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A Tale of Two Players (neither of whom came to Nebraska.)

Norm Peterson

By Norm Peterson
in The Haymarket Hardwood

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Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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Two players.  One we offered; the other we didn't.  One was our top target (or a higher target than any of  the kids we signed); the other didn't get an offer EVEN THOUGH his cousin had been our starting point guard.

 

I previously mentioned about Kale Abrahamson that, watching him in warm-ups, I'm so glad he didn't choose to come here.  His shot is fugly.  And, while his percentage on the season ain't bad, he's only been averaging 9 minutes and 20% from three in Northwestern's last 5 games (all in conference.)

 

Sheldon Jeter, OTOH.  (Some of you must have wondered how long it would take for ol' Norm to report back on Sheldon.)  Sheldon didn't have a Husker offer so far as we know.  Not sure why.  He came out to visit Lance and I saw him at practice and immediately thought the kid had potential.  He had a sweet jump shot and Doc spent some time after that practice giving Sheldon some shooting tips.

 

But, so far as I could ever tell, we never offered. 

 

Mighta been a mistake.  Probably was a mistake.

 

In Sheldon's last 5 games (all in conference) as a true freshman at Vanderbilt, Sheldon is averaging over 23 minutes, 8.6 points, 4 rebounds, and is shooting 33% from beyond the arc.  (He's hitting 40% of his treys for the season.)

 

So, one of those two players we apparently wanted.  And wanted him bad.  The other ... meh.  Apparently not worth an offer.  I am mystified.  I remain as mystified about it now as I was all last year if you can remember the threads on the old board about it.  And now that I've actually seen a little of Kale Abrahamson in person ... total head scratcher.  

Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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I was always a big fan of Doc's (I'm sure that comes as a great surprise to most people on here) but the one area that I was always kind of critical of him on was recruiting.  And then this Sheldon Jeter situation developed.  I could not for the life of me understand why we weren't trying to get into the picture with Sheldon.  It's not like he stuck around the east coast or went to a big name basketball school.  Hell, Wisconsin offered and we might have actually beaten them out for a recruit.  It's not like Sheldon was going to be an academic casualty either.  The proof of that is that he's playing this year.  For Vanderbilt.  Which is an academically prestigious school.

 

I just never could figure this one out and now that I have something to compare him to with Kale Abrahamson, it's all the more puzzling to me.  Abrahamson, I almost hate to say it, but he strikes me as sort of a poor man's Alex Chapman.

Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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Speaking of Vanderbilt, they're just two spots below us in Kenpom's rankings, so a pretty comparable ball club.  And he's putting up pretty solid numbers as a true freshman.  And he fits that profile of the 6'5" to 6'7" player that Miles seems to like having in abundance.  And Sheldon is getting his points and minutes on a team that plays 9 players to double-figure minutes.  Sheldon would rank 4th on his team in points scored per minute played.

 

I really wish I knew the inside story of why we didn't recruit the kid.

Swan88

Swan88

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Norm said: "I was always a big fan of Doc's."

I too was/am a Doc fan. Doc started out well and showed some promise. But he then became the victim of a string of self-inflicted bad luck that did him in: from the Sallee debacle, to the Diaz TOEFL fiasco, to Diaz refusing to play his first year of eligibility, to signing the likes of Shang Ping and Alex Chapman, to an incredible and constant rash of injuries, to Cookie Miller and Jay-R Strowbridge leaving early, to signing a top-notch recruit who then doesn't show up (can't remember his name), etc., etc. etc. The bad luck seemed to snowball, especially after Sallee couldn't enroll, and kicked him out the door.

That being said, the Tim Miles era is now here, and Nebrasketball is poised for greatness in a manner that Doc obviously could never produce. Tim Miles, for example, has a history of making multiple start-up projects work successfully, while Doc never had the experience of making one start-up work.

Go Big Red!

Huskerpapa

Huskerpapa

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Norm, I believe this is a key observation:

 

Sheldon didn't have a Husker offer so far as we know.  Not sure why. 

 

We all know that recruiting has many facets and ebbs and flows.  What draws us to a kid, or vice-versa; what are the family dynamics or so forth.  Lance did not start out at Nebraska, in fact he did not even start as a basketball player in college.  He meandered a bit prior to landing at Nebraska.  Could it have been a requirement that Sheldon stay within 500 miles or an 8-hour driving distance? 

