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Misplaced Optimism

Sofa King

Recruit
2 Year Member
I must admit that I fell for what now appears to be a trap of misplaced optimism. This season feels like another disaster...and it is...but as I thought about it this weekend, the more it seems that our tourney hopes were simply a mirage of scheduling and perception.

We all know by now that last year's 13-5 B1G record was somewhat of a fraud based upon the fluke of scheduling. The tournament committee deemed it as such in excluding Nebraska and even the NIT committee made them a #5 seed.

However, I think many of us felt that the team was simply disrespected and this led to irrational expectations for 2018-2019.

And now, with the season in full collapse, we should also look back upon the earlier victories and revisit their significance. When you do, you'll see that 3-10 and 13-11 is about what we should have expected all along.

DONU beat Seton Hall by 23 on November 14. It looked like a great win at the time since SH was a tourney team last year. They are 5-6 in Big East, 14-9 overall and projected for the NIT.

DONU lost to Texas Tech by 18. That was supposed to be OK because TT was expected to contend for the Big12 title. They are 7-4 and 19-5.

Winning at Clemson was supposed to be a huge win because of Clemson's Sweet 16 run last year. Clem is currently 5-5, 15-8 and squarely on the bubble.

Beating Creighton by 19 and OKSt by 23 were supposed to be a sign of how good DONU had become. The Bluejays are now 4-7 and 13-11 while The Pokes are dead last in the Big12 at 2-8 and 9-14.

Then in early B1G play, the team collapsed in losses at Minnesota and Maryland and got rolled at Iowa.

And all of these results...including last year...included Isaac Copeland!

My point is that we stink. We weren't very good last year and, thus, the same players aren't very good this year, either. As fans, we willing bought a bill of goods that this team was/is talented and that they were going to finally win a game in the NCAA tourney. Looking back now, it's clear that this was all a case of extreme optimism and over-expectations.

Seven years in, the lack of talent and depth is unacceptable. Tim Miles seems like a nice man. He'd make an excellent neighbor and drinking buddy. However, he must be fired shortly after the final buzzer sounds at the B1G tourney on March 13.
 
I guess I didn't buy the koolaid on this team preseason. It just seemed there was too many chinks in the armor plus the fact no true big having to play Roby at the 5 wasn't going to be good
 



Perception is reality, right?

Misplaced optimism, maybe. Or at least it's turned out that way. But it didn't need to be. It's not just Husker fans who were high on this team early in the year; national 'experts' expected big things too. But when things get tough, when you begin to face adversity, that's when the great teams rise up (and when the average teams fall).

First football, now basketball -- that's dead on. i.e. we witnessed the failure of a football team that had fairly good potential, turning into a bunch of hapless losers because they lacked the proper culture (if I may use that word to describe the state of the program in 2017). A year later, and anyone who's paying attention can see the sky-high expectations for HCSF's team. Look at it this way, who would have thought Devine Ozigbo would be seen as the "biggest snub" of the NFL combine a year ago?

To state the obvious, this BB team has no one to lead them in the right direction when things start(ed) to go wrong. I wish I could see what the experts would be saying about the team if they had that leadership.
 
While we weren’t deserving of an NCAA Tournament invite last year, I don’t think it was a fluke. We were playing pretty good basketball for most of conference play. I don’t care what the computers said, the Big 10 wasn’t THAT bad last year.

This year is the biggest gut punch Nebraska basketball fans have had in at least my lifetime, and let’s face it, we’ve had a lot of them. Yes, Miles isn’t a very good coach. Yes, we had some depth issues. The starting lineup was easily good enough to make the NCAA tournament, despite quality coaching and depth concerns. I fully expected the team to make it, not tank.

I think this team faced some adversity at the beginning of conference play. They had a couple of kids get really sick along with Amir being out for a few weeks, compounded our depth issues. They were finally healthy when Copeland got injured. Could they have weathered the storm had Copeland not been injured? Who knows, maybe. If they did they would have barely eaked their way in. Let’s be clear though, they were tanking before Copeland went out.

Miles is done. I wouldn’t worry a whole lot about if there will be a coaching change or not.
 
