College Hoops Season 2025-26
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KnowTheScore
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I agree that Saunders was by far the best player in the game this afternoon. 26 points on 10/16 shooting! It is funny that a player like Saunders probably would not get an opportunity to play for BYU or Utah if he was coming out of high school now. Was glad to see Purdue dominate - they now own impressive wins over both Alabama and Texas Tech.
They aren't ranked or anything yet, but I think Nebraska might be the CF team of the year. They start 4 Whites (including Turkish Berke Buyuktuncel) and are now 6-0. They have solid wins over both Kansas State and Oklahoma. In their 86-85 win over Kansas State tonight, 7 of the 8 guys who played minutes were our guys! Rienk Mast is their best player, averaging 15.4 points, 3.4 assists, and 7 rebounds a game. The Dutch bigman actually recorded Nebraska's third ever triple double recently. Their second best player is Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort. Although Sanford was a reliable option at Iowa, his play has leaped to new heights at Nebraska - he is averaging 15.6 points on 48.3% shooting and 38.9% from deep. Both of these players have all Big Ten first or second team potential. Former walk-on and coaches son Sam Hoiberg rounds out the starting lineup. Hoiberg doesn't score a ton, but he averages 4 assists and 6 rebounds as a 6 foot guard. Nebraska brings Braden Frager and Cale Jacobsen off of the bench as well. Frager is a wing/forward and is averaging around 11 points per game so far. Jacobsen has more modest stats, but still plays 17 minutes a game. Connor Essegian (formerly of Wisconsin) averages around 16 minutes and 7 points a game. Essegian has had a slow start to the year, and I'd like to see him have a breakout game or two.
They aren't ranked or anything yet, but I think Nebraska might be the CF team of the year. They start 4 Whites (including Turkish Berke Buyuktuncel) and are now 6-0. They have solid wins over both Kansas State and Oklahoma. In their 86-85 win over Kansas State tonight, 7 of the 8 guys who played minutes were our guys! Rienk Mast is their best player, averaging 15.4 points, 3.4 assists, and 7 rebounds a game. The Dutch bigman actually recorded Nebraska's third ever triple double recently. Their second best player is Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort. Although Sanford was a reliable option at Iowa, his play has leaped to new heights at Nebraska - he is averaging 15.6 points on 48.3% shooting and 38.9% from deep. Both of these players have all Big Ten first or second team potential. Former walk-on and coaches son Sam Hoiberg rounds out the starting lineup. Hoiberg doesn't score a ton, but he averages 4 assists and 6 rebounds as a 6 foot guard. Nebraska brings Braden Frager and Cale Jacobsen off of the bench as well. Frager is a wing/forward and is averaging around 11 points per game so far. Jacobsen has more modest stats, but still plays 17 minutes a game. Connor Essegian (formerly of Wisconsin) averages around 16 minutes and 7 points a game. Essegian has had a slow start to the year, and I'd like to see him have a breakout game or two.
Jimmy Chitwood
Hall of Famer
thanks for sharing this. i will definitely look for them on the schedule! in recent years, Nebraska has been nearly all-black, so this demographic change is significant.
Freethinker
Hall of Famer
One small correction. Dawson Baker also started and contributed 11 points (3rd most for BYU). On the season, he’s started 2/5 games so not sure if he’s an injury fill in or got promoted.
BYU has one other American White in the bench rotation and a few Euro Whites in the deeper rotation (after the first 8 deep). I know we are hard on BYU because we expect a 90% White team, but they are still going to be more palatable to root for than most of the top 25 teams.
Edit: Richie Saunders is also the leading score on the team which is also a big plus in my eyes.
