Dean Blais Gives Us an Idea of What Went Wrong Last Season With UNO Hockey

After UNO's slide from first to seventh in the WCHA was completed, questions were clear about what happened.  My theory is that it was a conditioning issue, but we never really got much of an answer from the program itself.

For whatever reason, we now have something to chew on from Dean Blais, from an interview in Wednesday's Omaha World-Herald:

“What I saw this year was way different from the year before. We had good leadership and guys who were very committed, but we just fell short.
“Two years ago we were too young and didn't have the leadership. Last year, we had the leadership and the desire, but we just didn't have enough (depth) at the end of the year.”

More contributions from the third and fourth lines?  That would have helped.  I also suspect that Blais would have liked to have had more options on that fourth line than converting defensemen, and maybe give the upper lines a bit more of a breather in the games.  And that might be the root of the conditioning issue I suspected.

So what has Blais done to address the situation?  Three eligible players won't return in 2013-14; two are walkons.  That opens up a few more roster spots, and Blais seems excited about that.

“We're bringing in some high-powered scorers,” Blais said. “Jake Guentzel, Austin Ortega and Jono Davis all led their teams in scoring, and they should help our depth up front right away. Jake Montgomery is a good up-and-down winger, and Ian Brady was one of the top stay-at-home defensemen in the USHL.”

Considering that UNO only loses Brett Gwidt at the forward positions and defensemen Andrej Sustr (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Bryce Aneloski from the defense, it's easy to see where you could see the third and fourth lines able to make more of a contribution this next season.

Goaltender could still be an issue.  Ryan Massa and Dayn Belfour should be serviceable, though Blais will need a third goaltender available.  And he's likely still looking for one.

Is that going to be enough to get UNO over the hump? The schedule doesn't do UNO any favors with a fairly rugged conference and non-conference slate. Let's be honest:  when Michigan is one of the weaker teams you'll play, you know you have a fairly rough season ahead.  After October 20th, the only opponent that isn't in last season's PairWise "Teams Under Consideration" last season was Minnesota-Duluth. (Duluth was in the Frozen Four two years ago, so it's not like they are a slouch either.)

Is this the season that Blais' team finally gets over the hump?  This is his roster now, and these seniors are his recruits. And this year, there are eight of 'em.  Blais didn't think leadership was a problem last year; with a large senior class, it shouldn't be this year.

What to Make of the Alex Lewis Arrest

On Friday afternoon, Colorado offensive lineman Alex Lewis visited Bo Pelini in Lincoln and decided to transfer to Nebraska.  That night, he returned to  Boulder, and apparently had good time at a friend's graduation party.  About 15 hours after the news broke that Lewis was transferring out of Colorado, he was in handcuffs and headed to the Boulder County jail.

So what happened?  There was an altercation between Lewis, Colorado quarterback Jordan Webb, and Air Force Academy student Lee Bussey. Bussey ended up getting stitches for a cut to the head.  Lewis is alleged to have shoved Bussey into a brick wall; Lewis attorney said Bussey instigated the incident by assaulting Lewis first.

What's the truth?  It'll all come out in the end.  Lewis may have instigated the fight, or Lewis may have been defending himself.  Right now, it's important to not draw a lot of conclusions over what happened.  The only one that is safe to make is that Lewis had too much to drink on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Will Lewis ever make it to Lincoln?  Probably not this summer.  If the charges stick, probably not.  If Lewis is convicted, he won't...if only because he'll be incarcerated.  But if the charges are reduced or dropped, what happens?  That will be a call for Bo Pelini and Shawn Eichorst to make, and it's premature to draw any lines in the sand at this point.  If it does turn out that Lewis is only guilty of overdrinking and defending himself, that's one thing. Pelini might let him on the team, but on a probationary status that he keep his nose clean moving forward.  Or maybe not, considering a potential issue with alcohol abuse.

If it becomes a misdemeanor charge, it might be something else entirely. It all depends on what actually happened and who instigated this incident.

There's no need to rush to judgement here.  Lewis' legal situation is his biggest issue at this time; football is completely secondary. Even if he does transfer to Nebraska, he's not eligible to play until the 2014 season. So there is plenty of time to let the legal system resolve itself first, and then Nebraska can act accordingly.

As the facts become better known, this situation will sort itself out one way or the other.  I suspect that, in the end, Lewis won't be a Cornhusker....but that's a gut feel prediction, not a verdict.

Omaha Is Better Today With Horseman's Park Instead of Ak-Sar-Ben

This weekend, horse racing returns (albeit too briefly) for it's miniature meet at Horseman's Park in South Omaha. For one weekend, fans of the horses get a chance to reminisce about the good old days when tens of thousands of fans jammed packed Ak-Sar-Ben to watch and bet on the races. It's an era that's forever gone.  It was good for Omaha while it lasted, but what has replaced it is even better.

