Swan88

Here's a June 6, 2024, report at Huskers.com: Former Husker men’s basketball performer Lat Mayen was named as one of 25 players selected to South Sudan’s preliminary Paris Olympics roster this week. Mayen, who has played professionally in Australia and New Zealand since graduating from Nebraska in 2022, is currently playing for the Wellington Saints in the New Zealand National Basketball League, averaging 17.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game in nine games this summer. He played for Cairns in the Australian National Basketball League in each of the last two seasons. South Sudan has two games scheduled before the Olympics, when they will travel to London for matchups with Germany (July 18) and the United States (July 20). This will be South Sudan’s first Olympic appearance, as the country has been recognized by FIBA since 2018. Previously Mayen played for the Australian U18 team in 2016 FIBA Oceania Championships, averaging 7.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in helping Australia to a runner-up finish.

Huskers at no. 19 on this one:

Huskers are No. 22:

It seems that Trev is good at managing coaches: e.g., he hired Rhule and didn't fire Hoiberg, and all NU sports teams seemed to improve under his leadership. But the business and change-management parts of the job are huge these days: and whether he is up to handling those parts remains to be seen. At Nebraska: Trev was highly visible (as compared to Troy Dannen, who isn't)--whether that is a good thing or bad (or if they even let him do that) remains to be seen at Texas A&M; Trev's stadium expansion initiative will move forward at Nebraska--in a modified form--but it had some questionable elements, including the total cost and whether Husker Nation would get behind it; Trev had some odd views on NIL, which seems bizarre in this NIL-crucial environment; and Trev seems to want a large role in the rapidly-changing college sports world, but in his highly-visible role at Nebraska, he created more of an "Aw-Shucks" image than one of high-competence in that area of responsibility.

My impression has been, from a BYU basketball message board, that they viewed this recruit as a Plan B to Berke.

Everything is changing. Teams must adapt to flourish. Those who don't . . . will fall behind.

Additional anonymous reporting on another site, with alleged insider access, is that (I) the coaches feel good about their chances with Berke, but it’s not a done deal, and (ii) they are talking with other players too—but won’t take someone just to fill a spot. So . . . what I typed above must be at least fourth-hand hearsay.

Nice find. Here’s the money sentence on Berke from the article: ”Berke may not be on the top of BYU’s board but he is a guy they are pursuing.”

Here is an article by Nebraska Law College professor Josephine Potuto, who has been at the center of discussions around college athletics. The article is published by Inside Higher Ed and is titled, “NCAA, Heal Thyself.” It’s an interesting take on what has happened and the changes that are coming. Here’s how the article opens: “If there is any chance for real reform in college sports, it will have to start with autonomy for the largest, most well-resourced programs.” And here is a discussion around basketball: “A considerable hurdle to establishing a new division, and one that killed its creation a decade ago, is the men’s basketball tournament. The tournament is open to all comers in Division I, and that is part of its charm and popularity. It produces the great bulk of all NCAA revenues, shared with all NCAA institutions but on a formula that greatly favors Division I. It also produces additional revenues for a university with a team that competes in the tournament, with increased payout the further a team proceeds. A separate division may upend the current revenue formula for Division I institutions. It also very likely will provide more benefits to the new division’s athletes, further increasing the talent advantage of the best-resourced institutions and lessening the possibility for a Cinderella team to advance far into the tournament.”

Or . . . who wants to play on a team with a gutted roster?

Moments ago, an anonymous poster on Red Sea Scrolls passed on this rumor about Berke: “I heard 1890 has been negotiating with his agent in Turkey. Take it FWIW.”

What are they telling you now?

My apologies to Lang. Washut says Berke is here.

Hope that’s correct. But on what airline would a traveler from BYU to Nebraska (or to Los Angeles) connect through San Antonio? We need to see that photo.

