Huskers Head to St. John’s for Gavitt Tipoff Games

Nebraska looks remain perfect on the season, as the Huskers travel to Queens, N.Y. for a matchup with the St. John’s Red Storm. Thursday’s game tips off at 5:30 p.m. (central) and will be televised on FS1 and carried on the Huskers’ Radio Network.  The game is part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games, which features eight matchups between the Big Ten and the Big East throughout the week in honor of Hall of Famer Dave Gavitt, founder of the Big East and basketball visionary.

The Huskers (2-0) are coming off a 75-61 win over Omaha last Thursday. In that game, the Huskers got a career-high 21 points from sophomore C.J. Wilcher, who hit 7-of-12 shots from the field in topping his previous high of 17 set last season. NU also got 18 apiece from senior guards Sam Griesel and Emmanuel Bandoumel, who combined for 13 rebounds, six assists and just one turnover. Nebraska shot 50 percent from the field and held the Mavericks to 41.4 percent from the field while forcing 16 turnovers.

 

Nebraska’s strength in the first two games is a balanced attack, as the Huskers are averaging 77.0 points per game and have three players averaging double figures through the first two games. Griesel, a grad transfer from North Dakota State, paces the Huskers in scoring (20.0 ppg), rebounding (8.0 rpg) and assists (3.0 apg), as he ranks in the top-10 in the Big Ten in both scoring and rebounding entering the week. The Huskers have had four players (Bandoumel, Wilcher, Griesel and Keisei Tominaga) score at least 18 points at least once in the first two games.

St. Johns is 3-0 on the season following a 91-74 win over Central Connecticut on Tuesday evening. The Red Storm have been led by DePaul transfer David Jones, who is averaging 18.7 points on 49 percent shooting and 8.0 rebounds per game. He is one of four players averaging double figures.

Last Time Out

C.J. Wilcher scored a career-high 21 points to lead three Huskers in double figures, as Nebraska led wire-to-wire in a 75-61 win over Omaha on Nov. 10. Wilcher hit 8-of-12 shots from the field, including four 3-pointers, as Nebraska shot 50 percent and forced 16 Omaha turnovers. Wilcher’s 21 points topped his previous best of 17 against Auburn last December and marked the second 20-point effort by a Husker in as many games.

Sam Griesel and Emmanuel Bandoumel had 18 points apiece for Nebraska, which improved to 2-0 on the season. Bandoumel sparked NU’s 11-0 game-opening run with a pair of 3-pointers, while Griesel went over 1,000 career points in Thursday’s win.

Blaise Keita was one point shy of a double-double, finishing with nine points and 12 boards, as the Huskers held Omaha to 41 percent shooting, including 5-of-17 from 3-point range.

Jaeden Marshall paced Omaha in scoring with 16 points, while Marquel Sutton tallied 14 points and five rebounds as the only other Maverick (0-2) in double figures.

 

Huskers in the Gavitt Tipoff Games

The 2022-23 season marks the seventh time the event has been held with the Big Ten posting a 2-2-3 record in the conference challenge. The Big Ten posted 5-3 wins in both 2018 and 2019 and splitting matchups in 2015, 2016, 2017. Last year, the Big East recorded its first win by a mark of 6-2.

Nebraska is 1-3 all-time in Gavitt Tipoff Games with a win over Seton Hall (2018) and losses at Villanova (2015), at St. John’s (2017) and to Creighton (2021). Throughout the eight-year series, each Big Ten program is slated to take part a minimum of four times, while each Big East team is scheduled to participate a minimum of six times.

 

Numbers to Know

8.5 – Nebraska enters the week fifth in the Big Ten in rebounding margin at +8.5 rebounds per game, a significant improvement from last year, where NU was 14th at -7.0 rebounds per game.

20.0 – Sam Griesel’s scoring average over his last 10 games dating back to last season at North Dakota State, including seven 20-point efforts. In his first 91 games of his college career, he averaged 9.0 ppg with seven games of at least 20 points.

 

Worth Noting

•-The Huskers have a trio of players from the New York City area, including Queens native Quaran McPherson, who is out for the season following knee surgery. C.J. Wilcher and Lamarques Lawrence both are from Plainfield, N.J., which is 53 miles from Carnesecca Arena. In addition, NU’s Luca Virgilio (Director of Basketball Strategies & Business Operations) spent five years at St. John’s and was a part of two NCAA Tournament teams for the Red Storm.

