Huskers Host Doane in Exhibition on Sunday

The Nebraska men's basketball team gets a dress rehearsal for the 2023-24 season on Sunday afternoon, as the Huskers host Doane at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tipoff between the Huskers and Tigers is set for 5 p.m. and tickets are available for the matchup by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets, calling 800-8-BIGRED during business hours (Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-5 p.m.) or at PBA beginning at 3:30 p.m.  It is the second game of a men's and women's doubleheader, as the Husker women will host Dakota Wesleyan beginning at Noon.

NU begins the fifth season of the Fred Hoiberg era looking to build on the momentum from the end of last season when the Huskers finished with a 6-3 mark over the final nine games of 2022-23, including five wins over postseason teams in that stretch. NU's 6-3 mark after Feb. 1 was the best winning percentage in the Big Ten.

 The Huskers return the nucleus of a group that keyed the run, including the backcourt of Keisei Tominaga and Jamarques Lawrence. Tominaga averaged 13.1 points per game while shooting over 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range. Over NU's final nine games, he averaged 20.3 ppg and had seven 20-point outings, including a 30-point effort against Penn State. Lawrence moved into the starting lineup after Emmanuel Bandoumel's season-ending injury and found his niche and averaged 9.3 points per game over NU's final nine games. He closed the year with four straight double-figure efforts, including 15 each against Michigan state and at Iowa. In all, NU returns four players who started at least 12 games last year and adds seven recruits, including five Division I transfers.

Doane, which opened its season with a 104-38 win over Union College on Thursday, comes off an 11-17 season for Ian McKeithen. The Tigers were picked to finish seventh in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) preseason poll. The Tigers are led by junior Brady Timm, who averaged 20.3 ppg to earn first-team All-GPAC honors in 2022-23. McKeithen was a basketball operations intern with the Timberwolves in 2007-08 while NU Head Coach Fred Hoiberg was assistant general manager.

Nebraska Exhibition History
Nebraska is 62-7 all-time in exhibition games dating back to the 1966-67 season and has won 31 of 33 exhibition games dating back to 2001. Nebraska had a 20-game win streak in exhibition games snapped in the charity exhibition at Colorado last season.

• The Huskers are 18-0 against in-state teams in exhibition games dating back to the 2001-02 season, including a 2-0 mark against Doane (75-54 in 2011-12; 91-63 in 2019-20).
• Doane's most recent matchup with the Huskers came during the 2020-21 season and not an exhibition game, as the Doane game on Dec. 17, 2020, was a late addition to replace Florida A&M. Nebraska won 110-64, putting five players in double figures, while Dalano Banton recorded a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in just 21 minutes of action. No current Husker played in the 2020 matchup.

A Quick Look at the Huskers
Nebraska enters the 2023-24 season with its most experienced roster in Fred Hoiberg's five seasons at the helm. The Huskers returned seven letterwinners and three redshirts while adding seven new players to the roster.

• For the first time since 2018-19 and the third time since 2012-13, the Huskers return more than 50 percent of its scoring from the previous year.

Category	2023-24	2022-23	2021-22	2020-21	2019-20
Pct. of scoring	50.9	32.8	49.6	21.6	1.9
Pct. of rebounds	37.6	34.2	42.1	33.7	4.2
Pct. of field goals made	49.9	35.3	49.9	22.0	7.0
Pct. of field goals attempted	50.3	31.2	49.8	20.1	2.6
Pct. of 3-point FG made	74.8	40.6	59.6	19.4	1.5
Pct. of 3-point FG attempted	69.1	36.8	55.0	16.5	2.9
Pct. of free throws made	40.2	19.5	40.8	21.6	1.7
Pct. of free throws attempted	39.3	20.5	41.3	22.9	1.7
Pct. of assists	30.4	23.3	41.5	13.1	4.1
Pct. of steals	50.8	35.7	44.6	24.7	5.4
Pct. of blocked shots	34.2	44.8	44.3	24.1	3.3
Pct. of minutes	48.8	35.3	50.6	26.5	4.2

• NU also returns 86 starts, which is the most since the 2018-19 NIT team. That breakdown is as follows:  C.J. Wilcher (26); Keisei Tominaga (25); Juwan Gary (17); Jamarques Lawrence (12); Blaise Keita (5); Sam Hoiberg (1). Wilcher and Tominaga are the only two Huskers who have played in every game the past two seasons.
• The Huskers return five of their top eight scorers from a year ago, as Keisei Tominaga's 13.1 ppg is the highest for a Husker returnee since James Palmer Jr. in 2018-19 (17.2 ppg).  NU also returns its fourth leading scorer (Juwan Gary, 9.5 ppg) as well as C.J. Wilcher (8.0, sixth), Jamarques Lawrence (5.0, seventh) and Sam Hoiberg (4.1, eighth).
• The 2023-24 Huskers are an experienced bunch with nine of the 13 scholarship players in at least their fourth season of college basketball. The group features one sixth-year senior in Jarron Coleman and five others who are beginning their fifth season of college basketball. 
• The 2023-24 roster has combined for 766 games, including 409 starts, at the Division I level. That does not include two seasons of junior college basketball for both Keisei Tominaga and Blaise Keita.

