NUdiehard

I take it all back. Lol

Nebraska has a massive massive point guard problem.

So we have an under-the-radar recruit who is quickly climbing the rankings after he signed with NU. Hmmm, I thought Fred/Matt A only looked at rankings when evaluating recruits.

I agree. No doubt Fred needs to get a point guard and hopefully another power forward. But honest question, does Wilhelm meet these criteria for you?

Of course there are no guarantees until they suit up and actually perform in college, but the class looks solid and I am way more excited about this 2022 class than I was about the current 2021 class. In fact, I noted my concerns about the 2021 class in February of last year. So why not allow Fred to get all these guys on campus and see what he can do with the them? Will a class of freshmen immediately take us the NCAA? Probably not. But if they are talented and show real promise under Fred's system, it will result in more wins and it will be apparent Fred is now going in the right direction. If they look talented but not thriving under Fred's system, you can fire Fred and hopefully retain some/all of them for the future coach. At least the cupboard won't be bare. And let's be real, if Trev fires Fred after this year, most of these recruits will probably jump ship and then does anyone believe next year will a good year under that new coach. So if next year is almost certainly going to be a rebuilding year (whether Fred or new coach), why not bring in these highly rated recruits and roll the dice with the talented recruits rather than watching the new coach try to turn over the entire roster like Fred had to do in his first year.

So what answer were you looking for in response? What answer would pacify you and "justify" getting tickets next year?

Did Adolf ever go to 4 straight NCAA tourneys and a sweet 16 while coaching a power 5 school?

I agree with a lot of this. The last few years (including this year) has felt like a group of mercenaries. But can we agree that Fred/Matt A appear to have started to change their recruiting philosophy. Next year's (2022) class is 3 HS freshman and 1 sophomore juco player. Now, Fred will probably take one or two transfers as well (as will virtually every team in the country), but the current core of his recruiting class is HS recruits. This is a distinct change in philosophy and practice. And these HS recruits appear to be a pretty solid group. So if Fred has recognized his errors in past recruiting, why not give him a chance to rectify those errors since he has shown he is willing to change his methods/strategy?

The ultimate goal of this program should be to win a game in the NCAA tourney for the first time in its history and then try to put the program in a position to do it again (or even better). The last 100 years or utter futility of this program is a sunk cost. Nothing is going to change what has happened, including the last 3 years which have been the worst in history. The only question is who/how to reach this goal. Some of you seem content to roll in another Doc Sadler level coach and have him squeeze every ounce out of his 2.5 star mighty mites and go 6-14 in conference every year and say "well, at least its better than Fred's first 3 years." Well, if this is your goal, have at it, you will probably get your wish. I've seen that movie every year for 40 years and am not interested in watching it again. Fred and Matt A have completely blown it on the recruiting trail the first 2 years, but this year's class shows some promise (Wilhelm and Wilcher are freshman), and next year's class looks like it should be by far the best yet, and they are all HS recruits, not transfers. Fred also has almost a virtual lock on a top 100 2023 recruit in Parker Friedrichsen and has many other top level prospects still on the line such as Avery Brown, etc. So who has a better chance to get us to our first tourney win within the next 2-3 years? A new coach who will be starting completely over and most likely lose much/all of the 2022 and 2023 recruits commits? Or Fred who has proven he can win if he has the right players and appears to have made significant strides on the recruiting front starting with next year's class? I roll with Fred. And for me it's simple. If these 2022 and 2023 recruits don't pan out, then okay, the decision is easy, fire him after his 5th year. At least we will then know we gave him every opportunity to get his guys and he failed. But if we fire him now, we will never know. But if we fire him now, I think we can all pretty much know for sure that NU will not be winning a tourney game in the next 2-3 years because the new coach will be starting over from scratch and so the process starts over again.

Miles is currently winless (0-10) in the Mountain West Conference. And has a 36 point home loss to CSU (how ironic), a 25 point loss to UNLV, a 30 point home loss to Fresno St., a 20 point road loss to Fresno St., multiple other 16+ point losses.