Instead, we have an upscale midtown redevelopment with shopping, restaurants, corporate headquarters, and the south campus of the University of Nebraska Omaha.  It's definitely an asset to the city once again.

With the Kentucky Derby last week and the Horseman's meet this week, many people wax nostalgic about what was lost with Ak-Sar-Ben.  The Ak-Sar-Ben of the 1970's was one thing.  The Ak-Sar-Ben of the late 1980's and 1990's was something completely different.  In it's prime, Ak-Sar-Ben was the only place to legally wager between Chicago and Las Vegas in the summertime.  Suddenly other states built tracks.  The dog races came to Council Bluffs.  Then the casinos.  Only people who truly loved horses still frequented the tracks, and the glory days of Ak-Sar-Ben were over.

Legendary horse trainer Jack Van Berg told the World-Herald today that he's still furious over the end of the track at Ak-Sar-Ben.  I understand why horsemen feel that way.  But they are wrong.  Said Van Berg to Mike Kelly:

“It's terrible. I never run into anybody in Omaha who isn't sick that they tore Ak-Sar-Ben down. It could have been saved if it got slot machines.”

Certainly, slot machines would have kept horse racing alive at Ak-Sar-Ben longer.  They might still be racing now.  They wouldn't be racing for much longer, though. Eventually, the casino would trump the horses, because as the casino becomes more lucrative, the horse racing becomes less and less important to the organization running the enterprise. Eventually, the racing people would sell out to an offer they can't refuse, and that is the end of racing.

Look at the river boats.  They started off as tourist attractions for cruising the river, and added slot machines to be a side attraction.  Soon the boats cruised less and less, until they finally stopped cruising altogether.  Now Harrah's is scrapping their Council Bluffs boat and moving the gambling onshore. 

Look at Bluffs Run. The dog track that took the first big bite out of Ak-Sar-Ben added slot machines to subsidize racing.  And over time, the business model shifted and the casino became the important thing, not the racing.  Bluffs Run became Horseshoe Casino, and the owners are tired of subsidizing the races.  They want to shut down the dog track.

Same thing would have happened in Omaha at Ak-Sar-Ben.  Ak-Sar-Ben would have momentarily revitalized with the casino, but eventually the midtown casino would push the horses out.  And I suspect that there wouldn't be a Horseman's Park there to ensure at least a little presence for horse racing when that happened.

So the future of Omaha would have had no horse racing, no expanded UNO campus, and those corporate headquarters might have ended up elsewhere.  But we would have had a shiny casino exporting profits off to Las Vegas.

In the grand scheme of things, Omaha probably got the best it could out of Ak-Sar-Ben.  Could it have been better?  Maybe.  But I suspect, considering the impacts I've seen personally from horse racing, casinos, and the jobs that opened up because Ak-Sar-Ben was redeveloped, Omaha would be much worse off with a casino at Ak-Sar-Ben.

Nebraska Basketball's Sell-Out Can Be a Lesson to UNO Hockey

Last Friday's news that Nebraska had sold out the first season of basketball at Lincoln's new Pinnacle Bank Arena was quite the eye-opener. I wasn't surprised as much by the interest as much as the speed that it occurred.  It's early May, and it's a done deal. It reminded people of the best days of Nebraska basketball 20 years ago, when players like Strickland and Piatkowski regularly beat teams like Kansas in front of packed, sellout crowds.

Tim Miles' teams haven't done that yet, but fans are optimistic that Nebraska basketball is heading that direction. Then add in the interest in a new arena: bigger, shiner, newer.  People buy tickets to get in on the ground floor and to see the new place.  As the interest increases, people on the fence quickly realize they too have to join now or be left on the outside. It snowballs from there, and suddenly Nebrasketball is the hottest hoops ticket in the state.  When all is said and done, Creighton will sell more because of the bigger facility, but the momentum is on the Huskers' side at this moment.

That's what a new sports venue does for attendance. Sarpy County's "Trailer Park" is the exception to the rule, where attendance has only increased slightly.  The new, cool factor is offset by the smaller ("right-sized", "undersized") capacity.  It hasn't increased attendance as much as it's increased revenue, thanks to a sweetheart deal from Sarpy County and higher ticket prices.

UNO has plans underway to build a new 7,000 seat hockey arena near the site of the former Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum. The goal is to downsize the building to better fit their current attendance, which averaged 7,233 last season.  That was down from nearly 8,000 fans a game the last couple of seasons, apparently because UNO cut back on promotions this season so that future capacity was not significantly less than current demand.

