Nebraska Basketball bringing in a historic 2021 recruiting class

New Recruits

The Huskers have a historic recruiting class coming in and it is far and away the best class that Nebraska has ever been able to secure.  The class is currently ranked in the top 15 of all classes.  Yes, you read that correctly, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, perennial bad team, the team who has never won an NCAA tournament game was able to secure the No. 14 ranked class in the entire country.

They will probably still be bad though right?  Many of the casual basketball fans out there do believe that Nebraska will ultimately still be bad because they have been forever.  While they likely won’t make the tournament this year, things are changing for the better in Lincoln and If this staff can keep the recruiting momentum going, they won’t be “bad” for long.

Given the collective ranking it goes without saying that this class is extremely talented, and it is going to fill many needs for Nebraska.   If you watched the Huskers last year it was clear they were missing some things on the offensive end, and many of them were key pieces needed to run Coach Hoiberg’s signature five-out offense.  One of them was an alpha on the offensive end.  A player who can absolutely take over a game and get the tough buckets.

They were also desperately in need of a player who can hit multiple threes in a game.  They had one in Lat Mayen, but they need so many more reliable shooters.  The last thing that Nebraska desperately needed was a stretch four who can bring the big men out of the paint and open the driving lanes.

Let’s start with the prize of the recruiting class.  That would be the first five-star recruit in Nebraska history in Bryce McGowens.  McGowens joins his brother Trey in Lincoln and once the younger McGowens decommited from Florida State is was almost a foregone conclusion that he would join his brother in Lincoln.  The duo will have two seasons to play together.

The younger McGowens attended Legacy Charter School where he averaged over 20 points per game.  He is elite at getting to the rim and showed a penchant for getting to the line a lot in High School.  The guard is an off guard and can handle the ball a little bit but is going to be a huge part of this offense and is going to be expected to score a lot of points.

McGowens is the type of player who can thrive in this offense and is likely going to score a lot of points in this offense.  McGowens is the Alpha on offense that Nebraska so desperately needs.

Wilhelm Breidenbach and Oleg Kojenets are two big men who have committed to Nebraska this year.  Kojenets is originally from Lithuania and is likely going to redshirt to develop his skills.  Breidenbach is the player who is likely going to be an immediate contributor and some think by the end of the season he could be a starter.  He is an extremely skilled big man who can score from anywhere.

Breidenbach is a very good rebounder and can protect the rim.  He is going to provide the Nebraska frontcourt with a lot of positional flexibility and will let them play big at times.  Breidenbach can and will likely bring the ball up at times, can score from deep, and is going to be a huge asset to the Nebraska team for years to come.

The next player that has committed to play for Nebraska last year is going to be a fan favorite and that is because he is the Japanese version of Steph Curry.  Keisei Tominaga is a JUCO transfer from Ranger College in Texas and shot over 50% from deep over his career in JUCO.  He is one of the best shooters in the country and many have said he is the best shooter at this level they have ever seen.  He has an extremely quick release and a very repeatable shot.  He is in range as soon as he crosses half-court and has been known to make six, seven or even threes in a game.

Tominaga is going to be one of the best shooters in the country next year, he may not get many minutes but the minutes he does get he is going to fire up threes and make most of them.

The rest of the class is two high-quality transfers who were both ranked very high coming out of high school.  CJ Wilcher is a transfer from Xavier who is also known as a shooter and is going to help immensely in that regard.  Tough to say what role Wilcher will play at Nebraska but whatever it is he is going to put up and make threes.  Wilcher is another kid who is more than just shooting he can score and is the type of guy who could average around 10-12 points per game depending on the number of minutes he earns.

The last transfer is another player that many are sleeping on given that he didn’t have a year full of a ton of production last year.  Keon Edwards is a transfer from DePaul and reclassified up from the 2021 class into the 2020 class so by age he will be a true freshman.  Edwards was also a top 25 player in the 2020 class when he came out and has loads of talent.

He is going to fill a huge need for Nebraska as he is a wing who can score from every level and is going to provide enough skill on the defensive end to provide a lot of flexibility in that area.  He can guard multiple positions.  Edwards may have only averaged 1.1 points per game last year but, DePaul had multiple Covid pauses.

Edwards himself had Covid and it really took him a while to get his feet wet in the rotation.  He is a very talented player and is only going to get better as he gets older and more experienced.