Nebraska Basketball: Haanif Cheatham could be spark Huskers need
Nebraska Basketball added a scorer to their arsenal.
With so many players leaving the Nebraska Basketball program, Saturday finally brought some good news. Graduate transfer Haanif Cheatham announced he will be playing his final college basketball season at Nebraska. This will certainly help the Cornhuskers moving forward.
This looks like a great commitment on the surface. He measures in at six-foot-five and played for Marquette before transferring to Florida Gulf Coast. Hopefully, he will make the most of his time here in his final season. He is an efficient score as noted by Brian Christopherson of 247Sports. Last season, he was a shooting machine, averaging 13.2 points per game on 45.2% shooting over the course of 10 games. The bottom line is, he can score.
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He certainly had tremendous pedigree as a recruit. As a four-star prospect, he was ranked the number 75 player in the country before committing to the Golden Eagles in 2015.
What can you bring to Nebraska? He can bring a multitude of things. For one, he knows how to get the ball into the hoop and that will be something Nebraska Basketball will need moving forward. With so many departures as a result of graduation and a new coaching staff, they will need someone who can just score the basketball. Cheatham can do that. If there is one weakness to this game, it is his rebounding. As a guard however, he is not necessarily going to be rebounding the basketball a ton.
His experience to this team on a young roster will be invaluable. He has been through the ropes before and he has been a part of big-time college basketball. He knows what it takes to win. Is he going to provide tons of production for the team? Maybe, maybe not. We do not know yet. However, the one definite is that he is a veteran player who can bring leadership into the locker room.
This is a great get for head coach Fred Hoiberg as he begins to build the roster his way. It will be fun to see it all come together and I think with this coaching staff, they have a chance to make the best out of a difficult situation. Experience is key on this staff and that should be able to help them Cheatham, although not a recruit, was still a major get for this program. He should be able to provide an instant boost to the team. I look forward to seeing what he can do next fall.