Fred Hoiberg found the perfect point guard in transfer portal for Nebraska

Fred Hoiberg has consistently excelled at identifying high-quality players in the transfer portal. It’s one of the reasons Nebraska basketball made the NCAA Tournament in the 2025-26 season.

The Huskers won two games with four former transfers in the starting lineup. Jamarques Lawrence might have started at Nebraska, but transferred back from Rhode Island, joining Rienk Mast, Berke, and Pryce Sandfort.

The only non-transfer starting for Nebraska last season was Sam Hoiberg, a former walk-on. In 2026-27, Nebraska will start four transfers again.

We projected the starting five just before the commitment of Boden Kapke from Boston College. But it makes the starting five fairly straightforward: Kakpe, Sandfort, Frager, Sam Orme, and new point guard addition Trevan Leonhardt.

Despite the rankings, which completely disrespect his game, Leonhardt feels like he will be one of Nebraska’s most impactful transfers.

The 6-foot-4 guard averaged 11.9 points per game for Utah Valley out of the WAC. Leonhardt can score, but he’s more of a true point guard, leading the WAC in assists in each of the past two seasons.

Beyond that, Leonhardt is a 36.6 percent 3-point shooter for his career with 74 makes. Just in terms of raw numbers, he’s got 667 points, 419 assists, 388 rebounds, and 160 steals. The veteran point guard also has just 160 career turnovers. So he averages 4.19 assists per game and just 1.6 turnovers.

A perfect fit beyond the numbers for Nebraska basketball

Looking past the impressive stat profile, you couldn’t draw up a better point guard for Fred Hoiberg. Leonhardt wants to push the pace. Utah Valley was a top-100 team this season, and their tempo was ranked 108th, in the top 3rd in college basketball.

Leonhardt is a big reason for that. He’s a maestro in the ball-screen game, too. Whether it’s finding bigs rolling to the basket, or on the pick-and-pop.

Orme and Kapke are both pick-and-pop specialists. Orme is one of the best in the country. Then, you also have an array of shooters led by Pryce Sandfort. He could be a first-round pick in the 2027 NBA draft. Braden Frager also shot 35 percent from deep and averaged in double figures.

Nebraska basketball is loaded with scoring. Everyone in the starting lineup shot at least 33 percent from 3-point range and all five averaged double figures in scoring last season.

With Leonhardt, Hoiberg has the perfect point guard to run the show.

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