Huskers Host Sam Houston Friday Night

The Nebraska men’s basketball team looks to bounce back following a disappointing season-opening loss this Friday night, as the Huskers play host to Sam Houston. Tipoff between the Huskers and Bearkats is set for 7:30 p.m.  A limited number of 300 Level tickets for Friday’s game are available by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets, calling the NU Athletic Ticket Office at 800-8BIGRED during business hours or at the PBA Box Office beginning Friday at 6 p.m.
 

The Huskers (0-1) dropped a 75-74 decision to Western Illinois in Tuesday’s opener. NU rallied from a seven-point deficit with just under 10 minutes left and built a four-point lead in the final minute, only to see WIU hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds to escape with a one-point win. Nebraska held Western Illinois to 39 percent shooting on the night, but allowed 23 offensive rebounds which led to 22 second-chance points for the Leathernecks. Nebraska, which averaged 21 assists per game in its two exhibition games, had just six in the season opener and shot just 39 percent from the field.

The loss spoiled a pair of strong Husker debuts, as Arizona State transfer Alonzo Verge Jr. had 26 points, a career-high 13 rebounds and five assists for his first career double-double. Freshman guard Bryce McGowens tallied 25 points, including 10-of-12 from the foul line, and six boards in his debut. It was the most points a Husker freshman had ever scored in his debut and was 10th all-time for any freshman at Nebraska. 

Sam Houston (1-0) opened the season with a 97-54 victory over LeTourneau on Wednesday. In that game, the Bearkats jumped out to a 12-0 lead in the first 2:09 and built a 25-point lead in the first 10 minutes to seize control. Demarkus Lampley, who had eight of the Bearkats’ first 10 points, and Texas A&M transfer Savion Flagg had 20 points apiece for Sam Houston, which placed four players in double figures. 

The Bearkats have four starters returning from a team that went 19-9 last season, led by Lampley, a senior guard who averaged 14.4 ppg, including 40 percent from 3-point range, on his way to earning first-team All-Southland Conference accolades in 2021. 

About Sam Houston

Head Coach Jason Hooten brings his Sam Houston team to Lincoln with a 1-0 record following a 97-54 win over LeTourneau on Wednesday night. Hooton is beginning his 12th year at the school and has guided the program to five 20-win seasons since 2014. Sam Houston has won 18-or-more games in each of the past eight seasons, highlighted by a Southland Conference regular-season title and NIT berth in 2019. The school is in its first of two years in the Western Athletic Conference, as Sam Houston will join Conference USA in time for the 2023-24 season.

The Bearkats return four starters from a team that went 19-9 and finished third in the Southland Conference with a 13-3 mark. SHSU is led by senior guard Demarkus Lampley, who averaged 14.4 ppg, including 40 percent from 3-point range, on his way to earning first-team All-Southland Conference accolades in 2021. Sam Houston also returns guard Donte Powers (7.3 ppg) and forward Tristan Ikpe (7.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg) and adds Texas A&M transfer Savion Flagg, who started for two seasons at Texas A&M and averaged 8.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in 17 contests last season. Sam Houston was picked seventh in the WAC preseason poll while Lampley (first team) and Flagg (second team)

were preseason all-conference picks.

Nebraska leads the all-time series, 4-1, but have not played since a 74-70 Sam Houston win at the Devaney Center on Dec. 15, 2001. Nebraska had won the previous three games, posting wins in 1989, 1990 and 1991. NU is 9-2 all-time against members of the Western Athletic Conference.

 

Last Time Out

Nebraska rallied to erase two seven-point leads in the second half and led by four with less than a minute remaining, but Luka Barisic’s three-pointer with 6.7 seconds remaining lifted Western Illinois to a 75-74 win over the Huskers on Tuesday evening’s season-opener at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Nebraska had a chance to win in regulation, but Alonzo Verge Jr. missed a shot at the buzzer, allowing the Leathernecks to escape with a one-point win. 

Verge posted his first career double-double in the defeat with 26 points, a career-high 13 rebounds and five assists. Freshman Bryce McGowens followed closely behind with 25 points, the most ever by a Husker freshman in his debut, and six boards.  Nebraska shot just 39 percent and was out-rebounded 57-37, while 23 offense boards led to 22 WIU points.

