Farewell Alecs Maric

Sunday was Senior Day at the Devaney Center and NU’s lone Senior, Aleks Maric didn’t disappoint.  Maric, who was very emotional before the game, finished with game highs in points (17), rebounds (16), assists (6), and blocks (2).  He also threw in a near game high of 3 steals in a blowout win over Colorado, 68-49.  Here’s to you big guy!!   I have been tough on Maric sometimes, but I was very glad to see him sent out this way, he deserved it!  The crowd of 12,000 let Maric know what he means to NU which caused a flow of emotion from Aleks and his parents.  Maric talked about getting a little teary eyed before the game.

“Very emotional, I’m not going to lie. We spoke about it in the locker room. We told each other to keep our emotions behind and try to be a man, and if one person lets the tears go, it’s going to go down the track, so it’s my fault. A river started coming out of my eyes actually.”

That, my friends, is what college athletics is all about.  Building relationships, being part of a team, and enjoying the experience.  Nebraska finished 7-9 in conference and is the seventh seed in this weeks Big 12 tournament.  NU plays Thursday at 6P.M. against Missouri, who they split games with during they regular season.  The game is on ESPN Plus, so I am hoping that means also on KXVO here in Omaha.

I haven’t really been a die hard basketball fan since MJ retired ( there is video of me at my oldest daughter’s birth watching him in the finals against Utah), but I have always been an NU basketball fan.  With writing these posts I have come to respect this team more and more each week.  They play hard all game and defend like no other Husker team in history.  They have a cohesiveness about them, no infighting or discouraging words, you never see someone so upset they are out of control, and they respect and buy into their coaches system.  Doc Sadler has put a product on the floor that we can all be proud of, even if it doesn’t translate into an NCAA Tournament bid (YET!).  All the kids are respectable young men, on and off the court, with a team GPA average of 3.016.  I love Coach Sadler’s honest explanations of his team and his genuine pride in their accomplishments.  Sadler is a man that believes in being successful on and off the court and his most exciting Husker moments are soon to come!  I heard Kent Pavelka on the radio say last week that early in the season NU seemed like it was trying to make the conference games competitive, and towards the middle and end, they believed they were going to win every game.  You could see the transformation and I believe this team will be very, very good and athletic next year.  I can’t wait!

Thanks to all who contributed to dialogue in these posts, hopefully with a run in the conference tourney and then some post season play, there will be more to come.

[see the box score courtesy of huskers.com]