Top 25 Husker Recruits in the 24/7 Era

[Nebrasketballer]

25 minutes ago, 49r said:

 

Keon Edwards would be #3 on the list if he came in as a HS recruit, between Glynn and Breidenbach

CJ Edwards would be #5 on the list (between hypothetical #4 Breidenbach and hypothetical #6 Thom Allen)

 

Jake Hammond and Nate Hawkins would drop out of the top 25.

Edwards would be #2 if he was on the list. He was the #22 overall prospect in the 2021 class, before he reclassified to 2020 (Which is only 3 spots behind Bryce McGowens in the 2021 class). Edwards was a borderline 5 Star before he reclassified

Edited April 21, 2021 by Nebrasketballer

[Norm Peterson]

37 minutes ago, 49r said:

 

 

Sorry I kind of hijacked the thread a few posts ago.  I'll try and help get it back on track.  Let's see how this breaks down by coach.  (I think I got this right, correct me if I'm wrong)  

 

Players on the 21-22 roster are in bold:

 

Fred Hoiberg (3 classes) - (8 players - 2.67 per year)

• Bryce McGowens (1)
• Wilhelm Breidenbach (3)
• Yvan Oedraogo (6)
• Samari Curtis (10)
• Oleg Kojenets (14)
• Eduardo Andre (15)
• Teddy Allen (18)
• Akol Arop (23)

Tim Miles (7 classes) - (10 - 1.43)

• Glynn Watson (2)
• Thomas Allen (4)
• Ed Morrow, Jr (5)
• Isaiah Roby (7)
• Jordy Tshimanga (11)
• Nana Akenten (16)
• Jeriah Horne (17)
• Nick Fuller (19)
• Jake Hammond (24)
• Nate Hawkins (25)

Doc Sadler (6 classes) - (6 - 1)

• Christian Standhardinger (9)
• Brandon Ubel (12)
• Alonzo Edwards (8)
• Adrian Coleman (13)
• David Rivers (21)
• Rey Gallegos (22)

Barry Collier (6 classes) - (1 - 0.13)

• BJ Walker (20)

 

 

 

In summary, we have 4 of the 25 highest-ranked HS recruits in the last 25 years or so on the current roster.   Miles, Sadler and Collier would have all been happy with one or two such players on any given team.  We will have 4, and they're not like 20-25 guys either.  Each one of them is in the top 15.  Not sure what it means, but it's probably better than it's ever been, talent wise, around here since the Nee days.

 

How far back does this list go? Because Aleks Maric was a 4-star by at least one of the services. Joe McCray was considered one of the best shooters in his class. I'm sure that the trio of Wes Wilkinson, Jason Dourrisseau and Roy Enright were all highly regarded and I am certain that Roy was a top 100 player (maybe top 80) by one service. Then you had Collier's really big haul the year that we got Jamel White and Chris Balham. We had a 4-star kid who decommitted and went to, like, Pitt, and washed up there.

 

So ... 

 

There were a few other players that I would have ranked in our top 30 that don't show up there, so I'm wondering how far back it goes.

[Navin R. Johnson]

1 hour ago, hugh42 said:

 

I attended a practice when Adrian Coleman was still with the Huskers and Doc was on him the entire practice. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to take to Doc's style of coaching and I wasn't surprised at the time when he transferred at the semester. He did go on to have a good career at Butane Cookman though...I mean Bethune...damn it Navin!

 

Any chance you get you are going to bring that up!  I remember Doc riding Mike Smith all practice. It was kind of funny but I felt sorry for the kid.

[HB]

7 minutes ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

 

Any chance you get you are going to bring that up!  I remember Doc riding Mike Smith all practice. It was kind of funny but I felt sorry for the kid.

 

Nobody got rode like Toney McCray.   That guy should get a trophy, and an annuity from prominent boosters, for not transferring.  Doc was just merciless on that guy at practice.  

