throwback

So looks like we'll be down to 8 scholarship guys for Tuesday's game vs NW, one of whom basically gets walk-on minutes ... so 7. If someone gets sick before the game, do we ask the B1G to postpone the game until we have a few healthier bodies? I'm thinking postponing until July should do it.

NW 70 NU 64

Those cursed Blackshirts that Trev gave to Gary and Bandoumel after the game with the bluebirds need to go back to the 9th circle of hell that they came from.

PSU favored by 8

Gritty win - needed a bunch of guys to work hard on the glass without Gary available, and they did. Denim played so hard and well - going to need that from him full time now. I really like Lawrence, even though he is having some growing pains. He needs more minutes. Griesel was terrific as well. He really took control in the 2nd half. Hard to believe we would be able to win that game with Walker in that much foul trouble, with Bandoumel's offense MIA, and without Gary available, and yet we did. That's a result of an impressive level of effort from our guys. Not taking anything away from the win, because conference wins are really hard to come by, but that OSU team was a mess tonight. Why they weren't crashing the offensive glass without Gary in there is beyond me. It's not like they were hustling back to the other end, either. In the 1st half, they just kept dribbling into the teeth of our defense and in the direction we were trying to force them, rather than passing the ball around the perimeter and making us chase. It was like they weren't ready for what we were trying to do. They just looked disinterested and disjointed much of the game. I know the metrics say otherwise, but that was one of the worst B1G teams we've played so far. Their freshman is really good and is going to win some games for them by himself. I know they've won 20 games each of Holtmann's years there, but no Sweet 16s and no conference titles. This team doesn't look like it will get to 20 wins. If they've been playing like they did tonight the past few weeks, I gotta imagine they aren't too happy with where that program is heading. One last thing: As a ref, if you're going to call phantom fouls and be incredibly inconsistent, you're better off just swallowing the whistle like you did most of the first half. At least not calling anything and letting them play is a form of consistency. What they tried to do the second half was a mess almost beyond description.

Awful news - going to need a bunch of guys to step up and fill his shoes. Hope he has a full recovery for next season.

PSU 73 NU 61 13

I certainly think we've overachieved versus where I thought we'd be, but, as others said, when expectations are as low as they've ever been, I'm not sure "exceeding expectations" is all that impressive. Took a quick look at some simple numbers, and they are about what I expected and just show how offensively challenged we are. I love the effort we give, but we just don't have enough skill on the offensive end to win unless almost everything goes right on D. Allow 68 or more points in regulation > 0-8 vs Power 5 teams. Allow 67 or fewer points in regulation > 5-1 vs Power 5 teams. (Loss in OT vs Purdue) It all has to start on the defensive end for us, which is why losing Gary is going to be so tough to overcome. He cleans up the defensive glass like no one else we have on the roster. Our defense can force a poor shot on quite a few possessions, but if we can't clean up the glass, it's not going to matter. We just can't give up second chance points and expect to keep teams under 68. Record with one or more starters out > 0-4 vs Power 5 teams (0-5 if you want to count Illinois where Gary missed half the game) Record with all 5 starters available > 5-5 vs Power 5 teams (5-4 if you want to take Illinois out) If Gary cannot return for a while, obviously, we're in deep trouble. If he is back after a couple more games, and if he's healthy enough to be as effective as he's been, maybe we can salvage something. I don't even want to talk about any chance of Griesel also missing additional games.

Yeah, I saw that too. If true, that's a huge issue. We just don't have anyone on the roster who can come close to replacing what he does. We've seen the past several years what it looks like in the B1G when we don't have much of a rebounding presence. Hopefully, Fred is being overly, overly, overly cautious here. But then it wouldn't be Nebrasketball.

OSU 68 NU 57

It figures we get calls to go our way in a game where we never had a chance.

Walker may have just had the greatest 15-minute stretch to start a game for an individual Husker player ever. Scores 87% of our points and shuts out the potential national player of the year - all while keeping us within 6 against the #3 team in the country on the road, 21-15 at the 5-minute mark. And Walker carried the offensive load when everyone in the building knew he was the only real offensive threat going. I think I've played on intramural teams at NU that had more offensive firepower than we put out there a few times. Incredible first 15 minutes for a team as short handed as we are. Unfortunately those last 5 minutes were tough.

