Basketball news & recruiting update

[editor's note, by corn blight] - Bumped from the diaries... we need a basketball update...

It's a week and a half into the late signing period now, and although it has certainly been an eventful week and a half for Doc Sadler and the Huskers, it has not necessarily been good news.

First off, the Huskers have had only a single official visit, when 6-10 huge man Melvin Oliver visited Lincoln during last weekend's Spring football game.  However, the visit was apparently unproductive, as Oliver promptly verbally committed to Seton Hall, pending an official visit there next weekend.

The week continued to get interesting when assistant coach and key recruiter Tony Benford left for Marquette.  Then on Thursday , Doc told the Journal-Star that he would leave the scholarship open if he did not sign a transfer.

Today, the Omaha World-Herald is reporting that Doc is looking to replace Benford with a coach he knows, and suggests that the leading candidate would be former Texas Tech head coach and Oklahoma State assistant Dan Dickey, who hired Doc at Tech in 1991.  The World-Herald story also has two other big items: 1) that Nebraska is looking at Georgetown big man Vernon Macklin, a former McDonalds and Parade All-American 6-9 forward who has announced his intention to transfer; and 2) signee Christian Niemann, a 6-11 German player, will be in Lincoln in the fall regardless of whether his play on a German club team costs him a year of eligibility, but will likely redshirt even if he is eligible.

That leaves the following as the likely roster for next fall (assuming 2008 walk-ons make the team again):
G Ade Dagunduro (Sr)
G Steve Harley (Sr)
G Paul Velander (Sr, walk-on [Academic Scholarship])
G Sek Henry (Jr)
G Cole Salomon (Jr, walk-on)
G Roburt Sallie (So)
G Cookie Miller (So)
G Andrew Wicklund (So, walk-on)
G Brandon Richardson (Fr)
G/F Ryan Anderson (Jr)
F Chris Balham (Jr)
F Ben Nelson (Jr, Walk-on)
F Alex Chapman (Fr)
F Alonzo Edwards (Fr)
F Toney McCray (Fr)
C Christiann Niemann (Redshirting -- will not play)

If I had to venture a guess right now, I would expect Miller, Anderson, and Sallie to be starters out of a 4-guard set, along with either Harley or Dagunduro (the other being the first guard off the bench).  Balham is likely to be the top forward, assuming that he recovers from his off-season knee surgery.  If not, it's hard to say which of the three 08 redshirts will get the starting nod.