Trenton Massner finished with 21 points, including four 3-pointers and eight rebounds, to pace three Leathernecks in double figures. Barisic tallied 12 points and a team-leading nine rebounds, while Will Carius added 11 points for the winners, who were winless in six previous games with the Huskers.

 

Worth Noting

•-Tuesday’s game featured two of the highest-scoring debuts by any Husker in the last 50 years. Alonzo Verge Jr. (26) and Bryce McGowens (25) became just the third and fourth Huskers in the last five decades to score 20+ points in a Husker debut.

•-McGowens’ 25-point effort was also the highest for any Husker in his debut, breaking the mark of 23 set by Joe McCray in 2004-05. McGowens became just the 11th Husker freshman to score at least 25 points in a game. Of that group, only Dave Hoppen has multiple 25-point games (two) as a freshman.

•-Alonzo Verge Jr. posted his first career double-double with 26 points, a career-high 13 rebounds and five assists against Western Illinois. Last year, only two Big Ten players had a game with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists – Illinois Ayo Dosunmu (vs. North Carolina A&T) and Purdue’s Trevion Williams (vs. Ohio State).

•-The last Husker to have at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a game was Lance Jeter (27 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) in an overtime loss to Iowa State on Feb. 26, 2011.

•-Verge’s 13 rebounds vs. Western Illinois is the third-highest total in Fred Hoiberg‘s two-plus seasons. Only Yvan Ouedraogo (19 vs. NW; 14 vs. TAMU-CC) has grabbed more rebounds in a game since the start of the 2019-20 season. Prior to Tuesday, Verge’s career high in boards was eight against Oregon in the 2021 Pac-12 Tournament.

•-Tuesday’s game marked only the third time since 2007 that Nebraska has two players score 25-or-more points in a game. It also marked the fourth time that NU had multiple 20-point scorers in a game in Fred Hoiberg‘s tenure.

 

 
•-Nebraska got 83 percent of its points and 69 percent of its rebounds by newcomers on Tuesday.

•-Bryce McGowens became the 11th Husker true freshman to start a season opener since 1995 and the first since Yvan Ouedraogo in 2019. 

 

A Look at the Huskers

Head Coach Fred Hoiberg begins his third season at the helm of the Husker program with a strong returning corps back for the first time in his tenure. The Huskers return three starters and seven letterwinners while welcoming eight scholarship newcomers.

The returnees are led by fourth-year junior Trey McGowens, who averaged 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in 2020-21. He is joined by returning starters Lat Mayen (8.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg) and Derrick Walker Jr. (5.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg), as the trio combined for 70 starts last year. McGowens and Mayen started all 27 games, while Walker started the Huskers’ final 16 games. NU also returns a trio of key reserves in Kobe Webster (8.1 ppg, 38 percent from 3-point range), Eduardo Andre (2.7 ppg, 2.1 rpg) and Trevor Lakes (3.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg).

The newcomers include a recruiting class which was ranked in the top-15 nationally by ESPN, as well as three Division I transfers. Bryce McGowens is one of the top-25 recruits in the country and was a five-star recruit by several recruiting services after averaging 21.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 blocks per game last season. He was the Gatorade South Carolina Player of the Year and was selected to the Jordan Brand roster. Wilhelm Breidenbach was a top-100 recruit by ESPN as he averaged 15.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game at national power Mater Dai High School before he suffered a season-ending injury. Junior college transfer Keisei Tominaga earned NJCAA All-America honors after 16.3 points per game and shooting 48 percent from 3-point range. Tominaga played in the Olympics for his native Japan in the 3×3 event and ranked among the leading scorers in the event despite being the youngest competitor in the field.

The transfers are led by fifth-year senior Alonzo Verge Jr., who averaged 14.0 points, 3.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game at Arizona State. In 2019-20, he was the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year as he averaged 14.6 points per game, including a 43-point outburst against St. Mary’s. Both C.J. Wilcher (Xavier) and Keon Edwards (DePaul) were both top-100 recruits in high school and come to NU with four years of eligibility remaining. Wilcher played in 15 games for Xavier, averaging 3.3 points per game, while Edwards saw action in five games for DePaul after reclassifying in December of 2020.

