throwback

Half court defense was outstanding again until they had one guy get hot in the second half Our zone doesn't always produce a stop, but it really forces teams to slow their tempo, which can be effective in situations like we were in today, where CSF was gaining momentum 3-pt defense was outstanding again until they hit those 2 late 3s Not bad that we can miss 14 FTs, get out-rebounded by 10+ and still cruise to an easy win I like Roby driving from the wing/baseline area better than from the top of the key, it was nice to get him a couple of clear-outs from that area of the floor I also like how a slow start offensive for Roby does not affect him on the defensive end at all - he was at a high level on that end once again All things considered, a solid performance, as it would've been easy for guys to be thinking more about going home than playing today 10-2 with one more gimme to go is a really good result for Nov/Dec Yet another Vegas cover so that helps the analytics We're really good ... but you already knew that

While I agree Roby has not taken the big step forward offensively we were hoping to see, his work on the defensive end is extremely high level, so he's more than making up for it on that end. The number of passes he deflects, balls he pokes loose, shots he alters and/or blocks, shots he forces players to turn down, and back-door cut passes he takes away is very impressive if you just watch him work on that end. He's also often the guy directing our transition defense, making sure we're picking up the shooters at the 3-pt line, while he covers the lane. I would even say he's a huge reason we can play aggressively out on the perimeter and chase shooters off the 3-pt line. He makes things uncomfortable for players who drive into the lane while trying to beat our tight perimeter defense. On this team that has so many scoring options, his biggest contribution to helping us win is going to come on the defensive end, and he's excelling on that end, minus a few silly fouls. When you consider he's doing all of this while guarding someone who usually outweighs him by 25-50 pounds, it's really impressive.

Here's where NU's schedule projects in terms of quadrant based on current ratings for NET, KenPom and RPI (just for easy compare to last year) - obviously a huge difference. Projecting 12-15 Q1 games this season vs 7 last year and projecting 9-10 Q2 games vs 6 last year. I'm a little surprised that - at this point - the NET projection is not significantly different than the RPI projection.

NU 90 Fullerton 55

Exclusive photo of Tim & Greg from the game last night.... I don't think they're going to make up any time soon.

Just coming back to earth today, realizing there were other basketball games played yesterday ... and somehow I missed UW's Davison popping a Marquette player in the family jewels during game play and trying to pretend nothing happened. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/wisconsins-davison-earns-flagrant-1-for-punch-to-groin/ar-BBQGyjg Actually, Davison should've flown backward 10 feet after the contact ... maybe he could've drawn a charge from the MU player's junk.

NU 77 Okie Lite 66

CU learning a hard lesson - when you pay your players like they're in the NBA, they're going to play defense like they're in the NBA.

I'm so hungover this morning and do not care NU played so hard and so well Pitino is a jackwagon amateur - McDermott clearly has the butt-hurt jackwagon corner all to himself Ballock needs to go in Monday morning and demand a raise and a better job for his parents - without him that game is about 100-49

NU 86 #$%@#$ 77 5

NU opens as a 3-pt favorite

Did Davison go flying backward about 10 feet when it happened?

