Huskers Getting Ready for 2005-06

Talk about going a long way to play a little hoops.

 

Aleks Maric and Wes Wilkinson combined for well over 30,000 miles of air travel this summer. The pair spent time criss-crossing the globe to play basketball, seeing action on five continents.

 

Maric, a 6-11, 265-pound center, played with Australia’s U21 National Team in Greece, Slovenia and Canada before taking on the 10-team field at the World Championships in August in Argentina. The month before, Wilkinson ? who joins Maric in the Husker front court as a 6-9, 215-pound forward -- made the trek from his native state across the world to China to play with an Athletes in Action squad.

 

Most people would think the two would be ready to relax, take some time off and get their bearings while starting classes at Nebraska this week. Most people would be wrong.

 

Both Maric and Wilkinson are anxious for the start of the new season. The Huskers worked out for the first time Thursday, as they went through an hour-long, full-team practice at Mabel Lee Hall.

 

Despite playing well overseas with his national team, Maric was excited to be back in Nebraska playing with the Cornhuskers.

 

“This is my team for four years, and I just want to help take this team as far as it can go,” Maric said of returning to the Cornhuskers. “This is an advantage for us to be able to practice early when we have so many new faces. With six new guys who are adapting to practice, hopefully we can get our offense in and get guys to gel together a bit quicker with this time.”

 

Last year, Maric led the Huskers and set a Nebraska freshman record with 169 rebounds, for an average of 6.3 boards per game which ranked among the top 15 in the conference. He added 8.0 points per game for the Huskers.

 

During the summer, Maric ranked second at the World Championships with 9.4 rebounds per game, trailing only Peter Ramos of Puerto Rico. The 7-3 Ramos was a 2004 Olympian for his native country and played six games for the Washington Wizards in 2004-05.

 

Like Maric, Wilkinson used the time overseas to continue developing his skills.

 

“My trip this summer was really good for me because I was able to get out there and just play in real-game situations and go up and down the floor against pretty decent competition,” Wilkinson said. “There were about four really good teams that we played against. The others were pretty young and we were able to outmuscle them, but the good teams were as good or better than what we faced last summer in Australia.”

 

Last season, Wilkinson had his best year in a Husker uniform when he averaged 7.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. He drained 24 3-pointers to rank third on the team and was ranked among the top 10 in the Big 12 Conference with 1.2 blocks per game.

 

 “Right now entering the season, I want to be more consistent and put up the same numbers every game,” Wilkinson said of the one area his recent success should pay dividends. “Overall, I want to get to the basket and rebound more, and just play tough.

 

“Getting to play together right now, with the structure of having the coaches there will only help us this year. And with all the players we had come in, it will just get everybody to flow together better and jump-start us for the season.”

 

Altogether seven returning letterwinners, along with three redshirts and six newcomers were on hand Thursday, looking to start the process to get Nebraska back to the postseason. Together they are hoping to provide Nebraska with another boost in the conference standings after just missing out on the postseason in 2005.

 

Unlike past years, basketball teams around the country were allowed to return to practice as a team earlier than ever before. Under new NCAA rules, the Huskers could begin team practices, with the coaches in attendance, as soon as school began this fall. In previous years, men’s teams were allowed to work out two hours a week with a maximum of four players at a time from the start of school until the team’s first full practice in mid-October.

 

The extra time together will allow the Huskers to gain better chemistry before diving into the campaign. Coach Barry Collier, who is entering his sixth season at the helm, was in favor of the rule change, as it will give him more time to be able to evaluate his players before the start of the season.

“We want to be around them more, we want to spend more time with our guys this fall in general because there are so many new faces, but we’ll be able to do more with them on the court as a group as well,” Collier said. “We play a 5-on-5 game, so it’s kind of important that basketball got this rule change because before we could only play 2-on-2.”

 

Collier added that he thought the team would have a general understanding of how the program works by the time team practices roll around in mid-October, although it won’t equate to much more than one week of practice during the regular season. 

 

Fans will get their first glimpse of this year’s team on Oct. 14, when the men’s and women’s squads will combine for a “Husker Madness” event at the DevaneyCenter, including a scrimmage by each team, an autograph session and interaction with fans. The men’s team then opens play on Nov. 7 against Nebraska-Omaha at the DevaneyCenter.

 

For now, the Huskers are glad to be able to get back together and get a jump on the season.

 

“It felt a little different, but we are glad to get started now,” senior guard Jason Dourisseau said of the early start. “We can build on our team chemistry and try to get down everything we are going to do this year before full practices begin.  I think we have the talent and ability to get to the postseason, we just have to work hard and it will take care of itself.”