Nebraska plans to deploy deep rotation as season begins

The sixth season of the Fred Hoiberg era gets underway Monday when Nebraska hosts Texas-Rio Grande Valley in a nonconference game in Lincoln, Neb. to open the 2024-25 season.

The Cornhuskers are coming off their first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade, losing to Texas A&M in the first round and finishing the season 23-11 overall. They return starters Juwan Gary and Brice Williams but otherwise have a mostly new roster that was bolstered by the transfer portal.

"Our biggest challenge is going to be our rotation, and who we're going to play, because we certainly have a lot of guys who are capable," said Hoiberg, who is 63-94 with Nebraska.

The Cornhuskers' most notable additions are guards Connor Essegian (Wisconsin), Rollie Worster (Utah) and Ahron Ulis (Iowa) as well as frontcourt players Berke Buyuktuncel (UCLA) and Braxton Meah (Washington). The big men will help fill the void lost by Rienk Mast, who led the Cornhuskers in rebounding last season but is sitting out this year due to knee surgery.

Texas-Rio Grande Valley will be making its debut under new coach Kahlil Fennell, who was previously an assistant at BYU under now-Kentucky coach Mark Pope. The Vaqueros are also in a new league, joining the Southland Conference after 11 seasons in the Western Athletic Conference.

"This is a really good spot. I'm really, really lucky," Fennell said. "A huge piece of how I view coaching in general is ... if our guys feel loved, if they feel cared for, they feel developed, if they feel like they're taught something and held to a standard I think the wins will follow."

UTRGV, which went 6-25 last season, returns two of its top five scorers in guards Hasan Abdul-Hakim and J.J. Howard. Among its transfer additions are ex-DePaul guard K.T. Raimey and former Texas A&M-Commerce forward Kwo Agwa.

The Vaqueros are 1-19 all-time against Big Ten schools. They lost to Nebraska in 2009 but beat Indiana in 1980.

--Field Level Media