Shatel: ‘E’ for effort no longer a passing grade for Doc, Huskers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If they gave out trophies for effort, Doc Sadler’s Huskers would be national champions. They would get rings engraved with the words “no quit.’’ There would be a parade down O Street in Lincoln. The adoring crowd would douse the players and coaches with beads of sweat.

But at the Big 12 level, effort is expected.

So, too, is winning.

After four years of Doc Ball, here’s what we know: the man can coach effort. His teams never quit. And, on a given night, he can take his and beat yours and take yours and beat his.

Now, for the things we still don’t know:

Can he do more than just coach a bunch of overachievers to the middle of the Big 12 pack?

Can he recruit Big 12 talent?

Can he put together an offense that will attract Big 12 talent?

Does he even have a plan on how to win in the Big 12?

Does the administration — in this case, Tom Osborne — even care if he wins in the Big 12?

Yes, we’ve asked these questions before. What, five years ago? Eight? Twelve? All of the above?

This time, I thought there was an answer. I’m gullible, but I thought Doc was that guy. He had a solid first three years, beating everyone in the league except Kansas, and getting better by one win every year. Last year, he went 8-8. Some years, that gets you a ticket to The Dance.

But now I wonder if Doc could find the NCAA tournament with a GPS system.

It’s still too early to give up on Doc. Every rebuilder needs at least five years. But the fourth year has been a real eye-opener. Doc looks more like a guy who can outcoach some people on a given night than someone with a grasp of how to win in the Big 12.

Doc is on the clock.

He’s had tough breaks. There have been injuries, eligibility issues. Everybody has them.

The warning lights that have flashed this season seem to indicate a coach who is still learning on the job at a BCS school.

Like the time Doc admitted he didn’t know enough about strength and conditioning and needed to get more involved. That’s admirable. But it took four years to figure that out?

He said he wished he had played more zone and knew more about it. He said he should have put his team through its annual boot camp last fall but didn’t. That happens. Every coach can give you a list of regrets each season.

It’s the personnel and style issues that are concerning.

Take Texas A&M, NU’s opponent on Thursday. The Aggies look like a Big 12 team. Tall, fast and muscular. They have six players at least 6-7, 210 pounds in their nine-man rotation.

How do they get them? Sure, there are a couple from Houston and Dallas. But A&M got players from Los Angeles, South Carolina, Miami and Baltimore. Oh, yes. Head coach Mark Turgeon also got Scott Spinelli, the ace recruiter whom former NU coach Barry Collier was told to hire.

Does Doc have a guy who can get him Big 12 players?

Nebraska has a roster of players who look like pieces of a puzzle that don’t fit, from 6-11 Jorge Brian Diaz, who might end up at power forward next season, to the stout Lance Jeter, who is not a true point guard or off-guard but more of a tweener.

Doc does have a recruiting guy. Walter Roese is known in international circles. That’s the Doc angle. He’s convinced himself he can’t get big men or at least physical forwards who can play inside through the good old American AAU system. Doc is convinced that he has to go overseas to get big men.

Interesting angle. Diaz has offensive skills and potential. So does Christian Standhardinger. But neither Diaz nor Standhardinger has shown what it takes to bang in the Big 12. We have yet to see Andre Almeida, a 6-11, 315-pound Brazilian who arrives next year from Arizona Western juco.

Doc’s recruiting philosophy raises questions about his offensive philosophy.

When he arrived in August 2006, Sadler told Nebraska he would play a style so fast the people would think they were at a tennis match. He must have been referring to the Bill Tilden era.

What has evolved is a grind-it-out, work-the-clock, keep-it-away-from-the-opponents style that is right out of the Moe Iba era — the reason a guy named Danny Nee was hired to speed things up. Earlier this year, Sadler told me that he made the switch because the Big 12 is a low-scoring, physical league.

Physical? Yes. Low-scoring? Not necessarily.

In any case, here he is, with two big men who can shoot it and get up and down the floor. Here he is, putting two kids who are used to the open international game and trying to put them in the square peg of a deliberate, perfect-shot system.

What he doesn’t have, and hasn’t had, is a strong go-to guy. If you’re going to milk the clock for one shot, shouldn’t you have a guy who can make that shot?

Then again, what offensive star is going to come to play in a one-shot system?

NU played better this year when it played fast, and it played better against A&M when it switched from Doc’s trusty man-to-man to a 2-3 zone. These are the things that he must evaluate, along with his recruiting. To his credit, he knows there are no rings or NCAA bids for effort.

“Our talent is a little bit better,’’ Sadler said. “We still have to get that one dude. Let’s be real. I’ve got to get some wins. I’ve got to have a team that doesn’t just play hard.’’

But then he has no easy answer for how that gets done.

“I don’t know,’’ he said. “That’s what I’ve got to find out. I thought the train was going in the right direction, but I’ve made it slow down. I have to evaluate where I’m at and then go from there.’’

Yes, we’re entering year five and still evaluating where things are. Shouldn’t they be headed for the NCAAs by now? It took Nee and Creighton’s Dana Altman until their fifth year to make the dance. That sounds fair.

“I’ll be very disappointed if it doesn’t happen next year,’’ Doc said.

What about the athletic director?

“I’m not going to put a number on anything or say they have to do this or that,’’ Osborne said after Thursday’s loss. “I thought they played well and played hard here. Doc did a good job holding things together this year. I’m not at all discouraged. I think there’s a foundation for the future. There are grounds for optimism.’’

That’s what an athletic director should say. Whether Osborne believes Doc is going to get it done, or just hopes it happens so he doesn’t have to make a change, we don’t know. NU is breaking ground on a practice facility in May. But when it comes to hoops, it always seems like Nebraska does things because it has to, to keep up, not because it wants to.

I would never pretend to know what Osborne will do when it comes to sports like basketball or baseball. But here’s what I do know: if Nebraska does not make the NCAA field next year, and especially if it’s a 96-team field, then we’ll find out what Osborne thinks about basketball.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com