Husker basketball’s successful season and its impact on the youth

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Nebraska basketball’s success is reaching the younger generation.

5th grader Will Hunke can play basketball. He’s a member of shoot 360. It’s a facility that focuses on improving specific basketball skill sets. But, he’s also a big time husker fan.

“It’s really inspiring because you just get to watch them grow and see how good they can be,” said Hunke.

Shoot 360 primarily focuses on passing, shooting, and ball handling

With a bulk of their members in 4th thru 8th grade.

The advanced technology tracks how you shoot the ball, and provides data and feed back for improvement.

The General Manager says they’ve had huskers in their gym before, and states it’s really cool to see this year’s team set the standard for the next generation.

“I think it’s really neat because our men’s team especially, I know they’ve been in our facility a lot, said Sierra Votaw. “It’s really neat for the youth to get to look up to them and to see them putting in the work. If Cale, and Frager can do it, why can’t any of our members do it?

Their technology is what Nebraska men’s basketball uses, and 28 NBA teams since opening their doors in 2023. Votaw says they’ve seen a drastic improvement from their members, and only expects to see more kids lacing up their shoes and picking up a basketball.

“We’ve been open up long enough now to know that what we do works, ” Votaw said. “We’ve pulled all of our data from elementary, middle, and high school. We have an average improvement rate of 16%. Every age group continues to get better and better.”

But, for 11 year old Will Hunke, it’s all about playing the game he loves and hoping one day he could be on the court as a husker

“If you follow your dreams you can do anything.”

Nebraska defeated Vanderbilt Saturday night to advance to the program’s first ever sweet 16.