throwback

It felt like Akoy Agau had at least 4 strikes with us.

Can't imagine it's going to last but I've been saying that since tip-off and so far it's lasting ... N Dakota St 51, Kansas 51 - 9 1/2 minutes to play

Wonder how they structured these non-con contracts - does the contract force the two teams to try to reschedule, or once one team has a covid issue, does that void the contract? NU is referring to it as a 'cancellation', so that would indicate it's not going to be pushed to that open week, but hard to know for sure without knowing what the contract language looks like.

Always enjoy a baseball thread The biggest hurdle to pushing college baseball deeper into summer is the MLB draft. But with MLB taking a hard look at how it operates Minor League Baseball and shrinking the number of teams, MLB may be willing to work with the colleges to push things back, basically eliminating a lot of those short-season minor league teams. I think MLB teams are climbing on board with the idea that having their top prospects into the Arizona fall league with detailed instruction is almost better for development than the short season teams. Pushing the college season back also would essentially kill off the amateur summer wood bat leagues, which has been a sticking point for MLB and the way it scouts players. However, I do think MLB has an interest in saving $$$ by almost using the college game like a subset of minor league baseball, moving more toward the NBA and NFL models, so I think MLB is open to making some changes to allow the college game to grow. Now's the perfect time to try it.

Michigan's baseball coach made a proposal to the NCAA higher-ups back in April/May to push the start of the college baseball season back 4-6 weeks permanently, and he made a lot of good points that would benefit all programs. It actually gained some traction from southern coaches, so we'll see. It would be a good idea to give it a trial run in '21. As far as the B1G only allowing conference games for baseball/softball, I hope that's not set in stone. That might be one of the dumbest, most short-sighted decisions the B1G has made yet under the new commish ... and there's quite a bit of competition for that honor. I think the idea of conference-only was to save money, but when you're trading away NU's ability to play nearby teams like Omaha & Kansas St & the bluebirds for extra trips -- by bus -- to Maryland & Penn St & Rutgers ... well, whoever made that decision with the idea of saving on costs shouldn't have a job that involves any sort of mathematics beyond 1+1.

Advanced math is very tricky. We're still stuck on the question about whether offering $100,000 plus a good job is a punishable act. Let us run the numbers and get back to you in a few years on this Walker situation. Sincerely, NCAA

Just 2 days this year instead of spread over 3 - hopefully they all are played: (doh!) 2020 B1G-ACC Challenge (all times Central) UPDATED Dec. 7, changes in bold Tuesday, Dec. 8 4 pm – Purdue at Miami (ESPN2) 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 NU History (5-4) 2019 – at Georgia Tech 73, Nebraska 56 (0-1 under Hoiberg) 2018 – Nebraska 68, at Clemson 66 2017 – at Nebraska 71, Boston College 62 2016 – at Clemson 60, Nebraska 58 2015 – Miami 77, at Nebraska 72 (ot) 2014 – Nebraska 70, at Florida State 65 2013 – at Nebraska 60, Miami 49 2012 – Nebraska 79, at Wake Forest 63 2011 – Wake Forest 55, at Nebraska 53 Series History (ACC leads all time, 12-6-3 in series and 133-106 in games) 2019 – B1G 8, ACC 6 2018 – (tie) B1G 7, ACC 7 2017 – ACC 11, B1G 3 2016 – ACC 9, B1G 5 2015 – B1G 8, ACC 6 2014 – B1G 8, ACC 6 2013 – (tie) B1G 6, ACC 6 2012 – (tie) B1G 6, ACC 6 2011 – B1G 8, ACC 4 (B1G leads 4-2-3 in series since Nebraska joined and ACC leads 61-59 in games) 2010 – B1G 6, ACC 5 2009 – B1G 6, ACC 5 2008 – ACC 6, B1G 5 2007 – ACC 8, B1G 3 2006 – ACC 8, B1G 3 2005 – ACC 6, B1G 5 2004 – ACC 7, B1G 2 2003 – ACC 7, B1G 2 2002 – ACC 5, B1G 4 2001 – ACC 5, B1G 3 2000 – ACC 5, B1G 4 1999 – ACC 5, B1G 4

FAM is 1-73 against power conference teams over the past 2 decades, but because of the "1", Coach Hoiberg will be looking to gain some revenge for his alma mater. https://www.wtxl.com/sports/college-sports/famu/florida-a-m-stuns-iowa-state-to-conclude-2019 By the way, FAM lost to South Dakota by 3 last season and lost to Washington St by 14 last season (same Wazzu team we won against last season by 11).

