Fastbreak: Hoiberg talks Chadron St., Colorado, and more on radio

Nebraska basketball head coach Fred Hoiberg held his first radio show of the 2022-23 season with the Huskers Radio Network on Tuesday night.

Hoiberg recapped the Huskers’ exhibition win over Chadron State, previewed NU’s upcoming charity game at Colorado, and reviewed where things stood with his new roster going into Year 4 in Lincoln.

Here is a full rundown of what he had to say…

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Nebraska wasn’t perfect, but the effort was there

While Hoiberg acknowledged the level of competition Nebraska faced in its exhibition opener vs. Chadron State on Sunday, he also said there was plenty to like from his team’s performance.

More than anything, Hoiberg said he was pleased with the Huskers’ overall effort on both ends of the floor. Even when the offense struggled early in the game, NU made up for it with high-level energy from start to finish and, as Hoiberg put it, was “relentless on the glass.”

“If we play with that kind of effort and intensity and have a defensive mindset, we’re going to have a chance to win ugly games this year, which I’m excited for,” Hoiberg said.

Gary, Dawson highlighted NU’s intensity

In Hoiberg’s eyes, the duo of Juwan Gary and Demin Dawson was the perfect example of Nebraska’s overall intensity. They both were highly active on the glass and made one hustle play after another to help break the game open.

Hoiberg said Gary “was absolutely all over the place” en route to his game-high 23 points, nine rebounds, and five offensive boards. Hoiberg also credited the work the former Alabama transfer had put into his perimeter shooting.

After going 23 percent from behind the arc last season with the Crimson Tide, Gary led NU with two made threes against Chadron State (albeit on a team-high seven attempts).

As for Dawson, Hoiberg said the redshirt freshman had a legitimate chance to solidify a spot in Nebraska’s rotation this season because of his effort and energy on defense and rebounding.  

A mid-year enrollee last December, Hoiberg said Dawson had impressed since his first practice as a Husker with his hustle, on-court communication, and selflessness as a teammate. 

Bandoumel’s defense stood out

Emmanuel Bandoumel finished with nine points and two assists in his 24 minutes against Chadron State, but for Hoiberg, the senior guard’s defense impressed him the most.

Hoiberg said the former SMU transfer set the tone for the Huskers defensively by aggressively guarding baseline to baseline. He posted two steals and three defensive rebounds while only being called for one foul defending CSU’s top players.

Paired with the 6-foot-7 Sam Griesel at point guard, Hoiberg said having a defender like Bandoumel would be a significant asset for the Huskers this season.

“When you have a 6-7 point guard, it gives you the flexibility to have a guy like Emmanuel guard the ball, and that’s his strength – getting up and ball-hawking the point guard, wearing him down as the game goes on,” Hoiberg said. “Another guy who doesn’t care about offense. He wants to make his mark on the defensive end.”

Griesel gave glimpse of ‘stat stuffer’ ability

There had been plenty of talk all offseason of how important of an addition Griesel was to Nebraska’s roster, and Sunday’s exhibition showed why.

The former North Dakota State transfer filled the final box score with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, a team-high seven assists, and four rebounds in his game-high 29 minutes of work.

Most importantly, Hoiberg said Griesel was fully healthy after being limited most of the summer due to offseason hip surgery. Griesel’s highlight-reel dunk showed just how much bounce he now had in his step.

“Now he feels better than he ever has…” Hoiberg said. “That dunk he had, that shocked all of us. Sam, he’s got sneaky hops.”

Breidenbach still knocking off some rust in return from injury

The first exhibition wasn’t the best night of Wilhelm Breidenbach’s career, as he finished with nine points on 3-of-7 shooting with six rebounds and a pair of turnovers in just 15 minutes of action.

Hoiberg said the sophomore forward was still re-acclimating to playing in live game speed after suffering a season-ending knee injury 10 games into his true freshman campaign in 2021-22. 

Nebraska continues to monitor the 6-foot-10 Breidenbach’s workload in practice and games, but Hoiberg said there hadn’t been any issues since NU cleared Breidenbach 4-5 weeks ago.

In fact, Hoiberg said Breidenbach was maybe even more explosive now than he was before the injury. The hope is he can be a 35% 3-point shooter this season, if not better, and be a unique offensive weapon at the four or even the five in certain lineups.

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Hoiberg still not concerned with NU’s shooting

If there was anything to complain about from Nebraska’s win over Chadron State, it was the team’s cold shooting performance from behind the arc.

The Huskers finished 6-of-24 on 3-pointers (25%), including starting the game by missing 14 of their first 16 attempts. 

Hoiberg wasn’t overly concerned about the effort, though. He said NU had quality looks and took good shots, and those attempts would typically go in more often than not. 

He also reiterated that he ran just two offensive sets – one post play and one perimeter action – the entire game, so better looks would come as the playbook expanded in the regular season.

Nebraska went through “a long film session” on Tuesday to go over the CSU game and will hold another scrimmage on Wednesday. 

Huskers will face much bigger challenge at Colorado 

Hoiberg took much of Sunday’s opening exhibition with a grain of salt, given the opponent. But he knows Nebraska will face a substantially greater test when it travels to Boulder on Sunday.

According to CBS national college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein, CU head coach Tad Boyle thinks he has a potential NCAA Tournament team this season with “four potential breakout players” in KJ Simpson, Nique Clifford, Tristan da Silva, and Lawson Lovering.

Hoiberg called the Buffaloes a physical, talented, and big team that loved to “get downhill” in a dribble-drive offense.

Hoiberg added that he recently re-watched the Huskers’ dominant charity game win over Colorado in Lincoln last season, calling it “one of those games where you watch it and think you have something special here.”

He learned the hard way not to put too much stock into an exhibition performance, especially since NU would “keep it pretty basic” again schematically. The Huskers will also go deep into their bench after playing all 16 available players against CSU.

Part of that will be to get guys quality road game experience against a high-major opponent, but also to help keep his players fresh in Boulder’s altitude, which he said gave him a lot of problems when he played there with Iowa State.