GhostOfJoeMcCray

The highlight is seeing our basketball team do anything basketball related in July. However Robin and Wilson both singled out Andrew Morgan and Connor Essegian as being very good from 3 in the drills they watched. I saw Essegian make two in the video and I didn't see Morgan take a single shot. So feels like some "highlights" might have been missed and a bunch of bricks were included instead. But nevermind, my original point stands, great to see the basketball team in action.

He made the go-ahead 3 point play here:

Interesting thought. I also hate fouling at the end of games to drag out the inevitable. If every foul under 30 seconds remaining resulted in 3 free throws no matter what, it would stop the intentional fouling before the team can shoot a 3. The whole "foul them before they can shoot a 3 to tie" thing kills the end of games and I don't think it should be an option. Every foul under 30 seconds being 3 free throws would end that.

I just watched the first quarter. Man oh man this is such a huge get for us. He can dribble, pass, shoot, facilitate...he is more mobile than Mast even when Rienk was healthy. Fred also said on SN last night that Berke is officially taller than Rienk. Let Fred work with him on his shot and this guy will be an NBA player. I loved Rienk and Allick and was very worried with how we would replace them, but between Berke, Meah and Morgan, I think Fred has not only successfully replaced everything Mast and Allick did, but added more that they couldn't do. The season can't get here soon enough.

Ulis is probably the biggest question mark for me. His production at Iowa was meh. Yet we've been hearing the coaches loved him on scout team and that he caused problems for our starters. If he learned how to shoot in his year off then he could be a much better PG than Jamarques Lawrence. If he didn't, I'm not sure how he fits in. There will be at least 1 or 2 Boogie Colemans on this roster (someone who expects to play and starts off the year with minutes but winds up on the bench after Jan. 1). I think Ulis has a ceiling of being our starting point guard and has a floor of Boogie Coleman.

Yes the Big Ten and SEC will be far and away the toughest hoops leagues in the nation next year, right behind the Big 12 and Big East. Sincerely, National Media

Exactly. Isn't it amazing how our 2023 HS recruiting class last year was #184 Eli Rice and NR Matar Diop... And now a year later in retrospect our 2023 HS recruiting class is #36 Berke Buyuktuncel, #67 Gavin Griffiths.

We were #29 in defensive efficiency last season. From Feb. 1 onward we were #6. That's with no rim protector, a hobbling Mast, and I don't think people realize just how bad CJ and Keisei were defensively. We didn't need to really do a whole lot of improving anyway. We added a rim protector who was a Pac-12 All-Defensive Player and a bunch of long dudes, and we lost our two worst defenders. And Nate Loenser is still here. We'll be just fine on defense. If anything, this should be really exciting that we hopefully don't have to trap the post every single possession and leave shooters unattended. Our defensive philosophy last year was great as long as the opponent wasn't hitting 3s. But then games like A&M happen...

Did I just watch a hype video of a guy in the transfer portal committing to the same team he was just on? Can't wait to see what's next on "How can the transfer portal era get even more ridiculous?"

I was thinking this exact same thing. Every football recruiting class we get we think is stacked too. And then...

Well, I think this thread can really get serious now. If I had to guess today...I think we'll start the season with a smaller lineup of playmakers/shooters but with Meah as a rim protector to offset our size at 4. Rollie Worster / Ahron Ulis / Sam Hoiberg Connor Essegian / Sam Hoiberg / Nick Janowski Brice Williams / Gavin Griffiths Juwan Gary / Berke Buyuktuncel Braxton Meah / Andrew Morgan Out: Rienk Mast (injury) Braden Frager (redshirt) Justin Bolis (redshirt) There is so much you can do with this roster. There are so many questions the coaches will have to (get to) sort through. Just a few off top of my head... Is Sam Hoiberg really going to stay out of the rotation? I find that hard to believe. If Buyuktuncel excels this summer, is he your starter at the 4 and moving Essegian to the bench? Would they rather have Essegian's scoring off the bench anyway? Janowski will not be expected to get any minutes this season at this point. But I wouldn't forget about him... Other than Williams and Gary being in the starting 5, I am not confident in anything I just typed.

Feels like if we can get through the BYU visit without him committing and get him to visit here we're in good shape. It seems like in this NIL world that players commit to the last school they visit (or only). Our commits were Morgan, Worster, Meah, Essegian, Griffiths and as far as I'm aware we were the only or last visit for all of them. People we didn't get: Kyle, Fidler, Milicic, visited here but went elsewhere after. Makes sense I guess. These players and coaching staffs aren't going to waste their time with a visit only to come in with a max offer less than what they just came from. Hopefully we can get this kid to campus later this week and close the deal.

Has this thread set a record for longest thread for a Nebraska basketball player who never played a minute? Does Roburt Sallie count as a Nebraska basketball player?

One thing that we need to remind ourselves is that part of coaching is just that, actually coaching basketball skills. We seem to get lost in thinking that Player A did this at his last school so that is exactly what he is and he can't be a different or better player for Nebraska and for Fred Hoiberg. Brice Williams was a 6th man. At Charlotte. He averaged 13.8 / 5.3 / 1.2 playing against AAC competition. He averaged 13.4 / 5.5 / 2.5 at Nebraska starting every game and playing in the Big Ten. Essentially you could say a guy whose role was Charlotte's 6th man in 2022-23 was arguably Nebraska's best and most important player in 2023-24 on the the best team we've had in a longggg time. He had more assists this season than he did in 3 years at Charlotte. No one last year would have been saying this guy would be doing all that. Rienk Mast shot 122 treys for us last year when his previous season totals were 92, 95, 68. Mast had 95 assists when his previous season totals were 37, 44, 70. He was more of an outside threat and distributor at Nebraska than he ever was at Bradley. Keisei Tominaga was not really a very good player for the first 1.5 years of his Nebraska career. Until Fred unlocked him and then he transformed his game into being a scorer both inside and out and getting to the free throw line. If you remember to 2021-22, he was not that whatsoever. Fred Hoiberg is our basketball coach. The Big Ten Coach of the Year and National Coach of the Year. He is by all accounts an offensive genius. Our system and sets immediately put our players in a better situation than they have probably ever been in in their lives. The difference between last year and previous years is he stopped just taking the highest rated player they could get or biggest name they could get and instead actually found skillsets that would complement each other and make for a tough, good team. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that the players he is bringing in is because he sees something in them that he can bring out.

When has a Nebrasketball season with high hopes ever worked out anyway? Seems our best seasons are the ones where expectations were cautiously optimistic.