There is an important lesson to be learned in Lincoln.  Nebraska basketball used to regularly draw huge crowds to Lincoln, but times got tough.  Fans dropped away, and some realized you didn't need to buy season tickets.  Tim Miles and the new arena changed that dynamic.  Hope for better basketball, and a surge of interest made basketball a hot ticket again.

UNO used to sell out every game in hockey, and then attendance increased even further initially when UNO moved to what is now the CenturyLink Center ten years ago.  But that also was UNO's worst season on the ice.  New fans realized that UNO hockey wasn't very good, and stayed away.  Some fans saw plenty of empty seats and realized that they didn't need season tickets either.  So season ticket sales fell.

UNO's hockey fortunes have improved dramatically in recent years.  An NCAA tournament appearance two years ago, and strong starts the last two years give Maverick fans hope that something big is going to happen with UNO hockey.

Except there is that little issue of the "too small" arena that UNO is planning to build. Yes, 7,000 seats would have held UNO's crowds most games last season.  Just like a 10,000 seat basketball arena would have held most of Nebraska's basketball crowds last season.

Boom... once the final student, faculty, and club seats are sold, Nebraska will have sold out their new 15,000 seat arena for the entire inaugural season.

Yes, I understand that UNO is unlikely to ever fill up the 17,000 seat CenturyLink Center on a regular basis. The availability of single game tickets is always going to be a disincentive for committing to an entire season ticket.  But the other extreme is just as wrong: assuming that interest in UNO hockey is all that it can ever be isn't correct either.

If you believe like I do that Dean Blais is going to make UNO hockey a national power, then 7,000 seats is laughably too small for the Omaha market.  UNO's attendance was 8,314 for six seasons in the Civic Auditorium with some rather uncompetitive teams playing.  There's no reason to think that UNO couldn't draw that, and a few more, in a new arena near campus with a championship contending team playing.

The example of what happened in Lincoln with Nebraska basketball ticket sales this year is just more evidence that UNO's building plans are way, way too small.

Sarpy County Built It, They Didn't Come

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to find myself out at Cabela's, and decided to head south towards the "Trailer Park"...aka Werner Park, the second baseball stadium built in the Omaha area. I've been teased about how "it's not really that far away" and how "you can see the light towers from the Interstate" over the years, so I thought, what the heck... let's take a second look.

So I headed south...or tried to.  Tried a couple of roads heading south, and ended up at dead ends.  So rather than continue to waste time, I headed back to the Interstate and wound my way back to 126th Street and Highway 370.  So what's happening out in "BFE" as I like to call it?

Nothing.

"Pennant Place" in April 2013. Still a vacant field more than two years later.

Yeah, there's a baseball stadium there.  But that's it.  There are plans for development.  "Pennant Place" was announced two years ago, but despite multiple anticipated announcements, nothing is happening.  Real estate experts said at that time that while the area will eventually develop, it won't be because of the ballpark:

“When it comes to restaurants and retail,” [Trenton Magid, principal at World Group Commercial Real Estate] said, “commercial users ask ‘Where are the daytime customers and where are the night customers?' Right now, that location near Highway 370 and 126th (Street) needs both.”

Fast forward two years, the picture says it all. Nothing. Sarpy County was listed in the Top 100 counties in the entire nation for economic growth last year.  And still, nothing is happening out at BFE.  So I headed home.  My son fell asleep in the backseat as we drove back to Omaha; it's the same length of drive going from my home in West Omaha to BFE as it is driving downtown, despite the perception that the Trailer Park is a "west Omaha facility".

Friday night, I found myself back at TD Ameritrade Park.  I've been to baseball, football, and even hockey games at Omaha's new downtown stadium.  It's a great location.  After I finished up my post-game report on the Nebraska-Creighton game for CornNation, I walked past all of the new businesses that have been built around the new downtown ballpark.  GoodNights had a decent crowd.  Blatt Beer was jammed full of patrons.  (I hoped to get a Zesto's hot fudge shake for the drive home, but the sign on the window said that they weren't opening until May.  Boo.)

As I headed back to my car, all I could is wonder what could have been downtown.  The College World Series is great for downtown, but it's just two weeks.  Creighton baseball is nice, especially when Husker fans take over the ball park.  But after the Fourth of July, there isn't much scheduled at the downtown ballpark.  The Red Sky Festival only lasted two years.  The United Football League imploded despite setting great attendance numbers in Omaha.  Minor league baseball certainly would have filled a few more dates downtown, and probably led to even more growth downtown.