[hugh42]

34 minutes ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

 

Any chance you get you are going to bring that up!  I remember Doc riding Mike Smith all practice. It was kind of funny but I felt sorry for the kid.

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist. 

 

It seemed as though Doc had his favorites that he would ride. I think those that hung in there ultimately realized that Doc was trying to get the best out of them. Coleman certainly didn't see it that way or at least didn't appreciate Doc's methods.

[millerhusker]

3 hours ago, HB said:

 

Nobody got rode like Toney McCray.   That guy should get a trophy, and an annuity from prominent boosters, for not transferring.  Doc was just merciless on that guy at practice.  

I also remember Doc telling the media if there was anyone on the roster who had NBA potential, it was Toney McCray. 

[Handy Johnson]

I’m surprised Jordy & Ubel were that high, (especially Jordy) Standhardinger tho should be rated by  an entirely different metric...

[HuskerFever]

5 hours ago, 49r said:

Sorry I kind of hijacked the thread a few posts ago.  I'll try and help get it back on track.  Let's see how this breaks down by coach.  (I think I got this right, correct me if I'm wrong)  

 

Players on the 21-22 roster are in bold:

 

Fred Hoiberg (3 classes) - (8 players - 2.67 per year)

• Bryce McGowens (1)
• Wilhelm Breidenbach (3)
• Yvan Oedraogo (6)
• Samari Curtis (10)
• Oleg Kojenets (14)
• Eduardo Andre (15)
• Teddy Allen (18)
• Akol Arop (23)

Tim Miles (7 classes) - (10 - 1.43)

• Glynn Watson (2)
• Thomas Allen (4)
• Ed Morrow, Jr (5)
• Isaiah Roby (7)
• Jordy Tshimanga (11)
• Nana Akenten (16)
• Jeriah Horne (17)
• Nick Fuller (19)
• Jake Hammond (24)
• Nate Hawkins (25)

Doc Sadler (6 classes) - (6 - 1)

• Christian Standhardinger (9)
• Brandon Ubel (12)
• Alonzo Edwards (8)
• Adrian Coleman (13)
• David Rivers (21)
• Rey Gallegos (22)

Barry Collier (6 classes) - (1 - 0.13)

• BJ Walker (20)

 

 

 

In summary, we have 4 of the 25 highest-ranked HS recruits in the last 25 years or so on the current roster.   Miles, Sadler and Collier would have all been happy with one or two such players on any given team.  We will have 4, and they're not like 20-25 guys either.  Each one of them is in the top 15.  Not sure what it means, but it's probably better than it's ever been, talent wise, around here since the Nee days.

 

Breakdown of players with knowledge of the local city parks, by coach:

 

Fred Hoiberg (0 players)

Tim Miles (0 players)

Doc Sadler (1 player)

Barry Collier (0 players)

[HB]

1 hour ago, millerhusker said:

I also remember Doc telling the media if there was anyone on the roster who had NBA potential, it was Toney McCray. 

Did you ever go to practice?

[millerhusker]

11 minutes ago, HB said:

Did you ever go to practice?

Nope. I wish I would've. Loved hearing stories from people who did. 

[huskerbill85]

Surprised Jamel White wasnt on that list kid was a good player 

[basketballjones]

21 hours ago, Nebrasketballer said:

Didn't Alonzo Edwards have knee issues that kept him from consistent playing time? Am I remembering that correctly?

Also, if Keon Edwards wouldn't have reclassified from 2021 to 2020, then he would be #2 on this list.

In case anyone was wondering - I beat Alonzo Edwards in a 3pt and FT contest in Coaching Basketball class with Larry Ribble at UNL. 
 

Please, try to go on with your day.

[aphilso1]

1 minute ago, basketballjones said:

In case anyone was wondering - I beat Alonzo Edwards in a 3pt and FT contest in Coaching Basketball class with Larry Ribble at UNL. 
 

Please, try to go on with your day.

 

I also have an Alonzo Edwards story.

