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2017 Aguek Arop parting ways with Nebraska

How pathetic is this room that one of the longest threads is about a player that will never play for the Huskers and how some think it is somehow a defining piece in Miles legacy at Nebraska. An early pull of the trigger for this type of player? Most definitely. A big deal in the long run? Nope.

I like the way the team is forming up for the most part. I think we have talented players and I can't wait to see them develop. If we continue to struggle with this team the next couple of years, the Miles experiment might prove to be a mistake. But I think we will do well. Time will tell.


I see some potential as well, but Miles needs these guys to mesh like some of his teams did in Colorado. Those teams moved the ball well and could shoot. So far, he's really struggled finding perimeter shooters, and that's killing him in the B1G.
 
You know, i'm not real sure. I'm not a Nick Bahe fan but he brought up a great point, you can be missing a dominant big man or some outside shooters, but you can't be missing both. I think that's where we are. We have good talent on the roster in terms of recruiting stars, but do they mesh together? He loses a player or a coach, or both, every season.

I'm where someone else said earlier in that I don't expect much from Husker basketball. But mistakes like these where an amateur basketball guy saw it two years ago are happening, what's the real issue?


The big I can kind of forgive. It's harder than most think to find a decent big these days, and we've struck out on some of the reaches we have made. The outside shooters is the place I'm struggling to understand. Snipers from the outside have a tradition of not usually being all that great on the defensive end, but they can change the entire flow of your offense by opening things up. We should be able to fill that void with someone, even a local kid who may not be more than a 15 minute a game kid.
 
What I was saying is this is the first time ever there is not a kid from Nebraska on the roster in any capacity. It's sad. I wouldn't say it matters from a production standpoint, it lets me know what the perception in-state is currently.

So ya, it matters.

Maybe, but most of the guys I mentioned weren't recognized by anyone going to the games, and almost never even got on the floor. I'm more concerned about having players on a team that have a prayer of contributing, and almost all of those walk-ons didn't. We need to get some guys who can do something, shooting from the outside would be a start, but Nebraska high school basketball can't be this bad, can it?
 
Mike Daum would probably be contributing at Nebraska this year and last. Tradeon Hollins would play this year. There are players from Nebraska that could play at Nebraska. I'm afraid things like this with Arop means they won't, and if the state school doesn't have in-state players, I'm not sure what the point is.
 



What I was saying is this is the first time ever there is not a kid from Nebraska on the roster in any capacity. It's sad. I wouldn't say it matters from a production standpoint, it lets me know what the perception in-state is currently.

So ya, it matters.

I don't agree. Just as you have in football, those kids who used to be willing to pay their own way to come to Nebraska are now deciding to take that offer from UNK or Augustana or where ever, because of education costs. Do we know Miles didn't talk to any kids about walking on? Did he turn down anyone who was asking to walk on? What matters is talent, and the fact we don't have 3 or 4 D1 ball players a year to consider for a spot on the roster is the disappointing part. Recalling the years I was most familiar with, the late 70's and early 80's, the state would produce many times 4 or 5 D1 players and probably a dozen or more DII. I don't see this happening now. I doubt genetics have changed, so it must be development.
 
Mike Daum would probably be contributing at Nebraska this year and last. Tradeon Hollins would play this year. There are players from Nebraska that could play at Nebraska. I'm afraid things like this with Arop means they won't, and if the state school doesn't have in-state players, I'm not sure what the point is.

When you say could play, what are you saying exactly? Are we talking about appearing in 9 games during the season? Are we talking a 0.8 ppg scoring average? If we are taking a flyer at someone, I don't have a problem with taking one at a raw kid, but with a great possible ceiling, rather than a nice kid who just isn't ever going to have the speed or athletic ability to get meaningful minutes on the court. Let the nice kid go to Hastings and enjoy playing some ball. Riding the pine just so we can check a box seems an odd placation.
 
I don't agree. Just as you have in football, those kids who used to be willing to pay their own way to come to Nebraska are now deciding to take that offer from UNK or Augustana or where ever, because of education costs. Do we know Miles didn't talk to any kids about walking on? Did he turn down anyone who was asking to walk on? What matters is talent, and the fact we don't have 3 or 4 D1 ball players a year to consider for a spot on the roster is the disappointing part. Recalling the years I was most familiar with, the late 70's and early 80's, the state would produce many times 4 or 5 D1 players and probably a dozen or more DII. I don't see this happening now. I doubt genetics have changed, so it must be development.
Khiri Thomas then who was better than any of our four star recruits on the floor who went to Crayton late in the process. There's talent that could help us in the state. Arop probably wasn't one of those.
 
