More transfers to know for Nebraska basketball, early returns aren’t great

Nebraska basketball needs to have a stellar offseason if the Huskers want to get back to the NCAA tournament, which means knocking it out of the park in the transfer portal.

Nebraska has done it before with Brice Williams, Keisei Tominaga, Rienk Mast, and Juwan Gary. Even Sam Griesel. Now, Fred Hoiberg will need to have another stellar haul in the transfer portal, but so far, there hasn’t been a ton to get excited about.

Creighton added one of the top players from the transfer portal, Owen Freeman from Iowa. Freeman committed on Wednesday, and it feels like Josh Dix could follow. The Huskers weren’t targeting Freeman but expressed interest in Dix.

However, the Bluejays paid over $2 million to land Freeman and will probably pay around the same, if not more, for Dix. It’s interesting to note that it has been estimated that Nebraska basketball paid $2-2.5 million for its entire 2024-25 roster, so there is work to do.

Jalen Jackson is another player Nebraska has been in contact with; however, according to Sam Kayser, he’s setting up visits to Michigan, Notre Dame, Clemson, and Tennessee. He also held a Zoom call with Butler. Nebraska hasn’t been mentioned outside of making contact.

According to College Basketball Content, Cooper Schwieger is also down to Michigan, Clemson, Northwestern, and Wake Forest. The 6-foot-10 big man from Valpo averaged over 15 points per game last season and over 13 as a freshman.

Nebraska basketball hosted Pryce Sandfort of Iowa for a visit. There haven’t been any rumblings there, although Iowa is pushing to keep him home. We’ll see what happens, but this is a transfer portal commitment that the Huskers desperately need.

Two new targets for Nebraska basketball

CJ Luster, a 6-foot-3 guard from Stony Brook, has also heard from Nebraska basketball. He started all 32 games last season and scored 16.8 points per game. Luster is a high-volume 3-pointer shooter and made 102 3-pointers in the 2024-25 season while shooting 42.1 percent.

Luster attempted 11.9 shots per game, and 7.6 of those were 3-pointers, but he shot better than 40 percent from the field. The dynamic guard would certainly fill the need for 3-point shooting.

Parker Friedrichsen, the former Wake Forest guard, is also on the radar for the Huskers, according to Jamie Shaw of On3.com. He was recruited by Nebraska coming out of high school and averaged 4.2 points for the Demon Deacons the past two seasons, averaging 1.1 3-pointers per game and shooting 32 percent from deep.

The 6-foot-4 guard started five games in two seasons. He did shoot 36 percent from 3-point range as a freshman. Davidson, Creighton, BYU, Oklahoma State, and Colorado State are also in the mix.

For More Nebraska content, follow us on Twitter, like our Facebook Page, and Subscribe to the Husker Big Red YouTube Channel. You can also find our podcast on Apple or Spotify.