It’s rare even in February to have an college basketball edition of the Bites. But there’s so much going on in the sport, it makes sense. Let’s start close to home.
What an awful, awful 24 hours for local hoops.
Creighton loses at Evansville. Nebraska gets blown out by Michigan.
The Huskers once again showed the Big Ten what it’s been missing all these years. Nebrasketball has ceased to be frustrating. It is now embarrassing.
And it’s quickly becoming apparent that Doc Sadler can’t fix the situation, at least not this year. Considering Sadler is losing most of his rotation to graduation, it’s likely to get worse next year.
Which leaves the multi-million-dollar question: Do you trust Sadler to re-build the program long-term? To stock the cupboard with recruits? To seize this opportunity (new facilities, new conference) and turn Husker hoops into a relevant program?
Based upon Doc’s history here, I would say no.
Who knows what Tom Osborne sees? That’s the only vote that matters. But by keeping Sadler, Osborne risks driving the program even farther into the ground.
There’s a small window of opportunity here. The longer Nebraska struggles with new facilities, the harder it will be to sell those new facilities to a prospective coach — and prospective recruits.
Sadler has done his best. But face it, it’s not enough.
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>> A week ago, some were throwing around the idea that Creighton was a top-10 team. Now some are throwing around the not-so-preposterous scenario in which Creighton misses the NCAA tournament.
How does it happen?
Lose Saturday to Wichita State. Lose to Long Beach State the following Saturday. Those don’t seem so far-fetched. Then lose one more game somewhere — Indiana State? Then lose to Wichita again in the Valley tournament.
That would put the Jays at 25-8. Squarely on the bubble.
They could put everyone’s heart at ease by beating Wichita State.
>> Creighton fans should also be concerned how this slump hurts Doug McDermott’s chances of earning first-team All-America honors.
It’s one thing to vote for a mid-major player whose team is in the top 15. It’s quite a different leap of faith to vote for a mid-major player whose team isn’t the best in its conference.
McDermott played OK in losses to Northern Iowa and Evansville. But the team matters when voters choose All-Americans. Creighton needs to stay in the top-25, I think, for McDermott to get first-team honors.
>> Memphis is joining the Big East. That means Memphis basketball will finally be tested against the big boys.
>> Anthony Davis, Thomas Robinson or Jared Sullinger? Grantland examines — and really likes the Kentucky freshman.
>> UConn basketball is currently ineligible for the 2013 postseason because it failed to meet APR standards. The school’s attempt to reverse the NCAA’s decision is pathetic.
>> I laugh when Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale say North Carolina is on the same level as Kentucky, Syracuse and Ohio State. Those three schools would’ve smelled blood in the water last night and buried Duke. Carolina doesn’t have the killer instinct. Carolina is (just a tad) soft. The national title race, in my opinion, is a three-team contest right now. Only three.
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It’s tough to say anything good about mens Nebrasketball right now. I watched last night. Why I watched? I don’t know, but I watched. It was REALLY bad. Thanks for the “Bites” Dirk!
REALLY BAD
Unlike Football, this is where you hire a young firey talent, an inexpensive energetic up comer.
No established coach wants to be @ NU.
Yes! You’ll need something to complain about in 2014!
Doc has had plenty of time to recruit and get this program headed in the right direction. It hasn’t happened; time for a change. Let’s not get too hung up on facilities. I know the kids like all the spit and polish but take a look at Butler and what they have…it’s not much. Yet, they seem to put together competitive teams and that’s an understatement. It’s about recruiting and coaching first and foremost…not necessarily in that order.
Doc is a good coach, but kind of like Pelini, he has his limits………..the kids are not responding to Docs coaching, its time 4 change.
Osborne needs to pull the plug on Sadler. It just isn’t working. I still say they go after Ben Jacobson of Northern Iowa.
The Bluejays will be fine. They just had two poor shooting games on the road. No reason to panic. They will make the dance.
Syracuse should have been able to close out Georgetown last night when they went up 6 with 3 minutes to go and the place was rocking. Instead they slinked into overtime and they got a good look at a three to finally close it out with 15 seconds left.
This is something that Nebraskans just don’t understand. Football and basketball do not equate. There is a lot more “randomness” for lack of a better way to put it in the end result of any given basketball game than football. If Rivers misses the shot, today everyone talks about how talented UNC is and practically ignores the mini collapse at the end. So basically at the time Rivers went up for the jumper, there was a 33% chance UNC was going to be considered in a class below UK, OSU, and the Orange, and a 67% chance they were going to be considered a legit national title contender.
Stop and think about that. It doesn’t make any sense.
