Last 12 minutes: Walk-ons and freshmen

Norm Peterson · November 10, 2015

And we still won by 53.

How about this for a stat line: 9 pts (on 67% shooting); 5 rebounds; 2 assists; 1 steal; 1 turnover in 15 minutes.

Whose line was that? That was the true freshman walk-on Tanner Trueblood. Or Johnny Borchardt. Or both. Combination, actually.

I don't think I've ever seen walk-ons account for us many stats (make as many plays) in any game -- exhibition or otherwise -- ever.

The weird things it that, in years past, we actually had some walk-ons in the rotation. Remember Ross Buckendahl? Or Bronson Schliep? Those guys got real minutes. Frickin' Ross Buckendahl averaged 17 minutes (and 2 points) per game his senior year here.

Granted, this was against a DII school, but still. I thought Borchardt played more solid D against the Decker kid than Jacobson. And having a walk-on the caliber of Trueblood might give us the luxury of being able to redshirt a guy like Bakari Evelyn so that we balance out these two most recent recruiting classes a little bit.

Norm Peterson · November 10, 2015

OK, enough about the walk-ons. Now, about those freshmen.

Let's just say you can really see the upgrade in talent and what it means to have a Rivals 4-star.

Now, not all Rivals 4-stars pan out. I realize this.

But we have 3 of them available to play this year and I'd say they're all comfortably within the top 7 or 8 in the rotation.

White is a clear starter; Morrow might be a starter very soon; and Watson could challenge for starter's minutes before too long.

We've moved to that next tier of talent with the influx of guys we have this year.

IMO, the upgrade is very noticeable.

jimmykc · November 10, 2015

What happened to Malcomb Laws? Did he leave the team? His photo is still on the roster.

jimmykc · November 10, 2015

Nevermind, I forgot he was like Gill and only remembered he had played in Spain.

Huskerpapa · November 10, 2015

Laws was there, in fact at one point, with around 7 minutes left, I saw Coach Hunter get up and kneel down if front of him. They had a conversation, but I have no clue regarding content.

colhusker · November 10, 2015

Trueblood looked very comfortable. Also very small compared to some of the other guys on the floor, the weight room will do him well, but I like the confidence he showed taking the ball to the rack.

Norm Peterson · November 10, 2015

Trueblood looked very comfortable. Also very small compared to some of the other guys on the floor, the weight room will do him well, but I like the confidence he showed taking the ball to the rack.

According to Huskers.com, Trueblood is the same height and weight as Tai Webster. I guess Tai is 1 pound heavier. That's within the margin of error for my scale.

uneblinstu · November 10, 2015

Trueblood looked very comfortable. Also very small compared to some of the other guys on the floor, the weight room will do him well, but I like the confidence he showed taking the ball to the rack.

According to Huskers.com, Trueblood is the same height and weight as Tai Webster. I guess Tai is 1 pound heavier. That's within the margin of error for my scale.

It's probably the hair. Tai's got him in that category, easy.

colhusker · November 11, 2015

Trueblood looked very comfortable. Also very small compared to some of the other guys on the floor, the weight room will do him well, but I like the confidence he showed taking the ball to the rack.

According to Huskers.com, Trueblood is the same height and weight as Tai Webster. I guess Tai is 1 pound heavier. That's within the margin of error for my scale.

Boy I missed that Norm, he looked much smaller. Well then.

trickey · November 11, 2015

Trueblood looked very comfortable. Also very small compared to some of the other guys on the floor, the weight room will do him well, but I like the confidence he showed taking the ball to the rack.

According to Huskers.com, Trueblood is the same height and weight as Tai Webster. I guess Tai is 1 pound heavier. That's within the margin of error for my scale.

My home scale has a +/- of 25 lbs. It is a very wonderful machine!

AuroranHusker · November 11, 2015

Trueblood looked very comfortable. Also very small compared to some of the other guys on the floor, the weight room will do him well, but I like the confidence he showed taking the ball to the rack.

According to Huskers.com, Trueblood is the same height and weight as Tai Webster. I guess Tai is 1 pound heavier. That's within the margin of error for my scale.

My home scale has a +/- of 25 lbs. It is a very wonderful machine!

Yeah, those scales tell tall tales.

I have noticed that Johnny Trueblood was listed as 6'-3" 180# on his H.S. bio. Perhaps JT has grown taller by an inch as well as weight on the order of 15#. It's certainly possible in a year's time.

Ron Mexico · November 12, 2015

Let's just say you can really see the upgrade in talent and what it means to have a Rivals 4-star.

I thought the same thing as well Norm.

Handy Johnson · November 12, 2015

Trueblood looked very comfortable. Also very small compared to some of the other guys on the floor, the weight room will do him well, but I like the confidence he showed taking the ball to the rack.

According to Huskers.com, Trueblood is the same height and weight as Tai Webster. I guess Tai is 1 pound heavier. That's within the margin of error for my scale.

