Fred Hoiberg remembers the redshirt discussions he had with three of his players on this season’s roster in wing Braden Frager, guard Nick Janowski and forward Justin Bolis.
The head coach knew that landing on the decision to redshirt all three of them for the 2024-25 campaign wasn’t going to be easy on the young players, especially Frager and Janowski, the scholarship players of the trio.
“I talked about how fast this would go when the decision was made, which was hard on them,” Hoiberg said last week. “I think especially with Nick and Braden, they both expected to come in here and play.”
Frager, a local product out of Lincoln Southwest, reclassified from the 2025 to 2024 class so he could begin his college career early. Listed at 6-foot-7 and 220 pounds on the online roster, Frager appeared bigger than 220 during pregame warmups during the season.
As a high school junior, Frager averaged 18.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game while shooting 50% from the field and 29% from 3-point range (36-of-125). As a sophomore, Frager averaged 11.4 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 43% from 3 (30-of-72).
Janowski, who hails from Pewaukee, Wisc., was one of the top prospects and shooters in the Midwest in the 2024 class. The 6-4, 208-pounder was a winner at Pewaukee, where he won three state championships and led the Pirates to a runner-up finish as a senior in 2023-24.
As a high school senior Janowski averaged 30.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 37% from 3 on 231 attempts and 84% at the free-throw line. As a junior, he recorded 23.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.9 assists each outing.
The 6-8, 225-pound Bolis entered the program as a preferred walk-on after spending his true freshman season at Southeast Community College in Lincoln.
In his lone season playing for the Bobcats, Bolis, who played his high school ball at Lincoln High, started 31 games and averaged 15.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while shooting 52.2% from the field, 37.5% from 3-point range (12-of-32) and 66% from the free-throw line (136-of-206).
While it was tough for them to sit the bench during games, Hoiberg believes all three will be better for it. Each day at practice on the scout team, Frager, Janowski and Bolis were working on their own games while giving the starters a good look.
“As far as development, those guys all made huge, huge strides this year,” Hoiberg said. “And when you’re in that position and playing on the scout team and still traveling with the team, you see all the environments that they’re going to be playing in. They see the systems that they’re playing every day, when they prepare the guys that are eligible in playing different roles out there, and that’s going to benefit them greatly.”
Hoiberg said there were times during the season when he thought about pulling the trigger and seeing what those redshirt players could do, if they could provided a spark.
“That first five-game losing streak, we thought long and hard about, what do we do?” Hoiberg said. “Do we need to get somebody else in there? And I think we won six in a row after that.”
While redshirting college basketball players can’t play at all in the regular season or postseason, Hoiberg said the team’s upcoming College Basketball Crown Tournament will still be valuable for Frager, Janowski and Bolis.
More practice time. More reps in the system. Everything a young player would need to continue developing.
“What I’m looking at is, this is a great opportunity for Braden Frager and Nick Janowski to go out there and play in our system,” Hoiberg said. “… It’s about getting those young guys really good, quality reps after playing on the scout team all year. And different scrimmage-type situations and different game situations that we’ve been going through, that’s invaluable for these young players. We wouldn’t have been doing this type of practice without this opportunity to play in the Crown.”
During an appearance on the Huskers Radio Network on March 10, Hoiberg said he expects both Frager and Janowski to be rotation players next season. Bolis, still a raw player whose body needs to continue getting bigger and stronger to compete against Big Ten forwards, should provide the team a good depth piece.
“We do have a good nucleus coming back,” Hoiberg said then. “And then the players we are adding to the mix, and I look at Braden Frager and Nick Janowski as two guys that I think will absolutely be in a rotation next year.”
Frager could play multiple positions, likely the 3 and 4, similar to the departing Juwan Gary. Janowski, while thought of primarily as a 2, will also have opportunities to run the offense as a point guard.
“They have really grown, all three are incredible workers,” Hoiberg said. “Every day they are in this gym getting extra work in, and the development, this is a development year for those guys. And it went, I think, exactly how it should have. And now, they’re almost eligible, and they’re all excited.”
Source link
You must be logged in to post a comment Login