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ACC-Big 10 Challenge? Last year at Wake? That was fun, my teams are 2-0 in Winston Salem - ND St beat Winston Salem State Looking forward to playing Miami, know their coaches well Should be fun Then heading into showdown with Creighton Miami? They have a lot of athletes Plenty of seniors last year, really good There will be a period of adjustment for new coach New players understand what it requires to win at a high level They've been part of blowing out Duke at Duke, they won't be afraid of coming in here Delaney wants all of us Big Ten teams to beat these ACC teams Adjusting to trailing? wondered what would happen We fought back well vs UMass, had a couple of chances late to tie or get to within 1, fought back well, just didn't get over top vs UAB we got smacked down the stretch and we didn't respond Happy that we responded well vs Georgia when they made a run at us That's it Interesting that he said he asked Ubel to redshirt last year, hadn't heard that one before Also nice to see them taking a foreign trip this summer, that will greatly benefit such a young team entering its second year of playing together

what will team do at thanksgiving? Not everyone is staying after practice Just spent 6 days together, eating every meal together so for our guys, sometimes it's good to get away from each other a bit we always practice on Thanksgiving There I always ask guys what they're thankful for Usually pretty good answers Locker room - do guys hang out there? They do hang out in lounge Great place for that, user friendly Plenty of huge TVs, We provide the game box, they have to bring their own games My son likes hanging out in there Big Ten? Michigan lost? Surprising about Michigan Mich St beat Kentucky Everyone has growing pains Minnesota looked great today, very good guards, Eliason very good, hard working guys who find a way to get to the ball Illinois great rebounding team Ohio St leading Wyo right now - one of the best teams in the league Mich & MIch st will be great too Indiana very athletic, really getting on the glass despite loss to UConn, moving very fast, up tempo team Iowa plays very fast We have more up tempo teams right now in league We have a lot of work to do on the defensive glass Hawkins? He will practice finally We'll hopefully see him in uniform .... (didn't really make it clear whether he would play vs NIU) N Illinois and UNO played one possession game & UNO has played very well We're not overlooking anyone, expecting tough game vs NIU Miami & Creighton will be very tough Webster? had best game on Sunday Looked good vs FGCU Took over game late vs Georgia & we needed it He looked like the guy we thought he could be Still a true freshman, adjusting Lee B wrote about him Sunday, really explained it Just difficult to acclimate, living here, etc Going to be a very good guard for us,no doubt Princeton offense? Everyone runs a little bit of that? We do Spacing makes it difficult to guard With good skill players, it can be run well Ubel doing well in Europe? Player of week in Belgium league Talley is playing in Germany A few other former Huskers playing professionally Hopefully get a few in NBA soon Ubel sent me a great text, meaningful to hear from him I asked Ubel to redshirt last year, just thought we had a good class of redshirts already & he would have really helped us this year with a big body He just was ready to graduate - had a professional mindset he wants to be a broadcaster

Shields' numbers down? He was getting upset with officiating i think Just struggled in early part of tourney Very good numbers vs Georgia in all aspects of the game Stuck with it Sunday, didn't get his first basket until late, didn't let lack of scoring bother him, hit big shots for us late He's almost too good about letting the game come to him, not selfish enough, probably need to run more stuff for him

