LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Fred Hoiberg’s first Nebraska team won seven games with a roster he was forced to put together in haste.

He turned over the roster before his second season, and the Cornhuskers again won just seven games.

The roster was shuffled yet again this offseason, though not as dramatically. The difference this time is that key pieces of the 2020-21 team returned, and Hoiberg has put together the highest ranked recruiting class in program history.

The way the nonconference schedule sets up, the Huskers just might have seven wins by the end of November.

“We basically started from the ground up with our first two seasons,” Hoiberg said. “We took over a big rebuilding project in a league where we were the only team that was really going through a rebuild. That created some very difficult moments.”

Trey McGowens, Kobe Webster, Lat Mayen and Derrick Walker have starting experience for the Huskers, and they’ll be joined by transfers Alonzo Verge Jr. (Arizona State), C.J. Wiltcher (Xavier), Keon Edwards (DePaul) and Keisei Tominaga (Ranger College).

The Huskers also brought in guard Bryce McGowens of Pendleton, South Carolina, the first five-star recruit to sign with Nebraska, and four-star forward Wilhelm Breidenbach of Rancho Santa Margarita, California.