•- Thursday’s matchup features two teams that like to push the pace. According to Kenpom, Nebraska has led the Big Ten in pace in each of the past three years under Fred Hoiberg and ranked in the top-20 nationally in 2019-20 and 2021-22. St John’s has topped the Big East in pace in each of the past three seasons and led the country in that category in 2021-22.

Pacesetters (Kenpom National Rankings)

•-C.J. Wilcher is the only current Husker who has faced St. John’s during his college career, as he had three points in 11 minutes in Xavier’s 94-83 loss to St. John’s on Feb. 16, 2021, at Carnesecca Arena.

•-Nebraska has gotten off to fast starts in each of its two games. NU opened up the Maine game with a 9-0 spurt before beginning the Omaha game on an 11-0 spurt. The Huskers have not trailed in either of the last two games.

•-Nebraska looks to extend a three-game road win streak dating back to last season, including wins over No. 22 Ohio State and No. 10 Wisconsin. A win on Thursday would mark the Huskers’ longest road win streak since a six-game win streak during the 1990-91 season.

•-Sam Griesel led NU with 22 points in his Husker debut against Maine, marking his 14th career 20-point effort. His 22-point output was one of the highest-scoring debuts by a Husker in the last 50 years. In fact, three of the the top four debuts have come in the last two seasons.

•-Blaise Keita grabbed 12 rebounds in Thursday’s win over Omaha, marking the second straight game a Husker had 10+ rebounds. It marked only the second time in Hoiberg’s three-plus seasons that a Nebraska player had consecutive 10-rebound performances.

•-Juwan Gary posted his third career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds in the Huskers’ opener with Maine.  His other two came at Alabama during the 2021-22 season. Gary’s 11 rebounds were a career-high, as his previous high was 10 on two occasions (vs. Louisiana Tech, vs. Drake, both in 2021-22).

•-Gary had eight of the Huskers’ 16 offensive rebounds, which was the most by the Huskers since the 2020-21 season opener vs. McNeese State (17). His eight offensive rebounds were the most offensive boards by a Husker since Yvan Ouedraogo had 10 against Northwestern in 2020.

 

Looking at St. John’s

St. John’s comes into Thursday’s game with a 3-0 record following a 91-74 win over Central Connecticut on Tuesday. The Red Storm, who were picked sixth in the Big East preseason poll, returned three starters and eight letterwiners from a team that went 17-15 last season. All-Big East guard Posh Alexander averaged 13.8 points, 5.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game, ranking in the top-20 nationally in both assists and steals and was on the Wooden Award watch list. He comes into Thursday’s game averaging 10.7 points, 5.7 assists and 2.7 steals per game. St. John’s added a pair of impact transfers in David Jones (DePaul) and Andre Cuebelo (Illinois). Jones leads the Red Storm in scoring (18.7 ppg) and is second in rebounding (8.0 rpg), while Cuebelo is averaging 9.7 points and 6.0 assists per game. Junior forward Joel Soriano leads the team in rebounding with 8.7 per game and is averaging 11.3 points on 70 shooting, while Montez Mathis, who played at Rutgers before joining the St. John’s program last season, is averaging 11.3 points per game for Mike Anderson, who is in his fourth season at St. John’s. Previously, he coached at UAB (2002-06), Missouri (2006-11 and Arkansas (2011-19) before taking over the St. John’s program following the 2018-19 season.

The teams have met only one other time, a 79-56 setback in the 2017 Gavitt Tipoff games.  NU Coach Fred Hoiberg is 1-2 all-time against Anderson, with all three meetings coming during his time at Iowa State. After going 0-2 against Anderson during the 2010-11 season (87-54 in Columbia; 76-70 in Ames), the Cyclones beat Anderson’s Arkansas team 95-77 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Nov. 4, 2014.

 

Trio of Transfers Added in 2022-23

Nebraska added three Division I transfers in the offseason in Sam Griesel (North Dakota State), Emmanuel Bandoumel (SMU) and Juwan Gary (Alabama). The trio has combined for nearly 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in their college careers before enrolling at NU and have played a strong role in NU’s 2-0 start. The group is combining for 37 points and 21 rebounds per game.

In the win over Omaha, Griesel and Bandoumel had 18 points apiece, and keyed NU’s game-opening run with eight of the Huskers’ first 11 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers from Bandoumel.

