Huskers to Face Washington State in Cayman Islands Opener

The Nebraska men's basketball team hits the road for the first time under Fred Hoiberg, as the Huskers travel to the Cayman Islands Classic.

The eight-team tournament begins Monday with four first-round games, and Nebraska will take on Washington State in Monday's finale. Tipoff from John Gray Gymnasium is set for 6:30 p.m. (central)
Fans can follow all of the action across the state of Nebraska on the Learfield-IMG Husker Sports Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen on the call. The game will also be available on Huskers.com, the Huskers app and TuneIn radio. The pregame show begins one hour prior to tipoff.

Fans can watch all of the Cayman Islands Classic action online, as FloHoops will be video-streaming all 12 tournament contests with Scott Galetti and Kyle Youmans on the call. To sign up for a monthly subscription, visit FloHoops.com. It is available on laptops, desktops, laptop, tablet or mobile devices.

Nebraska (2-2) looks to build a little momentum and has won its last two games, including a 93-86 overtime victory over Southern on Friday night. Jervay Green and Yvan Ouedraogo combined for 12 of the Huskers' 13 points in the extra period, as NU used a 10-0 run in the extra period to pull away. Green led four Huskers in double figures with a season-high 22 points, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and six assists while Cam Mack added 16 points and eight assists.
 

GAME 5: NEBRASKA VS. WASHINGTON STATE Date:        Mon., Nov. 25 Time:        6:30 p.m. (CT) Location: George Town,                 Grand Cayman Arena:      John Gray Gymnasium   NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS 2019-20 Record: 2-2 Head coach: Fred Hoiberg     Record at Nebraska: 2-2 (1st year)     Career NCAA Record: 117-58 (6th year)   WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS 2019-20 Record: 2-2 Head coach: Kyle Smith     Record at Washington State: 2-2 (1st year)     Career Record: 166-124 (11th year)   BROADCAST INFO Television: None Online Broadcast: FloHoops.com    Play-by-play: Scott Galetti                   Analyst: Kyle Youmans Radio: Learfield-IMG Husker Sports Network, including 590 AM (Omaha), 1400 AM (Lincoln) and 880 AM (Lexington)    Play-by-play: Kent Pavelka        Analyst: Jake Muhleisen Online Radio: Available on Huskers.com, Huskers App, TuneIn.com/Huskers and TuneIn App. SiriusXM (Internet): TBA

Green, a junior college transfer from Western Nebraska CC, is second on the team in scoring at 12.8 points per game and also averages 3.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per contest.

Washington State is 2-2 on the season following an 85-77 setback to Omaha on Thursday night. The Cougars built a 15-point second-half lead, only to see Omaha shoot 54 percent in the second half to rally.
CJ Elleby led WSU with 27 points and nine rebounds, while Issac Bonton added 18 points and six assists.

The Cougars feature one of the nation's top small forwards in Elleby, as the Wooden Award candidate paces WSU in scoring (21.8 ppg) and ranks among the national leaders in steals (2.8 spg).  He is one of three returning starters back for first-year coach Kyle Smith, who spent the previous three seasons at the University of San Francisco.

Nebraska will play either Old Dominion or George Mason on Tuesday. If the Huskers win, they will play at 6:30 p.m. while a loss puts NU in the 4 p.m. contest.
 
Number to Know
2 - Under Fred Hoiberg, Iowa State won two in-season tournament titles in his five-year tenure, including the 2011 South Padre Island Invitational and the 2013 Diamond Head Classic.

+4.8 - Nebraska's turnover margin which ties for first in the Big Ten as of Nov. 22. The Huskers will be tested against a Washington State team that forces an average of 15.8 turnovers per game.

10.0- Graduate transfer Matej Kavas has faced Washington State twice in his career when he was at Seattle University. The 6-foot-8 guard averaged 10.0 points and 9.7 rebounds in two games against the Cougars. Last season, he had 14 points and seven rebounds in a 78-69 Seattle win.

