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For at least an hour or two (hopefully!), I think we still have enough on the roster to field a starting five next year. Williams Gary Mast Hoiberg Jacobsen Grace as our sixth man Burt to fill out the rotation We're fine guys - this lineup could beat a Juwan Howard led Michigan team any day of the week.

I think Purdue has that guy locked up.

I just have this weird feeling that Fred has a plan that we are gonna really like.

I have to wonder who we have lined up to come here for JL to leave

I said this in the other thread but you have to wonder either what we have lined up or what we think we have lined up for guys out of the portal because we're a school that all of a sudden has added winning to everything else we have to offer. As much as JL would have a role on this team next season we absolutely have to be recruiting over him. Seems like a guy after his first couple of years here who would look at a smaller school and less NIL in exchange for a situation where he's the priority.

That was a good article. I'll root for CJ wherever he goes, hope he can have a successful last year where he is the star. Glad he was on our team, while I wish he was back but I appreciate him taking the time to explain his reasoning.

Maybe he turns out to be a great college player somewhere but currently Lloyd has logged less D1 minutes than Brant Banks

Instead of going after two 6'5" guys, we should just go after one 12'10" guy. It's simple math.

I know a lot of our fanbase thinks the sky is falling and that Fred somehow hasn't earned his extension (yes, there are people saying this). But on April 1, 2023, our Nebraska Basketball scholarship roster for 2023-24 looked like this: Keisei Tominaga (did not announce his return until June 1) Blaise Keita Juwan Gary C.J. Wilcher Jamarques Lawrence Ramel Lloyd Wilhelm Breidenbach (would enter portal in May) Quaran McPherson (would enter portal in late April) Eli Rice Rienk Mast committed April 12 Brice Williams committed April 12 Josiah Allick committed May 2 Matar Diop committed July 23 Deep breaths everyone, it will be OK. We are in a much better spot than we were at this time last year.

Can I just say how blown away (in a good way) that at a P5, men's athletics program - that one of our culture values is "Be Kind"? Call me soft, I really don't care.

Why can't both be true?

What is Fred thinking? I would imagine something like this: When you have a close-knit group that accomplishes things that haven't been done here in a long time, it hurts personally to lose guys from that team, especially when they're choosing to leave with the option to come back. However, Ramel/Blaise/Matar literally lose us nothing on paper. They can all effectively be replaced by literally adding any 3 transfers with similar body types. Eli wants to play more minutes right now and had potential but was too slow and would not have been a starter here next year. CJ maxed out here and was also too slow and would not have been a starter here next year. Jamarques is the only one that frustrates me (Fred) but I understand because he wants to be a starter as a junior and I was probably honest with him that that is not guaranteed here because we believe Ulis (or another transfer) is our starting PG and Brice and Juwan are not coming off the bench. Fred had individual meetings with every single player. If anything, these departures should tell you that Mast/Williams/Gary are back because all these guys clearly did not see a path for them to get the minutes they want (or think they deserve) this year. It also tells me Ulis might be better than people think.

JLaw is 431 is Torvik portal rankings. You can argue that's way too low, but it makes it pretty clear that he didn't get a money bag thrown at him. He's leaving because either he wants to play closer to home or he doesn't see his role expanding with the players we're recruiting. He's very valuable to us, but he's not a very shiny new toy to other programs.

Honestly that lineup might finish last

I'm not too worried about replacing these guys, but thinking bigger picture, it's got me wondering...is there any point to recruiting High School players anymore? Our recent high school recruits: Eli Rice - gone after 1 year Jamarques Lawrence - gone after 2 years Ramel Lloyd - gone after 2 years Matar Diop - gone after 1 year Quaran McPherson - gone after 2 years Denim Dawson - gone after 2 years Oleg Kojenets - gone after 2 years Wilhelm Breidenbach - gone after 2 years Eduardo Andre - gone after 2 years Keon Edwards - gone after 1 year Bryce McGowens - NBA after 1 year From what I can gather, Thor Thorbjarnarson is the last high school recruit to complete even 3 full years at Nebraska (his fourth year was 2020-21). I think that is what stings about Jamarques the most. We finally had a HS recruit that was doing something positive on the court, and we couldn't keep him around.

