Nebraska-Omaha

Cameron Gossett - SF

Team: Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks [ID #264]

Location: Omaha, NE (Plains)

Conference: VI.4 [Division 3]

President: None

Rating: 64.16 - Overall Position: #525

Fan Mood: 83.33

Alumni Mood: 60.80

Prestige: 24

Team Notes:

• Feb 13 2038: 2-star prospect Ethan Knight committed.
• Feb 06 2038: 2-star prospect Dirk McGuire committed.
• Jan 30 2038: 2-star prospect Doug Cook committed.
• Jan 30 2038: 2-star prospect Malcolm Waters committed.
• Jan 09 2038: 2-star prospect Elvis Hayward committed.
• Dec 17 2037: Removed Cyclonelomax as president.
• Sep 03 2037: Demoted to conference VI.4.
• Dec 18 2036: 1-star prospect Cameron Gossett committed.
• Nov 08 2036: 3-star prospect Leon Barlow committed.
• Aug 28 2036: Lanny Hawthorne was hired as the new assistant coach.

Record:

Wins: 16 Losses: 24 Pct: .400 Conf Wins: 12 Conf Losses: 18 Conf Pct: .400 Conf Rank: 12 Last10: 6-4 Streak: W1

Pts Ave: 73.5 - 79.5 Pts Diff: -6.0 Team Power Index: 118.9

Press Releases:

Nov 07 2018: Mavericks Replace Bolen with Glover in Odd Mid-season Move - by bluestate on April 21st, 2021

The University of Nebraska-Omaha head coach Billy Ray Hearn just announced that assistant coach Jody Bolen has been relieved of his duties, effective immediately. Bolen was serving as the 4th assistant coach and was the team's tactical director. Bolen leaves on a 3 game losing streak but sources say that is not the cause of the firing. From a source close to the program. "Bolen had grown a dislike for Hearn's way of doing things. He was the low man on the total pole and Hearn was putting a lot of pressure on him to use more analytical advice when deciding tactics, which Bolen didn't believe in. Essentially their defensive tactics against Southern Wesleyan were all Hearn because Bolen was already on his way out. You could see it in his body language on the bench." The Mavs defense was much better against Southern Wesleyan, allowing only 67 points after giving up 100 in the two previous games. Bolen's replacement is Devin Glover, a 30-year-old coach from Texas. He played his college ball at Texas Tech and earned a degree in statistics, which would mean he would be very advanced in analytics. Glover will take over the role of tactical director for the program. He is also known as an up-and-coming recruiter. He may allow the Mavs to dip into Texas for some quality prospects. Coach Hearn announced the decision this afternoon, "At this time Coach Bolen is relieved of his duties and Coach Devin Glover will take his place immediately. Coach Glover is a very smart coach and a very good guy. He will help us on and off the court. We look forward to having him join us and making an immediate impact." It is not very often you see one assistant coach replaced during the middle of the season. In-season moves usually consist of a whole staff do-over and aren't seen very often. Hopefully, this move has a positive impact on the program, not a spotlight into what could be future trouble.

Nov 07 2018: Mavs Come Up Short in Upset Bid - by bluestate on April 21st, 2021

The Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks gave the Southern Wesleyan Warriors all they could handle. The Warriors outscored the Mavs 34-24 in the first half but the Mavs would come back to end up losing 67-63. The Warriors were led by big man Drew Schilling, who finished with 26 points and 9 rebounds in 34 minutes. He took advantage of the Mavs lack of size and inside defense. Zion Lane continued his scoring outbursts with a 27 point performance in 33 minutes on the court. Eric Griffin also had his best game to date, recording 12 points and 16 rebounds. Mike Beard only played 10 minutes the whole game due to foul trouble, which was very unlucky for the Mavs considering he is the new starting center for a team with very limited options down low. The Mavs defense looked much better as Coach Hearn and staff may have found the right game tactics for this squad. The Mavs now face a 6-1, division one team, Texas Pan-Am, in what will be a very tough matchup for Omaha.

Nov 03 2018: Nets Need Replacing After Titans defeat Mavericks 111-99 - by bluestate on April 20th, 2021

