Fullbacksympathy

They are very similar. Keisei is a little quicker, but this kid is a lot bigger, a better ball handler, and has a scary midrange post game to go along with a similar outside shot.

This kid can ball. He is an elite one on one scorer and shooter and needs basically no room to fill it up. Probably won’t be a great defender, but he’ll outscore most of his matchups from day 1.

I think we're trying to get both him and Hugley.

I’m gonna guess Fred pulls off Williams/Sallis/Hugley, which would be nuts.

Yes please to Sallis.

Yes? Yes.

That’s why I was careful to say home court player! I would expect some serious duds on the road and huge upsets at home.

I hate Creighton intrinsically. It’s spiritual.

They also aren’t soft like most Euro players.

Kriisa is an outstanding player. Would be an amazing home court guy with Keisei. He’s also a solid ball handler and fantastic in the pick and roll.

Transfers are so much more important than high school recruits now. The top to bottom levels of skill and defensive athleticism is crazy in the tournament. I love it. I think this will ultimately benefit Nebraska because bluebloods can no longer be what they once were. Of the sweet sixteen, transfer numbers were: Bama - 6 (two starters) SDSU - 5 (top two scorers) Creighton - 2 (BS 13ppg, 8rbg) FAU - 5 (3 starters) Tenn - 5 (1 starter) KSU - TWELVE (top 9 in minutes are all transfers) MSU - 3 (2 starters) Houston - 3 Miami - 3 (all starters) Xavier - 5 (4 starters) Texas - 6 (top 6 scorers) Arkansas - 7 (two starters) UConn - 4 (PG leads team in assists, steals, and average 10ppg) Zags - 3 (one starter, two rotational) UCLA - 0 Princeton - 0 --- Planning for transfers is no longer even remotely the exception or an act of desperation. It's a proven effective method.

We need to at least match last year's talent on the roster pre-injury. The talent this past season murdered Creighton. I think that's a pretty good barometer. It was probably an NCAA bubble team. Get the same type of talent (TEAM dudes who are serviceable athletically and tough) and we should have the philosophy in place to go to work. Our system on both ends appears to be pretty forward thinking. The defense requires a lot of intelligence and hustle and the offense only really requires one or two mismatches to work well.

Good player. Very similar to Keisei with a 6’4” frame and also a lefty. That would be a potentially scary duo.

Weird. He’s done very well there.

Battling near .500 in the B1G and a couple games over .500 overall should probably be the standard for a successful coach at Nebraska. I think Fred's offensive sets this year were great for the B1G and the defensive approach also works well. There's actually still quite a bit of freedom to his offensive system once kids get in rhythm. You really just need one or two mismatches to patiently go iso and a lot of movement to prevent help defense, and running it through the 5 position might bring in some unique talent while everyone else is going stretch 5-out. I think (hope) there is going to be a renaissance of bigs again soon (see Purdue) and Fred might be ahead of the curve again.

Interesting. So what’s the argument for playing in the NIT? I know it’s better ball, but couldn’t the same arguments be made against it?

Really? With two good starters out for the season? I’m far from embarrassed with this group. They represent Nebraska well and hopefully tilted the culture of the program into the right direction. They deserve a postseason somewhere.

Hot take: we didn’t have a more talented team than Minnesota last night. It’s the first game of the conference season where we weren’t playing with house money. Being the hunted is a different planet of pressure, and we buckled. It’s hard to beat an equally talented team three times. Yes, I know the metrics. You can find a lot more of them that show conference splits with equal teams. Did we play well? No, but we weren’t terrible. I wasn’t embarrassed by the effort. Missed layups and free throws were the difference. We also resorted to hero ball more than normal. Hoping the NIT calls, but we should definitely take a CBI bid if they call instead and try to win it.

I'm guessing here, but I'd guess he can shoot it about as well as Bando with a better midrange/post game.

Ramel looks like Sam Griesel with more upside. I think we'll see him punish guards in the post in a very similar way. BJ Mack is basically the same player as Walker. I think Fred may have identified an overlooked body type that he can specifically recruit for and pitch. Undersized, muscular big men who are crafty scorers are truly only good in a system where they have room to isolate and punish lankier, softer bigs on an island. Mack would be crazy not to come here after watching film of Walker. Wofford runs a very similar offense to Fred in how they use him at the 5.

I honestly think we'd be attempting to make the NCAA tournament with Gary on the court. Gary won us a few games with his insane effort. He's an absolutely elite defender and rebounder and very serviceable offensively. We haven't really replaced his impact with anyone. Bando's production has definitely been caught by the combo of Keisei/Lawrence/Hoiberg. I love Bando, too, and I give him a ton of credit for turning us into a serious brand moving forward with his defense/toughness/attitude. I just don't think it's quite fair to lump Bando (loved his effort) with Gary. Gary was arguably our best player before his injury on many nights, in my mind. He was second in rebounds, first in steals, second in blocked shots, fourth in scoring. He also had a knack for clutch hustle plays when we needed them most. I cannot wait to get him back next season.

Prospects! Want to play for the best coaching staff in the B1G? Come to Nebraska. I can’t believe I just wrote that.

Really excited we landed this kid.

Another thing I noticed—Hoiberg put on a substitution clinic down the stretch of regulation and OT. Maximized his offensive and defensive lineups. Impressive.

He’s an extremely smart defensive player for sure. Good nose for the ball and his help defense is nearly perfect. I hope Wilhelm can learn from him.