Anderson declares for the NBA draft
April 30, 2009 by Bret Nellor, under News, Player Updates.
In probably the most shocking move of this off-season, Ryan Anderson has declared himself eligible for the NBA draft. I was surprised when I heard that Cookie Miller would transfer but this announcement has me stunned. No offense to Ryan, I never really considered him an NBA prospect.
According to Doc Sadler, Anderson has no intentions of leaving Nebraska but was looking for some feedback from NBA people. He has not signed with an agent and has until June 15 to withdraw from the draft. This move is similar to Aleks Maric after his sophomore season. Perhaps he’ll use the feedback to help him improve his game and pursue professional basketball after college.
Anderson, a 6-4 guard who has primarily played the 4 spot in his career with the Huskers, averaged 7.1 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game while starting 12 games this past season.
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2008-09 Husker Basketball Season Projection
November 15, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under Projections.
Here we are, tomorrow marks the start of the ‘08-’09 Nebraska Cornhuskers basketball season. Doc Sadler enters his 3rd season as head coach. He has guided the program to 37 wins in his first two campaigns, which is tied for the most wins in the first 2 years in Husker history. And his team is coming off their first 20 win season since 1999.
Sadler has done a great job of building the Huskers so far and now we watch to see if he can take the next step and lead us back to the NCAA tournament.
This upcoming season will not be without its challenges. The Huskers are thin across their front line after the departure of Aleks Maric, who was the undeniable leader of the team over the last 2 seasons. Sadler built his strategy around the big guy. So now without him the Huskers style of play looks to change to an up-tempo, pressing squad. With the amount of depth retunring in the backcourt and with the addition of some newcomers this strategy on paper looks like a good choice. Although once Big 12 play begins you can bet that our rebounding ability – good or bad – will be a very important piece of the puzzle.
The non-conference schedule doesn’t differ much from what the Huskers have faced the last couple seasons. There are 4 critical games in this part of the schedule that if the Huskers can win these, would be a big boost their RPI. At TCU on 11-19, at home against Creighton on 11-29, at Arizona State on 12-7, and at Oregon State on 12-13. A split in these games would be expected, but much momentum could be gained if the team can go 3-1 or 4-0 before heading into conference play. A poor showing in these games and the RPI hit could really damage the Huskers chances for an at-large bid in the NCAA tourney later in the year.
I expect the Huskers to look a little sloppy at times during the non-conference part of the season but eventually they’ll start to come together and understand the style of play that Coach Sadler wants to impose on their opponents. The Huskers will be 10-2 coming out of this part of the schedule.
The one thing I really like about Nebraska’s conference schedule this year is the first 6 games. Especially since we don’t have to face Kansas twice during this stretch as we did last year. Not only that but this early stretch offers a great opportunity to build some momentum as we should favored in 4 of these games. A 4-2 or 5-1 start could give us confidence and catapult us toward a strong run.
Certainly there are some tough games on the conference slate such as at Oklahoma on 1-21, at home against Kansas on 1-28, at home against Texas on 2-7, at Kansas on 2-21, and at Baylor on 3-7. But with home contests against Oklahoma State on 1-24 and Texas A&M on 2-24, the schedule offers us some chances to gain the upperhand against teams that figure to be fighting for the last couple of bids to the NCAA tourney.
With that in mind I expect the Huskers to finish 7th in Big 12 play at 9-7. This will leave us sitting at 19-9 heading into the Big 12 tournament and squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble. If the Huskers grab 2 key wins in the Big 12 tournament we’ll have an excellent chance to grab the conference’s last at-large bid into the dance.
Overall I think we’ll see the Huskers just miss the NCAA tourney and make a return to the NIT. I believe Coach Sadler will lead the team to its second 20-win season and add another building block to the rebuilding project that has been the Nebraska basketball program.
Let’s get this season started. Go Big Red!
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Does Nebraska Basketball Have A Go To Guy?
October 20, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under Projections.
After looking over the Big 12’s Preseason All-Conference team and putting some thought into what I think the Huskers starting lineup will look like this year, I started to wonder who will be our go to guy? Our leader, the guy that gets our tough buckets when we need them most, our most valuable player?
Nebraska has had a guy the last 2 season that everyone knew was the key to the Huskers fortunes each game, Aleks Maric. This season the Huskers are somewhat of an unknown. There are several returning players who all played extensively, but none of them played consistently enough to warrant that “go to” tag. No one that opponents game plan for and say “if we shut down _____, we win.”
So who do the Huskers look to this season? For my money, I think that guy has to be Ade Dagunduro.
Ade is a quick, athletic 6-5 small forward with good ball handling skills and versatile scoring ability. Last season he teased us with his ability to shoot 3’s and also slash to hoop. Unfortunately, his game was inconsistent from game to game and sometimes from first half to second half. He seemed to find himself and understand his role down the stretch though, which gives me hope for this year.
Coach Sadler will ask a lot of Ade this season. He will be locked up defensively with many of our opponent’s best scorers which could take alot out of him. But I believe that due to the Huskers lack of size, many of our opponents will be defending him with a taller player. This will give Ade a favorable matchup allowing him to use his quickness and get to the hoop for easy baskets and drawing fouls. When defenses adjust to take away his drive he can utilize his outside shooting touch. He will present problems for opponents.
Fortunately for Nebraska, Ade doesn’t need to carry the same kind of weight that Aleks did. We have more depth overall and we can spread out our scoring a little better. But make no mistake, the Huskers will need a guy they can go to when they’re down by one and the clock’s winding down. That guy can be Ade Dagunduro.
What do you think? Can Ade shoulder that load for Nebraska this season? Or is someone else better suited for this role?
