throwback

On the maps they sent out, 19 is behind right field of the baseball park (closer to the bridge), 20 is behind first base of the baseball park and 21 is to the north and west of the softball complex/behind the outfield and 3rd base line, which would be the farthest from the pedestrian bridge. The "festival lot" is a new lot and it's to the south of all of these lots, so it's the closest to the bridge. The info that was sent out marked all of these parking areas but did not list a price, so thanks for the info.

It's a little tough to tell from the maps they sent out, but I think it looks like parking at the baseball complex will range from $5 to $10, depending on how close to the pedestrian bridge you are. Parking north of the softball field may cost less because it's the farthest from the bridge, but it also could be $10 to park everywhere in there - the maps aren't clear. The pedestrian bridge will release you right at the northern arena gate, which is great. The walk across the bridge into the cold north wind won't be fun this winter though. To get to the baseball complex, if you take the Cornhusker Hwy/Airport exit off I-80 and then head east on Cornhusker to 1st street, you then can turn south and that will wind around Oak Lake and hook into Sun Valley just north of Line Drive, which leads into the baseball complex. Fastest way in & out of the baseball complex for those coming from & getting back to I-80 I think. As a side note, parking around Oak Lake should be free, if you don't mind walking a couple of extra blocks to the baseball complex and then to the pedestrian bridge. It'll be interesting to see if the parking gods try to cut off this option at some point, especially if they're trying to charge $10 in the entire baseball complex.

Sounds like Rey being held out is precautionary, so doesn't sound as serious as Hawkins' foot. Reading between the lines, Rey should be good to go Friday.

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After the two questions he took on the TV broadcast, Coach Miles probably should have just kept going with his opening statement. It was far more creative & entertaining. Not a single mention of a newcomer by name by the studio hosts either. Saying this team is under the radar doesn't do justice how far off the radar they are - "got them just where we want them."

Just a reminder, Big Ten Network will televise the BIG media day tomorrow starting at 8 a.m. Central. It's scheduled to run 2-1/2 hours. Coach Miles could probably fill that entire time slot if they'd let him.

NU basketball is more positive because we weed out all the bitter people who wear red in the fall and blue in the winter.

Caught me - I plagiarized the topic headline from Lopers Hoops Central / Health & Sports Center Dungeon.

We're kind of in the same boat we were in last year on that front - when Ubel or Almeida were injured/in foul trouble, we went small and Rivers played the 5 - now when Pitchford or Smith are injured/in foul trouble, we'll probably have to play small with Rivers at the 5 again I thought going small like that worked OK in short bursts last year, but when it had to go on for more than a few possessions, most teams were able to exploit it. That info also pretty much spells out where Vooch is at in his development - not far enough along to help out even for a few minutes, leaving Rivers at the 5 as a better option.

From Barfknecht article, quoting Miles: Freshman point guard Tai Webster Senior shooting guard Ray Gallegos Sophomore small forward Terran Petteway Sophomore strong forward Shavon Shields Sophomore center Walter Pitchford. From what we've been hearing and saw at the open practice, no real surprises here to me. Also: http://www.omaha.com/article/20131027/HUSKERS/131028698/1002#husker-men-fall-in-secret-scrimmage Just one more week!

All of the newcomers certainly looked the part at the scrimmage and I'd say that they can develop into contributors sooner rather than later - I will be interested to see how the 3 freshmen & Smith look in a more controlled situation against UNK, not to mention now with a couple dozen practices under their belts, but there doesn't appear to be any "projects" or "reaches" in the class. Splitting up the minutes will be a challenge - a good challenge - for the coaches.

I will be very surprised if Vooch sees the floor in anything but garbage time again this season - Coach Miles has had nothing to say that would indicate Vooch is anywhere near cracking the lineup or has improved in the areas he needs to. I didn't think he showed much, if any, improvement from last year in the open scrimmage either. Kurkowski outplayed him for stretches. Count me in the group that sees Fuller playing double-digit minutes. He may be NU's best spot-up shooter from the 3-point line before long, even better than Rey.

Maybe they're going all-in with Deng Deng and if they don't get him, they hold the scholarship until the spring or if they get a good option for a December transfer, they use it there.

Great news! Sounds like the kind of player who has plenty of raw potential. I like Coach Miles' chances of getting the most out of him. And good to get that verbal now with some other large programs starting to show interest.

