Kelvin Sampson isn't about to pick Nebraska to finish in the upper half of the Big 12. But Oklahoma's coach is convinced that the return of junior Jake Muhleisen will make the Huskers far better equipped to play with the league's elite.

NU lost Muhleisen, its team captain and point guard, to a broken hip socket in the league opener at Kansas. The Huskers then staggered to a last-place finish.

Sampson, who often crossed paths with Husker coach Barry Collier when the two were assistants in the Pac-10, figured his pal would be in for a long conference slate without Muhleisen.

"When [former OU guard] Quannas [White] came back from the Big 12 All-Star tour, I said, 'Quannas, who do you think was the best player on that trip?'" Sampson says. "The guy that surprised him the most as the best player he wasn't aware of was Jake Muhleisen. Quannas said, 'Coach, that kid is good.'

"When Jake went down, that was a big loss for Nebraska. He was the guy who keeps them together -- I can't imagine what we'd [have been] like without Quannas."

Muhleisen -- who has averaged 11.7 points, 3.6 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 30 minutes in his two seasons -- is excited that the Huskers return 90.5 percent of their scoring and 88.5 percent of their rebounding from a year ago. But he's quick to warn that it will take more than his presence to bring about an immediate turnaround.

"I thought we'd be 10-3 in preseason, and we were 8-5, so we kind of underachieved," he says.

At the same time, last season "doesn't shake my confidence," Muhleisen adds. "I think we have the players to be a good team."

FRONTCOURT

Forward Andrew Drevo, a transfer from Division II Morningside (Iowa) College, was named to the Big 12's All-Newcomer team last season. The 6-8 local boy averaged 13.9 points to become the highest-scoring first-year transfer in NU history.

"I wasn't surprised by what he did," Collier says. "But Andrew can defend better, he can rebound better, shoot a higher percentage and be a better passer."

In two seasons, center John Turek has started 45 games. He lead the team in rebounding as a freshman and last year became only the sixth player at NU to block 50 shots in a season. Turek would give NU an added dimension if he could start shooting at a higher percentage. He's a career 41.6 percent shooter.

Even with Drevo and Turek performing well, Nebraska will be a perimeter-oriented team. But the Huskers must get some consistency from highly regarded forward Wesley Wilkinson, who struggled as a freshman. Brian Conklin, a 6-11 senior, needs to regain the shooting form that two years ago helped him rank among the nation's top 30 in 3-point accuracy. After hitting 43.3 percent from outside the arc as a sophomore, Conklin dipped to 25.9 last year.

Nebraska's smoothest player might be Jason Dourisseau, a 6-5 slasher who averaged 17.4 minutes and 4.9 points as a freshman.

BACKCOURT

As a sophomore, Corey Simms emerged as a player who can more than hold his own in the nation's most physical league. Nebraska's best defender, the 6-5 Simms also shot a respectable 46.1 percent from the field and pulled down 4.9 rebounds from the shooting guard spot.

He'll be forced to share time this year if newcomers Charles Richardson and Marcus Neal can run the point effectively enough to let Muhleisen slide out to a wing. That would allow Nate Johnson, an honorable mention all-league pick in 2002-03 who was forced to play point after Muhleisen went down, to move back to 2-guard.

The 5-9 Richardson comes from Proviso East in Maywood, Ill., where as a junior he averaged eight assists while playing with guards Dee Brown, now a sophomore at Illinois, and Shannon Brown, a freshman at Michigan State.

Neal was the Sun Coast Conference player of the year at Polk (Fla.) Community College, where he averaged 20.2 points and 5.7 assists.

FINAL ANALYSIS

Barring another major injury, Nebraska will be better. The question is, will anything less than the postseason be good enough to save Collier's job?

"We took a detour, [but] our whole focus is to work hard, execute our plan, and stay on the task," Collier says. "We are stubborn to the point of refusing to accept that we can't get it done. We will get it done."

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