NUdiehard

If Walker is out, who would you start at center? 1. Keita 2. Oleg 3. Wilcher If Walker is out, who do you think Fred will start at center?

Agree 100%. Huskers can probably survive if Walker is out for 4 games or less. If Nebraska can manage 3-1 in their first 4 (playing 3 buy-in games), then it would probably be the same record of 3-1 with or without Walker after 4 (going to be very difficult to beat St. John's on the road with or without Walker). But anything more than that may end this thing before it evens get started. The 5th, 6th and 7th games are the ESPN Invitational, all against high quality opponents. If Walker plays, Huskers would have a chance to secure at least one upset and gain a little mojo for the rest of the season. Without Walker, any chance at a upset is highly unlikely and a few blowouts are possible, killing morale and momentum for the season. After that tourney, Huskers play Boston College, Creighton, Indiana, Purdue and K.St. Brutal. Even if Walker comes back after the Invitational, he would have to integrate into the team with all the new players on-the-fly against 5 straight power 5 schools. PLUS, Fred has said that late last year he changed the entire offense to focus more on Walker. Not just dumping it into the post, but running the offense through him on the high post, along with a good dose of pick-and-roll. Fred recently said they continued this emphasis of running the offense through Walker this year. Walker is a good passer, and is mobile enough to roll to the basket, and has decent hands. Keita and Oleg are taller, but are less athletic, are more traditional centers, are not as skilled and do not have the experience or ability to be the focus of the entire offense. If Walker is out for 7 or more games, not only do the Huskers likely lose 3-4 of those games, but the new players do not get any game experience playing with Walker and running the true offense that Fred wants to run. They would have to re-learn the entire offense one-third of the way through the season, with new players on a new team, etc.

Oleg has some potential. He is more polished and skilled on the offensive end that Keita. Biggest problem with Oleg is that he is still so skinny and not strong enough, he really struggles to box out and hold his position. Against Chadron St., he would initially have good rebounding position, but then a small 6'4" Chadron St. player would simply put a hip on him and easily move him off his spot. Chadron St. got a lot of offensive rebounds, and Oleg was a part of the issue because he simply can't hold his ground. If Walker is out for an extended time, it is going to be interesting to see how Fred handles it. He will either have to give Oleg rotation minutes, or put Wilhelm at the 5. Personally, I have not loved what I've seen from Wilhelm at the 4, so maybe time to try him at the 5 with Gary or Dawson at the 4.

Getting our "shooters" like Wilcher, Keisei, Bando and Lawrence good shots is going to be the key to having offensive success. But with that said, there is a reason it consistently appears as though guys appear to be "forcing" shots-- opposing teams are guarding them tough on the 3-point line. This is in contrast to guys like Gary and Dawson, Walker, etc, which teams are going to play soft when guarding them on the perimeter. In fact, Chadron St. completely ignored Gary when he was at the 3-point line, played 10 feet off him and simply sat in the paint. The question is which would you rather have? Wilcher or Keisei shooting a slightly off-balance or contested 3, or Gary, Dawson or Walker shooting a wide-open 3? Based on their history and what I have seen so far, I would rather Wilcher, Keisei and Lawrence keep firing away even if off-balance or contested than Gary or Dawson or Walker wide open. Gary is simply not a good shooter at all. I know that Fred says he has been working on his balance and leaning to the side, etc, but the odds of that translating to game speed are low. I do hope he can improve things, but if we have to live-or-die with Gary shooting 3s it could be a very long season. He shot 11% his freshman year and 22% his sophomore year. He is also a career 55% free throw shooter, and missed 3 of 4 FTs in the exhibition against CU. Griesel looks like a guy who can hit 35%+ when he is wide open on 3s, but will struggle when contested or off-balance. Wilhelm has not given any indication he can shoot consistently at this level. Maybe if wide open, but he has not even established that. This leaves just 3 guys (not including Lawrence who is not in the rotation) who can consistently make the 3, and other teams know it. It is going to be very difficult to get those 3 guys wide open 3s, so they are going to have to take some difficult ones. Although Lawrence missed all three of his 3-point attempts, I really liked what I saw from him on the offensive end. He seemed to have good movement, spacing and confidence to shoot. He is a good shooter and those shots will start falling if he get more opportunities. Question is whether his defense will prevent him from getting minutes. But if Keisei struggles, I have to believe Lawrence could play defense close to Keisei's level, so maybe those two can fight for playing time. Reality is we need at least one of them to be on the court and firing away, because this team lacks so much shooting in its other rotation players.

