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Basketball Sunday's game will be carried on select Huskers Radio Network stations with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen on the call, including KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln and KKCD (105.9 FM) in Omaha and will also be available on Huskers.com and the Huskers app. https://huskers.com/news/2023/12/15/huskers-renew-rivalry-with-k-state-on-sunday Volleyball The Huskers Radio Network will broadcast all the action on their radio affiliates, including 107.3 FM in Lincoln and AM 590 in Omaha. A live audio stream will be provided at Huskers.com and on the Huskers app. https://huskers.com/news/2023/12/16/huskers-face-longhorns-for-national-championship-12-16-2023 Women's Basketball Nebraska fans can listen across the Huskers Radio Network, including 105.3 FM (Lincoln), the Huskers App and Huskers.com https://huskers.com/news/2023/12/13/huskers-take-on-swac-power-southern-sunday Glad we didn't run out of radio stations.

KSU opens as a 5.5 pt favorite By the way, never thought I'd see the day, but you can put some $$$$ down on the NCAA volleyball championship at Warhorse, if desired. NU is -215 on the moneyline, but if you take NU to win the match 3-1 or 3-0, you can get +100.

I much prefer seeing MSU take out its anger on someone else after losing to us versus what's been happening the past several years.

I like it, but Meyers Leonard is still the melting-down-while-sitting-on-the-bench-in-Lincoln GOAT.

KSU 79 NU 70

Just will add one thing - when Walker hit the 2nd straight 3 and MSU finally took the lead around the 5 minute mark, it would've been easy for us to panic and lose our poise like we did the last two games. We didn't. That's a big step forward in my book. With a veteran team like this, we should be able to survive those body blows and fight back. Tonight we did it. Honestly, if we get back on defense and finish at the rim in the first half, we could've won that thing going away. But we hit a couple of prayer 3s in the first half, too, so it all evens out, I guess.

MSU favored by 2

The fine artwork aside, I've owned Enron stock that looked better than that graph's trajectory.

NU 71 MSU 66 7

Should be a cacophony of alarms going off right now going off at the Hendricks Center. How can a team with this many D-1 minutes / games under its belt completely lack poise when things start to turn? Why does everyone on our bench -- in uniform and out -- look like deer in the headlights when the game starts to flip ... and then for several minutes after it flips? I could sense the momentum going in the wrong direction 2 minutes into the section half through the TV screen. Why can no one on our side sense it inside the building and change things up -- anything -- to force our guys to ramp up the intensity? How can we turn the ball over on the first or second action of a possession so many times without adjusting? Why would we substitute less -- rather than looking for someone to give us a spark off the bench -- when things are crashing and burning like they were in the 2nd half? Try Rice. Try Boogie and move JL to the 2. Try Diop. Try something. When things are going that poorly on offense, the best way out of it -- especially on the road -- is to crank up the defensive effort & start bloodying noses on the boards. Why did we have no one do that? We'd better have our screws and bolts tightened up before Sunday because Izzo and crew are going to come in here pissed off, looking for a fist fight, and expecting to win. Can we say the same about Fred and our team?

Wisconsin is really good right now ... and college basketball is automatically worse off when that happens.

I'm a little surprised we're favored, thought it might be Minny -1 or -2.

Fred's post-Tuesday-practice, pre-flight-to-Minny press conf notes: Obviously we didn’t play very well and they (CU) played great Certainly a growing and learning opportunity for our team (Sunday). We’ve had good energy since and responded well like we thought we would. Now we have to carry it over to tomorrow night. They (Minny) are one of the more physical teams in our league – we have to be much better denying offensive rebounds. I just want to see a competitive group – no reason to believe that won’t happen. It was a lengthy film session after CU – then we really got after it the past couple of days. We did not play a smart basketball game vs CU. We were 2-18 on contested rim attempts, can’t do that vs. Kalkbrenner. It's our first opportunity playing in a true road game, and we’ll see how we respond. If it’s anything like the last couple of days, we’ll play with great effort. It's been everybody leading the effort and setting the tone in practice with their voices – it’s been all of them. I told them anybody that’s not going to talk is not going to be on the floor. No one got pulled off the floor. Now must take it from the practice court to the game – if we can communicate for 40 minutes and execute the game plan, going to give ourselves a chance. We didn’t do that Sunday. Garcia has to be guarded (i.e., helped) with the whole team when he has the ball – have to do everything you can to contest him – try not to let him get easy ones. He’s a heckuva player. Prepared to use Mast-Allick-Gary together on the floor – as we see larger opponents, we’ll need them playing together some. We still have some lineup combos we haven’t seen as much of & that's one of them – we’ll use those 3 when we need more physicality. We’ll see how we play with that lineup. We’re the oldest team in the big ten – have seen leadership from this group. That’s why we had such good effort this week – veteran guys setting the tone in practice and putting Sunday behind us. Now must carry over what we worked on in practice to the game at Minny. That's been (leadership) the makeup of this team all season. First game with late time start – want to set the tone early. But there’s so many runs in the game these days with the 3pt shot, have to ride the waves. Vs Mizzou, Minny was up 20 and they had a run that went the wrong way. Vs Ohio St they had a run that nearly went the right way when they were down 20. Gotta keep playing hard, don’t worry about runs. Stay in the moment.