 

What’s Back for the Big Red

For the first time in Fred Hoiberg‘s three seasons, the Huskers return a significant portion of their roster. With three starters (Trey McGowens, Lat Mayen and Derek Walker) and two of its top reserves (Kobe Webster and Eduardo Andre), the Huskers return nearly 50 percent of its scoring and more than 40 percent of its rebounding and assists. While it may not seem like large numbers, the two previous teams had just 21 percent (2020-21) and two percent (2019-20) of its points back from the previous season – the lowest two totals for the Huskers over the last 20 years.  In Hoiberg’s first season, NU returned just one letterwinner and 50 total points – the fewest returning total by any power conference school (Power Five + Big East) in a decade.

 

 
Huskers Look to Take Advantage of Experience
Nebraska’s 2021-22 roster has plenty of college experience, as Derrick Walker, Kobe Webster, Alonzo Verge, Lat Mayen and Trevor Lakes all begin their fifth season of college eligibility. Lakes and Webster are “Super Seniors” who took advantage of their free year of eligibility.  Nebraska returns three players who have scored at least 1,000 points at the college level.
Walker, who turned 24 on Tuesday, and third-year walk-on Jace Piatkowski are the only players remaining from Fred Hoiberg‘s first team at Nebraska.
 
McGowens, Verge Among Top Impact Newcomers
Nebraska guards Bryce McGowens and Alonzo Verge Jr. were listed among the top impact newcomers by ESPN’s Jeff Borzello. The list featured the top 91 players — and a handful of other notables — whose wearing of new jerseys in the 2021-22 college basketball season will have the most substantive impact on their teams. McGowens, a five-star recruit and consensus top-25 recruit, was ranked No. 25 overall, including 11th among all freshman nationally. Verge, who came to Nebraska after playing two seasons at Arizona State, was No. 33 overall and 21st among all transfers entering 2021-22.

Husker Recruiting Class Seeing Stars

The Huskers brought one of the nation’s top recruiting classes to campus this fall. The class is ranked as high as 13th by ESPN as well as 18th by 247Sports and 21st by Rivals and is the third-highest ranked class in the Big Ten.

 Nebraska’s five signees are headlined by five-star Bryce McGowens and four-star recruit Wilheim Breidenbach, both of whom were top-100 recruits. McGowens was a consensus top-25 recruit who played in the Iverson Classic and was selected to  the Jordan Brand team. NU rounded out the class with junior college All-American Keisei Tominaga and freshmen Oleg Kojenets and Quaran McPherson.

The Huskers three incoming transfers, who do not count in recruiting rankings included a pair of former top-100 recruits in C.J. Wilcher (Xavier) and Keon Edwards (DePaul), while Alonzo Verge spent the last two seasons at Arizona State, where he was the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year in 2020.

 

Up-Tempo Basketball

One trait of any 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 two seasons, ranking 16th nationally by KenPom in 2019-20 and 35th in 2020-21. NU has been the only Big Ten team to rank in the top-50 nationally in each of the past two seasons.

In seven full seasons as a college head coach (five at Iowa State and two at NU), Hoiberg’s teams have ranked in the top-50 in tempo five times, including three 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.

 

 
Trey Thievery
Fourth-year guard Trey McGowens led Nebraska with 38 steals in his first season, continuing a trend during his college career. The 6-foot-4 guard was fourth in the Big Ten with 1.4 steals per game while starting all 27 games for the Big Red. It marked the third straight season he ranked in the top five in the conference in steals, as he ranked among the ACC leaders in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. McGowens had eight steals in the Huskers’ two exhibition contests and added three more in the Huskers’ season opener.

He is one of only four players in power conference programs who have ranked in the top five in steals in each of the past three seasons, joining Jamari Wheeler, LJ Figueroa and Marcus Garrett. McGowens and Wheeler, who has transferred from Penn State to Ohio State, return to college basketball in 2021-22. 

 

 
Huskers will be Tested in 2021-22
The Huskers face a 2021-22 schedule which features eight games against teams ranked in the Associated Press preseason poll released on Oct. 18. NU will face No. 22 Auburn in non-conference play as part of Holiday Hoopsgiving, while facing No. 6 Michigan (twice), No. 7 Purdue, No. 11 Illinois, No. 17 Ohio State (twice) and No. 21 Maryland. In addition, NU will also play five other games against teams receiving votes (Michigan State, Indiana and Rutgers) in the preseason poll.
 
