Nebraska Basketball: Yvan Ouedraogo is having a great offseason

The Nebraska basketball sophomore is working hard.

Last Nebraska basketball season seems so far away, doesn’t it? As the team gets ready to embark on the 2020-2021 season, two players in particular are working hard to get better.

Yvan Ouedraogo and Thorir Thorbjarnarson have been working out together overseas. In an article written by Chris Heady, he details  some of the improvements those two have made.

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In particular, I am impressed with the effort in the weight room that Ouedraogo is reportedly showing. He has  lost some weight and is beginning to put on more muscle.

It is certainly good news that he is getting into the weight room. Last year was his first year in Division I college basketball. He was new to his surroundings, and he didn’t know what to expect. Although there were definitely some things to improve on, he showed promise. Now with a full season under his belt, he should be more ready for the collegiate game.

I personally love to hear that he is losing weight in order to help his game. He has all the tools to succeed. He is tall, has a great build, and can control the paint. Now that he is going to (hopefully) become more athletic, he will be able to have a well-rounded game. He has the potential to be one of the best centers in the Big Ten. Now, it looks like he is working hard to achieve that goal.

As the report from Heady notes, Ouedraogo is losing bulk and is appearing to add more muscle.

"Ouedraogo has dropped 25 pounds since going back home and has been working out twice a day. That means that the sophomore is down from 260 pounds to about 235. The dropped weight was by design, Hoiberg said, and done to make the center more explosive.“He’s been working his tail off,” Hoiberg said."

These are the kind of things I love to hear. I have high hopes for Ouedraogo. Particularly the way he played at the end of last season, he definitely has the opportunity to grow into a consistent player. He averaged 6.8 points and 7.6 rebounds over Nebraska basketball’s final nine games.

I am excited to see his development and how he grows over the next couple of seasons for Nebraska basketball. With so many talented scorers, he is certainly being overlooked in my estimation. Nevertheless, something tells me he will be known nation-wide sooner rather than later.