N 76 M 71 11

Is it too early to start tailgaiting? Or, perhaps more accurately, was 5:29 a.m. too early to start tailgaiting? Asking for a friend.

Press conf notes: Mast Fan on the street, always, go beat Crayton, not about Big Ten - just hearing that and hearing sold out right now, it’s going to be a fun game Williams Bragging rights, it’s something you can buy into, can give you energy - I haven't played in a rivalry game of this magnitude - kind of makes it more fun - bragging rights for the whole year - will be a lot of energy - we’re going to try to play hard, play with heart, and win Mast Everything preparation wise has been there this week Williams Approach is the same to every game - treat every opponent with respect - our approach is the same, our scouting is the same Mast They shoot a lot of 3s, one of the best in the country - big emphasis for us to stop that - Walker had a great game last year, I’ve watched a lot of film on what he did - take some of what he did and add some of my own - but we have to do it as a team, can’t beat them individually - try to play the best game I can and hope everyone else brings their A game too Williams Good to have some rest this week - we've had a lot of time on our legs - getting back in rhythm after a couple days off - we won’t miss a step at all - early schedule grew our confidence and allowed us to mesh - sometimes you have to grow through losses, sometimes grow through wins - but 7-0 start gives us confidence - we just want to keep it rolling Mast Good depth - Eli is going to have big games for us too - Sunday both teams like to get up and down, fast paced play, we’re going to need everybody Williams Depth makes us hard to game plan for - can’t shut down 9, 10 players Fred It’s a fun game for players - rivalry games are fun to play in, great for fan base - not as fun for coaches - well, last year was fun, past 3 years weren’t as fun Going to be tough - they put you in so many difficult positions by stretching the floor and with their pace - have a lot of guys returning from last year - they’re going to put us in tough spots You have to contest all the shots but know that they’re going to make some shots, so you can’t let it deflate you - starts in transition, must get back - we did a good job at that last year, but they may play even faster this year We’ll learn a lot about our team in this game - we’ll grow from it regardless of the result - our team has been resilient early on - this happens to be a ranked team, a rivalry game at home - love the sell out, going to be a great atmosphere - I've been a part of a rivalry like this a lot of ways (coach, player) with Iowa-ISU, i know what these games mean Feels like we haven’t played for a month with so many games early They put you in a lot of tough spots - the runs they are capable of, you have to try to limit the runs they get - don’t get deflated when they make tough shots Our team for the most part has done a solid job of playing through runs - need to continue doing that all season We only had 3 guys who played vs CU last year and Keisei only played 14 minutes - both teams are different from last year - CU will be there right at the end, just like last year, thanks to all of their playmakers - all of those guys are capable of going off for big nights - can’t get deflated if things don’t go our way at times Just talk about going out and playing hard - take care of the ball - assist to turnover ratio is good - 3 games a row with Lawrence without a turnover - just have to compete on every possession or CU will make you pay Players know it’s being talked about a lot - they have smartphones in their hands all the time - great opportunity for us to see how we fare - we have a hell of a stretch coming up starting Sunday - we’ll learn a lot about ourselves Heavy practice Thursday with a game type load - I meet with our sports scientist to map out the week ahead for practice - go moderate today and light Saturday - got 2 quality days of rest with guys working individually a bit - we have a couple of guys with nagging injuries so rest was good - week off is good in some regards, but it’s also difficult because we were in a good rhythm heading into the week off Tried to address defensive rebounding - I like offensively how we are not over penetrating - defensively, we have to get back to being tough, finish with 2-handed rebound every time CSU is a damn good team, blew out Colorado too - they did some good things vs CU - all coaches go back and watch our opponents’ past games - CSU did a great job of limiting runs and CU just didn’t make shots - we have to contest every shot, if they make it, then they do, but we can’t give them open shots - have to contest as well as you can - don’t be surprised by how fast they play - must get back - can’t chase balls on defensive rebounds we won’t get - limit them in transition CU defense is impressive - they forced OSU into a lot of long 2-point shots - can’t go over him in paint - blocked shots fuel their break - they get easy baskets and 3s in transition - those are the things you have to limit - must be smart about the shots you take in the paint to avoid blocks

If we go to 21 or 22 conference games with the expanded B1G, that'll be our conference challenge, in essence.

That's fine, but who do we play after we beat JMU and Houston?

BTN has a condensed replay of the game scheduled for Wednesday at 8 a.m.

N 71 C&*#@#&# 64

Early lines have NU -17

I'm very thankful for the way this game is going.