The trio made big impacts in their Husker debuts, combining for 52 points, 28 rebounds and six assists in the win over Maine. Griesel had a game-high 22 points, nine rebounds and three steals, while Gary posted a double-double with 14 and 11 boards. Bandoumel, who had six points, eight boards and three steals, provided the biggest play of the night with Maine threatening to take its first lead. Bandoumel blocked the shot at one end and got the basket at the other end to start a 14-1 spurt that pushed the lead back to 14.

If history is any indication, it will be likely that one of these three will pace NU in scoring, as a newcomer has topped the Husker scoring chart in each of the three seasons under Fred Hoiberg. Of the eight players who have averaged double figures under Hoiberg, all eight have been in their first year of competition at Nebraska.

Of the nine players who saw action against Maine, six players (Griesel, Bandoumel, Gary, Denim Dawson, Blaise Keita and Oleg Kojenets) were making their Husker debuts, while three other players (Jarmarques Lawrence, Sam Hoiberg and Jeff Grace) saw their first career action against Omaha.

 

Wilcher Breaks Out

One of the biggest highlights of Nebraska’s win over Omaha was the return to form of sophomore C.J. Wilcher. The 6-foot-5 guard led NU with 20 points, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Wilcher, who had just seven points in the opener against Maine, was one of the Huskers’ top players down the stretch last season, shooting 60 percent from the field, including 50 percent from 3-point range over NU’s final five games. In Big Ten play last season, he shot a team-best 43.0 percent from beyond the arc.

Welcome Back Wilhelm

Sophomore Wilhelm Breidenbach made a big impact in his first regular-season game since suffering a season-ending knee injury last December. The 6-foot-10 forward tied or set career highs in points (nine), rebounds (seven) and assists (three) in 17 minutes off the bench. His efforts was a big reason NU enjoyed a 28-10 advantage in bench scoring. Last year, Breidenbach, who was a top-100 recruit nationally, was the Huskers’ first big off the bench prior to his knee injury.

 

Tominaga Stars on Japanese Team

Keisei Tominaga spent most of the summer playing with the Japanese Senior National Team for the first time. The 6-foot-2 guard made his debut in the FIBA World Cup Asia qualifier in early July and then starred for Japan in the 2022 Asia Cup. In seven games with the Senior National Team, Tominaga averaged 15.9 points per game while shooting 39.3 percent from the 3-point line. His best performance came against Australia in the Asia Cup quarterfinals, when he poured in 33 points on 12-of-20 shooting, including 8-of-15 from 3-point range. His performance helped Japan to its best Asia Cup finish since 2015.

The junior started the 2022-23 season off with a flourish, scoring 19 points off the bench in the Huskers’ win over Maine. Tominaga hit 7-of-12 shots from the field, including a trio of 3-pointers, and added two rebounds and a blocked shot in 20 minutes. Tominaga’s 19 points marked his second-highest total of his NU career (23 vs. South Dakota last season).

 

Revamped Husker Coaching Staff

In addition to nine new faces on the Husker roster (six scholarship players and three walk-ons), the Husker staff also has several new faces this season.

• Assistant Coach Adam Howard comes to Nebraska after spending the last four seasons at South Alabama, helping the program to 75 wins in that span after the program had seven straight losing seasons. Last year, South Alabama won 21 games, the school’s highest total since 2008. Howard also coached at Troy, Tennessee, Southern Miss and Morehead State after playing collegiately at Western Kentucky.
• Assistant Coach Ernie Zeigler comes to Lincoln after spending six years on Ben Howland’s staff at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs had four postseason appearances between 2018-22. Zeiger spent six seasons as the head coach at Central Michigan (2007-12) and previously served stints at UCLA, Pittsburgh, Kansas State, Detroit and Bowling Green.
• Emmanuel Tommy joined the staff as Director of Player Development. He was an assistant coach at Alabama A&M last season and had worked on the administrative side at both McNeese State and South Alabama.
• Two familiar faces in new positions are graduate managers Michael Bania and Payden Borders, both of whom worked as managers in the Husker program. Both graduated from Nebraska last May.

Pushing The Pace
One trait of a Fred Hoiberg coached team is to play at a fast pace. The Huskers have led the Big Ten in pace in each of the last three seasons according to KenPom, including top-20 rankings in 2019-20 (16th) and 2021-22 (19th). NU has been the only Big Ten team to rank in the top-50 in any of the past three seasons.

• In his eight seasons as a college head coach, Hoiberg’s teams have ranked in the top-50 in tempo six times, including four times in the top-20.
• Prior to Hoiberg’s arrival, the last time a Husker team was in the top-100 nationally in tempo according to KenPom was in 1999-2000 under Danny Nee.

