2012 SF Kale Abrahamson (Des Moines) Commits to Northwestern
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 9, 2011 3:01 PM CDT
in Northwestern Wildcats Basketball Recruiting
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PrintTeddy Greenstein breaking the news on recruiting this time - NU has landed Kale Abrahamson, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard-small forward from Des Moines.
Good things have been said about Abrahamson, who was rated as a 91 by ESPN and three stars by Scout and Rivals. What's particularly drawn people to Abrahamson are his shooting capabilities, and he drew offers from schools like Stanford, Wake Forest, and BC - as well as other Big Ten programs, kinda, like Iowa and Nebraska. (Yes, Harvard too, for those of you interested in the smartsiness of the kid.)
Abrahamson, who is not related to a fictional one-armed archer I made up a few weeks ago for the sake of mocking Rick Reilly columns, visited NU yesterday and dropped the commit-hammer today. Teddy Greenstein has taken to calling Abrahamson "Shurna-like", which is good news, because he'll step on campus the year after Shurna departs. NU will say goodbye to a big class in 2012, with Shurna, Luka Mirkovic, Davide Curletti, and Nick Fruendt graduating. With incoming transfer Nikola Cerina and recruits Abrahamson, Sanjay Lumpkin, and Alex Olah committed, the Cats will fill those four spots but still have four more open rides to give out - Lindsay Willhite said last week that a five-man class could be in the works. Carmody and crew already have three out of the way - expect more, though.
This leads to the question: if you had to name your son after a plant in the cabbage family, what would it be? Kale is definitely a good one. Definitely beats "broccoli" and "rape".
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Question.
Can we get a ESPN/Scout rating for each of these players? Also, can we get a list of players that have been offered but declined (such as Cannon) w/their rating? I know you are better at it than I. Just a request.
But, I do think Kale A and the other guy they just offered are Big Ten caliber players. More positive than negative.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 9, 2011 3:06 PM CDT reply actions
added Abrahamson's
he’s a 91 per ESPN.
Comparing guys who accepted vs. guys who declined sounds like a good post for later.
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 9, 2011 3:18 PM CDT up reply actions
Ok, sounds good.
Of the 4 2012-2013 players, I think 2 are decent. Kale A, Alex O are good, Sanjay L and Nikola C are bad. But that’s WAY better than before.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 9, 2011 3:21 PM CDT up reply actions
personally
I never like to look at rankings, especially in basketball. Remember that NU’s highest-touted recruits in 2008 were Nick Fruendt and Kyle Rowley.
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 9, 2011 3:22 PM CDT up reply actions
Good point.
I know this has been discussed before, I do agree that rankings are not perfect, but overtime they are more accurate than less. If they were so bad, no one would use them.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 9, 2011 3:23 PM CDT up reply actions
let me rephrase:
they definitely give you a good idea. But saying “these two players are good and these two are bad” is what I have qualms with. Abrahamson and Olah certainly do look like the two players with the more potential though.
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 9, 2011 3:25 PM CDT up reply actions
So, we're just disagreeing on degree of bad?
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 9, 2011 3:36 PM CDT up reply actions
Player rankings
After 75, i don’t think they tell you much.
After 75, I think you have as good a shot at getting a productive player who is ranked in the 140s or 150s as one ranked around 80 or 90.
NU has done a pretty reasonable job getting players in the 80s or 90s. I’m not saying they are loaded with these guys, but there’s a reasonable line of them. And where has it gotten NU? Nothing stunning.
In the meantime, there’s an equally successful line of guys who were off the charts and better than the guys in the 80s or 90s.
I don’t think you can say much about a player until his first game or two. But then you better speak now or forever hold your peace.
I’d love to line up the idiots at another site who said Rowley was going to change the program while I was saying he was the worst of the three centers after his first Robert Morris game.
Can you post more Sec. 112?
I like your perspective on Rivals board.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 9, 2011 8:50 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
And become connected with you, NU A!?!?!?
I don’t think so. I’ve got enough of my own problems in the NU online community.
