Hofstra vs Nebraska

If NU football had to settle for a bowl game vs. Hofstra with Cally as HC after 6 years, would he still be coaching? :blink:

 
The only thing I can think of on this is that if Barry was let go, what position would we be in? It's not like Husker Hoops is as glamorous as football. We were able to land a pretty nice coach when we let Frank go, but we wouldn't have the pick of the litter with basketball coaches. We would simply have to start over and would be in a worse position than we are now. Barry has a couple of good players coming in next year, and w/Jamel White and Maric coming back we have a decent foundation to build on.

Now if Barry can't get to the NCAA tourney next year, I think he should be cut loose. Maybe we'll have some time if he struggles next year to look for a coach. There's no reason we can't bring in somebody high-profile. The fair-weather basketball fans here in Nebraska will flock to the Devaney if the team starts to win.

 
Collier will be the coach next season, and Nebraska will lose this game.
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I gotta agree here. :bang

UNC-Wil was beat by Hofstra in New York. UNC-Wil is a NCAA Tournament team, that had to beat Hofstra to make the Tourney. <_<

Now, an equilizer is that Nebraska has beat another tourney team, OU, twice. The saving grace for NU is that they had one of those upsets on a neutral court, that being the Big 12 Conference Tourney.

I don't like NU's matchup vs. Hofstra's two talented guards, Loren Stokes and Antoine Aqudio. If Hofstra can move the ball around, these two will be very effective. However, NU should have the advantage down low. If Maric can be effective as a defensive player without getting in foul trouble, NU should be ok. Containment can go a long way if NU's perimeter game is ok.

The intangibles is the problem. Hofstra is...yep...15-0 at home. Yes, you can look at their schedule all you want. But the East Coast is a different breed of college basketball. I remember a few year's back a Penn team that played probably the most talented NU team I've ever seen and made them look silly. A 10-pt. loss that was never close if I remember right. Now, Look at NU's road record. 3-7. This represents a huge problem, and is why I don't see NU winning this game.

Hope these 'big' recruits' can get Barry to the tourney next year. Otherwise, if a change isn't made, I will agree that NU just doesn't care about their b-ball program.

 
Now, an equilizer is that Nebraska has beat another tourney team, OU, twice. The saving grace for NU is that they had one of those upsets on a neutral court, that being the Big 12 Conference Tourney.
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Let's not forget about Marquette. :thumbs

However, I agree with your assessment. I think the Huskers will lose this one not because they are a bad team necessarily, but because Hofstra is a good team that deserved to be in the NCAA tourney. Hopefully I am wrong and the Huskers will pull one out and keep some positive momentum going.

 
Nebraska men open NIT play at Hofstra

While it's often said that tournament play is like the beginning of a new season, Nebraska coach Barry Collier has a somewhat different view.

"I think it's more that our season gets to continue as much as it is a new season," Collier said. "You can paint the picture any way you want to, but our thing is that we want to keep playing and keep this team together. When that's not possible any longer, we lose our seniors and, of course, we'll have new players join us, so we'll be a different team next year.

"For all these teams, it has been a long season with a lot of work and preparation and I think, for the most part, we all want to keep playing. I know that our group does."

Nebraska (19-13) extended its season by getting into the National Invitation Tournament for the 14th time in the program's history, including the second time in the past three years. The Huskers, seeded sixth in the East Region, will open NIT play tonight at third-seeded Hofstra (24-6).

Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. in the Hofstra Arena at Hempstead, N.Y.

Nebraska's season could possibly have been finished by now if not for a surprising run in the Big 12 Tournament at Dallas. The Huskers beat Missouri in the first round and then knocked off third-seeded Oklahoma to reach the semifinals where they lost to eventual champion Kansas.

Collier said Nebraska's solid play was the result of seniors like Wes Wilkinson and Jason Dourisseau digging and scratching to keep their college careers alive, along with the emergence of younger players like sophomore center Aleks Maric and freshman guard Jamel White.

"Our seniors are a big part of our play this year for the whole year," Collier said. "But it also has been obvious to me that we've had excellent games and play out of even our youngest players.

"We're not a team that makes the right play or the spectacular play every time down the floor, but we're getting more consistent -- I think, anyway. We've had 30-plus games of experience now, so our young guys have been able to benefit from that."

Playing the Pride ranks as a difficult first-round draw for Nebraska. Hofstra's 24 victories are the most by any team that didn't receive a NCAA Tournament bid and the second-most in the program's 33 years at the Division I level.