50- Returning point total from last season. That is the lowest by a power conference team since the 2009-10 season.

90- Nebraska has scored 90 or more points in consecutive games, the first time that has happened for the Huskers since the 1999-2000 season.
 
2000- The last time Nebraska won an in-season tournament, as the Huskers won the 2000 San Juan Shootout, defeating Iona, Kent State and SMU en route to the title. Last season, NU lost in the championship game of the Hall of Fame Classic to eventual national runner-up Texas Tech.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Jervay Green and Ivan Ouedraogo combined for 12 points in overtime, as Nebraska rallied for a 93-86 win over Southern Friday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Ouedraogo got the Huskers (2-2) going with two early baskets in the extra session, including a dunk which ignited a 10-0 spurt in the extra period, while Green hit a pair of 3-pointers to help the Huskers build a double-figure cushion and hold on. Nebraska went 4-of-5 from the floor in overtime.

Green finished with a season-high 22 points, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and six assists to lead four Huskers in double figures. Ouedraogo finished with a season-high 11 points for Nebraska, which shot a season-high 58 percent from the field, but went just 19-of-37 from the foul line.

Cam Mack totaled 16 points and eight assists, while Matej Kavas came off the bench with 10 points, including a trio of 3-pointers for the winners, as NU set season highs in both 3-pointers (12) and 3-point percentage (57.1).

The win overshadowed an outstanding performance from Southern's Micah Bradford, who led all scorers with 31 points, including 6-of-11 from 3-point range, before fouling out in overtime. Darius Williams also had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds for the visitors.
 
SCOUTING WASHINGTON STATE
Washington State is 2-2 on the season following Thursday's loss to Omaha. The Cougars have wins over Seattle and Idaho State and also suffered an eight-point setback at Santa Clara. The Cougars returned three starters and five letterwinners from a year ago, but also changed coaches in the offseason with the hiring of Kyle Smith.

Smith is in his 11th season as a Division I head coach, as he began his head coaching career with six seasons at Columbia University (2011-16), leading the school to a pair of 20-win seasons, including a 25-10 mark and a CollegeInsider.com Tournament championship. For the past three years, he was at San Francisco, compiling a 63-40 mark and guiding the Dons to a pair of postseason bids.
The Cougars, who were picked 11th in the preseason poll, returned three starters from last year's team. Sophomore forward CJ Elleby averaged 14.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game as a freshman, earning a spot on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team. This season, he is averaging 21.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game. Senior Jeff Pollard (9.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg) and Aljaz Kunc (8.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg) are also back after return. Junior college transfer Isaac Bonton (16.0, ppg, 4.5 apg) and grad transfer Jaylen Shead (6.3 ppg, 2.0 apg) round out the starting lineup.

Series History: Nebraska leads the all-time series with Washington State, 6-2, but the teams have not played since a 95-84 Husker win in the consolation bracket of the 1998 Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Ala. That is the only neutral-site matchup in the series, as the first six meetings were on campus. The series dates back to the 1966-67 season when Nebraska swept Washington State in a pair of games at the NU Coliseum. The Huskers traveled to Pullman the following season and split the two meetings. The teams had a two-game series in 1984 and 1985 with the road team winning both matchups and did not play again until the second round of the 1996 NIT, when NU posted a 82-73 victory over the Cougars. That was the Huskers' only home game en route to the NIT title.
 
DID YOU KNOW
• The last time Nebraska and Washington State square off on the basketball court, the weather conditions were slightly different than the expected temperatures for Monday's contest. The high temperature for the 1998 game in Fairbanks, Ala., was nine degrees. It is 4,323 miles from Fairbanks to George Town, Grand Cayman.

• Beginning with Monday's Cayman Islands Classic opener against Washington State, the Huskers will play their next five non-conference games away from home (3 in Cayman Islands Classic, at Georgia Tech and at Creighton), the longest stretch of non-conference games away from home since the 2000-01 season. The Huskers' next home game is Dec. 15 against Purdue.

