throwback

That line is worth a +1

Maybe Chris Del Conte (TCU) is the guy? http://bigrednation.com/2017/10/rumor-alert-nebraska-may-found-new-ad/ Hired Dixon as TCU's hoops coach last year, which, considering TCU's basketball history, seems like a pretty good hire. And of course tremendous success at TCU in football & baseball under his watch. To be fair, he inherited both of those sports' coaches, but he also deserves credit for making TCU a place where they'd want to stay, rather than jumping to a bigger program.

ESPN reporting U of Miami part of this too. Hope our former AD wasn't involved while down there.

Excellent news!

Hope the coaches all got their book reports done before today, or they're going to get incompletes.

Good riddance. Had to be done. Surprised it happened this soon, but it was inevitable.

NU's open to the public event will be outdoors on Oct. 6 from 8-9:30 near PBA. Interesting idea - should be fun! http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=211668349

I seem to remember a reporter or two finding his way into Coach Iba's practices back in the day, even when he hung towels on the windows, so it can be done.

Well, there goes about 10% of our Adidas apparel budget for the year. Those letters aren't cheap.

Shon Morris just said his top 3 teams in the league are MSU, Minny & NW - guess who our first 3 games are with? Sheesh. Brutal early, but if we can survive till February, finishing with 4 out of last 5 at home is about as favorable as it can be down the stretch.

I'm a schedule all the games you can guy, so nice to see them using that St. Johns game as the 4th Advocare game to get to 31 games - smart way to do it. I know N Dakota has a bit of a reputation as a cheap shot team, so hopefully Coach Miles can avoid going Fran after that game - that's definitely the trap game on there.

I think he can contribute here eventually, but it'll take a redshirt season and probably another year or 2 beyond that. Going to have to be patient. I like his instincts as a shot blocker. Am curious to see how his 3-pt shot has developed, along with his overall offensive game during the summer. He has improved a lot over the past couple of years, but still a ways to go to be Big Ten caliber. Still, with big guys, their development seems to come in bunches and it comes late, so I think it's worth taking a chance here. Hopefully he picks the right school.

Because NU is now a full-fledged Big Ten member (and because it's the dead season for college sports), thought it might be fun to pick NU's All Big Ten team so far. Pick 3 for the backcourt and 3 for the frontcourt. These are the guys who had the most stats/games started/games played during NU's time in the Big Ten - 2011/12 to 2016/17 - but write-in candidates are welcome. No real guidelines for voting. For example, you can weigh whether you prefer a guy who finished his career at NU versus someone who had one great season and then abandoned his teammates and transferred late in the summer before his senior year and screwed over the entire program. (Not naming any names here.)

Maybe this isn't what you meant, but right now, we don't know if he plans to extend Coach Miles' contract and keep it at a 4-year contract. He hasn't said. He didn't extend it last year, but we don't know yet for this year. Perhaps that will be addressed next week, although last year, the drop back to a 4-yr contract wasn't announced till August. http://www.omaha.com/huskers/mens-basketball/no-contract-extension-for-tim-miles-shawn-eichorst-optimistic-about/article_cc04a41e-5a89-11e6-9c39-c751a2b50988.html Eichorst granted the 1-year extension after '15 to keep him at a 5-yr contract. He didn't after '16, so he dropped to a 4-yr contract. I don't have a problem with that. 4 years is plenty in terms of stability, and the teams' performance in '15 and '16 didn't warrant an extension.. Obviously, this year's performance doesn't exactly warrant an extension either. However, the industry standard does warrant keeping a coach at a 4-yr contract. And I guess I don't see the wisdom in not extending him another year to keep it at a 4-yr contract. If they fail next year, and he's fired, you're only saving $900K roughly by dropping him to a 3-yr contract. For a department that will have a $125M+ budget, that's not much. But if your scenario comes true, and they win big next year, now you have to deal with the hard feelings if you drop the coach to a 3-yr deal that could cause him to be looking around after a good season. If they have a big season next year and you lose him to another school because the AD was trying to cheap out on the buyout, that's not going to go over well with fans. In my mind, if you believe in the coach enough to keep him around, you keep him at a 4-yr contract (or whatever the "standard" is for that sport.) That's just part of the cost of doing business these days. To me, that would go for any coach, not just Coach Miles. Trying to save a bit of money down the road just isn't worth the hard feelings or the potential ramifications, not for a big time athletic department.

Ha - not a popular rant. I may or may not have had my morning coffee before tying my rant. To be fair, I did label it as a rant, so that was fair warning. I guess I'm old fashioned in that a tweet isn't sufficient for me. If it is for some people, I understand. But I believe any leader in a position like the AD needs to present ideas/plans and then open him/herself to questions from the media. Without opening yourself up to questions, it gives the appearance that you don't necessarily believe in what you've stated in a press release/statement/tweet. Your ideas/plans have to pass the "smell" test. Without press conferences to explain yourself beyond a tweet, you're just fueling conspiracy theories and rumors. It's tough to get people behind your plans without scrutiny of the plans. Waiting 6+ weeks to address the season and discuss a long term vision for the second biggest program that you're overseeing is just far too long for something that could be handled in a 30-minute press conference. It makes no sense to me, and it does nothing to help the program. A big time athletic dept is more like a publicly traded company than ever. You have to sell people on your plans. You have to generate confidence. Like Mr. Barfknecht always says, as an AD you have to sell hope or winning to keep people on board with a particular program. What we've heard - or haven't heard - over the past 6 weeks hasn't done any of that, at least for me. Hopefully he does speak to the media next week and is able to present some ideas/plans that will help move the program forward and put a rest to all of the speculation and rumors that do nothing to help the situation.

