Nebraska Basketball Takeaways from Fred Hoiberg’s rapid program rebuild

Hoiberg wants size

He wants size on his basketball team. For instance, the players I mentioned are definitely tall in stature. Cheatham is a six-foot-five, 195-pound guard. Stevenson measures in at 230 pounds and he is a small forward. Easley is actually on the smaller side of things. He is a “measly” six-foot-two, 190 pounds. That is honestly the perfect height for a guard. Quedraogo is six-foot-eight, 230 pounds. As a power forward, that is certainly an ideal measurement.

Size is not something that Nebraska Basketball had last year. The only guard with size that played a ton last year was James Palmer Jr, who measured in at six-foot-six. With the work the coaching staff has done recruiting, they have gotten players who have size, and can step in and play right away. That is certainly a big difference from last year. The did not have many players that they could plug into certain situations, and play. It seemed like head coach Tim Miles was almost hesitant to play other players besides his senior group. I can’t blame him, but I think that strategy hurt him at times.

Now, size is only good if they can play basketball. We’ll have to see if Hoiberg’s system allows for each player to play to their strengths. Obviously we do not know what system Nebraska Basketball will be playing in yet, but it should be something that will feature everybody. It would only make sense that to be that way. After all if it wasn’t, why would Hoiberg bring these players in?