Miles gives updates on Copeland, recruiting and staff vacancies

Nebraska head coach Tim Miles was a guest on the Husker Sports Network’s “Sports Nightly” radio show on Thursday night and covered multiple topics relating to his program heading into the 2017-18 season.

Here is a rundown of what he had to say…

Maybe the biggest story facing Nebraska right now is the NCAA’s upcoming decision on junior forward Isaac Copeland’s pending medical hardship waiver request.

Copeland, who transferred to NU from Georgetown in January, played in just seven games last season before being sidelined for the year with a herniated disc in his back.

The 6-foot-9, 220-pound former five-star prospect underwent back surgery on Feb. 23, and Miles said the hope is that Nebraska can convince the NCAA that Copeland played those seven games not realizing the full extent and severity of his injury.

If Copeland is granted the waiver, he will be eligible to play from the start of this season. If he isn’t, he will be forced to sit out until the end of the 2017 fall semester, which officially completes on Dec. 16.

That would mean he would likely miss all of non-conference play as well as the Huskers’ first two Big Ten Conference games, as the league moved up the start of conference play up a week earlier to accommodate an earlier Big Ten Tournament.

“He really struggled because he was hurt often, and he had some things that were unbeknownst to him that he had to try and play through,” Miles said. “So we’re hoping to see if we can get an appeal and see if we can get an extra seven or eight games and have him with us at the beginning of the year, which would really help.

“If we can’t get that done, then of course we’ll be ready to put him into place when he belongs here at Christmas. It’s in the hands of the NCAA. It’s completely their call. We’ve had great cooperation with the other school (Georgetown) and our people have done a great job of putting together a good case. We’ll just see if we can get it done, but if we don’t, that goes with the territory.”

While Nebraska is left playing the waiting game on Copeland’s eligibility, the good news is that the Raleigh, N.C., native is recovering as hoped from his back surgery.

“Isaac has come off very well,” Miles said. “I’ve been very impressed. He’s really kind of itching to get back in the game, but you have to be conservative with these injuries and take your time getting him back where he belongs.

“I think in time he’ll be alright. In some of the workouts he was able to do late in the school year, I really was impressed with him only going about 30, 40, 50 percent at max.”

The other major storyline surrounding the team is what the plan is for the two open scholarships still remaining for the 2017 recruiting class.

There are currently no identified targets on Nebraska’s radar at this point, and Miles said he and his staff are in no rush to fill those spots unless the right prospect comes around.

“Never say never,” Miles said. “One thing I’ve learned about the current state of college basketball is it’s fluid. So we’re not just going to sit here, but I like our group.

“If this is our group, I feel very good about who we are and what we can bring to the table next year and how good we can be. I feel like we can be a very viable contender in the Big Ten for a postseason berth.”

One of the players the Huskers will add in the 2017 class is four-star Rivals150 guard Thomas Allen out of Brewster Academy.

After getting his release from his letter of intent to North Carolina State this spring, Allen chose Nebraska over a slew of high-major schools, including Kansas.

It turns out that Miles ran into KU head coach Bill Self last weekend during a college basketball coaches’ retreat in Las Vegas, and Self told Miles he was getting a big time player.

“‘That kid is good,’” Self told Miles.

Miles went on to gush about the former Brewster Academy standout, who will arrive in Lincoln next week in time for the first five-week summer school session.

“He’s not (star Kansas guard) Devonte' Graham, but he’s a better shooter probably coming in, just not as big and long and stuff like that,” Miles said. “He’s a very, very player, and I think he’ll be good for us and a great compliment to Glynn (Watson).”

Lastly, there’s the issue of what Nebraska plans to do with the two staff vacancies that opened up this offseason following the departure of director of operations Teddy Owens and director of player development Ali Farokhmanesh.

Owens, who had been at NU the past three seasons, left to take a head coaching job at Carrollwood Day School in Tampa, Fla. Miles made it no secret that he hopes Owens’ ties to Nebraska pay off down the road on the Huskers’ recruiting front.

“Hopefully we can help him identify some players that maybe would go to school with him and then go from there,” Miles said. “While you can never guarantee a partnership, so to speak, it’s something…

“They’re going to have multiple Division I guys on their roster, and I think that’s pretty cool stuff. The weather’s nice down there, too, so I’ll definitely go down there and recruit.”

Farokmanesh served as a graduate assistant from 2014-16 and then was named the director of player development starting in 2016-17, a position that previously had not existed.

He moved on to take a full-time assistant coaching job at Drake, and Miles said he planned to explore all of his options in regard to filling the position.

“We’ll figure out what we’re doing here in time,” Miles said. “I want to take my time, because we created that spot for Ali, and so that was a unique position. So I’ve just got to decide how or if we’re going to reconfigure and what we’re going to do.”

***Miles noted that senior guard Anton Gill, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last December, was progressing well in his recovery and was on track to be fully ready for the start of fall practices.

“Anton is still on track just getting his strength back and his mobility back in that knee. We expect him (fully recovered) more towards the end of summer.”

***On the scheduling front, it was learned that Nebraska would travel to take on St. John’s on Nov. 16 as part of the Gavitt Games, which pit schools from the Big Ten against the Big East.

While it’s a solid matchup, the issue is that the Huskers and Red Storm are both participating in the same AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando the following week.

Miles said they expect the teams to be on the opposite sides of the bracket, but there’s still remains a chance that NU and St. John’s could play each other twice next season.

“That’s fine with us,” Miles said.

HuskerOnline.com was told last week that if Nebraska and St. John’s were to play a second time, the matchup in Orlando would be considered an “exempt” game and would not count toward either team’s final 2017-18 record.