Tominaga Named Preseason All-Big Ten
Nebraska senior guard Keisei Tominaga was honored on Oct. 6, as he was one of 10 players selected to the preseason All-Big Ten team.

The 10-member team included four unanimous selections: Terrence Shannon (Illinois), Jahmir Young (Maryland), Boo Buie (Northwestern) and Zach Edey (Purdue). Edey, the reigning national player of the year, was tabbed as the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year.

Tominaga becomes just the third Husker to be named preseason All-Big Ten since Nebraska joined the conference in 2011-12, joining James Palmer Jr. (2018) and Terran Petteway (2014). Last season, he averaged 13.1 points per game on 53 percent shooting, including 40 percent from 3-point range, while appearing in all 32 contests.  Tominaga led the Huskers in 3-pointers with 66 and was one of only six players nationally to average double figures and shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 85 percent from the foul line.

During Big Ten play, he led NU in scoring at 14.2 ppg to rank 15th in the conference while also ranking among Big Ten leaders in field goal percentage (.512, seventh) and 3-pointers per game (2.3, sixth) as he shot 41 percent from beyond the arc. He had seven of his nine 20-point games during Big Ten contests, including a career-high 30-point effort against Penn State, and added 23 points in NU’s loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament.

3 Quick Keisei Bullets

• Tominaga had seven of his 10 career 20-point games over the Huskers' final nine contests of 2022-23.
• He was one of six players in Division I basketball to average double figures while posting 50/40/85 shooting splits in 2022-23.
• In Big Ten Conference play, Tominaga shot 63.4 percent from 2-point range, the highest percentage for any Big Ten player who averaged double figures on the season (sports-reference.com).

Huskers Complete Spain Trip with 3-0 mark
Nebraska made its first overseas trip since 2019 and went 3-0 against teams in Madrid (89-84, OT), Valencia (86-83) and Barcelona (82-62) despite having just nine players available for the trip. 

C.J. Wilcher led five Huskers who averaged double figures with 17.0 ppg, while Brice Williams (16.3 ppg) and Eli Rice (16.0 ppg) both averaged at least 16 points per game. Redshirt freshman Cale Jacobsen led NU in rebounding at 8.3 per game and tied Jarmarques Lawrence for the team high in assists per game (4.3 apg).

Tominaga, Mast Spend Summers with National Teams
A pair of Huskers spent the summer representing their national teams in international events. Rienk Mast represented the Netherlands in the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Turkey, while Keisei Tominaga played for Japan in the FIBA World Cup. 

• Mast played in all three games for the Netherlands, averaging 6.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game as the team posted a 1-2 record. His best performance was an eight-point, seven-rebound effort in a win over Belgium.

• Tominaga played in all five games for Japan, averaging 11.4 points per game in helping the team qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics as the highest finishing team from Asia. He was named player of the game in the win over Cape Verde, finishing with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, including 6-of-8 from 3-point range. Of the five NCAA players who played in the World Cup, Tominaga was the only one to average double figures.

NCAA Players in 2023 FIBA World Cup

Player	School/Country	GP	MGP	PPG	RPG	APG
Keisei Tominaga	Nebraska/Japan	5	17.9	11.4	1.2	1.4
Zach Edey	Purdue/Canada	5	4.6	3.8	1.4	0.4
Miro Little	Baylor/ Finland	5	17.5	5.0	1.8	4.6
Olivier Nkamhoua	Michigan/Finland	5	18.2	8.0	3.8	2.0
Adam Moussa	Tarleton State/Egypt	5	11.8	2.0	0.6	1.4

Husker Roster has International Flavor
NU’s roster has had an international flavor in recent seasons and that trend will continue in 2023-24. Four Huskers hail from overseas, including Keisei Tominaga (Moriyama Nagoya Aichi, Japan), Matar Diop (Dakar, Senegal), Blaise Keita (Bamako, Mali), and Rienk Mast (Groningen, Netherlands). 