 

I was riding the campus bus when everyone got off except Alonzo and me.  He must've been on the bus for a while at that point, because the bus driver turns around and says something like: "this is the last stop before I loop back around again.  You sure you didn't miss your stop?"

 

Alonzo's response: "Nah man.  I'm just ridin'"

 

At the time I found it pretty funny and bizarre.  With time, it makes me wonder if maybe he rode the bus regularly back home in Houston and was just homesick.  Maybe riding the campus bus was therapeutic and reminded him of home.  

[busticket]

13 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

In case anyone was wondering - I beat Alonzo Edwards in a 3pt and FT contest in Coaching Basketball class with Larry Ribble at UNL. 
 

Please, try to go on with your day.

I was actually wondering about that.

[basketballjones]

9 minutes ago, aphilso1 said:

 

I also have an Alonzo Edwards story.

 

I was riding the campus bus when everyone got off except Alonzo and me.  He must've been on the bus for a while at that point, because the bus driver turns around and says something like: "this is the last stop before I loop back around again.  You sure you didn't miss your stop?"

 

Alonzo's response: "Nah man.  I'm just ridin'"

 

At the time I found it pretty funny and bizarre.  With time, it makes me wonder if maybe he rode the bus regularly back home in Houston and was just homesick.  Maybe riding the campus bus was therapeutic and reminded him of home.  

Dang man. Too deep for pre-9am on a Thursday. That's a damn sad story. 

[millerhusker]

23 hours ago, Nebrasketballer said:

Didn't Alonzo Edwards have knee issues that kept him from consistent playing time? Am I remembering that correctly?

Also, if Keon Edwards wouldn't have reclassified from 2021 to 2020, then he would be #2 on this list.

Was this Kyle Marks? There was a good amount of hype around him and the rest of that recruiting class. We beat out Florida for Marks, if I remember correctly. I thought he had knee issues while he was here. 

[MichHusker]

Fun going back and looking at Husker commits over the years. The one thing I want to know though is who the hell was Toni Soda??

https://247sports.com/player/toni-soda-64665/

[millerhusker]

3 minutes ago, MichHusker said:

Fun going back and looking at Husker commits over the years. The one thing I want to know though is who the hell was Toni Soda??

https://247sports.com/player/toni-soda-64665/

The 7 footer that was going to take us to the Sweet 16 with Robert Sallie, Rishawn Norwood and Will Harris on the perimeter!

[Norm Peterson]

23 hours ago, aphilso1 said:

I was just perusing the team recruiting rankings and salivating over our Top 15 Class (which is even better when considering the two 4-yr transfers that aren't included in said ranking).  I noticed something extremely interesting at the bottom of our team recruiting page -- a list of the highest rated signees for as long as 24/7 Sports has been around.  I find a few of these quite surprising, as I didn't remember the player being highly regarded when we signed him (for example, Yvan at #6).  Others seem extremely underrated based on their recruiting pedigree (such as Teddy at #19).  Without further ado, the Top 25 recruits in the 24/7 era are:

 

1. Bryce McGowens 5*

2. Glynn Watson 4*

3. Wilhelm Breidenbach 4*

4. Tom Allen 4*

(All remaining players were rated a 3*)

5. Ed Morrow 

6. Yvan

7. Roby

8. Alonzo Edwards

9. Standhardinger

10. Samari Curtis

11. Jordy Tshimanga

12. Ubel

13. Adrian Coleman

14. Oleg Kojenets

15. Eduardo

16. Nana Akenton

17. Jeriah Horne

18. Teddy

19. Nick Fuller

20. BJ Walker

21. David Rivers

22. Ray Gallegos

23. Akol Arop

24. Jake Hammond

25. Nate Hawkins

 

https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Season/2021-Basketball/Commits/

 

 

OK, you limited your examination to "top 25." The link you provided actually goes back a lot further than that, and so I just took a quick historical look at the older data. Thank you for the link, by the way.

