The Nebraska basketball knew they were going to be a few men short as Fred Hoiberg tries to build on the progress made in the 2022-23 season. Now it looks like the Huskers will have even more holes to plug as reserve big man Oleg Kojenets entered the transfer portal on Tuesday.
On the one hand, the argument could be made that it became clear as the season went on that this isn’t a massive loss considering how little time he spent on the court, even with the likes of Blaise Keita and Derrick Walker missing time with various injuries.
On the other hand, it felt as though Kojenets was certainly going to have a chance to prove he deserved more playing time with another offseason of work and conditioning and Walker being out of eligibility.
The 7-footer from Kaunas, Lithuania doesn’t apparently see a chance to get more of a chance next year. Or perhaps this is really more of a Nebraska basketball decision that the redshirt freshman’s. Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg has had no problem telling players that it might be time to move on if he feels they aren’t a fit for what he’s trying to do. He all bit cleaned out the roster he inherited when he took over for Tim Miles.
The timing of this move, however, does seem a bit odd. Especially since when Hoiberg did talk about the big man, he tended to heap on the praise.
Kojenets averaged 3.4 minutes per game this season, getting playing time in 18 games with 0.6 points and 0.7 rebounds per game in that action.
Assuming he doesn’t think better of it and decides to stick with the Nebraska basketball team, Kojenets will be joining Walker, Sam Griesel and Emmanuel Bandoumel as players that need to be replaced. There is still an open question as to whether Keisei Tominaga will be staying or going.