McKewons Take

[Husker Eponymous]

Evidently Sam hasn't been reading this board detailing numerous excuses made for our volunteer assistant:

Baseball about where it began
Nebraska’s baseball season ended Saturday with a win over Illinois that still left the Huskers several games short of qualifying for the Big Ten tournament. At 24-28, NU had its worst record since the John Sanders era, which ended in 1997.

The five-year look back on Nebraska’s performance in the Big Ten suggests the Huskers are among the better teams in the league, but not the best, or even in the top three. Here are the Big Ten winning percentages (conference games only) since 2014:

Indiana (.652), Illinois (.627), Minnesota (.612), Michigan (.602), Iowa (.585), Nebraska (.573), *Maryland (.537), Michigan State (.496), Purdue (.359), Northwestern (.345), *Rutgers (.319), Penn State (.256),

*Four years instead of five.


Make it three years, and Nebraska ties for fourth:

Minnesota (.721), Indiana (.629), Michigan (.606), Nebraska (.571), Iowa (.571), Maryland (.521), Ohio State (.518), Illinois (.500).

NU is among the top half of teams in the Big Ten. But it’s not the best over five years — that’s Indiana. And it isn’t the best over three years — that, by some margin, is Minnesota. Nebraska’s three-year and five-year Big Ten winning percentages are slightly worse than its winning percentage over the whole seven years NU has been in the Big Ten (.581).

That means the Huskers — relative to the rest of the Big Ten — are slightly worse off than they were when they entered the league, coming off three straight years of missing the tournament for the Big 12, which was a far better league than the Big Ten.

The Big Ten has improved. Nebraska probably has, too, but not quite at the rate of its conference peers.

Of the nine conference titles won since 2014 — five regular season, four tournament titles — Nebraska has one. Minnesota and Indiana have two, while Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan each have one along with Nebraska. Seven teams have won Big Ten title of some kind over the past five years.

So the Husker baseball team is right where it started when it joined the league. A little better than average — in the Big Ten.

 

[BasilLongfellow]

Who do you hire?

 

[Husker Eponymous]

A baseball coach.

 

[BasilLongfellow]

A baseball coach.

Hopefully they can teach lots of late movement.

That's the difference between winning and losing, right there.

 

[HuskerDB]

Just read the article today. In an earlier thread I tried to point out the same things that McKewon pointed out -- that historically we've been average to below average in the Big Ten.

It is true that we won the Big Ten title last year, but when looking over a greater time window, we have been average to below average. Combine that with this year's performance and I still think we have major issues.

No coaching changes being made tells me we can expect more of the same, which likely means Erstad only has a year or two left. Which sucks, because I do actually like Erstad (like most Nebraskans I probably remember the player more than the coach).

 

[Husker Eponymous]

Just read the article today. In an earlier thread I tried to point out the same things that McKewon pointed out -- that historically we've been average to below average in the Big Ten.

It is true that we won the Big Ten title last year, but when looking over a greater time window, we have been average to below average. Combine that with this year's performance and I still think we have major issues.

No coaching changes being made tells me we can expect more of the same, which likely means Erstad only has a year or two left. Which sucks, because I do actually like Erstad (like most Nebraskans I probably remember the player more than the coach).

C'mon man, Erstads the man! Haven't you read all the teams who want him? SEC, MLB, dude is a HOT commodity!!!