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Husker’s Chapman Not Concerned About Being The Tallest Player On The Roster
September 15, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under News, Player Updates.
The Omaha World-Herald ran a piece on Alex Chapman, the 6-9 sophomore who after the graduation of Aleks Maric and the failed attempts to gain eligibility for Christopher Niemann and Jorge Diaz is left as the Husker’s tallest player.
Chapman is recognized as a good outside shooter but lacks experience in the post. This has certainly been a concern for most fans, but as the OWH’s article points out this might be not be as big of a disadvantage in the Big 12 as first expected.
There was much turnover of the top big men in the conference last year due to graduation and the NBA draft. This leaves 22 scholarship players on Big 12 rosters taller than 6-9. Plus, Missouri and Colorado have no players taller than 6-9.
That does make me feel a little better about our chances but I’m still concerned Nebraska’s ability to get the tough rebounds with our inexperienced group. Chapman, 6-8 Chris Balham, 6-7 Alonzo Edwards, and 6-8 walk-on Ben Nelson figure to be the “center” of much attention as the season progesses. I believe this group holds the key to our fortunes this season. Let’s hope Coach Sadler can work some magic and put a scheme in place that reduces the pressure on them and put them in a position to succeed.
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Pre-season workouts underway
August 27, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under News.
Huskers.com announced the start of Nebraska basketball’s pre-season workouts today. Husker players will workout with coaches a total of 2 hours per week until full team practices begin on Oct. 17th per NCAA rules.
The official website of Husker athlectics also released a new video interview with Coach Sadler as starts preparing his team for the 2008-2009 season. View it here.
This will be an imporant pre-season for the Husker team as prepare to replace Aleks Maric from a team that won 20 for only 12th time in school history. I believe this season will be the season that we will see Coach Sadler’s true vision for the direction of the program. Relying on Maric in the middle, and controlling game tempos through defense (and offense) helped the Huskers compete in the Big 12 even though they may have been overmatched talent-wise. Will we finally see the “baseline to baseline” style of play that Doc promised when he came to Nebraska?
“People will see a different team than last year when we had Aleks Maric. We will miss him in so many ways, but this is the time we’ll have to start to figure out how we’ll replace everything he gave us. It will be tough although we have a lot of experience back. We’ll just have to try to find the best way to be successful.”
The Huskers 2008-2009 season schedule has not been released but Huskers.com also mentioned that season tickets will be available online on Tuesday, September 2nd.
Did you know that Coach Sadler tied the mark for most victories in the first 2 seasons for a Husker coach (37-27 record) at Nebraska?
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Odds & Ends 082608
August 26, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under 2008 Recruiting Class, News, Player Updates, Recruiting.
The Lincoln Journal Star published an article with updates on several of the Husker players most notably Sek Henry. Henry has been playing in the Say No Classic summer league in Los Angeles this summer. This league is made up of players from mostly the Pac-10, Big West and Mountain West schools.
Henry, who will be a junior this season, primarily played point guard this summer and focused on improving his mid-range game. He averaged 20.4 points per league game and shot 53% from the floor. Coach Sadler no doubt is very to happy to hear of his progress.
Sek figures to be a key player this season as he started the last eight games of last season after Cookie Miller’s injured his shoulder. Though he offers a different style than Miller at point guard for the Huskers, he does give the team more of a scoring punch from the point as they look to replace Aleks Maric’s scoring. I’ll venture to say that the battle for the starting point guard position between Henry and Miller should be quite intense during pre-season practices.
Also mentioned in the article:
- Eshaunte Jones – “We’ve got some good depth at guard, but he’ll add to that,” Sadler said. “The one thing he can do is score, and you can never have too many of those guys.”
- Jorge Diaz – Though cleared by the NCAA clearinghouse, Diaz has not yet been accepted to NU.
- The Huskers will begin four-player workouts on Wednesday. Full-team workouts begin on September 15.
- Ryan Anderson and Brandon Richardson suffered knee injuries over the summer according to Coach Sadler. Though neither injury appears to be serious, both were scheduled to see a doctor.
- Walk-on guard Andrew Wicklund will miss the season after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery. He injured the knee working at a Nebraska basketball camp over the summer.
- The upcoming season schedule is not yet finalized and likely won’t be released until September.
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Diaz commits to play for Nebraska
August 23, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under 2008 Recruiting Class, Recruiting.
The Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal Star are both reporting that the Huskers have received an oral commitment from Jorge Diaz, a 6-11, 220 lb. center. Diaz spent this summer playing for the Puerto Rico junior national team and was considering Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa State and Loyola Marymount.
He has not yet been admitted to Nebraska but has received clearance from the NCAA academic clearinghouse. Which is great news since that seems to be the biggest hurdle for these international players. Diaz will likely receive the scholarship that was going to go to senior walk-on Paul Velander.
Diaz should add some much needed depth in the Husker’s frontline as they look to replace the void left by Aleks Maric. This also takes some pressure off the Christopher Niemann situation, who is still waiting to gain eligibility and clearance from the NCAA academic clearinghouse.
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ESPN posts their 2008 Big 12 Preview
August 17, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under News.
ESPN posted their “Big 12 Shoot Around,” previewing what to expect from the conference in 2008. Fran Fraschilla is picking Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma to finish 1, 2, 3 respectively. He picks the Huskers to come in at 8 behind Missouri at 6 and Oklahoma State at 7.
This is a reasonable pick for the Huskers. But I think the 5 through 9 spots will be hotly contested with none of the teams having much of an edge on the others.
Their capsule of Nebraska mentions the big hole left now that Aleks Maric has graduated and the loss of Roburt Sallie, now at Memphis, from our recruiting class. They also mention that Ade Dagunduro may have a breakout season if he is able to fulfill his potential.
