Open letter taken out in Omaha paper.

[Foppa]

Hell, I didn't know he had practices without basketballs. Things make a lot more sense now.

But ultimately, he has a good point, we aren't competent in any aspect of basketball, including in the athletic department. Of course that's not saying flinging money around solves everything. Northwestern is the top spender, and they've never been to a tourney game. Ever. (although they do have a great look at it this year).

I'm just more stunned that the Nebraska athletic department is publicly being called out. The natives are restless, every coach and sport ought to take serious notice.

I'm confused...I thought he held practices with basketballs...but inside a raquetball court?

 

[Comish]

While I agree that the basketball budget could be increased, I don't attribute our lack of success on the court to that at all. Here's why:

Nebraska - $4,104,289

Ohio State - $4,554,908

Not that big of a difference, yet OSU gets it done in bball. That's why I'm not 100% buying this guy's argument.

I agree. The spending "commitment" is not a valid issue. By that rationale, all we have to do is increase bball coaches salaries about 5 mil per year and we would arrive at the promised land. There is so much more to it than how much you spend on it. The only salient point Hawks made was about getting some recruiting help. tom Izzo makes about $3.49M per year and Doc makes about $900K. Does anybody think the only difference there is 2.5M dollars spent?

Maybe Izzo gets paid by the point.................

 

[Hercules]

Mr. Hawks should have just joined HuskerBoard and posted that. Wouldn't have cost him a dime, and it would have the same impact on the Athletic Department.

If, instead of writing checks to the Weird Harold he stopped writing checks to the Athletic Department Fund, that would have an impact. But this... not so much.

I think he feels quite passionately about the University, and that's great. But when that passion leads you to say/do something like this, it's not so great. It's too much. Seems like:

Hawks didn't want just a conversation on Huskerboard. He wanted a conversation on every Husker forum, and he wanted a conversation in the newspapers, and at water-coolers across the state. Just posting on one forum doesn't get that conversation happening. Sean Callahan isn't going to tweet about a new Huskerboard topic.

I think he did just what he wanted with his ad - Barfnecht even took the bait and wrote a response article. Hawks ad got a statewide conversation going. It may not change any minds, but he got people talking about it.

 

[Blackshirts007]

Mr. Hawks should have just joined HuskerBoard and posted that. Wouldn't have cost him a dime, and it would have the same impact on the Athletic Department.

If, instead of writing checks to the Weird Harold he stopped writing checks to the Athletic Department Fund, that would have an impact. But this... not so much.

I think he feels quite passionately about the University, and that's great. But when that passion leads you to say/do something like this, it's not so great. It's too much. Seems like:

Hawks didn't want just a conversation on Huskerboard. He wanted a conversation on every Husker forum, and he wanted a conversation in the newspapers, and at water-coolers across the state. Just posting on one forum doesn't get that conversation happening. Sean Callahan isn't going to tweet about a new Huskerboard topic.

I think he did just what he wanted with his ad - Barfnecht even took the bait and wrote a response article. Hawks ad got a statewide conversation going. It may not change any minds, but he got people talking about it.

this

 

[T_O_Bull]

While I agree that the basketball budget could be increased, I don't attribute our lack of success on the court to that at all. Here's why:

Nebraska - $4,104,289

Ohio State - $4,554,908

Not that big of a difference, yet OSU gets it done in bball. That's why I'm not 100% buying this guy's argument.

OSU has a long history of good BBall. Jerry Lucas and John Havlacheck brought home a NC.

T_O_B

G>B>R

 

[Excel]

While I agree that the basketball budget could be increased, I don't attribute our lack of success on the court to that at all. Here's why:

Nebraska - $4,104,289

Ohio State - $4,554,908

Not that big of a difference, yet OSU gets it done in bball. That's why I'm not 100% buying this guy's argument.

OSU has a long history of good BBall. Jerry Lucas and John Havlacheck brought home a NC.

T_O_B

G>B>R

Well yea...kind of. But their regular seasons success has never really been able to break through...They only have one NC and that was more than half a century ago. If you want to win you have to spend money. Guy's argument is sound.