My take on the transfer portal, is that most teams are basically saying, "we're going to fight to keep (pay, promise starting position) anyone who has shown above replacement value production." We really only have 3 of those guys on the roster. Gary, Mast, and Williams. Everyone else is very replaceable from a statistical perspective. JL (who I love and think still has massive potential) averaged 6.9ppg this year on 42% shooting from the field. On paper, you should pretty easily be able to replace a 6.9ppg guy. Btw, major props on JL for 6.9 on .420 shooting - HEY-O. Essentially, if you aren't promised to start and/or given a massive NIL deal, you're considered replaceable. Unfortunately, this really sucks as a fan, as we tend to get attached to these guys. But from a strictly "on paper" perspective, they're just numbers, and you should pretty easily be able to replace a guy who only gets > 8ppg. Losing guys like CJ and JL really sucks because as fans we've learned to love and appreciate them - but statistically speaking - we should very easily be able to replace them with non-tweener athletes with similar or better production. In theory at least.

I'll predict that we'll get better guys in the portal than those who left.

Some athletes are able to return in six or seven months; a realistic time frame is about ten months. So yes, softball is certainly a possibility. I sort of said the same thing about Allison. These players are tough. They will do anything to push the time frame. You almost have to hold them back.

It also shows me that portal rankings aren’t the most meaningful. A lot of players leaving because they weren’t in a situation that allowed them to showcase their talent. Like Lawrence, who played out of position this year because we needed him to. His ranking is grossly deflated because of that. I’d take his re-commitment in a second and he would likely be the lowest rated player from the portal we get.

Air Husker is going Fargo-Minny-Peoria-Champaign. One possibility: Peoria = Hickman, Champaign = Dainja, Minneapolis = Payne, and Fargo = Morgan.

This is the most logical conclusion to draw. I don't believe that another program came with a larger bag of money that we couldn't or refused to match. The timing of his announcement also leads to this conclusion. The players' exit meetings were over a week ago and he is later than most in entering their name in the portal. We have been reaching out to numerous players, as have most programs. I can only surmise, and maybe hope, we have some irons in the fire we feel very confident in that caused JLaw to question his role and playing time going forward. Regardless, I wish JLaw the best. He was pivotal to the team's succuss down the stretch this year.

Take some NyQuil. Get some rest. The puzzle pieces will start to come together with the open spots we have to work with.

I would say it depends on the player and it's very hard to find those and getting harder. Most of the time, players from that state who likely grew up fans, I'd say yes. Players like DWalker, CJ, etc who get that second chance and succeed, I'd say yes. If this is your first stop and you didn't grow up a fan, now that is where it's getting pretty rare to find a yes.

One of the best parts is seeing some of the mid-major kids able to jump up to some Power 5 programs. But the tradeoff is fluidity in rosters year-over-year. I'd imagine this will be one of the reasons Tom Izzo finally packs up and plays golf with Nick Saban.

Really a bummer. JL was one of my favorites and I hope he does well. But I'm afraid he'll be one that realizes the grass isn't always greener. There aren't too many coaches out there that will give him the long leash and ultimate green light that he had here.

It wasn't just us complaining about the Big Ten officiating this year. Other fans did too. And I often wondered if poor officiating in the Big Ten might affect the conference's recruiting. At the very least, I could see it having an impact on player retention and people entering the portal. The gripe wasn't about losing games and blaming the ref. The gripe was about having a level playing field and feeling like you got a fair shake. If you have a rule, but the rule isn't enforced evenly or equally, then you don't really have a rule at all. And if you only apply that rule against me and not against others, then I'm going to feel like the system is unfair. I grant that some of the most contentious areas are judgment calls that can often go either way. But the problem is when the calls always seem to favor the blue team over the red team. If the same action is a block whenever I'm on defense and a charge whenever I'm on offense, I'm going to lose faith in the officiating. And I have lost faith in the officiating. The officiating is bullshit, and I don't feel like they're even trying to make it look like they're being even-handed anymore. That's all. That's it. Thanks for letting me vent.

Looks like we're skipping the trip to Champaign. Either Dainja had better options in Memphis or we had good luck yesterday

There are reasonable explanations for why each of these guys entered. Mostly because of playing time. I honestly think we’re a better team if we were to recruit over Wilcher anyways. He was too one dimensional, and that one dimension was also inconsistent. Lawrence is very replaceable. Remember we were playing good ball even when he was bad for over half the season. Am I glad he’s leaving? No. His spark certainly improved the team, mostly because he was so bad before that. But he’s a dime a dozen imo. I’m sad to lose Diop because I had high hopes for him. And I’ve stated before I don’t think Rice had much upside anyways. Just need to look at his list of portal suitors to see that. The biggest bummer is losing so many guys can affect the locker room. But individually I don’t think we’ve lost anything critical. I’m not going to freak out unless any of the big three decide to leave, or if we fail to land any good portal options.

A team can never have enough Derrick Walkers.

Think all this just means we’ll be hearing good news pretty soon. Also can almost guarantee we’ll bring in another Diop-like high school recruit. It’s a lot easier keeping a freshman happy on the scout team than a sophomore. And a 6’10” guy with long arms is a necessity on the scout team.