In addition, the Pride is 10-2 this season in non-conference play and 13-0 at home in the 5,124-seat Hofstra Arena. Hofstra has the nation's second-longest home winning streak at 20, trailing only Gonzaga's 40 consecutive home wins.

"There are always going to be teams in this tournament that just missed out on the NCAA Tournament," Collier said. "I think Hofstra falls into that line.

"They're a very, very good basketball team. It is a tough challenge for us, but we're both in this tournament and should be excited to play."

Collier said Hofstra possesses excellent scoring balance -- four Pride players average in double figures led by guard Loren Stokes (17.2 points per game). Coach Tom Pecora's team is also difficult to defend, Collier said, because it generally sets five or six screens on the ball per possession, which is something the Huskers don't see a lot of in the Big 12.

"It's a special challenge," Collier said. "Their coach is a former Villanova assistant and you can see a lot of parallels there with how they try to play the game."

 
NU's White eager for NIT 'home' game

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Nebraska freshman guard Jamel White was thinking he’d follow in the footsteps of fellow Brooklyn (N.Y.) Grady High star Norman Richardson and head up to Long Island to play for Hofstra University.

That was when White was just a sophomore pup. Sure, he told coach Jay Wright, he’d like to become a member of the Pride. But Wright eventually left for Villanova, and White, who finished his high school career at Laurinburg (N.C.) Institute, wound up a Husker.

“In the city, they don’t mention Hofstra too much,” White said. But “it’s an OK place. They’ve had a lot of good players come from out of there.”

Tonight, NU’s fast-developing freshman will get to see what might’ve been when Nebraska faces the Pride in an opening-round National Invitation Tournament game in Hofstra Arena at 6 p.m.

The Huskers, having won two games at the Big 12 Tournament last week, are making their 14th appearance in the NIT, an event they won in 1996. Meanwhile, Hofstra will be playing host to its first NCAA Division I postseason game and looking for its initial victory. The program is 0-4 in NCAA Tournaments and 0-2 in the NIT.

But White knows better than to think NU will waltz through Pride park.

For starters, Hofstra is 13-0 at home this season. The Pride also can’t be in a particularly good mood after being bypassed for the NCAA Tournament despite going 24-6 and finishing one game behind Colonial Athletic Association co-regular-season champs North Carolina-Wilmington and George Mason.

“Twenty-four wins and you don’t make the NCAA Tournament? I’d be (angry),” White said. We’re definitely going to have to match (that attitude). We ain’t going all the way to New York to lose in the first round of the NIT.”

Hofstra beat NCAA Tournament qualifier George Mason in its conference tournament semifinals before falling to Wilmington in the championship.

Nebraska secured a position in the NIT by defeating Missouri and No. 19 Oklahoma to reach its first Big 12 Tournament semifinal since 1999. The Huskers were eliminated by No. 17 Kansas, which went on to defeat No. 8 Texas in the finals.

“They’re probably stung a little bit by not being in the (NCAA) Tournament,” NU coach Barry Collier said. “Our guys are excited to be playing.”

Collier is in the same mood. Following his team’s success at the Big 12 tourney, clouds regarding his future at Nebraska were lifted when athletic director Steve Pederson announced he and executive

associate AD Marc Boehm, who has administrative oversight for men’s basketball, were sticking by their coach of six seasons.

During that time, Nebraska is 89-90 and hasn’t finished a Big 12 campaign with a winning record. This year’s sixth-place finish, though, marked the Huskers’ first upper-division finish.

And White sensed that after one- and two-point losses during the final week of the regular season, NU played with more precision.

“I think we knew we needed those wins for a lot of reasons,” he said. “Coach started talking about playing with an attacking mentality. That’s my style of play. I was feeling like I was back home.”

Hofstra, located about 30 minutes from White’s neighborhood, has been carried by a starting five who rarely sit, and each of whom have produced a 25-point game this season.

Collier compares the Pride’s offense, which relies heavily on ball screens, to Villanova and Iowa State.

“They can speed the ball down the floor; they can walk the ball up the floor and run 35 seconds off the clock,” he said.

Hofstra’s fifth-year coach, Tom Pecora, is 79-71 at the school, including 45-15 over the last two seasons. He served as an assistant to Wright for seven seasons before being promoted.

To counter the Pride’s home-court advantage, White will have 67 of his closest friends and family members in attendance tonight.

“I got everybody’s tickets except for Jimmy Ledsome, because he lives in Maryland,” White said of his freshman teammate. “It’s pretty big to go back and play in front of my family.”

 
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