Getting out rebounded 26-19 at half

Gary is going to be a very valuable player for this team but he can’t be are primary shooter/scorer. Have to find ways to get Wilcher, Griesel, Brando, Keisei good open shots.

The starting lineup has gotten off to a terrible start on all 3 halves of this preseason. Something is going to have to change in starting lineup and I think Wilhelm may have to go to the bench. He may just be too slow to play the 4, at least against starters.

https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/big-12/kansas-state/article267542717.html Appears that Keyonte is cleared, practicing and 100% prepared to play for KSU this season. Appears once again NU's compliance/medical staff exists solely to make things more difficult for this program to succeed.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but found it interesting (humorous?) enough to share. On a recent Pick Six Pocast, Sam McKewon asked Tom Shatel how many players do you have to go down Creighton's roster before you get to Nebraska's best player (in other words, how many Creighton players are better than Nebaska's best player). Shatel said . . . . 10

It was an exhibition game with NU running vanilla offense, so we shouldn't try to read too much into things. But it was a bit concerning that the team got off to slow starts in both the first half and second half. Seemed like things turned around, and the team went on runs, when the backups came in. Obviously, Gary's big day played a role in this, but it just seemed the first team offense struggled to find it footing and the first team defense definitely is not as electric as the backups. It will be interesting to see if Fred continues to start Wilhelm over Gary. Another factor was Wilcher had an off day shooting just 1-8 (1-4 on 3s), but he has proven himself enough that I don't think we need to worry about a systemic problem with him and/or his shooting. Going into this season I was worried how we would handle "quick" guards who are able to drive past our taller/slower defenders and Chadron St. proved this could continue to be an issue. Also, did anyone else notice that the weak side shooter always seemed to be wide open and NU was susceptible to a skip pass for a wide open 3? Regarding rotation, no huge surprises. Keisei and Dawson were 8th and 9th in the rotation while Lloyd and Lawrence are currently on the outside looking in. Those battles will continue and Keisei will have to start hitting some shots to keep his spot. I still believe he can be an asset and he can hit those shots in games, and just being on the court helps stretch the defense, but no doubt he is on the clock. Oh, and Denim Dawsom has some hops.

Most likely answer is we don't have that guy. With that said, if I had to choose one, I would go with Wilcher. Last year, Wilcher got off to slow start and still managed to shoot over 40% from 3. Fred recently said he shot around 50% from 3 during the last two months of the season. I don't expect that pace to continue, but if he could shoot around 40% on a high volume of 3s, that could boost his point total, especially now that he will probably be playing more minutes (averaged 24.6 per game last year). CJ can knock down open shots, question is whether this team will be able to get him enough open shots. He would have to shoot 6-10 threes per game to really boost his point average into the middle double digits, and that is a lot of shots for one guy who can't really create his own shot and may struggle to get open. There is solid chance Griesel could end up being Nebraska's "best" or "most important" player, but he is a pass first type player and it is unlikely he is going to shoot enough to put up enough points to be considered a "star". Now, those who really follow the team and understand his value to the team may consider him the true "star" even if he is only averaging 10 points per game, but it is unlikely he would be recognized in any form of B1G all-conference award or anything like that IMO. Bando is a player I think fans are going like because of his defense, energy and occasional hot shooting but I sense he is also going to be a source of frustration at times. Last year he shot a respectable 35% on 3s on high volume, but he shot just 3-of-25 on pull up jumpers and shot just 7-23 around the basket with 15 turnovers (credit to Jacob Padilla for his excellent scouting writeup). He is not a true PG and though not his fault, he is going to be thrust into the backup PG role and it could be rough for portions of the season.

Its impossible to defend the past 3 seasons which have been very poor. But this is another statistic that could use some context. No other coach in NU history has been required to play a 20 conference game schedule, and especially not during a period of such comprehensive strength as in the Big 10. For instance, in Fred's 2nd season (2020-21), the team finished 7-20, but it's final KenPom ranking was #109. Certainly not good, but not historically the worst ever. For instance, in 2006, Collier's record was 19-14 which sounds great, but his KenPom year-end KenPom ranking was #111. Miles first year record was 15-18, but his year-end KenPom was #136. Obviously, Miles had some very good seasons mixed in his tenure, and the point is not to compare the coaches record or performance, but just to show that judging solely by overall record can be a bit misleading as to the state of the program because it doesn't factor in level of competition. This season is going to be a prime example of this. Based on preseason KenPom, Huskers may play 22 games against teams ranked #56 or better and possibly only 4 teams ranked lower than #109.

