Letter from Coach Miles

As we wrapped up the first half of Big Ten play this week, our home win against Northwestern was definitely a highlight for us. We felt really good about our practices after the loss to Illinois, and I thought our guys showed continued improvement in the areas of concentration and focus, which is required to have success against a Princeton-type offense like Northwestern. More importantly, it was good to finally get that first home conference win. We have been more consistent on the road in conference play since our Big Ten opener at Ohio State, but have not shown the same consistency of play at the Devaney Center. Hopefully, the effort we gave in that game continues into a stretch where we play four of our next five games at home beginning with Saturday's game against Ohio State.

It was good to see Ray Gallegos shoot the ball well recently because of the extra work he puts in. It started in the second half against Northwestern and carried into Wednesday's game at Minnesota, where he had a career high with 30 points. Ray is one of the hardest workers on the team, and is usually the first player on the floor and will spend extra time after practice working on his shooting. On game day against Northwestern, he was at the Devaney Center at 7 a.m. getting in extra work before our 8:30 a.m. shoot around.  It is good to see his hard work translate to the court. We have asked a lot of Ray this season, and we know he needs to be an integral part of our success.

This has been a busy stretch for us, as our game at Minnesota ended a stretch of nine games in 28 days, including our four longest conference trips of the season. With the number of players we have available this year, we have had to find a balance in keeping them fresh, but also getting enough practice to be prepared for each game. We are continually working on implementing our system, both offensively and defensively, and one area which we have seen improvement is communication. You hear more players talking in practice, and they continue to get a better grasp of the concepts we use.

As we look ahead to February, I also want to remind you about a pair of upcoming events. Our final Husker Hoops Happy Hour is set for Friday, Feb. 8, at the N-Zone in the Haymarket. We have had great turnouts at the first two events and it allows people to meet our staff in more of an informal atmosphere.

The following weekend, we are hosting Legends Weekend against Michigan State on Feb. 15-16. We have invited all of the former players back for the weekend's events, and we are inducting Tyronn Lue into the Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame. Legends Weekend is a tradition we look forward to starting, as it is a great way to connect former Huskers with our current players and staff. We feel our current players can learn a lot from our past players, including the traditions in the program, how special of an experience they had at Nebraska, how fast the college experience goes by and they wish they could have one more opportunity to compete in practice and games. The relationships built during their college years are priceless.

Again, on behalf of the Husker Men's Basketball Program, thank you for your support and look forward to seeing you at the Devaney Center.

Go Big Red!

Tim Miles