Norm Peterson

Last couple of years, I've definitely been in the show-me mode. I was so pissed after the first game of the Verge-Bryce McGowans era that I accurately foresaw the disaster that season was going to become. I was actually pretty skeptical going into Hoiberg Year 2. I remember asking the question what changed in our lineup so much to think Year 2 would be materially any better than Year 1. So, I've been kind of down on the whole Hoiberg era from shortly after the start of Season 1 when it was clear our recruiting had been smoke and mirrors. It started to improve a bit last year after we beat Creighton. It continued to rise as I watched how the team responded to the season-ending injuries to Bandoumel and Gary. And I was fairly happy with how we did in the portal. My optimism, I felt, was validated when I watched the hoops Opening Night the other night. That's when the needle moved for me from "we *could* be pretty good" to "we *should* be pretty good." I feel like we finally have a coaching staff that a) has their shit together; b) cares; and c) can get the most out of the roster. And, speaking of rosters, I feel like we finally have a roster that a) doesn't have a glaring weakness; b) has quality depth; and c) has players who will likely be more concerned about wins than how they individually fill the stat sheet. So, yeah, I haven't been geeked very much for about the last 4 years. I'm getting increasingly geeked now.

Good gawd you're an old fart. And I am NEXT to your lawn. I am not ON your lawn.

At least they have Fred ranked two spots ahead of Danny Sprinkle.

OK, now I gotta go look at this.

I think we're looking at anywhere from half a season to an end to his career. I think the NCAA could factor in that he was young and stupid when he did this. The question that might tip the scales is whether he gambled on his own team, especially if he picked them to lose.

I think that change in want-to is what happens when you bring in assistants who actually care about winning instead of glad-handing and schmoozing. I still acutely remember how I used to complain about the players goofing around during pre-game and halftime warmups. Just maddening. And then they'd go lay an egg. That doesn't happen anymore.

Without even looking at it I bet he hated Val's pizza. I love Valentino's, but that's not his style of pizza at all. Not even remotely.

This is a really good point. A REALLY GOOD POINT. In practically all the years of Hoiberg, we've gotten hammered on the boards. You look over on the ribbon boards around the arena halfway through most conference games and we'd be routinely down 10 rebounds to the opposing team. At home. Those 10 boards equate to 10 extra possessions where they have a chance to score. Figure every extra possession from every extra rebound is about an extra point give or take. So, of the guys we picked up in the portal ... Rienk Mast was the #2 overall leading rebounder in the Missouri Valley Conference last year at 8.0 per game. Josiah Allick was the #2 overall leading rebounder in the Mountain West Conference last year at 7.3 per game. Brice Williams was the #15 overall leading rebounder in Conference USA last year at 5.3 per game. Jarron Coleman, even as a PG, was the #20 overall leading rebounder in the MAC last year at 4.9 per game. So, the transfers we've brought in are decent to very good rebounders for their positions. And winning the rebounding battle will probably move the needle as much as anything in our win/loss record year over year. In conference games last year, we won the game EVERY TIME we won the boards. And 12 out of the 16 games where we lost the battle of the boards, we also lost the game. And in the 4 games we won despite being outrebounded, we were only outrebounded by 1, 2, 3 and 5 boards each. So, it seems safe to say this year, if we're holding our own on the boards, the dividends should be obvious.

Additionally, that particular year, Bryce McGowens was a freshman as were CJ, Willhelm, Keon Edwards and Eduardo. Keisei was a sophomore. And Derrick Walker was a junior. I’m not sure that roster compares very favorably, talent-wise, with the current group. So …

I could be wrong here, but I feel like if I could plot a graph of all 360someodd D1 basketball teams where the X axis represents talent and the Y axis represents wins, the bulk of the teams would fall pretty close to a diagonal line that extends upward from left to right, with a smattering of dots in the left upper quadrant and the right lower quadrant. But there seems to be a correlation between talent level and win/loss record. It's not a perfect correlation, but a strong one nevertheless.

Don't sleep on Eli Rice is all I'm saying.

