Tag / Nebraska

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2025-2026 Final Standings

Purdue’s men’s basketball season came to an end on Sunday, falling to Arizona in the Elite Eight.  It was a disappointing, but appropriate, end for a team ranked #1 in the pre-season and expected to compete for a national title but struggled throughout the conference schedule.  While home tickets remained hard to come by this season, I did manage to see six games in five arenas across four states, thanks to a January trip out west to California, a Valentine’s Day visit to Iowa City, and the Big Ten Tournament here at the United Center, tied for the greatest number of games I’ve attended in a single season while adding both the Galen Center and Pauley Pavilion to my collection.

2026 Team Records – Men

TeamName Won Loss Winning Pctg
UCLA Bruins 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 5 1 0.833
USC Trojans 0 1 0.000
Penn State Nittany Lions 0 1 0.000
Northwestern Wildcats 0 1 0.000
Nebraska Cornhuskers 0 1 0.000
Iowa Hawkeyes 0 1 0.000
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How Sweet It Is

The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend light on upsets and heavy on top seeds, although I did manage to lose my champion pick.  Three of my Final Four picks are still intact, which is better than usual.

A disappointing showing from the Big Ten in this region, leading to two of my three misses.

Purdue heads to its third straight Sweet Sixteen, which ties its longest streak in program history and is their seventh trip in the last nine years.

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Put On Your Dancing Shoes

The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today.  I’m not in any pools this year, so most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, aside from personal pride.  With the Final Four and the Championship taking place just down the road in Indianapolis, I may have to expend a not-insignificant amount of money should a certain school from West Lafayette manage to make it that far.  So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.

Maybe it is personal bias, but I am expecting big things from the two Big Ten teams in this bracket, including one making their way to the Final Four.

Purdue followed up a disappointing end to the regular season with a spirited run through the Big Ten Tournament to capture the championship.  Are they fixed?  Well, I hope so since I have them coming out of this region and heading to Indy. Continue reading →

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Fitbit 12 – Week 8

A pretty great week, as I surpassed 30,000 steps for the fifth straight week, ran my streak of 4000+ days to 20, and notched my highest step total completely in the state of Illinois since July.  The week got off to a good start on Sunday thanks to unseasonably warm temperatures, leading to a longer walk through the neighborhood finishing 18 steps away from 6300.  Record high temperatures on Monday facilitated a walk to Walgreens to pick up a prescription, which left me with 7700 steps, the first time I’ve reached my daily goal since January’s trip to California.  The temperature, and my step total, dropped on Tuesday, but I still managed 4800 steps.  The low point of the week came on Wednesday, but that still ended up at 4400 steps.  An impromptu trip to the United Center on Thursday to see Purdue battle Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament left me 22 steps shy of 4100.  A return trip on Friday to see Purdue defeat Nebraska was even better, finishing 26 steps away from 6200.  Saturday finished the week strong with 4750 steps on the nose.

Total steps: 40,233

Daily average: 5747.6

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Braden Watch

Braden Smith moved closer to capturing the NCAA’s career assists record, adding 10 in yesterday’s victory over Nebraska in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.  Smith is now just 21 assists away from tying Duke’s Bobby Hurley’s record of 1,076.  At his current pace of 9 assists per game, Smith would need Purdue to play three more games between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament in order to best Hurley, with two of those games now guaranteed.

1,076 – Bobby Hurley
1,055 – Braden Smith

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How Sweet (16) It Is

The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend with upsets galore that played havoc with my bracket, although my entire Final Four is still intact, which is better than some.

Things look pretty decent here.  Auburn’s loss to Yale knocked me for a bit of a loop, but, aside from that, things are fairly clean, with three of the four teams heading into this weekend still alive.

Things are slightly worse on this side of the bracket, with just two of the four teams I picked playing this weekend.  While Nebraska did me dirty, I correctly picked that Wisconsin had peaked after beating Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament two weeks ago.

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It’s Time To Dance

The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today.  I’m not in any pools this year, so most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, aside from personal pride.  I do have the potential to purchase tickets for future rounds should a certain school from West Lafayette manage to get out of their own way and not embarrass themselves this weekend.  So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.

My selections here are mostly chalk, with a couple early upsets but with the top four seeds heading to the Sweet Sixteen.  Iowa State is my pick to advance to the Final Four.

Fun fact: the first men’s college basketball game I ever attended was Purdue versus Houston at Market Square Arena back in 1993.  Both teams are once again top seeds in this tournament.  I’m hoping Nebraska continues to pull off upsets against teams they have no business beating.  In the end, though, I have Marquette going on to Phoenix.

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Record Breaker

Less than two and a half minutes into last night’s game against Michigan, Caitlin Clark broke the NCAA women’s scoring record, notching her 3,528th point with a deep three from the left side, surpassing Kelsey Plum.  Clark had scored Iowa’s first eight points, getting the record out of the way early after failing to score in the fourth quarter of their last game, a loss to Nebraska.  That wasn’t the end of her night, though, as she finished with a career-high, and Iowa record, 49 points along with thirteen assists, five rebounds, and a steal.

Finishing the game with 3,569 points, less than 100 points away from Lynette Woodard’s all time women’s record of 3,649, set in 1981 before women’s sports were administered by the NCAA.  Pistol Pete Maravich’s overall record of 3,667, lies just beyond that.  Both of those should fall by the end of this season.

by jim

It’s Tournament Time

It’s that time of the year again, as the nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next couple of weeks.  I’m in three different pools again this year, one at work, one at my mom’s work, and one run by a friend.  Once again, Purdue is sitting out the tournament, but I can take some solace that IU is as well.

2014SouthNot much in the way of upsets here in the South region, as I have overall #1 seed Florida making it to the Final Four.

2014EastI see Michigan State making it out of the East region. Continue reading →

by jim

And The Oscar Goes To

side_oscarAs they finish polishing up the statues for tonight’s awards ceremony, it’s time to finish up our predictions, which are based on not having seen any of the nominated films, with a look at the acting categories and the big one:

Best Picture

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

12 Years a Slave

The Wolf of Wall Street

The race seems to be coming down to either Gravity or 12 Years a Slave.  As we discussed Friday, I think Gravity is going to clean up on the technical awards, but I think 12 Years a Slave will win the big award of the night.

Best Actor

Christian Bale, American Hustle

Bruce Dern, Nebraska

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

At some point over the past few years, Matthew McConaughey seems to have decided to take his acting game to another level.  Between his work in the indie Mud, a supporting turn in The Wolf of Wall Street, his likely Emmy-winning turn on True Detective, and his work here in Dallas Buyers Club, he seems to have taken the jump to the next level.

Best Actress

Amy Adams, American Hustle

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock, Gravity

Judi Dench, Philomena

Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Cate Blanchett seems to have this one wrapped up, with the only thing standing in her way being the backlash against Woody Allen that started after the Golden Globes when allegations of his abusing his adpotive daughter heated back up again.

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