Coach Miles found his way to the correct Carlos O'Kelly's this week Don't play again till saturday? We need to practice You find a lot of deficiencies when you play 3 times in four days Need better defensive rebounding Need better defense vs screen and roll Need to share ball better on offense, get better quality shots Good week to get a lot of that work done One more day of classes, then time off so that will help us We had to have 3 study halls in Charleston to help the guys keep up with classes Practice in morning Wed & Thur, we'll provide a meal for the guys who are staying on Thanksgiving Academic support? Other places i've been very little or no help At NU it's the full service of academic support It's like when you go to a great resort when traveling, everything is taken care off from the smallest item to the largest That's how our academic, nutrition, strength support people work Hopefully the coaching can match it Great support from administration all the way through fans I have a good track record with academics, CSU had one of the 10 worst APRs when our staff arrived, moved us into the top 15% I want players who want to work at academics Those kinds of kids work well in groups, which we need in basketball How was Charleston as a trip? Charming city, very unique with shopping, dining, entertainment Fort Sumter is there, plenty of historical landmarks Had dinner on Yorktown, went through museum, very interesting, showed how Yorktown fought off Japanese air fighters in WWII Almost tough for kids to fathom Didn't get to do enough probably, but the hospitality is great ESPN runs a first class event Had 150-200 NU fans there, made a lot of noise My uncle came from Virginia, he was there for UAB, almost didn't invite him back, but he was there for Georgia win so he's off the hook Trips upcoming? Going to Europe or Australia in off season, not sure yet Love playing in these tournaments, at Hawaii next year This week there are tourneys in Orlando, Maui, etc, they're all really great

Sorry Norm - didn't see your thread - if I don't focus on keeping the fat fingers on the keyboard, I'm in trouble

10 assists Sunday? It was better Missed some layups or would've had a few more We're getting better at passing the ball in motion offense I like having an isolation offense We take the ball to the rim hard so not surprised that we're a low assist team As long as we are also a low turnover team, I'm OK with low assists numbers Just need to take good shots 1.5 to 1 in assists to turnovers is about average Petteway? Really on the attack Could have been even better numbers if he stayed out of foul trouble 29 min with 28 points vs UMass, would rather have had him out there 34-35 min Defense? We will have trouble protecting the rim We're fouling too much, out of position Need to get into spots better Important that we rethink how we're taking charges Think we took 2 charges the entire weekend I don't like that rule change Understand keeping hands off the guards By taking away charges, they're now are allowing a guard to initiate the contact and draw fouls - bad for basketball I don't think they're listening to me I did e-mail director of officiating, need to change foul numbers, 6 for DQ, more fouls to reach bonus, etc, but he said players will adjust Different crews, different results? It's hard for the refs too They're trying, they'll make mistakes, they're human Unfortunately we made far more mistakes than the refs

Sorry turned it on a little late - missed the first few minutes - here's what he has to say so far: Tough to play so many games, feels like you are always game-planning But good to have Saturday off so we could adjust We want to score more than a point a possession on average Were struggling with running motion offense But we decided to stick with it & work through problems Went with a big lineup late in the game against Georgia and it made the zone work better Bring forwards way up, looks almost like a 2-2-1 Used it very little vs UMass & UAB, but it worked very well vs Georgia 9-man rotation, maybe 10 with Hawkins, but 5-6 are new to the team? All trying to figure out their roles Not a clearly defined team yet We have a lot of guys who want the ball, but we need some quarterbacks who will deliver the ball & find some people to "block" for the others Will take time to get that figured out Gallegos injury? Sprained knee Wasn't 100% Made some critical shots vs Georgia in first half 7-for-12 on 3s in tourney We needed his outside shooting Teams will try to zone us as we attack the rim, so need his outside shooting What did you learn at the tourney? We got a lot out of it Temple got better every game, thought UAB would win that game UMass won it all, our side of bracket was really tough We got better Hoping we'd go 2-1, but could have been worse We can live with 1-2, but need good things to happen next few weeks This post has been promoted to an article

Iowa was 9-9 in the league last season and won 7 of its last 10 and was still left out of the NCAAs - that's almost an NCAA gimme for most power conference teams ... especially considering how strong the Big Ten was last year. Illinois and Minnesota both got in with 8-10 conference marks last year. Minny lost 7 of its last 10, Illinois lost 4 of its last 6. Both teams lost to Iowa in the final few weeks of the regular season, yet both got in ahead of Iowa. Part of the problem for Iowa was its Big Ten single plays were some of the league's stronger teams so their league schedule was deemed weak, But a weak out of league schedule cost them last year.

