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LINCOLN — Nebraska basketball isn’t Noah’s Ark yet.

But when coach Tim Miles blew his whistle Saturday to start the first day of practice for 2017-18, his roster was much closer to having two of everything than at any point in his six years at the school.

“I’m really excited about this team,” Miles said. “We’ve got excellent depth. The quality of our practices is going to be better than ever.”

Don’t overlook that last sentence.

Regardless of what Allen Iverson said in his famous rant about “practice,” college teams from the lower half of a power conference need quality practice work to move up.

“From the get-go this year,” Miles said, “you’ll have a truer look at what you’ve got right away so you can get game-ready. And we need to be game-ready right away with our schedule.”

Programs like Nebraska, which has two upper-division conference finishes since the turn of the century, sometimes struggle to find a decent starting five. Going 10 deep is often a pipe dream.

But this Husker roster is different. First, there is a better mix of personalities. The energy vampires are gone.