Eventually Sarpy County will develop around the Trailer Park...but it won't be because of the stadium, but rather because of the natural growth of the Omaha metro.  If it were actually because of the stadium, construction would have not only started, something would actually be open by now.

Maybe the people who said that the Royals' Triple-A affiliate would leave the area unless someone built them their own facility were right, and Sarpy County saved the day. I'm skeptical, because I still believe that Walter Scott and Warren Buffett would not have allowed the team to leave.  Once Sarpy County stepped in to give the team a sweetheart deal in exchange for a long-term commitment, Buffett and Scott no longer felt the need to maintain their ownership.

“When the wonderful decision was made by Sarpy County to build this terrific stadium — it’s the best stadium I’ve ever seen — it became clear that this team was going to be in Omaha forever,” Buffett said in a Tuesday press conference at Werner Park.
“And so Walter and I didn’t feel the same obligation any more because Sarpy County had taken care of our obligations.”

And as long as Sarpy County was promising to give the team nearly everything they wanted, there was no point in pursuing a compromise solution in Omaha.

So we now have two underutilized stadiums in the Omaha area.  One maintains a nationally prominent event in Omaha, but sits empty half the year.  It has led to moderate development, but it's not all it could be.  The other sits in outer reaches of the metro area, gets used a bit more, but sits in relative isolation.  Even more so, it is not all it could be.

And we're left to wonder... what could have been?  What if all of the interested parties (the NCAA, minor league baseball, the Zoo, and the associated government agencies) had worked together on finding the best compromise solution and found a way to make the downtown stadium work for everyone.

I understand why some of the organizations acted the way they did.  I suppose that's to be expected, to tell you the truth. But in the end, what the Omaha metro area got was less than what was possible when the whole Rosenblatt debate was going on.

Two stadiums are not better than one.

Omaha Awarded 2016 Olympic Swim Trials

Omaha's CenturyLink Center beats out domes in St. Louis and San Antonio to host the 2016 Olympic Swim Trials.  Exact dates are still being determined. That's likely a negotiation with NBC and potentially the NCAA. The 2016 Olympics in Rio will be held a week later than the 2012 Olympics in London, so there's less opportunity for a conflict.  More than likely, it'll be the first week of July.

Omaha hosted both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic trials, setting attendance records each time.  Obviously, USA Swimming wanted to stick with the proven location than try a bigger venue in another market.

Former UNO Assistant Steve Rohlik Taking over at Ohio State

Western College Hockey is reporting that former UNO assistant Steve Rohlik will be named head coach at Ohio State later today.

Steve Rohlik To Be Named Next Ohio State Head Coach, Per Reports sbn.to/ZNO6Wq
— SBN College Hockey (@SBNCollegePuck) April 24, 2013

Rohlik was an assistant under Mike Kemp from 1997 to 2000.  He then spent nine seasons at Minnesota-Duluth, reaching the Frozen Four in 2004, before jumping to Ohio State in 2010.  He was the runner-up to replace Kemp as UNO head coach in 2009, when Dean Blais was hired.

Bruins Fans are #BostonStrong

NHL fans have to be the best professional fans in this country. Sure, fans of NFL and Major League Baseball teams outnumber them in quantity, but hockey fans outclass them all in terms of their passion.  That was proven tonight, where the Bruins took to the ice for the first professional sporting event in Boston since Monday's terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon.

And what a tribute to the victims and this country where 17,565 fans sang the national anthem a cappella.

(H/T to Eric Burton's Goon's World and SB Nation)

Sadly, the Bruins lost 2-1 in an overtime shootout to the Buffalo Sabres.

The NCAA Hockey Tournament Needs to Return To Campus Sites

On Saturday night, the last team selected into the NCAA hockey tournament skated off with the trophy as #15 seed Yale defeated Quinnipiac for the national championship.  The story to me isn't so much Yale winning it as much as how Yale won it.

Two weeks earlier, Yale defeated Minnesota and North Dakota to emerge from the West Regional into the Frozen Four.  I don't get ESPNU at home, but fortunately, I found myself out of town with access to the Yale/North Dakota game on Dish Network.  North Dakota led most of the way, but a defensive meltdown in the last 10 minutes of the game led to Yale's upset.

It didn't help North Dakota's chances that the West Regional game was held in a mostly empty Grand Rapids, Michigan arena. Yep...the "west" regional was held in the eastern timezone.  Was it neutral ice?  Technically so, though the facility was so ill-suited for a tournament game that players had to use toilet stalls for lockers.

