LINCOLN — Fred Hoiberg needed shooters.
As the Nebraska men’s basketball coach and his staff retooled the roster through the transfer portal, they identified options who were threats from 3-point range after NU shot 31.4% from 3 during Big Ten play, down from 37.7% from the year before.
That’s when the Huskers made the NCAA tournament behind an offense liable to heat up on a given night, that could bury opponents with a scoring run. NU runs a perimeter-heavy, NBA-esque system and sought to find more players who fit it.
There were other priorities, like players who could help the Huskers finish close games better than they did in 2024-25 and improve on their 4-6 home record in conference play. Hoiberg wanted experienced players, and Nebraska landed four entering their final year of eligibility.
The roster will come together for the first time this June for summer workouts.
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“We want to be better,” Hoiberg said Wednesday. “We want to do something that’s never been done in this program before. We won a postseason tournament. That had been done once in the history of the program with an NIT championship. But we want to be better. We want to be in the NCAA tournament next year, and hopefully we’ve got the group to get us there.”
Nebraska’s season was still going with the College Basketball Crown when it landed its first transfer acquisition in Iowa wing Pryce Sandfort. Former Central Michigan forward Ugnius Jarusevicius committed a day later.
Meanwhile, NU was in contact with Jamarques Lawrence shortly after he entered the portal. The guard had spent the first two years of his college career at Nebraska before transferring to Rhode Island last year.
Lawrence missed NU’s structure and culture, he told the coaching staff. From Nebraska’s perspective, it had a chance to get a more evolved version of the guard who had played 62 games for the Huskers. Lawrence had been forced to take on more of a scoring load for the Rams — averaging 9.9 points per game — and returns to Lincoln more experienced in a greater variety of situations.
“He knows who we are,” Hoiberg said. “He knows the system. He knows what’s expected. He knows the standards. And I think he’s gonna help with all that. I think he’s gonna be a really good leader this go-around in his last season.”
Lawrence gives Nebraska a ball-handling option it needed with Rollie Worster and Ahron Ulis both out of eligibility. St. Thomas transfer Kendall Blue can play point guard as well, Hoiberg said, and Nebraska will get another steady set of hands back with the return of forward Rienk Mast, who missed last season while rehabbing from knee surgery.
Mast, who will ease his way into the early workouts before his first action in more than a year, adds an extra flourish to a group of newcomers that — as the coaching staff wanted — has more established shooters than a year ago. Lawrence, Blue, Sandfort and Will Cooper all shot above 37% from 3-point range last season, and Mast will provide another element of floor spacing that wasn’t always present last season.
“Getting Rienk back was as important as any move that was made this offseason just because he knows this system,” Hoiberg said.
Hoiberg and the coaching staff will have a chance to get a better feel for the roster, to see it all together for the first time June 12, when workouts begin. Everyone on the team is expected to be present.
The first of two summer sessions will be heavy on skill training, time in the weight room and introducing Nebraska’s system. The more competitive workouts will come in July for a team with about five months to mesh and get comfortable with itself. Until then, the promise of better days stays in the practice gym and on paper, the rapidly remade roster offering a blueprint of potential.
“It’s gonna be very competitive with everything that we’ve got, with the returners, with the newcomers, and it’s gonna be fun,” Hoiberg said. “It’s gonna be fun once we start working out and getting back on the court next week.”
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