• Through Friday's action, Cam Mack, Michigan State's Cassius Winston and Minnesota's Marcus Carr are the only Big Ten players in the top 10 in both scoring and assists.

• Cam Mack is one of only four power conference players in the nation averaging at least 15.0 points, five rebounds and five assists per game as of Nov. 22.
 
Power Conference Players Averaging 15.0 Points, 5.0 Rebounds and 5.0 Assists Per Game (as of Nov. 22)

Player	School	PPG	RPG	APG
Cam Mack	Nebraska	16.0	5.0	6.5
Payton Pritchard	Oregon	19.4	5.4	5.6
Kira Lewis Jr.	Alabama	21.5	6.5	5.0
Marcus Carr	Minnesota	15.4	6.6	6.8

 
• Through the first four games, 78.9 percent of the Huskers' offense has come from players who were added in the offseason, including six of Nebraska's top seven scorers.

• Nebraska has two overtimes games in its first four contests. The school record for OT games is four, set most recently during the 2007-08 campaign.

• Mack's 13-point, 11-assist performance vs. Southern Utah on Nov. 9 marked just the sixth time in the last 30 years that a Husker has had a points-assist double-double.
 
Husker Points/Assists Double-Doubles (Last 30 years)

No.	Pts.	Asst.	Opponent
Cam Mack	13	11	vs. Southern Utah, 11/11/19
Glynn Watson Jr.	10	10	vs. Cal State Fullerton, 12/20/18
Lance Jeter	10	10	vs. Kansas, 2/5/11
Lance Jeter	12	12	at Kansas State, 2/7/10
Sek Henry	11	11	at TCU, 11/21/09
Tom Wald	11	11	vs. Appalachian State, 12/31/94

• Nebraska enters Monday's game first in the Big Ten in turnover margin at +4.8 per game, as the Huskers have committed an average of 11.0 turnovers per game in the first four contests while playing at one of the fastest paces in the Big Ten.

• After scoring 47 points in the season opener, Nebraska's offensive attack has averaged 87 points per game over the last three contests. The Huskers are shooting 47 percent from the floor, including  nearly 33 percent from 3-point range. Nebraska will be looking to top 90 points for the third straight game on Monday, something which has not happened for the Huskers since December of 1994.

• Nebraska's 14 first-year players on the roster matches TCU for the most in the nation in research done by the Utah SID John Vu. Only four teams (TCU-14, Nebraska-14, East Carolina-13 and Utah-12) have at least 12 newcomers on their 2019-20 rosters. Nebraska returns a national-low 1.9 percent of its scoring from last season.
 
Fewest Returning PPG from 2018-19

No.	School	Returning PPG	Pct. of Scoring
1	Nebraska	2.0 PPG	1.9%
2.	Tulane	10.8 PPG	12.2%
3.	South Dakota St.	15.8 PPG	16.9%
4.	Virginia Tech	13.3 PPG	18.1%
5.	Washington	13.9 PPG	19.8%

Courtesy: Virginia Tech SID office
 
SETTING A FAST PACE
Not only are the Huskers adjusting to a whole new roster, but playing at a significantly faster pace than in previous years. The Huskers are 102nd nationally in adjusted tempo, averaging nearly 72 possessions per 40 minutes. NU is currently third in the Big Ten in tempo after ranking eighth in the Big Ten and 238th nationally in 2018-19.

• Hoiberg's first Iowa State team in 2010-11 jumped from 93rd to 34th nationally in tempo and ranked in the top 40 nationally in tempo in four of his five seasons in Ames, including top-15 nationally in his last two campaigns.

• In the KenPom era (1997-present), only one Husker team has ranked among the top 100 nationally in tempo - the 1999-2000 Huskers under Danny Nee.
 