Fred has some decisions to make on the rotation. How does the fact that Bando is the backup PG affect his rotation and timing? For instance, one would assume the first sub out is Bando so that he can get some rest before he is inserted back in at PG when Sam comes out. This would suggest that the first sub must come in as a replacement 2-guard, unless Wilcher slides down to the SG spot. If Bando is replaced with a 2-guard, then it could be any of Keisei, Lloyd or Lawrence. If Wilcher slides down to SG, then Gary could come in, but that is not an ideal lineup with Gary, Wilhelm and Walker all in at the same time. So much of this depends on how much Fred trusts Keisei and thinks he has improved. If Keisei has improved, then he would be a nice compliment to sub in at the SG spot. This would give 3-4 shooters on the floor with PG-Bando, SG-Keisei, SF-Wilcher, PF-Wilhelm. But, that is not a great defensive or rebounding lineup, so there are tradeoffs. It would be nice to see Keisei get some minutes in the rotation early in the season to see if he can find a role and take better shots and shoot a better percentage. If he could get his confidence he could be an electric shooter off the bench. Eventually we all hope it is Lloyd filling that spot because he has more length, is more versatile, and can play the SG but can also help run PG if Bando is struggling. But as others have mentioned, there has been very little talk about Lloyd this preseason, so does this indicate he is not ready for rotation minutes yet? Fred could also do an initial 2-person sub, taking out Bando and Wilhelm, and inserting Gary and either Lloyd or Keisei. The decision between Wilhelm and Gary is probably close, so this would allow Gary to get in quick and bring some energy. If Dawson is in the rotation, then it seems he would sub in for Wilcher at SF, but it is going to be essential that he is on the court with other shooters or the offense could really stall and the paint would be clogged. Still seems like Keita's minutes will be relatively limited, because it is hard to imagine him playing any position other than the 5, and that would only be minutes that Walker is off the floor because I don't see any reason to play Walker at the 4 when you have other options in Gary and WB unless those 2 really disappoint.

Admittedly, Hoiberg has never been known as a defensive first coach. But this statistic is absurdly misleading. Anyone who doesn't understand the necessity of using tempo-adjusted statistics for basketball is not qualified to write about basketball. In Fred' second season at Nebraska (2020-21), NU finished 40th in Kenpom adjusted defensive efficiency. As a comparison, Miles' teams finished: 79, 44, 77, 113, 31, 36, 107.

Ultimately Fred is responsible for everyone and everything that happens in his program. But if someone wants to cut him some slack (as I do), it could be viewed as follows: Fred should get a bit of a break on the Matt A situation because Matt A was with Fred at Iowa St. and it worked out splendidly, so how could he know that it would be a disaster here--nonetheless, after seeing the problem, he addressed it by letting him go and bringing in new assistants and a new type of player/attitude. I understand many don't see it this way and feel Fred has burned up all his goodwill and now it is 100% prove it with wins or move on.

RoyalFan just made an excellent point in another thread. It is very difficult to push the tempo in transition when you are a poor defensive team because you are always taking the ball out of the hoop. If this team's strength is defense, and if they can consistently get stops, then why not push the pace and try to get some easy buckets? Especially considering they are offensively challenged. Getting quick easy points in transition could offset their difficulty in getting points in the half-court.

I agree Wilhelm has not proven he is a reliable 3-point shooter in his very limited playing time. I am going more off of what Fred says and seems to think about Wilhelm as a shooter. Wilhelm competed in the 3-point contest both last year and this year (and for what little it is worth he did make 13, which was 3 more than Bando, who will most likely be our most prolific 3-point shooter this year). Fred has repeatedly talked about Wilhelm's ability to step out and shoot the ball, and in a recent interview, when he talked about players he wants to shoot when they are open, he mentioned Wilhelm along with guys like Wilcher and Keisei. I just get the strong sense that Fred thinks of Wilhelm as a stretch player, and we know he likes players that can shoot and spread the floor. With that said, I agree with your thought that Wilhelm is a better pair with Keita since he is a better passer, so maybe that is the tradeoff. We will see.

No Keita or Lloyd.

