throwback

Yeah, that's all fine. But has he learned how good he is yet?

Nut punchers 79 NU 65 30%

Lat's body language the last two games has been awful - almost seems like he has come to realize he is going to get beat up on the defensive end for the next 3 months and he's mentally checking out or feeling sorry for himself. Physically, he's not built to bang with the dudes he's going to be seeing the next 20 games. Mentally, he's getting in early foul trouble trying to guard those guys and becoming frustrated. Gotta wonder if we don't eventually make a switch there and have Yvan or Stevenson start and bring Mayan off the bench, just to give him a mental break and maybe match up against some backup 5s or some smaller 5s.

25 turnovers - ballgame. As good as the bluebirds 100+K players shoot it, you can't turn it over even 12 times and win, let alone double that. I imagine the BCN (Big Creighton Network) will go back to being BTN for the Iowa-ISU game? The announcers were fine, but, wow, the production people needed to rethink that broadcast. Felt like the bluebirds were the Big Ten conference member with all of the bluebird garbage into and out of timeouts. I get it that those bluebird fans put on their red watch BTN religiously during football season before they pull the sweater vests out of the back of the closet, so BCN was trying to cater to them for a couple of hours, but wow.

That was weird. I really like how he's shoveling even more candy out of the box after the pinata breaks, just to make sure everyone gets plenty. I have to feel like if he was a real coach, he'd have made the players put on shoulder pads and fight for only the 10 pieces that came out of the pinata to punish them for losing the battle on the boards.

With the way we struggle from 3 and to run consistent half court offense, we can't give up 16 turnovers and only come up with 3 steals. Give Tech credit for taking care of the ball - they looked like a team that relies on its seniors down the stretch. Hopefully a good learning experience for NU. Downside is that steals are going to be tough to come by against B1G teams.

@#@@#$#@ 81 NU 69

B1G leads, 6-5 Clemson 67, Maryland 51 Ga Tech 75, NU 64 Florida St 69, Indiana 67 (ot) Pitt 71, Northwestern 70 What a bloodbath the opposite way - definitely not as much fun - if the postponed games get played, they will decide it Tuesday Miami 58, Purdue 54 Illinois 83, Duke 68 Iowa 93, North Carolina 80 Minnesota 85, Boston College 80 (ot) Ohio St 90, Notre Dame 85 Penn St 75, Virginia Tech 55 Rutgers 79, Syracuse 69 Postponed games Louisville at Wisconsin - possibly played Sunday Michigan St at Virginia - unlikely to be made up NC State at Michigan - unlikely to be made up

Winning the rebounding battle 24-14 Losing the turnover battle 11-4 Not exactly what I expected.

Tech is playing way more man than I thought they would, so I don't know if that's throwing us off, but that was a horrible half of offensive basketball against both the man and the zone.

B1G leads, 6-2 Clemson 67, Maryland 51 Tuesday Miami 58, Purdue 54 Illinois 83, Duke 68 Iowa 93, North Carolina 80 Minnesota 85, Boston College 80 (ot) Ohio St 90, Notre Dame 85 Penn St 75, Virginia Tech 55 Rutgers 79, Syracuse 69 Wednesday, Dec. 9 **6:15 pm – Georgia Tech at Nebraska (ESPN2) 6:15 pm – Indiana at Florida St (ESPN) 8:15 pm – Pitt at Northwestern (ESPN) Postponed games Michigan St at Virginia - sounds pretty doubtful this game will be made up - however, MSU has not scheduled anyone else yet, so MSU still has one open slot to get to 27 games - I'm guessing Izzo is pretty pissed that they flew to Charlottesville, only to have the game postponed a few hours after they arrived, so I'd bet MSU will just schedule a home cupcake and call it good Louisville at Wisconsin - Wisconsin scheduled URI for today as a replacement but still has one open space left on its schedule to get to 27 games - sounds like they're hoping to make it up, maybe as early as Sunday NC State at Michigan - highly doubtful it will be made up - Michigan scheduled Toledo for today, so they're at 25 games and out of open slots - only way it could be made up is if Michigan & NC State play together in an MTE, as Michigan did not play in an MTE yet - not likely to happen

Pitt-NW moved to ESPN, still at 8:15

I think this game tells us a lot about how coachable this group is. You open the season with 4 games in 7 days (with a mandatory day off in there), there's little time for really breaking down film, re-emphasizing your offensive philosophies, and working on things that went wrong. Now you've had a week to really get into the nuances of the offense, learn from your mistakes, etc. If the guys take to coaching well, they should be sharp tonight offensively. You learn so much more from game film than you can learn in preseason practices that I think it's possible NU could take a huge leap forward tonight. The caveat is they're playing a team that can come closer to matching them athletically than anyone they've played to date, so do the players revert to bad habits when the pressure turns higher? Hopefully, this is where having a team with far more D-1 and high major experience than last year's group should pay dividends as well. I really want to win Friday, but I believe tonight's game tells us a lot about where this team is headed.

