Nebraska Basketball: Seeing is believing when it comes to recruiting

The Nebraska Basketball coaching staff has stressed getting prospective recruits to come to campus.

There is no doubt that this Nebraska Basketball program is on the upswing. That is evident by the way they have recruited, as they have brought some top-level talent to Lincoln. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the future is certainly looking bright for Nebraska Basketball.

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It is evident that whatever the Nebraska coaching staff is pitching to these recruits is working. Particularly after Fred Hoiberg was hired, it seemed like he remade the roster in such a quick amount of time. Now, it is time to see what he can do with that roster.

When you think about what Nebraska can pitch to these recruits, there are many things that work in their favor. One of them in particular is playing in a competitive conference. Another huge one is the fact that they have a tremendous home-court advantage. Pinnacle Bank Arena seems to be rocking every game day, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. If anything, the home-court advantage should be even better next year.

Hoiberg elaborated a bit on what makes Nebraska Basketball so special. It was interesting to hear him talk about the program. This is the first time he has really talked about what Nebraska Basketball and it’s tradition means in terms of recruiting. However, is very evident that he thinks highly of the program as he told to Chris Basnett of the Lincoln Journal Star.

"“We’re talking to a lot of high-level kids. I think a big thing is getting the kids to campus so they can see firsthand what the facilities are. Because they’re not going to go back and look at the history of Nebraska basketball and see a lot of tournament wins, Final Fours, that type of thing. But when they get here and see the facilities, which is relatively new still — the arena and the practice facility — you’re not going to find much better than this.“And then the conference that we play in. And the support, having a full house every time you step into that building. These are important things for these kids to see, and then you talk about the different things as far as your system and what we did at Iowa State to help players get to the next level.”"

I like his approach here. Get the kids to camps and show them what Nebraska Basketball is all about. It must be annoying to these recruits sometimes to hear schools pitch about their history and how great they are. Although that may work for some, it’s not going to work for every recruit. It seems like nowadays, the main focus for these kids is playing time and academics. They probably won’t put too much stock into what happened years before they were born. I like this approach, because if I were a recruit, I would want to see what facilities I would potentially be playing in should I commit there.

With Nebraska not having a ton of recent success on the basketball court, this a be the perfect opportunity for the new coaching staff to work hard at building a program that could be worth talking about for years to come. This is their chance to build our history. Seeing is believing, and it starts with winning on the court. Winning makes everything else a little easier.

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