Nebraska men’s basketball will open the 2023-24 with an exhibition against NAIA Doane (1-0), and a short-handed Husker team will take the floor Sunday at 5 p.m. CT in Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Bradley transfer Rienk Mast, the key addition for Nebraska in the transfer portal, will be out along with Josiah Allick, Ramel Lloyd Jr., Juwan Gary and Blaise Keita.
“Rienk was the unfortunate victim of a random act of violence that happened last week,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said of Mast. “The authorities right now are gathering more information on the incident. That is really all I can say about it at this time, but he will not play on Sunday.”
According to police reports, Mast was attacked in Lincoln Oct. 19 while riding his scooter near 13th and L streets.
Gary, a junior from Columbia, South Carolina, will miss the game due to a violation of team policies, according to Hoiberg.
Lloyd is recovering from injury and making progress toward a return to action.
“He’s making very good progress, doing a lot of individual work right now, but he has not done a lot of team work,” Hoiberg said. “We need to get him more practice and make it through a full practice before he is cleared to be back on the court.”
Allick tweaked his knee in the Huskers’ closed scrimmage against Utah last week and they are being very cautious.
“We did a scan and it showed nothing serious, nothing structural,” Hoiberg said. “He is doing well in his individual work right now but we are going to be very cautious with Josiah for the exhibition game and hopefully have him ready for the season opener on the sixth.”
Keita is recovering from an ankle injury he suffered last season and is not ready according to Hoiberg.
“Blaise is still not ready and still not participating in team workouts,” Hoiberg said. “We hope to get him back on the floor to stress the ankle in the next couple of days and see how he responds to it, but he is not ready for team workouts.”
Look for 6-foot-10 athletic freshman Matar Diop to start in the post on Sunday. Diop has turned heads with his raw athleticism since arriving in Lincoln this summer.
Doane makes the short drive to Lincoln from Crete after defeating Union College 104-38 Thursday. The Tigers shot 45% (10-22) from distance in the win. Freshman River Johnston, a North Platte native, led the team with 18 points while shooting 7-of-10 from the field.
The Tigers have plenty of local flair on the roster with 11 of their 17 varsity players hailing from Nebraska.
Doane head coach Ian McKeithan has some familiarity with Hoiberg. McKeithan was a basketball operations intern with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2007-08 while Hoiberg was an assistant general manager.
“Ian comes to a lot of our practices in the offseason,” Hoiberg said. “I think he is doing a terrific job and he is building that roster with the triangle offense he is running with the right guys because of the way they can shoot the ball. They compete, they play extremely hard. I’m excited for Ian and his group and I think they are going to have a good year.”
