Andrew Morgan Wants To Bring Toughness To Huskers While Growing His Game

Corn or soybeans?

“Depends on the year,” Andrew Morgan answered with a smile during a recent appearance on Huskers Radio Network. “If it’s good corn prices, I’d love to grow corn, but not right now.”

No, this wasn’t a discussion over morning coffee in your rural small-town mini mart. But Morgan, Nebraska’s 6-foot-10, 245-pound transfer addition from North Dakota State, would be a good fit in that environment, just like Fred Hoiberg thinks he’s a good fit on the court for the Huskers in 2024-25.

As Morgan detailed to Inside Nebraska following his commitment to Nebraska in April, growing up on a farm outside of Waseca, Minnesota, played a critical role to who he currently is as person and basketball player. It taught him what work is and how to be tough.

Physicality is a key trait of Morgan’s game, and that was something Nebraska needed more of at times last season. Morgan, who has one season of eligibility left, plans to provide the muscle and mindset he did for the Bison of the Summit League the past three seasons.

“If you get injured on a farm, sometimes you just have to brush it off,” Morgan said. “And physicality, that really came from me wanting to be a football player when I grew up, then I got too big for that. I always wanted to hit people, that was like the most exciting part of my job in football.”

With Rienk Mast redshirting 2024-25 as he rehabs post-season knee surgery, Morgan will be expected to step into the role Mast held last season: a big often working at the top of the key who can play the 4 or 5 and facilitate while also providing a pick-and-pop threat.

In three seasons at NDSU, Morgan only attempted 46 3-pointers, and 33 of them came last season, when he shot 36.4% from deep (12-of-33) while averaging 12.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 assist. He earned second-team All-Summit League.

“There’s a guy who I think can play through the elbow, give us a little bit of what Rienk gave us, but he is really good on the low block,” Hoiberg said during a Huskers Radio Network appearance in June.

Doing most of his work close to the hoop, Morgan wasn’t a high-volume 3-point shooter — he only attempted three 3s in one game twice. Mast attempted at least three 3s in 21 games last season.

“I kind of played a little bit of that up in North Dakota, but this is more into it in this offense,” Morgan said. “It’s definitely getting used to being on the outside more and also being able to defend on the perimeter more than I did up there, which is fine.”

Said Hoiberg: “We’re going to work on fixing a couple things to make him (Morgan) more consistent with his outside shot, but he’s got a really nice skill set.”

Morgan is one of nine new faces to Hoiberg’s program. Nebraska beat out his home state Minnesota Golden Gophers during the transfer portal recruitment. Nebraska being a good culture fit, as well as growing his game under Hoiberg and his staff, were big selling points during the process.

“It starts at the top with coach Hoiberg. He’s one of the best coaches in college basketball. He’s coached at the pro level and some of the other coaches have actually coached at the pro level as well,” Morgan said. “If I wanted to expand my game and especially if I wanted to go some place after and play pro ball somewhere else, it would be possible. So it wasn’t just me looking at it for one year, it was looking at it for the future as well, and they kind of already had that set as well.”

And of course, you can give former NDSU and Nebraska guard Sam Griesel an assist here. Morgan played one season with Griesel before the Lincoln East graduate transferred back home to play for his hometown program.

Griesel helped Morgan learn about the Husker program. Often times, hearing about a program from a player who’s been in it is more impactful than a coach telling a player during the recruiting process.

“I don’t even think he said anything but just, ‘Go Big Red, keep going, go to Big Red.’ He was very excited about it,” Morgan said. “We compared notes, we played with the same coach up there and we were kind of comparing how it is down here, and he was just saying how much I’d love it down here. It was a very good recruiting side with that, and along with some of the other guys I knew up in Fargo who knew about how it operated down here.”

Initially, playing sports in college wasn’t the plan for Morgan. He figured he’d go the community college route after high school before return home two years later, like many of his friends.

“The school next to us, Mankato State, I always thought was the highest of the high right there. I’m like, ‘If you go to Mankato, you’re fancy,’” Morgan said through a laugh. “I just grew up on a farm. For me, I was kind of closed off from how everything else worked because I’m kind of isolated out in the country. It kind of helped me become who I am now. We just do crops, and I knew that there’s never something not to do on the farm, and that helped me with my work ethic.

“You don’t really have time off on certain things, it’s whenever the weather is ready to go. You don’t really count the days, don’t really work Mondays through Fridays. It’s like, ‘Alright, the weather is good, you go now.’”

Oh, and for the corn or soybean preference?

“Beans are easier. Corn takes a little bit more work and a little bit more preparation. But I like them both,” Morgan said. “I really like growing corn because we don’t have to haul that far when we haul it in, we only have to haul like 12 miles, and beans we have to haul like 25, 30 miles. So maybe that plays into the decision a little bit.”