throwback

Just by the eye test, I thought Memphis was the best team we played in the non-con. Looking like they're trending in the right direction to eventually be the highest ranked KenPom team, too.

Oh, I don't doubt it. Some people just do a 180 personality wise between the lines. Plus, If he was as wound all the time as he is for 2-3 hours twice a week, he'd have set the world record for heart attacks at this point.

What a jackwagon

MSU 63 NU 56 3

One more thing - not sure who went out and found Bandoumel and Gary in the portal, but wow. These two are perfect fits for this style of play. A lot of P5 teams wouldn't go after those two because they're a bit undersized and because they aren't great on offense. They aren't NBA players. But they are perfect for this team. Their tenacity sets the tone. What Gary does at his size on the glass ... just wow. And Bandoumel never tires, despite giving max effort all the time. Two guys that opposing fans love to hate. Nice to have a couple guys like that on our team. Whoever found those two had a vision for what the team should look like. Recruiting guys from the portal with a plan in mind is a refreshing change.

The whole bench gave them good minutes last night, but I was really impressed with Denim. That's more like what I thought he'd bring to the table this season. Seemed like he was trying to do things outside his current skill set and what the team currently needs for a handful of games before the break (and before his "benching"). Nice to see him get back to playing the hits after the Xmas break. Not sure if he's responding to the "benching" and/or he did some soul searching over the break, but a really nice effort from him. Kind of showcases the chemistry and team-first mentality these guys have.

I remember this NU team. Glad to see the K-State game appears to be a blip. Very impressive.

At least Fran's face should stay bright red with anger all the way through Christmas now. Very festive.

N 79 Ioway 77

Had to figure tonight would be a bit disjointed with small crowd and with guys ready to go home. Our vets played solidly and make sure it wouldn't be a trap loss with a quick start. Just kind of kept them at arm's length the rest of the way. Ultimately, we won all our buy games & had one pretty major win, so it's a solid start to the season. I though I was being generous by predicting 6 non-con wins - and that was assuming Walker played the entire way. So a 7-4 non-con is pretty solid. Hopefully we can play even better in the B1G going forward and at least make things interesting over the final month. Big game coming up vs Iowa.

Maybe some of the 14 Miss St parents fans that are here for the 4 o'clock game will stay and cheer for NU because of Coach Ziegler. That'd help the volume level.

And the trap game gets trappier Not sure if this plan originated from PBA or from the U, but looks like this will go down as one of the all-time blunders from an idea standpoint. If they had made it a 2-day holiday "tournament", maybe they'd get some Drake and Miss St fans to make the trek, but there's little chance of that for one game. With that in mind, they had to include the ticket as part of the season ticket package, or they risked what's going to happen Tuesday. Attendance still would've been poor if it was part of the season ticket package, but better than what will likely happen Tuesday. Not sure what they were thinking. They'd have had better attendance if they'd have played 3 or 4 high school games before the NU-QU game. If QU is hot from 3 early, this one is going to be not all that fun for the 872 in attendance.

NU 67 QU 62

When you shoot 32% and 19%, it's always going to look ugly and feel like you have no chance. We need several things to go right to win. Tonight wasn't it.

2nd note to self: Remind Jeff Saturday that games on Saturday have 2nd halves, just like games on Sunday.

Note to self: Never challenge Jeff Saturday on a Saturday.

Been a good non-con so far - faced some tough teams and a few cupcakes. But we can't focus on the weaker teams and their LLLLLLosing streaks. If NU can win tonight and beat Queens next week to get to 8-3, that's a strong non-con finish and sets us up how we want for 2023.

True - cut my gambling teeth at Ag Park. Let's just say that carding at Ag Park at that time was not a priority, which was greatly appreciated. They decided to have a nearly 3-mile race there many years ago one time for the low-end claimers. I think it was 4-1/2 laps. Horses were lapping other horses. It was a disaster, yet hilarious. Truly Ag Park at its finest. Ag Park is where greatly increasing the number of state bred horses becomes key. Can't fill out those race cards without a large number of state breds, especially the $2500 claimers. Ag Park specializes in those. Harrah's is going to put some serious money into the new Columbus racino, around $75M I believe I read. Should be interesting to see how the horse racing changes there. I just hope they can import that unique Ag Park smell to the new place.

To take this topic even further off the rails - I hope you're right, but we need to increase the number of state bred horses quite a bit to be able to fill out fields and to justify more racing days. State-bred horses have had a couple of decades of neglect because of the downfall of racing here. The casino money will be there to supplement bigger races that draw out of state horses/trainers, but you have to have plenty of state-bred races on the undercard to fill things out and to make competitive other races. Not much is worse for wagering than having half your races on a card with only 4 or 5 horses in them. I think the casino-fed purses will be large enough to justify increases in state-bred horse populations, but nature requires that it's going to take a few years to see the benefits. If everything works out, Lincoln could quickly become one of the most important ovals in the Midwest. Lincoln has the perfect combo of the least competition in terms of nearby casinos coupled with a large population base, and I'd imagine Lincoln's casino profits will be massive. That could supplement some major races. Plus Lincoln has at least a 7/8 mile track, where Omaha & GI are almost land-locked into 5/8 mile tracks without major construction, which limits their appeal for big races. Lincoln's straightaway should be long enough that it could accommodate up to 1-1/8 mile races on two turns, which is helpful. (Looks like Columbus is going to build a new 1-mile track, which should be interesting in terms of what kinds of races they can put together. Like GI, that Columbus casino will have a big regional draw and great profits, I'd imagine. By comparison Omaha & South Sioux are probably going to struggle the most; lots of nearby established casino competition.) And back on topic, big game Saturday. Get that one, and you're prob going to end up 8-3 in the non-con. That puts you in a really nice spot going into B1G play - a spot we haven't been in all that often the past few years.

Now that would be awesome - let's go all nostalgic and start NU-KSU at noon Saturday as game one of the double-header on Raycom instead of ESPN+. And while I'm rolling out great ideas, bring back the Big 8 Holiday Tournament.

Derrick is just ensuring we defer to the second half.

I appreciate the effort - the way this team flies around on the defensive end is simply unreal - but we just have to find a way to win that game. PU was highly vulnerable today, and we needed to take advantage. Just missed too many shots during key possessions. In the final 10 minutes of regulation, we had 12 shots during a possession when we were within 3 pts (potential chance to tie) and made 1 - Tominaga's shot in the closing seconds to tie the game. 0-4 on Layups 1-5 on 3 pointers 0-3 on short jumpers 2-3 on FTs (including missing the front end of a 1&1) 2 turnovers Brutal. When a team that's as good offensively as PU only scores 7 points in the final 8-1/2 minutes of regulation - and uncharacteristically misses 3 FTs - we have to take advantage. So many chances to really put the pressure on them in the final 10 minutes & couldn't do it. Great effort, but very much a missed opportunity. Fortunately, in the B1G, we'll get quite a few more opportunities, but this one is going to sting for a while.

N 64 KS 60

PU 79 NU 69