No, seriously, I love what Rodger, Lorreta and … and … who am I forgetting? (Sorry about that.) Anyhow, I love what they do out here. They treat NU sports with just mix of pandemonium and laughter that it deserves. I don’t want to get in the way of that.
It’s pretty obvious my name comes with a certain stigma for some people online. Look at how pissy some people became when I slapped the program around a little bit for its annual scheduling thrill ride.
That’s fine. I’ll be happy to take my share of the blame for this perception. But there’s a whole lot of that has been built up around the purple haze in the minds of some people, and I don’t want it to get in the way of a good site or discussion. I simply try to pick my spots.
Don't be scurrred...
If you have a point, stick to it. I disagree w/Mac and Chad all the time, but on some points, they do convince me. I see what you are up against on Rivals w/people thinking every year is a tournament bound team, but you have facts on your side.
I enjoy your work, just giving you a shoutout.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 8:23 AM CDT up reply actions
Saw this kid at lunch today
So I saw this kid at Norris today with Carmody, Hardy, Drew, and Shurna and from a quick glance or two I would say the Shurna comparison is accurate (at least body type wise). Very happy to hear we landed him.
did carmody get food from the crepe place?
if so, another example of why he’ll never be a top-notch BT coach. everybody knows Bo Ryan or Izzo would’ve gone for Sbarro’s.
p.s. welcome to SoP.
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 9, 2011 4:50 PM CDT up reply actions
sadly dont remember....New guy went food court though
I guess a bit about me….Ill be a junior this year and am a chem major from the jersey shore….Ive been lurking here for a while and have attended every home football game since Ive been here and all but one or two basketball games (I boycotted a game last year in February)…And I try to be realistic with my NU expectations but tend to be more of an optimist than most people
Science!
It’s been proven that how optimistic of a person you are (in general) is directly correlated to your expectations of NU athletics. I’ve drawn up this handy graph (optimism vs. nu sports expectations) for your convenience.
Go ahead and find yourself on the x-axis and that should tell you what you should expect out of an NU team in any given year.
by pfoley on Aug 9, 2011 5:24 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
This is fantastic.
PFoley, I agree, I have low optimism and expectations that NU can be a solid Big Ten program. Thank you for this.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 9, 2011 8:42 PM CDT up reply actions
Now wait....
…my expectations are low? I’m the guy who predicted a 7-1 conference record this year….
I don’t think my expectations are low — I expect Fitz to build us long-term into a program that regularly wins Big Ten titles. I just don’t expect this to happen immediately (well, unless you count my prediction for this year)……I expect it will be incremental, but everything I’ve seen from Fitz so far suggests our trend is decidely upwards in terms of where the program (and eventually our expectations of it as fans) is going.
I'm no graphs wizard
but I think it indicates that you have high expectations and high optimism.
Maybe my graph is getting cut-off...
I look like I have high optimism, but lower expectations than NU Class of 2002….whatever. At this point, I just want the season to start already, so NU can win the B1G and I can smoke cigars and laugh at all the naysayers here and elsewhere who discounted the B1G’s most experienced squad just because it was Northwestern…..
(Yes, I seriously think this is going to be a dream season….don’t ask me why, but I’m entirely and potentially irrationally confident in our team this year.)
Yea.
It might be a program. I have low expectations for this year, but I have lofty hopes for the long-term future of the program, not necessarily w/Fitz, but in general. You are right Chad has SUPER high optimism and VERY HIGH expectations.
Chad, while I don’t agree w/your logic, I do see the progression of your steps. I can’t fully disagaree w/them, so very cool.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 7:25 AM CDT up reply actions
now hold on a sec
Let me be clear… Chad you’ve got high expectations for the future of the program (continue doing well, raise our stock, sell the stadium, etc). They’re reasonable and attainable, and you think they can happen in this decade. The average NU fan might not see us doing so well as you hope, but still are satisfied with a program that turns in a winning season every year and wins a bowl or two. They’re generally more optimistic than your average bear. The average fan of any team looks at NU and doesn’t peg them as being much more than meh every year.
NUAco2002 wants us to be Ohio State.