JUCO ADDITIONS AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
Two of the cornerstones of the Huskers' recruiting class were junior college transfers Cam Mack and Jervay Green. Mack (third) and Green (eighth) were both ranked in the top 10 nationally by JUCORecruiting.com in the 2019 recruiting class and have played a crucial role for the Huskers early in 2019-20. 

Mack, who was listed as the top JC point guard recruit in the country, enters the Washington State game leading the Huskers in scoring (16.0 ppg) and assists (6.5 apg), while posting a nearly 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. He is fourth in the Big Ten in assists and sixth in steals.

• Mack has been the only Husker in double figures in all four games, including a season-high 24-point performance against South Dakota State. He had 11 points and nine rebounds in the opener before nearly pulling a triple-double against Southern Utah on Nov. 9 with 13 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. His 11 assists against the Thunderbirds were the most by a Husker since the 2009-10 campaign. Green had 16 points and eight assists in the win over Southern.

• Last season at Salt Lake CC, Mack averaged 19.1 points, 7.6 assists and 5.9 rebounds per game, ranking fifth nationally in assists per game. He totaled nine double-doubles and three triple doubles as a freshman and dished out 10-or-more assists nine times.

Green was rated as the No. 2 combo guard after a stint at Western Nebraska CC, has been a jack-of-all-trades for the Big Red, averaging 12.8 points per game along with 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.0 block per game, ranking in the top three on the team in scoring assists, blocks and steals.

• He comes off his best performance of the year, scoring 22 points and dishing out six assists in the win overtime win over Southern. His two 3-pointers helped key a 10-0 spurt in overtime to seal the win.

• Green dished out a season-high five assists and added six points and four rebounds in the win over South Dakota State.

• He nearly had a double-double against Southern Utah with 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds, as he sent the game into overtime with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

• Green garnered NJCAA All-America honors at WNCC, averaging 23.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. He was eighth nationally in scoring and had six 30-point games, including a school-record 51-point outburst. 
 
CHEATHAM MAKES IMPACT ON BOTH ENDS
Fifth-year senior Haanif Cheatham has been one of the leaders for a young Husker team. The guard from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is NU's most experienced player, as he played in 80 games between Marquette and Florida Gulf Coast before transferring to Nebraska for his final year.

Cheatham got off to a slow start in the first two games, but enjoyed a breakout performance against South Dakota State on Nov. 15, finishing with 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting, six rebounds and three assists. Cheatham's biggest impact has been on the defensive end, where he has the ability to guard multiple spots. Against Southern, he grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. A former top-100 recruit out of high school, he was named Marquette's top defensive performer in each of his two full seasons at Marquette.
 
BURKE SHOWS SCORING TOUCH
The other returnee from the 2018-19 season, Dachon Burke Jr. waited in the wings after transferring from Robert Morris. A 6-foot-4 guard, Burke has quickly shown the skills to flourish in Fred Hoiberg's attack, averaging 11.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. Burke has reached double figures twice, including a 17-point, seven-rebound effort against South Dakota State on Nov. 15. Two years ago, Burke was one of the best players in the Northeast Conference, averaging 17.6 points per game while adding 5.8 rebounds and a conference-best 2.1 steals per contest.
 
CROSS LIFTS BENCH PRODUCTION
Freshman Kevin Cross has been an early contributor for the Huskers. The 6-foot-8 freshman from Little Rock, Ark., has been the first Husker off the bench in all four games and ranks fourth on the team in scoring at 11.0 points per game while adding 2.8 rebounds per game.

• Cross has found his shooting touch in recent games, shooting 62 percent (16-of-26) in his last three contests.

• He played a big role in NU's comeback against Southern, scoring all eight of his points in the second half as the Huskers overcame an eight-point deficit.

• Cross was efficient against South Dakota State, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and two blocked shots.

