Berke Büyüktuncel recorded just the fourth triple-double in Nebraska men’s basketball history in the Huskers’ 78-55 win over North Dakota on Sunday. He’s the second Husker this season to hit double digits in points, rebounds and assists, joining Rienk Mast.
While Büyükuncel’s accomplishment — 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists — became the story of the game, the Huskers’ first-half performance wasn’t the best of the season. In fact, it might have been the worst.
However, Fred Hoiberg said his team got back to playing Husker basketball in the second half, outscoring North Dakota 54-29 en route to the 23-point win.
“I think we shot 63% in the second half after shooting under 30 in the first, and that was all due to our movement,” Hoiberg said. “I thought BK (Büyüktuncel) as the playmaker was unbelievable. He got a couple tip-ins that really got us going. I thought our cutting was elite in the second half, and that’s who we are.”
Yes, Oklahoma had a 16-point lead in Sioux Falls against the Huskers, but North Dakota used a plan to shorten the game and make hard cuts in the half-court to take a nine-point lead at the 13:27 mark of the first half against the No. 15-ranked Huskers on their home court.
“I give North Dakota a lot of credit for their game plan,” Hoiberg said. “They put a smaller guy and had him get up underneath Rienk and I thought we just stood around and ball-faked and that thing (basketball) never got shifted side to side. I did think we had some decent looks; if those are going in, those are some great ones to take. As the half went on, I thought we took some contested ones, settled, and we just didn’t ever get the ball in the paint.”
The second half was a different story, and a small change to the lineup proved to be the difference in the game.
“We made an adjustment in the second half and we put Berke kind of in the trail and put Rienk in the screening, just because they were playing off of BK and we felt that would loosen things up for us a little bit,” Hoiberg said. “And that paid off for us.”
Nebraska finished the game with 22 assists on 28 made field goals; 16 of those assists came in the second half on 19 baskets.
In the second half, the Huskers’ defensive energy picked up; they forced deflections, contested shots and prevented North Dakota from getting as many straight-line drives to the basket.
Nebraska did a much better job of winning the rebounding battle in the second half as well, primarily because they were making more shots and there seemed to be a focus of getting paint touches on the offensive end. North Dakota had 19 defensive rebounds in the first half and finished with 24 in the game.
Rebounding was a focus for Nebraska coming into the game, so much so that Hoiberg said they wanted to do a better job of playing with physicality, and he emphasized it in the week leading up to the game.
“We did a lot of live rebounding and toughness drills, and I think that carried over,” Hoiberg said. “I didn’t love our activity with our hands but they only shot 31% in the first half. That kept us in it when the ball wasn’t going in for us. Second half, I thought we kept our defensive energy up. Rebounding is going to continue to be a big key for us. When we win the glass, we’re generally in good shape.”
Büyüktuncel’s triple-double was the first of his career. With the rebounds and assists taken care of heading into the final minutes, he found himself open on the right wing and fired away, knocking down the triple to finish it off before checking out of the game to a big round of applause at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
“Our game plan was going to the pocket every time, because they were blitzing really aggressively and they were getting the spur pass, so the direct pass, the pilot pass,” Büyüktuncel said of the reason why he was successful against the Fighting Hawks’ defense. “So we were getting the package or cutter or the corner shots. That was our game plan and it kind of worked.”
All four of Nebraska’s triple-doubles have come with Fred Hoiberg as the head coach: Büyüktuncel, Mast, Dalano Banton in 2020 and Cam Mack in 2019.
With the win, Nebraska improved to 12-0 on the season and expanded the nation’s longest winning streak and the program record to 16 games in a row. Nebraska has won a school-record 21 straight nonconference games and 15 straight nonconference games at home, with one more noncon game to play before diving fully into Big Ten play.