Explain to me why we can't be a solid program?
OSU is one of the best athletic departments in the country. Isn’t that the goal, to be #1? NU’s goal is to be the best academic school it can, why is athletics so different.
To me, I want NU to become Stanford, I want NU to have that standard. Does Stanford win all sports every year, no, but they are consistenly a top 5 athletic department and guess what, a top 5 academic school. How do they do it? It’s not impossible, it is very possible.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 9:14 AM CDT up reply actions
Didn't say anything about the ability of NU to be top flight
just that your expectations are miles beyond basically anyone else’s :P
Now hold on a sec...
Stanford is a top 5 athletic department in the Directors Cup standings, but that’s largely because of the HUGE number of sports they compete in. Stanford competes in 36 scholarship sports; Northwestern competes in 19. And the Directors Cup lets you pick a certain total number of sports to submit — since Stanford has so many to pick from, it picks the best, and thus — voila! A high Directors Cup standing. Their athletic endowment spends tons of money on having extra programs/competing in more sports. Could we do that? Yeah…but then we need to pony up as alumni.
Comparing apples-to-apples (normalizing out the sports so everyone is on the same level), I don’t think Stanford would be a top 5 program, nor would they be in a league far apart from Northwestern. Last year’s football success by Stanford aside (and it WAS a relative anomaly for their program — look at last 20 years compared to us, and we’re the better football team in conference, for example), we’re on VERY equal/comparative footing, or at minimum not far behind Stanford.
Can NU improve? Certainly — facilities will help, increased school profile/marketing is helping, continuing to win will help….but let’s not pretend we’ll start adding all the sports Stanford does anytime soon.
I’m happy succeeding/improving in the sports we have, until one day we can offer more sports (like Stanford’s men/women’s gymnastics, women’s synchronized swimming, mens/womens’ water polo, women’s lightweight rowing, and women’s squash….oh, who am I kidding — I’d just like to see men’s lacrosse and mens/womens’ hockey added).
True.
Chad, you are correct, there is a number of sports that NU doesn’t participate in, but you have to credit Stanford for participating and winning. Sure, Stanford football/basketball is not that impressive, fully agree, but I look at their ath dept are pretty impressive.
To be honest, I’m VERY happy w/the direction of NU’s non-rev sports, minus men’s baseball.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 1:10 PM CDT up reply actions
the fact that there is a debate about the truth of this graph
proves that commenting wars can be started over anything on this site.
look what you’ve done, pfoley!
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 10, 2011 8:12 AM CDT up reply actions
Fanned the flames, apparently
Sorry about that. I’ll try to be less of a MSPaint master in the future.
boycotting a game?
now THAT’s a situation
sorry
boycotting Northwestern games
so THAT’S what everybody’s been doing all these years! I thought it was because nobody cared about NU sports. Turns out thousands of our fans are so passionate that that they’ve been making a statement by not attending.
/helps me sleep at night
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 9, 2011 5:41 PM CDT up reply actions
for me it was just that one...
It was when we played Iowa at home just after losing to Michigan and Penn St basically killing our tourney chances…basically it was either A. we would lose and I’d be pissed B. We would blow them out and it wouldn’t be a good game to watch or C. We would win a close game and I’d be pissed we didn’t blow them out…..lets hope I don’t have to repeat that this year
by JerseyShore@NU on Aug 9, 2011 5:46 PM CDT up reply actions
Might be more true than you think...
I’ve been to every home football game, except two (damn Fall weddings) since ’93, had season basketball tickets as a student, only live a few miles from Welsch-Ryan, am a donor to the Wildcar Fund, have only missed one “modern” Bowl game in person, and generally take the time to watch the BBall games on TV, but have only been to two basketball games in person in the last ten years (and even then, only because my friend gave me the tix). Why? Because BBall in the Carmody era is literally just too painful to be witnessed in person.
This program just is not good, or even competitive in our conference. I know the kids try, and my hat is off to the players who make the best out of their situation, but there is such a wide gap between NU and what it takes to be successful in this conference that it’s depressing. Yes, we win some (usually close) games on heart. However, I’ve never seen a Carmody era team take on a good opponent who plays up to their potential and just flat-out beat them. We’re just not capable of that and haven’t shown any signs of being capable of that for a decade.
