Basketball

Manhattan

Manhattan

Special Teams Player
Anyone in Nebraska care about basketball? We know your neighbors to the south do. The Big Ten is really big on basketball and the playing field for the sport is much more level than for football, with nearly every team being a real competitor for the conference title. Watching the Big Ten tournament last year was a lot of fun (especially the instant-classic OSU vs. UM game).

 
Boy, that's a loaded question. Kind of would be the best answer. There's not a lot of excitement at all about men's basketball because we've been poor for quite a while. There really wasn't any excitement about women's basketball until about halfway through the season last year. It's kind of sad really. When I was in college about 15 or so years ago, there was a buzz about our men's basketball team. We won the Big 8 once, and we made the NCAA tournament I believe a couple of times. We beat Kansas a few times in that span. There were a lot of season tickets bought by the students back then. I remember going to several games. If you weren't there at least a couple hours early as a student, you had to sit up in the nosebleed section. We might get better, but I doubt many Big 10 teams are going to lose much sleep over our men's team.

 
Manhattan said:
Anyone in Nebraska care about basketball? We know your neighbors to the south do. The Big Ten is really big on basketball and the playing field for the sport is much more level than for football, with nearly every team being a real competitor for the conference title. Watching the Big Ten tournament last year was a lot of fun (especially the instant-classic OSU vs. UM game).
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Basketball? Is that the sport that is played with the round ball and the object is to put it into the peach basket? I think we play it, but i couldnt tell you for sure.

 
I follow the basketball team some and have gone to games before but they are pretty bad. I think if we got good they would get a large following like the women's team did last year.

 
I try to follow the games during the month of January. December is boring, cuz the competition is laughable except for a couple of Holiday tournament games. By early February, it is usually becoming (painfully yet predictably) obvious that the team has no post-season viability. March... yeah right.

So yeah, for one month a year I am stupidly hopeful and get into it if I'm lucky enough to catch a game on TV (I don't live in NE).

 
Nebraska basketball is a lot like Kansas football, or Iowa State football - the resources are there to build a routinely competitive team, but the school did not/does not focus on the sport enough to do what it takes to build a competitor. We have the money to go out and hire a Big Name coach. We have the money to renovate Devaney or build a new arena without Lincoln's assistance. We just haven't done it.

If Nebraska wanted to be competitive in basketball we would be. Clearly we don't care enough about the sport to dedicate the resources we need to build a top program. It's hard to have any sympathy for that.

 
I don't mean to be a jerk but Big 10 basketball is like watching paint dry. I went to school at KU so maybe I'm spoiled, but it is so slow and outside a decent year by OSU or Wisconsin, lacks any athletes. Good to see Purdue having a solid year and likely another next year.

 
Agree with SkerChi, Big 10 basketball is nothing terribly exciting to watch but neither are the Huskers. Every year we hold out hope that we will have a decent team to win a few conference games heck might even get into/go deep into the NIT tourney. But alas it never really happens on a consistent basis. Most NU football fans are fans (to a certain extent) of other basketball teams.

IMO, you have to have a certain personality (liking if you will) to be a Big 10 basketball fan, same goes for football as well. It seems the sport is just played differently (slower, maybe more calculated is the word) than the other conferences. ACC basketball is where is it at.

 
Im not from Nebraska but I am a huge Nebraska basketball fan and care about basketball. I think the pace played in the Big 10 favors us more than the pace that is played in the Big 12. Basketball in the Big 10 could be a fresh start for Nebraska.

 
Unfortunately, I don't think that Nebraska basketball will ever be consistently good. People will only care about basketball if we're winning consistently.

 
I don't mind the pace of Big Ten basketball. I don't think it is as big of a difference you make it out to be. It's not like Michigan State went to the finals the year before or Evan Turner was league MVP this past year. The Big Ten has made 5 finals appearances since 2000, so even if it is slower or more calculated or whatever, it isn't necessarily inferior.

 
Manhattan said:
I don't mind the pace of Big Ten basketball. I don't think it is as big of a difference you make it out to be. It's not like Michigan State went to the finals the year before or Evan Turner was league MVP this past year. The Big Ten has made 5 finals appearances since 2000, so even if it is slower or more calculated or whatever, it isn't necessarily inferior.
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MSU has done well against Kansas and Texas. More likely than not, we would wipe the floor with the other Big 12 teams.

I think the new stadium and new facilities (if the basketball team wlll be able to use them) will benifit your team. I mean if PSU and um can win a NIT then at least you guys can do the same or at least be able to compete. While football is the main bread winner, it is supporting the other sports. At the very least, the other sports should be able to compete. (this goes for all B10 schools, not just UNL. Also yes B10 baseball sucks, I hope you can light the spark to change that.)

 
Manhattan said:
I don't mind the pace of Big Ten basketball. I don't think it is as big of a difference you make it out to be. It's not like Michigan State went to the finals the year before or Evan Turner was league MVP this past year. The Big Ten has made 5 finals appearances since 2000, so even if it is slower or more calculated or whatever, it isn't necessarily inferior.
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If I sounded like I said that the pace was inferior I apologize because that is not what I intended. I meant to say when you have slower paced games, then the games themsleves are normally closer because no team really has a chance to pull away with a few exceptions. Unlike some teams in the Big 12, we try to slow the game down as well and try to make as few turnovers as possible, at one point in the year we were leading the nation in fewest turnovers so a "slower" pace in the Big 10 in my opinion gives us a little bit of a better shot of winning. Temas like Texas and Kansas try to speed up the game and try to produce breakaways and quite frankly we arent quick enough to do that and compete. Mizzou also does an excellent job with there full court zone defense which really frustrated the young team we had last year.

 
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