Huskers Open 2021-22 Season vs. Western Illinois

The Nebraska men’s basketball opens the 2021-22 campaign on Tuesday night, as the Huskers play host to Western Illinois. Tipoff between the Huskers and Leathernecks at set for 7 p.m.  A limited number of 300 Level tickets for Tuesday’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 Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
 

The Huskers went 2-0 in exhibition play, posting wins over Peru State (97-58) and Colorado (82-67). but have not played since Oct. 31.  In the win over the Buffs, freshman Bryce McGowens had 15 points to lead four Huskers in double figures, as Nebraska shot 49 percent from the field and hit 12 3-pointers in building a 27-point lead and withstood a late Colorado rally. NU was also stout on the defensive end, holding CU to 32 percent shooting and forcing 16 turnovers that led to 21 Husker points.

Western Illinois also went 2-0 in exhibition play, posting wins over Illinois- Springfield (92-80) and Monmouth College (88-34). In their most recent exhibition against Monmouth, Colton Sandage had 16 points, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range, while Tamell Pearson added 11 points and 12 boards. Will Carius, a second-team preseason All-Summit League pick, had 30 points and five assists in the win over Illinois-Springfield.

 

Pouring Over Exhibition Numbers

Nebraska showed significant improvement in the two exhibition games in several key areas. Here are a couple of items which stood out heading into the regular-season opener against Western Illinois.

1.62-to-1: Nebraska’s assist-to-turnover ratio in the two combined games. That is a significant improvement on the 0.97-to-1 ratio last season. Nebraska also averaged 21.0 assists per game in the two contests after averaging 13.7 apg in 2020-21.

7.0: Assists per game for grad transfer Alonzo Verge Jr. in both wins. The 6-foot-4 guard has been a facilitator for the Big Red while also averaging 15.0 ppg. In two seasons at Arizona State, Verge had just six-or-more assists four times.

12.0:  Derrick Walker Jr. averaged 12.0 ppg on 75 percent shooting in exhibition play and was one of two Huskers to reach double figures in both exhibition contests (also Alonzo Verge Jr.). It continues an upward trajectory for Walker, as he averaged 8.2 ppg in his last five games of 2020-21 after averaging 4.7 ppg in his first 11 appearances after becoming eligible on Jan. 10.

 

About Western Illinois

Under second-year coach Rob Jeter, Western Illinois comes to Lincoln with a veteran team back this season. Before taking the WIU position in 2020, Jeter coached at Milwaukee for 11 seasons (2005-16), guiding the Panthers to a 185-170 mark and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (2006 and 2014). Most recently, he was an assistant at Minnesota from 2018 to 2020, helping the Gophers to the second round of the 2019 NCAA tournament.

In his first season, WIU went 7-15 overall, including 5-9 in the Summit League, as the season highlighted by a five-game conference win streak. This season, WIU is picked to finish fifth in the Summit League after finishing seventh last season. The Leathernecks bring back five players who started at least 10 games last year. WIU is led by All-Summit League performer Will Carius, who topped WIU in scoring (14.7 ppg) and 3-pointers (53). The 6-foot-7 forward was a second-team preseason all-conference pick this season. Tamell Pearson, who began his career at UAB, also returns after averaging double figures a year ago. The 6-foot-10 forward chipped in 10.4 ppg and topped WIU in rebounds (6.9 rpg) and blocked shots (20).

Nebraska leads the all-time series, 6-0, including a 73-49 Husker win in the most recent meeting on Nov. 24, 2018. In that game, Glynn Watson Jr. had 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting and nine rebounds, while James Palmer Jr. added 19 for the winners. NU held Western Illinois to 30.6 percent shooting from the field.  The Huskers are 83-11 all-time against the current members of the Summit League.

 

Last Time Out

Bryce McGowens’ 15 points led four Huskers as double figures, as Nebraska posted an impressive 82-67 win over Colorado in a charity exhibition on Oct. 31.

McGowens led a balanced attack that saw NU shoot 49 percent from the field, dish out 17 assists and hit 12 3-pointers. Defensively, NU held Colorado to 32 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers.

Derrick Walker Jr. had 12 points and six rebounds, while C.J. Wilcher and Alonzo Verge Jr. added 11 and 10 points respectively, as NU had six players total at least eight points.

Nebraska, which never trailed, took control by shooting 58 percent in the first half to build a 44-28 halftime lead. Wilcher keyed a Huskers’ 17-2 first-half spurt, hitting a trio of 3-pointers, as Nebraska turned a 16-9 lead into a 22-point lead less than 10 minutes into the contest.

Colorado trimmed the lead to 13 in the opening minute of the second half before the Huskers ran off 10 straight points to push the lead to 23 after a Bryce McGowens 3-pointer with 14:19 left. Nebraska eventually stretched the margin to 67-40 with 11:50 left before the Buffaloes made one last charge. CU used a 17-2 spurt to pull within 69-57 with 05:14 left, but Walker’s basket stemmed the tide and he added another two free throws to stretch the lead back to 16. CU got to within 12 one final time, at 75-63 after a Tristan da Silva basket with 2:25 left, but a Bryce McGowens 3-pointer and a basket by Verge put the game out of reach.

 

Postgame Nuggets

•- Nebraska improved to 61-6 all-time in exhibition games dating back to the 1966-67 season and has won its last 19 exhibition games since a 54-50 loss to SIU-Edwardsville in 2006. 

•-Nebraska reached double-figures in three points made for the second straight exhibition. Last year, NU hit 10-or-more 3-points in consecutive games twice, including ones in Big Ten play.

•-Nebraska tallied 12 steals against Colorado, including five by Trey McGowens and three by Alonzo Verge Jr.

•-Three of the Huskers’ top four double-figure efforts were by newcomers, including 15 from Bryce McGowens.  C.J. Wilcher (11) and Alonzo Verge Jr. (10) also reached double figures.

•-Net proceeds from the Colorado charity exhibition will go to three local organizations: the TeamMates mentoring program; the YWCA of Lincoln for its Employ402 program and the Nebraska Greats Foundation.

 

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 turns 24 on opening night, and third-year walk-on Jace Piatkowski are the only players remaining from Fred Hoiberg‘s first team at Nebraska.

Husker Recruiting Class Seeing Stars

The Huskers bring 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.
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 Around 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.