2024-25 Season Notes

I am OK with Hoiberg as long as we realize he will have a team that gets 17 wins a year.  Some years 19 wins.  Some 21 or 22.  But mostly 16 -19 wins out of 30 games or a few more.  And that's with a weakish non-con, a lot of early home games, and finishing between 8th and 11th every year in the Big Ten Conference. Hoping for a tournament invite to the NCAA playoffs.  Even though it's just asking to become one of 68 teams to make it to the tournament.  There is a lot of pride in doing that.  

Having said that, it's all good and it's OK to win 17-20 each year and have some good memories.  Nothing wrong with that.  

But, if you want your basketball program to consistently win 20-23 games a year, finish in the top 6 of the conference, and win games in the beautiful March Madness tournament, it might mean it's almost soon enough to think about a new coach perhaps.  You definitely give Hoiberg another year for sure.  But it sucks to admit that because Hoiberg is a good man and does his best running a basketball program.  And I want him to succeed.  But me thinks we will be in the same familiar territory all throughout next season as well.  And then what?

 
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I'm not sure how far out in the future the non-con schedule is set, but it might be a good idea to start setting up some real challenges before conference play. I recognize the value of "tune up" games, but it seems like there's just too many. The annual Creighton game is always a Quad 1 game. The St Mary's game this year in South Dakota turned out to be a quality opponent. But how many SWAC teams do you really need to beat up on to get ready for the season? Every team in the Diamond Head Classic '24 stunk. Maybe playing some real opponents would help the team get ready for Big Ten play instead of beating up on whichever Dakota school or Directional Illinois University wants to get a buy game that week?

 
brontosaurus said:
I'm not sure how far out in the future the non-con schedule is set, but it might be a good idea to start setting up some real challenges before conference play. I recognize the value of "tune up" games, but it seems like there's just too many. The annual Creighton game is always a Quad 1 game. The St Mary's game this year in South Dakota turned out to be a quality opponent. But how many SWAC teams do you really need to beat up on to get ready for the season? Every team in the Diamond Head Classic '24 stunk. Maybe playing some real opponents would help the team get ready for Big Ten play instead of beating up on whichever Dakota school or Directional Illinois University wants to get a buy game that week?
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This year's home NC schedule was pitiful.

UT Rio Grande

Bethune Cookman

Fairleigh Dickenson

South Dakota

North Florida

Southern

Not a single good team. 

Next year Creighton will be in Lincoln, but there needs to be at least one more decent team + a multiteam event that has someone worth playing + a decent team to play on the road.  They shouldn't rely totally on B1G competition to get their strength of schedule up.

 
BigRedBuster said:
We have a first team All conference player and don't make the conference tourney.   :facepalm:

That basically proves to me that after him and Gary, there wasn't anyone that complimented their play in any major fashion.
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We needed a consistent 3 point shooter.  Essegian was too streaky & Griffiths never seemed to get the defensive concepts the team was trying to run and only shot 25% from three so he got no PT.

 
ECisGod said:
We needed a consistent 3 point shooter.  Essegian was too streaky & Griffiths never seemed to get the defensive concepts the team was trying to run and only shot 25% from three so he got no PT.
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And...Meah was a total bust.

Sam hustles.  But, he's not good enough to be a major player in a tourney bound team.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
And...Meah was a total bust.

Sam hustles.  But, he's not good enough to be a major player in a tourney bound team.
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I think Sam could be a good backup point guard on a tourney bound team.  He hustles, plays good defense and is a good, if unwilling, shooter.  He probably shouldn't start, but he should get 15ish minutes per game.

 
Huskers will be playing in the CBC but it won't be announced until tomorrow.  Several teams declining postseason invites - including Iowa, Rutgers and Northwestern - plus waiting to see who is selected for the NCAA tournament slowing the process.

Portal opens before the tournament so teams have to make sure they'll have enough players to play.

 
Mavric said:
We made progress last year - partly do to different philosophies - but also probably got some help from a conference that was lacking in top teams - only six B1G teams made the tournament last year.  A little bit of the same story this year in that the league doesn't have many (any?) really weak teams but don't have much at the top end either.  A lot of solid teams but few great ones which means most teams have a chance to win most nights.  ESPN has 11 B1G teams making the tourney this year (including two newbies) but Nebraska, Indiana and Ohio State are three of the last five in right now so that number could drop.  
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Follow up: Only 8 B1G teams made the tourney.  Two of them are newbies.  So basically the same six as last year (without expansion).  Without the newbies, the B1G would have had fewer bids than the Big XII and only one more than the Big East.  Only once in the past 14 years has the B1G gotten fewer than six teams in - that would be 2017-18, incidentally Tim Miles best record was that year (at 22-11, it was nearly identical to Hoiberg's 23-11 record last year).

By comparison, the SEC got 14 teams in.  Also, the B1G got a 2 seed, a 3 seed and two 4 seeds.  The SEC got two 1 seeds and two 2 seeds among six top-four seeds.  So the B1G not only has fewer good teams but not many especially strong teams either.

 
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