I hadn't noticed anyone else point this out yet, sorry if I missed it, but Rivals gave Nick his 4th star and moved him into the top 100. Nick Janowski, 2024 Shooting Guard, Nebraska (rivals.com)

Boy, if that's true, how does that make you feel, @HB? What kind of floors me is Ohio St being picked 4th after having finished 13th and losing Bryce Sensabaugh to the NBA draft. I'm curious what their portal adds looked like that would make them a 2nd weekend NCAA tourney team after finishing with 5 conference the year before.

Fair. But we cannot control how good the other guys are. We can only control how good we are compared with where we were the year before. And so that's the question: Have we improved year over year from last year to this?

Now that you've had a chance to kick the tires a bit, and check out the new guys, what do you think? We lost a starting PG and big man to graduation. We lost a starting SG to injury AND graduation. We lost a reserve forward to the portal. And we lost two projects, a PG and a post, to the portal. But I'd argue we managed to keep everyone we'd have wanted to have back who still had eligibility. This was for a team that was either the best of the worst in the league or the worst team in the middle of the pack. Our crucial needs were to replace Walker and Griesel. Less urgently but still important, we had to find some front court depth. Then, we needed to generally find some talent upgrades. And now we've added a big man off the portal who was the best player from the best team in the Mo Valley. We added another big who played 32 min/game and put up 8 and 7 on a roughly top 60 New Mexico team. We added a long wing who shot 40% from three at Charlotte. We got two PGs, one who started at Ball St and Missouri and another who started at Iowa (but might not be eligible.) And the two true freshmen are long, athletic, and both appear to have pretty high upside.

Two things can be true at the same time. He can be an athletic freak (which I think he is) AND he can have a long way to go to operate in our offense (which I think is probably also true.) Having said that, he is not only explosively athletic, but he's also agile. He does NOT have hands of stone. He might be a long ways behind Rienk Mast or Josiah Allick, but he's way ahead of Yvan Ouedraogo at the same point in their careers, and I would also give him the edge over Eduardo Andre.

Not me.

Welp, there's always basketball.

If I had to guess, I'd say maybe it's his testicles. But that's just a guess.

Matar Diop probably stood out the most because of his freakish athleticism. Skills still a work in progress, but allow your imagination to run wild on his physical tools and you probably won't overshoot things by much. I mean, he is a freak of nature. You're just going to have to see him. Words fail. But all that athleticism will be meaningless if he cannot corral it and put it to good use. I think he will be able to do that. I don't know if he'll be able to do that this year, though. He has a ways to go with learning the game and developing a feel for the action. But his physical tools will at least get him on the floor. Eli Rice, on the other hand, is both athletic and skilled. How we managed to land him is beyond me. How other schools missed on him is beyond me. He's high-major talent, for sure. I am shocked -- SHOCKED -- that he wasn't more highly rated. But thankful, because that means he fell into our laps. You might miss some things about Derrick Walker. Primarily his intuitive relationship with Keisei and the feel he had for hitting Keisei on back cuts. But Rienk is no slouch. Let me emphasize that point. Derrick Walker was a very good player with lots to commend himself for. But Rienk Mast is a solid player in his own right and I don't think we're going to skip as much of a beat at that spot on the floor as some might have feared. I think Rienk is the real goods. And Matar will be a quality backup. Every single one of our newcomers is a player. Every single one of our newcomers has game. Brice appears to be as advertised. He'll probably drop off a bit on the 3-point percentage as he goes up a level in competition, but I figure he's good for a solid 35 or 36% from deep. He's long, smooth and athletic. He would have clearly started on any of Hoiberg's first four teams here. Boogie is a long point guard. It's hard to say too much about him because the drills they ran weren't really conducive to letting you see his passing ability, for instance. But these guys are all fast in the open floor. Athletically, they all belong at the high major level. Ulis, also, although I hesitate to say too much about him because I'm just not sure if he'll be eligible. There are some things we're not going to know for awhile. But there are some other things I feel pretty confident about: 1. We're more athletic than we were a year ago; 2. We found a suitable replacement for Derrick Walker; 3. We'll be a better perimeter shooting team than we were a year ago. What I saw tonight did not leave me feeling worried. I'm really anticipating what the season holds in store and I really want to see how these guys stack up. I really don't think we'll have a weak spot on the floor. That doesn't mean we'll win the Big Ten. I'm not that much of a Pollyanna. But I'm really looking forward to seeing what these kids can do. THIS IS NOT THE SMOKE AND MIRRORS "MOST TALENTED TEAM" FROM TWO YEARS AGO. THESE GUYS ARE REAL. The only question for me is whether they'll mesh and whether we have someone who can initiate the offense. And then how far can they go. But I think this is, for sure, a post-season roster.