Well I guess I have a different perspective, because MBB is both what we have seen (Best start in NU History, HIGH POTENTIAL) and struggling tremendously for awhile. Neither is hype or optimism or disaster. It is what it is. The insight I have is that "I AM the guy" they brought in to develop that player leadership and enhance the culture to be able to mitigate or avoid these type of backslides. The Fact is: Tim asked SE two years ago after a recommendations from John Cook and TO, to use my volunteer services on the topic at hand and SE wouldn't allow. Moos allowed for 3 months AUG-NOV and we/they were doing well on building chemistry and leadership. Moos pulled my support, which Tim disagreed with but had to follow and Moos gave me the "IT IS MY POLICY, we DON"T USE OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS". Which we all know is silly, and something the AD doesn't even currently do, but for some reason they didn't let TIM. So it is hard for me to judge this team, or Tim knowing he has been smart enough to know his Teams weakness and ask for help to solve them. Tim has been smart enough to want to grow his own coaching prowess, which many coaches do. (See John Cook Book "Dream Like a Champion") and that he has had to wait two years for it. When he got it, it was working and it was helping by all accounts and it was pulled. So fact is, this Team is both very good and has HIGH POTENTIAL and it is struggling tremendously, with issues it was working on when their AD pulled the support they had in place to avoid it. Add the FACT, that the in-house people haven't reached out ONCE to ask "What can we do to help", once the outside help was pushed away and that makes one wonder what is the agenda going on inside the AD with supporting or not supporting Teams. So I am not sure what Tim is suppose to do, if he can't find outside people paid or volunteer that his experience tells him his team needs and the in-house people won't go over to help or are incapable of helping. So, we all can have our opinion but Tim has had very little support in the area of LEADERSHIP development of Players and CULTURAL enhancement of the MBB Team. And when you say "Well doesn't he get paid for that?".....I will say, "John Cook uses outside people, SF does "The Program", Clemson, Alabama, Ohio St FB do, Kentucky and Villanova BB do as well....Just to name a few. The difference is they are all PAID, here in Nebraska we have tried and true people that help NU for FREE, if they let us. Lets hope they can win some coming in or yeah, I think we will be getting a new staff. It is what it is. Sad.
 
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However, he must be fired shortly after the final buzzer sounds at the B1G tourney on March 13.
Do we have to wait until the final buzzer sounds on the tourney, or shall we just go ahead and pull the plus after Neb is knocked out.
 



Perception is reality, right?

Misplaced optimism, maybe. Or at least it's turned out that way. But it didn't need to be. It's not just Husker fans who were high on this team early in the year; national 'experts' expected big things too. But when things get tough, when you begin to face adversity, that's when the great teams rise up (and when the average teams fall).

First football, now basketball -- that's dead on. i.e. we witnessed the failure of a football team that had fairly good potential, turning into a bunch of hapless losers because they lacked the proper culture (if I may use that word to describe the state of the program in 2017). A year later, and anyone who's paying attention can see the sky-high expectations for HCSF's team. Look at it this way, who would have thought Devine Ozigbo would be seen as the "biggest snub" of the NFL combine a year ago?

To state the obvious, this BB team has no one to lead them in the right direction when things start(ed) to go wrong. I wish I could see what the experts would be saying about the team if they had that leadership.
They would be much more resilient and not so UP and DOWN.
 
This team had plenty of potential. I don't think the potential we saw early in the season was a mirage. I do think there were issues with culture/ team make-up that were going to require growth.

Frost has made leadership and winning mentality a critical focus in building his program. He wants guys that love the game and play with a high motor. Those are elements that, from a distance, are lacking in the MBB program.

Miles doesn't get a pass on that. I think it's a risk you take when you attempt to build your team on the foundation of transfers. You aren't intentionally going out and recruiting all aspects of a player. You're largely looking at the physical talent and hoping the mental/emotional falls in place.

Now that I think about it, this is central to ***'s recruiter/developer question. I waffled a little because you have to have a competitive talent level but you also have to build a program with a core identity and personality. Miles hasn't done that unless you consider "clueless and inept on offense" to be a core identity.
 