NU 76 FAM 49 4 players

Nice little surge to finish to the half, but -- wow -- that half could've gone better for at least 8 of the 13 people on the floor.

NU 91 SDAK 73

NU 77 ND St 55

To be fair, it's Thanksgiving Eve up there. That's a huge holiday night for those folks with Ranch dressing shots and kegs of turkey gravy flowing freely in red Solo cups, so their judgment probably isn't the best today.

Really impressed by 3 things especially: 1-NU scored 102 points and, by my count, missed at least 23 shots from within 5 feet. Also missed a few more FTs than I would expect they will going forward. I know McNeese was a disaster defensively, but NU easily could've been around 115-120 points. That's crazy. 2-I was shocked how many times McNeese ended up in single digits on the shot clock, which I don't think is what they want to do. This occurred a bunch in that stretch midway through 2nd half where we had a 25-2 run or something like that. They just seemed completely confused because of NU's length. 3-NU has so many players who just glide and make it look easy. The athleticism is impressive. We had teams under Miles that had 3-4 guys who would glide like that, but this team has several. And rewatching the game, Yvan had a really, really bad stretch after the 8 minute mark, but before that, I thought he was pretty solid; much improved over last season. Seemed like to me he ran out of gas a bit toward the end of the game. He played a ton of minutes in the 2nd half ... which makes the double whammy of losing Walker & Andre here early especially tough. Yvan is probably better off in the 12-15 minute range, but we won't have that luxury for a bit. Was especially glad the spread wasn't NU -49, or that 3-pt heave at the final buzzer by McNeese would've pissed me off.

NU 85 Nev 71

2-10 ATS in our last 12 games 1-3 ATS in our last 4 games as a double digit favorite Beyond the 17 gm losing streak, it's time to switch these around too, starting today

NU opens -14

I wouldn't count on that - keeping with tradition, BTN will probably show the Rutgers-Michigan football replay before our game so the overtimes bleed over into our scheduled tip-off time. They'll join our game with about 7 minutes left in the first half.

Since it's very quiet, I'm guessing we're weighing our options. Probably need to do whatever we can to keep the MTE, or we are limited to 25 games instead of 27. So, basically, find a way to keep the MTE, or the schedule stays as is minus the games Thursday & Saturday.

Here's BTN's advertised hoops schedule for opening day Wednesday - a sexruple-header? McNeese at NU, 11 am NC A&T at Illinois, 1 pm NC Central at Iowa, 3 pm E Mich at Michigan St, 5 pm Tenn Tech at Indiana, 7 pm E Illinois at Wisconsin, 9 pm (Yes, I'm watching Rutgers-Michigan football. Don't judge me.)

No need for Ameer Abdullah heroics this time: NU 81 McNeese 60 Noncon 72% Season 50%

I'm hearing pay per view with a cost of $100,000.

With the way the MTE schedule worked out, it would make some sense to try to move McNeese to somewhere in between S Dakota & Georgia Tech, if possible, rather than cram 3 games into 4 days out of the gate. Maybe they're trying to move that game, and that's part of the delay. Also stinks that we have to play the bluebirds in an empty PBA - wonder if part of the delay in releasing all the non-con games is in part because we're trying to negotiate so that the game with them is in Lincoln again next year.

Yikes, hope we're not playing at 8 pm Wednesday and at 1 pm Thursday. That'd be a pretty brutal turnaround. Might have to sit our catcher and right-fielder for the day game after the night game.

Should've known better, but I was kind of expecting some sort of pod scheduling or more dates in the late Dec/early Jan time frame and fewer games the final few weeks to try to give time for rescheduling if pauses are needed. Something complicated that could explain why this took so long. However, it looks like a pretty typical schedule to me, other than we only have one game the final week instead of the typical two. Have absolutely no idea why it took this long to put out this schedule. Ultimately, just happy to have a schedule, because the longer this took, the more I was afraid the B1G would try to follow the lead of the Ivy League again.