B1G leads, 6-1 Miami 58, Purdue 54 Illinois 83, Duke 68 Iowa 93, North Carolina 80 Minnesota 85, Boston College 80 (ot) Ohio St 90, Notre Dame 85 Penn St 75, Virginia Tech 55 Rutgers 79, Syracuse 69 My goodness - that was a bloodbath. Four double digit wins and If PU had any sort of pulse over the 2nd half after building a 20-pt lead, it would've been a clean sweep. Wednesday, Dec. 9 4 pm – Maryland at Clemson (ESPN2) **6:15 pm – Georgia Tech at Nebraska (ESPN2) 6:15 pm – Indiana at Florida St (ESPN) 8:15 pm – Pitt at Northwestern (ESPN2) Michigan St at Virginia, PPD Louisville at Wisconsin, PPD NC State at Michigan, PPD

B1G leads, 3-1 Miami 58, Purdue 54 Iowa 93, North Carolina 80 Minnesota 85, Boston College 80 (ot) Ohio St 90, Notre Dame 85 Was looking pretty bleak in the early evening games for a bit, but all 3 B1G teams pull the opposite of Purdue and rally for wins. Tuesday, Dec. 8 8 pm – Penn St at Virginia Tech (ESPNU) 8:30 pm – Illinois at Duke (ESPN) 8:30 pm – Syracuse at Rutgers (ESPN2)

Wednesday's Challenge opening point spreads: Maryland at Clemson (-2) Indiana at Florida St (-2.5) Ga Tech at Nebraska (-1) Pitt at Northwestern (-5) Michigan St at Virginia (-2)

Miami 58, Purdue 54 ACC leads, 1-0 Purdue will learn a key lesson from this game - playing the entire second half with one hand wrapped around your own throat makes it tough to hit shots. Tuesday, Dec. 8 6 pm – Boston College at Minnesota (ESPNU) 6:30 pm – North Carolina at Iowa (ESPN) 6:30 pm – Ohio St at Notre Dame (ESPN2) 8 pm – Penn St at Virginia Tech (ESPNU) 8:30 pm – Illinois at Duke (ESPN) 8:30 pm – Syracuse at Rutgers (ESPN2) Wednesday, Dec. 9 4 pm – Maryland at Clemson (ESPN2) **6:15 pm – Georgia Tech at Nebraska (ESPN2) 6:15 pm – Indiana at Florida St (ESPN) 8:15 pm – Pitt at Northwestern (ESPN2) 8:15 pm – Michigan St at Virginia (ESPN) Louisville at Wisconsin, PPD NC State at Michigan, PPD

Miami is 0-for-14 from 3-pt, yet somehow they've clawed back to within 46-41 with 6 1/2 minutes to go. This has been a turrrrrible game, by the way. Purdue is huge, but they've missed more bunnies than we normally do.

I'm pretty sure the B1G has medical people embedded with each time to oversee testing -- at least for football -- so it's not possible for any schools to cheat the system. It may be that way for hoops too, but I'm not sure on that. Could be the same medical person for both sports, I guess. NU football has chosen not to announce its positives, neither the numbers it has or who has it. Frost did mention after the Purdue game that Marvin Scott tested positive Friday, so he didn't play Saturday. It came up in passing during a discussion about the running back depth, so he probably didn't really mean to do it. NU basketball didn't announce Andre's positive either; I believe that came from speculation from a media source somewhere. But it's a lot easier for the media to guess on positive tests in hoops when you only have 15-ish players on a team. It's easier to see when someone isn't suited up or in attendance on a basketball bench versus 100+ in football where you have guys who don't dress out for many reasons. Regardless, I'm pretty sure HiPAA regulations don't allow teams to announce who is positive. The player could announce it himself/herself, but not the school/team. Some teams are announcing the total number of positives they have, and some aren't.

If all the challenge games are going to go this way, the B1G may have it wrapped up before we take the floor tomorrow night. Purdue 15-4 at under-12 timeout. Miami has one field goal. Purdue has a new 7-foot-4 monster in the lane. All things are right with the world.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/2020-accbig-ten-challenge-schedule-picks-predictions-odds-as-duke-illinois-unc-iowa-headline-on-tuesday/ CBS Sports picks 6-1 in favor of B1G in Tuesday games - Wednesday game picks will come later.

Tuesday's opening point spreads: Purdue at Miami (PK) BC at Minnesota (-8) Ohio St (-4) at Notre Dame N Carolina at Iowa (-4.5) Penn St at Va Tech (-5) Illinois at Duke (-4) Syracuse at Rutgers (-3.5) B1G favored in 4, ACC 2, Pick'em 1 (Game times & TV updated in first post)

Looks like ESPN bumped back the start times on Wednesday by 15 minutes, other than the 4 pm game.

NU 85 Ga T 77 5