Swan88

I don't get it. We may be kicking the tires on this guy . . . but why would he ever choose the Huskers? Last year, he started only one game, averaged 12.8 minutes per game, and has only one year left to play. He'd ride the bench at NU--just like he did at Mississippi State. Why would he transfer to do that? He can do that next season at Mississippi State just fine. It looks like the type of player who might be interested in the Huskers, with its current roster (assuming Keisei comes back), would be someone needing to redshirt: e.g., a development project with years of eligibility left or an injured player who needs time to heal.

Rivals is now showing a 100% prediction to Texas Tech.

The answer is, "Yes."

Yeah. If Sam is the main guy, the team is probably in trouble. But in a support role with great players on the court, he shines brightly.

It felt awkward to me as well: the strongest focus on Raiola came during a time-out toward the end of the game, and even basketball players in the huddle were looking around for what the disruption was all about; and with a basketball recruit of Bol's stature in the house, who received no attention at all, it felt like a little shade in Bol's direction--after all, this is a basketball game and he's a basketball recruit. Now that it didn't work out with the football player either, perhaps there should have been a stronger focus on basketball recruiting that night?

https://twitter.com/eemeliyalaho/status/1657960

Do the eyeballs pointing to Texas Tech mean anything?

Is this genuine or a joke? Does Norm have to jump in with some name calling?

So . . . no late entrants into the portal from Nebrasketball? And the roster remains intact?!

Remember when Delano Banton made that list only because someone scratched. Without him making that list, we would have had Delano Banton as our point guard the following season, instead of Alonzo Verge.

Here are two football players the Huskers passed-on, knowingly, intentionally, and with no malice aforethought: Danny Woodhead (not big enough for NU and Frank Solich but good enough for the NFL); and Barry Sanders (Osborne figured we could take only one small running back that year and opted for Johnny Rodgers's son, instead, who promptly had a career-ending knee injury). The old adage says: "Making predictions is hard, especially about the future." There will always be prediction mistakes in choosing among high school seniors. You can never know who will suffer injury? Whose skill and physical capabilities will develop most? Etc. Identifying those mistakes in retrospect, and agonizing or casting blame over them, is a meaningless exercise in futility. These days, the better question is this: How can we identify the late bloomers, find them in the portal, and get them to be Huskers?

So . . . how does Nebrasketball's pitch to him go? "We've got lots of people at your position, but we think you are a great fit"? "If you redshirt, you will be in a great position to fight for lots of playing time"? "No one can have enough depth at your position"? "You could be a rich-man version of Derrick Walker . . . doing everything he did in his unique role, but with a three-point threat added"?

On the other hand, I'm sure the Hawkeyes would have been just-fine with him staying in Iowa City--even stipulating that he isn't a one-and-done prospect. Playing in 85 games for them over three years and, over those years: starting 22 games; averaging 15.6 minutes per game; and producing a 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio as a point guard. That's serviceable for what Nebrasketball needs. As with all transfers, only time will tell where the new scenery will lead for him. Each of the transfers considered before him had some baggage: (i) erratic and emotive play for one, and (ii) small size for another. Perhaps the third one is the charm?

I always hate people kicking a guy when he’s down. Message boards are the worst: internet geniuses hiding behind anonymity . . . and trashing a kid. Kinda pathetic, if you ask me (though no one ever has).

And one was an airball, no less! I don't know the details of this player's experience, but here's an issue for freshman transfers in general--especially the five-star / high-hype types (you know, the ones with can't miss expectations for getting to the NBA immediately). When the lofty expectations aren't met--even if they play well as freshmen--they leave. They go somewhere else . . . presumably, under the belief that the failure-to-meet-expectation is the school's fault: not his. That's a potential culture problem for the next school--you know, black-hole types of problems with ball distribution.

Despite Washut’s name-dropping speculations, you’ve gotta figure Nebrasketball is in a mode of watching for something great and unexpected to come along—like the heart-history player we didn’t/couldn’t take last season.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. And this is an exciting prospect from your article: “I can envision Hoiberg calling a lot of the same plays for Williams as he did for Tominaga, which could make things very difficult on opposing defenses if Tominaga returns and shares the court with him.”

At the risk of jinxing things (with May 11's portal deadline still a week away), here's a good thing for the Huskers about this year's portal season: Nebraska has yet to lose a major returning player to the portal. Other teams haven't been so lucky with disgruntled players.

Here is information on the idea that Ulis played well last season but would sometimes "disappear": only four times last season was Ulis held scoreless--two of those were against the Huskers; using <4 points as a standard for "disappearing," that happened eight times--again, 25% of those eight times were against the Huskers; he scored in double digits 5 times (against Ohio St. twice, Rutgers, Michigan St. and TCU); he had 0 or only 1 turnover in 26 games, he had 2 turnovers in 2 games, but he had 4 turnovers in 2 games (Ohio St. and Rutgers) and 6 turnovers in 2 games (Michigan St. and Iowa St.); he shot 69 three-pointers and was below 33.3% in only one game (1 for 5 against Wisconsin); his worst games from the floor were Auburn (1-5), Purdue (1-6), Rutgers (2-8), Penn St. (1-6), Nebraska (0-4), EIU (2-10) and Georgia Tech (0-4); and he played >20 minutes in all but 7 games, until his 1-5 from three performance against Wisconsin on February 22--after that his minutes went to 15, 19, 13, 17 and 16.

In last year's pre-season, NU is projected at the bottom of the B1G. After the exhibition games, I'm thinking: "We're in trouble." Then, we have some success in the pre-B1G season, and I'm thinking: "Huh. Maybe we're better than projected." Then, we lose two starters, and the season is going in the tank. Then, Keisei and Derrick emerge as an incredible tandem, with Blaise coming along--and we beat some teams that end up dancing, and we aren't in the B1G cellar. Then, we are on the NIT bubble--but Blaise is out, Keisei is cramping, and things go south (as always with NU, it seems). The point: Hoiberg and Co. are fighting hard. They showed last season a perseverance and resilience through adversity--with some success. Can't wait to see what roster they are able to compile for next year. And can't wait to see what another season of perseverance and resilience (hopefully, with less adversity) will produce.