It’s been a long wait, but the next chapter in the Legend of Keisei Tominaga is about to be written! Hoops are back, and Nebraska has high hopes entering the new year! Fred Hoiberg has upgraded his roster with some proven, impactful newcomers and the Huskers are out to make a run at punching their ticket to Dance!
We’ve been rolling out full-length previews (3,000+ words) on all of this year’s top contenders, and thought we should share the Nebraska article with you folks! These are just the first few paragraphs, so if you’d like to read more, please check out our site, [where there are 80+ more articles](https://collegehoopstop50.com/posts/) just like this one already posted, with more to come as the season gets underway! It’s the Top 100 Countdown, and we’re getting you hyped and prepped for a great season to come!
So without further ado, here are some words on America’s top cobs – Nebraska basketball!
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Nebrasketball 2022-23 was, at times, quite a harrowing adventure. It was also a journey of discovery. Most of the season was difficult, and the good moments only seemed to come through after white-knuckle tension. Yet it was one of those strangely successful seasons which some teams have from time to time, when, after a period of struggle, there are enough consistent glimmers of real potential that it sort of makes a .500 record seem like a true accomplishment.
Such was the weird and wild ride upon which head coach Fred Hoiberg and his merry men from Lincoln led their fans last year. Now, they’re looking to deliver on the potential which they showed in the new year over the course of an entire season. Nebraska has only finished with a winning record twice since Tim Miles took the Huskers to exhilarating heights in 2013-14, and the folks around Lincoln would really appreciate some more of that already decade-old fun. Led by a pair of foreign-born phenoms, the Cornhuskers have some burgeoning star power, and Hoiberg has scoured the country for upgrades from the Transfer Portal.
What appears to be both a more cohesive plan and rotation each have Huskers fans looking forward to this team. It’s been a bit of a chaotic offseason, but they feel like this group has genuine potential to contend for an NCAA bid. And with Hoiberg – one of the sport’s occasional magicians – stalking the sidelines, who knows what may eventuate?
The legend of Keisei Tominaga began in Lincoln two years ago, and this year, after a summer spent with Japan’s national team, the ketsu shall be written. Once, he was a largely unheralded junior college newcomer who was too small to play the 2-guard spot. In his first season with the Huskers, Tominaga scored in double figures seven times, but he didn’t really make a consistent impact which might have hinted at what was coming. Last winter, though, he started hitting triples in clusters. Then, he did it in back-to-back games. Then, in January, he did it in four straight games. And from New Year’s Eve till season’s close, Tominaga cranked it up to a whole different level. He scored double figures in ten straight, exploding to average a whopping 19.4 points on better than 45% shooting from deep to finish the run – and provide hope that he is the sort of potential all-conference star to lead Hoiberg’s squad to new kinds of success.
While not a classic lead guard, Tominaga is a master at moving without the ball, and at using dekes and fakes after the catch to free up space to get himself a good look. He also has one of the quickest triggers on the Northern Plains. Tominaga pushes the ball well when bringing it up or in transition, going hard towards his defender to then stop and pop from outside. With his tremendous range now well known, Tominaga should be able to use his dribble more often to work into the lane, where he has a solid floater to keep defenses honest. Tominaga made 71.6% of his looks near the rack last season – extraordinary efficiency for a player of his size, and it came on a legit sample of 80+ attempts, per Bart Torvik. Tominaga was similarly excellent in posting a 50.0% mark on all other 2FG’s, and he knocked down the tenth-most triples in the Big Ten. A fan of NBA superstar Steph Curry, Tominaga even has one of his hero’s signature moves down. In the midst of his white-hot finish to the season last year, Tominaga hit a look-away triple at Michigan State which lit up social media. Hoiberg has spoken of his desire to run Golden State-like offensive sets in an attempt to free up Tominaga to let fly, much like Curry’s team does in the NBA. Though he doesn’t call too much attention to himself vocally, Tominaga plays the game with tremendous confidence. This summer as Team Japan qualified for the 2024 Olympics, Tominaga helped his home country to their most wins ever in an individual FIBA World Cup. Tominaga averaged 11.4 points on 37.5% shooting from the land of trey for the tournament, and hopes to carry the additional momentum forward into his last year of college basketball.
New to Lincoln is Rienk Mast, the most prominent of Hoiberg’s veteran transfer additions. A two-time All-Missouri Valley selection while at Bradley, Mast is a reliable, versatile post scorer who has spent the last two years as his team’s go-to guy. The Dutch big man posted nine double-doubles last year while leading Bradley to a MVC regular season title, and he has proven capable of scoring both inside and out. As a freshman, Mast took nearly half of his shots from behind the three point arc. Now, three years later, Mast has developed nearly a full repertoire of shots, both inside the lane and ranging out to the wing. A 65% career shooter utilizing his patience and great footwork around the rim, Mast showed more to his game last season. He’s got a very reliable right hook shot, and when made to go left last year, Mask showed that he’s developed a nice turnaround jumper out to at least 15 feet. So effective is his host of moves and shot types in & around the painted area that Mast rattled home 53.1% on his 143 mid-range attempts last season. That mark gave Mast the seventh-best percentage of any player in America who attempted at least 100 such shots, per Bart Torvik.
While Mast doesn’t play much above the rim, he’s solid below it, something which Hoiberg hopes to maximize. “He’s very keen on details,” Mast told the Lincoln Journal-Star of his first practices for Hoiberg this summer. “Shooting motion, sticking your shot, the footwork into it. I’m pretty big with the footwork aspect of things and he’s been really helpful with teaching me a couple things in that.” Mast hits the boards, too; he finished second in the MVC in rebounds last season, and ranked in the top ten of the MVC in offensive rebounds in each of his three seasons at Bradley. While Derrick Walker’s playmaking out of the post will be a tough act to follow, Mast is also a smart and crafty passer who has a great sense of where his teammates are even as he works with his back to half the court. In addition to ranking third (16.7%) in the Valley in total rebounding rate, Mast finished second on his Bradley team in assist rate (18.3%) last year. If Mast can translate his solid defense up to the Big Ten, Mast’s polished offensive approach will instantly make him one of Hoiberg’s most valuable players…
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