2015-16 Nebraska Basketball Opponent Preview - Northern State

Northern State

Date: Monday, November 9th

Location: Aberdeen, SD (Not quite North Dakota)

Mascot: Wolves

Coach: Paul Sather (6th year)

Conference: NSIC

2014-15 Record: 23-9 (15-7 conference)

Northern State is Nebraska's yearly dip into Division II for an exhibition game. Something many basketball teams do to hopefully get the cobwebs out. Last year the Huskers beat the Mighty Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs 83-61.

This school is also where Tim Miles spent six years as an assistant coach before moving on to his first head coaching gig at Mayville State. Which is probably why we see this them on the schedule. To be honest, I really wasn't aware this school existed until our schedule came out.

The Wolves lose three seniors to graduation on a young team so there should not be much off a drop off from last year. They played well thought the NISC tournament and losing to eventual tournament champion Augustana College. Their season ended with a loss to Central Missouri in the NCAA Division II regional. Overall, a very good basketball team for their division.

With all that said, I can't imagine a loss. Nebraska has not had much of a problem with these games in the past and this should not be an exception.

We should see a lot of play from the entire bench for this scrimmage and while I do not think that this will be a major game for anyone in particular, this will be our first real chance to see how transfer Andrew White plays.

The fact that he left Kansas and picked Nebraska to play for speaks volumes to the current state of the program and coaching staff. My hope is that he can not only bring some much needed talent but also some new leadership that was lacking from last year. Call it a personal bias, but I have been waiting for him to get on the court since the mention of his transfer over a year ago.

Again, I can't imagine any major developments coming out of this game. Hopefully those who attend can get a better gauge on the team than we did through the games in Spain that you could have viewed on Periscope.