Such is the Wild West in the Portal/NIL era. When there’s no penalty to transfer, it makes it so much easier. We aren’t the only ones with this problem. It’s just the new reality.

Good and bad news there....

This type of transfer makes me stop and pause as we think about culture fit. Someone who transferred to a team that was in the Top 25 for the majority of the season, started, and led the team in scoring. What else could he be looking for?

We are looking at Juco as well. So our new players could seemingly come high school, foreign market, junior college or the transfer portal. Our current roster Nebrasketball : Scholarships 2023-2024 2024-2025 2025-2026 2026-2027 2027-2028 13 Tominaga, Keisei Gary, Juwan Diop, Matar Diop, Matar Janowski, Nick 1 S Josiah Allick Ahron Ulis Janowski, Nick Janowski, Nick Frager, Braden 2 C Coleman, Jarron Williams, Brice Frager, Braden Frager, Braden ** OPEN ** 3 H Gary, Juwan Mast, Rienk ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 4 O Ahron Ulis Diop, Matar ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 5 L Williams, Brice Janowski, Nick ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 6 A Mast, Rienk Frager, Braden ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 7 R Wilcher, CJ ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 8 S Keita, Blaise ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 9 H Lawrence, Jamarques ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 10 I Lloyd, Ramel ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 11 P Rice, Eli ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 12 S Diop, Matar ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** ** OPEN ** 13 + W A O Hoiberg, Sam Hoiberg, Sam Hoiberg, Sam Jacobsen, Cale L N Grace, Jeffery Grace, Jeffery Grace, Jeffery Henry, Burt K Jacobsen, Cale Jacobsen, Cale Jacobsen, Cale K Henry, Burt Henry, Burt Henry, Burt E SENIOR JUNIOR SOPHOMORE FRESHMAN RED-SHIRT Y RS = Redshirt * Doesn't count towards limit Last Updated 3/27/2024

I’d guess >50% for sure. The successful transfers get all the attention, but seems like for every successful one there are 4 players who aren’t in the rotation at their new school. Everything goes in cycles and I do believe the newness of the portal will wear off and the negative side of it will come to light eventually. Pretty soon the “new thing” that wins out for both players and coaches will be consistent player retention.

That's how I see it also. Maybe not a push but "this is the ceiling of your role here in the program." Lawrence taking so long tells me he was debating it for a while and torn on it. It'll be very interesting where he ends up.

I would be shocked if the coaching staff tried to "push" or "nudge" JL out. After JL's departure, NU now has 6 open scholarships. Fred may be able to find a couple nice additions that are an upgrade to the team, but there is almost no chance that he lands 6 players of higher caliber than JL. And logic dictates that if he can't get all 6 better than JL, then there is no reason to push or nudge someone like JL to leave. For instance, let's say the staff is able to land 3 players better than JL, but the other 3 are worse than JL. Why would the staff want to the net result to be worse? Why not just sign the 3 upgrades and keep JL who is (probably) far better than the 6th player signed out of the portal?

If it is true that the staff didn't expect or want JL to leave, I wonder if this is a case where the door will be left open for him to "re-commit" to Nebraska if he doesn't get the offers or attention he wants out of portal. I can think of quite a few players at other schools that happened with last year.

Yeah, I see this more of taking Keita’s spot and giving us a true backup center. Because who was that this year?

You say that like Nebraska hasn't tampered with anyone

Mast's teammate at Bradley shot 40% from 3 last season and his assist numbers indicate he'd work in our offense

When we were signing guys 2 years ago we were a bad team with a coach who might have been fired had he not beaten two NCAA tourney teams on the road to end the season. A lot of guys wouldn't sign here. How fortunate were we that Sam Griesel wanted to play here more than he wanted to potentially score or win?

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/SLH816

When Morrow and Jacobson left after their sophomore seasons, it really began to hit me that these guys will leave regardless of how we think they fit or like it here. And then when I see starters leaving Elite 8 teams like that evil team from east Omaha last season, it really solidified my fear that there is very little full commitment / faithfulness to one team these days. And I find that incredibly sad. I love NIL, but we need some sort of balance to roster and coach stability across the board. As some have mentioned, contracts may be in line sooner than later for players.

Greatly enjoyed watching these after the basketball games this year, so I'm thankful baseball is doing them as well. Especially since baseball games are harder to catch on the tube/internet.

I think we just got a Juco catcher commit didn't we?

Yeah, I'm not positive about anyone.

I was growing quite fond of NIL and the portal, but this Jamarques news really sucks. Now I hate the portal at least until we bring in new guys from the portal that I will probably end up liking but for now I hate the portal. #portal