NU Non-Con Opponents Through Sunday: Missi Valley St 2-7 L 37-106 at Nebraska L 52-84 at Texas Tech L 59-94 at Utah State L 63-98 at Utah L 59-68 Robert Morris W 69-59 SE Louisiana L 67-86 at Illinois W 102-62 vs Rust (non-D1) L 71-107 at California Baptist (non-D1) SE Louisiana 4-4 L 63-94 at LSU W 78-57 William Carey (non-D1) L 35-87 at Nebraska L 40-59 at Texas Tech W 69-57 Stetson L 59-69 at Missi Valley St W 86-71 vs LA College (non-D1) W 62-61 at Tulane Seton Hall 4-3 W 89-49 Wagner L 57-80 at Nebraska L 64-66 Saint Louis W 82-75 (N) Grand Canyon W 64-54 (N) Hawaii W 83-81 (N) Miami-Fla L 65-70 Louisville Missouri St 3-5 W 84-50 Oral Roberts W 74-60 Robert Morris W 83-70 Stetson L 62-85 (N) Nebraska L 80-99 (N) USC L 66-77 at Murray St L 69-88 at Air Force L 77-101 at Oregon St Texas Tech 7-0 W 87-37 Incarnate Word W 84-52 Missi Valley St W 59-40 SE Louisiana W 78-63 (N) USC W 70-52 (N) Nebraska W 93-62 Northern Colorado W 78-67 at Memphis Western Illinois 4-4 L 78-67 at Creighton W 84-56 North Park (non-D1) W 95-56 Dominican Illinois (non-D1) L 66-68 at E Illinois L 90-92 at Tenn-Martin L 49-73 at Nebraska W 83-58 SIU-Edwardsville W 70-63 at SE Missouri St Clemson 5-2 W 100-80 The Citadel W 71-51 NC Central W 74-59 Sam Houston St W 72-69 (N) Akron W 64-49 (N) Georgia L 82-87 (N) Creighton L 66-68 Nebraska Creighton 6-2 W 78-67 W Illinois W 75-69 E Tennessee St L 60-69 Ohio St W 94-82 (N) Boise St W 93-68 (N) Georgia St W 87-82 (N) Clemson W 98-72 Montana L 92-103 Gonzaga Oklahoma St 4-3 L 64-66 at Charlotte W 82-60 UT San Antonio W 70-58 Charleston W 84-64 (N) Memphis L 58-77 (N) Villanova W 90-77 (N) LSU L 76-83 at Minnesota Cal State Fullerton 3-5 L 94-102 at Arizona St (2 OT) W 106-53 West Coast Baptist (non-D1) L 52-68 (N) UCF L 59-66 (N) Wake Forest W 87-63 (N) Monmouth L 71-80 at Hofstra L 82-87 at Sacramento St W 99-60 Cal Lutheran (non-D1) SW Minnesota St 5-2 (non-D1) L 74-83 Emporia State W 96-85 Fort Hays State W 83-70 Mayville State W 101-81 Bethany Lutheran W 92-61 Northland (Wis.) W 100-81 Crown L 72-94 Sioux Falls ______________ B1G Vs Power 5 teams 23-17 overall 7-9 v ACC 6-4 v Big East 3-3 v Big XII 6-0 v Pac-12 1-1 v SEC Illinois 0-4 (2-6 overall) L 80-88 Georgetown L 68-84 (N) Iowa St L 74-83 (N) Xavier L 74-76 at Notre Dame + L 78-84 (N) Gonzaga Indiana 1-2 (6-2 overall) W 96-73 Marquette L 72-73 at Arkansas L 69-90 at Duke Iowa 2-0 (6-1 overall) W 77-69 (N) Oregon W 69-68 Pitt + W 91-72 (N) UConn Maryland 0-1 (7-1 overall) L 71-76 Virginia Michigan 3-0 (8-0 overall) W 73-46 at Villanova W 66-47 (N) Providence W 84-67 North Carolina Michigan St 2-2 (6-2 overall) L 87-92 (N) Kansas W 78-68 (N) Texas W 87-67 (N) UCLA L 78-82 at Louisville Minnesota 4-1 (6-2 overall) W 78-69 Utah W 69-64 (N) Texas A&M W 68-66 (N) Washington L 56-68 at Boston College W 83-76 Oklahoma St Nebraska 2-1 (7-1 overall) W 80-57 Seton Hall L 52-70 (N) Texas Tech W 68-66 at Clemson Northwestern 2-0 (6-2 overall) W 79-57 (N) Utah W 67-61 Georgia Tech + L 59-78 (N) Fresno St Ohio State 1-1 (7-1 overall) W 69-60 at Creighton L 62-72 Syracuse + W 64-56 at Cincinnati Penn State 1-1 (4-3 overall) L 70-72 at DePaul (OT) W 63-62 Virginia Tech + L 56-59 (N) Bradley Purdue 0-2 (5-3 overall) L 83-89 (N) Virginia Tech L 72-73 at Florida St Rutgers 1-1 (5-2 overall) L 65-84 St John’s W 57-54 at Miami-Fla Wisconsin 4-1 (7-1 overall) W 77-68 at Xavier W 62-46 (N) Stanford W 78-58 (N) Oklahoma L 46-53 (N) Virginia W 79-75 NC State

Great point on Allen's defense - that was an area of concern for me going into the season, but he's been nails.