In five seasons under Hoiberg, NU has had players on its roster from a host of countries, including Australia, Canada, England, France, Iceland, Lithuania and Slovenia.

Husker Transfer Haul
Nebraska made a big splash in the transfer portal, adding five players to the roster for 2023-24. The group includes Josiah Allick (New Mexico), Jarron Coleman (Bradley), Rienk Mast (Bradley), Ahron Ulis (Iowa) and Brice Williams (Charlotte). The group brings impressive credentials to the Husker program and has combined for more than 4,300 points and 2,100 rebounds.

Mast was a two-time All-Missouri Valley Conference pick, and finished third in MVC Player of the Year voting in 2022-23. Coleman (Mid American) and Williams (Conference USA) were both second-team all-conference honorees, while Williams was the MVP of the 2023 College Basketball Invitational. Williams (CBI), Ulis (NCAA) Allick (NIT) and Mast (NIT) were all part of postseason teams in 2022-23

Adding Experience

Player	Last School	GP/Starts	Points	Rebounds	Assists
Josiah Allick	New Mexico	103/84	1,005	602	104
Jarron Coleman	Ball State	108/86	1,165	467	334
Rienk Mast	Bradley	88/79	1,001	656	151
Ahron Ulis	Iowa	84/27	333	134	160
Brice Williams	Charlotte	88/27	801	329	72
Totals		471/303	4,305	2,188	821

Quick Hitters

• Nebraska improved its win total from 10 to 16 games in 2022-23. NU was one of four Big Ten teams which increased its win total by at least six games last season (also Northwestern, Maryland and Penn State). Of Nebraska’s 16 losses this season, 12 were against NCAA Tournament qualifiers.
• Nebraska impoved its season record in each of the last three years under Fred Hoiberg and increased its win total in each of the last two seasons. If Nebraska can increase its win total in 2023-24, it will mark the first time since the mid-1960s (1963-64 to 1965-66) that the Huskers increased their win total for three straight years.
• The Huskers posted five wins over teams which made the NCAA Tournament (Creighton, Iowa-2; Penn State, Maryland) and two others against teams which made the NIT (Rutgers and Wisconsin).
• Nebraska's nine Big Ten wins were the most since winning a school-record 13 Big Ten games in 2017-18. It was NU's third-highest conference win total since joining the Big Ten in 2021-12. In all, 11 Big Ten teams reached postseason play, including eight NCAA Tournament teams, in 2022-23.
• Nebraska's NET strength of schedule was 15th nationally as of Selection Sunday, including a non-conference schedule which was ranked No. 80. The Big Ten had 13 teams inside the top 100 of the NET, including nine in the top 50.
• Nebraska tied a school record with its four overtime games, matching a mark which has been set six other times (also 2019-20, 2007-08, 1996-97, 1986-87, 1979-80 and 1955-66) and went 3-1 in OT games. Nebraska's three overtime wins were the most for the program since the 1986-87 team won a school-record four overtime games.
• Nebraska had multiple All-Big Ten selections with Derrick Walker and Keisei Tominaga. It marked the first time since 2017-18 that NU had multiple all-conference picks. Walker became the first Husker to receive second team or higher All-Big Ten honors since James Palmer Jr. in 2017-18.
• Derrick Walker became the first Husker to ever lead Nebraska in scoring, rebounding and assists in the same season. He was one of just 11 players nationally - and two in power conferences - that led his team in all three categories. He was selected to the NABC All-Star game at the Final Four, marking the Huskers' first selection to the event since 2019.
• Nebraska’s biggest improvement in 2022-23 came on the defensive end of the floor. The Huskers jumped over 100 spots nationally in defensive efficiency from the previous year and ranked in the top 35 nationally before season-ending injuries to Juwan Gary and Emmanuel Bandoumel in January. Nebraska allowed 8.6 fewer points per game in 2022-23, a total which tied for sixth nationally and second most among power conference teams.

Single-Game Tickets on Sale Now
Single-game tickets for the 2023-24 Nebraska men’s basketball season are on sale now.  300 Level seats are now available for all 2023-24 games. The Big Ten Conference games as well as the matchup against Creighton are priced at $11 apiece, while the remaining non-conference games, including the exhibition game with Doane, are priced at $8 per game.

Tickets can be purchased by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets or calling the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office at 800-8-BIG-RED during business hours (8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday).

The Huskers’ 20-game home schedule features 10 teams that reached postseason play last season, including Big Ten champion Purdue as well as Michigan State and Creighton.