It is a safe bet that few people thought Nebraska and Vanderbilt would be undefeated on January 10th, looking like the best teams in their conferences. Those are just some of the many unexpected things that have taken place so far this season. Nebraska being undefeated is an excellent segway into the second week of the Sunday Mailbag.
Let us not disclose too much, too early, when it comes to Nebraska, but it will be a big topic of conversation this week. There are a lot of people out there who don’t know about the Huskers and think they may be a fraud. Then let's shift some gears and talk about a team that has made three straight NCAA Tournaments and is trying for a 4th straight. Finally, there was a question about some aging coaches and which ones will be at their respective schools next year: only three questions this week, but three quality questions.
Do I smell what the Dentist is cooking?
Those of you who don’t know, the Dentist is a Jon Rothstein-ism in reference to Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans. Jans is one of the best coaches in the SEC and has taken the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament in his first three years in Starkville. He has done it with defense, excellent guard play, and rim efficiency. This season, though, has not gone anywhere close to what the fans have come to expect.
The Bulldogs have one of the better backcourts in the SEC, at least on paper. That backcourt, along with a sometimes dominant big man, Quincy Ballard, but did have walking bucket Josh Hubbard, and it led to the Bulldogs starting 4-5. In those nine games, Mississippi State couldn’t hold onto the ball, and at one point in a game against Iowa State, it had 28 turnovers. That is never going to win any games.
In true Jans fashion, he went back to the drawing board and got his team moving in the right direction. Mississippi State did get blown out at Rupp Arena on Saturday, but before that, the Bulldogs had rattled off six in a row, and they were back to playing defense and running efficient offense. It doesn’t hurt that star Josh Hubbar,d along with Jayden Epps, were playing exceptional basketball over that stretch.
The SEC is as wide open as it has been in a long time. I do like the way the Bulldogs have bounced back from a terrible start, but they still have a resume far from that of an NCAA Tournament team. They are going to have to keep working and beat the Floridas, Alabamas, and Tennessee’s of the world. Winning games on the road will help.
Why does Nebraska continue to get disrespected by everyone despite an objectively elite profile and resume?
I was asked this question, knowing I am a Nebraska fan, to see if I could remain unbiased. I could answer this question in one sentence. Their uniform says Nebraska, and all the media types picked the Huskers as one of the worst teams in the Big Ten, and don’t want to have egg on their faces. That is the short answer.
This whole thing started when guys like Jeff Goodman, who have a platform, came out and spouted off the 'Huskers' resume: a Top 15 team in the NET, the most quad one wins in the country, and three wins on the road, including at Illinois and at Indiana. They are 5th in Wins Above Replacement and 4th in the Strength of Record and KPI metrics that the committee uses. Then Goodman says he doesn’t think they will make the Elite 8, and that they're a fraud. Then all the people started coming out of the woodwork to say, "I told you so."
The Huskers are currently coming in as the top 3 seed in BracketMatrix, which is what they have earned and deserve to date. The narrative that Nebraska hasn’t beaten anyone while being 9-0 in the first two quads and having the most quad one wins in the country is ridiculous. It is people with an ego who do not want to be wrong. 16-0 is hard to do for even the best teams, and right now, Nebraska is 16-0 and has a schedule that suggests the Huskers may be 20-0, playing Michigan at Crisler at the end of the month. Maybe then they can gain some national respect. The Big Ten and its opponents respect Nebraska and have been giving it its flowers; it’s just about everyone else with a platform.
Bill Self, Rick Barnes, and Greg McDermott are all rumored to be close to retirement. Which one is still coaching their current team a year from now?
This is a fun question to close it out for this week. All of these coaches are among the best in the game and have been highly successful at their current schools. All good things must come to an end, and eventually, all of these legendary coaches are going to retire, but who blinks first?
Bill Self has said the game is changing and passing him by. The Jayhawks have not been living up to their lofty expectations over the last few years, and there are many reasons, but much of it goes back to the head man's recruiting and talent evaluation. Kansas is still a premier program, but it is far from winning another national championship currently.
Rick Barnes has built the Tennessee program into one of the best in the SEC. The Volunteers are great on defense, but the offense has been a chore at times. The lack of offense has put a ceiling on Tennessee at times, but Barnes has still built the team into a premier program despite it.
That brings us to Greg McDermott, who has turned Creighton into one of the premier programs in the Big East and coaches at a completely different style than the other two. He is also likely to be the one who won’t coach at his current school after this season. The writing is on the wall here. McDermott re-hired the coach-in-waiting, Alan Huss, from High Point. Huss is now the associate head coach for Creighton.
This is now just opinion, but McDermott seems checked out. Creighton has not been good this year, and it has been frustrating for the head man because they are having a hard time taking direction, and some players are lazy. One thing that coach McDermott has always been able to do is make sure his teams play hard and always give their best effort. This Bluejays team does not do that, and it is frustrating him. McDermott looks checked out and will not be coaching the Bluejays next year.