throwback

Indiana 36-30 at halftime We'll be in 8th after this game - either tied with Indiana for 8th (If UM wins) or all alone in 8th (if IU wins)

Well Minnesota is going to have to do what we did to Indiana and overcome a double-digit first half deficit at home - 31-20 Indiana with about 5 min left before halftime.

Thanks for putting that together - very interesting! It pays to have played the tougher portion of our schedule early, especially with a young team that has been improving (even if it has been in fits and starts - two steps forward, one step back, etc). The NCAA selection committee potentially could have some very interesting decisions to make regarding the B1G if this jumbled mess in the middle continues.

The NBA rule is here. Doesn't really say anything about how the official should give the ball to the inbounding player, but it says this: The throw-in starts when the ball is at the disposal of a player entitled to the throw-in. I have to agree, I've never seen anything quite like it. Sometimes a player will sort of fumble the ball when trying to inbound it, but it's usually after he has started to try to pass it, then chooses to pull it back, and loses the handle. That's not what appeared to happen today though.

You could not be more wrong.

Expanding on that thought, I noticed too that the Northwestern mascot was allowed to get WAY too close to our guys on their inbounds plays a couple of times. Seems like if the man taking the ball out tried to run the baseline he might have run into the mascot. I'm not sure that should be allowed. Valentine would have called a charge. True - not sure we got a 50/50 call after the Rivers block against the backboard with 6 min to go. NW's #34 started throwing hips, elbows, chairs, whatever he could while setting screens the rest of the way and got away with all of them. Odd to see, especially after Petteway had the 2 offensive "fouls" earlier in the game. Davison said on the radio during the pre game that the NW fans behind him who he was talking with before the game were very pleased to see that officiating crew, as they tended to call the game in a way that played to NW's strengths. Can't say I'd argue with them.

Parker was great today, playing to his strengths - on ball defense and strong transition game. His ability to take Demps out of the game - along with NU's decision to double him off all screens - was huge. Demps was basically a non-factor. Plus Parker gave us a couple of transition layups that were big in the 2nd half. Really just took NU a half to figure out how to take advantage of all of the switches NW was doing defensively. Pitchford was able to take advantage of Olah being a bit slow afoot in the 2nd half. Too many out of rhythm 3s in the first half, we did a better job getting 3s in the offensive flow in the 2nd half, which occurred in large part because we did a much better job getting in the lane Petteway just wants to win more than anyone else on the floor, and he has the skills to make sure it happens I'm glad we have 3 off days before Illinois comes to Lincoln - this was a very physical, defense oriented game which really wears a team down, although I'm sure the guys will be full of energy on the plane ride home after finally getting a road win

Looks like the early, early line has NW minus-2. We'll see if that holds when more books come online, but with NU's problems playing on the road, that number sounds about right to me.

The games I've seen where they have success is when they're able to sucker the opponent into playing the slow it down, ugly it up type of game. It's going to take more discipline and maturity than we've shown on the road so far to avoid playing to NW's tempo & strengths. As was said above, can't settle for 15 or 20 3-pt shots. Have to "love the rim." The guy that always seems to come through late in possessions is Demps. Have to find a way to keep him from throwing in shots at the shot clock buzzer without fouling. It'll be interesting to see if we go big on him with Petteway or small with Parker. Having said that NW has been very lucky in a few of their Big Ten wins. Minny missed a driving layup and then a point blank putback that would've won the game in the closing seconds. NW had 3 post players foul out vs Purdue, yet the Boilers somehow didn't find Hammond in the OTs and lost. I have a good feeling about tomorrow - I think we play well ... so you can book a W.

Great article - and it hits home again how Petteway can be a great role model for current players in how hard he worked during his redshirt season to reach this point. It's also a good reminder how while at CSU Coach Miles saw Petteway's talent in high school, whereas a lot of larger school/Big 12 coaches didn't. That ability to see talent where others may miss it should pay more dividends on the recruiting trail, while he's building the NU program.

Neb 56 NW 49

I wonder if there were any Ohio St fans tonight who were so afraid of failure that they hoped their team as a significant underdog wouldn't make the road trip to play a Top 20-ranked Iowa tonight? By the way OSU has its mojo back, as does Craft. He was really good tonight.

Yep, you're right.

Yeah I think last year it was a single slogan for all Adidas teams that wanted to use it, but this year the slogans seem to be unique to each team.

Ha thanks for having my back - it's amazing how some clients have no concept that Monday night is the Coach Miles show & have the stones to schedule conference calls at the last minute for that time.

Or he's trying to prepare UM fans for the beatdown that's coming their way Wednesday!

