Thinking back to Brandon Ubel's freshman year ...

[Norm Peterson]

Mornin' fellas. Thinking back to a few years ago when Brandon Ubel was a freshman starting for the Nebraska basketball team. He had another freshman starting along the front line with him who, in his 3 years here, was never accused of being a physical player.

That team looked kinda like this:

13 wins in the non-conf

2 wins in conf

15-18 final record

Starting lineup:

C - Freshman (8.8 ppg; 4.0 rpg)

PF - Freshman (4.4 ppg; 2.0 rpg)

SG - Senior (11.3 ppg; 5.3 rpg)

SG - Senior (7.5 ppg; 3.3 rpg)

PG - Jr juco transfer (7.5 ppg; 4.1 apg)

Bench scoring for that team came primarily from 2 sophomore guards who averaged 8.9 and 6.0 ppg.

This year's starting lineup shapes up more like this:

C - Senior

PF - Senior

SG - Senior

SG - Junior

PG - Freshman or Jr juco transfer

Bench scoring appears most likely to come from a freshman wing, sophomore wing or freshman center.

[Norm Peterson]

Now, compare those two lineups and I have some questions:

1. Who was the best overall player out of all the players on both of those two squads?

2. Which of those two teams has/had the better front court?

3. Which of those two teams has/had the better back court?

4. Which of those two teams has/had the better bench?

5. Which of those two teams faced/will face the tougher schedule?

[Huskerpapa]

Hard to tell at this point on many of your questions Norm. Can I answer them after the season is over?

[Norm Peterson]

Well ...

1. I think the overall most productive player on either team is probably Ryan Anderson.

2. I think Almeida and Ubel as seniors beat Diaz and Ubel as freshmen.

3. A back court of Jeter, Sek and Ryan (with backups BRich and Bear Jones) beats Parker, Gallegos and Talley (with backups of Biggs and Shields). And that might actually be a closer match-up than you might think.

4. That '10 team probably has a better bench. Almost certainly. You had guys who could come off that bench and get you points, namely Bear Jones and Brandon Richardson, both sophomores. For this year, it's hard enough to figure out which starters will score the points, let alone where the bench scoring might come from. Although Vucetic is a possibility. Word is he's skilled but soft. Sounds like a certain starter we had back on that '10 team who scored almost 9 ppg.

5. This looks like the tougher schedule this year. In 2010, we played 5 teams who were ranked. A total of 7 games with ranked foes. And none in the non-conference. The non-conference wasn't particularly strong that year. I think this year's non-conference is much stronger. And this year's schedule features 9 games against currently ranked teams.

[Handy Johnson]

Diaz could play on his knees and be better than Almeida. Andre' reminds me of another foreign born Husker "great", Richard Van Polgeist, and that's not a compliment.

[Huskerpapa]

Diaz could play on his knees and be better than Almeida. Andre' reminds me of another foreign born Husker "great", Richard Van Polgeist, and that's not a compliment.

Dre' has a bit more "touch" then Richard.

[49r]

Man, who is this dissin' on "Drago"!

[Huskerpapa]

Nothing whatsoever against Richard...I loved his intensity, yet he did shoot free throws like he had boxing gloves on