DanNUandVT

I assume his VT visit is off. Nebraska is pretty stunned right now, but apparently it came down to Nebraska not matching the NIL figure that Gregory and his agent were demanding.

He hasn't given Nebraska a commitment yet, as was expected yesterday.

From what I understand, Nebraska is already pretty much dry on additional cash after retentions and the transfers they've secured already.

case he gets a 5th year.

The NIL price range got too high for Drew Fielder, so Kapke became Nebraska's next target at center. Not too often that Nebraska and VT wind up going after the same athletes.

However, Nebraska's NIL budget (like seemingly everyone other than Virginia Tech) seems to be increasing a fair amount for the 2026-2027 year.

moved on to Kapke. Fielder was the #1 choice and was originally expected to go to Nebraska, but Washington seems to have driven the price out of Nebraska's range.

in the bottom 3rd. They may miss out on some guys due to NIL too.

bottom 3rd of the Big 10 in NIL spending for basketball again this year, though the budget has increased significantly over last year in the wake of the Sweet 16 run.

Nebraska has more NIL to work with this year than last, but that's still pushing what they can do. Washington may be able to go higher and get Fielder, in which case Kapke would probably become a primary target at center for Nebraska. Interesting about St. Louis.

Nebraska had Drew Fielder from Boise State in over the weekend (he left without committing). That is said to be a competition between Nebraska and Washington where Nebraska was originally thought to be the favorite, though the NIL figure may be rising out of Nebraska's price range. If Nebraska lands Fielder, I don't think they would take both Fielder and Kapke.

He committed to Nebraska out of the portal and I can see his stat line, but would be curious for your thoughts, specifically with regard to his passing ability, mobility, and defensive awareness. From his game logs, it seems he was in foul trouble pretty often.

There are actual NIL deals too, but a lot of it really is just pay-for-play and some of the amounts can be pretty shocking. Berke Buyuktencel just entered the portal from Nebraska as a surprise potential departure. According to one person (I don't know how true it is) he asked for $1.6 million to return. Pretty surprising since he seemed to be very energetic about playing for Nebraska specifically and his energy and attitude turned him into a fan favorite even with limited production. He even got a tattoo of Nebraska's 28-7 record and isn't a guy with many tattoos (might be his only one). But money talks and the same person said that there is another Big 10 team that offered him well above market for someone with his production. I also know of another ACC player in the portal who wasn't even a rotation regular who has a 7 figure offer that was made to him a while back.

I think I only saw Creighton play against Nebraska this season and didn't remember Harper at all. Looking at his line, he played 15 minutes in that game and went 0-3 from the floor, scoring his only point on a free throw. He had some other good games though in what appears to have been an up-and-down sophomore year. 36.4% on 3 pts is pretty good, although he surprisingly only took 55 attempts as a guard even though Creighton is usually pretty trigger happy on the 3 pointers. Less than 1/3 of his shot attempts were 3 pointers, which is unusual for their guards.

Probably has a low NIL figure after a bad season at Creighton, but would be quite a coup if he could get back to where he was in the 2024-2025 season. For what it's worth, 247 rates him lower than Dorn in the transfer portal even though he's a guy who averaged 16.7 ppg and 6.7 rpg with Iowa just a year ago.

He was very good at Iowa under Fran McCaffrey, but his production crashed for a mediocre Creighton team this past season. I'm not sure what happened at Creighton, but maybe the type of gamble VT needs to take given limited resources?

Still a long way to go, but pretty crazy to see them without a make for 25 minutes of gameplay when they've been in double figures in 3 pt makes in every game of the tournament until tonight.

goes on long before players enter the portal, including offers with financial figures. GC might be able to comment on how widespread that is.

success.

He did well at Drake before McCollum, though.

He can really be unstoppable and take over a game with his driving, finishing, shooting, and passing when he's on. Unlike this first half.

The big problem is that he's just not really a point guard, but he's only 6'1". I saw that 247 has him rated as a 4* transfer, though.

to have a backcourt violation?

Like Otzenberger, though, he may not have mutual interest.

scholarships for the transfer portal?

this season. Too much individual play on offense, not enough off-ball movement on offense, and not enough help defense. Perhaps the players we had weren't capable of running the schemes Mike Young wants to run or the schemes take longer than a season to implement (as I've seen suggested), but ultimately, yes, I tend to look at the coach if the talent on a team isn't showing up in results. Just as I would look at the coach if the talent on a team is exceeded by team performance.

top competition. I would bet on them losing to Illinois -- just too much talent there. But Iowa has had a great run.

Nebraska did have an opportunity to beat Purdue in regulation, but Jamarques Lawrence slipped on condensation from the Purdue huddle and turned the ball over while bringing the ball up court for a final shot attempt. The game went to OT and Purdue won. Nebraska also did a great job of taking care of business against the teams they should have beaten. All of their losses this season were to NCAA tournament teams. Of those teams to beat Nebraska this season, only UCLA has been eliminated so far.

Virginia Tech had more athleticism than both this year. VT ranked #91 in 3 pt%, Nebraska #94, and Iowa #101.

If it was a talent issue, what talent were we missing this year? Size, athleticism, shooting? I think VT was probably comparable to several teams in this year's Sweet 16 in those areas. VT's injuries didn't help, but one big difference I saw this season was the team game, both on offense and defense. That's what VT seemed to be lacking, in my opinion, more than an overall talent deficiency. Now, perhaps the problem there is that we didn't have the RIGHT talent to make team concepts more effective.

Hard to see him leaving Purdue, but UNC is one job that he might be willing to consider.

And other programs that aren't spending that money are still playing.

Although, if I recall correctly, I guess that didn't officially happen.

heard, it's in the $3 million range for this current year's team. I was under the impression from reports here that VT likely has a similar level, but there really isn't any official data that I've seen for either. Connor Essegian (who is medically redshirting this season), Pryce Sandfort, and Jamarques Lawrence likely being the three biggest beneficiaries. The Nebraska 7 man rotation this year consisted of two former walk-ons (Hoiberg and Jacobson), a Lincoln native who grew up dreaming of playing for Nebraska (Frager), and a 7th year player who was coming off a major knee injury that kept him out all of last season (Mast), so that may have contributed to the numbers being lower. Even the two transfers who came in and were part of the rotation this year had prior ties, with Lawrence coming back to Nebraska after a year at Rhode Island and Sandfort having known the Hoibergs since he was 9 years old attending camp with the Hoiberg kids under Fred at Iowa State. Sandfort probably would've been at Nebraska out of high school except that he wanted to play with his older brother at Iowa. The other member of the 7 man rotation is Berke Buyuktuncel, who is a Nebraska fan favorite for his hustle and emotion, but his limited offensive skills wouldn't have him as a hot commodity.

most of my adult life than Nebraska. Nebraska made a great hire with Fred Hoiberg and exercised patience with it, but there's not a big difference in the money Nebraska is spending for basketball vs. the money Virginia Tech is spending on basketball. It just requires the right coach bringing in the right talent, just like we saw when Buzz Williams was around. If Nebraska can reach the Sweet 16 in 2026, Virginia Tech can do it to with the right recipe.

as Virginia Tech's. The NIL figures aren't all public, but, from what I've been led to believe, Nebraska's NIL for the basketball program is also in the same ballpark. Football spending and NIL is a different story.

a while. Even if it hasn't been a huge priority for the Athletic Department. It's quite something to finally see it result in something like this!

I don't know which one can jump higher. Carr tends to make a higher volume of high flying plays with his hops, though.