"Great run so far, kid. Now put your season on the line in an empty arena, on an unsafe playing surface, with a toilet for a locker." - NCAA
— Jayson Hajdu (@UNDSID) April 5, 2013

It was almost like the game was played at a municipal ice rink, albeit with shiny boards and shiny graphics on the ice.  Every hit against the boards created an echo in the largely quiet arena.  This wasn't a championship atmosphere.  It was no atmosphere, because the venue was nearly 600 miles away from the closest school in that region.

Immediately after that game, viewers were switched to the New Hampshire/UMass-Lowell game, and it was remarkable contrast in environment.  The neutral site was 40 miles from both campuses, making it an easy drive for every fan.  It was a packed house, and completely different feel.  A championship atmosphere.

There are lots of ideas over what to do with the early rounds of the NCAA hockey tournament.  A best of three first round could be interesting.  But no matter what the NCAA does, the opening games need to be played closer to fans.  NCAA baseball uses home fields.  Even NCAA women's basketball uses home courts for the opening rounds.  Is it an advantage for the home teams?  Absolutely...but at least the teams that get it have earned it on the field.  It's not a bidding situation where someone gets an advantage because a nearby community was able to submit a winning bid years earlier.

A community that doesn't support college hockey, I might add.  They depend on fans traveling in to make it work. When you get lucky enough to have teams within an hour, it can work.  It doesn't work away from the east coast, where the schools (and neutral sites) are much more spread out.

It's simply a matter of fairness, because the current format favors east coast schools.

Besides #TeamJack, Other Things to Like (& Dislike) At the Husker Spring Game

The highlight of the day was Jack Hoffman's 69 yard touchdown run, without a doubt. But there were other things of note on the day.  First, the good:

Alonzo Moore looks to be the next Nebraska wide receiver star.  I liked what I saw on his first catch of the day; I missed the second because I was explaining something to my daughter. Sadly, we didn't get a replay on the HuskerVision screens of it.  Jordan Westerkamp's hands are legit and as advertised as well.  Nebraska's receiver corps are absolutely loaded for the next couple of years.

A really nice hit late in the game by Corey Cooper, who looks to be finding a home at safety. Wil Richards had a nice game for the most part.

Tight ends were a big part of the day. I know not to read much of anything into anything we see in a Spring Game, but I think Nebraska is going to manage just fine without Ben Cotton and Kyler Reed this season.

And some of the not-so-good:

At first I was dismayed by the yardage that King Frazier and Graham Nabity were finding on the ground. I'll temper that by remembering that Nebraska had decent success running the ball last year behind the offensive line. The problems up front weren't in running; it was pass protection.  I still wish I could have seen a little more out of the defensive line.

I liked what I saw out of Zaire Anderson in the "compete" drill.  I saw some nice effort by Trevor Roach, and Jared Afalava made some plays.  So did Courtney Love, who really should have been worried about his high school prom date yesterday. Thomas Brown, on the other hand, seemed to catch my eye more with his misplays than anything.  Todd Neeley of the Hastings Tribune was awfully impressed with Brown, for what it's worth.

The player everybody wanted to see was Tommy Armstrong, and he showed a lot of promise. I can only wonder what the people who want Taylor Martinez benched thought when Armstrong fumbled on his very first play.   Did it again in the third quarter.  Nice moves in the open field, and a decent arm.  He looks more natural than Taylor Martinez on the option.  Is he a threat to unseat Martinez as the starter?  I'm not sure I saw anything like that, but what I did see is a solid option for 2014...and an insurance policy for 2013 that would allow Taylor Martinez to run more aggressively this season.  Call me decidedly old school about not liking Martinez running out of bounds to avoid contact.  I've understood why he's done it the last two years, but I've only accepted it grudgingly because of the lack of a viable backup. Now that excuse is off the board.  Do it judiciously, of course...but hopefully Martinez can be more aggressive on the ground in his senior season.

Placekicker Mauro Bondi showed a strong leg, including a doink off of the uprights on a kickoff with the wind. He kicks linedrives, which could be a problem on field goal attempts. Speaking of kicking, I think offensive tackle Zach Sterup actually looked like a viable alternative in the punt return game...especially in contrast to the bungling we saw last season.  His over-the-shoulder grab in the lineman punt-fielding competition was one of the highlights of the day.

Of course, the true highlight of the day was #TeamJack. Hard to believe that the story only keeps growing.

