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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Which D1 basketball team is best in Nebraska?
August 21, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under News.
CollegeHoops.net has begun their “State of ‘08″ collection of articles to rank the top basketball programs state by state. Their method of ranking:
This won’t be a ranking based on next year’s projected success, but will be a general program ranking based on recent success (the last five years) along with subjective factors of my choosing.
With the first article of the series they begin with all the states that have 2 D1 programs, such as Delaware, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, West Virginia, and of course Nebraska. So who do they rank first in Nebraska?
Creighton. In fact they consider this a no-brainer.
Not much of a surprise though when you look at the last 5 years for the Bluejays and the Huskers. Creighton holds the advantage over the Huskers in head to head match-ups and has enjoyed a couple trips to the NCAA tourney while NU has had a few trips to the NIT. That being said, it’s still disappointing.
I’m optimistic that we’re about to see a reversal of fortunes for the Huskers in this I-80 rivalry. Doc Sadler so far has a 1-1 record when going against Dana Altman in this series. And for my money, the Huskers now have a better system in place when facing Creighton’s style of play. As it is every year, their upcoming game this season will be watched pretty closely by most Nebraskans.
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Video of Brandon Ubel available on Rivals
August 21, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under 2009 Recruiting Class, Recruiting, Video.
Discovered a highlight video was posted on recent Husker commit Brandon Ubel’s Rivals profile page. For some reason I was able to view it earlier today, but now it’s locked down and only available for viewing by Rivals subscribers. Or you can sign up for a free account that lasts 7 days.
From what I saw, Ubel looks like he has a good shooting touch for a big guy from outside the arc. There were a couple moments where he displayed ability to put the ball on the floor and take it at the hoop as well as some post moves, but it looks like his bread and butter is his ability to score from the outside.
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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.
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Will Christopher Niemann be eligible for this season?
August 17, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under 2008 Recruiting Class, Recruiting.
The Omaha World-Herald reported that Christopher Niemann, the Husker’s 6-11 German recruit, is set to arrive in Lincoln at the end of this week. Nebraska certainly understands the importance his eligibility could have on the 2008 season as they are trying to do all they can to help his cause.
Two of Niemann’s German club teammates were ruled ineligible last season due to the fact that there were professionals on the team as well. For now Niemann has been ruled ineligible by the NCAA although he did not accept pay while playing for the club team.
The school’s efforts include sending a request to the NCAA to overturn Niemann’s eligibility ruling. There will be a teleconference to rule on that request likely this week. If Nebraska is successful in overturning the NCAA’s previous ruling, Niemann must also gain approval from the NCAA Clearinghouse for academic eligibility.
This will not be a walk in the park and much rides on getting the NCAA to overturn their initial ruling on Niemann. Hopefully we’ll get a favorable outcome on his status.
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Marquette will face Huskers in…scrimmage?
August 13, 2008 by Bret Nellor, under News.
Doc Sadler announced that Marquette will face Nebraska in a closed scrimmage this season which will replace an exhibition game on this year’s schedule.
I’ve not heard of this type of thing happening in college basketball, but I’m all for it. Facing a top Big East team in a scrimmage situation can only pay dividends for the Huskers as they begin the 2008 season. In fact, Coach Sadler stated “some pick them to win the Big East, so just the level of competition and game speed will be really good.” I couldn’t agree more.
The Huskers are also still searching for one final opponent for the upcoming season and has reportedly been talking with South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Georgia but chances appear slim that they will be added to this year’s schedule. Minnesota however, looks to be a likely opponent for a home and home series beginning in 2009.