All in the Family
Several members of the 2021-22 Huskers have family members who have played basketball at the college or professional levels. The list is led by former NBA players Eric Piatkowski, who spent 14 years in the NBA after scoring nearly 2,000 career points at Nebraska, and Fred Hoiberg, who played in the NBA for a decade after a standout career at Iowa State. 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.
 

 
Banton and Roby on NBA Rosters
Nebraska had a pair of former players on opening-night NBA rosters with Isaish Roby and Dalano Banton.  The pair gives Nebraska multiple NBA players since the 2008-09 season (Tyronn Lue and Mikki Moore). In addition, Tyronn Lue is beginning his second season as the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Roby, a second-round pick in 2019, is in his second full season with the Oklahoma City Thunder after averaging 8.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game last season. Roby played three seasons at Nebraska and helped the Huskers to a pair of postseason appearances.

Banton was a second-round pick of Toronto in 2021, becoming the Huskers’ second NBA Draft pick in the last three years. Banton spent two years at NU and averaged 9.6 points per game in 2020-21 while leading the Huskers in both rebounding (5.9) and assists (3.9) per game. He became the first Husker since 1974 to lead NU in both rebounds and assists in the same season.

 

It is Academic For Webster

Kobe Webster became the latest Husker men’s basketball player to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America honors, as he was a third-team selection in May of 2021. Webster, who graduated from Western Illinois in 2020, has a 3.75 GPA while working on his master’s degree in educational administration.

Webster was the first Husker men’s basketball player to be honored since Shavon Shields in 2015 and 2016.  NU Head Coach Fred Hoiberg was a two-time Academic All-American at Iowa State (1994 and 1995) and was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2016. Entering the 2021-22 school year, Nebraska leads all NCAA Division I programs with 347 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.

 

An Olympic Effort by Tominaga

Nebraska’s 2021-22 roster features an Olympian, as Keisei Tominaga played for his native Japan in 3×3 basketball during the Tokyo Olympics. Tominaga, the youngest player in the eight-team field, helped Japan reach the medal round and finished third among all players in scoring (6.9 ppg), fourth in 1-point shooting (74 percent) and seventh in 2-point shooting (36 percent).  He was one of only two active NCAA players to play in the Olympics, joining Virginia’s Francisco Caffaro, who played for Argentina in men’s basketball. 

Tominaga became the third Husker basketball player to play in the Olympics, joining Aleks Maric (2012, Australia) and Ade Dagunduro (2012, Nigeria).

 

Huskers Hail from All Over the World

NU’s roster has had an international flavor in recent seasons and that trend will continue in 2021-21. Four Huskers hail from overseas, including Eduardo Andre (London, England), Oleg Kojenets (Kaunas, Lithuania), Lat Mayen (Adelaide, Australia) and Keisei Tominaga (Moriyama Nagoya Aichi, Japan).  In three seasons under Hoiberg, NU has had players on its roster from a host of countries, including Australia, Canada, England, France, Iceland and Slovenia.

 

Red Carpet Experience Expands to Men’s Basketball

Nebraska Athletics announced that the Red Carpet Experience will expand for men’s basketball for select games during the 2021-22 season. The program provides an opportunity for underserved youth across the state of Nebraska to receive complimentary tickets and experience Husker game days. For men’s basketball, the four Red Carpet Experience games are scheduled for Nov. 27 (South Dakota), Dec. 22 (Kennesaw State), Jan. 29 (Rutgers) and Feb. 5 (Northwestern).

Fans can participate in one of two ways

• • Log in to their ticket accounts on huskers.com/myaccount and select Return for selected Red Carpet events.
• • Make a monetary donation to the Red Carpet Experience through the Husker Athletic Fund

Complimentary tickets through the Red Carpet Experience are limited to students in 8th grade or younger, along with one or two accompanying parents/guardians. The students must be present to get tickets. For more information on the Red Carpet Experience, contact Dr. Lawrence Chatters at redcarpet@huskers.com.
 
NBA Coaches Go Back to School
Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg is one of 10 active NCAA coaches to have coached in the NBA, as he spent three-plus seasons with the Chicago Bulls. Hoiberg’s 270 regular-season NBA games rank third among the 10 former NBA coaches in the collegiate ranks.