Getting to the NIT and progressing a couple of rounds is nice and our weak schedule has helped to inflate W’s in recent years, but I think that most fans have an intuitive understanding that this team is not good and that the win over a quality opponent is going to be the exception rather than the rule. Until people start to feel like we’re truly on a competitive up-swing, I think that sub-conscious “boycotts” from people like me are going to continue.
Yay!
I agree 100%, plus tons more hatorade. Nice to know another guy will voice it on a ‘fan board’.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 11:06 AM CDT up reply actions
I don't know how you've missed the ridiculously huge difference
in the quality of the team from a few years ago to now. The team really did get so much better in 08-09. Speed, athleticism, competitive attitude — way different. And last year we lost way more close games than we won — we could’ve beat both MSU and Ohio St. twice, Purdue once, etc. The only games we got blown out were WIsconsin and @Illinois and we blew out Iowa. And the B1G was really competitive last year, no team outside of the KenPom top 80 or so.
I understand being realistic about the team or thinking we’re still a ways off from being consistently successful, but I think such deep pessimism shows your age. There is absolutely not “such a wide gap between NU and what it takes to be successful in this conference.”
The team is definitely better than the worst years...
… but that doesn’t make it “good”, or substantially close the gap with the rest of the conference. Yes, we’re probably better than historically terrible Iowa and Indiana teams (although I’m scared for the day when Tom Crean truly hits his stride – I know it hasn’t worked yet but he was great at Marquette), and you would think that we have a shot at being better than Nebraska this year (not a given). We might beat out Penn State due to their coaching change and loss of their best player, and Minnesota is potentially within grasp. That only gets us to 7th place in the league. Who else are we poised to pass? I don’t see us being better than Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, OSU, MSU, or Wisconsin, and when your best case scenario going into the season is 7th place with a realistic chance for anything down to 10th, where are we in the scheme of things?
As for those close games, take a look at those finishes. They weren’t OSU getting lucky on a last-second shot or wild, bad calls that threw a game away. They were dominant teams with dominant players who methodically dictated what they wanted to do at the end of a game and came up on the winning side (pounding the ball inside, methodically rotating the ball to their best shooter, clearing the lane for a drive, sound defensive positioning, etc.). Compare that to the ‘Cats strategy at the end of a close game, which usually includes some scrambling with the ball that you hope eventually gets into the hand of a hot shooter for a long shot. That’s the gap that I haven’t seen us close and what I mean when I say that we don’t truly “beat” quality teams – we sometimes get somebody to step up for a great result and we have been known to frustrate other teams through our control of pace, but we don’t ever dictate what happens on the floor when it truly counts.
I don’t mean to rain on your parade, and it scares me when my comments are getting accolades from NUACO2002 (whom I’m sure is a very nice person, but with whom I disagree certainly on football), but I just don’t see anything positive to take into this season and see one big negative in the form of Juice’s departure and glaring hole at Guard. Last season convinced me that with our best talent, we still are well short of the rest of the conference (and a tourney bid), and I just don’t see that changing under Mr. Bill’s leadership.
End of game strategy is one problem that the team needs to work on, but there isn’t some fundamental deficiency that’ll keep us from winning close games this year — Shurna, Crawford and Cobb are all perfectly capable of getting high percentage shots. Closing out games is a problem perfectly good teams sometimes have, unless you want to argue that the Miami Heat are terrible at basketball because they decided to dribble around the perimeter and take threes most of the time in the 4th quarters of the Finals.
Obviously, in my ideal world we’d go undefeated next year, but realistically I think we’ll end up between 5th and 7th. Which is not Ohio State calibur basketball, but it also doesn’t make us the celler dwellers we once were. And the positive recruiting news is a sign to a lot of people, including me, that the relative success we’ve had for the last three years might be the new normal rather than a fluke. That obviously doesn’t mean we’re not HISTORICALLY “well short of the rest of the conference”, but we’re not currently “well short”, and we won’t be for the foreseeable future. We’re in the pack and frankly, I think that’s pretty exciting for NU basketball.
