2024-25 Team Preview: Nebraska
Do the Cornhuskers have enough to improve in the post-Jaz Shelley era?
The Big Ten announced its Preseason All-Big Ten teams for coaches and media, as well as each of their predicted top five teams for the season. The full release of that information can be found here, and I have a few thoughts on what the consensus decided:
The Top 5 teams from both the coaches and media were USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Maryland and Indiana, in that order. Based on the title of this preview, you can likely guess that my Top 5 involves the same teams as well, but I will let the upcoming previews tell you if I agree with that order.
JuJu Watkins is the absolute no-doubt correct choice for Preseason Player of the Year.
All of the other All-Big Ten choices are fair ones, but I found it interesting that the coaches and media fully agreed with the same 10 players (plus the extra Makira Cook add on the 11-player coaches team).
If I were to make changes, Julia Ayrault was a Top 10 player last year and I think she should have been recognized in this list. The same could be said for Mara Braun before her injury. This is a preseason list so I know it’s also about projection, which makes it hard to disagree with an addition like Cotie McMahon, who was not a top 10 player last year but has All-America potential at her best.
Have the coaches and media rank the whole conference, I beg for it. It’s even less likely now with 18 teams instead of 14, but just doing a Top 5 is lame. It would be great to see a general consensus ranking heading into the year, and it would be good bulletin board material for teams picked lower.
Last Preview:
2024-25 Team Preview: Illinois
Since I last posted (on a rare Thursday even!), the Big Ten has released the women’s basketball conference schedule. With 18 teams, each team will play 16 of the opposing teams once and one specific team twice. To look at that in a positive lens, there will be a whole lot of variety in the matchups throughout the entire slate.
Overview
The 2023-24 season was an important one for Nebraska in a lot of ways. After bursting onto the scene with a NCAA Tournament-level campaign in 2021-22, the Cornhuskers struggled for much of the 22-23 season and missed the Big Dance with an 18-15 record.
Considering much of the core roster was the same both years, it was a surprising drop, but one that could be excused by a bounce-back year with the same co-stars and an influx of first-year talent.
For the most part, that’s what happened. Nebraska had some lulls last year, and it resulted in some head-scratching results (hello home loss to Rutgers), but the Cornhuskers also beat Iowa in the regular season, made it to the Big Ten Tournament final where they went to OT against the Hawkeyes in an all-time thriller, then went back to the NCAA Tournament where they beat Texas A&M and fell to Oregon State.
In the end, a 23-win season with a Big Ten Tournament run and NCAA Tournament win has to be considered a huge success for Nebraska and head coach Amy Williams, and the Cornhuskers did it despite generally middling shooting efficiency for Big Ten standards.
Nebraska’s defense did give up the fewest points in the conference, but that was in part due to the team’s slow pace. It was the team’s rebounding and turnover-averse gameplay that helped the Cornhuskers reach expectations last season, as the Cornhuskers were one of the best rebounding teams in the nation while boasting a 1.16 assist-to-turnover ration (29th in NCAA).
The numbers don’t fly off the page for Nebraska from last season, but this group found momentum at the right time and had a strong enough well-rounded attack to win a handful of crucial close battles. It was the type of season this group needed after the struggled from the year prior, and it was a great high to go out on for Nebraska’s most important player over the past three seasons.
Here's last year’s Nebraska roster, sorted by Her Hoop Stats win shares:
Departures
Jaz Shelley will be missed in a big way.
Shelley transferred over from Oregon ahead of the aforementioned 21-22 season, and was the X-factor in Nebraska immediately finding success. She’s a threat from three, but even when that wasn’t falling, her playmaking was an elite tool to make everyone around her better. She was also a terrific defender and rebounder at guard, finishing with at least 1.6 steals and 4.3 rebounds per game in all three seasons with the team.
That’s a lot to replace in one player, and the playmaking aspects will likely be the hardest to find in someone else. Darian White was always only going to play one season, but she was the next-best facilitator on the team last season and will only make filling that void even more difficult.
Annika Stewart got lost in the rotation last season, but she was an extremely useful depth player for the Cornhuskers in prior seasons, and should make an impact as a solid stretch forward option for Minnesota. Finally, Maddie Krull had a solid first year in Lincoln, but really struggled to find her shot last season which eventually dropped her out of the starting lineup.
Returning Players
While Shelley has led Nebraska over the past three seasons, Alexis Markowski has taken on more and more of that leadership role, and the pairing was one of the best duos in the Big Ten by the end of their tenure together.
Now that Shelley is gone, it is on Markowski to step up into that leading role and she seems more than capable of doing it. Her scoring and rebounding reached career highs in 2023-24, and I was impressed with her improved vision from the post down the stretch of last season.
Her assist numbers didn’t fly off the page, but Markowski had four or more assists in three of her final six games when stronger defense started keying in on her. I think that openness to kick the ball out was a great sign that year four will be the most well-rounded Markowski campaign to date.