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I think one thing WAY overlooked is who we lost last year. Evan Taylor came off the bench or started and was Really Good! Gill had a great season as 6 man. And Okeke and tshimba both were huge in the middle defensively. We were solid 8 or 9 deep. This year were were solid 5 deep. You take last year's team and lose 4 guys and replace them with zero production for the most part. Or better yet, but those 4 back on this team and look what we have. Helps a ton. We underestimated their worth and our lack of depth..... amongst other problems of course
 
Well I guess I have a different perspective, because MBB is both what we have seen (Best start in NU History, HIGH POTENTIAL) and struggling tremendously for awhile. Neither is hype or optimism or disaster. It is what it is. The insight I have is that "I AM the guy" they brought in to develop that player leadership and enhance the culture to be able to mitigate or avoid these type of backslides. The Fact is: Tim asked SE two years ago after a recommendations from John Cook and TO, to use my volunteer services on the topic at hand and SE wouldn't allow. Moos allowed for 3 months AUG-NOV and we/they were doing well on building chemistry and leadership. Moos pulled my support, which Tim disagreed with but had to follow and Moos gave me the "IT IS MY POLICY, we DON"T USE OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS". Which we all know is silly, and something the AD doesn't even currently do, but for some reason they didn't let TIM. So it is hard for me to judge this team, or Tim knowing he has been smart enough to know his Teams weakness and ask for help to solve them. Tim has been smart enough to want to grow his own coaching prowess, which many coaches do. (See John Cook Book "Dream Like a Champion") and that he has had to wait two years for it. When he got it, it was working and it was helping by all accounts and it was pulled. So fact is, this Team is both very good and has HIGH POTENTIAL and it is struggling tremendously, with issues it was working on when their AD pulled the support they had in place to avoid it. Add the FACT, that the in-house people haven't reached out ONCE to ask "What can we do to help", once the outside help was pushed away and that makes one wonder what is the agenda going on inside the AD with supporting or not supporting Teams. So I am not sure what Tim is suppose to do, if he can't find outside people paid or volunteer that his experience tells him his team needs and the in-house people won't go over to help or are incapable of helping. So, we all can have our opinion but Tim has had very little support in the area of LEADERSHIP development of Players and CULTURAL enhancement of the MBB Team. And when you say "Well doesn't he get paid for that?".....I will say, "John Cook uses outside people, SF does "The Program", Clemson, Alabama, Ohio St FB do, Kentucky and Villanova BB do as well....Just to name a few. The difference is they are all PAID, here in Nebraska we have tried and true people that help NU for FREE, if they let us. Lets hope they can win some coming in or yeah, I think we will be getting a new staff. It is what it is. Sad.

What?
 



i'm thinking the same thing. i'm confused. Tim miles hired a volunteer to fix the team's culture, and moos said no? i don't.....i'm not....i..ummm.....i'm not quite sure what just happened here. carry on.
First, your response is funny and makes me laugh. See:

https://www.omaha.com/huskers/mens-...cle_0243dbf2-e2c3-572b-8be1-3905f9f419f7.html

He didn't HIRE me, he asked and these things (outside volunteers or consultants) need to be approved by AD. I have been a volunteer/consultant (same function, one paid and one not) to many coaches around the region and NU, business's as well. Moos approved, then cut it after a few months. This out-sourcing or having a second set of eyes with different experiences is a good practice and very common around the programs that are ELITE or trying to get there. Makes me questions lots of things going on around the Department in general. I have seen lots of interesting dynamics since SE and the arrival of Moos.

CLEAR AS MUD for you?
 
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What? What? Do you not follow what I posted? Let me know your questions, and I will try to make it clear if you are interested.

Maybe if I said Jack Stark was an outside consultant/volunteer for Husker FB in the 1990's, which he was it would make more sense. Jack Stark is now an outside consultant/volunteer for Bluejay Basketball right now.

Think of that role "I guess" to help you understand the similar service provided by current day volunteers/consultants around programs. Of which I described above. Cheers.
 
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