And reasons to be excited about this basketball season: Healthy Shurna and Cobb (hopefully), Alex Marcotullio post-GB, and two promising freshmen point guards. Those are all things that might make a huge difference this year. And don’t forget that as incredible as Juice was, we now won’t have a 5’9’ player playing close to 40 minutes a game.
5th to 7th?
Could NU finish 7th, sure, we have finished 9th, 7th, 8th the past 3 years, but would a 7th place put us into the tourney w/o quality wins, prob not, but who knows there.
Pooley, I think you are correct, we are not WELL behind anymore, but still behind and after 11 years, it’s hard to root for a team that is still behind. Sure, there are some reasons for optimism this season, but that could have been said for the past 2 seasons and NU didn’t deliver. I’m tired of waiting for ‘this being the year.’
But, 5th or 6th, how is that possible? From the get go, there is a clear top 4, OSU, PU, MSU, Wisc, then comes Mich, Ind (could very well be overhyped AGAIN), but to finish 5th, we’d have to be above those teams. I just don’t see it.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 1:15 PM CDT up reply actions
I think there’s a clear top 3, not top 4. I don’t see how Purdue is a for-sure top 4 contender — Robbie Hummel hasn’t played in a year and a half and the rest of their roster hasn’t struck me as world-beaters. And then after the Top 3, I think we have the potential to beat any of the other teams, but I doubt we’d beat all of them. So I think 5th or 6th is definitely possible. OSU, MSU, Wisc, Mich, NU, Ill, Purdue, Ind, Minn, Iowa, Nebraska, Penn St. doesn’t seem impossible to me.
Ok.
Hey, I’ll buy that. I don’t believe it, but will buy your thought on that. I think NU will be 7-11 and finish T-7 w/o seeing the team, seeing the schedule. But, T-7 and 5th could be a 2 game difference, so entirely possible.
We shall see! Like your posts Pooley.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 2:12 PM CDT up reply actions
For those two games...
… we need the Purple court advantage. If we go all Welch’s, the sky is the limit. I might even come out for a game or two. Otherwise, doom.
At the very least, I see 6th as in the realm of possibilities this year, even if Hummel comes back and carries that team on his back. We’ve seen Bruce Weber have some pretty good recruiting classes at Illinois, but his teams have really underachieved in the past few years. Looking at this year’s recruiting class coming in, I think that reputation is catching up to him. Couple that with losing several key players to graduation this year, and I think NU are more than capable of topping the Illini.
I will ABSOLUTELY second that.
I think Bruce Weber is the MOST overrated bball coach in the Big Ten. Look at this Big Ten record, finish, and NCAA tourney finish. Just weak.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 8:51 PM CDT up reply actions
I should also say...
…that I’ll never be so relieved as to see Mike Tisdale no longer play against NU. He’s just a tall white stiff on the post against most teams, but the dude would somehow take us apart. Must be something about our lack of inside presence, eh?
Agreed.
I can think of at least two games (MSU and OSU) where the game was tied and NU had the last shot to win it. I also remember that both situations ended up in a loose ball or meaningless turnover. Not even a wild shot went up.
Take those two games as wins and we could be talking about how ridiculously close NU was to making it to the Big Dance this year. But let’s face it — if we don’t develop an ability to close out games, we won’t make .500 in conference again this season.
What up Sass?
Haven’t seen you on in a while. Let’s not do this, were there close games NU lost, sure, but didn’t NU win some close games? I think with an 18 game schedule, there are all types of wins/losses. I agree that NU needs to close out games better, but also, they need to not get blown out either (PSU, Wisc). So, overall get better and win.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 8:50 PM CDT up reply actions
hahaha,
I am a nice guy. GTom, 99% of the points you make are things I’ve been saying for a while. Improvement from 1 and 2 win seasons yes, but is it good enough, no. So thanks for repeating that point.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 1:11 PM CDT up reply actions
GTom, I'll challenge you on the Ohio State Game(s)
The loss in Evanston we didn’t have Shurna, to play the #1 team in the country to One Point without our far and away best player is pretty dang impressive when you consider that Mike Capoci was his backup. As for the BTT game, anyone who watched that game would admit that Sullinger got the benefit of the doubt every time he got the ball in the post in OT. I forget the number, but I believe he shot Free Throws on something like 6 of their 7 possessions. Mirk entered OT with 1 Foul and fouled out (with one of the fouls coming on a quesionable T). So maybe we lose close games because of lack of execution, but the Ohio State games from last year aren’t examples of that.
by theresalwayshope on Aug 10, 2011 2:36 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Ehh
I agree the first OSU game was quite a result given circumstances. But the BTT was not b/c of refs, he got calls b/c he was aggressive and worked for it. Mirk throwing a mouthpiece in the direction of a ref (even if it was at anger at himself) is a no doubt technical.
I agree that those aren’t the results to point to if you want to knock the team, but let’s not be most proud of 2 losses. NU is past the moral victory route.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 2:44 PM CDT up reply actions
If by "aggressive" and "worked for it"
You mean whine like a brat, then yes he indeed “worked for it”. My lasting image of Sullinger is watching him sit on the floor and sulk at halftime of that game when he felt he was cheated out of a call. I’ll agree that the T was probably deserved, but I’m not blaming Luka for the emotions, he just got whistled for 3 consecutive fouls when Sullinger pounded into him and threw up a “shot” and got the whistle. I believe it was Rodger who said that no player had made him like him less more than Sullinger and I completely second that.
by theresalwayshope on Aug 10, 2011 2:50 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Ok.
Well we just have different interpretations. Get ready to see him 2 more times this year, and guess what, he’ll probably get more calls than Mirk does. Amazing, 1st team All-American, top 5 NBA draft potential gets you the advantage w/refs.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 2:56 PM CDT up reply actions
Agreed
Refs always give the benefit of the doubt to guys who initiate action inside. We get exposed because we don’t have a good inside presence, offensively or defensively. Actually, you’re making my point for me… OSU knew what they needed to do to win that game and did it. That’s what good teams do. Because we aren’t a good team, we have to react to what is dictated to us… and that’s why we’re going to continue to be on the losing end of most of these matchups.
Also agree on the Shurna comment. Its a lot of woulda, shoulda, coulda, and there’s no guaranty that we win that game if Shurna is in. Yes, the score was close, but the better team was in control and put up a “W”. Again, that’s what good teams do, and we’re just not there.
I found my new bball buddy, GTom! Whoop whoop!
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 2:57 PM CDT up reply actions
Hangs head in shame...
DT at LTP thinks I’m a Kool-Aid drinker on football… Now I’m running with you and FireBill Carmody on BBall… I don’t know where I fit in anymore… Maybe pfoley can graph it out for me.
Stick to your guns
You can be a football/Fitz guy and a non Carmody guy.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 3:16 PM CDT up reply actions
FireBillCarmody
isn’t nearly as negative as his name would suggest. he blamed carmody a lot less than most people were last year.
Yea, I wish he would post more.
Also, can we get AJ to be a commenter on SoP?
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 4:04 PM CDT up reply actions
fbc
i think married life may have cut into his internet time
by aj do you mean ac? i’m terrified of unleashing ac on this site, it would be 2 parts awesome and 4 parts trainwreck.
Ohh ok.
Yea, I miss FBC. I’ll try to take his throne.
Yes, AC. No, please let him onto this site. He feels what MANY NU fans feel. Make that 4 parts awesome, 2 parts trainwreck.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 11, 2011 7:45 AM CDT up reply actions
If the refs give the benefit to the attacker
How did Juice only shoot 4 free throws despite numerous trips to the floor on attacking layups? Also, assuming Sullinger was “attacking” the entire game (a safe assumption considering Diebler had a quiet game and no one else did much) why did
he shoot 8 free throws in 40 minutes of regulation and 10 in 5 minutes of OT? How is it that Mirkovic, who guarded Sullinger for theajority of the game, picks up 1 foul in regulation then picks up 3 in OT? The numbers don’t add up. If the refs were “rewarding” Sullinger for attacking the rim, why the low FT count until OT? I’ll stand by my claim that with 50-50 reffing we win that game. No question.
Also, no disrespect, but if you’re always expecting NU Bball to finish seasons 2-14 due to the lack of talent, hate the coach and think the program is going nowhere? Why even watch the games? Why even Root for the team? If you want a winning team that recruits 5 star athletes and makes the tounament every year, I believe that there’s spots on the Duke and Carolina bandwagons… If you want football success mixed with star basketball recruits and tournament success, Ohio State is always avalible. I just don’t get the whole “root for a team with 0% optimism” thing… Again, no disrespect, just making a point.
by theresalwayshope on Aug 10, 2011 3:28 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Really?
So are you blaming the refs that NU lost to OSU in the BTT? Is that your overall point? B/c I don’t debate w/‘blame the ref’ argument. There are too many possessions to do that, and it was a neutral court. Look, we’ll just disagree, but NU would beat a Top 4 school on a neutral court, hmm, ok. This is from the same program that got beat badly TWICE by Penn State, the 8th place Big Ten team, so continue to selectively choose your NU memories.
My prediction is not 2-16, it is 7-11. The years of 2-16 are behind NU, we are better, just not good enough.
In terms of ‘rooting for the team’, after 11 years, I’m tired of rooting for this coach. To be honest, I am so ready for a new coach that I don’t care about this year, I just want a change. I used to be a huge Carmody fan, he was the coach for my sophomore – senior year, I was decent friends of Drew Long, Pat Towne, and Jason Burke. I actually have a Jason Burke jersey!! But, I’ve seen enough. I’m tired of it, tired of the facilities excuse, tired of give Carmody Calipari’s players comment, tired of academic excuses, tired of it all. I want a new coach. Everytime there is 1 ounce of news, no matter how neutral, people act like this program is heading to the tournament, I heard the same stories for 2 years in a row, and I’m tired of it.
When Carmody won 2 games and then 1 game, the only reason he wasn’t fired was b/c of Bienen’s absurd boner for him and to give him a long-term contract after his 9-9 season. 99% of BCS schools would have fired him after that, but nope, we stuck with him. What happened, NU ‘improved’, sure winning 8, 7, 7 game is HUGE improvement, but guess what the finishes in the Big Ten (just as important as total wins) was 9th, 7th, and 8th respectively, so while we are improving, it is just not enough.
To be honest, I have higher aspirations that sneaking into the tournament as a 12 seed with a 9-9 record. I want NU to build a program that is a top 4-5 Big Ten team once every 3-4 years. I want to be a good team.
Why should I support another school when I know it is possible to succeed at NU? I went to NU b/c I wanted an all-around top 10 private university education and to do the best I could, I want NU to have those same standards when it chooses to participate in the Big Ten.
If you want to argue more, please, here is my e-mail address AyanKBagchi@hotmail.com, and e-mail me and we can exchange telephone #‘s and I’ll call you this evening to debate this.
So for me, the quicker Carmody is gone, the better.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 4:03 PM CDT up reply actions
Simple...
I love the institution. I support the players. I want to see them do well. It’s because of that passion that I have a hard time watching the team struggle to compete in the B1G year after year, but I still watch.
Also, I don’t hate Carmody… I don’t even know the guy. He just hasn’t gotten above .500 in conference play in 11 years. Most places, that is a legitimate reason to want a change.
I’m not asking for Duke or NC, I just want to see a few finishes in the upper half of the B1G and maybe a tourney appearance or two. I think we can do it. I would be happy if Carmody did do it. I just don’t think it is going to happen.
As for fouls, defenders make mistakes when they get tired. I’m not going to say that every call was great, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a defender struggled in overtime. Even if it was just bad officiating, calls are subjective and sometimes it sucks for the ’Cats. Good teams play through that. Bad teams lose their cool. Either way, do you legitimately believe that we were a better team than OSU, or did we just play them close on that given day?
Also,
I don’t have any personal agenda against Carmody, I personally think he’s a decent guy. But, he’s not good enough to be coaching at NU.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 4:06 PM CDT up reply actions
Never would I argue that we were a better team than tOSU
But I felt like on that day we played better then they did. Also, I hate to use the “blame the refs” argument because it is so trite and useless, but I feel that we deserved that game. Of course there were missed opportunities, but it’s painful to think that we played well enough to win and didn’t. There’s plenty of factors that play into that, but I think the officials factored into that game. Were they the sole reason we lost? Of course not
NU Alumni, I know this is the last argument you want to hear, but I believe it’s a fair one. In the last two years, (arguably) the two best players got injured. Cobble before the 09-10 year, and Shurna in the 10-11 year, I believe Shurna wasn’t at his non-conf form the rest of the year, and getting pushed into a standard at Minny didn’t help (no call there either) is it possible to win without your best player? Sure, but Carmody deserves some sort of a break, Shurna lit it up in non-con and the team looked scary good in that GT game, Shurna getting injured had to play a role in the downgrade at the start of B1G play. Look, I’m sure you are a great guy, and I love that you care for NU sports, but we’ll have to agree to disagree with the Carmody thing. I believe he’s the right man for the job, you don’t, that’s fair.
Also, I hate when people say, “look at Duke, academic school! Why can’t we be like that” Duke’s qualifying numbers for athletes are much lower than the general student body, same with Carolina (a very prestigious academic school as well) to my knowledge (please correct me if I’m wrong, because my point is moot if I am) NU doesn’t bend the numbers for athletes, and I think that plays a role for sure.
by theresalwayshope on Aug 10, 2011 4:29 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Well, at least some resolution.
Ok, we might still disagree, but I’m fine w/that compromise.
Sure, I do agree that Coble/Shurna’s injury had impacts, but maybe not as much as some do. But, absolutely an impact.
Ok, fair, agree to disagree. Cool.
I think everyone would be surprised what average ACT for NU athletes is. Trust me. Also, there are smart athletes out there, wish NU would get more of them and not bring up academics.
Fair compromise, and feel free to e-mail me and we can debate offline. You seem like a good fellow.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 10, 2011 8:47 PM CDT up reply actions
Naming my son after a plant
Is there a plant called, “Seven?”
good choice
not just for George Costanza – Andre 3000 and Erykah Badu actually named their kid “Seven”.
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 9, 2011 5:38 PM CDT up reply actions
this is awesome
other kales:
kale ingram from rubicon, who was a huge bad ass.
pretty big pickup here, excited.
Indeed...
Kale Ingram was a badass. I’m still pissed that show didn’t get renewed, and somehow The Killing still lives.
I’m excited (as always) that we got Abramson. I’m sad that NUAC2002 didn’t rip him a new one, and say he sucks.
www.massivecreativity.com
Why?
I am not a fan of Carmody, but I will give credit when things are better. This offseason has produced some mixed results in recruiting and a solid non-conf schedule. I’m not here to rip everything Carmody does, but I am here to rip the bad things.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Aug 9, 2011 8:44 PM CDT up reply actions
from the Trib article
I have two million jokes I’m not writing.
by Rodger Sherman on Aug 10, 2011 9:12 AM CDT reply actions 5 recs
I don't understand, Rodger.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with what he said, nothing humorous whatsoever, and certainly nothing that could possibly be taken as meaning something very different in another context.
Please enlighten us.
I just lost it when I read this
This is both a tribute to your wit and an indictment of my character.
Between this...
…and the name Lumpkin, is it wrong that I’m thinking of ways to make fun of our own players during Big Ten games? Because if these guys played for any other team in the B1G I’d be all over it.
"How do I do this? Do I just tell you I'm coming?"
Strangely, not the first time this was said between two people on the Lakefill in the summer.
/No condom
//Pull out….from making any more jokes.
Laughing out loud in the office...
…is a bad idea. Now the people in the cubicals around looking over the walls and wondering why
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