Norm Peterson

So, if next year is a 30 game season, what's your expectation for wins? What's your expectation for how we'll finish in conference?

@millerhusker You didn't watch the video I posted.

Kobe really struggled from mid-December until mid-February. Last 10 or 11 games, he settled in and only had two really bad performances in that final stretch. But from about the beginning of conference play in December until about the Illinois OT loss where he didn't score, he wasn't producing much in the way of highlights or stats you'd want to hang your hat on. So, it kind of depends on which Kobe we get: the one who went off for 23 points against Northwestern?; or the one who went 1-9 from the field against Rutgers? His trouble was he was either on or off. If he can be more consistently on, he has a role. But I see it coming down to either him or Keisei for those minutes. Kobe has some advantages, but Keisei's strongest attribute is probably what we desire most.

Wasn't really directing it at anyone consciously. I just saw some recurring comments across a number of threads and gave them some thought. Probably not enough thought. But that's an interesting reply, @Nebrasketballer

His little brothers Orem, Lehi and Provo Ogden also have coaching aspirations. Or so I've heard. I might have just made that up.

People asking lots of questions. Who's going to play what position? Will the newcomers come in and command a bunch of minutes and starts? At whose expense will the newcomers gain minutes? A window into answering some of those questions might come from looking at the 4 factors: Shooting; rebounding; turnovers; free throws. We sucked last year because we were the worst rebounding team in the Big 10. We were second-to-last in free throw percent. And bottom five in shooting and turning the ball over. That's a recipe for futility. Among the guys who need to make big strides in the off-season, Dalano Banton was the team leader in turnovers. He was also a marginal free throw shooter. And he was bad from beyond the arc, although this was somewhat mitigated by his ability to finish (he shot over 50% from 2-point range.) Banton was also far and away our best rebounder, corralling nearly 40 more boards than 2nd place Lat Mayen. On a team with better shooters, his deficiency from downtown might be camouflaged. If you want to knock him out of the starting lineup and give his minutes to someone else, you mind explaining who will grab the boards for us? Speaking of Lat, he wasn't terrible. Some people act like he was gawd-awful. He wasn't. In fact, I thought he looked better and more comfortable as the season progressed. He didn't turn the ball over a ton. He rebounded reasonably well for his position. He made the most 3-pointers of anyone on the team. And he was our #1 freethrow shooter at nearly 80%. If you want to play someone else at the stretch 4 position, you better show me someone who can hit better than 35% from deep and rebound the basketball. I'm open to discussing freshmen coming in and starting. In fact, I think we'd be nuts not to start our first 5-star recruit ever. But everyone else is going to have to legit beat someone out. And that's actually a good thing. Position battles make the whole team better.

We have had a ton of good news the last few weeks but we probably need to all pump the brakes a bit on expectations. While I have been among the many who have been blown away by what we've somehow managed to put together during this off season, it should be noted ... We will still be VERY YOUNG next year. They don't say "get old and stay old" to succeed in basketball for nothing. Sure, most of those freshmen will be "seasoned freshmen." But given the relative inexperience of the roster overall, it's probably best to assume we're still a year away. We should be a lot better in year 3 than we were in year 2, but we could improve a ton year over year this coming season and still not be very good.

I was thinking of any time we had Dalano, Thor or Shamiel on the floor. And I was thinking, though I didn't make it clear, of perimeter threats. Thor shot 6 for 11 beyond the arc in the last two games, which pushed his season average to almost 30% from deep, but prior to the last two games, he was under 25% from 3-point range. Shamiel finished under 20% and Dalano was under 25% from deep on the season. And, frankly, Kobe, outside of 3 games on the season where he got hot, was just a pedestrian 30% shooter from deep. I don't think those are numbers we're going to see from 4 of our rotation players this coming season.

The mind just boggles when you think about it. The combinations are practically limitless. I mean, you could practically throw out any 5 guys on the roster and make an argument for it.

Yeah, that's what I did after I posted my question and I saw the answer already. So, it does factor Cockburn and Dosunmu leaving. Torvik thinks we'll improve a lot but that Illinois will remain ahead of us in spite of those two huge losses. So, I guess that's why they play the games, right?