I agree that we need talented pieces that fit together (gel) to be successful, and we clearly don't have that. But where is all this "top level" talent you speak of? Just because guys like Walker and Edwards were highly ranked out of HS doesn't mean they are top level talent. Those recruiting rankings were misses. Bryce is talented but he is a freshman. There are very, very few freshman who come in and carry a power 5 team, and Bryce is not one of them. He could be that by his Jr. or Sr year (maybe even as a sophomore), but he won't be here that long. Verge is a spaz and a headcase and the most undisciplined defensive player I've ever seen in my life. I know that Robin said Verge had some guarantee of a 2-way NBA contract but that is rubbish. No way any pro team guaranteed him anything, that is probably something Verge (or his "camp") told Robin and Robin just took their word. Walker is nothing close to a 4 start talent, even though his HS rankings said he was. I could go on. Once the players have played in college the recruiting rankings are meaningless, we can all just use our eyes and brains to determine if they truly are top level talent.

So Smith is 1-10 in the Pac12 this year. I guess he forgot how to coach too!

I also stated that another strategy is to only allow Matt A to scout/evaluate appox. 3 of the 7 recruits. The other assistants and Fred would scout/evaluate the remaining 4 recruits. Its not that complicated. As for Parker Friedrichsen (the guard from Oklahoma), he is one of the reasons I am in favor of giving Fred 5 years. Say what you want about how the relationship started, but it clearly has developed and matured to a point that Parker seems almost a lock to come to NU if Fred is retained. I would not feel nearly so confident if Fred is fired. He is a top 100 recruit and a very skilled player, yet probably not good enough to go to the NBA anytime soon. He is the exact type of player we need in the program. I feel similarly about many of the 2022 recruits. So my position in a nutshell. Fred/Matt A have failed miserably in their recruiting the first 2 years. The third year (this year's class), was a bit better but still not good enough. I do think Wilhelm can develop into a very solid B1G level player by his Jr./Sr years. And let's remember, he will be a freshman next year b/c of his injury. Add in Wilcher and Tominaga as role player 3-point specialist. They are not great, and probably not starter quality, but can be rotation players on a good team by their Jr./Sr. years. The 2022 class is where I believe Matt A really stepped up his game. Ramel Lloyd has a massive offer list, including Kansas, Oregon, etc. He is very athletic and looks to have some of that "dog" in him. Washut recently said that Jamarques Lawrence is playing so well he will be in the top 150 soon. Keita hopefully is a legit big man. And although Dawson is a wildcard, but he has good length and is athletic, and Fred has already said he plays with passion and energy (dives on the floor, etc). We also are still in play for some very solid recruits like Avery Brown, who would the perfect PG IMO. Matt A may not be able to reel him in, but he at least has a decent shot. So in short, I see considerable improvement. I could be wrong. All these future recruits could be busts just like the past couple years. But I am just going off what I read/watch/hear and that is why i am willing to give them more time.

I still am not sure what you are trying to say. All I am saying is there is place for Matt A to remain on staff but have a reduced role on recruiting. For instance, let's say up to this point Matt A has been primarily responsible for both scouting (both in person and watching film), evaluating, and recruiting (call, texting, etc) virtually every recruit (so if there are 7 new players Matt A did all three duties for 6 or 7 of those 7 new recruits). Why can't Fred just restructure things so that Matt A must share scouting and evaluation duties. For instance, either Matt A only scouts/evaluates 3 of the 7 new recruits. Or, even better, if Matt A scouts/evaluates a recruit he really likes, he must then bring in one or 2 other assistant coaches to scout/evaluate both live and film, and of course Fred should be involved in this process as well. If there is a consensus among all the coaches that this is a recruit that can thrive in Fred's system, then Matt A can go on to the third step of recruiting him (calling, texting, etc). If there is not a consensus, then either Fred makes the final decision or they have some other form of tie-breaker, such as at least 2 of the 3 assistant coaches must approve of pursuing that recruit. Let's say Matt A's greatest strength is developing a report with recruits, getting to know their families, and getting that recruit to trust him. That is a strength that not every assistant coach has. Why throw this away simply because he missed on scouting/evaluating some previous recruits? Why not just reduce his role in scouting/evaluating and free him up to do what he does best which is recruiting. For instance, maybe a different assistance scouts/evaluates 3 recruits (Matt A had nothing to do with the scout/evaluation process of these recruits), but then that assistant asks Matt A to recruit those recruits (call them, text them, meet the family), etc. This is teamwork. Each coach utilizing their strengths. Simply because Matt A has been poor in scouting/evaluating some past recruits doesn't mean Fred has to get rid of him completely.