Surrounding the star forward are two key underclassmen who had excellent freshman seasons for the Cornhuskers last year. The first is Natalie Potts, the co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year who I believe was deserving of the full title. Potts’ used her length brilliantly for a first-year player, leading the team in blocks and playing very efficiently as Markowski’s partner on the interior. She was very under control for a freshman, and still feels like she could improve mightily if she can hit with some more consistency from deep.
Speaking of consistency from deep, Logan Nissley entered the starting lineup for Nebraska late in the season and helped spark that Big Ten Tournament run. She shot 39.9 percent from three on the season and was *never* afraid of taking the big shot. Her relentless trigger from deep helped space out the rest of the Cornhusker attack, and I’m expecting more of the same from her in year two.
Jessica Petrie was also a regularly used piece for Nebraska in her true freshman season, and she played a very similar role to Potts, just in more limited action. Her 61.1% efficiency from two was a great sign though, and she should be able to get more involved off the bench as a sophomore.
Both Kendalls — Moriarty and Coley — are great wing options with low usage who bring good length and defensive ability to the table. Coley was the more efficient scorer last season, but Moriarty started 17 of Nebraska’s 35 games and was better at getting to the free throw line.
Let’s not all forget about Allison Weidner, who missed last season with a torn ACL, her second ACL tear in as many years. When she’s available, she’s been a great three-level scorer that averaged 6.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game in 2022-23. If she can get back to 100 percent, that’s a massive piece added to this rotation.
Callin Hake and Nissley appear locked in as Nebraska’s deep shooters, with Hake hitting on 37.7 percent of her three-ball tries last year. Importantly though, Hake is the team’s top returning playmaker from last season with 1.9 assists per game, so she could see some point guard action depending on what some of the incoming talent is able to bring.
Incoming Players
It’s time to get excited about Britt Prince. Nebraska locked in a commitment from Prince, a five-star in-state prospect, back in November. It was a signature moment to show the massive strides this program has taken over the past few years.
Prince is a natural point guard and has just signed to a team that lost its terrific star point guard. It seems like a natural fit for Prince to start, and the film would argue that she is ready to do it. She has great size for a guard, has excellent natural scoring ability and should be able to space the floor with her passing well right away.
If Prince needs some more time, Nebraska could go with Florida transfer Alberte Rimdal instead. Rimdal is an experienced starter who has the scoring and playmaking ability to fill in for the role at the least, even if there may not be as much potential flash.
Prince is part of a four-player freshman class, with the other three signees bringing a wide array of skills to the table. Petra Bozan feels most likely to make a quick impact of the bunch. She is 6-3, has significant European basketball experience as a key contributor and fills a potential need at center with Stewart transferring out.
If Nebraska is looking for more scoring than the Kendall’s have provided in recent years, Amiah Hargrove put up some pretty flashy numbers in high school and has the size at 6-2 to compete for a role at wing, especially as the season goes on. Finally, 5-4 guard Kennadi Williams is a player to look out for in the coming years, but as a dual-sport athlete who is also coming off an injury, I’d be surprised if she carved out a large role in her first season with the program.
Outlook
Projected Starters
Britt Prince - G
Logan Nissley - G
Kendall Moriarty - G
Natalie Potts - F
Alexis Markowski - C
Projected Big Ten Finish: 6th
Nebraska has positioned itself well to continue on the path that was paved by the Shelley-Markowski duo over the past three seasons, as long as the playmaking left behind by Shelley doesn’t completely go with her.
This Cornhuskers roster is extremely deep with talent, and I especially love how many players on this roster are either shooting threats, players with great length and versatility or a combination of both. Those types of players are exactly what Markowski should need to take another step and be a true menace inside.
If Potts and Nissley can be a little bit better than they were as freshmen, that’s immediately a scary trio for the Big Ten. If Prince is ready as starting point guard on Day One, it gets bordering on terrifying.
I’m giving the edge to Moriarty over Coley for now to start, but I expect both to be involved in similar ways. I could also see Weidner earning the gig if she’s back at full strength.
It really comes down to the playmaking for me. Nebraska was 23rd in the nation with 580 total assists last year, and 282 of those assists came from Shelley and White. That’s a lot of burden gone, and potentially put on the shoulders of either a true freshman or incoming transfer. While that may lead to early growing pains, it may also lead to something special by the end of the season if Nebraska can overcome it.
There are just enough questions for me to keep the Cornhuskers out of the Top Five, but the potential is there to have some lofty aspirations with the roster Williams has in place.
Photo Credit: Nebraska Women’s Basketball (@HuskerWBB), Twitter/X
If you are interested in more Big Ten women’s basketball content like this, you can subscribe with the button at the top or bottom of the post, or share it with the button below. Thanks!
They actually did have us rank all 18 teams! They just said it wouldn't be public for some reason. (Also I voted for Ayrault lol)