• Against Southern Utah, he had a team-high 19 points, becoming the first freshman in 73 games to pace the Huskers in scoring. His 19 point effort was the highest by a Husker rookie since Shavon Shields in 2013.

• Cross has lost nearly 20 pounds since arriving on campus this summer, and showed glimpses of his potential during NU's trip to Italy, reaching double figures twice in four contests.

• He has helped the NU reserves combine for nearly 23 points per game during the first four contests.
 
OUEDRAOGO ADDS NAME TO SHORT LIST OF TRUE FROSH
Freshman Yvan Ouedraogo became the first true freshman to start a season opener at Nebraska since 2013 when he started against UC Riverside on Nov. 5.

• Ouedraogo, who became the first true freshman to start in the frontcourt since Brandon Ubel in 2009, had nine points, three rebounds and a pair of steals and a blocked shot in 21 minutes of action.

• He is just the 11th true freshman and 13th freshman overall to start a season opener in the last 25 years at Nebraska, joining a group which includes 1,000-point scorers Tai Webster, Ryan Anderson, Cookie Belcher and Tyronn Lue.

• Ouedraogo has started all four games for the Huskers, averaging 7.0 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds per game in just under 20 minutes per game.

• He comes his nest offensive effort of the season with 11 points, including six in overtime, and four rebounds against Southern on Nov. 22. He snared a team-high 12 rebounds against South Dakota State on Nov. 15.

Ouedraogo, who doesn't turn 18 until after the 2020 Big Ten Tournament, played for the French U-18 squad at the 2019 European Championships in July, averaging 4.0 points, 3.6 rebounds per game as France went 6-1 and finished fifth in the competition.
 
KAVAS IS ONE OF NATION'S TOP SHOOTERS
Senior transfer Matej Kavas comes to Nebraska with a reputation as one of the nation's top 3-point shooters. The 6-foot-8 guard is a career 44 percent shooter from 3-point range, and has shot 40 percent or better in all three of his seasons at Seattle. Kavas' .443 career percentage ranks fifth among active Division I players. As a sophomore at Seattle, Kavas led the WAC in both 3-point percentage (.464) and 3-pointers per game (2.8).

• To put Kavas' shooting in perspective, Nebraska's career mark for career 3-point percentage is .432 by Brian Conklin (2001-04) and only five players in school history have shot 40 percent in their Husker career with a minimum of 100 3-pointers.

• Kavas' 182 career 3-pointers would ranks sixth on NU's career list while his 91 3-pointers as a sophomore would top NU's single-season mark (Cary Cochran, 89, 2001-02).
 
Top Active 3-Point Shooters in Division I (as of Nov. 22)

No.	Player, Schools	Yr.	GP	3pt.	Att	Pct.
1.	Luke Avdalovic, Northern Ariz.	So.	32	82	164	.500
2.	Justin Jaworski, Lafayette	Jr.	63	156	341	.457
3.	Tyrell Gumbs-Frater, Coastal Carolina	Sr.	52	107	236	.453
4.	Nate Darling, Delaware	Jr.	67	98	220	.445
5.	Matej Kavas, Nebraska	Sr.	88	182	411	.443

 
WHAT'S BACK FOR THE HUSKERS
Nebraska returns one letterwinner and one other player from last year's team that went 19-17 and reached the second round of the NIT. Junior guard Thorir Thorbjarnarson was the only player who has seen regular-season action for the Huskers entering the 2019-20 campaign. He averaged 2.0 points and 2.1 rebounds per game last year.

• According to research by noted basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy, the 50 returning points on Nebraska's 2019-20 roster is the lowest total for a power conference team since 2009, when Indiana returned just 28 points from the previous season.

• Since 2000, it is only the fourth time where the Huskers have returned less than 40 percent of the team's scoring output from the previous year (also 2012-13, 2009-10 and 2001-02). In that stretch, the lowest was 24 percent in 2012-13.

• The seven returning starts are the lowest in the last 20 years (41 entering 2001-02).
 
