ECisGod
Starter
I said the same thing after watching them destroy Gonzaga.
2025-26 Season Notes
- Thread starter Mavric
- Start date
admo
Heisman Trophy Winner
I am just going to eat my crow in this thread. A big plate of my own horse crap. There was a time when I was very critical of Hoiberg (about 2 or 3 years worth) and boy was I wrong. Patience and humility taught me that I was stupid lol. I am so glad he is doing a great job, and it really started to sink in during Vegas last year.
Hilltop
All-Conference
Completely understandable. The reality is things sometimes just have to line up with the right players, coaches, and schedule. I wasn't sure about Mast coming back after a year off but he has exceeded all expectations. In the end, we can just be pleasantly surprised to be wrong and enjoy the ride.
I've also been less than impressed, to be honest. Not terrible but not all that great. And we seem to be terrible at high-school recruiting, though we've been able to get some pretty impressive transfers.
Over the last year or so I've seen a lot that says were towards the bottom of the B1G in NIL. So I was trying to adjust my expectations accordingly.
And it seems like we've been able to play well in spurts, but then play below what it seems like we're capable of.
But we are rolling right now. So it's time to enjoy the ride.
Red Five
Heisman Trophy Winner
I am not going to argue that. But that is the nature of college basketball, especially for bad P4 programs.
Fred needs to try to win, and his best chance of winning is by getting 21 year old men who have cut their teeth somewhere else and not relying on a 18 year old kid who is still developing his body. Toss in that those freshmen tend to not stick around to be developed it makes sense to only take 1 or 2 HS recruits a year and to hit the portal hard.
Specifically for this team 2/5 of the starting lineup came in as high schoolers. And the first 2 guys off the bench are high school recruits.
Hilltop
All-Conference
The really good high school recruits only stay for a year or two these days. I think it's a money issue personally. They want to get paid and then go to the NBA.
ECisGod
Starter
One of the two starters is Hoiberg's son & the other transferred out and then came back because apparently the grass wasn't greener.
I'm all for using the portal. I used to think that way the way Nebraska could sell out to. But maybe not if we're quite a ways down the NIL pecking order.
I don't have an issue with only taking a couple of high school guys each year. But it would be nice if we could get at least one contributor every year or two. Maybe it's getting better but this isn't a pretty list. There's basically three in Fred's tenure. One was because we got his older brother as a transfer (and promised him a bunch of NIL money that he never got). One transferred out then came back. And one is from Lincoln. That's not exactly what you put on your resume.
2025
SF Quentin Rhymes
C Leo Curtis
2024
SG Nick Janowski
SG Branden Frager
2023
G/F Eli Rice
2022
SG Jamarques Lawrence
SF Ramel Lloyd
C Blaise Keita
2021
CG Bryce McGowens
SG Quaran McPherson
F Denim Dawson
PF Wilhelm Breidenbach
C Oleg Kojenets
2020
F Eduardo Andre
SG Elijah Wood
BigRedBuster
International Man of Mystery
That is pretty impressive. The counter point is for the past several years teams tend to have one of their best three-point shooting nights against us, though I don't have the stats for that. But that part seems to be better this year (so far).
admo
Heisman Trophy Winner
The Nick Janowski situation really pissed me off
and I was vocal about it.He would have thrived off the bench this year hitting outside buckets for three with NU.
Felt he should have gotten - at least - some PT last year off the bench, esp during their stinky stretch. And perhaps would have kept him.
Oh well I guess.