GhostOfJoeMcCray

Utah senior PG Rollie Worster currently visiting Nebraska according to the interwebs https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4701995/rollie-worster

Haven't thought much about his defense. Been too busy thinking about his standardized test scores growing up and wondering whether they could have been better or worse. All kidding aside, probably not that great, but neither were Keisei or CJ, so who are we to nitpick.

The major difference here is the MLS actually makes teams keep records and monitors them and enforces disciplinary action when needed. The NCAA has no idea what is going on and has turned a blind eye for the entirety of its existence.

Fair. There aren't too many players in the portal rated higher than Fidler or with his scoring prowess. What I meant was I think from 1-12 (assuming Frager redshirts) we are going to have a very deep squad.

If Jamarques Lawrence is leaving, I'm guessing it's because they were honest with him and told him they didn't see him having a starting role this season. And if that's the case, I find it hard to believe they would tell Frankie Fidler he would have a starting role here. I've heard they really like Ulis more than people know and that leaves Williams/Gary and two big men (Mast + 1) as our starters. I will be shocked if it isn't Wisconsin, and I'm OK with it because I think we're about to load up in the next couple weeks.

Wouldn't read into it. Gary Sharp is the voice of the Mavs, travels with Frankie to every game so they're probably close. Probably doing a solid favor for Gary's show. All that said, I suspect it's the Badgers. But we're getting Griffiths with 3 years left, so it's all good.

I know a lot of our fanbase thinks the sky is falling and that Fred somehow hasn't earned his extension (yes, there are people saying this). But on April 1, 2023, our Nebraska Basketball scholarship roster for 2023-24 looked like this: Keisei Tominaga (did not announce his return until June 1) Blaise Keita Juwan Gary C.J. Wilcher Jamarques Lawrence Ramel Lloyd Wilhelm Breidenbach (would enter portal in May) Quaran McPherson (would enter portal in late April) Eli Rice Rienk Mast committed April 12 Brice Williams committed April 12 Josiah Allick committed May 2 Matar Diop committed July 23 Deep breaths everyone, it will be OK. We are in a much better spot than we were at this time last year.

I'm not too worried about replacing these guys, but thinking bigger picture, it's got me wondering...is there any point to recruiting High School players anymore? Our recent high school recruits: Eli Rice - gone after 1 year Jamarques Lawrence - gone after 2 years Ramel Lloyd - gone after 2 years Matar Diop - gone after 1 year Quaran McPherson - gone after 2 years Denim Dawson - gone after 2 years Oleg Kojenets - gone after 2 years Wilhelm Breidenbach - gone after 2 years Eduardo Andre - gone after 2 years Keon Edwards - gone after 1 year Bryce McGowens - NBA after 1 year From what I can gather, Thor Thorbjarnarson is the last high school recruit to complete even 3 full years at Nebraska (his fourth year was 2020-21). I think that is what stings about Jamarques the most. We finally had a HS recruit that was doing something positive on the court, and we couldn't keep him around.

What is Fred thinking? I would imagine something like this: When you have a close-knit group that accomplishes things that haven't been done here in a long time, it hurts personally to lose guys from that team, especially when they're choosing to leave with the option to come back. However, Ramel/Blaise/Matar literally lose us nothing on paper. They can all effectively be replaced by literally adding any 3 transfers with similar body types. Eli wants to play more minutes right now and had potential but was too slow and would not have been a starter here next year. CJ maxed out here and was also too slow and would not have been a starter here next year. Jamarques is the only one that frustrates me (Fred) but I understand because he wants to be a starter as a junior and I was probably honest with him that that is not guaranteed here because we believe Ulis (or another transfer) is our starting PG and Brice and Juwan are not coming off the bench. Fred had individual meetings with every single player. If anything, these departures should tell you that Mast/Williams/Gary are back because all these guys clearly did not see a path for them to get the minutes they want (or think they deserve) this year. It also tells me Ulis might be better than people think.

Half the battle is showing up (on time).

Alabama is in the Elite 8 with 5 of their top 6 scorers starting their careers at a mid-major school. Mid-majors are basically the new JUCO. Coaches should expect if they find/develop a diamond in the rough, they'll only have him for 2 years max.

