Fred Hoiberg may already be making a splash in the recruiting scene in his second year, with the Huskers strong pursuit of five-star Bryce McGowens.
Bryce McGowens, brother of current Husker Trey, shared his top five schools today, in a list that included LSU, Georgia, Florida State, Michigan, and the Huskers. This news comes after a week that saw many virtual visits for McGowens to all the schools in his top five, as well as schools that didn’t make the cut, such as Wake Forest.
There has been much anticipation surrounding the recruitment as just 11 days ago, McGowens announced that he would be recommitting from Florida State University, albeit still keeping them on his radar.
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“I committed early in February so I want to make sure I make the right decision,” McGowens told 247sports.
As of right now, Nebraska seems to be the favorite for Bryce despite one large factor: scholarship availability. The Huskers filled up their scholarships for the 2021 roster 18 days ago with the commitment of four-star recruit Wilhelm Breidenbach. The lack of a scholarship to give was what ultimately drove away 2020 recruit Carter Whitt a few weeks ago, in which 15 total analysts (Rivals and 247Sports) predicted him to land in Lincoln (Whitt committed to Wake Forest instead).
While the scholarship situation is very fluid, Nebraska would need to rely on a decommitment from Breidenbach or their other 2021 commit, Junior-College transfer Keisei Tominaga, or they would need a player to transfer away from the likely program before the signing period in April of 2021. With the roster attrition the program has seen in the past two off-seasons, this is not out of the picture but it will be a matter of how long McGowens wants to wait to commit if that is the case.
Nebraska has an edge over most of the other schools due to their close personal connections to McGowens. As mentioned prior, Bryce’s older brother Trey is also on the team. Also, Nebraska’s latest addition to the team, Elijah Wood, was a close friend and former teammate of McGowens. Furthermore, Hoiberg’s staff recently offered 2023 recruit, Chase Clemmons, who is the cousin of the McGowen brothers. Whether or not this is a recruiting stunt or not is unknown, but that could be even more a draw for McGowens to join the Huskers. Assistant Coach and Head Recruiter Matt Abdelmassih has also known Bryce since he was playing in eighth grade.
Some of the current Nebraska players, related to McGowens or not, have been making their recruiting pitches to McGowens over social media, as shown in this tweet from HuskerOnline’s Robin Washut:
There's peer recruiting, and then there's @The301elijah recruiting @BryceMcgowens5 to #Nebrasketball 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/CCKxrasgP6
— Robin Washut (@RobinWashut) October 19, 2020
Depending on if the scholarship situation figures itself out, Nebraska may be in a great position to sign their highest-rated prospect ever. The Huskers have never landed a five-star recruit for basketball as their previous highest recruit out of high school was Glynn Watson, according to 247 sports. Former Husker Isaac Copeland was also a former five-star prospect out of high school but he came to Nebraska by way of transfer.
Analysts feel good about Nebraska’s chances to land McGowens as well, as Jerry Meyer of 247Sports put in the first Crystal Ball prediction for McGowens since he re-opened his recruitment.
The Huskers sit firmly in the top five for what could be their best high school recruit ever. The next coming months will be very telling in determining where the five-star ultimately decides to go.