 Playing with Pace (Adjusted Tempo per KenPom)

 
Walker Looks to Continue Efficient Shooting
Nebraska returns one of the most efficient big men in college basketball in Derrick Walker. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 9.6 points per game on 68.3 percent shooting from the field in 2021-22. He broke NU’s single-season field-goal percentage that was held by Larry Cox since the 1975-76 season. Walker was the only Big Ten player and one of just 14 players in Division I to shoot at least 65 percent and average at least eight points per game last season. Walker has not played in NU’s first two games this season.
 
Husker Roster has International Flavor
Nebraska’s 2022-23 roster will once again have an international flavor, as it will feature a quartet of international players in Emmanuel Bandoumel (Canada), Blaise Keita (Mali), Keisei Tominaga (Japan) and Oleg Kojenets (Lithuania). During Fred Hoiberg‘s four seasons at Nebraska, the Huskers have had players from nine countries (Australia, Canada, England, France, Iceland, Japan, Lithuania, Mali and Slovenia).
 
Three Huskers on Opening-Night Rosters
Nebraska is well represented on NBA Opening Night rosters with Isaiah Roby (San Antonio), Dalano Banton (Toronto) and Bryce McGowens (Charlotte). The group is joined by Tyronn Lue, who begins his third season as head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.

• Nebraska’s three active NBA players is the most since the 2007-07 season (Eric Piatkowski, Mikki Moore and Lue)
• McGowens became the 15th former Husker to make his NBA debut on Oct. 19, as he saw action in Charlotte’s win over San Antonio.
• Five members of the 2021-22 team are playing professionally, including Bryce McGowens (NBA), Trey McGowens (G League), Lat Mayen (Australia), Alonzo Verge Jr. (Poland) and Kobe Webster (Netherlands).
• In all, 25 former Huskers are playing professionally around the world, including 10 players from Hoiberg’s three Husker teams.

Homegrown Huskers
The 2022-23 roster features four in-state products in Sam Griesel (Lincoln), Sam Hoiberg (Lincoln), Henry Burt (Omaha) and Cale Jacobsen (Ashland). Griesel is the Huskers’ first scholarship recruit since Jake Muhleisen in the early 2000s. Before joining NU, Griesel made two other appearances in PBA in his college career.  While at North Dakota State, he started both games for the Bison in the 2020 Golden Window event at PBA, averaging 9.0 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. He had nine points and 12 rebounds in a 79-57 loss to the Huskers. No current Husker played against Griesel in that contest.
 
Huskers to be Tested in 2022-23
Nebraska will have a challenging schedule this upcoming season. The Huskers will play a minimum of 25 power conference teams during the season, including five (St. John’s, Creighton, Boston College, Kansas State and Oklahoma) in non-conference action. Depending on the results of the ESPN Events Invitational, NU could see as many as seven power conference teams during non-conference action, including six away from home.

• Nebraska will play at least 13 games in the regular season against ranked teams or teams receiving votes in the AP or Coaches Preseason poll. The Huskers will face No. 9/9 Creighton, No. 13/14 Indiana, No. 22/22 Michigan and No. 23/23 Illinois while six other teams (Purdue, Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa, Rutgers, Wisconsin) received votes. NU could also face Memphis during the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando.
• Nebraska has 16 regular-season games against teams that reached postseason play in 2021-22. The Big Ten had nine NCAA teams in 2021-22, and Nebraska will face that group a combined 13 times (Illinois-2, Iowa-2, Michigan State-2, Purdue-2, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Rutgers and Wisconsin). In non-conference action, NU will face Creighton in Omaha and will face Oklahoma in the ESPN Events Invitational opener. The Huskers will also square off against either Seton Hall or Memphis the following day.

McGowens Becomes Highest Drafted Husker since 1998
Bryce McGowens became the second Husker drafted in as many years, as he was the No. 40 pick of the Charlotte Hornets in the 2022 NBA Draft last June. He was the highest Husker drafted since Tyronn Lue went No. 23 overall in 1998. McGowens averaged 16.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in 2021-22, earning third-team All-Big Ten honors from both the coaches and media.

