The basketball talent in Nebraska is on the rise, and all season long, Hail Varsity will be tracking the in-state players with Division I offers, including those Nebraska is recruiting.
2021 Millard North Guard Hunter Sallis (Nebraska Target)
Sallis is carrying a heavy scoring burden for the Mustangs, and a rare bad game from him led to the team’s first loss of the season. Millard North lost at Omaha North 62-59 on Friday night despite a furious rally late.
Sallis had a season-low 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting. He missed all three of his 3-point tries and hit just three of his 10 free throws (though getting to the line that often is impressive). He grabbed five rebounds (four offensive), and dished out three assists with three turnovers. Sallis fouled out with just over three minutes to play.
He looked more like himself against an overmatched Lincoln East team at home on Saturday, putting up 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting (1-of-1 from 3) and 3-of-5 from the line, five assists, four rebounds (two offensive) and three steals with two turnovers in a 78-36 win against the Spartans.
Here are some highlights from the Lincoln East game. It appears that Sallis is trying to dunk the ball every chance he gets this season.
👀@HunterSallis_ Full Highlights from Saturday’s game vs Lincoln East@MNHS_Basketball pic.twitter.com/r6VxVIpSkQ
— QuadVisual (@AveryQuad) December 23, 2019
2022 Millard North Forward Jasen Green (Nebraska Target)
Green had a decent game against North with nine points on 3-of-7 from the field, 1-of-2 from 3 and 2-of-2 from the line, six rebounds (two offensive), three blocks, two steals, one assist and one turnover.
However, he was a complete nonreactor against the Spartans, although they won easily even without much from him. Green hit just one of his four shots for two points, he grabbed one offensive rebound and he turned the ball over once.
2020 Millard North Forward Max Murrell (Stanford)
Burrell had another strong defensive week, but again he hasn’t been much of a difference-maker on offense. In the loss to North, the 6-foot-9 forward had seven points on 3-of-8 shooting, missing all three of his 3-point attempts and hitting his only free-throw attempt. He recorded 1 rebounds (two offensive), five blocks, two steals, one assists and two turnovers.
Murrell did have an efficient showing on Saturday, hitting all five of his shots for 10 points. He grabbed six rebounds (two offensive) and four steals and dished out one assist with one turnover.
Millard North secured the No. 2 seed in the Metro Holiday Tournament and will play in the first round on Saturday at 8:45 p.m. at the Ralston Arena.
2020 Lincoln North Star Guard Donovan Williams
Obviously, the big news from last week is that Williams decommitted from Nebraska. It was a rough week for is teammates on the court as well as the Navigators went 0-2 after starting the season 4-0.
On Friday, with Fred Hoiberg and Charlie Easley in the crowd, North Star fell at Lincoln Pius X 74-58. Hoiberg’s sons are juniors at Pius and Easley is an alumnus. Sam Hoiberg had 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists in that game.
Then on Saturday, the Gators fell at Creighton Prep, 83-76, in overtime. North Star rallied to send the game to overtime thanks to a 3-pointer from junior Josh Brown at the end of regulation, but the Junior Jays pulled it out in the extra period.
Next up for North Star is the HAC tournament.
2020 Omaha Westside Guard Jadin Booth (Omaha Commit)
The Warriors went 1-1 last week. I already wrote about their first game, a 64-41 win at Gretna on Thursday. Booth didn’t need to do much in that game, finishing with 12 points on 3-of-8 shooting (2-of-5 from 3) and 4-of-4 from the line with four assists and three rebounds.
He stepped up on Saturday and went off for 28 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Warriors fell 66-54 at Lincoln Pius X. Booth shot 11-of-17 from the field including 4-of-8 from deep and 2-of-2 from the line with two boards, two assists, one steal and two turnovers.
Westside is the No. 6 seed in the Metro Holiday Tournament and the Warriors will take on 11h-seeded Papillion-La Vista South on Saturday at 5:15 p.m.
2021 Bellevue West Wing Frankie Fidler
Junior point guard and Wisconsin commit Chucky Hepburn was still out last week with an injury, and Fidler struggled to pick up the slack.
The Thunderbirds suffered their first loss on Friday to Omaha South, 71-49, which I wrote about last week. Fidler missed all nine of his field goals in that game, finishing with five points on 5-of-6 free-throw shooting. He had three boards, one steal and two turnovers.
His perimeter shooting struggles continued into Bellevue West’s 58-56 win at Kearney on Saturday. After going 0-for-3 against South, he shot 1-of-6 from deep against the Bearcats and finished with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting. He added six rebounds, one assists, one steal and one turnover.
Bellevue West was tabbed as the No. 4 seed in the Metro Holiday Tournament and will open with a rematch against Omaha Benson.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
