given the injuries to Cunningham and Pollard, it's kind of hard to argue against the premise of your article; and, it is true that the staff had to adjust...to some extent...on the fly; but seriously, I think Nebraska is a much better game by game opponent that most give them credit for. Although, the Big Ten might be tough and humbling experience for Nebraska.
In regard to UCLA, sorry folks, way over rated and stated. They walk and hold themselves like bad MFers, but the likes of UK, U of L,
XU, Villanova, UNC, et al., would put the fake UCLA strut on ice faster than a 90 degree day would melt poor frosty the snowman. The Flyers certainly might have lost to them, but not by the 25 points that everyone purports...not even close...Flyers would have pushed them. For example, Nebraska pushed them, right up until the closing minute of the game. I am not buying UCLA's dominance over other rankable national clubs. I just don't see it. We could draw some comparison to both Dayton and UCLA through the Saint Marys beat down of Stanford as well.
I agree with Swampy in the sense that playing Portland and New Mexico might have been very good for confidence and development, and team chemistry, etc..., hard to argue against that; but I wanted the Flyers to play on ESPN2, not ESPN3, and to be against a top 25 team, not Portland.
If UCLA would play any of teams from my short list above, they would be wishing like heck that had Portland again that night...count on it.
Furthermore, I think the situation has allowed for UD to learn some other things about the sophomore class, and what style of play they bring to the floor when they are all playing significant minutes. In that sense, Swampy may also be right, that it's better off. Because XWILLIAMS, and M & M, are looking like they might make this whole thing very interesting. I believe the sophomore class is on the verge of offensive explosion.