Friday, Braden Frager announced his commitment to Nebraska. The 6-foot-6, 210-pound wing from Lincoln Southwest is the first known commitment in the 2025 class.
“The relationship I’ve built with [Fred] Hoiberg and Nate [Loenser] throughout the last couple of months has been really good lately,” Frager said. “The more practices I’ve been to, the more I’ve been watching, I just feel like I fit into their program really well.”
Frager is the first in-state scholarship commit since Lincoln North Star’s Donovan Williams (2020, Lincoln North Star). Williams, who committed to Tim Miles and his staff, later decommitted after Fred Hoiberg was hired.
When Frager gets to Lincoln he will be the first Lincoln high school scholarship commit since Jake Muhleisen (2001, Lincoln Southeast).
Frager chose Nebraska over offers from Creighton, Iowa, Iowa State and Northwestern.
What is Nebraska Getting in Frager?
Frager is currently rated nationally as a 3-star prospect and the 147th-ranked player nationally in the 2025 class according to 247Sports.
Frager is athletic and a rim runner. He’s more of a versatile wing who can finish with authority at the rim but has shown the ability to knock down shots from behind the arc. In his two seasons at Southwest, he is 32-of-78 (41%) from behind the arc.
A lefty, he does need to tighten up his handle and develop confidence in using his right hand both at the rim and attacking off the bounce.
Enjoy this compilation of @BradenFrager's dunks from his 3SSB games. pic.twitter.com/8ovHkjKgfF
— Jacob Padilla (@JacobPadilla_) August 9, 2023
Building In-State Relationships
Nebraska getting an early commitment from Frager means the staff, particularly assistant coach Nate Loenser, has built a strong relationship with in-state players, high school coaches and AAU coaches.
Nebraska has missed out on some talented in-state players in recent recruiting cycles — see Chucky Hepburn (starting point guard at Wisconsin), Hunter Sallis (Wake Forest), Issac Traudt (Creighton) and Jasen Green (Creighton).
Over the last year and a half, Loenser and Hoiberg have been more visible at high school and AAU games, something that former Nebraska assistant and lead recruiter Matt Abdelmassih wasn’t a fan of doing.
The bridge has been built back in the state and now it’s up to the players and coaches to develop their games to be good enough to play in the Big Ten.