When you say could play, what are you saying exactly? Are we talking about appearing in 9 games during the season? Are we talking a 0.8 ppg scoring average? If we are taking a flyer at someone, I don't have a problem with taking one at a raw kid, but with a great possible ceiling, rather than a nice kid who just isn't ever going to have the speed or athletic ability to get meaningful minutes on the court. Let the nice kid go to Hastings and enjoy playing some ball. Riding the pine just so we can check a box seems an odd placation.
I'm saying that a 6'8", 6'9" guy like Daum would play, possibly start. Hollins would play significant minutes, because Nebraska has only one PG left. Arop might come in and be the next Fuller, but he also might be the next Jason Glock. I'd much rather take a "flyer" on an in-state guy.
There are players who don't work out every year. I'd just rather take the chance on an in-state player. And I very much don't want to poison the pump, because there's going to be a year sometime in the future where players like Strickland and Woolridge come out at the same time. If they don't consider Nebraska, again, what's the point of having a program at all?

(I left Khyri Thomas out because he would obviously play at Nebraska)
 
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Daum ended up developing into a pretty solid player, no doubt that he was good enough to crack our rotation the past two years. That said, no serious power five program was going to offer him out of high school. If Nebraska starts handing out scholarships to those types of players when they come along, we may hit on a couple of players, but we are going to end up a talent deficiency that will make a Doc Sadler roster look good. As Lars said, in the 90's, a guy like Daum would have probably walked on at Nebraska.


Thomas went to prep school and just blew up. Honestly, I don't even think Coach McDermott thought that he was going to develop like that, kudos to McDermott for keeping close contact with the kid, it definitely paid dividends. It's no secret, Thomas was a really good player in high school, but he wasn't even close to being the type of player he was when he came back from prep school. I think Miles didn't think he was quite there yet at Benson and with the academic issues, he went another route. When he blew up, it was too late.


Now, a player who I would really like on Nebraska's roster is Tra-Deon Hollins. Love, love, love watching him play, love everything about his game, especially his quickness. If I remember correctly, he also had academic issues. Imagine Hollins and Watson on the floor at the same time, that would one quick backcourt!


Bob - I totally agree with you that I don't want the well poisoned. When the next Strickland, Woolridge, or even the next Wes Wilkenson comes along, I want him N. Also, nice Jason Glock reference! My dad took me to see every one of his state tournament games. I was too young to really understand how dominant he was, but you look at his statistics and old footage, the guy was completely unstoppable.
 
Khiri Thomas then who was better than any of our four star recruits on the floor who went to Crayton late in the process. There's talent that could help us in the state. Arop probably wasn't one of those.

Thomas was a bit of a stab in the dark. Prior to seeing him play, or him having the success he did, would you have been happy had we picked him over one of those 4 star players? It's great to see guys have success, but just as we do with all sports, we try to make the most educated decisions.
 
Daum ended up developing into a pretty solid player, no doubt that he was good enough to crack our rotation the past two years. That said, no serious power five program was going to offer him out of high school. If Nebraska starts handing out scholarships to those types of players when they come along, we may hit on a couple of players, but we are going to end up a talent deficiency that will make a Doc Sadler roster look good. As Lars said, in the 90's, a guy like Daum would have probably walked on at Nebraska.


Thomas went to prep school and just blew up. Honestly, I don't even think Coach McDermott thought that he was going to develop like that, kudos to McDermott for keeping close contact with the kid, it definitely paid dividends. It's no secret, Thomas was a really good player in high school, but he wasn't even close to being the type of player he was when he came back from prep school. I think Miles didn't think he was quite there yet at Benson and with the academic issues, he went another route. When he blew up, it was too late.


Now, a player who I would really like on Nebraska's roster is Tra-Deon Hollins. Love, love, love watching him play, love everything about his game, especially his quickness. If I remember correctly, he also had academic issues. Imagine Hollins and Watson on the floor at the same time, that would one quick backcourt!


Bob - I totally agree with you that I don't want the well poisoned. When the next Strickland, Woolridge, or even the next Wes Wilkenson comes along, I want him N. Also, nice Jason Glock reference! My dad took me to see every one of his state tournament games. I was too young to really understand how dominant he was, but you look at his statistics and old footage, the guy was completely unstoppable.


Thank you for seeing my issue with just offering a kid from Nebraska just to have one on the roster. Daum is solid, but his development certainly wasn't expected, and Thomas actually used the road Miles is suggesting to Arop, by going to develop his game at Prep school. Academics will always be a major concern with a borderline player, and I'm glad you mentioned Glock. Your remembering the dominance he had in high school kind of prove that it's hard to expect that to translate well into a P5 conference. As incredibly good as Glock was, he only started maybe a half dozen games in his career and I don't know if he even averaged 5 points in his best season. That's a 3 pointer and maybe a free throw or two.

