Nebrasketball Player Profiles: Kobe Webster

The preseason hoops coverage continues at this most basketball loving, hoops centric website! We’ll be covering the full roster of our Nebraska Cornhuskers hoops team, and up today is the newcomer senior sharpshooting point guard Kobe Webster from Indianapolis, Indiana. He stands 6-foot and clocks in at 160 pounds with a decent eye for dishing assists.

Webster committed to the Cornhuskers in March as a graduate transfer after an outstanding career with the Western Illinois Leathernecks of the Summit League. Webster stood out in the conference as the only player to lead his team in scoring for the past three seasons. In his three seasons with the Leathernecks, he graduated ranked 13th all-time in WIU’s career scoring list with 1,417 points.

Webster’s accomplishments extend off the basketball court as well. Besides finishing his bachelor’s degree in management this past spring semester, he was also named to the Summit League’s Men’s Basketball All-Academic Team all three seasons. This came on his second straight season earning Second Team All-Summit League honors. As a freshman he was named to the All-Newcomer team and earned All-League Honorable Mention honors after leading the Leathernecks with 15.9 points per game while also chipping in with 4.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

As for his career with WIU on the court, Webster quickly established himself as a lethal and efficient shooter averaging 49.9-percent in effective field goal percentage. As mentioned already, he led the team in scoring with 15.9 points per game, but did so while also leading the team in minutes, averaging 33.4 per game. Despite this he still shot 36.6-percent from three off 161 attempts. He wasn’t selfish with the ball either, leading the team in assists with 3.5 per game while grabbing 4.1 boards.

Webster’s sophomore year only got better with a team high 17 points per game while averaging 34 minutes. His shooting percentage from three was up as well, scoring 41.3-percent of the time from deep. This came despite Webster seeing a huge uptick in usage as he made 184 attempts from deep. Webster also led the team again in assists at 3.1 per game, and was third in rebounding with 4.4 boards per game.

His final year with WIU, Webster had a a bit of a regression in minutes to 33.7 per game along with a large drop in three point scoring to just 33.3-percent per game. This came despite making only 147 attempts, down from 184 his prior season. However, he still led the team in scoring for a third straight season with 17.1 points per game, and led in assists with 3.6 per game. His rebound average was down to a career low of 3.2 per game. Webster finished the season sixth in the league for scoring, fifth in assists, and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.72-1).

In his three seasons at WIU, Webster has faced a few familiar names to Husker fans. As a freshman in a 70-45 loss to the Iowa State Cyclones, in a season they went 13-18 overall, he scored 8 points, while dishing 5 assists, and grabbing 5 boards. Sophomore year was a 78-67 loss at the hands of the Creighton Bluejays where Webster notched a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while also dishing 3 assists. You likely all remember that Creighton finished 20-15 with a .500 record in the Big East that season after losing in the NIT Quarterfinal to TCU. Finally, as a senior against his home state Indiana Hoosiers, Webster went off for 18 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. In Assembly Hall he went 3-5 from three and 6-13 overall on shooting while drawing no personal fouls and managing to go 3-4 from the charity stripe.

Overall expect Webster to be a promising scoring threat for the Huskers while running the offense. His profile seems to fit well for the offensive set used by Coach Hoiberg. While it would be a big step up to match departing point Cam Mack’s assist average, I think we will end up finding the ball in the hands of a better shooter who can help free other players up better with his scoring threat.