You have said this a couple of times now. Do you have any proof of this? How do you know this as a fact?

Pretty ironic that so many choose coaching and specifically reference how Doc Sadler got so much out of his "mighty mites" when Doc Sadler is literally on this staff right now. The answer is talent and its not even close. Does anyone really believe Fred's "scheme/system" cannot work if it has the right collection of players to run it? Seriously? And as for coaching, apparently when Fred went to 4 straight NCAA appearances and a sweet sixteen that was purely by happenstance. Fred's coaching had nothing to do with it. In fact, those players got there in spite of Fred and his massive incompetence. Amazing!

You (and others) have said this before and I have no idea what it means. Seems what your saying is that since Matt A has been responsible for most of the recruiting up to this point, it is impossible for him to have a reduced role and only be responsible for "part" of the recruiting going forward? Not sure I follow the logic of this take.

Walker battles and gives great effort, but he only had 1 rebound the entire game. He only had 3 RBs vs. Rutgers. He is not close to his listed 6'9" (probably closer to 6'7") and is massively undersized. In comparison, Andre had 4 rebounds in just 14 minutes of playing time. I was okay with not playing Verge down the stretch because he was reverting to his constant one-on-one attempts in the lane that weren't even touching rim. Tougher call on whether to play Trey down the stretch. Trey is a very good defender, but man he just is not giving anything on offense (also had 3 turnovers). Not only does he not score, but his man can play off him which clogs the lane. In contrast, Keisei was playing well and hit the 3 which forces the defender to play him tight at all times, thereby opening the floor for Bryce to drive. NU was on absolute disaster to start the 2nd half (when Trey was in the game) and then NU went on its 17-2 second half run while Trey was on the bench, so can see why Fred rolled with him. But I do agree, at a minimum, I would have liked to see some offense defense substitutions during the last 2 minutes. it is tricky with just one timeout though, so hard to know when to deploy this strategy.

Seems the biggest areas of need next year are point guard and power forward. Point guard is a huge massive hole. Have to imagine they are looking once again to the transfer portal to try and fill this, but they have to hit better than in years past. Would be awesome to snag Avery Brown, but there just hasn't been much chatter on him lately so hard to know where we stand at this point. As for power forward, if Lat does not return the only player on next year's roster that even comes close to a PF is Wilhelm, and he is more of a hybrid 4/5. I worry about his lack of quickness limiting his ability to guard the 4, and he is going to need to improve his 3-point shot if he wants to be a consistent PF. Wilcher has been playing some PF this year, but it obviously is not ideal. NU has enough trouble on the boards and playing so small does not help. This means Fred may have to look to the transfer portal for a PF. With that said, I wouldn't completely rule out Lat returning. Not sure if this would be good or bad, but he is very close with Trey. If Trey returns, it is possible Lat returns as well. I will be surprised if Keon returns, but he admittedly is in a tough spot since he has already transferred once and would have to sit out a year if he transfers again. We obviously have not seen Oleg play at all, but based on what little I have watched from him in warm-ups, I don't see him ever being a factor in the B1G. If Walker returns, we will have Walker, Andre, Keita and Wilhelm at center, not sure we need Oleg as well. Even if Wilhelm plays the 4, we still don't need 4 centers, especially considering Wilhelm can play the 5 if we need an extra 5.

I'm not sure where either of them would go if they don't return. Neither will get a sniff at the NBA. Maybe one/both is ready to be done with basketball, or give a shot overseas, but if they really want to play ball their best bet it to return.

Well that should be the end of Kobe yapping his gums on the radio.

Kobe on radio bagging other players for not doing little things like box out then gives up rebound by not boxing out

Kobe came back in and Baker goes right at him

Walker only has 1 rebound. Trey leads team with 7. Wilcher has 5

Huskers have 11 offensive rebounds Rutgers has 3