[rant] Well, it's after the Final Four. It's after the Spring Game. Yet still no word from the AD's office. 43 days since we've played a game. And all we've "heard" from the AD is a tweet. It's beyond time to lay out his vision for the program. What is the plan? I don't want to hear an ultimatum for 2017-18 - that almost never works out well for either party. But you can still articulate long term expectations for the program that don't have to include an ultimatum. To me, at least part this sh!tst0rm of an offseason has come from the silence from above. Since we're more than a week into the signing period, it's probably too late, but if you have enough faith in Coach Miles to keep him for 2017-18, then say it publicly. It really isn't that difficult. If he isn't your guy, then you should have fired him. Rip off the Band-Aid and start fresh. This wishy-washy lack of comments just results in doubt and confusion. And rumors. Tons and tons and tons of rumors. Time for him to come out of his bunker and make an appearance. Even public company CEOs have to speak to the shareholders once a quarter. And there are a lot of public companies that don't operate organizations that make $125M+ per year, as NU is about to make. The AD can't be a hermit. He/she has to be a leader, inspire confidence, etc. He/she doesn't have to be Stevie P and hold a press conference every time he/she has a successful bowel movement, but there's a happy medium there. PS - And while he's making his rare media appearance, how about laying out his vision for NU's overall athletic program going forward? We're going to be seeing the full Big Ten share in less than 2 1/2 months. If there was ever a time to have a rock solid, long term plan in place, this would be it. How's about sharing at least an overview of it with the paying public? Where is that money going? Hopefully a cut in ticket prices, even a small one, is on the table. Hopefully an idea of adding several more layers of bureaucracy in the AD's office is not. With a $25M-$35M jump in the athletics budget on the horizon, that should push NU into the Top 15, if not the Top 10, of all athletic departments in funding. Time to start acting like we belong there. / [rant]

I'd take him ... primarily because he doesn't wear #3. (If he comes here, don't give your number to him Isaiah. I don't care what he offers.)

Geez. Is this thread still going? Wait. Did I miss one of those three- or four- or multiple-day weekends? Damn. I hate it when I go to work on days where I don't need to. Someone let me know if the weekend will still be going tomorrow. I could use a day off.

Geez, I hope it happens soon. I don't want to have to wait all the way till midnight for the news. I have to work in the morning.

Hearing from sources that he's a perfect fit for Creighton's system.

I'd agree - when he was at K-State, I always thought he was going to end his career a'la Woody Hayes at some point. Seemed completely unhinged. He definitely seems to have mellowed a bit at S Carolina. It's been interesting to hear him speak after a few of these NCAA games. It hasn't been the tone or subject matter of what I would expect having watched him up close at KSU. He did have an incident a couple of years in at S Carolina where he was suspended a few games. Maybe that gave him a bit of a different perspective. Either way, what he has done at that school is really amazing. For me, it's also a lot easier to respect him/listen to what he has to say when NU isn't playing his teams twice per year. How pissed are KSU fans going to be if two coaches they've essentially run off end up playing for it all Monday? Plus KSU-ers have to hate Roy Williams. They just may not tune in at all Saturday or Monday.

We have quite a few other schools listed as topics, so I thought I'd follow suit. These two making the Final Four shows that it can be done at places without tradition, so I think they have some relevance to NU. Both schools had the right AD hiring the right coach and giving him the time to make it work. Looks like 5-6 years at both places to really get it rolling. The other thing that seems to be the same for both programs is hiring a coach who had long-term success previously at programs with big fan expectations. Dana obviously turned cu from a dumpster fire into a program that was appealing to the Big East, had 11 straight 20-win seasons. And Oregon didn't let one subpar year at cu scare them off. Plus, his work was better than he's given credit for at K-State. Martin did a lot of great things at K-State. It's not easy to hire guys like that away from their current jobs, but both Oregon and S Carolina did it, so that's where having a great AD with some foresight enters the picture. Kind of interesting that both of them are on their 2nd Power Conference school. And neither Altman or Martin has Final Four experience at a previous school. Martin had one Sweet 16 appearance at K-State, Altman had never had one till getting to Oregon. So neither coach had slam-dunk credentials, but their new ADs saw something. Just lots of similarities, although Dana doesn't quite match Martin's crazy eyes. (Not sure who can for that matter.) This isn't meant to say anything one way or the other about NU & Coach Miles, I still like to think he can get it done here. Obviously a huge year coming up for him and the program. Certainly, South Carolina/Martin & Oregon/Altman both showed more progress by years 4 & 5 than NU has under Coach Miles. Hopefully 2017-18 is the year where things turn the corner. But I just thought it was interesting to see two schools with very little basketball tradition both make the Final Four in the same season, following a somewhat similar hiring process to find the right coach. Hopefully we have the right guy in house now, but if not, hopefully we have the right AD with the right foresight in place. I guess it's just encouraging to see some new blood get to the Final Four. There's always hope.

Yes, this is very good news

Well deserved!

Good for the B1G, always feels good to take out the best Big East team. Not been a great tourney for the Big East so far - B1G redeeming itself after a shaky Thursday.