Random Questions/Thoughts on this upcoming season/team: 1. We are a tall lineup, but a bit slow at some positions. A bit worried about guarding teams with multiple really quick guards/wings. If an opponent has a smaller, but ultra-quick PG, I suspect Bando will guard that PG. But what if they have another ultra-quick SG or wing? Can Griesel guard that type of quickness? Wilcher can't. If Wilhelm is at the 4, he obviously can't. If Gary is at the 4, may have to put Gary on the SG. Then who would guard the opponent PF. Would Wilcher (at a generous listed 6'5") or could Sam slide all the way over and guard the opposing PF. Sam is a big kid. He is listed as taller and the same weight as Gary, so seems to make sense. Strange bedfellows. 2. Sam is such a unique aspect as a 6'7" 216 lb. PG. If the other team has smaller guards, and puts one of those smaller guards on Sam, can Fred run a clear out and simply allow Sam to back down the guard under the hoop and simply bully his way to the basket? Or can Fred post up Sam and exploit the mismatch. For so many years it seems other teams have exploited us with mismatches, especially with our smaller players. Can Fred now do the reverse, and use our size at PG to exploit our opponent's lack of comparable size? Does Sam have a back-down or post-up game in his arsenal? 3. This is not a great shooting team and it will struggle to put the ball in the hoop. But we have some shooters. Question: Can the offense get them open shots? Shooters on this team are: (1) Wilcher (2) Bando (3) Keisei (4) Griesel (but low volume) and maybe (5) Wilhelm (but he shot about 10% last year, so ????). Other than Bando, none of the shooters are particularly quick or fast. Can they get open? Can the system get them open shots? Last year Keisei really struggled because teams simply did not leave him and he couldn't get open. Wilcher is now a known shooter, teams will try to take away his 3-point shot. None of the shooters are great at breaking down a close-out off the dribble, so teams will press up on them at the 3-point line. And do we have a PG or other player that that penetrate the lane to drive, draw and dish to the open shooter? 4. Will this team play sound, fundamental basketball. It seems like each year everything sounds good in the media and pre-season pressers . . . and then the season starts and we all see a bit of a mess. Will this team be different? Once again there are a lot of new players, including 3 transfers who will see significant playing time. Can they gel quickly? Are they "fundamental" type players? It should be noted, if the transfers are not good at fundamentals, it can't all be blamed on Fred. Each of them has played multiple years with different teams under different coaches. If they don't box out by now, they simply don't have it in their blood, and can't get blood out of a turnip. Fred said Gary is a very aggressive rebounder, especially on the offensive end. But also said he needs to do a better job boxing out on the defensive end. Sometimes guys like that just want to ball-hawk, and don't do the fundamentals like boxing out. 5. Do we have enough shooting? As mentioned above, we have 4 or 5 guys who purported can shoot, but Wilcher is probably the only true dead-eye shooter. Keisei can definitely shoot, but can he get his shot off? Will he even be in the rotation? Based on his past, it appears Bando will shoot the ball. Question is can he make a high enough percentage to win help win some games? His career percentage is not terrible, but not great either, just average. Griesel shot 38% from 3 last year, but on very low volume and against inferior competition. Can he make 1 or 2 a game to keep the opposing defense honest? Fred continues to refer to Wilhelm as a shooter, but he sure didn't make many last year (and many weren't even close), can he make the leap to at least an average 3-point shooter? Will Lawrence get some minutes, can he play at this level and shoot a decent percentage at this level? That may be a bit much to ask as a true freshman. 6. Can this team survive starting Gary along with Walker? That is two players who absolutely cannot shoot. Will team sag off Gary and double Walker? Will the defense clog the lane? This is why I think Wilhelm starts, because he at least shoots enough to keep the defense honest, but admittedly Gary has much more experience and is a much better defender (and probably rebounder). 7. Can Keita defend opposing B1G centers without help? Is Keita big enough, strong enough and defensively sound enough to man up against another 7-footer without needing regular help defense? If so, this could be a big bonus. But it is a tall ask, and not sure he is ready for that. . . yet. 8. Does Keisei have a role on this team? We all saw him struggle last year, but he did have a strong summer on the national team, including 33 points vs a very, very good Australian team. Last year he got off to a terrible start, that probably hurt his confidence. He also struggled figuring out what is a good shot. Can his year under his belt help him this year become a reliable rotational player? Can he play decent minutes and shoot well enough to at least force the defender to never leave him, thereby opening up the middle for entry passes or drives? 9. Can this team get off to a better start? Last year the team got off to a miserable start. And it seemed like no one could hit the broad side of a barn. At one point I think the team was shooting under 25% from 3. It was brutal. Even supposed shooters like Keisei, Bryce and Wilhelm were shooting miserably from 3 during the first 10 games or so. Fred tried playing Keon Edwards and he never made a single shot. Even Wilcher got off to a bit of a slow start. Surely it can't start off that bad, can it? Reversion to the mean requires a better shooting start, right? Hopefully the significant experience of all the transfers, plus Wilcher and Keisei in second year, will help them feel more comfortable and shoot better to start the season. 10. How different will the offense look? This team has some returning players, but is a totally different makeup. Bryce and Verge absolutely dominated the ball last year. Both could score the ball, but the ball stuck in their hands. Fred said the emphasis this season is on a lot of passing and less dribbling. This makes sense since hardly anyone on this team is a good ball-handler. But will it work? Can they simply pass their way to open shots? or entry passes? Will the players stick with the plan, or will hero ball resurface when the going gets tough? Is there a point where there is too much passing--at some point, a shooter needs to take the open shot. So many questions. . . .