 

I am likely preaching to the choir, but the fact that there didn't even appear to be a sniff of interest (either way) leads me to believe there were issues that we simply do not know about. 

49r

49r

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cwg, while I definitely agree that there are probably easily more factors at play than we are aware of vis-a-vis Sheldon's recruitment (or lack thereof) to Nebraska, but...

 

I do seem to recall a tweet from @sweetjete34 a while back talking about how NU would regret not recruiting him.  Seems like we would have been on the inside track for Sheldon if we had pursued him.

 

Maybe Doc was putting all his eggs in the Gesell basket?  I dunno.

Red Rum

Red Rum

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Count me in the camp that is baffled as to why we didn't offer Jeter.

 

Maybe Doc figured Jeter and Shields were essentialy the same? Then tried to put the full court press on Gessell? Few really know but I would have loved Jeter on this team. I'm sure Coach Miles would have too. Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk.

Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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Rum, it's not that I want to cry over spilt milk.  OK, maybe in a small way I do.  But since we just saw the kid that HuskerBB says was maybe our top target or certainly higher on our board than any of the players we ended up with, it made me curious to go back and look at what Sheldon has done now that he's in college.  And compare him to the guy that we apparently wanted.  And in my mind, there's no comparison.

 

And I guess I just wanted to vent a little bit.  And get the discussion going about something that interests me.  I mean, I'd been talking up Sheldon Jeter ever since his visit out here that August whatever year it was.  That was before he had big-time offers.  Before he was a Rivals Top 150 player. 

 

And, for as much as we needed players, it baffled and frustrated me that there was never any indication that we made him an offer -- in spite of the obvious tie in that we had with him.

 

To a certain extent, looking at what he's doing in college makes me feel a bit vindicated.  If the first half of his first season in D1 is any indication, the kid has significant promise as a player.  And you can't tell me that we were just overloaded at his position or something.  We took Jerran Young, a kid with similar dimensions as Sheldon.  And after Miles pulled his scholarship, Jerran landed at Wright State where he averages 15 minutes of playing time and 6.7 points.  We had room for Young but we didn't have room for Sheldon Jeter?

 

I agree, there's obviously nothing we can do about it now.  But I just wanted to get it off my chest because this was something that we'd talked about on the old board a number of times.  Thanks for letting me vent.

cipsucks

cipsucks

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That's Doc for ya. Who hired Doc by the way? Pederson?

I'm no Pederson fan, in fact I'd bet a couple 14 oz. ribeyes the guy's got a 666 branded underneath his thick head of hair.  That being said, with the timing of Collier's departure, Sadler was as good a hire as could be expected.

HuskerTex

HuskerTex

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cwg, while I definitely agree that there are probably easily more factors at play than we are aware of vis-a-vis Sheldon's recruitment (or lack thereof) to Nebraska, but...

I do seem to recall a tweet from @sweetjete34 a while back talking about how NU would regret not recruiting him. Seems like we would have been on the inside track for Sheldon if we had pursued him.

Maybe Doc was putting all his eggs in the Gesell basket? I dunno.

49r

49r

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I like their cheer, "Jete, Jete, Jeter!".  Clever.

 

Oh, and good luck against Istanbul (Not Constantinople).

 

Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks

HuskerBB

HuskerBB

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Norm this is a good post and you certainly do deserve credit for carrying the Jeter ball early on.  Unfortunately this is not the only "hard to explain" story (recruiting or otherwise) from the Doc Sadler era at NU.

 

atskooc

atskooc

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49r, I came back as a bag of groceries accidently taken off the shelf before the expiration date.

 

I didn't apologize for when I was eight and I made my younger have to be my personal slave.

Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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Norm this is a good post and you certainly do deserve credit for carrying the Jeter ball early on.  Unfortunately this is not the only "hard to explain" story (recruiting or otherwise) from the Doc Sadler era at NU.

True.  Very true.

49r

49r

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49r, I came back as a bag of groceries accidently taken off the shelf before the expiration date.

 

 

I didn't apologize for when I was eight and I made my younger have to be my personal slave.

 

 

I was hoping someone would get the reference.  Good work, fellas!

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