in the middle of the pack in terms of final accuracy - 35th out of 67 - among bracketologists that have been around 3+ years. He has been above average the last 2 years. The Bracket Matrix's last four in are: Providence, Oregon, Mizzou, LSU First four out are: Baylor, BYU, St Joe's, Richmond Next four out are: G'town, Ole Miss, La Tech, Clemson http://www.bracketmatrix.com/

Ready to go from Rings N Wings again tonight at 7 pm

Neb 63 Illin 62

No. On this team, Shavon is decidedly not a backup, and is not a 20 minute a game guy. If his knee allows him to play, he will be on the court 30 + every game. Of a bigger concern is how we can get Leslee back to giving us some decent minutes. He has been scuffling something fierce the past several games. This - Shields does much more for this team than just shoot, and he needs to play as much as he is able. His knee is obviously still bothering him a bit, I saw him grimace on more than one occasion at NW. Even with a sub-100% knee he's still easily our best option out there. And you're exactly right on Smith's sudden struggles. That's of a much bigger concern than anything Shields is doing/not doing. Smith now is battling a thumb injury the past few games along with his chronic knee, and it's shown up the past few games.

That post just proves it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round.

Hard to believe with the strength of B1G that we play only 2 games against Top 50 KenPom teams and only 3 vs Top 75 teams over the last half of the regular season conference schedule. Just drives home how front-weighted our B1G schedule was and how we have single plays against a few of those top level teams. 1-0 so far in those last 9, hopefully we can keep taking advantage!

Every time we do this it ends up being a nightmare. You are correct that the second half of the season sets up well. Now we have to do something we haven't been able to do in over a decade and that's FINISH! Not picking on you here, but I've seen this sentiment a lot lately and had a thought on it. My thought is that even though NU as a program has been unable to finish in the past, we have to remember this is a new coaching staff, new players, and new feeling around the program (greatly upgraded facilities, etc.). While it's easy to fall into the habit of proactively punishing this team for the "sins" of the past, almost no one coaching or playing with the team now gives a damn that NU just missed in '08 or '11 or whenever because they weren't involved directly. So hopefully they won't be limited by that feeling of doom with past "close but no cigar" situations and continue to play with confidence.

You're right - I was just looking at regular season only, but didn't mention that.

I believe Iowa's RPI was in the mid-50s - Illinois and Minny were pretty comfortably in it seems to me, must've been in the low 30s? Maybe even high 20s. With conferences getting bigger and bigger and teams playing unbalanced league schedules, it's tough for the NCAA selection committee to rely on conference standings when determining bids. As their NIT run showed, Iowa probably deserved an NCAA bid last season, but their non-con schedule was awful from an RPI standpoint and it cost them. I don't think we'll ever have to worry about that problem with Coach Miles, as he seems to have the formula figured out pretty well.

By the way: First time we've won 4 of 6 conference games since 2011 If NU defeats Illinois, it'll be the first time we've won 5 of 7 conf games since 2004

Minnesota rallies to win by 6, so we're tied with Indiana for 8th, and just one-half game out of 6th, where we'd currently hold tie-breaker edges over Minnesota & Northwestern. I know NU has had its list of games that we'd like to have back, but Indiana fans have had it worse than us - blew double digit leads on the road at NU and UM, plus a home loss to NW, all teams that it's directly battling with in the middle of the standings. Then also lost in OT at Illinois and had a 5-pt lead at MSU with 11:00 to play before losing. Ouch. #9 Michigan State 9-1 #10 Michigan 9-2 #17 Iowa 7-4 Ohio State 6-5 Wisconsin 5-5 Northwestern 5-6 Minnesota 5-6 Nebraska 4-6 Indiana 4-6 Purdue 4-7 Penn State 3-7 Illinois 2-8

I haven't watched them a whole lot, but they're not as talented as last year, and they seem to get selfish at times. It seems like Rice needs to take a lot of shots to get his points. He has been over 44% on FGs only in only one game in B1G play.

Exactly - the selection committee loves big wins away from home - MSU would qualify