Nebrasketball is “a thing.” It’s something you should be into.
I know Nebraska men’s basketball isn’t really on the radar of Nebraskans; usually. Of course, the new arena opened this year has opened some hearts and minds to it. The team is drawing very well in the new building, and a buzz around the program grows. The Huskers have been really good at home, going 15-1, with the only loss being by a single point to conference outright champ Michigan.
Nebraska will make an appearance in the Big Dance; as an #11 or #12 seed possibly. There might be a little bit of sweating on Selection Sunday, but I think they’ll be alright. A win yesterday would have solidified.
“A win and maybe you’re a #9 seed,” Nebrasketball Coach Tim Miles said after losing to the Buckeyes.
“That might be a stretch, but it’s not too much of a stretch.”
I don’t see Nebrasketball doing anything for anybody regarding page views numbers yet, but if they go deep in the NCAA Tournament, I think that might change. Nebrasketball has never won a NCAA Tournament game, going 0-6 all time. They last went dancing in 1998.
I asked Tim Miles about building a program in a college football crazed place. An area where they’re so insane about football that they even treat spring football like it’s a real sport.
They actually regard spring football as something you should care about.
“I don’t think you have to peel the onion back very far at Nebraska to find success across the board,” Miles said.
“Footballs our hallmark sport and it’s really paid a lot of the bills for the rest of us, we know that and respect that a great deal.”
“And our fans support us, if anyone saw our last home game it was just ridiculous , it’s a great place to build a program.”
I also asked him if there’s a tourney buzz in Lincoln, on campus, and in the community. If people are starting to get really excited about this program….
I think people are positive, they feel we’ve really got a shot, if you look at the most rigorous part of schedule, it took us a while to figure out who we were but once we did, we realized we’re a pretty good team,”
The main reason Nebrasketball has made such a big leap forward this season, year two since Tim Miles took over for Doc Sadler, is the transfers. Looking at how transfers helped Nebrasketball get to the next level, maybe the Illinois Fighting Illini do the same next year with their three transfers?
I asked Miles about the transfers after the Cornhuskers lost to Ohio State in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
“Those are guys who are our best athletes and I think they have a really good skill level, too. And Walter (Pitchford) did a really nice job, I thought. He started out in frustration a little bit, but ended the game really well. And then Terran (Petteway), I thought, just got frustrated and ended up taking himself out of the game mentally. We just can’t have that. He’s too good and too valuable to let that happen.”
But the best reason to follow Nebrasketball, and to embrace Nebrasketball, is the urbane, witty personality of its coach. Tim Miles is clever and hilarious. Behold these partial transcripts from last night.
Q. I know it’s not up to you, but are you guys an NCAA Tournament team? And how quickly can you put this loss behind you and start shifting towards the next tournament?
COACH MILES: I’m a Catholic, we’re not putting it behind us. We’re going to live in it for a while.
I think we’re a tournament team. I think we’re a team good enough to win in the tournament. I mean, you just look at our body of work?? and even, we lost to Illinois who was playing lights?out and just lost to a great Michigan team. And other than that, we haven’t lost many games recently in the past two months.
Q. As you said earlier, it’s out of your control now, but what are the next two days going to be like for you knowing what that would mean if your name does get called?
COACH MILES: I’m trying to debate my options, and none of them are good or healthy. One thing I think we’ll do is get the team together tomorrow just so they’re not sitting around all day. So we’ll do something tomorrow with them, whether that be shoot or whatever, and just?? that’s always a healing process. The child psychologist takes the kid in the sandbox, gets the Tonka trucks out, and we get them in the gym and give them a ball and that sort of thing.
We need a little salve on these wounds, so we’ll probably kill a day doing that, like shoot for 11 hours. I don’t know, is that against the rules? We’re on spring break, aren’t we? We’re going to be. We’ll break the rules. I’m kidding, I’m kidding, I’m kidding.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on multiple news talk radio stations. The former NBC Chicago and Washington Times contributor has also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows The Sports Bank on Twitter (@paulmbanks) you should too