Completely agree this team is going to struggle to score. With that said, Bando averaged 10.6 pts per game last year shooting six 3s per game (making 2.1 per game) at 35% clip. Not great percentage, but he clearly is not afraid to shoot and there a solid chance he will be one of the top scorers on the team. He averaged 10.2 pts per game the previous season so have to believe he will average at least 10 on a team in which he will be a primary scorer. For comparison, CJ averaged 8.1 pts on four 3s per game last year (but shot a much better percentage at 40.6%). Sam Griesel averaged 14.3 pts per game, shooting 38% from 3, but at a much lower rate of just 2.2 attempts per game. Question is how well this will translate to the much higher level of competition. Seems there is a chance NU could have 4 players average 10 pts (or at least close) next season, but unlikely anybody averages more than 12-14 points. It will have to be a balanced scoring attack.

What is your projected starting lineup and who will be the 8-10 rotational players? My projected starting lineup: PG - Griesel SG - Bando SF - Wilcher PF - Wilhelm C - Walker Other rotational players: Keita - C Gary - PF LLoyd - PG/SG/SF Keisei - SG Dawson and Lawrence will be battling for for playing time. If Keisei struggles again early this year, Lawrence may get some of his minutes. After listening to the press conference (and the Sam Hoiberg show on 93.7), it was surprising how many times Fred brought up Dawson's name unsolicited. Based on what I saw of Dawson in warm-ups last year, and what limited amount Fred has said about him, it appears clear that Dawson has a ways to go on his shot, but he must be impressing on the defensive end. Fred said he is leading the team in deflections in practice, and even commented that he considered pulling his RS last year (but concluded that would not be fair to him since he didn't arrive until after semester). I had not planned on anything from Dawson this year, but if he can give 4-8 minutes of intense defense and hustle, and just not screw up on offense, he might be able to find a small role. McPherson is out for the season with his injury and I don't see Oleg getting any meaningful minutes this year. Although I think Bando will start at SG, I think he will also be the backup PG, so Fred will have to stagger his minutes. Maybe Bando gets pulled early to get a breather, and then inserted back in at PG when Griesel comes out for a break, and so forth. Question is whether this will throw off the continuity of Griesel and Bando playing together strong starter minutes. I am not expecting a lot of Keita this year. But it sounds like he is a quick learner and is picking up the defense well. Fred said he is leading the team in taking charges (which I am not sure i want from my big man, but oh well). But if Keita can come in and be a tall and strong backup and play solid fundamental defense, that could be quite valuable for this team, especially against some of the giant centers in the B1G. I don't see him being much of a scorer, so others will have to pick up the slack on the offensive end. I don't see Keita and Walker playing together, and frankly think that would be a disaster. So Keita's minutes are going to be somewhat limited unless he could really impress enough to take some of Walkers minutes. But at this point, I just don't see him starting any games as long as Walker is healthy. If I am wrong on this, that would be great, because that would mean he is even more impactful that Walker, but that is a lot to ask of a first year juco. Wildcard: If Huskers have an injury or foul trouble, it is possible Cale Jacobson could be inserted for a few minutes to run the PG. But if it gets to this point, probably means something has gone wrong or not as expected.