Besides, UCONN was an average Big East team last year. Finished .500 in the conference. Won the national championship.
I am a casual college basketball fan without a great deal of knowledge but what I have seen is teams that come in 2 general catagories. 1) the “system” team. Teams who’s coach is a tough guy and preaches discipline and sticking to the system. 2) the “athletic” team. Teams who’s coach also has a system but will suspend the system a bit when he has the horses to turn loose athletically. I’m sure there are combinations also but it’s hard to see NU with the “athletic” team and the “system” team seems to be what we have had. Tough sell here.
Talk about random. What year was it when Villanova shot 70% and won the NCAA championship game? ThaT WAS a Class A fluke. BBall is random in that respect. Some nights you can’t miss, other nights, you can’t buy a basket. Still waiting for the former with the Huskers. The last two coaches recruited guys who can’t shoot straight. NU could put together a pretty good lineup of all-time layup-missers, but I will hold my tongue on that. They are trying, they are just not B1G level players. Overmatched.
Doc has had six years to show us something. The program is worse off today than six years ago. If you can’t even get the best
kids in the state of Nebraska, you will never get good players from somewhere else. There really should be no excuses. There are many teams more competitive than Nebraska without the top notch facilities. It has been proven over and over that a program can turnaround almost instantly with the right coach. I love T.O. but this is ridiculous. The longer it goes on with Doc the harder
it becomes to get the right guy to turn it around.
I heard Dana Altman’s name out there for this Nebraska job. I think that is a bad idea. I want Shaka Smart. The coach from VCU. He is young and energetic, and he knows how to recruit kids and knows his basketball.
The problem is that he’s turned down much better offers than Nebraka. He’s holding out for the perfect fit. This isn’t it.
Altman has a guaranteed $7 million contract at Oregon. Why would he leave there? I wouldn’t pay more for him. He hit the jackpot!
Look at Baylor, they hired Scott Drew who I thought would have no chance of changing anything there. Why can’t that happen at Nebraska (because we are not in Texas with all those players around). After watching Nebraska Basketball for 40 years it just does not seem to matter who they hire. I think the new fancy facilities is just another excuse to make them soft. (Who would want to work out with all those amenities available). So what would be the point of firing Doc? No one seems to be able to get a long term winning program going here anyway.
Crazy Notion for the day: Hire Tyronn Lue. He is the director of basketball developments for the Celtics right now. I have no idea what that means, but I assumed he’s wanting to become a coach. It gives you a Nebraska guy with NBA creds to pitch to recruits. And let’s face it, we aren’t getting a Shaka Smart or any other hot name out there with the brand NU has to offer right now. I agree, go young, go with someone who is going to bring energy and enthusiasm to the program. We’ve tried the “safe bet” candidates twice now, and its blown up in our face both times. Time to roll the dice!
I like this idea as well. Shaka Smart would be a tough get, but pay him the money, he will come. If not I like this alternative. Tyronn lue is loved in the nebrasketball community, and he can appeal to kids as well.
Money is all fine and good, but I’m sure Smart has been offered big money at better jobs….he’ ain’t coming.
You really feel bad for the kids at NU who are so dedicated and give such great effort, but there is just not enough talent to compete at this level, and six years is way more than enough time to get something accomplished, Doc’s a great guy, but as has been said, he doesn’t seem to have a plan for recruiting or re-energizing this embarrassment of a program, and it is an embarrassment that is extremely hard to watch most of the time. Time for the NU administration to swing for a home run, it is a real black eye on the school, the administration and the athletic department to put out such a lackluster, mediocre program year after year.
Here’s an Idea for you. Call Roy Williams. He has proved himself as a coach and recruiter. He knows Nebraska and would like the new facilities. He’s getting undesirved pressure at NC. Hold out the idea that he could easily win a national championship which would make him the only coach to win championships in three different conferances.
There’s no way Roy Williams is going to leave North Carolina to coach Nebraska basketball. Nebraska basketball has sucked for 20 years. It was decent in the late 80s/early – mid 90s. We should be looking at what Nee did to get us to the decent level. Before Nee… we sucked. So, in the last 30 or 40 years, we’ve been bad at basketball 95% of the time. That’s telling you something.
Typical. Everybody is just itching to coach at Lincoln.
we should thank god we have a great coach in doc sadler. in fact, we have 2 great coaches with two programs on the rise. husker hoops and cornhusker football. we are set for the next 20 years. the big 10 is nebraska’s. thanks again doc and bo!
what a stupid comment…..just plain stupid
Sooka, I think he’s being sarcastic.
Did Steve Pederson hire Doc Sadler?