That Jack Hoffman TD run at Nebraska made it the best spring game ever.
— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) April 7, 2013

Is it to early to think that Jack Hoffman should clear shelf space for an ESPY? #huskers
— Hail Varsity (@HailVarsity) April 7, 2013

This 7-year-old cancer patient scored a TD in the Nebraska spring game: usat.ly/10HMJfc
— USA TODAY Sports (@USATODAYsports) April 7, 2013

Jack Hoffman leads @sportscenter this morning. I bust their crops a lot, but very classy, @espn. twitter.com/HuskersGameday…
— Huskers Gameday (@HuskersGameday) April 7, 2013

SC breaks down Jack Hoffman TD espn.go.com/college-footba…
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) April 7, 2013

I just missed the morning SportsCenter where they opened w/Jack Hoffman story, but here's the ESPN vid from overnight espn.go.com/videohub/video…
— Jack Mitchell (@JackM_KLINRadio) April 7, 2013

An ESPY? You never know, but it's going to be awfully tough to top yesterday for a great story. I'm so glad that I was privileged to have a chance to watch it.

Jack Hoffman, the Husker Hero of the 2013 Spring Game

Not since Cory Schlesinger rolled into the end zone in the 1995 Orange Bowl has a touchdown moved me like the last, but greatest, touchdown of Nebraska's spring game. Jamal Turner's last second touchdown against Michigan State certainly was big. Ndamukong Suh's touchdown return against Colorado rattled every joint in Memorial Stadium.  Eric Crouch's "Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass" did the same.

But they didn't hit you in the heart like Schlesinger's run.  That touchdown put Nebraska in the lead in a place where Husker fans had felt nothing but pain for well over twenty years. You just knew that when Nebraska took that lead, this was going to be different, and that Tom Osborne would finally have that national championship that had eluded him for so many years.  The demons of 1983 and 1993 were exorcised as the Miami beast went down in Nebraska's house of horrors, and the emotions just flowed on that night.  That touchdown was different.

And that's what Jack Hoffman's 69 yard run did to me. Watching 100 college students yield the field to let a 7 year old boy battling brain cancer take the spotlight...yeah, that was special. It's been a busy week for #TeamJack.  Wednesday, the Hoffman's updated Jack's Caring Bridge site with the following update:

Today, we celebrate God's graciousness as another MRI revealed that the tumor is again stable to even slightly smaller.  Stability is success.  Shrinkage is a bonus.  All doctors agree that today's MRI, as compared to last April, reveals that the tumor has shrunk substantially.  

And what a way to celebrate that good news. It gave you goosebumps if you had the privilege of watching it in persons, and now the nation is now sharing in the story as it crashes into the Final Four.

@brettsbaker @peterburnsradio rare that I am misty eyed on the set.I was tonight.Nobody was watching us because of FF but what a story
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) April 7, 2013

Already had CBS National call the 10/11 newsroom.Look for Jack Hoffman to get national publicity over the next few days
— Kevin Sjuts (@kevinsjuts) April 7, 2013

Why We Love Sports Today: 7-year-old cancer patient Jack Hoffman stars in Nebraska's spring game » youtu.be/_Jmisv1Spck | #SCtop10
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 7, 2013

If you are cynical, you could point out that it was just a meaningless scrimmage filled with gimmick events (offensive linemen fielding punts?)  But how cynical can you be after you see this?

Love this shot of Jack's TD run by @johnpeterson. Great reaction by the entire team. #huskers twitter.com/HailVarsity/st…
— Hail Varsity (@HailVarsity) April 7, 2013

Just look at what it means to the Hoffman family, and how it's going to impact their campaign to raise funds to help fight pediatric brain cancer.

What about the rest of the spring game? I have a few thoughts, but those are for another day. Tonight, I just want to reflect on a very special day.

FireMyCoach.com

I've never completely understood the impatience by some fans to fire the coach of their favorite program. Sometimes it's a no-brainer, such as when Bill Callahan was fired after posting the only two losing seasons in the last fifty years at Nebraska. Sometimes it's inevitable, such as Doc Sadler who was simply spinning his wheels of the Nebraska basketball program.

But more and more frequently, disappointment leads to a quick trigger finger on the fire button. Firing Frank Solich after a 9-3 regular season in 2003 seemed to start that trend around here. (Somebody will point out that he really should have been fired for a 7-7 record in 2002. That might make a little more sense, but it's still a quick trigger finger considering that Solich did lead the Huskers to the Rose Bowl and the national championship game in 2001.) We have people in Nebraska calling for Bo Pelini to be fired, even though there aren't many coaches not named Nick Saban who can match his record over the last five years.

I've even lost friends over it.  One college friend told me last winter to "Mark my words, Nebraska won't get to nine wins in 2012" and that he "couldn't wait to have this conversation after an even less successful 2012 season".  Well, I reminded him of his predictions after the Iowa game, and as you might guess, it didn't go very well.  And it went completely south after the Big Ten championship game debacle.