An extremely high-scoring affair ended with the Mavs receiving another defeat. Wisconsin-Oshkosh went for 111, with 6 players in double figures. Senior point guard Jason Anderson led the Titans with 33 points and 5 assists. For the Mavericks, Downtown Zion Lane was exceptional. He dropped 36 points including 8 three-pointers made. Russ Paul added 17 points and 6 rebounds in his 26 minutes off the bench. Coach Hearn took notice, "I can't say enough about Russ. He has accepted his role and is making the most of it. I know he hasn't gotten as much playing time as he would like, but today he got 26 minutes and was probably the most efficient player we put out there. He will continue to be a big factor for us and we will continue to get him out there as much as possible." This adds to the speculation of lineup changes continuing for the Mavs. Recently the coaching staff made the change at center, moving Kingman to the bench and starting Mike Beard. Zion Lane also started a point guard to begin the year. Best and Day have struggled taking care of the ball and making good decisions. Sources say the staff is looking at a lineup of Lane, Paul, Baker, Griffin, and Beard. This would be the 4 lineup Coach Hearn has put out there. He addressed the concerns, "At the end of the day our conference season is our top priority. Our goal is to promote, once you get to LL3 or 4 you start to worry about winning all your games more because you just want to get into the national tournament. We just want to find our best consistent lineup and gameplan by the time conference play hits because we feel that this team is good enough to be in promotion talks." The Mavericks return to home to face 3-3 division 1 team Southern Wesleyan. SW features a young squad with only 1 senior who has an abundance of depth at the forward positions but is considerably weak at guard. This is an exciting matchup for the Mavs, who will try and use their guard advantage to sneak a big program win. On the recruiting front, sources tell me the staff is focusing a lot of their attention on JaVale Grover currently. Grover is the number 1 JUCo player in the state of Washington and would be the favorite to start at point guard if he joins the team for next season. Due to the recruiting struggles for the Mavs for the last 3 years there is 9 scholarships available for next season. Coach Hearn doesn't plan on filling them all, "Obviously we have a lot to replace. I think it gives us a cool opportunity to bring a lot of fresh players and inject some excitement into our program. Obviously, we are a little limited right now so I think we are aiming for a healthy balance of getting instant contributors and getting guys that will serve as the future of the program. I think ideally we would bring in 3/4 JUCO players and probably only redshirt 1 player if we got 4. Then we also want to bring in 3/4 high school guys. A couple might play a role right away and a couple might use a redshirt to develop their games. I think development is something we are going to excel at and I think a redshirt year with Coach Moore is going to be huge for so many players. He does such a good job of evaluating players to identify strengths and weaknesses and then really capitalizes on it by creating a detailed plan that players use as their guide to prepare to contribute. I know Greg McCall is really enjoying the process right now. Greg is a really good athlete and shooter already, but Coach Moore is making sure to develop other keys, things that might be tougher for him right now, like the mental side of the game and defense. Greg possesses long arms and if he can get his defensive fundamentals and effort down he could be an impact player in this regard. Greg practices with the team every day, but what the redshirt does is give him more time for himself. When we have games or an off day, Greg has a 1 on 1 session with Coach Moore. I see most of these happen but only really interject when I have some extra time, which is nice for me because I can trust Coach Moore to handle that while I gameplan and recruit." We are looking into a 1 on 1 interview with Coach Moore soon to dissect his look on basketball and his importance to the future of the Mavericks.

Oct 31 2018: Wesleyan Spanks Omaha in In-State Showdown - by bluestate on April 19th, 2021

The final result went as projected, but the margin of victory was surprising to all. The Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves took out the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks 108-53. The lead was 31 at halftime and things continued to escalate as the game progressed. All 5 Prairie Dog starters finished in double digits. Zion Lane was the only Maverick to finish in double digits, finishing with 23. The Mavericks had a much different look on the court, starting Beard at center and starting Best at point guard. These moves are surprising considering the success so far this season. Coach Hearn was questioned on the moves and responded, "I know they say don't fix it if it isn't broke. But my job is to help this team reach their full potential and that involves making tough decisions. I think we also need to realize that that was a very good team we played, so give this rotation and chance and see what happens. I think we have enough size from SF to C to play zone and be successful while keeping a very diverse offensive attack. I think we will continue tweaking the lineup and you will see Day play more even if he stays on the bench." It doesn't get any easier for the Mavericks, who face a 4-1 Wisconsin-Oshkosh team next. Wisconsin-Oshkosh were just defeated for the first time, but have a very good squad and will be a force in their division 2 conference.

On the recruiting front: Coach Hearn and staff made two new offers over the past couple of days. The first offer was to JUCO product JaVale Grover from Seattle, Washington. Grover plays at Clark College and will be moving on after this season. He is currently averaging 20 points and 5 assists per game in an average of 37 minutes. He is right above 6 feet tall and is considered a point guard. He is a target that would most likely slide right in at starting point guard for next season with the graduations of Best and Day looming. The second offer went out to high school senior point guard Nick Lin, out of Dayton, Ohio. Lin is right under 6 feet tall and is currently averaging 10 points per game at Dunbar high school. As mentioned before the point guard position is bare for the Mavs following this season. Lin could come in and be a contributor off the bench, particularly as a shooter, which is his best trait. Lin could also be shelved as a redshirt, giving him a year to mold his all-around game. Lin is a 3-star recruit and would be a huge pick up for Coach Hearn as he is tasked with replacing a lot of talent in the next two years, especially after this season.

Oct 27 2018: Griffin Leads Mavs past Terrapins on the Road - by bluestate on April 18th, 2021

Eric Griffin had himself a night. Scoring 25 points and getting 13 boards on the way to a victory over the Maryland Terrapins 82-70. Ronnie Baker and Zion Lane pitched in with 13 each. This win is a nice one for Hearn and company. Maryland is a Division 3 team, but has a great president and good program history, besides coming from a much larger school. Hearn's squad now sits at 3-1 heading into a tough stretch that includes Nebraska-Wesleyan, a division 2 power that has a shot at promotion, besides it being a big in-state rivalry that could have recruiting implications. After Wesleyan, they will face Wisconsin-Oshkosh, another Divison 2 staple. It won't get much easier after that either as they then face Divison 1 Southern Wesleyan. Most would say that the Mavericks would be really happy to win one of these 3. Coach Hearn wasn't quite ready to settle, "We want to win every game. Our motto is 1-0, and that's the goal everyday."