Nebraska basketball loses freshman guard to transfer portal

Now that the Nebraska basketball season is officially over for Hoiberg’s Heroes, it’s time to gear up for 2024-25. There are likely quite a bit of moves coming, but the first domino fell on Monday morning. Ramel Lloyd Jr is reportedly entering the transfer portal just a few days after the Huskers got booted from the NCAA Tournament.

Lloyd spent two seasons with the Nebraska basketball team but never appeared in a game. He redshirted his first season in Lincoln and was expected to be part of the rotation this past season. However, he never got on the court once again, even when head coach Fred Hoiberg was emptying the bench in certain contests.

The 6-foot-6 guard not seeing any playing time at all is a bit of a surprise considering that the Huskers brought him in after winning recruiting battles against the likes of Arizona, Arkansas and Kansas. 

Nebraska basketball sees first domino fall with transfer portal departure

Lloyd, a former three-star recruit out of Sierra Canyon High School in California, will have three seasons of eligibility at his next stop. It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of schools are offering the highly-touted guard once he enters the portal.

His departure starts to pain a picture of just what Hoiberg is planning for a team that gelled well, but also came up a bit short athletically against a middle of the road SEC team. The departure of Lloyd means that the Huskers officially have two scholarships available.

At least one of those is almost certainly going to a big man, and the other could be directed towards a true point guard.

Other dominos will fall in the coming weeks. Those dominos include finding out whether guys like Rienk Mast, CJ Wilcerh, and Juwan Gary will return for one more season.