The failure to secure a verbal from either Green or Friedrichson is disappointing to say the least. It does seem that Fred's status as a "hot seat" coach has caught up to him to the point that it is going to be very difficult to land quality freshmen recruits for the 2023 class. He is in the unfavorable position of needing to win to prove to recruits he is a winner and won't be fired-- but it is very difficult to get the recruits needed to win because he is on the hot seat. It is a spiral that is hard to get out of. This year's class with 3 freshmen and 1 sophomore (juco) is probably the best he could have hoped for considering his tenuous status going into his 4th year. Hopefully that core 4 will be a solid foundation for the year's ahead and make up for some of the lack of quality youth in the 2023 class. But transfers often are not as concerned about his long-term status because they are already upperclassman and only have 1 or 2 years or eligibility remaining. So unless Fred can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he is going to have to rely on transfers. He has to hope the 2022 transfers are good enough to earn him another year, then secure quality transfers for 2023 to try and get this program on track. If he can successfully do that, then maybe he can start landing quality freshmen in future classes. With that said, although this team has 3 seniors, it is not an "old" team. If some of these players can develop, they could be a foundation for a few more years: 5 Freshmen (3 RS Freshmen) 3 Sophomores 2 Juniors 3 Seniors *This does not include the 4 freshmen walk-ons

Ramel Lloyd’s dad posted a 10 second clip from Saturday’s practice. It was far away and grainy, but it looked like the red (starters?) were Griesel, Brando, Wilcher, Wilhelm and Walker. Lloyd was running PG for the whites.

Fred's recruiting classes appear to have improved each season. As we all know, his first class was a disaster. But we also know that he took over in April and had to completely revamp the entire roster. He was left with bare cupboards and could not fill them in such short time. Seems that should be somewhat a pass. Next year's recruiting class was not much better. But it was also during covid madness and coaches weren't even allowed to travel or bring in recruits. And the actual covid season was also a mess with canceled games, etc. His third recruiting class (last year's class) was much improved. The (short) McGowens era certainly did not work out well, but in addition to the 5 star, that class also included Wilcher (4 star-top 150) and Wilhelm (4 star-top 150). But as we know, Wilhelm got hurt in just his 5th game so we couldn't see him develop last year. Also had young but potential role players in Keisei, Dawson, Oleg and McPherson. This year's recruiting class looks even better. Sure, we don't know anything until they play on the court. But Lloyd (top 100 in 247sports composite), Keita (Rivals 4 star, top 5 juco) and Lawrence (top 200 recruit), to go along with the 3 transfers who all seem to be team-oriented hustle guys. If Fred could land Parker and/or Green, that would be another step up. We also see that Fred is scouting and offering high level recruits. There are also a lot of reports of Fred himself being very active on the recruiting trail. Even this seems a step up from the first few years. Does Fred now have to actually start to show improvement on the court. Absolutely. But rigid win/loss requirements may not tell the whole picture. What is the young recruits--Wilcher, Lloyd, Keita, Lawrence, Wilhelm, etc., are all playing hard, together and showing a lot of promise. Is it worth blowing everything up and starting even if the entire team is playing hard, together and as a unit, but coming up just short? Also, it seems important to remember that a possible cancer coach was removed last year. Maybe this is like starting over, giving this new coaching staff a chance to show what they can do.

13-15 wins would be a pretty high achievement all things considered. According to the bartorvic projections posted by 49r, NU is projected to be the #90 team in the country, and yet still is only favored to win 10 games all season. Bartorvic averages that out to a 13-17 record. Finishing #90 overall would mean NU should be an NIT team or at worst a bubble NIT team. Considering the past 3 years, this would be massive progress. As for 15 wins, I challenge you to list out any combination of 15 wins this season that doesn't look impressive, or are least a massive step up from the past 3 years. If NU were to get 15 wins, with only 4 cupcakes on the schedule, this would mean 10-11 wins over power 5 schools, and probably a few nice road wins. If they get 15 wins with this schedule, I imagine their Kenpom would be in the top 60, or close thereto. Of course, some of this depends on how the other B1G teams shake out this year, but based on previous years and this year's projections that seems about right. Heck, as said above, just 16 wins might even put NU on the bubble. If this team can get at least 12 wins, I think the fans will stick with them because that will mean they beat at least 8 power 5 teams with effort and scrappy play. That is a significant step up from the last 3 years and should be more than enough for Fred to return.