Nobody likes losing in big games, and it's even worse when you get embarrassed in those same big games. I get the frustration.  I don't get the impatience with the quick trigger finger on the eject button.  That's the mentality that starts programs into the coaching churn; if a coach doesn't produce immediate results or has a not-so-great season, it's time to find someone new.  And I'm going to say it:  that's the mentality that brings Bill Callahan to town.

Case in point:  UCLA basketball.  Fired Ben Howland after losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  Has UCLA been in a bit of a funk in recent years?  Yes.  But Howland took the Bruins to three straight Final Fours in 2006, 2007, and 2008.  That was then, this is now.  Out he goes.

And when the rest of the world asks what the hell UCLA is thinking, Bruins fans get indignant.  And when it comes time to find someone who can possibly do better, most of the better candidates slam the door (or the phone) at the prospect of entering that cesspool.  So who does UCLA hire?

Steve Alford.  Yep, the failed Iowa coach who is known as "redacted" at BlackHeardGoldPants.com.  Stepped back to New Mexico, and drove a 33 year beat writer to quit last month rather than continue to try and cover an Alford team.  He's since removed his rant; he's probably giving it a second chance now that Alford's left for Lala Land.

Case in point:  North Dakota hockey coach Dave Hakstol. NoDak held a 1-0 lead over Yale midway through the third period of the regional final, only to lose 4-1 in a spectacular meltdown.  Leading to the inevitable:

Hakstol needs to go.9 Seasons, 4 Frozen Fours, 1 final, ZERO championships and a 65% winning percentage.W/ UND's talent?Unbelievable.
— Lyndsay Lee (@L__Lee) March 30, 2013

Four Frozen Fours in nine years sounds pretty good?  Pretty bad for some North Dakota fans.  North Dakota hockey fans are kind of like Nebraska football fans. They showed their passion in overrunning Omaha in February.  They have high expectations, and when those high expectations aren't met, some are quick to look for something else.

Case in point:  Denver hockey coach George Gwozdecky.  Rebuilt a proud program over the last 19 years, but forced out because he hadn't had more success in the NCAA tournament.

Grade-A source says George Gwozdecky did not resign. Forced out, terminated, for lack of NCAA success and failure to come to terms 4 ext
— Mike Chambers (@MChambersDP) April 1, 2013

Yeah... all the guy did was win the 2004 and 2005 national championships.  What have you done for me lately?  The Pioneers were miserable for most of the 1970's and 1980's, and even into the 1990's...but hey, that was then.

I guess if you are going to fire guys like Ben Howland and George Gwozdecky, then I guess you can fire guys like Bo Pelini and Dave Hakstol.  But don't expect things to get better after you fire a winning coach.

Kugler's Call Tells All You Need to Know When Kevin Ware's Leg Goes Wrong

Thanks to a cranky preschooler, I was spared from watching Kevin Ware's injury during today's NCAA tournament game between Louisville and Duke. It's probably something that every parent can identify with; the kids acting up while you are watching sports. When I came back and checked via Twitter, all I could find were tweets discussing how gruesome it was...but nothing that told me what had happened.

I'm glad I missed that live.Caught a glimpse. I've never seen that in a basketball game.I can't look at that.
— David McGee (@dpm917) March 31, 2013

And of course, once it happened, nobody wanted to see it replayed ever again.  Only problem is that those of us who missed it, the tweets didn't say what had happened.   And of course, that led to the video showing up on YouTube and other sources where people inevitably went to learn what had happened, if they had missed it.

Was on the road when injury happened. Just saw highlight now on YouTube of Kevin Ware. My goodness. How does that happen? Unreal. #Awful
— Jake Sorensen (@937JakeSorensen) March 31, 2013

Even worse, I came across a photo which may - or may not - have been of the actual injury on Instagram. Sadly, it was shown to me by a very frightened young girl who saw something graphic and gory on the iPhone. 

Couldn't there be a happy medium in reporting these incidents?  Nobody needs to see what happened again; if you saw it live, that was enough and couldn't be helped. YouTube or zoomed in photos not only aren't necessary in these situations, they are simply deplorable.  But by that same manner, just calling it an "injury" and "gory" isn't exactly helpful.  Heck, none of the reports I had even indicated which team had suffered the injury...

That's where radio came in, and Kevin Kugler's sensitive and accurate call of the play.

"It's very very bad, and it is a leg that has gone the wrong direction.. I can see it from here. It is abs...all of the players, his teammates, are on the floor, Siva, Behanan can't even look, he's rolling around at the free throw line,  Russ Smith is coming the floor nearly in tears, Rick Pitino's away from the huddle, Russ Smith is in tears Behanan is crying, sobbing, at the free throw line as Kevin Ware is down in front of the Louisville bench, his leg turned a way that a leg is not supposed to go. This .. is .. devastating, and this team is absolutely shaken to the core right now."