Top 50 RPI teams by conference (as of NCAA RPI on 2/3) Pac-12 - 7: Arizona (2), UCLA (19), Colorado (25), California (43), Oregon (46), Arizona St (47), Stanford (50) Big Ten - 6: Mich St (7), Wisconsin (12), Michigan (14), Ohio St (20), Iowa (22), Minnesota (38) Big 12 - 6: Kansas (1), Iowa St (9-tie), Oklahoma (18), Texas (23), Okla St (24), Kansas St (44) ACC - 6: Syracuse (3), Duke (11), Virginia (16), Pitt (26), Florida St (40), North Carolina (42) Atlantic 10 - 5: UMass (9-tie), St Louis (27), Va Comm (28), Geo Wash (32), Richmond (49) American Athletic - 5: Cincinnati (15), Memphis (30), UConn (33), Louisville (35), SMU (48) Big East - 4: Villanova (4), Creighton (8), Xavier (36), Providence (37) SEC - 3: Florida (5), Kentucky (13), Tennessee (39) Mountain West - 2: San Diego St (17), N Mexico (29) West Coast - 2: Gonzaga (21), BYU (45) MVC - 1: Wichita St (6) MAC - 1: Toledo (31) C-USA - 1: Southern Miss (34) Ivy - 1: Harvard (41) Top 35 RPI teams by conference Big Ten – 5 Big 12 – 5 ACC – 4 Atlantic 10 – 4 American Athletic – 4 Pac-12 – 3 SEC – 2 Mountain West – 2 Big East – 2 MVC – 1 West Coast – 1 MAC – 1 Conf-USA – 1 Looks like Big 12 and Big Ten remain the top two leagues. Quite a few Pac-12 teams hovering in bubble territory right now, it'll be interesting to see how many them will surge forward. Despite losing teams in the off season, A-10 and American Athletic remain strong. 'Catholic 7' would be pretty sad without the newcomers. And ACC would be struggling again without adding Syracuse & Pitt.

NCAA RPI rankings thru Feb 3: http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-rpi BIG TEN 7. Michigan State 12. Wisconsin 14. Michigan - L 16. Ohio State - L, W 22. Iowa - L 38. Minnesota - W 67. Indiana - W 69. Illinois 72. Nebraska 85. Northwestern 98. Penn State - L 111. Purdue - L Non-Conference 8. Creighton (18-3) - L 9. UMass (17-4) - L 15. Cincinnati (21-2) - L 97. Miami (11-10) - W 139. UAB (14-7) - L 140. Georgia (10-10) - W 185. Florida Gulf Coast (14-9) - W 193. Arkansas State (12-8) - W 199. Northern Illinois (9-11) - W 269. Western Illinois (9-13) - W 312. South Carolina State (8-13) - W 346. The Citadel (4-20) - W NU vs Top 25: 1-6 NU vs Top 50: 2-6 NU vs Top 100: 4-7 NU vs Top 150: 5-9 NU vs 25-50: 1-0 NU vs 25-75: 2-0 NU vs 25-100: 3-1 NU vs 50-100: 2-1 NU vs 50-150: 3-3 NU vs 101-200: 4-2 NU vs 150+: 6-0 NU vs 200+: 3-0

Mich 71 Neb 62

Michigan likely played its poorest game of the BIG season at least, just couldn't make key shots, missed 2 front ends at the FT line late, and did not shoot well from 3. Plus it seemed as though Lavert wanted to try to take over the game when it got to desperation time, which seemed odd. Nice player, but I want Robinson or Stauskas with the ball late. Bottom line, UM was due to have an off game at some point. Plus Yogi went crazy and IU just kind of grinded out the last 4 minutes. No chance of NU sneaking up on them Wednesday. But in the BIG this season, more than one team that has had a long win streak snapped have seen losses snowball on them after that first one, ie, OSU & Illinois (to some extent) & Wisky. Hopefully that's the case here.

There's no hovering after today's results Michigan State 8-1 19-3 Michigan 8-1 16-5 Iowa 6-3 17-5 Northwestern 5-5 12-11 Ohio State 4-5 17-5 Wisconsin 4-5 17-5 Minnesota 4-5 15-7 Indiana 4-5 14-8 Nebraska 3-5 11-9 Purdue 3-6 13-9 Penn State 3-6 12-10 Illinois 2-7 13-9

From Barfknecht's article: Announced attendance now is tickets sold I believe, actual attendance is butts in the seats. Also plenty of praise for NU's program from other coaches/national reporters: More in the article

They're really good at ugly-ing up the game, yet they have enough guys who can go one on one - Crawford, Demps, even Cobb - that they can score just enough late in the shot clock. And they're doing it without Sobelewski (sp?). Still not sure why Minnesota didn't really crank up the pressure today, but NW is either the luckiest bad team in the league or the worst looking good team in the league. Not sure which. Three straight road wins is impressive though, no matter how ugly they've been. If the BIG tourney started tomorrow, NW would have a first-round bye. The more they win now, the better it'll be for us since we get to beat them twice this year.

I'd take it

Andy Katz video: Nebraska a team to be reckoned with at home - first portion of the video, about 1 min long http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:10382605