I personally had no problem cheering my butt off for Brice Williams, Rienk Mast and Josiah Allick. Just about 12 months ago I had no idea who Brice Williams or Rienk Mast were. It didn't matter to me. If you choose to come play for Nebraska at any point, then welcome. So in that sense the roster turnover doesn't bother me too much. But I would say that this changing teams every year is ridiculous and needs to stop. Professional athletes are not even allowed to do that. You can't just have a great year and then declare yourself a free agent and go play for the highest bidder the following year. There are things called contracts in the real world, and the TEAM owns your rights to play. We need to fix this system because it is outrageous.

I meant he has had enough in the sense that Storr is leaving and Chucky liked Storr and needed Storr and without him they are in trouble. I didn't mean to imply there was tension between them. The opposite actually. Storr leaving Gard might give Chucky the final straw to do the same. I hope so at least. He could come here and lead the program to a dream season. Fidler and Kyle can join along. Or they can all go to UW, play for a coach that all their fans want fired and top players seemingly don't enjoy playing for. Whatever.

AJ Storr in the portal might change that... Maybe Chucky (finally) has had enough. You have to imagine the thought has at least crossed his mind that he could be the local hero to get Nebraska its first NCAA Tournament win.

Well that leaves Diop or Ulis

Yeah I should have added while he doesn't look to be the quickest, he seems to have all the intangibles that would allow one to make up for that. Verge and Cam Mack certainly had quickness and burst. Griesel, Brice and Jamarques aren't the most impressive athletes but played the point just fine and certainly ran an offense infinitely better than Verge and Mack.

Not to take the easy way out, but I've watched a lot of his film and would describe him as a "basketball player". By that I mean he can probably do anything that we ask him to. The question will be what do we ask him to do. He can run the offense and take guys off the dribble, he can catch and shoot, he can pull up and shoot off the dribble. He can play make. I've seen him posting up down low in some clips. If I had to guess though, he probably lacks the quickness and burst to be a Big Ten point guard and will start his career as a SG. I can't contain my excitement for this guy. I think he has a special level of competitiveness and work ethic that is going to make an instant impact. I know this interview has been posted before, but I'm ready to run through a brick wall.

Pat Kelsey might turn out to be a good hire for Louisville. In the same way that literally hiring anyone might be a good hire for Louisville. They have really fallen far. Their fans can't be happy that the best they could do, on paper, is a guy whose biggest coaching gig to date is head coach of a CAA team.

While I would never say no to Keisei coming back for some reason, I'm kind of also excited to see Nick Janowski because I think he will play good minutes for us next year. He shot 44% from 3 in his HS career and scored more points in HS than Tyler Herro and Matt Thomas...while he may not provide the "wow" plays Keisei did, I also do not find it impossible that he can't score 7-9 ppg as a freshman, shoot better than 37.6 % (Keisei's average this year) from 3, and play a tad better defense. I think this kid will be legit when it's all said and done.

No biggie to have a different opinion on what "great" means. For me personally, this was a great Nebraska basketball season - if not only for the fact that this program consistently is terrible and this year was far, far from that. Coming in with the expectations we had and the recency of being dreadful the last few years, a good season - in my opinion - would have been making the NIT, and a great season would have been making the NCAA Tournament. The best season ever would have been an NCAA win. I think a great season is one step below that. Hopefully our rotation all returns and we add some pieces in the portal and we enter next year with higher expectations.

that's amazing

As for the topic at hand, I'll say Fred gets at least some part of the Coach of the Year Award (it won't be a Painter clean sweep) and we'll get one player on one of the teams. And I'm fine with all of it. We are a sum of the parts type of team and I think we should take pride in that we finished 3rd and we might get 1 player considered among the top 15 in the conference.

If I'm being honest, I think 49ers fans would have rather have won the Super Bowl than have just been NFC Champions. But that's just me. I could be wrong.

Weird tweet by her. Yeah, pretty sure we would all rather have those things, Abbie...you think?

If we just beat these teams that we are a combined 0-5 against with an average margin of defeat of 12.4 points...we're in!