Kansas State 64, Nebraska 47: PUCKER UP, JOHN HENRY!!!!!!

[ChipperF1]

"I will kiss Chipper's rosy red butt in the middle of downtown Lincoln-on a Monday morning-if the Huskers can keep within 20 points of KSU."

17 points.

State Capital, Monday, High Noon. I'll fly into Omaha Monday Morning and drive down. I've already called the press and I'll bring the chap stick for you and disinfectant for me, because you never know where Longhorn Lips have been. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif

Actually, there isn't much to celebrate. Nebraska basically tried a "give-up" strategy tonight. We opened with shooting threes, and Nebraska's missing percentage runs at 85%. Nebraska went 3-for-19 from three point range today.

In the first half we shoot poorly, they were on their game. Kansas State is missing a beat with Koehn, but all the other parts worked well. Kendra Wecker was attacking the boards, thought her shooting was off. She still had 16. Nicole Ohlde blugeoned Amanda Cleveland into submission. Domenico ran the offense effeciencly in spots, rough in other. Overall, it wasn't K-State's best game, but tonight's first half was bad for Nebraska, save a mid-first half run that cut the lead to 18-12

The sad thing for the Huskers tonight was that Alexa Johnson had a good scoring night. She led all scorer with 21 points. She really play good offensively but was somewhat passive defensively and the whole team was passive on the boards.

Nebraska tried to play Iowa State basketball. It doesn't work when you can't shoot, don't rebound and can't defend. Tonight was a sissy-candypants effort. Don't be fooled by the scoring margin. We didn't play that well.

[HuskerFan86]

What I want to know, is when will Megan Mahoney get the respect she deserves. I'm convinced that without Mahoney, the Cats would be in a lot worse shape than they are without Koehn. Megan had something like 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 8 assists. And even more impressively, she only missed one shot and only committed 2 TO's while playing something like 35 minutes. WOW. This girl deserves a lot of credit. Wecker and Ohlde aren't to bad either...

What are NU's chances vs. A&M?? I saw that got destroyed by Tech tonight. Watching Tocarra Williams harass Jina Johansen and Shahidrah Roberts for 40 minutes will not be pretty...

All losses aside, we have to remain positive Chipper. I'm still convinced that brighter days are just over the horizon.

[Jimi]

You are absolutely right Huskerfan86. Mahoney is and has been a very positive force on the team from her first college game. She is key to our offense and defense.

Her room-mate isn't too bad either. Nicole Ohlde got her 1,500th point of her career tonight on a shot even though she was fouled at the 13:38 mark of the first half. They announced the feat after her shot and before the foul shot. She got a very long and loud standing ovation and seemed to be quite moved by it. Then the official blew his wistle and gave her the ball for her foul shot. Swish! I thought with all the emotion she would likely miss it. That is the fastest anyone has gotten to 1,500 points at Kansas State. It took her only 83 games. She is now among only 6 players to top 1,500 points in the programs history. It took the next fastest player 103 games to reach the mark. (Diana Miller)

Ohlde is 5 points away from 5th place on the all-time scoring list. She is 15 rebounds away from 7th and 10 assists away from the 12th spot for her KSU career.

Coach Patterson made alot of us fans happy by going to her bench early and often in this game. In the first five minutes she already had Jessica McFarland on the floor. J-Mac played 17 minutes and Brie Madden 13. At times Coach P. had Chelsea Domenico on the floor with four Forward/Post type players. Ohlde, McFarland, Madden, and Wecker with a point makes for an interesting combination. Coach Patterson started that sort of thing early and wanted to try various combinations. She was very pleased with how McFarland responded. She had 7 points, 3 rebounds an assist and 3 turnovers in her 17 minutes but that does not tell the whole story. She also played good defense and was agressive in going after lose balls etc. Coach P. Does NOT care for passive play, especially in "hustle" situations and she got hustle from J-Mac tonight. Dutmer, Ohlde & Wecker all played just a little over 30 minutes tonight.

Nebraska played a fair amount of zone tonight and that may account for some of the passivity Chipper noted. They Continued to fight but got lost on some plays.

Congrats to OSU for their hard fought game with Texas. For your reward you get to come to Bramlage on Saturday and face 13,000 plus purple people. We had 9,426 fans tonight but there won't be that much open space for the Cowgirls. They announced tonight that only 600 tickets remain for Saturday. The crowd was pretty tame and passive tonight, rather like an exibition game. I expect with a full house and the fans knowing the game OSU gave the Longhorns we will see a more fired-up fan base.

[Jimi]

An extra treat for me at the game tonight was meeting wbbcatfan. She looked us up before the game and it was fun to meet her and talk a bit. Thanks for coming over and introducing yourself.

[ChipperF1]

"Megan Mahoney get the respect she deserves. I'm convinced that without Mahoney, the Cats would be in a lot worse shape than they are without Koehn. Megan had something like 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 8 assists.

