Did you hear that pop? No, it wasn’t Emeril Lagasse making funny noises in his kitchen. Today is the first day of full pads spring practice in Lincoln.

Breaking News tonight as it has been announced that Barry Collier will remain head coach of Nebraska Basketball.

From a joint statement Sunday night by Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson and Executive Associate Athletic Director Marc Boehmz:

“In an overall view, finishing in the top half of the Big 12, being the No. 6 seed in the tournament, and winning 19 games represents significant improvement from a year ago. The missing ingredient now is an NCAA Tournament appearance.

We have seen other signs that indicate improvement. The play of some young players is reason for optimism as they continued to improve throughout the season. We were also in full support of a difficult personnel decision that Coach Collier had to make during the season.

The success in the Big 12 Tournament is quite possibly the next step in turning the corner. We beat an excellent Oklahoma team, the No. 3 seed in the tournament and a top 20 team, and did it in impressive fashion.

Barry Collier is a fine man and excellent representative of the University of Nebraska. He does things the right way, he works hard, he has an excellent staff and his players’ actions are in line with how we believe a program should be run.

Do we have high goals for this program–absolutely. Do we believe this program can be a consistent NCAA Tournament team?absolutely. Do we value people of high character and great work ethic?absolutely.

This is not an easy conference to break into the top tier, and we don’t want to stop Coach Collier and his team’s progress when it appears to us we may be on the verge of that breakthrough. Our goals are to build something that will become consistently great. We believe Coach Collier should be given more time to achieve that goal.”

Frankly, I’m not surprised, as his performance in the Big-12 tournament is likely a contributing factor. But then again, his style of play is something that doesn’t appeal to me. I can’t help but feel like I’m watching Hoosiers every single time I watch a Collier coached game. I don’t think fan sentiment should weight too heavily in coaching employment status but one does have to wonder how short of a leash he’ll be on next season…

A few games into the 2006 season, if you need one thing to gauge the success of this year’s squad. Look to the 11 inning win today on a single from Brandon Buckman against Alabama.

Alamaba’s starting pitcher for the day, Wade LeBlanc is likely the finest pitcher Nebraska will face all season until post-season play rolls around. With Joba Chamberlain on the bench with a sore arm, Nebraska faced the challenge with a near-capacity crowd of 6,200 in the stands on Friday afternoon.

It just may be another fine run to June.

In another great ESPN-U debacle freezing most of Huskernation out of watching this game short of DirectTV service. Barry Colliers answers the controversy of his job status silently with a win.

The Huskers advance to the semifinals in the Big 12 tournament with a dramatic win over #19 Oklahoma – a team Nebraska has beaten previously this season. Outscoring the Sooners 46-36 in the second half to walk away with a 69-63 win.

Next up is Kansas, Saturday at 3:20 pm CST on ESPN2.

With rumors of Barry Collier’s demise swirling, he rallies Nebraska to their first win in Big 12 Tourney play in his six years as Nebraska Head Coach.

After taking a 12 point lead shortly after the half, poor shooting from the foul line and turnovers contributed to a 23-10 run by the Tigers to give up the lead 58-57. Nebraska took the lead for good with a 1:15 to go on big 3-point shot by Jamel White.

Nebraska faces Oklahoma Friday night at 8:20pm CST.

Friday, 2:o5 pm, Nebraska makes their home debut with a weekend series against Alabama at Hawk’s Field. Saturday and Sunday games will see the first pitch at 1:05 pm.

Probable Pitchers looks like:
Friday: Tony Watson LHP for the Huskers v. Alabama’s ace, Wade LeBlanc LHP
Saturday: Johnny Dorn RHP for Nebraska v. Bernard Robert RHP
Sunday: Husker’s Charlie Shirek RHP v. Tommy Hunter RHP

On a side note, Joba Chamberlain was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and Pro-Line Caps National Pitcher of the Week from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) for the week ending March 5.

This year Zac Taylor is ready for spring practice, which begins March 22. Recalling last year’s orientation, Taylor told the Omaha World Herald:

“I really didn’t know what to expect or what was going to happen. I didn’t know if I’d be the worst quarterback in the country, or even starting for that matter. Now I have a little better idea about things. It’s all a thousand times easier.”

“I’ll have the confidence from day one,” Taylor said. “It took me until the last week of spring practice last year to feel that way. Last spring I was just trying to survive for the first couple weeks.”

For sure, expectations are on the rise for Taylor’s senior season. Let’s hope he smashes some more Husker passing records en route to a 10-win season (or better).