1st 29 weeks of the off-season: Last 4 weeks of the off-season:

Well, OK, allow me to elaborate. I watched carefully as Rienk Mast jogged onto the floor when he was introduced. I was wanting to see if he moved ploddingly, like a plow horse. Or if he moved around like a guy with 50-year-old knees. Nope, he moves well. He cantered onto the floor like a smooth athlete. No hitch in his giddyup at all. In 3-point drills, he has a quick catch-and-shoot action with a compact, repeatable stroke. He elevates with power. He has a variety of moves down low. He threw a nice little lefty hook and nailed a nifty fadeaway. OK, not bad. Nice start. Then comes Matar. HOLY SMOKES!!!! OMG. Superlatives are not enough to describe this kid's incredible athleticism. I do not recall a big man in a Nebraska jersey as explosive as he is. Not ever. He effortlessly snagged lob passes and threw them down like child's play. He covers ground from one end of the floor to the other like a greyhound or a cheetah or some other animal that's really fast. Oh, and on the 3-point shooting drills, he was nailing 3, 4, 5 in a row. His inside post moves appear to be a work in progress, but it's clear there's work going on. And talk about effortless leapers throwing down dunks and then stroking it from deep, allow me to introduce you to another fresh face in Eli Rice. The kid is gonna play. This year. He's really going to put pressure on some of the upper classmen to elevate their games if they want to stay in front of him. You can clearly see how he managed to be one of our leading scorers on the Spain trip. Rice and Diop might have the greatest inverse relationship between recruiting rankings and basketball ability of anyone we've had since Shavon Shields. Steals. Absolute steals. Both of them. Rice was ripping the nets on his 3-pointers. And effortlessly athletic. Very happy with what I saw there. Very happy. I should mention we have some shooters. Brice Williams looked about like what you'd expect. He's fast in the open floor. And he's an oustanding shooter. CJ finally looks confident. Finally. Confident, but not cocky. And it showed with him winning the 3-point competition. And, of course Keisei, who had quite a large cheering section on hand. And damn near couldn't miss until the 3-point competition started. And then we have some athletes. In addition to the aforementioned freshmen, I have to say Josiah Allick was surprisingly bouncy. I mean, I didn't expect him to be a stiff. But he was bouncier than I had anticipated. And his shot seems like it's coming around. He has some basketball skills. And I don't think he's going to frustrate you to watch like the guy whose roster spot he took. All in all, this looks like a generally longer and more athletic group than we've had while also being better shooters. I don't know how that translates into wins, but if these guys care more about team success than individual glory, the sky is the limit.

That's it. That's the message. Geeked, I say.

You would NEVER have pointed out that Dube Okeke nailed 5 straight 3-pointers in drills like you could say about Matar, though.

OK, haha, I get your point. But my thought process is this: In the past, we've had bad shooters taking perimeter shots because we didn't have other options. If you recall, a few years back, @basketballjones and I were kind of lamenting that, even though our shooters sucked, we still needed to have people take those shots because that's what the offense requires. You play with the shooters you've got, not the shooters you wish you had. So even though they weren't making them, they still have to take them. Someone does. Well, this year, we'll have the luxury of enough guys on the roster who can drain the deep ball that we are not going to have to rely on guys who can't shoot to take shots. Here's a list of all the guys I expect will be able to comfortably exceed 30% from beyond the arc: Keisei Tominaga Brice Williams Jamarques Lawrence CJ Wilcher Boogie Coleman Rienk Mast Eli Rice Sam Hoiberg Ramel Lloyd Ahron Ulis if he's eligible With all the guys who can shoot it, the guys who might not clear the 30% hurdle won't get enough touches.