Illinois loses both Cockburn and Dosunmu. Does Torvik have that factored in yet?

Am I correct that the numbers to the left of the player's position abbreviation are his average stars from the recruiting services? If so, you have Elijah Wood listed as a 4-star. If that's not stars, then I have no idea what the numbers represent. Thanks

And let me be perfectly clear, here. I say we hit a home run on transfers. That doesn't mean I think these guys will be among Jeff Borzello's top 50 impact transfers. They didn't have enough of a college career before hitting the portal to make anyone's list like that. But what they are to us is high quality freshmen. Freshmen who were both ESPN top 100/Rivals 150 kinds of players. Players we GLADLY would have recruited out of high school. In fact, the Wilcher kid we did recruit out of high school. When you can snag a top 50 recruit off the transfer portal who has freshman eligibility, that's a good thing. It's like getting a top 50 or top 100 kid who decommitted from his old school and re-opened his recruitment. That's what this is like. Times two.

I can't compare because I don't know what happened with other teams and, even if I did know who stayed and who left, I wouldn't know if it was good or bad for them on the whole. For us, though, I can say I think we'd have to be among the winners. I did a thread on it. Something like "returnees/departures/arrivals." We kept the players we would have wanted to keep. The guys who left are the ones we probably needed to have leave in order to make room for talent upgrades. And we hit a home run on the transfer market. Oh my gawd did we hit a home run on the transfer market. Our talent level this coming season is going to be so much better than it was last year or the year before. We've clearly checked off some boxes.

If Lakes sticks around, he could be on the first Husker team to win an NCAA tourney game, so ...

We have Bryce for that "creating his own shot" role. We need some guys who are money from downtown. Keisei has a quick trigger and is uber accurate. I don't see Kobe's skillset filling a role that would be as useful to us as Keisei's skillset would be.

If we're playing the same players essentially the same or similar minutes as they got last year, then we should expect the same or similar results. Y'know, that definition of insanity thing. It's not that I don't like Kobe. I just hope that we've upgraded the talent enough that he only sees the floor in mop-up duty. Or in the event of foul trouble.

You mean when we're up 85-60 and the end of the bench is in the game and there's still 30 seconds left in the game, but the shot clock is running out, so someone needs to shoot it? That kind of end-of-game 3-pointer? I'm down with that scenario.

Thorir.

He appears to be a guy who has the handles and quicks to beat his defender off the bounce, get to the rim and finish. He also appears to be a guy -- not that it's encouraged in the Hoiberg offense -- who could likewise pull up from mid-range and shoot off the dribble. And it's possible he has decent 3-point range. Good enough that an opposing defense would have to account for him. Seems like his mere presence on the floor creates some matchup problems. At 6'7, I think he's clearly going to have a quickness advantage over most other guys his stature. And if you choose a quicker, smaller guard to defend him, his length becomes an advantage. Will his skills get him on the floor? Assuming his shooting is there, will he be able to defend well enough to command minutes? I have no idea. I hope so. But it seems like a 6'7 wing who can get his own shot and can score efficiently is a tremendous advantage over those teams who have a 3rd backcourt player who isn't a scoring threat at all. (See last year's Huskers, for instance.)

What does having a 6'7 wing with decent handles, reasonable athleticism, and pretty good shooting touch do for this offense?

That seems a reasonable guess.

Yeah, I think there's a very strong possibility Wilhelm jumps up in the rankings before it's all said and done. From what I'd seen so far, he sure hasn't hurt himself at all from his play so far this season. Weird year that I think it's still going on.

When they were coming out of high school, Trey was listed by Rivals as a PG and the #83 player in the class of 2017. Dalano Banton was listed as a SG and the #80 player in that same class. While Kobe shot better to end the season, I'm not sure he has quite the firepower to stay ahead of Keisei. And Banton kicking to Keisei in the corner could result in a lot of treys. I see that 2nd string looking more like Dalano (or Trey) at point with Keisei at the off-guard and probably Edwards at wing. Still, a strong group of players. Two strong groups.

Hmmmm, I thought I remembered this kid. I really liked him back then, too.