GhostOfJoeMcCray

I suspect we would be involved in a lot of 110-108 type games

I understand all that. But there's a total lack of common sense in allowing that for football but not other sports. Because at the end of the day it isn't exactly that complicated of a decision to make and seems like something that could have been handled in a 1 hour meeting. "Hey we're letting football do this. Should probably let basketball do it too. Play in 10 regular-season games and get to keep your redshirt sound good? Great. Moving on." There are plenty of ways they could have done this, and it literally hurts no one and can help a lot of coaches and players in determining what their future is in a program. For basketball in particular, you could say if you play in more than 10 regular-season games, you lose your redshirt. Or if you play after January 1, you lose your redshirt. Or if you play in a conference game, you lose your redshirt. I don't really care how they handle it. But the whole you step on the court and burn your redshirt thing is so archaic with what football has going on now. Also this was approved for football in summer 2018. 6 years and they haven't figured this out.

This is the team photo right here that goes down in history and will be framed in all of our man caves for years to come.

Also I apologize to Braden Frager, I was unfamiliar with your game. I went into this season thinking he was a certain redshirt candidate because he wasn't going to be near ready for DI, let alone Big Ten, basketball. He looks like a senior in college out there, not a senior in high school, which is what he should be. Now I'd like to see him redshirt because he could be a really good redshirt freshman next year, not because I think he isn't ready to play right now. Also it's beyond stupid (maybe the stupidest thing the NCAA has ever done...at least top 5) that football players can play 33% of their season and still redshirt, while much longer seasons like basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, lose their redshirt if they play a single minute. How was that ever passed for football without consideration for other sports? It sure would be nice to see Braden Frager and Nick Janowski get 10 minutes here and there against some of the lesser teams on our schedule while still keeping their ability to redshirt.

I love Cale and Sam. On many old Nebraska basketball teams they would easily be in an 8-man rotation. But right now can I say either of them are getting minutes ahead of these 9: Worster, Williams, Gary, Berke, Meah, Essegian, Morgan, Griffiths, Ulis? Not without injury or other unavailability in my opinion. That's not a knock on those guys. We're just better now. I still think Sam will get situational minutes, especially if we're lacking energy or not playing the right way defensively. And Cale will get a lot of second half minutes in non-con as we pound some of these teams at PBA. It sure is a great problem to have some very talented basketball players on the end of our bench, rather than football players or student managers turned basketball players.

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.

Fred has been pretty consistent in his time at Nebraska with using an 8 or 9 man rotation, typically 9 or so in non-conference and 7 or 8 as the season gets down to February and injuries have happened. So let's ask it this way...if healthy, what's your order of confidence of a player being in the 8-man rotation at the end of the season? 1A. Williams (Brice and Juwan clear top 2) 1B. Gary (Brice and Juwan clear top 2) 3. Morgan (most skilled big man we have right now...has to play a lot) 4. Worster (I see no scenario where he ends up being on the bench given his well rounded game) 5. Meah (whether he starts the game or not I don't know and it doesn't matter (unless we really want to win the tip) 6. Essegian (one of our most proven collegiate offensive players but will he play defense? And there's a world where Janowski outplays him) 7. Griffiths (has a unique skillset but he'll need to shoot it better and play defense) 8. Ulis (I barely have him ahead of Sam...I don't know what to think of Ulis, he was just OK at Iowa and we have two guys I listed below that are warriors) 9. Hoiberg (I want to have him higher because I just feel like the dude will find a way to help us win games in February and March, and Ulis could be the one he bumps out) 10. Janowski (if he is not in the rotation at the end of the season I think we will have had a very good year because I think he can play) 11. Frager (if he is in the rotation at the end of the season we have likely had some bad injuries)

PHHoenix Prep? Is that were Kimani FFFriend went to school?

He’s only gotten better every year of his career. 11% 22% 26% 30% if the trend continues one more year, 34% seems up next

Williams and Gary will probably combine for 10 more points per game simply due to volume increase. A lot of Keisei’s volume will go to Williams and he finished the year on a tear. Brice was the second best 3pt shooter on the team behind CJ…and I think Gary will see a big improvement in his 3 point shot after another full healthy summer of learning under Fred.

UConn had that dude Samson Johnson who would come in for 10-15 minutes and basically dunk the ball, grab a few boards, block a few shots and make a few fouls. At worst, Meah can offer that for us. He is an explosive jumper for his size. Worster is an elite passer. I can see a couple pick and roll lob dunks coming every game. I like this addition a lot, assuming he is not in our starting lineup.