What's Returning (Last Five Seasons)

Category	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18	2016-17	2015-16
Pct. of scoring	1.9	73.4	50.0	45.8	40.0
Pct. of rebounding	4.2	61.4	44.9	51.9	33.3
Pct. of assists	6.2	71.5	48.9	52.6	51.1
Pct. of blocked shots	3.3	67.2	47.4	64.3	15.6
Pct. of steals	5.4	68.0	61.1	51.6	52.6
Pct. of minutes	4.2	74.5	55.4	52.4	42.4

 
TRANSFERS BRING MUCH-NEEDED EXPERIENCE
While Nebraska has only one player who has previously played at Nebraska (Thorir Thorbjarnarson), a good portion of the roster has Division I experience. The Huskers feature six transfers who have combined for more than 3,000 points at the Division I level. Dachon Burke Jr. is the only returnee in the group after he began his collegiate career at Robert Morris before sitting out the 2018-19 season at Nebraska.
 
Experienced Additions (Entering 2019-20)

Player	School	Points	Rebounds	Assists
Dalano Banton ^	Western Kentucky	105	92	65
Dachon Burke Jr.	Robert Morris	813	312	104
Haanif Cheatham	Marquette/FGCU	842	296	170
Matej Kavas	Seattle	980	358	72
Shamiel Stevenson %	Pittsburgh/Nevada	288	148	36
Derrick Walker^	Tennessee	92	107	16
Totals		3,120	1,313	463

^ - Will not be eligible until 2020-21; %-Awaiting NCAA Waiver
 
RETOOLING A ROSTER IN SIX WEEKS
Fred Hoiberg and his staff retooled the Nebraska roster following his introduction in early April. The Huskers signed a recruiting class that was in the top 50 nationally in just six weeks. The 14-member class includes 11 scholarship players and three walk-ons and is a mixture of grad transfers, transfers, JUCOs and freshmen.
 
2019 Recruiting Class Highlights
• Ranked No. 41 nationally by 247Sports, the program's second-highest class ranking since joining the Big Ten.

• Features two of the top-10 recruits nationally by JUCORecruiting.com, the highest two JC signees NU has signed this decade.

• Includes five Division I transfers who have combined for more than 2,300 points, 1,000 rebounds and 350 assists at their previous schools.

 • Has two Division I transfers (Dalano Banton and Haanif Cheatham) who were top-100 recruits in high school and two freshmen who were both top-150 recruits in 2019 by 247Sports (Kevin Cross and Ivan Ouedraogo).

• Contains two high school state players of the year (Akol Arop and Samai Curtis) and two others who were first-team all-state in 2019 (Cross and Charlie Easley).

• Includes players from seven states (Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Texas) and three countries (Canada, France and Slovenia).
 
FROM COLLEGE TO THE NBA AND BACK AGAIN
Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg is in an exclusive club, as he is one of just 10 current Division I coaches to coach in Division I and in the NBA. He spent three-plus seasons with the Chicago Bulls, guiding the Bulls to the NBA Playoffs in 2016.  Hoiberg's 270 regular-season NBA games are the most of the 10 former NBA coaches in the collegiate ranks. Hoiberg also brings five years of NBA front office experience, as he worked with the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2005 to 2010.
 

Coach, School	NBA Head Coach, Years
Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska	Chicago, 2015-18
Larry Krystkowiak, Utah	Milwaukee, 2007-08
Terry Porter, Portland	Milwaukee, 2003-05; Phoenix 2008-09
Lon Kruger, Oklahoma	Atlanta, 2000-03
Eric Musselman, Arkansas	Golden State, 2002-04; Sacramento, 2006-07
Mike Dunlap, Loyola Marymount	Charlotte, 2012-13
Darrell Walker, Ark. Little Rock	Toronto, 1996-98; Washington, 1999-2000
John Calipari, Kentucky	New Jersey, 1996-99
Leonard Hamilton, Miami	Washington, 2000-01
Lindsey Hunter, Miss. Valley State	Phoenix, 2013

 
HUSKER FAMILY TIES RUN DEEP FOR HOIBERG
While Fred Hoiberg grew up in Ames and played his high school (Ames High School) and college basketball (Iowa State) there, he was born in Lincoln and has numerous ties to the city and to the University of Nebraska.

