Last Year
Finally, the long suffering Husker basketball faithful were rewarded with an all time great season. Fred Hoiberg and son escaped the hot seat and delivered a 28-7 season that involved winning their first 20 games, going 15-5 in conference, and winning not just one but two Tourney games against Troy and Vanderbilt before falling to evil Iowa in the Sweet Sixteen.
Happy Trails
- Rienk Mast ran out of eligibility and is trying to catch on with the Pacers
- Joining him in the pasture is Sam Hoiberg, Jamarques Lawrence, Jared Garcia, and Kendall Blue
- The portal grabbed Berke Buyuktuncel (Vanderbilt), as well as Ugnius Jarusevicius (Arizona) and Quentin Rhymes (Fresno State)
Starters
- PG Trevan Leonhardt, 6'4'' Senior: Leonhardt comes over from Utah Valley, where he was first team All-WAC. He can score and pass, though he did really struggle with turnovers at times.
- SG Pryce Sandfort, 6'7'' Senior: Sandfort returns to try and lead Nebraska to more glory. He averaged 18 a game last year on ace shooting from all over the court, and will probably be leaned on to score even more.
- SF Braden Frager, 6'7'' Sophomore: The reigning Sixth Man of the Year in the B1G, Frager will presumably become a One Through Five man this season. He can score, but the question will be whether he can do everything else.
- PF Sam Orme, 6'9'' Junior: Orme comes over from Belmont, where he was second team MVC based mostly on his prowess as a shooter. Solid around the basket, he was also a plus 40 percent three point shooter, so expect a lot of Orme from the perimeter.
- C Boden Kapke, 6'11'' Senior: Kapke comes over from Boston College after two seasons at Butler. He's never been more than Just a Guy so probably unreasonable to expect sudden greatness. But he can shoot from outside, too, so he has some flexibility.
Bench
- SG Connor Essegian, 6'4'' Senior: Essegian returns for a fifth year after missing most of last season with a bum ankle. Over four seasons at Wisconsin and Nebraska shows he can put the ball in the basket, and maybe not much else. As a shooter off the bench, not bad.
- CG Cale Jacobsen, 6'4'' Senior: Jacobsen is a flexible guy who can do a bit of everything outside of generating points. He will come in and play defense and make the right play isn't going to complain if he doesn't shoot.
- PG Taj DeGourville, 6'5'' Junior: Degourville comes over from San Diego State, so Nebraska's weather might be a shock to his system. He was fairly useless on the offensive end but pretty solid defensively and will get some minutes guarding people.
- C Damon Wilkinson, 6'10'' Junior: Wilkinson comes from South Dakota State. He used to backup Oscar Cluff, if you want some fun trivia that only real B1G basketball nerds would care about.
- PF Leo Curtis, 7'2'' Sophomore: Curtis didn't play much last year but remains very tall.
- SF Will Cooper, 6'6'' Sophomore: Cooper previously transferred from Air Force, but redshirted last year. He might be a good shooter (come on, how the hell would I know what this guy is about).
- PF Kadyn Betts, 6'8'' Senior: Betts is an Old Friend, having previously been at Minnesota before a year at Montana. He's barely played anywhere, even Montana, so not sure what the plan is there.
- Two freshmen in four star guards Colin Rice and Jacob Lanier
Outlook
MaximumSam: To be honest, I'm not really seeing it. They are predicted to do well and KenPom starts them off at 16th in the country, so they have to be seeing something. I'm sure I'm wrong. But man, feels like Pryce Sandfort is covering up an awful lot of questions marks, like whether any of the transfers can play. They don't look that great defensively, and that was a big deal for them last season.
glass: Nebraska could be rudderless without Mast. I'll see myself out.
BoilerUp89: Sandfort and to a lesser extent Frager are potentially covering up a lot of holes. They are the proven options. Sandfort is a heck of an ace in the hole but there are definite questions elsewhere on the roster.
Mast, Lawrence, and Hoiberg were really good and the replacements likely don't equal them. Expect Nebraska to take a step back nationally but a weaker B1G might see them compete in approximately the same part of the conference standings. Plenty of shooting. Is there enough rebounding? Defense? I don't know.
