throwback

Kansas going through a 5 1/2+ minute field goal drought late in the first half brought a tear to my eye. It was so familiar, it almost felt like NU was a part of the title game.

How many coaches has Butler fired over the past 30+ years? Maybe Goodman doesn't realize that this is the Butler way; they just haven't had to deploy it all that much.

I don't think it'll happen either - well, wait. What date are we playing at Wisconsin? Then it'll depend on whether we have our guaranteed 10 team fouls by the first or second media timeout and we have no other lineup to use. Outside of that, though, no chance, unless one of them suddenly develops a 3-pt shot.

Kinda interesting that Fred released his first press statement after Keon enters the portal, and uses it to mention Andre & Lakes as well. I would take that to mean he doesn't expect anyone else to enter the portal. Now that doesn't mean a HS recruit won't change his mind or that one of the covid seniors won't be moving on to other opportunities, but just found the timing of the statement interesting.

I'm not unbuckling and feeling good about the roster until we're kicking the crap out of Colorado in next year's exhibition game.

Lots of double digit seeds heading to the Sweet 16. Too bad we had to focus on trying to get to double digit wins this year instead of hoping to be a double digit NCAA seed. Maybe next year.

If the basketball gods truly have relegated Nebrasketball fans to hell, Davison and Bohanon will both receive another year of eligibility, plus Gibbs will find another year buried in his closet. Then Bohanon & GIbbs will transfer to Wisky next year ... and the B1G will decide to force NU to schedule the Badgers for all 31 games, all in Madison with Teddy Valentine and two of his clones reffing every game, in retaliation for daring to beat Wisconsin on senior day this year. And they'll air all 31 games on FS1.

What a choke job by the Badgers - the NCAA basically gave them a Sweet 16 berth by default - they get to play in Milwaukee as a 3 seed (while Purdue doesn't get to go to Indy). In the 2nd round, the bracket gives them a layup, facing the winner of a game between a broken, coach-less LSU team or an Iowa St team that lost its last 3 games before the NCAAs, one by 17 and another by 31, and went 7-11 in the Big XII --- and yet Wisky can't get it done. Wisky now gets to live with losing to a highly short-handed NU on senior day, with getting knocked out of the B1G tourney in the quarters, and with blowing a gift chance to move to the Sweet 16. It's amazing what happens to Davison and crew when they actually get officiated on a relatively even basis, versus what they get in B1G play. I like it.

What a great, great day at the NCAA Tournament so far.

Kind of destroys the argument that we needed to give Fred a 4th year to keep this recruiting class together.

Well, this means I lost a bet. I thought Bohanan would be eligible for Social Security before his Iowa playing career ended. I think I only needed Iowa to keep their season going for about another 6 days. So close.

Why does Wisko always insist on setting basketball back to the stone ages each time they play? Awful. This tournament is doing nothing to alleviate my feeling that the B1G is in for a rough NCAA tourney. The top of the B1G is not great ... maybe except for ::throwing up in my mouth a little bit:: Iowa.

Yup - I'm afraid the book is out on him & I don't think he can adjust to it. I'd guess he'll be a situational pinch-hitter/spot-starter before much longer. Going to have to rely on some of these freshmen. Defense has been a disaster so far. This team can't score enough to make up for defensive lapses. Have to get that fixed. They're really going to miss Bunz too. That was a killer loss out of the bullpen. Ultimately, the team took a much bigger jump than they expected last season behind several guys who are no longer here. This year was always going to be a bit of a step back -- the preseason expectations of hosting a regional were ridiculous, especially for a Big Ten team. However, it's been even a bigger step back than I expected/hoped to this point. Hopefully they can (and should) use this homestand to build some momentum. If they can, they wouldn't be the first NU team to really take off around mid-March when they finally get to play at home regularly. Based on recent football/basketball results, I hate typing this but they're recruiting at a very high level off what they did last season. But the calvary doesn't fully start arriving until next season.

NU 77 NW 67 5

I have no stats to back this up, but it almost feels like Fred gave guys a bit more of a green light to shoot the 10 to 15 ft 2 pointer the past few weeks. Bryce is doing this more too. Rather than demanding a 3 or layup, he's living with the mid-range 2s. (Probably not the fall away mid-range 2s, but the good 2s in rhythm.) That also may be opening up the overall offense a bit more too.

I have a few right there with you. I still can't quite believe the comeback, considering what they were up against.

I have to say something about the play where Trey was ejected. I know some won't agree with me, but that's OK. It's unfortunate Davis suffered an injury on the play, but Trey is not to blame. First, Davis & Trey's feet tangled up at mid-court. The official does not blow the whistle until Davis is beyond the free throw line. He took 4 steps before the whistle sounds. If the official wanted to call that foul, he should've called it much quicker. It would've eliminated the play at the rim. Now, that was a foul. I guarantee Trey's intent was not to tangle feet with Davis, but we don't officiate on intent. As Davis continues the play and stumbles to the hoop, Trey goes up to try to block the shot. Both players are still going in large part because of the incredibly late whistle. Davis doesn't go up as strongly as you would anticipate, which is understandable, because he's stumbling and may have an injured knee. Trey gets way up in the air, realizes Davis is stumbling/falling rather than jumping strongly, and Trey knows he's in no-man's land. I have never been in that position because of a less-than-stellar vertical jump, but I know the look on the face. I believe he is looking toward Davis' head because he is concerned about where he's going to land. I don't think he is intending to elbow Davis in the head. You look at the video from the side and can come to one conclusion. You look at the end zone video and can come to another conclusion. Trey made contact with the head and deserves a flagrant 1, although I'm sure that wasn't his intent. But to eject him on that because one video angle caught him looking toward Davis' head was just an extension of the poor officiating with the late whistle that led to the problem to start with. Then again, this crew apparently believes it can read minds, so I could be way off base here. /rant

Good plan, but there is 0.01% chance he ever refs another Big Ten game after failing to make sure Wisky finished that game off. I mean he could've called Fred for a technical during the timeout with 0.6 seconds left. He really blew it, and the B1G offices will not forget it.

Considering we were without Bryce and lost Trey for the 2nd half and playing 8 on 5 most of the game, all against a Top 10 team on their senior day , it's the most unlikely win since.....? I vote for 1982 at #1 Missouri. Kent P remembers that one. Absolutely unreal, especially considering where this team was 10 days ago.

Yup, and effort. Plus Verge has finally figured out this point guard thing. For as much as he struggled the first half of the year after the coaches threw him in the deep end, he has been playing at an all-B1G level lately.

I don't want to quote myself, but, I'm a man of my word. Fred, you are forgiven. Clean slate.

If we somehow win this game with as short-handed as we are, Wisko should have to surrender their share of the B1G title.

Exactly. They spent a lot of energy in that first 4 minutes of the half, so they have to rest up a bit to be ready for the final 4 minutes.

Any Wisko fans on here? I gotta know. Does a little part of you die inside every time you cheer for something Davison does?

Well, thanks to the refs we're finally getting to see Walker and Andre on the floor at the same time.