Pretty much said everything you needed to know about the injury and it's severity...but without the gory details.  Props to Kugler for making the right call in that situation...

UNO's 2013-14 Hockey Schedule Comes In Two Parts

The NCHC released the inaugural schedule for all eight hockey teams in the new conference, and UNO's  schedule is quite the dandy.  The biggest observation is that UNO has a three week holiday break, with no games scheduled between December 7th and January 3rd.  Before that holiday break is surrounded by road trips on both the front and back, plus another bye week on Thanksgiving weekend.

That's seven weeks without a home game.  UNO plays Miami on November 22nd and 23rd, then doesn't play again in Omaha until January 10th.  I've never seen a schedule like that; in fact, it's almost like UNO has two separate seasons scheduled this upcoming winter.

November's schedule is quite impressive.  A three-week stretch of home games against North Dakota, Michigan, and Miami.  You have to expect the NoDak fans to flock down I-29 for this series, which will run Saturday/Sunday to allow Creighton to open their basketball season on Friday night.  Only one game conflicts with a Husker home game; on November 16th, the Huskers host Michigan State while UNO plays Michigan.  The Huskers travel to Michigan for football on the North Dakota weekend and travel to Penn State on the Miami weekend.

The second half schedule is a little lighter with Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State, Denver, and Colorado College coming to Omaha.  No marquee names to the casual sports fan, but you do have have recent national champion and two NCAA tourney teams from this season in the mix.

Heartwarming Article Highlights What Dirk Chatelain Does Best

I've long been a critic of some of Dirk Chatelain's "analysis" work in the World-Herald, but his Sunday profile of Howell's Matthew Gooch shows that he's a talented writer. Something that I've long been guilty of forgetting at times. It's easy to do when Chatelain goes off the deep end with his "bench Taylor Martinez even though Nebraska doesn't really have a backup" or "Creighton vs. Wichita State is the biggest basketball game ever at the CenturyLink Center" opinions.  Or "Nebraska football's biggest problem in 2012 was turnovers on offense."

But I was reminded of what Chatelain does well a few weeks ago when he reminisced about the 1989 Nebraska state high school basketball tournament, when Wahoo beat Lincoln Pius X and Millard South beat Columbus in back-to-back classic games.  I thought back and remembered Chatelain's great 2011 feature on Ameer Abdullah and Ron Brown, and how they coexist despite their differences in religion.

Some people like Chatelain's statistical analysis, but I still struggle to understand why. Take Chatelain's look at Nebraska's recruiting of football players within a 500 mile radius. A lot of people loved the article, but I didn't understand the point of it.  I asked several times for those people who loved Chatelain's analysis what we should have learned from it, and nobody could actually tell me what that would be.  Nobody wanted to actually come out and say it, but it seemed to come down to Chatelain's ongoing vendetta with Bo Pelini.  Pelini's not getting the talent regionally, so this must be yet another thing that Pelini is screwing up.

Except the data actually shows that the issue is more about the relative lack of talent within 500 miles of Lincoln. But you didn't read THAT in the World-Herald.

It really makes me wonder why the World-Herald keeps pushing Chatelain to write statistical analysis pieces. Maybe it's because that's what Chatelain likes to do.  Maybe because it's because it gets people talking and draws eyeballs to the World-Herald and it's web site.

It's not because he's very good at the actual analysis.

There's nothing wrong with saying Chatelain is a fine feature writer. There's room in the World-Herald, and in journalism in general, for a good story to be told.  And this week, he showed that he can find a great story to tell.  He should be doing that more. 

Most news organizations, especially the ones that cover sports, assign people to roles that match their strengths. Some people do a great job with X's and O's.  Some people do a great job with analysis.  Some people are strong with statistics.  And some people are great interviewers.  ESPN doesn't assign Jeremy Schaap to game coverage, because that's not his strength.  ESPN doesn't ask Shelley Smith to analyze the zone read or to discuss the difference between the Big Ten and the SEC.

So why doesn't someone at the World-Herald ask Chatelain to focus on what he does best, and to stop doing things he's just not very good at?  Are they that addicted to the page-hits that Chatelain's misanalysis creates that they are willing to put an inferior product out?  It was pretty eye-opening in October when Sam McKewon had no recollection of Chatelain's comments from the UCLA game a few weeks earlier.

That speaks volumes to me about what the rest of the World-Herald's staff REALLY thinks about Dirk Chatelain's analytical work.  If they don't think it's worth reading, it's probably not fit for publication.