It will be interesting to see how NIL money plays out over time in team performances. Will higher money lead to higher-quality teams? Will NIL create dissention within teams? Will dissentions be similar, whether the money amounts for any team are common or large? In other words: at the collegiate level, is it possible to buy top-flight talent and, thereby, create a top-flight team?

This is from a BYU message board this a.m.: KY and staff are working it. According to @BYUMBBrecruit we’re top 2 along … …with Nebraska for Berke Buyuktuncel. Robby McCombs reporting the same. Does the news of our starting 4 Noah Waterman hitting the portal and the lack of another 4 on the roster put us in the driver’s seat for Berke? Nebraska lost a couple of 4’s in the transfer portal but picked up one from NDSU stretch 4 Andrew Morgan. Morgan is a good player, avg’d 12.9 pts and shot 36.4% from 3 last season and is likely their starting 4 for next season. As things stand right now it looks like Berke has an easier path to playing time at BYU. He arrived Monday night for his OV at BYU Tuesday, then he has an OV at Nebraska according to McCombs.

Remember when our new Athletic Director said in his opening interview something like: "Today it's NIL. Tomorrow it will be something else." Well, tomorrow is already here, with this new NIL-related event. This new event is merely the tip of a massive iceberg--and what happens over the normally-foreseeable future is entirely unforeseeable, except for this: everything is changing! For starters: the NCAA is toast--as is everything it makes happens. For example: The NCAA gets most of its operating money from the NCAA basketball tournament; but Nothing represents the old NCAA way of exploiting the "amateur" athlete for someone else's benefit than the NCAA Tournament; and Until now (with the event noted above), it's been hard to imagine what might knock the NCAA Tournament off its lofty spot--but we are now seeing the beginnings of a model for doing just that (and this Genie isn't going back into any bottle); Creighton's efforts and expenditures to get into the new event show just how meaningful the new model is--which means the new way is here to stay and is already displacing the old NCAA model; and What will this new event do if/when everyone from the SEC and B1G and Big 12 starts saying, "I want in too?" It will be interesting to see what schools and what organizations take control of all this. The large conferences will control football. How they will ultimately react in other sports like basketball, baseball and women's sports, remains to be seen. And how or will all the Cinderella wanna-be schools in the NCAA tournament be handled in the new order? Everything is uncertain. The moral of the story is this: buckle up! The ride is getting bumpy!!

This is the beginning of the end for the NCAA Tournament as we know it.

Maybe those big names St. John's bought the last season and this season will pan out. On the other hand, during this past season those big name buys got St. John's, fifth place in an eleven team league, a rejected offer to the NIT, and public criticism by the coach of the players he chose and bought (i.e., the lest-than-stellar results are their fault, not his).

If I were the parent or grandparent of a high-end recruit (I'm not), Nebrasketball's history would not be an impediment to going there. That's because Hoiberg's history at Iowa St. and recent Husker history, along with his NBA connections and prior players in the league, have answered those concerns. Here's an illustration. This past season, I saw the mother of a high-end recruit interact with Fred Hoiberg. And her reaction was unmistakable--she thinks Hoiberg is great and would love to have him serve as a coach/mentor/leader for her son. The biggest problem for every school today (including the Huskers) is this: NIL bidding amounts are very high, especially as the end of this recruiting season approaches and especially as some schools feel desperation. Unlike before, schools don't have to cheat-by-paying. They pay up-front and out in the open--legally. On the other hand, that puts pressure on the old paying cheaters to maintain their competitive advantage, because those who didn't cheat-by-paying before can now compete in the pay-to-play game.

A combo guard?! What’s with that (although 45.3% from three isn’t bad)? Edit: An Omaha Bryan product?!

One good thing about Red Sea Scrolls is this: they have an “Ignore” button that, when utilized, hides every post that the ignored poster makes—don’t have to see it on my feed. Here’s a basic rule for living life: avoid negative people at all costs. The “Ignore” button helps make that rule happen—and there are a lot of negative posters on that board!!