 

[HuskerShark]

While I agree that the basketball budget could be increased, I don't attribute our lack of success on the court to that at all. Here's why:

Nebraska - $4,104,289

Ohio State - $4,554,908

Not that big of a difference, yet OSU gets it done in bball. That's why I'm not 100% buying this guy's argument.

OSU has a long history of good BBall. Jerry Lucas and John Havlacheck brought home a NC.

T_O_B

G>B>R

Well yea...kind of. But their regular seasons success has never really been able to break through...They only have one NC and that was more than half a century ago. If you want to win you have to spend money. Guy's argument is sound.

The thing I was implying is that it is not as big of an issue as the guy makes it out to be. Maybe we need a couple million dollar increase in the budget, maybe not. I don't think that we necessarily NEED to increase the budget, simply because Ohio State's budget is similar and they have a lot of basketball success. We just need to recruit harder and play more consistently. I don't care who we have as a coach, as long as they can start getting it done here. I really like Doc, and I have been a Doc supporter since he got here, but our record this year doesn't lie, and it's probably time to make a change.

 

[Husker John]

It would be interesting to see how much basketball revenue was produced by the Huskers and other Big Ten schools, as wells as the expendetures.

 

[knapplc]

Mr. Hawks should have just joined HuskerBoard and posted that. Wouldn't have cost him a dime, and it would have the same impact on the Athletic Department.

If, instead of writing checks to the Weird Harold he stopped writing checks to the Athletic Department Fund, that would have an impact. But this... not so much.

I think he feels quite passionately about the University, and that's great. But when that passion leads you to say/do something like this, it's not so great. It's too much. Seems like:

Hawks didn't want just a conversation on Huskerboard. He wanted a conversation on every Husker forum, and he wanted a conversation in the newspapers, and at water-coolers across the state. Just posting on one forum doesn't get that conversation happening. Sean Callahan isn't going to tweet about a new Huskerboard topic.

I think he did just what he wanted with his ad - Barfnecht even took the bait and wrote a response article. Hawks ad got a statewide conversation going. It may not change any minds, but he got people talking about it.

Except that people are already talking about it, on every message board, at every water cooler, at every diner across the state. It's not like he told us about a problem nobody knew we had. There are three separate topics about Doc specifically in this forum alone, with a combined 4,000 views. That's just one message board among about a dozen.

I was mostly joking with that post you quoted, and I thought the gif was funny so I took the opportunity to post it. But the point I was making is still valid - this isn't news. And he isn't going to get anything done by taking out that ad. He didn't create a conversation where none existed before, he just said what we've all been saying already.

He did nothing wrong. He just didn't do anything to actually fix the problem.

 

[Joe_5700]

Guys probably right. Nebraska seems to be a one show state, and that show is Husker Football, hell just look at this site. The Football subforum is prominently displayed while there is no basketball forum. Do nebraskans even care about basketball?

If NU basketball had a chance to finish top half of the conference Nebraskans would care enough to fill an arena. They have before.

Could I ask you, Bucky, about Wisconsin's commitment to baseball?

I grew up in the Milwaukee area, and I thought baseball was the main sport in the state... Strange that UW doesn't have a baseball program.

 

[PaulCrewe]

It would be interesting to see how much basketball revenue was produced by the Huskers and other Big Ten schools, as wells as the expendetures.

Click the link in post 5. Put the same chart he tried to use. It has it all there for ya

 

[Foppa]

Guys probably right. Nebraska seems to be a one show state, and that show is Husker Football, hell just look at this site. The Football subforum is prominently displayed while there is no basketball forum. Do nebraskans even care about basketball?

If NU basketball had a chance to finish top half of the conference Nebraskans would care enough to fill an arena. They have before.

Could I ask you, Bucky, about Wisconsin's commitment to baseball?

I grew up in the Milwaukee area, and I thought baseball was the main sport in the state... Strange that UW doesn't have a baseball program.

They would...but 10 months out of the year in Wiscy the university hockey team keeps hogging the baseball field.