Neb 77 NIU 60

I was going to start a thread that named Smith the MVP to this point, but this thread will be better as it already made one of my points - he might not be a captain, but clearly is a team leader. I remember another article about him in the pre-season that mentioned he was the player the others went to for advice, as he I believe is 23 - very important to have a guy like him in the locker room with so many 19 and 20 year olds. Hard to duplicate the experiences he has had - being told he wasn't good enough to play at SMU, work his way through a ju-co, battle injuries, etc. And his physical play may be the key to NU surviving/thriving in Big Ten play - hard to imagine where this team would be now or going forward without his rebounding and defensive capabilities - Norm mentioned the steals, which have been a nice bonus. And his offensive skills, especially out on the floor, have been an unexpected surprise. He's not going to lead the team in minutes or scoring probably any night this season, but he may very well be the guy NU can least afford to lose at this point.

UMass finishes it off, 62-56. Pretty crazy to think that as much as we struggled with a variety of things Thursday that we were a missed 3-footer from being within 1 point in the final minute against them ... not to mention the charge against Biggs a bit earlier than that. That's a very nice UMass team, although their fans would probably like it if they could stop letting teams rally against them and make the last few minutes nerve-wracking.

I think the day off did Nebraska a lot of good - coaches were able to have a normal practice Saturday & correct some things. With a young team, trying to make corrections in a 24-hour period and without the ability to have a normal practice between games Thursday & Friday probably played a role in NU making many of the same mistakes in the first two games. Good sign going forward that they were able to fix some things in the span of one practice. UMass up 6 over Clemson, about 3 minutes to play

Some nice perspective on Webster's transition to not only D-1 basketball but life half a world away from home from Lee B this morning http://www.omaha.com/article/20131123/HUSKERS/131129263/1002#barfknecht-nu-frosh-tai-webster-finds-his-way-way-away-from-home

Neb 71 Ga 66

NU 82 UAB 75

Thanks for the info - speaking for myself, I'm very happy with the move to the BIG for a lot of the reasons you mentioned - while I may miss some of the individual football and basketball matchups (NU-Kansas, etc), the BIG is a much better fit financially and as far as long term stability for Nebraska. The emphasis on basketball up and down the league is much stronger in the BIG, which can only help our program long term. And there's no Texas. I was surprised to hear during the UMass-LSU game that UMass hasn't been to the NCAA tourney since 1998 - that's the same 14-year drought NU is currently experiencing. Hopefully both teams will be breaking that drought soon!

Brewskys.com says they will be showing the NU-UMass broadcast

NU 68 UMass 67

+1 on the Maze - very nice! Good to see his attention is on UMass and not CarlosO'Kelly's

Great to be 3-0? I like hearing that we're undefeated, so I say it all summerCall from Panhandle: When will Peltz get to shoot more? I've tried to tell him to do that, but he won't shoot more ... or cut his hair Had a long meeting with him today about his role in rotation He's right on the fringe of the rotation now, which is tough to handle He wants what's best for the team Great kid, wins every sprint Would wreak havoc on football special teams Call from Panhandle: NCAA Tourney win will come when? I won't make a prediction on when it'll happen But i want one this year and next year and etc Sharp: Maybe Alliance could produce a male version of Hooper? I tried trading for Hooper, but Connie punched me in the shoulder, wouldn't hear of it She's tougher than me UMass? They have great length and athleticism lots of balance, rebounds well, turns you over, Williams gets to hoop, many ways they can get you Look on tape, they look intimidating, but the more you look the more holes you see But really don't know if you can exploit them until you get on the floor with them Hopefully I'm not such a slow learner that we can't make adjustments fast enough Thursday They played tough teams out of the box, we'll play our big name schools later in non-con We all want the resume that looks attractive UMass will be a really good opponent We'll be an underdog, those are the most fun games to win Going home to pack right now That's it for tonight

