millerhusker

Someone said Sallis has been "liking" Husker hoops posts on social media and has not "liked" any Wake Forest stuff.

He can go make $500k+ in Japan right now, but he wants to play in the NBA. His best chance to get a shot at that is to put together a full college basketball season playing at the same level he did the last 1/3 of last season.

That team lost 4 non-conference games and only had one quality win (Michigan). Like I said, go 10-1 against a weak non-con schedule and have the same type of conference season we had this year (i.e., similar amount of quality wins in conference) and we’re dancing. Every time. Opportunities for quality wins in conference will always be available. If we continue to schedule a tougher-than-most non-con, the only way to get an at-large bid will be the 2014 route of winning 13 conference games, including a handful of quality wins because I just don’t trust nebrasketball to consistently beat great non-con opponents. Just think our best bet, year to year, is to beat a whole bunch of cupcakes, then go around .500 in conference. This is what these other teams who are usually in the bottom half of the B1G do, and they all make the tourney more than we do.

Schedule like K-State does. Pack the rest of the non-con schedule with cupcakes. Go 10-1 in the non-con, have another conference season like we did this year, and we're dancing as an 8-9 seed. A strong non-con SOS is becoming unnecessary. We need wins and momentum. Here were some of our opponent's SOS's at the end of the regular season this year: Penn State - Non-con: 278 Overall: 21 Northwesern - Non-con: 295 Overall: 37 Minneosota - Non con: 311 Overall: 33 Kansas St. - Non con: 310 Overall: 16 (Our non-con: 80 and overall: 15) The list goes on. A 20 game conference schedule, plus a holiday MTE and a game against Creighton is plenty to have an SOS that won't hurt your resume. Just need enough wins.

Trust Norm here. I thought the same as most on here about Quaran and his good body language on the sideline but a couple months ago was told by someone who knows more than me that he'd be leaving.

There aren't a ton of pure point guards in college basketball anymore. Did anyone watch the NCAA tournament? We didn't have a pure point guard our most recent visit to the dance either. And I'd say a Miles offense was more desperate for someone who could create for others than a Hoiberg offense that emphasizes proper spacing and ball/off-ball movement. Hoiberg desperately needs the primary initiator to be a selfless, tough-minded player. I don't care if Wrightsell, or anyone else, isn't a point guard. But I've heard enough from people who have seen him play to at least be skeptical of his toughness and mentality. I KNEW Sam Griesel was tough as boot leather and a team first guy. I think Hunter Sallis is, as well. Hoiberg's point guard's stats will always look good on paper due to the system. Just give me a guy who is tough, makes good decisions and plays defense. Edit: I'm not saying a real pure point guard wouldn't be a great thing. I'd love it. It's my favorite position in all of sports, when done right. They just don't make 'em, or use 'em, like they used to.

Washut thinks we take one or the other, not both. And seems like the staff's first choice would be McCollum. That could be why Wrightsell is now looking at taking additional visits after the three he already had planned.

Very nice. Could be a solid role player and would definitely be a fan favorite like Griesel.

He’s got great size for a college 2-guard, let alone a junior in high school. 6’4” 200+ is even good size for an NBA 2-guard nowadays. There aren’t any Tracy McGradys out there anymore.

There’s also a long list of talented present and former players from the state that, unlike Janowski, the Badgers didn’t offer. Tyrese Haliburton and Jordan Poole are a couple examples. There’s an even longer list of NBA players from the state that were offered but never considered going there.

Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes. Not sure how Reddit guy knows the Iowa State offer was non-committable, but they just hosted him on an official visit so that doesn’t seem accurate. Wisconsin actually does a pretty poor job of recruiting their own state. They probably give good effort, but talented kids don’t want to go play in that offense. Their own players don’t even really want to (Chucky). It appears that he has never visited Wisconsin. Maybe he just hates the Badgers as much as we do. I’m gonna go with that, because that makes me like him even more.

An absolute stud and the type of player we just don’t get, ever. Wish he could sign his LOI today because the blue bloods will be calling next year.

I would rather give up threes than layups and free throws at the college level. Our defense is designed to keep opponents away from the rim, which is what I was alluding to. The philosophy of running guys off the line gets them to put the ball on the floor, our rotations keep that driver from getting to the paint, and encourages him to settle for a pull-up long two. Of course, it doesn't always work like that and good teams can make you pay with ball movement and extra passes. I think this defense was ideal for our team. For our lack of size and athleticism, we did a damn good job of preventing opponents from getting easy buckets at the rim. I don't believe we could have done this with any other style of defense besides a true zone. Or a packline defense that would still give up wide open threes, but without requiring ball movement.

I agree. The style of team defense Howard implemented does a good job of masking any liabilities. Multiple players have to not do their job on a possession for the offense to get a bucket without really working for it. But it is easier to mask liabilities when you have two or three good to great individual defenders on the court. Griesel, Lawrence, Bandoumel and Gary are all in that category. I'd say Sam Hoiberg is a good one, too. Throughout the year we usually had two or three of these guys on the court at any given time. We didn't really have to see what our defense would look like with our 1 through 4 spots being just average (or below average) individual defenders this year. But we might next year at times.

