Recruiting never stops and it's easy to miss the top stories day-to-day. Hail Varsity is here to recap all things Nebraska recruiting news, analysis and more so you never miss a thing.
With Greg Smith down in the Bahamas, the rest of us at Hail Varsity are taking turns keeping the recruiting notebook going. For my turn, I’m going to do something that might shock you: I’m pivoting to basketball.
Nebraska has three 2019 signees and all three have had terrific seasons at their respective schools.
I’ve been keeping you up to date with what Omaha Creighton Prep forward Akol Arop all season. The 6-foot-6 freak athlete is averaging 20.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 2.7 blocks while shooting 64 percent from the field, 30 percent from deep and 66 percent from the free-throw line. He’s led the Junior Jays to a 21-4 record.
Creighton Prep is hosting Omaha Bryan in its district final tonight with a state tournament berth on the line. Even if the Junior Jays do lose, they could potentially take the Class A wildcard spot.
Out east, point guard commit Mika Adams-Woods is having a terrific post-graduate season at New Hampton School. The Huskies are 23-7 on the year facing a pretty tough schedule.
The 6-foot-2 guard is averaging 19.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.8 steals and is shooting 52.2 percent from the field, 42.2 percent from 3 and 87.3 percent from the free-throw line.
Earlier this month, Adams-Woods was named the Sloan MVP of the New Hampton Invitational by putting up an efficient 31 points while grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out five assists an an 83-62 win over Tilton School, one of New Hampton’s rivals.
In New Hampton’s 72-70 win at Hoosac School on Feb. 13, Adams-Woods hit the game-winner with 1.9 on the clock. In the National Prep School Invitational in early February, Woods scored 26 and 18 points in New Hampton’s two games and was named to the tournament’s all-tournament team.
Adams-Woods isn’t ranked in Rivals’ updated 2019 top-150, but he did go from completely off their radar to No. 30 on their point guard rankings for 2019 (24 point guards are included in their Rivals150).
On Wednesday, New Hampton will take on Bridgeton Academy in the NEPSAC AAA quarterfinals.
New Hampton hosts Bridgton Academy Wednesday at 4:30pm in Smith Gymnasium. Go Huskies! @NHSHuskySports https://t.co/0JQ6fKgxjx
— Nick Whitmore (@NickJWhitmore) February 24, 2019
Finally, Nebraska’s last signees is from the junior college ranks and it was Tim Miles’ biggest get of the class. Western Nebraska Community College guard Jervay Green, originally from Denver, is having an outstanding season.
Western Nebraska is 22-7 and is averaging 93.7 points with Green leading the way. Green is putting up 23.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 54.6 percent from the field including 38.3 percent from 3 on nearly seven attempts per game.
In two seasons at Western Nebraska, Green has scored 1,200 points including 762 in 28 games this year. He put up 51 and 40 points in back-to-back games earlier this season and also had another 44-point night in early November. He’s scored double digits in every game but one this season and has cracked 20 in 17 of them. Green was a big-time get for Miles and his staff with other high-major programs involved and could be an instant starter next season.
Western Nebraska is taking on North Platte Community College on Tuesday night in the Region IX South championship game.
Nebraska is losing a lot of firepower in the backcourt with Glynn Watson Jr. and James Palmer Jr. being seniors but with the additions of Green and Adams-Woods plus Robert Morris transfer Dachon Burke coming off his redshirt, the Huskers should be all right. The frontcourt is a major question mark, however, and that’s where we have seen a recent offer go out from the Huskers.
On Feb. 18, 6-foot-10 froward David Skogman from Waukesha, Wisconsin, announced that he had received an offer from Nebraska. He holds a host of mid-major offers as well as offers from Texas Tech, Minnesota, Vanderbilt and Rutgers. He’s a late bloomer as a stretch-big who can step out and hit shots from the perimeter.
Thankful to have received an offer from Nebraska #Huskers pic.twitter.com/Y0pSbC34c5
— David Skogman (@dskogman42) February 18, 2019
Right now, Skogman is the only real player still on Nebraska’s radar as the coaches look to close out their 2019 class.
Recruit Watch
Enough with basketball. The football coaches were busy on Monday as they issued a few new offers across the country.
>> 2020 tight end John Copenhaver from Roswell High School in Roswell, Georgia.
Very excited to have received an offer from University of Nebraska‼️ @roswellsports @roswellrecruits @ChadSimmons_ @RivalsJohnson @RivalsWoody @Coach_MKemper @rivalsmike @RecruitGeorgia #GoBigRed pic.twitter.com/I00sA05DI3
— John Copenhaver (@JohnCopenhaver0) February 26, 2019
>> 2020 linebacker Devyn Curtis from Brentwood Academy in Nashville, Tennessee.
Blessed to receive an offer from the University of Nebraska!! #GBR #Huskers pic.twitter.com/Pq1h5XFJHs
— Devyn Curtis (@TheDevynCurtis) February 26, 2019
>> 2020 tight end Kole Taylor from Central High School in Grand Junction, Colorado.
After a great talk with @BarrettRuud I am blessed to say I have received an offer from the University of Nebraska!!⚪️🔴🌽 #GBR @SixZeroAcademy pic.twitter.com/fzGaN8EYMi
— Kole Taylor (@KoleTaylor3) February 25, 2019
ICYMI
>> Nebraska made the hiring of Tony Tuioti as its new defensive line coach official on Tuesday.
>> Derek Peterson highlighted five juniors to keep an eye on as spring football kicks off next week.
>> Derek also came up with some questions the Nebraska offense needs to answer as we head into spring ball.
>> For our Varsity Club members, Brandon Vogel shared some tidbits about Nebraska football’s other new coaching addition, graduate assistant Ryan Feder.
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.