• Fred's father (Eric) and mother (Karen) both earned their undergraduate degrees from Nebraska in 1966. In fact, Eric earned his undergraduate degree, Master's degree, and Ph.D. in sociology from the university. His 1973 dissertation was "Socio-economic status, residential location, and intrametropolitan mobility: a longitudinal analysis".

• His maternal grandfather was former Husker basketball coach Jerry Bush. Known as the "Big Bear of the Coliseum," Bush guided NU from 1955 to 1963, and directed two of the greatest upsets ever – a 43-41 victory over top-ranked Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain, and a 55-48 victory over No. 4 Kansas State and Olympian Bob Boozer during the 1957-58 campaign.

• His paternal grandfather (Otto) received his Master's Degree and Ph.D from Nebraska. He joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska in 1948, where he taught sociology and served as director of the community development program in the University of Nebraska Extension Division.
 
YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN: PART 2
Assistant Coach Doc Sadler brings a unique perspective to the Husker basketball staff, as he returns to Lincoln after serving as the head coach at Southern Miss for the last five seasons. Sadler helped Southern Miss improve its win total in each of the last four seasons, including a 20-13 mark and Conference USA semifinal appearance in 2018-19. Sadler returns to a program that he served as head coach for six seasons, guiding the Huskers to 101 wins and three postseason appearances in his six-year tenure.
It is rare for a coach to return to a program as an assistant coach, as the only other known example is Marty Wilson, who was the interim head coach at Pepperdine in 1996 before returning to the school as an assistant coach in 2008.
 
FAMILIAR FACES FOR HOIBERG ON HUSKER STAFF
One strength of the Husker coaching staff is a familiarity with each other, as three staff members had worked with Hoiberg as assistant coaches during his previous stint at Iowa State from 2010 to 2015. Matt Abdelmassih also worked under Hoiberg in the front office with the Minnesota Timberwolves, while Bobby Lutz was an assistant coach with the Windy City Bulls in the G League while Hoiberg coached the Chicago Bulls.
 
Previous Experience with Fred Hoiberg

Staff Member	Coaching Experience with Hoiberg
Matt Abdelmassih, Assistant Coach	Iowa State (2010-15)
Doc Sadler, Assistant Coach	Iowa State (2013-14)
Bobby Lutz, Special Assistant to the Head Coach	Iowa State (2010-11)

 
PINNACLE BANK ARENA SOLD OUT FOR 2019-20 SEASON
Since moving into Pinnacle Bank Arena in 2013, the Huskers have ranked in the top 15 in attendance nationally in each of the past six seasons. The streak will likely continue into 2019-20, as all available season tickets were sold out in August.

• Last season, Nebraska averaged 15,341 fans per home game to rank 10th nationally in attendance, matching the highest rank in school history.

• Nebraska is one of nine schools in the country to average 15,000+ fans per contest in each of the last six seasons, joining Kentucky, Syracuse, Louisville, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas and Creighton.

• The Big Ten Conference has led NCAA Basketball in attendance for 43 straight years, dating back to the 1976-77 season. Last season, Big Ten schools drew more than a combined three million fans for the fifth straight year.
 
Filling Up Pinnacle Bank Arena

Season	Average	NCAA Rank
2013-14 (1st year of PBA)	15,419	13th
2014-15	15,569	10th
2015-16	15,430	11th
2016-17	15,427	11th
2017-18	15,494	11th
2018-19	15,341	10th
2019-20	15,863	9th