 

Some of the stuff was consistent with what I thought I had remembered. For instance, in the early days of Scout (which became 24/7, right?) I can remember scrolling through page after page of basketball recruits trying to find the top player we were going after. And it was Charles Richardson. And, according to your link, he was ranked the 793rd best player in his class. And that's about the way I remembered it.

 

That's not a typo. 793rd.

 

And he was our top recruit that year.

 

It's just striking how bad our recruiting was before Tim Miles got here.

 

Before Tim Miles, we couldn't even get our foot in the door with Rivals 150 guys. You'd scroll through the names of the players we'd offered or who were at least considering us, and it just flat didn't include any of the top names. At all.

 

I think prior to Miles, we'd never had a Rivals 150 kid on our roster even as a transfer. That's how bad it was. And then, all of a sudden, Tim Miles comes along and we had like six. I remember doing a thread where it was like we went from zero Rivals 150 players to having enough that at least one Rivals 150 guy would have to come off the bench. In a span of only like 2 years. My, how far we had come.

 

Sometimes, during Collier/Sadler years, we got lucky with a guy who was better than the recruiting services gave him credit for. Aleks Maric, for instance, was pretty damned good even as a true freshman. But our starting PG during a couple of the Collier years was Marcus Neal Jr. who was rated outside the top 120. OF JUNIOR COLLEGE PLAYERS. And that certainly fits with what I remember of him.

 

For comparison, Lance Jeter was the #36 juco recruit, and Ade Dagunduro was #16.

 

I remember how excited we were about Roburt Sallie, but he wasn't even in the Rivals 150. And he was supposed to be some kind of program changer.

 

So, this latest flurry of commits is significant. And the guys whose doors we are knocking on now suggests that trajectory should continue.

[aphilso1]

@Norm Peterson I remember the same thing, especially with the Roburt Sallie recruitment.  I distinctly remember thinking that all we needed was one elite player to get us over the hump from middle-to-bottom of the pack BXII team to bubble considerations.  Because somehow even with severely under-talented roster we still managed to be competitive about half the time.  

 

Fast forward to the Miles/Hoiberg eras and the talent level is lightyears ahead, at least according to recruiting ratings.  So either recruiting websites were wildly inaccurate back in the Collier/Sadler days, or Barry and Doc were X's and O's geniuses, or Miles was a severe underachiever.  Or maybe a combo of a couple of those things.

[Norm Peterson]

So, I was curious how the list would look if we added in transfers over the last 2 decades. Top 20. Here's what I come up with:

 

1. Bryce McGowens .9920

2. Isaac Copeland .9901

3. Anton Gill .9810

4. AW III .9801

5. Haanif Cheatham .9695

6. Glyn Watson Jr. .9692

7. Keon Edwards .9666

8. Dalano Banton .9641

9. Wilhelm Breidenbach .9568

10. CJ Wilcher .9541

11. Thomas Allen .9429

12. James Palmer Jr. .9361

13. Ed Morrow .9322

14. Yvan Ouedraogo .9161

15. Isaiah Roby .9110

16. Alonzo Edwards .9059

17. Christian Standhardinger .8997

18. Samari Curtis .8971

19. Jordy Tschimanga .8942

20. Brandon Ubel .8934

 

So, only three of the top 20-rated recruits in the last 21 years (per their high school recruiting rankings) were brought in by someone not named Tim Miles or Fred Hoiberg.

 

In three recruiting classes, Hoiberg has accounted for six of the top 10 and 8 of the top 20-ranked recruits (based on high school rankings) since the turn of the century.

 

Four of the top 10 will be freshmen on next year's Husker basketball team. That's the big stat. Four of the top 10 will be freshmen next season.

[Norm Peterson]

5 minutes ago, Bill Self's Toupee said:

It's unfortunate that we don't have the same sort of data for the Danny Nee years.  I wonder how many of these would be on the list if we went back to 1986?  Half?

