Big Ten Basketball: 2019-20 under the radar players from each team

Minnesota: Jarvis Omersa

Minnesota doesn’t have many options for breakout players outside of Oturu, the obvious choice to step up after last season’s frontcourt partner, Jordan Murphy graduated. Players like Murphy aren’t easy to replace, but Omersa — at least physically at 6’6 and 235 pounds — might have some of what it takes.

Omersa played AAU basketball with Oturu and Gabe Kalscheur, the Golden Gophers’ best shooter last season and their other returning starter alongside Oturu. This familiarity with his class didn’t translate into game action, though — after Omersa played double-digit minutes in six of Minnesota’s first eight games, he didn’t see them again until the Big Ten Tournament. His performances in March were encouraging, though, including a seven-rebound, three-steal outing in the tournament loss to Michigan State.

Omersa will dunk everything and is a more explosive athlete than Murphy, but both crash the glass with abandon and share a relentless, blow-everything-to-smithereens style down low. Frontcourt help is at a premium for the Gophers after Eric Curry suffered another setback to his oft-injured knee. Omersa could be first in line, and he has the upside to provide it.

Nebraska: Thorir Thorbjarnason

Just two players remain from last season’s Huskers — Dachon Burke and Thorbjarnason. Only Thorbjarnason saw playing time, as Burke, a Robert Morris transfer, sat out.

Many of the players Fred Hoiberg’s brought in, such as Haanif Cheatham and Matej Kavas, are previously-established transfers, and the rest of the roster is populated by JUCO transfers and freshmen. That leaves Thorbjarnason as our only real “breakout” candidate for the purposes of this article.

Even though he’s here mostly by default, Thorbjarnason is actually a talented player with the potential to make a junior leap after starting seven games last year. The Icelander is a 6’6 swingman who can do a little bit of everything: his defensive rebounding rate was third-highest on the team, he had a solid 29-13 assist-turnover ratio, and while he hasn’t shown much as a scorer in college, he chipped in 10 a game for his national team in international competition this summer. His status as a Tim Miles holdover also bodes positively at his chances of playing an important role — Thorbjarnason wouldn’t be in Lincoln if Hoiberg didn’t think he could contribute.

Northwestern: Miller Kopp

Kopp is one of the prime examples of how Chris Collins has elevated the stature of the Northwestern program. In 2018, the year Kopp joined the Wildcats, their incoming class ranked 34th nationally and in the top half of the Big Ten, thanks to the 6’7, four-star wing from Texas and the uber-talented big man Pete Nance.

Nance is a more talented player but is still quite raw, and the range of potential outcomes for his sophomore season is very wide. Kopp may not have the same upside but is a better bet for a breakout season. He played in all 32 games for Northwestern as a freshman, starting 19, and demonstrated an aggressive, score-first mindset. While he wasn’t particularly efficient — no Wildcat was — his ability to create his shot from all three levels was an encouraging sign.

During Northwestern’s trip to Europe this summer, Kopp averaged over 20 points in four exhibition games. While the sample size is small and the competition bares no resemblance to what he’ll see in the Big Ten, he could come close to tripling his 4.9 points per game from last year.