SmellyCat said:

In a way, it's a lot like 1994 was for football (without the gambling, of course). Part of why 1995 was so special is because 1994 was NOT a particularly good year W/L wise, so the jump, when it happened, seemed way bigger than it was. 2022 was similar. We were very close to being good enough, but for whatever reason just couldn't make the jump. Then 2023, boom, it all came together.

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gocatsgo2003 said:

Stone is a grad transfer.

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techtim72 said:

For a labor of love it is amazing how talented the group is. They are superb sports writers and analysts. Now if they could just get NU FB to open up some more.

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clarificationcat said:

in Nance’s senior year, the team was very competitive and lost a bunch of close games in the last few minutes. If they had just hit clutch free throws, they would have been .500 in the conference. Put senior Audige and Buie on that team and they win some of those close games. Audige shot 25 percent from 3 and 33 percent from the field in his junior year. And he was battling a back injury and was not as effective defensively. Lowery is great but we have won some very high scoring games because Boo or Audige took over down the stretch.

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CoralSpringsCat said:

I also look at it as a way to support the efforts of Lou, Matt, and MFitz for all they do. I understand they are not looking to get rich and it is mostly a labor of love, but every little bit helps. All those articles and interviews take a lot of time and effort.

It’s critical we support @mshelton33 as he is the future of Wildcat Report.

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PurpleWhiteBoy said:

I agree - Audige was always ready to play defense.

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Casey Simmons. Very soft. But lots of stars.

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Purple Pile Driver said:

Man, this debate will never run its course. Lowrey has been great and deserves credit, but to say CCC wasn’t a defensive coach prior to him arriving is just false. To say, CCC would likely not be here without Lowery is a bridge too far for me.

NU had its best players that on the surface showed little interest in defense. They were also bad at it. This same group exhibited very little mental toughness in crunch time. Remember how many games NU lost down the stretch of games? Roles weren’t defined, and it was a bad mix of personalities. IMO, this wouldn’t be a good defensive team even with Lowrey’s magic.

CCC’s lesson was in his recruiting. If started with Chase. He had a true defensive stopper. Mullins is similar without the offensive. Big Matt makes a huge difference and I would argue is more valuable than a guy with nifty old man moves around the basket. Our two best players are basketball junkies that came in with a chip on their shoulder. We don’t lose because we are soft. He has learned the value of a couple roster spots for junk yard dogs.

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techtim72 said:

I look at my subscription on the Rock as supporting a meeting place for NU sports enthusiasts. Some take advantage of the free aspects for their own reasons and I am cool with that. But I doubt Rivals and the gang are getting wealthy so to the extent others choose to help the cause with a subscription that's a good thing.

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DaCat said:

So far NU has managed to retain the bulk of its team, though losing three starters plus the long snapper is not ideal. We need to survive this window and the new one opening up in the spring.

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FanatiCat said:

I turned it off after the last ND TD. Quite a furious rally by IU - to your point, if they’d made that 2 point conversion, incredibly it would’ve been a one possession game with enough time for an onside kick and a couple pass play to set up a Hail Mary.

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CMcCat said:

And what of our other DB who got the great pick in the BT Championship game back in 2020. What ever became of him?

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FanatiCat said:

Maybe it’s a generational thing? Younger fans don’t use message boards?

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