Tai looks taller because of the Kid-n-Play haircut

Swan88 · November 12, 2015

Swan88 · November 12, 2015

So, here is a technical question we've all batted around before: Since Tanner Borchardt is attending the University on a Regents Scholarship (must be plenty smart to achieve that scholarship), which he obviously achieved without regard to athletics, and since he will be logging minutes on the court this year, does his Regents Scholarship count against Nebrasketball's 13 scholarship limit?

atskooc · November 12, 2015

So, here is a technical question we've all batted around before: Since Tanner Borchardt is attending the University on a Regents Scholarship (must be plenty smart to achieve that scholarship), which he obviously achieved without regard to athletics, and since he will be logging minutes on the court this year, does his Regents Scholarship count against Nebrasketball's 13 scholarship limit?

As soon as he takes foot on the court in a regular season game, his scholly becomes one for athletics rather than for academics.

Norm Peterson · November 12, 2015

So, here is a technical question we've all batted around before: Since Tanner Borchardt is attending the University on a Regents Scholarship (must be plenty smart to achieve that scholarship), which he obviously achieved without regard to athletics, and since he will be logging minutes on the court this year, does his Regents Scholarship count against Nebrasketball's 13 scholarship limit?

As soon as he takes foot on the court in a regular season game, his scholly becomes one for athletics rather than for academics.

Does he still have to maintain his GPA? Because they're not going to commit a hoops scholarship to him for 4 years. And the Regents is gone if your cumulative GPA drops below a certain figure.

Norm Peterson · November 12, 2015

Yeah, I saw that one coming. (Even though I only saw him play for 5 minutes in the exhibition.)

Hooper · November 12, 2015

We all know the opponent was weak, but I saw enough from Borchardt to feel that he can help us. If Andre Almeida can help us, then so can Tanner Borchardt. He offers a weight/strength profile that no one else on the roster has, and I feel there will be times this year when we're not able to keep bigs from muscling our front-court defenders in the paint. Borchardt may be the answer there, and he's more athletic than you'd think. The guy didn't get FBS football offers because he was a stiff. Post players aren't just going to back him into the basket like he's not there. They'll know he's there.

As far as I'm concerned, this has the potential to be a huge steal for us given that he's only on the team due to open try-outs for walk-ons. Anything we get from him in terms of quality minutes would be a total unexpected steal. Trueblood falls into the same category, though his skill set is not unique on the team like Borchardt's is.

Give Borchardt a year of S&C with Wilson, and some re-distribution of his body mass, and we could have something very interesting there.

Norm Peterson · November 12, 2015

Hooper, so you think you can tell all of that from only watching him for 5 minutes in an exhibition game against weak competition?

I agree.

Wish he'd been a preferred walk-on and been in the S&C program all summer.

Swan88 · November 12, 2015

My recollection from reading the NCAA Bylaws on this subject a year or two ago is that Tanner can keep his Regents Scholarship, even if he plays this year, without it counting against the 13 scholarship limit because:

1. He achieved that Scholarship without regard to athletics in any respect--he came to the University as a regular student on an academic scholarship and did not join the team until tryouts occurred well into the academic year; but

2. Had he come to the University as a preferred walk on, then his Regents Scholarship would probably have counted toward the 13 limit as soon as he steps on the floor--the real issue, I believe, is whether the awarding of the scholarship has anything to do with athletics, which the Regents Scholarship does not.

atskooc · November 13, 2015

So, here is a technical question we've all batted around before: Since Tanner Borchardt is attending the University on a Regents Scholarship (must be plenty smart to achieve that scholarship), which he obviously achieved without regard to athletics, and since he will be logging minutes on the court this year, does his Regents Scholarship count against Nebrasketball's 13 scholarship limit?

As soon as he takes foot on the court in a regular season game, his scholly becomes one for athletics rather than for academics.

Does he still have to maintain his GPA? Because they're not going to commit a hoops scholarship to him for 4 years. And the Regents is gone if your cumulative GPA drops below a certain figure.

I'm not sure how that part of it works.

Good question.

atskooc · November 13, 2015

My recollection from reading the NCAA Bylaws on this subject a year or two ago is that Tanner can keep his Regents Scholarship, even if he plays this year, without it counting against the 13 scholarship limit because:

1. He achieved that Scholarship without regard to athletics in any respect--he came to the University as a regular student on an academic scholarship and did not join the team until tryouts occurred well into the academic year; but

2. Had he come to the University as a preferred walk on, then his Regents Scholarship would probably have counted toward the 13 limit as soon as he steps on the floor--the real issue, I believe, is whether the awarding of the scholarship has anything to do with athletics, which the Regents Scholarship does not.

Thanks for the info...I didn't realize there was a separate set of rules.

uneblinstu · November 13, 2015

If Borchardt plays more than mop-up minutes, whose minutes does he take? Hammond? Jacobsen? someone else?

Swan88 · November 13, 2015

One theory: he takes the minutes of whoever is in foul trouble. Based on what happened in the exhibition game, he might get a lot of those minutes.

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