People who know basketball know Mahoney is solid, she is just overlooked because of Wecker, Ohlde, and Koehn.

As for Nebraska's chances against Texas A&M they will depend on getting a solid offensive outing going early in the game. Tonight, I think Coach Yori gambled on something Nebraska cannot do. We're not a good shooting team to begin with. Tonight's shooting percentage was one of the best all year (35%), but from the three-point line, the Huskers are around 15%. The team needs to not even think about shooting threes. There isn't a player who can hit one consistently. We have to work close in and attack the basket.
I with you on Toccara Williams, but if stay patient and make solid play, we can neutralize her. She is a good defensive player, but its a threat we can handle. One thing we must have is a confident Jina Johansen. She's been hitting her shots the last three games, and Connie needs to encourage her to take her shots. When Jina plays confidently, its works for us.

"All losses aside, we have to remain positive Chipper. I'm still convinced that brighter days are just over the horizon.

The good times are coming, but they are about three years down the line. Right now, I'm concerned about how we'll finish up this year. We need some wins in those final games or at least some signs of competitiveness. This team hasn't competed well since the win over Oklahoma State and for most of this conference season, we have shown that we are fundamentally inferior and we I've been disappointed in the lack of courage and fight we've shown at many points in the Big 12 schedule. We need to finish strong to serve as a good baseline for next season. 2003-2004 will probably end up about the same. The fundamental flaws we have this year, we will have next year. Our veterans are about as good as they can get, and we'll have to depend on a ton of newcomers. We don't know if they can play at this level or not. And there is the matter of Keasha Cannon. She's a solid player, but how combat-ready and focused will she be next season? Cannon was a diamond in the rough to begin with. She has many of some fundamental shortcomings that Margaret Richards and Alexa Johnson have, and these are our three best players. The same analysis holds true for Katie Morse. If Morse can come all the way back from injury, it'll be a big edge.
The good things I've seen this year center around understanding what it takes in terms of preparation. For the first time in years you have a Nebraska team that at least walk into a game prepared. That was not the case in the last three Sanderford-coached season. Connie Yori and staff have at least set up the practice standards as the should be. But the challenge for next season is getting younger players more fundamentally sound and building on it. If we are going to reach that winning horizon, we cannot stumble around in the darkness of having players like Margaret Richards waste two years being lazy and ineffective. We cannot have Alexa Johnsons to come not have a clear role or be prepared to meet the challenge of that role.
We have a couple of more years of losing ahead, but at lot will depend on how we play in those years. If we become fundamentally better and if those young kids especially get going and we recruit well, I would by 2005-2006, we will be a contender. I just hope Steve Pederson gives Coach Yori that kind of time.

[JohnHenry]

Alright, simmer down -- as luck would have it, I can't spring for the plane ticket THIS week. You being press and all, Chip - maybe you can swing into Austin next Sat. for the Huskers ass-whipping and we'll go double-or-nothing, same bet. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif
On second thought, after the way we played last night (against a team the Huskers stomped), perhaps that wouldn't be a wise bet on my part....

Jeez, I thought Marion's Kansas team would play us better than Okie St. Looks like that old "2nd meeting - on the road" thing that happens alot. There's no surprises after you've played once, and when you win the first one at home, the other team can let it simmer until they get you in their place, and then anything's possible - KSU/ISU in Ames, last night's game,...it happens.

I'm just glad it happened against OSU. A letdown like that in Ames could have cost us a W. We usually have one or two a year, and i'm gonna say we've had 2 now, so I think we roll up the Cyclones this weekend (for once, a win in that god-forsaken pit of despair).

And whatever about the 17, Chip. I'd bet at least 10 of NU's points were garbage-time gimmees... http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif

Let me off the hook this time and i'll keep this as my sig until the 22nd, sport...

http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/nu.gif on a ROLL!


[This message has been edited by JohnHenry (edited 02-13-2003).]

[ChipperF1]

"And whatever about the 17, Chip. I'd bet at least 10 of NU's points were garbage-time gimmees...

A "Texan" going back on a bet. You must be from Dallas http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif



[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 02-13-2003).]

[ChipperF1]

"Let me off the hook this time and i'll keep this as my sig until the 22nd, sport...

I will be gracious, but you still must bring disinfectant because you never know where a Longhorn's been.

I look forward to our victory over the Longhorns.

http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/ut.gif Proud to be Burnt Orange
The University of Oklahoma at Austin http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

[JohnHenry]

"Dallas"?
"The University of Oklahoma at Austin " -

Ouch.

so that's how it's gonna be, huh?

I think I know what really happened now......you got to Deb, didn't you?

http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/tamu.gif Weasel.


http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/nu.gif on a ROLL!

[ChipperF1]

Texas Autos and Money? lol!

I didn't go to Texas A&M http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif