Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[entropy]

Actually, it will be very interesting to see how UNL does in baseball. That could be the sport you win your first Big ten title in because the Big Ten is not that tough a baseball conference. How crazy would fans be if Nebraska came out of the Big Ten to play in Omaha.(or it could be women's basketball) Hell, the last national championships we've won have been in softball and women's field hockey.

Nebraska's first BIG title was in Volleyball. I think Baseball will be the 2nd.

[UMStan White]

God, I'm sorry How could I forget the women's volleyball championship! As you know I'm a HUGE fan! :-)

[Jeff Buchanan]

........ of those tight pants.

[entropy]

Published: 04 February 2012 12:56 AM

Rex Burkhead has learned a lot about Nebraska since leaving Plano three years ago for Lincoln.

He’s discovered that Husker fans are among the nation’s most devout. He realized patience is a virtue. He figured out they don’t bring in recruits during the dead of winter for a reason.

And he learned about Jack Hoffman.

When Burkhead met him in September, Jack was a 6-year-old Husker fan from Atkinson, Neb., with big blue eyes, a wide smile and a scar snaking through his crewcut. A failed attempt to remove a brain tumor four months earlier had left the mark. But the presence of a rare low grade glioma had its perks, too. It meant he got to meet his hero.

Burkhead had worked with the university’s Life Skills program before, but he still wasn’t sure what to expect. It sure wasn’t Jack.

One of the first things Jack did was challenge his hero to a race. He’d sneak up on Burkhead, tickle him, even smack him on the side of the head.

Burkhead fell hard.

“I didn’t expect Jack to be as energetic and happy and positive,” he said. “That’s what really impressed me most.

“He was an inspiration to us.”

After that first lunch, Jack’s parents left Burkhead with 150 red and yellow rubber bracelets. “Team Jack — Pray,” it reads on each.

Burkhead slipped one on his wrist and left the rest on a locker room table. By the next day, they were gone.

Jack became the team’s unofficial mascot. He went to practice. He visited them at the Capital One Bowl.

Just the other day, Jack got Skype and called his hero to see if he had it, too. They connected Thursday night.

“We just talk about life in general,” Burkhead said. “A Blake Griffin dunk, school, whatever. We try to stay away from his medical condition and focus on other things.”

Jack had another surgery last month. Doctors say the outlook is promising.

Jack’s father, Andrew, has called their first visit with Burkhead “one of the single greatest experiences of our young family’s life.”

This is what it’s like to be a football player in Nebraska. They like their Huskers in general; Burkhead, in particular. After sharing time with Roy Helu his first two years, Burkhead took a heavy load this season, rushing for 1,357 yards and 17 touchdowns. He was a Doak Walker semifinalist, first-team Big Ten, academic All-American, everybody’s hero.

Especially a certain 6-year-old’s.

“When I get tired,” Burkhead has said, “I think of Jack and work harder.”

He was supposed to be a little Nebraska boy’s inspiration in a time of need. Turns out it was the other way around.

[Rob F]

Yeah, I look for Nebraska to dominate Baseball. Their biggest competition will probably be MSU. Michigan is still down, and from what I've been able to glean, they just aren't recruiting well.

Michigan Softball will be in full rebuild mode in 2012. From what I've read, their best pitcher is a true freshman. She's good, but young, of course. I look for NW to be the team to beat this year.

So you follow "butch" sports too, LIney?

;-)

[lineygoblue]

Well, I umpire them a lot ...

[Rob F]

The Umpire Strikes Back

[entropy]

This looks familiar Posted by: Brian Rosenthal at 12:37PM CST on February 9, 2012

This quickly deteriorating Nebraska men’s basketball season, and what could be the end of the Doc Sadler era, is drawing many striking parallels to Nebraska’s 2007 football season.

We all know how that ended.

While recognizing some of the obvious differences in the situations (overall talent, tradition, switch to a new conference), let’s look at the similarities:

1. Both teams entered the season with high expectations. Both coaches had teams they felt would be the best they’d had in their Nebraska tenures.

2. Both teams had a one-year senior transfer taking over a starting role at arguably the biggest position on the team – Sam Keller at quarterback, Bo Spencer at point guard. The media joined in hyping both players.

3. Both teams had similar paths in the nonconference season. Season-changing paths, perhaps. Both survived close road games at a BCS school (football, Wake Forest; basketball, USC). Still, fans had high interest in a key home nonconference game (football, USC; basketball, Oregon) that both teams lost, killing momentum and starting a downward spiral, including …

4. A hand-wringing home scare against a non-BCS team that both teams should’ve cruised past with relative ease, but didn’t secure a one-point victory until the final seconds. (football, Ball State, basketball, Florida Gulf Coast). Even the scores were remotely similar: 41-40, 51-50.

5. Embarrassing home performances in conference play (Oklahoma State, Texas A&M in football, and, well, several for basketball). Oh, but both teams rose up for one impressive home conference performance (K-State, football, Indiana, basketball).

6. Both coaches were operating on recent controversial contract extensions.

7. Both coaches, toward the end of the season, began making outlandish, confusing statements that may indicate they know their time here may be over. (Does Bill Callahan’s comment about him doing an excellent job in every area top Doc’s repeated comments last night about him being proud of his team’s effort, or how his team couldn’t guard any better?)

8. And finally, there’s a fan base that at one time seemed split on its feelings toward the coach, only to eventually come together – most of the fans, not all of them – in realizing how this will probably end

[Pasadena Blue]

I am not really familiar with Neb B-Ball. Was there a period when they were quite a bit better as a team?

[WM Wolverine]

No one expected them to be anything but in the bottom tier or were expectations higher? B10 is a really good basketball conference and having a good year.

[entropy]

Pb.. UNL has never won an NCAA tourney game. Won the NIT twice, but not much history. Though I will say the last 10 years have been low points..

[entropy]

WM... Neb fans just want something that is interesting to watch. A new building is going up so people expect to be competitive with the bottom half of the league..

Sadly, I think Nebraska will be worse next year

[DennisT]

Volleyball is where it's at anyway. All that beachfront in Lincoln.

[entropy]

exactly..

[entropy]

Stan...


Tempe, Ariz. - Courtney Breault delivered a two-out, walk-off RBI single in her first career start to lift the 20th-ranked Nebraska softball team to a dramatic 11-10 victory over eighth-ranked Arizona in a thrilling matchup at the Kajikawa Classic on Friday.