Antiquitus

I am dismayed at how bad Nebraska has become. I understand missing Copeland, but this is really shocking.

I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but I have always thought Nebraska should not have fired Moe Iba. His teams, as I recall them, were well-disciplined and although usually out-talented they were always competitive. Fans, however, demanded "exciting" basketball (run and gun stuff). Iba actually raised the program up to NCAA entry and, I think, could have continued that and built a program with a defined culture (sort of like K-State has managed over the years). Nee was good following, but after him it seems just to be a run of mediocre teams with a fool-you-early and late-collapse seasons. Also, Nebraska has not adjusted well to being in the Big Ten, which is a tougher conference top to bottom than the Big 8-Big 12 was (last year excepted). There is probably as much talent on this present team or more than most of the teams over the past 20 years or so.

Nebraska basketball is weird. Every year it seems that they start out pretty good and fool people into thinking that they will be pretty good, and then fade away in the later weeks. Players are different, even coaches, but it's always the same story. The difference today was that Illinois played like they were playing for something (even if it's for some late season respect as the nation's "best 7-win team."). Even so they really did leave the door open for Huskers to get back in it. I've never seen two teams be so bad and the free-throw stripe, though. Just awful.

If they lose to Illinois tomorrow it's over for the Huskers. Illinois very inconsistent offensively but if they are hitting their shots it will be tough.

It would be nice to see Nana Akenten have a breakout game. He has an opportunity here.