Offseason thoughts on Nebrasketball?
I know it’s June, but I’m thinking about Nebrasketball (I can’t be the only one lol). How do we feel about the roster they constructed?
On offense, I’m very excited about the trio they put together with Sandfort, Frager and Sam Orme — each one is long, can shoot and has the ability to get to the rim. Probably safe to say they’ll be our top three scorers.
Trevan Leonhardt seems like a solid addition at point guard, but he’s materially a different player than Sam Hoiberg and Jamarques Lawrence were. It’ll be interesting to see how the offense operates with more of a true point guard again. I ran into Leonhardt in public recently and he’s a tall dude in person, and he also seems like a really high-character guy.
If Leonhardt can be the assist machine that he was in the WAC (6.0 APG), that should hopefully make up for Boden Kapke being less of a facilitator than Rienk Mast was. I’m interested to see how Kapke fits in the offense, as well as Damon Wilkinson, as neither is really the prototypical stretch-five that Fred likes to have.
I’d assume Kapke and Wilkinson (as well as Leo Curtis) will provide better rim protection and rebounding than Rienk and Berke did. Hopefully.
I have concerns about how well all of these new guys can get accustomed to the defense, but I trust that Loenser will play the guys he feels comfortable putting out there.
Team leadership is another concern — who does it come from? That was one of the biggest things that was lacking two years ago when the going got tough. Mast and Sam Hoiberg were fantastic leaders this year, and they’ll be really hard to replace.
Overall, it feels like a talented group, but structurally seems more like the 24-25 roster with better pieces around the top two scorers and better depth. Excited to see how the rotation shakes out with Cale Jacobsen, Taj DeGourville, Will Cooper, Connor Essegian and maybe even Jacob Lanier and Colin Rice (less likely with the broken hand) also vying for minutes.
Just my layman’s thoughts. Interested in what you all think!