• McGowens’ 16.8 points per game ranked third nationally among true freshmen in 2021-22. The top two true freshmen in scoring were Paolo Banchero (Duke) and Jabari Smith (Auburn) and those two were picked first and third, respectively, in the 2022 NBA Draft.
• With Dalano Banton (No. 46 in 2021) and McGowens, Nebraska has players selected in consecutive NBA Drafts for the first time since 1998 and 1999.
• McGowens was one of nine Big Ten players selected in the 2022 NBA Draft. The nine picks were the most of any conference and the highest total since 10 Big Ten players were selected in the 1990 NBA Draft.

Huskers Annually Rank Among NCAA Attendance Leaders
Since moving into Pinnacle Bank Arena, the Huskers have been among the national leaders in attendance. The Huskers have ranked in the top 15 in attendance every year since 2013-14, ranking in the top 10 on three occasions including last year.

• Nebraska is one of eight schools in the country to average 15,000+ fans per contest in each of the last seven seasons (2014-20, 2022), joining Kentucky, Syracuse, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas and Creighton. The NCAA did not count attendance figures during the 2020-21 season because of Covid-19.

Huskers Add Top-30 Recruiting Class
For the second straight season, Nebraska pulled in a top-30 national recruiting class, as the 2022 class was rated No. 28 by Rivals. The class included incoming freshmen Ramel Lloyd Jr. and Jamarques Lawrence, as well as junior college transfer Blaise Keita. It also included Denim Dawson, who signed with Nebraska in November and enrolled for the start of the spring 2022 semester.
Lloyd was ranked No. 88 nationally by ESPN and was a top-100 recruit in the 247Sports Composite rankings, while Lawrence was ranked among the top 150 players by Rivals at the end of his senior season. Keita was ranked as the No. 1 overall JUCO player by 247Sports and No. 4 by JUCORecruiting.com.  The Huskers’ 2021 freshmen class was ranked as high as 13th nationally by ESPN and also earned top-25 recognition by 247Sports and Rivals.
 
All in the Family
Several members of the 2022-23 Huskers have family members who have played basketball at the college or professional levels. The list is led by Fred Hoiberg, who played in the NBA for a decade after a standout career at Iowa State. In addition, Ramel Lloyd was a Parade All-American who scored over 1,600 points at the college level at Syracuse and Long Beach State. Both Aleh Kojenets and Jurga Paliaukaite played at UNC Wilmington, while Paliaukaite holds the UNC Wilmington women’s record with 10 blocked shots in a game.  Keisei Tominaga’s father didn’t play college basketball, but was a center on the Japanese national team at the 1998 FIBA World Championship and played professionally in Japan for a decade.
 

 
NBA Coaches: Back to School
Fred Hoiberg is one of eight active NCAA coaches to have coached in the NBA, as he spent three-plus seasons with the Chicago Bulls from 2015 to 2018. Hoiberg’s 270 regular-season NBA games rank third among the eight former NBA coaches in the collegiate ranks. Hoiberg is also one of former 23 former NBA players as Division I head coaches in 2022-23.
 
Division I Coaches with NBA Head Coaching Experience

 
Eli Rice Signs with Nebraska
Nebraska Men’s Basketball Coach Fred Hoiberg announced Nov. 9 that Eli Rice (Gallatin, Tenn.) has signed a National Letter-of-Intent to play for the Husker basketball program in 2023-24.  Rice is a 6-foot-7, 195-pound guard who will play for IMG Academy’s postgraduate team this season after spending his senior year at Beech (Tenn.) High School. A three-star recruit by 247Sports, Rivals and On3, he was rated No. 194 nationally in the 247Sports composite rankings and among the top-25 recruits in the state of Florida by 247Sports.

Rice, who turned 18 in August, starred at Beech High School in 2021-22, averaging 17.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 blocks per game. He helped Coach Kip Brown’s team to a 34-2 record, including a 33-game win streak, and the school’s first appearance in the state tournament since 2010.  For his efforts, Rice was named to the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s all-state high school boys basketball team in Class 4A and was named the Sumner County Player of the Year.

 

Single-game Tickets Now on Sale

Single-game tickets for the 2022-23 schedule are now on sale. A select number of 300 Level seats are available for $7 apiece for non-conference games and $10 each for each of the Huskers’ 10 Big Ten matchups, including games with Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State and Iowa.

The single-game tickets are one of several options to purchase Husker basketball tickets for the 2022-23 season. In addition, the Six-Game Mini-Plan which allows fans to pick 300 Level seats for any six games during the 2022-23 season for just $30 while supplies last.

To purchase, visit Huskers.com/Tickets or call the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office at 800-8-BIGRED during business hours (8 a.m.-5 p.m., Mon.-Fri.).