What Nebrasketball Fans Can Expect Without Andrew White
There’s no way of going around it, the loss of 5th-year senior Andrew White is going to affect the Nebraska Basketball team in a large way.
The team as we knew it will not be the same after last year, due to the loss of White, along with Shavon Shields and Benny Parker. Nebrasketball fans were already worried about the season with Shields leaving, but last week’s news of White requesting to transfer from Nebraska has left them even more worried (and with good reason I might add). They are now just concerned and curious as to what they can and should expect to see from the team this season after the loss.
First and foremost, I think that the team needs to go into the season knowing that things will be different. Not that last season was anything to brag about, but the Huskers did have on okay season with their 16-18 (6-12 in the conference) finish which included some great games such as the win against Michigan State. I know last season was not great by any means (but Nebraska Basketball hasn’t seen a “great” season since 2014, when they made their first tournament appearance in 16 years). Most fans don’t come in to the season expecting the team to be as successful as teams like the University of North Carolina, Duke or Kentucky, but they do expect the team to be good enough to come out with a decent record.
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Things were looking up after last year with the success of many of the younger players. From freshman starters like Michael Jacobsen and Jack McVeigh to juniors such as Tai Webster and Andrew White, last season fans became hopeful for the success of the 2016-2017 season. While the loss of White is going to be hard on the program, it is not the end all. There is still hope for a decent season without White.
Another expectation we can have is that head coach Tim Miles is going to have a different one of the returning guards (or a new guard if he recruits one before the season starts) to fill the shoes that White has left behind. White was one of the star players last year and was among the conference leaders in scoring. After averaging 17 points per game and shooting 46% from the 3-point range, he is definitely a large offensive loss for the Huskers. In order to try to match this, we can expect that one of our other guards will attempt to reach comparable stats this next season, most likely Anton Gill or Tai Webster.
With this however, we also should prepare to see that the scoring of the team will go down. This is not necessarily something we can expect, but it is highly possible that no one will be able to compare to White, who was able to score double figures in 28 games (two of which that were 30 point performances).
I believe that fans can also expect to see some different players rise up as new stand-outs. In my opinion, while other players had their moments last season in the spotlight, the main focus was usually on Shields and White (for good reason). With these two gone, this attention is going to be passed on to other players. I could see this focus going to senior Tai Webster or younger players who showed great potential last year like sophomore Glynn Watson Jr.
One other possible expectation fans could have going into the year is the possibility of Coach Miles recruiting some extra taller, larger players. He found 6’11’’ freshman Jordy Tshimanga from Quebec for next year, but I could see him trying to recruit some more players with height and power to strengthen the Husker defense this coming season, but this is not a certainty. He may be pleased with the job that forward’s Jacobson and Morrow are doing, so he may choose to purely work with improving what he has.
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With the changing of every season, fans are left wondering what the future holds for the team, especially when key players are lost. While we can expect certain things for the 2016-17 season, we will not know for sure what Nebrasketball is going to bring to the table until we have the chance to see how the new team works together out on the court this winter.