[Husker] Buzzards circling above Barry Collier?

[Mike Jaixen]

Apparantly the Iowa State loss is being taken as "the
last straw" by some; a story in today's Omaha paper
raises serious questions of whether Barry Collier will
be retained after this season.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=38&u_sid=1334824

Apparantly, the athletic department is hearing rumors
as well. The Development Office sent an e-mail out
yesterday expressing "full support" of Collier.

My $0.02:  While the lack of W's this season is
disconcerting, I think talk of pulling the plug on
Collier is WAY premature at this point.  Many people
like to compare Collier to Danny Nee, but when they
use Nee, they remember the early-middle 90's version,
which went to several NCAA tournaments, sold out the
Devaney, and even won a Big 8 tournament.

They conveniently forget the final years of the Nee
era, when players walked out of practice, behaved
shamefully on the court, and played an undisciplined
and selfish style.  In the eyes of this observer,
Collier's Huskers are light-years ahead of the final
Nee squad.

I see a great analogy to Husker hoops 50 miles up I-80
in Omaha, specifically at the Qwest Center.  Not
Creighton, but Nebraska-Omaha Maverick Hockey.  The
Mav hockey program started in 1997 from scratch.  In
1999-2000, they joined the CCHA conference.  That
first year in the conference, they surprised fans by
making it to the conference championship game by
beating Michigan in Detroit in the semi-finals.  Their
second year, they returned to the conference
semi-finals again.  All looked good.  Then bad things
happened:  changes in assistant coaches and losing
seasons.  Player defections.

Last season, the Mavs finished in last place in the
CCHA.  Many people pointed to the record and said it
was time to pull the plug on coach Mike Kemp.  But
many other fans said, hold it for a second.  The best
players on the team were freshman and sophomores,
including the leading scorer.  And there the
recruiting class seemed full of promise as well.

Move forward 1 year.  UNO was picked to finish last
again, but that prediction was quickly shown to be
bogus.  With the season winding down, UNO is in 4th
place in a 12 team league with a winning record.  Last
night, they played league-leading Michigan tough, but
lost late in the game.  And this is definitely a
young-team on the rise; the majority of the scoring is
by freshman and sophomores.  They will only get
better.

Bottom line is that at Nebraska, there seem to be
young players on the way, and Collier seems to be
doing the right things to build the program.  I think
he's earned at least another year or two.  This team
has come really close to getting that "big win",
whether it was on the road at Kansas this year, or at
Austin or Stillwater.

And a plug for UNO hockey, if you want to be part of
an exciting sporting event tonight, head down to the
Qwest Center and watch UNO take on Michigan tonight.

=====
Mike Jaixen

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