They look a lot better when they're hitting the 3 - when they aren't, they seem to look a little lost on offense. I like our chances to steal one on the road the way we're defending the 3. And if we can get Murphy in some foul trouble - he loves to go for ball fakes - I really like our chances.

Having a veteran team and a few extra days to prep made a big difference on the defensive end. That 1-3-1 zone today was as good as it's been for that long of a stretch since probably last year at Penn St. With our foul trouble, having the zone work was important to force Illinois to burn clock on offense and to protect our guys. Plenty of chances to wilt today -- Roby has foul trouble and gets poked in the eye, Watson having to sit out for a lot of minutes, long scoring drought in the first half, freakin' Kipper Nichols hitting 2 threes and banking home another jumper -- but we just didn't wilt - that's where having so much experience is paying off. I know every analyst keeps questioning our bench, but those guys are playing solidly. None will be huge scorers this season - nor do they need to be - but they're making solid plays and there's not a huge drop off defensively when they enter the game. Great start to league play. Let's go 2-0 next week!

NU 72 Minn 68

Agree, thought it'd be -7 or -8, but Vegas also may be trying to adjust its metrics to catch up to what NU has been doing ATS - 5-1-1 this year, 23-5-1 over past 29 games.

Crap. That means he'll be back for our game Jan. 6. We just can't catch a break on these suspensions.

Could've been an ugly night for the B1G, but good comebacks by Iowa and Wisconsin Going to go out on a limb and say Duke holds on to even the series at 4-4. NU the only team to win on the road. 2018 B1G-ACC Challenge (all times Central) SERIES TIED 4-4 Nebraska 68, at Clemson 66 at Iowa 69, Pitt 68 at Wisconsin 79, NC State 75 at Penn St 63, Virginia Tech 62 at Boston College 68, Minnesota 56 at Louisville 82, Michigan St 78 (ot) at Duke A LOT, Indiana NOT ENOUGH at Notre Dame 76, Illinois 74 Wednesday, Nov. 28 6:15 pm – Syracuse at Ohio St (-5.5), ESPN2 6:15 pm – Rutgers at Miami (-11), ESPNU 6:30 pm – Virginia (-3.5) at Maryland, ESPN 8:15 pm – Purdue at Florida St (-4.5), ESPN2 8:15 pm – Georgia Tech at Northwestern (-7.5), ESPNU 8:30 pm – N Carolina at Michigan (-3), ESPN Vegas thinks it will end in a 7-7 tie; I'd prefer if the home teams keep winning to give the B1G an 8-6 edge.

NU 68 Illinois 54 14 conf wins

I expect full-on jackwagon behavior. He was a disappointment tonight. Probably saving it for next Wednesday's game.

2018 B1G-ACC Challenge (all times Central) SERIES TIED 1-1 Nebraska 68, at Clemson 66 at Boston College 68, Minnesota 56 Tuesday, Nov. 27 6 pm – Virginia Tech at Penn St, ESPN2 6 pm – Illinois at Notre Dame, ESPNU 6:30 pm – Michigan St at Louisville, ESPN 8 pm – NC State at Wisconsin, ESPN2 8 pm – Pittsburgh at Iowa, ESPNU 8:30 pm – Indiana at Duke, ESPN Wednesday, Nov. 28 6:15 or 6:30 pm – Syracuse at Ohio St, ESPN2 or ESPN 6:15 pm – Rutgers at Miami, ESPNU 6:15 or 6:30 pm – Virginia at Maryland, ESPN2 or ESPN 8:15 pm – Purdue at Florida St, ESPN2 8:15 pm – Georgia Tech at Northwestern, ESPNU 8:30 pm – N Carolina at Michigan, ESPN

Watson was trying to call one, but the ref - shockingly - ignored him.

Lines for Tuesday's games: Notre Dame -5.5 vs Illinois Va Tech -1.5 at Penn St Mich St -5 at L'ville Iowa -12.5 vs Pitt Wisc -8 vs NC State Duke -14.5 vs Indiana