 

I think all of these guys would make the list... Tyron Lue, Mikki Moore, Eric Piatkowski, Beau Ried, Rich King, Verson Hamilton, Tony Farmer, Eric Strickland, Kinani Ffriend, Terrence Badgett, Carl Hayes, Clifford Scales, Bernard Day.  All of these players were fairly tauted recruits.

 

Louis Truscott was pretty highly rated coming out of high school. He'd have been top 150 if they'd had those rankings back then.

 

Lue would probably have been a 5-star and Hamilton a 4-star.

 

Strickland and Boone were both 4-stars, for sure, and Woolridge might have been on the cusp of being a 5-star. I think he was rated in the 20s by Street and Smith at the time. He wasn't in the teens. He didn't make the McDonald's AA game. So I'm guessing really high 4-star on the borderline of 5-star.

 

Jamar Johnson was another fairly highly-ranked kid coming out of HS. So was Carl Hayes and also Lewis Jeter. They might have been Rivals 150 quality. Jamar Johnson certainly was.

 

Depreis Owens was probably a 4-star.

 

Chester Surles was probably a Rivals 150 guy. 

 

Mikki Moore was under-rated. A project. Big programs weren't looking at him.

 

Tony Farmer was a mid-major transfer because his school dropped their program. I don't think he was heavily recruited out of HS. He was good, though.

 

Kimani had no HS recruiting ranking; he was a juco transfer, so he wouldn't have made the list. Terrence Badgett doesn't quite make the list either. I think he was a good Nebraska player but that was at a time where Nebraska kids didn't really get recognized for basketball.

[millerhusker]

1 hour ago, aphilso1 said:

@Norm Peterson I remember the same thing, especially with the Roburt Sallie recruitment.  I distinctly remember thinking that all we needed was one elite player to get us over the hump from middle-to-bottom of the pack BXII team to bubble considerations.  Because somehow even with severely under-talented roster we still managed to be competitive about half the time.  

 

Fast forward to the Miles/Hoiberg eras and the talent level is lightyears ahead, at least according to recruiting ratings.  So either recruiting websites were wildly inaccurate back in the Collier/Sadler days, or Barry and Doc were X's and O's geniuses, or Miles was a severe underachiever.  Or maybe a combo of a couple of those things.

Collier and Doc were great with x's and o's and in-game coaching. Miles is a great program manager, promoter and recruiter. 

[Norm Peterson]

I don't think Barry Collier had a clue how tough it was going to be to recruit as Nebraska in the Big 12 and what kind of players he would need to compete at the P5 level, and he was woefully unprepared for the challenge.

 

He thought he could get by with 3rd team all-Jayhawk conference juco players when we were used to having 1st team All-American juco players.

 

It took him 3 years to realize he needed huge help with recruiting and, by that time, the die was cast and he was in big trouble.

 

Doc was at least trying to get the better juco players as well as some quality HS kids, but he still lacked the recruiting chops and it's no wonder he took a position here under Hoiberg with an understanding that he wouldn't have to take part in recruiting.

[millerhusker]

7 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

I don't think Barry Collier had a clue how tough it was going to be to recruit as Nebraska in the Big 12 and what kind of players he would need to compete at the P5 level, and he was woefully unprepared for the challenge.

 

He thought he could get by with 3rd team all-Jayhawk conference juco players when we were used to having 1st team All-American juco players.

 

It took him 3 years to realize he needed huge help with recruiting and, by that time, the die was cast and he was in big trouble.

 

Doc was at least trying to get the better juco players as well as some quality HS kids, but he still lacked the recruiting chops and it's no wonder he took a position here under Hoiberg with an understanding that he wouldn't have to take part in recruiting.

Yep, about 3 years in is when Barry hired Scott Spinelli. It's too bad so many of Spinelli's recruits either didn't make it to campus or just didn't pan out because of eligibility and injury issues. I really liked Barry's offensive style. It was crisp, purposeful basketball. And he had some really solid teams. Finished middle of the pack in the Big 12 more times than not. Just never had the talent to take that next step.