Nebraska basketball fighting Oklahoma, South Florida for transfer guard

Rich Storry-USA TODAY Sports
Rich Storry-USA TODAY Sports

The Nebraska basketball team is among the final three for Siena transfer guard Javian McCollum, but it won’t be easy to close the deal.

The good news is that the Huskers are one of three schools that have an inside track on a talented guard who can light up the scoreboard and is still quite young. The bad news is that so far, Fred Hoiberg hasn’t nailed down this particular commitment. There also isn’t a date on just when Javian McCollum might finally announce his choice for his next destination.

While there’s still plenty of rows to hoe, On3’s Joe Tipton reported on Monday morning that McCollum has arrived at a final three schools that he’s considering. The Nebraska basketball program is indeed one of those three. The other two are the Oklahoma Sooners and the South Florida Bulls.

If you’re wondering why South Florida is somehow in the running along with traditional power conference teams like the Sooners and Huskers, it’s not that big a mystery. McCollum is from Fort Meyers, Florida. It appears there’s a chance he just wants to stay a bit closer to home than Siena allowed.

Nebraska basketball in final three

There’s no confusion over why the Huskers are going hard after the Siena guard. In his sophomore season, he averaged 15.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. If those numbers don’t impress you, the fact that he shot over 35 percent from beyond the arc and 89 percent from the free-throw line should.

The Nebraska basketball team has two more roster spots open for transfers this year if that’s the way that Hoiberg decides he wants to go. The Huskers seem to have made a move to fill roster holes left by Derrick Walker and Sam Griesel but there have been questions about how the team would actually upgrade the roster from the 16-16 record it posted this past season.

Javian McCollum landing in Lincoln would certainly upgrade the Nebraska basketball roster.