Griesch's The Word - July 21

Posted - July 21: 5:40 p.m.
By Jeff Griesch
Nebraska Media Relations
Husker Sports Network Color Commentator

2009-10 Nebraska Women's Basketball Schedule

The first time I see the Big 12 Conference women's basketball schedule, I get fired up for basketball season every year. It's amazing how I know the eight teams that are coming to the Devaney Center and the eight Big 12 cities we are traveling to every season long before that schedule comes out, but when the dates are next to the teams and the order is determined, it somehow manages to get me rolling.

How about opening the season with four straight games against 2009 NCAA Tournament teams? Welcome to the Big 12 - at Hilton Coliseum for 2009 NCAA Elite Eight Iowa State, before coming back to the Devaney Center to tackle Texas. Then the Huskers hit the road to battle 2009 NCAA Sweet 16 Baylor for an early look at 2009 National High School Player-of-the-Year, 6-8 center Brittney Griner, before taking a week off to get ready for Kansas State.

Then all Nebraska has to do is play back-to-back road games at traditionally the two toughest places in the conference for Husker teams to win - Lubbock, Texas and Boulder, Colo.

More than any other year I can remember, this will be a year that the Huskers will need to rely on experienced veterans and senior leadership early in the season. Good news - six seniors and four juniors who have played a lot might make this schedule really good for Nebraska. Obviously, it is a long way until January, but that is going to be a big month for Husker basketball.

After an unbelievable first half of the conference schedule that concludes with home games against 2009 postseason teams Oklahoma State (WNIT) and Texas A&M (NCAA Sweet 16), the second half of the schedule is almost exclusively Big 12 North Division showdowns. Those games are going to be huge. Most importantly, I think they are going to be really fun.

The back half of the Big 12 schedule features two games with Kansas, which returns six seniors from a team that was scary good at the end of last year. The Huskers will also face Missouri twice during a two-week stretch in February. The Tigers lost Alyssa Hollins, but they have a lot of experienced players coming back, including RaeShara Brown, Jessra Johnson and Shaq Jones. The Huskers also get Iowa State and Colorado at home during the second half.

If the Huskers can survive the first half of the league season and stay healthy, the second half of the year might provide NU with an opportunity to build momentum heading into the postseason.

I realize the cart just parked itself in front of the horse, but that's what seeing the full schedule for the first time always does to me.

Let me rewind - classes begin for the fall semester at Nebraska on Monday, Aug. 24. The first official day of practice for the Huskers is Friday, Oct. 16, and Fall Break is Oct. 19-20. Coach Yori, a Husker player and I will be heading to Big 12 Basketball Media Day at the Sprint Center in Kansas City on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and the exhibition opener against Pittsburg State tips off at the Devaney Center on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Between now and then, I'll break down this season's schedule 47,000 different ways and wonder how Husker Sports Network play-by-play man Matt Coatney managed to look at it from 1.7 million additional perspectives.

By the way, if you've all been waiting for two days to renew your driver's licenses in the state of Nebraska because of the power surge Coatney caused with his everyday balloons at the state office building downtown, apparently Coatney has decided to go ahead and return to work at the Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday at the West O station.

I encourage all of you to head out and wait in line to see him and wish him a happy day.