The NU Basketball Show did air in place of the NU Football Show last night, although my DirecTV Guide never updated to show that. So if you DVR the Football Show, you'll have Basketball in its place this week. Just kind of an intro to the season show. 1st & 2nd segments - They showed several minutes of the open scrimmage from Sept 27 and then Coach Miles gave breakdowns of each player while they showed several minutes of practice footage - his comments summarized below - they started to go faster once they got to Petteway, my guess is Coach Miles was too long-winded early & started to run out of time, so not as many comments on the last several players: Gallegos - Really athletic, great 3-point shooter, needs to diversify his game, find ways to get fouled & score in transition, he has worked at that, becoming more vocal & being a better leader, big things expected Peltz - Love his grit & determination & fearlessness, never know how I might use him, needs to cut his hair Rivers - Slowed by foot injury, then had a bad allergic reaction that really puffed up his face, but has been toughing it out at practice Smith - Started well, then got hurt, knee swells up on him at times, then injured hamstring maybe favoring knee, need him healthy, he's a critical guy for us Biggs - JC All-American, important to get him going, suspended for exhibition & first 2 games Shields - He's a player, he's a leader, total package, it's in the DNA, cares about NU & wants success, expect his numbers to improve & improve Petteway - Chance to be very productive (kind of skipped over him here as they spoke quite a bit about him during the scrimmage highlights & how he is a gym rat, can't get him out of the gym, even sneaks over to the rec center after they kick him out of the Hendricks center, voted team captain, big role) Pitchford - Will do some very good things, going to be very productive player Vooch - Still developing, still trying to get into the lineup Parker - So quick & aggressive on the ball defender, needs to find his way on offense, find assists, knock down open shots Webster - A lot of hype, I think he loves the attention and pressure, very mentally & physically strong player, missed 9 practices with ankle injury Hawkins - Coming back from concussion, has practiced well recently Fuller - Has a great looking shot, acclimating to the speed of the game Wagner - Dislocated ankle, gruesome injury No other walk-ons were mentioned. Then they showed a few more highlights from practices, both in Hendricks & Pinnacle Bank plus a few comments from players about the upcoming season. Then a discussion of the schedule: In basketball, coaches get to set 95% of the scheduling, other than with Cincinnati we worked with the football team to get that one scheduled Could be a Top 20-type schedule again this year Wanted our first game at Pinnacle to be very exciting, wanted it to be an opponent that could really challenge us and a game we could possibly lose, we likely will be an underdog, FGC gives us a chance to measure ourself & find out what we're made of - historic day Going to Charleston for Classic Tournament sponsored by ESPN, will stay with ESPN next 2 years for in-season tournaments, next year in Hawaii around Christmas, then in Anaheim in 2015 Finally Coach Miles' thoughts on moving from level to level as a head coach: Basketball itself doesn't change that much as you go from level to level It becomes a bit more sophisticated Defensively have had to change the most because of athleticism, don't pressure all over the court as much anymore Now recruiting worldwide, have to get good enough players to win in Big 10 & NCAA Tourney, that's why they pay me the big bucks Next NU Basketball show will be after football season wraps up

Lincoln Journal Star story today: Miles says 'eliminating losing' paramount to NU's success

Thanks for the heads-up! A further heads-up - I just checked my DirecTV Guide and the NU Basketball Show doesn't show up on any of my local stations listed in the Huskers.com article yet, the NU Football Show is listed in the Guide in the time slot. Perhaps the Guide hasn't been updated yet or more likely the NU Basketball Show will be in a different time slot until after football season. However the NU Basketball Show did show up in the Guide on Fox Sports Midwest as a replay on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning - if you have the Sports Pak from DirecTV you should be able to get FSMW anywhere in the country. It's too bad the Big Ten Network decided to stop airing all coaches shows - that used to be a great place to catch replays when you missed the show at the scheduled local time.

Miles is on record wanting to redshirt Vooch and not redshirting Biggs. In both cases he ultimately went with what the individual player wanted to do. Interesting - I didn't know that about Vooch, thanks

Coach Miles doesn't appear to be a big fan of redshirting - Vooch was a perfect redshirt candidate last year and NU chose to play him in nothing but garbage time. Seemed like it was Biggs' idea to redshirt, not sure it was Coach Miles' idea initially. I'd be pretty surprised if Hawkins or any of the newcomers redshirt, barring injury or barring the player making a request to redshirt. Probably been discussed here in the past, but does anyone know what Coach Miles did at CSU with regards to redshirts? Did he have many who just used it as a year of development? Or were redshirts primarily limited to guys who were injured?

Agreed - I'd be pretty surprised if those 5 aren't the starters against FGC - it's difficult to imagine a captain who's an underclassman not in the starting 5 to open the year.

OWH story on Smith today, discussing his path to NU & how he has become a leader on the team - plus a giant photo of him that takes up 1/4 of the front page of the sports section http://www.omaha.com/article/20131012/HUSKERS/131019488/1002#barfknecht-after-travel-travail-nu-s-smith-has-found-an-island

Some of his comments Misses home-cooked meals Seems like he's been playing basketball since he could walk Hoops in NZ is growing Watched as much NBA on TV as he could in NZ Loved Iverson as a kid, wants to also try to drive and get to the rack as much as possible Couldn't believe he was playing in FIBA/international competition, blessing just to make the NZ team Didn't surprise him that he played well internationally, just wanted a chance to prove himself NZ teammates embraced him On top of the world, felt like he was ready for NBA after international tournament ((laughs)) On Nebraska/college hoops Always wanted to come to US to play college hoops Didn't get to see much college hoops on TV in NZ Very hard decision to turn down $$$ and attend NU Had to do a lot of extra work to get qualified Miles/Harriman really seemed genuine in recruiting Having Harriman was a big benefit, he knew what Tai was going through Enjoys Coach Miles, got to be on your toes around him - joking one minute, up in your face the next Shocked with workouts/weight training, didn't think it would be as hard as it is Biggest difference - athletic ability, everyone is fast and can jump in US versus NZ players in general Like to get to the rim a lot, use a pull-up jumper game Either point guard or off guard, comfortable with both Just want to win games, do whatever it takes, haven't thought about bigger goals yet New arena is beautiful, never been in a place quite like it Practice facility is amazing, too, very impressed with all facilities Haven't really studied Big Ten hoops yet I'm sure there will be a podcast up soon - he mentioned a player or two he has been impressed with on the NU roster thus far, but I missed the names - said he really likes the work ethic he's seen from those teammates, they're always in the gym, and he wants to emulate that.

Going to start a bit late, Tai hasn't called in yet

Just a heads up - Nick Bahe is scheduled to have Webster on his show on 1620 radio today at 1:05 pm

Apologies in advance for what's probably a stupid question, but I've never had a reason to really follow top-level/highly-ranked basketball recruiting before so I don't know the answer - do top rated basketball players switch verbals as often as football players seem to do? I'm guessing the answer is no in large part because of the early signing period. Just curious if NU's coaches make any effort to keep recruiting ER, hoping for a late switch. Like I said, I doubt switches happen often enough to warrant continuing to try to recruit him, but was just curious from those who know.