That's exactly what I see when I watch his film, which is great for us.

Sincere question - how do you know he can defend? Curious if you’ve watched or read anything to suggest this. On paper, his defensive rating is more similar to CJ and Keisei than it is to Griesel and Gary. He looks on film like he lacks lateral quickness. Not trying to knock him, just an observation. I maybe unfairly assumed this, combined with his selfless mentality, is why he’s come off the bench as a scoring punch for much of his career. I see a lot of writers saying he can EVEN play the 4 some to space the floor. Of course he can. In most of the stuff we do offensively, there is no difference between the 3 and the 4. They’re just wings. CJ played the “3” and “4” this year and his role/position never changed. It’s more about who you can guard. The norm in college basketball is to trot out three guards, a longer wing and a post player. Indiana and Purdue were the exceptions this year. But “4s” usually look and play like Joey Hauser or Keyontae Johnson. Not typically Caleb Furst or Race Thompson. Brice Williams is a guard/wing, but always guarded the “4s” at Charlotte. Presumably because he wasn’t able to stay in front of opposing guards. And that’s ok. Just not sure you’d want Williams, keisei and Wrightsell/McCollum on the court together much. Hoping we add an athletic perimeter defender… like Sallis.

Going to wait a bit to see what happens. As it stands right now, I think my only guaranteed starters would be Mast and Keisei (if he comes back). Think we should have a good idea of what the rest of the roster will look like in the next couple weeks.

Will probably be more than 2 spots left. I’d be surprised if Hugley ends up here at this point. Kind of hoping we use one scholarship on a project like the LSU big to give our rotation guys a 7 foot body to maneuver around in practice every day.

Love that both of these guys have two years of eligibility left. The other guards we’re recruiting also have multiple years left to play.

I hate Iowa. Let's compare Nebraska and Iowa's big man portal pickups. Rienk Mast and Ben Krikke. Bradley was a good team this year (went to the NIT) and Mast was their best player. Valpo was a very poor team and Krikke was their best player. Bradley was very good defensively and Mast was a good defender in the MVC. Valpo was bad defensively and Krikke was an average defender in the MVC. Mast appears to be a bit bigger and stronger. The overall numbers are a bit skewed due to Krikke playing damn near every minute for Valpo (Krikke averaged more ppg). Safe to say he won't be able to keep that up in the Big Ten. Mast had a better offensive rating. And a much better defensive rating. The biggest difference between the two is in the rebounding department. Mast has a knack for getting boards. His rebounding rate is about 2x what Krikke's is (averages nearly 12 rebounds per 40 minutes). Krikke's rebounding rate is the same as Walter Pitchford's was. Mast's assist rate is significantly higher than Krikke's. Both guys take care of the ball relatively well and don't turn it over much for their high usage rates. Both guys are adept at scoring in the low post - Krikke is more efficient in that area. Mast is a much better mid-range and three point shooter. For their position, Krikke is a very good free throw shooter and Mast is above average. Krikke gets to the line more often. In my opinion, the eye test shows Mast is just a better player. But keep in mind, I hate Iowa.

Reminds me of Filip Rebraca, who transferred to Iowa from North Dakota. Maybe a bit undersized, but plenty strong/physical and just has a feel for rebounding and scoring in the post. Also a decent shooter and passer. Better than Krikke in every aspect IMO.

https://www.on3.com/transfer-portal/news/transfer-portal-recruiting-intel-live-blog-harrison-ingram-ryan-nembhard/ Regarding Mast. Basically says Iowa and Nebraska were the two schools involved. Iowa took Krikke. Mast could be N soon.

I hear ya, but if we took Wrightsell, I don’t think we’d also take a point guard.

Like his attitude. Kind of reminds me of reading some Juwan Gary and Sam Griesel articles last offseason, which were refreshing and drastically different than the previous few offseasons.

McCollum and Wrightsell will both be done with visits early next week so we may have our lead guard situation wrapped up by then. Both were pretty high usage players this season. I believe Wrigthsell had a more talented team around him and played a slightly tougher schedule. Wrightsell higher volume. McCollum higher TS% and EF% (not a huge difference between the two players here). McCollum gets to the line more often. Both are elite free throw shooters. Three point shooting is also comparable. McCollum's assist rate was >2x Wrightsell's. McCollum turned the ball over more, but was really their only point guard that played. Wrightsell shared ball handling/distributing duties pretty evenly with other guards. Analytically, Wrightsell appears to be the better defender. I don't have an eye test to go off of to add to this. About the same height/length. Wrightsell is heavier, stronger. Both are quick enough. Neither appear to be real explosive. Will finish below the rim (McCollum much more efficient at "close 2s"). Offense eye test from minimal film (feel free to add to this or dispute it): Wrightsell is a shoot first, aggressive combo guard who can score on all three levels. McCollum a bit more of a technician and under/in control, has some next level pure point guard skills and is also a smooth scorer. If we had to choose between the two, I'd sill prefer McCollum. But wouldn't really argue with anyone who'd choose Wrightsell. Both are capable of playing at this level.