Sharp: Recruiting - Hammond? Top 150 player 6-9, 6-10, don't know how tall they are once they get that much taller than me Neat kid from Okla Plays a very physical game Good shooting touch 15-17 feet Good frame, wingspan more than his height Will develop into a good Big Ten player We're in a holding pattern for last scholarship for incoming 2014 class Make a better decision in the spring about exactly what we need You get 12 official visits, used 4 or 5, so we're in good shape Nice to bring players in while we're playing games, just hard because they're playing games too We get more football recruits at our bball games than bball recruits Can bring out jrs after the 1st of the year, but that counts against 12 Pitchford & Petteway? Both can be very productive Petteway is a perfectionist, may be trying to hard Very smart about learning game plans, knowing opponent tendencies Once he makes more shots, will relax & numbers will get better Pitchford is tough matchup with his ability from 3 Even when he gives up a basket on one end, can score 3 on other end, so we're still up 1 WIU coach gave Miles some good advice after game WIU said big lineup was very tough to go against, but we don't have a lot of size off the bench then Maybe our best lineup is to go big Big Ten fast start? 34-3? Good league We knew it would be like this, we wanted this Move to Big Ten is very beneficial to NU bball The depth of league is only rivaled by ACC Helps RPI? Same thing occurred a year ago? NU was only team last year under .500 in RPI top 100 But RPI is only good when you win That's why this week is so important Balancing Charleston trip with business & fun? Going early to do sight-seeing Practicing early in day, so can go out and have fun Then come back and get ready Get the hype out of the way early Played in DisneyWorld tourney in the past Idea is get them out, get them in the theme park, get it out of their heads & then focus on business

Phone: Amount of time in practice facility vs arena? Call came from Hastings, was worried it was Coach Osborne Still calls me on occasion He called me one time at 5 am, I was asleep - I called him back, left message, didn't want to accuse him of butt-dialing me, asked if it was a mis-dial, didn't want to use the term "butt-dial" - TO called him back, didn't want to admit he had misdialed, said he had been told Miles didn't sleep, so just wanted to check in, see if it was true Love practicing in practice facility, but we do need to work with arena's shooting background Need to practice more FT shooting at arena - tough to get done with just 2 baskets in there and 15 players Try to schedule certain times to go in & shoot FTs, still working out schedule Great practice facility, but we need time in the arena

Miles; Been a whirlwind since March 2012 Great enthusiasm from fans Great to do this show live out with the fans - very cool to have the energy Hopefully we'll have some interesting things to listen to SCSt Crowd? Great to have that large of a crowd on a Sunday SCSt played very well We've got some issues to work through, but we didn't make as many defensive errors vs SCSt as we did vs WIU Not great to throw ball away 7 seconds in Like some flair in my guards, some daring - exciting to have guys who can get into the lane Phone: UMass looks tough - how will our defense hold up? How is Biggs' defense, I've watched him since 8th grader I don't have to answer, you know how he does on defense UMass, I just hope Dr. J doesn't suit up, that wouldn't be good Wing player was on play of the day with huge dunk Very athletic, very impressive Good thing about this tournament, see a lot of different things I think we're allowing 0.85 pts per possession, which is solid Of course vs our competition so far, we should be about there Struggles are always the same, guarding the ball, screen & roll defense Need to block out & rebound better, didn't do that well vs SCSt Pitchford doesn't give us a lot of physical presence on defense, Smith does We need to do better with doubling & help Tai's FT %? FT shooting gets in your head Tai is in Top 15 of the country right now in FTs attempted We'll get him squared away - or threaten him Sharp: Tai's adjustment to U.S./college basketball? Doing well Picking things up We run a set, called elbow, one of the guys said it was Princeton, Tai asked "Who's Princeton" Just have to acclimate him to everything Takes some things very literally - have to re-explain some things Great learning curve for him As his shooting becomes more comfortable, he'll settle in Need a distributor, too, so he needs to blend

Now he has walked in Miles: I ran the whole way, only 17 miles Thinking it was great, just 2 minutes from my house, oh well Sharp: In light of this, crowd just wants to make sure you know which Carolina you're going to this weekend, North or South?