This is pretty incredible to be this close at the under 8 timeout as short-handed as we are and as badly as we're getting killed on the glass.

Should get media availability early this afternoon before the team leaves. My guess is Fred will just say he's questionable and that he'll make the trip.

This team can't survive giving up 16 points off turnovers and 17 second chance points. Those numbers need to be more like 6 and 7 instead of 16 and 17. Far too many live ball turnovers that led to easy baskets. Seems like we are really bad against teams that are aggressive on the perimeter (Illinois, St Johns) and better against soft teams on the perimeter (Iowa, Western Council Bluffs). We need to be able to play to our strength -- half court defense -- and those live ball turnovers are killers. How many putbacks did Illinois get off their own airballs? Bad luck there. Then we don't have a Shannon. That dude won the game with what he did in the first half when no one on either team was able to get anything going. Ultimately, though, we have no margin for error because we are so challenged offensively. Have to limit the turnovers, have to prevent put backs, and can't afford to have our top guys out for extended periods with fouls and injury. Didn't come close to happening last night.

PU 71 NU 63

First time we've been over .500 16 games into the season in Fred's tenure. (And guaranteed to be over .500 after 17 games as well.) Sunk below .500 for good in game #11 in 2021-22; game #9 in 2020-21; and game #9 in 2019-20. Considering all that, nice to be 9-7. Also nice to have the head-to-head tiebreaker against another 9-7 team. That never hurts in the eyes of the committee.

So do we tack the Juwan Gary tip jump tracker onto this thread or start a new one?

N 68 I 63

Felt like we made that outcome much harder than we needed to, as seemed like we were clearly the better team over the final 20 / 25 minutes. But nice to see the guys gut it out. It's a win we just had to have. Tough to see a reasonable path to the postseason without winning this one. Much better rhythm offensively today - DW was far more decisive and aware of teammates. Everything on offense feels better when FTs are going in, too. Gary getting those putbacks late in regulation and late in OT were huge. That's the kind of S#&@ that usually happens to us, so nice to have the shoe on the other foot for a change. Hope nobody bet the minus-3.5. Bad beat, especially when we should've probably covered both in regulation and in OT. It'll be nice to be home Tuesday - time to go get another one.

I didn't expect us to be favored, but I believe this will be the first time we've been a favorite in a B1G game at tip since March 1, 2020, at home vs NW. (Lost this one) Don't think we've been favored in a true road game since Feb 2019 at Illinois. (Lost this one, too) Don't believe we've won outright as a road favorite since January 2018 at Wisconsin. Time to put an end to some of these streaks.

He'll go be an assistant or advisor in the NBA for a few years, stay out of the spotlight, and some school will take a chance on him by then. Might be sooner if they never file any charges against him. I'm surprised Texas went ahead and fired him now. They're saving a ton of cash by firing him with cause, but like was said earlier, the timing is odd. Why did it take almost a month? Maybe they have some new info that isn't out in the public yet, or they know charges are coming and they want to be ahead of it.

NU 66 M 54

Felt like we were really anxious and sped up tonight from the opening tap, even when it was still close. Then, of course, it got worse as MSU put the game away with that first half run. Seemed to overhelp a bit too much on D - left way to many open guys at the 3 pt line from over-rotating. Can get away with it against Iowa when they're banging every 3rd three pointer off the top or side of the backboard. Can't get away with that against a good 3-pt shooting team like MSU. We were forcing things on O, too. Once MSU started hitting every shot, we seemed to force things even more and played tighter. DW really forced it - not sure if he didn't feel like anyone else was going and he had to take on more scoring or what was going on. He wasn't alone, though. Guys just weren't letting the game come to them - they were forcing it most of that first half. Bottom line, though, is when teams are hitting shots against us, it's going to be ugly. We aren't good enough on offense to allow an opponent to hit 50% on FGs and 42% on 3s in the first half and expect to be in the game. Have to give MSU & Izzo credit - they were ready for our scrambling D and really got us off our game. Flush it and get ready for Minny. That's a must-win game now if we want to carry any hope of getting into the postseason into February.

Just realized we scored 10 points in the final 14:55 ... and won by 16. Insanity.