Portaling Players With Nebraska Ties

There are close to 700 Division I players in the transfer portal in college basketball. 

Nebraska suffered its latest hit to the roster on Wednesday when sophomore guard Nana Akenten announced he was transferring. Meaning the Huskers could have a pretty significant number of scholarships to fill this offseason. Meaning, yes, Nebraska is going to be heavily involved with transfer players.

There are a few names we know, but there are a lot of unknown’s on the transfer market. However, assistant coach and lead recruiter Matt Abdelmassih is going to leave no stone unturned on the trail. If the player fits the system at Nebraska, Abdelmassih will be in touch. 

The following will just be a running list of guys to keep an eye on.

Already Interested

• Joel Ntambwe, UNLV (F, 6-foot-9, 210 pounds): Ntambwe was in town for the Huskers’ spring game on April 13. He averaged 11.8 points and 5.5 boards as a freshman on shooting splits of 40.9/38.6/75.2 last season. He’ll have to sit out a year, but brings three years of eligibility.  

• Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, UNLV (F, 6-foot-8, 230 pounds): He started 11 times during his freshman season, appeared in another 20 games and averaged 3.4 points and 3.5 rebounds in just over 13 minutes a night. Tchamwa Tchatchoua will sit one to play three. He attended the Huskers’ spring game.

• Maurice Calloo, Oklahoma State (F, 6-foot-8, 210 pounds):  Calloo was dismissed from the Cowboys after 16 games last season because of an incident that involved him and several other teammates shooting out car windows with a BB gun in Stillwater. Because he was dismissed before the semester break, he’ll have to sit out one semester at his new school. He has three years of eligibility and was in Lincoln for the spring game. He averaged 2.5 points and 1.6 rebounds in 10 minutes a night for the Pokes, and made just 2-of-17 from 3.

• Haanif Cheatham, Florida Gulf Coast (PG, 6-foot-5, 195 pounds): As a graduate transfer, Cheatham is eligible to play right away. He averaged 13.2 points and 4.8 boards last season, with shooting splits of 45.4 from the field, 36.4 from 3 and 65.0 percent from the free throw line. He is visiting Nebraska this weekend. 
  Update (4:30 p.m., April 20): While on his visit, Cheatham committed to Nebraska. He is (the first to be…?) in. Nebraska has four open scholarships remaining for the 2019-20 season.

• Dalano Banton, Western Kentucky (F, 6-foot-8, 190 pounds): A former top-100 recruit by the 247 composite, Banton will sit one to play three. He started in 12 of his 31 appearances for the Hilltoppers as a freshman, playing 15 minutes a night. He averaged 3.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists with shooting splits of 40.2/21.6/55.9. Nebraska is one of several schools in on him.

• Terry Nolan, George Washington (PG, 6-foot-2, 180 pounds): Nolan would sit one to play two after starting 51 games in two seasons. Over that time, Nolan averaged 9.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals on shooting splits of 38.3/33.6/66.1. Nebraska is one of several schools in on him.

Unknowns 

These are players currently in the portal who could be hearing from Nebraska. They either had Nebraska interest coming out of high school, or interest from St. John’s (Abdelmassih’s last stop) or Southern Miss (Doc Sadler’s last stop). This table will be updated.

**Italicized players are immediately eligible

Hail Varsity Staff