Huskers make Isaac Traudt feel ‘like a big priority’ on official visit

Since earning a scholarship offer from Nebraska nearly a full year ago, 2022 Grand Island (Neb.) forward Isaac Traudt had developed a close relationship with Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg.

Twelve months later, the four-star Rivals150 prospect was finally able to have an in-person conversation with Hoiberg and the rest of NU’s staff during his first official visit this weekend.

Traudt, currently rated the No. 67 overall player in the ’22 class, made his way to Lincoln with some specific items and questions on his to-do list.

Based on his experience, which included everything from meeting NU’s players, having dinner at Hoiberg’s house, and a round of golf with Hoiberg and his son, freshman walk-on Sam Hoiberg, the visit couldn’t have gone much better.

“Coach Hoiberg is definitely making me feel like a big priority for them just in the time he spent with me there and how hard he’s been recruiting me recently,” Traudt said. “It was really nice to meet all the staff members. They were all really great guys, and it was just kind of a family atmosphere there, which I really liked.

“Same thing with the players, just kind of a family atmosphere. Everybody gets along and has really good conversations outside of basketball. I asked them quite a bit of questions, and they’d always give me honest answers no matter what the question was, and that really meant a lot. It was just an overall really fun experience.”

There’s a saying that you can learn a lot about someone based on how they act on the golf course, and Traudt said Hoiberg was just as calm and collected after a bad shot as he was during his weekly phone calls and FaceTime meetings over the past year.

“He’s always a genuine guy,” Traudt said. “He never cusses or anything after hitting a bad shot, so that was good to see. My dad and I didn’t play very well, but it was a fun experience.”

With his first official visit of the live recruiting period now in the books, Traudt has three other officials scheduled for later this month.

He’ll head out to Virginia on June 11-13 and then to Michigan State on June 17-19, followed by a trip to North Carolina on June 27-29.

Traudt said he was also working on setting up another official to Oklahoma later this fall, likely sometime in September.

Given how he has nine allotted official visits remaining and hadn’t seen a college campus in 15 months, Traudt said he was in no rush with his recruiting process or decision timeline.

He said he expects to take “close to seven” officials before all was said and done, and his commitment might not come until January or February.

In the meantime, Traudt’s first in-person taste of Nebraska’s program didn’t necessarily change his perception of the Huskers. But it definitely furthered his already high level of interest in the Huskers.

“I’ve always had a really strong interest in Nebraska, so that didn’t change at all,” Traudt said. “It’s always been a good level of interest. But just being able to hang out with the staff for that long and kind of get a feel for them not just as coaches but as people made me realize they have some really good guys down there that I think could really help me out at the college level.