I am the first to admit I love seeing role players on a team, and I've always felt that if you can have 1 or 2 strong players, and surround them with some really solid role players you can be even more successful that some of those disfuctional squads of nothing but stars. However, we haven't have those 2 strong players on a consistent basis. Miles is still looking for a high school stud to come in and play 4 years that we can build around, so for now he's trying to bring in the most talented possible in hopes one of them catches fire.
 
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Daum ended up developing into a pretty solid player, no doubt that he was good enough to crack our rotation the past two years. That said, no serious power five program was going to offer him out of high school. If Nebraska starts handing out scholarships to those types of players when they come along, we may hit on a couple of players, but we are going to end up a talent deficiency that will make a Doc Sadler roster look good. As Lars said, in the 90's, a guy like Daum would have probably walked on at Nebraska.


Thomas went to prep school and just blew up. Honestly, I don't even think Coach McDermott thought that he was going to develop like that, kudos to McDermott for keeping close contact with the kid, it definitely paid dividends. It's no secret, Thomas was a really good player in high school, but he wasn't even close to being the type of player he was when he came back from prep school. I think Miles didn't think he was quite there yet at Benson and with the academic issues, he went another route. When he blew up, it was too late.


Now, a player who I would really like on Nebraska's roster is Tra-Deon Hollins. Love, love, love watching him play, love everything about his game, especially his quickness. If I remember correctly, he also had academic issues. Imagine Hollins and Watson on the floor at the same time, that would one quick backcourt!


Bob - I totally agree with you that I don't want the well poisoned. When the next Strickland, Woolridge, or even the next Wes Wilkenson comes along, I want him N. Also, nice Jason Glock reference! My dad took me to see every one of his state tournament games. I was too young to really understand how dominant he was, but you look at his statistics and old footage, the guy was completely unstoppable.

The bolded is the important part of the discussion on this particular case and on recruiting in Nebraska in general.

No. Nebraska doesn't pump out D1 players at a high rate. But you want to...NEED to be able to get your share of them. Nebraska has landed exactly NONE of them over the last dozen years or so. There most certainly HAVE been guys that would have been good players at NU. This isn't all on Miles obviously. Collier and Sadler crapped that bed too.

So let's assume neither McDermott nor Miles "though he was going to develop like that". Fair point. One major difference (apparently...i'll take the word of those of you who may know more on the issue) is McD stayed in touch...on the off chance he WOULD develop. Apparently Miles didn't? That's a major mistake. It takes no money and very little time and effort to check in on the kid occasionally. Oops.

So now you have this situation...where it's possible he's made a coach or coaches angry. If it it's just a little bad it's still bad.

With 12 scholarships of course nobody with any sense is suggesting that you reach on a bunch of guys. But really...that's what he did with Arop. HUUUUGE reach. There would have been no crime in recruiting the kid actively for a couple years before going "all in". Nothing good came of it. Anyway, no. Don't take kids that would be lucky to get an offer to Kearney. But sheesh...land at least 1 in 4 of the guys that are worthy.
 



Thomas was a bit of a stab in the dark. Prior to seeing him play, or him having the success he did, would you have been happy had we picked him over one of those 4 star players? It's great to see guys have success, but just as we do with all sports, we try to make the most educated decisions.
My Khiri Thomas statement was in regards to your posts that we don't have D1 talent in state. Let's not pretend that if Khiri Thomas, Justin Patton, and Tradeon Hollins were on this team it wouldn't look much more promising this year. I'm not saying a kid like Daum should have been offered out of high school, but you could throw him in the conversation as well.

My point is, why take a flyer on Bakari Evelyn when you could get Tradeon Hollins? Why take a flyer on whoever that idiot is floating around in the prep school ranks of Kansas when you could get Treshawn Thurman? There are kids there, but Miles is never going to know until it's too late.
 
With 12 scholarships of course nobody with any sense is suggesting that you reach on a bunch of guys. But really...that's what he did with Arop. HUUUUGE reach. There would have been no crime in recruiting the kid actively for a couple years before going "all in". Nothing good came of it. Anyway, no. Don't take kids that would be lucky to get an offer to Kearney. But sheesh...land at least 1 in 4 of the guys that are worthy.
That's my point as well... Miles sits and reaches on a freshman that three metro coaches told me they didn't understand. But won't reach in other situations where it was warranted (Patton).
 

I don't think we're really disagreeing much here, just frustrated. I think there are going to be two scholarships for next year. I'd like them to take a flyer on Logan Strom if there's going to be a flyer taken. :)
 

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