Nebraska men’s basketball finished its exhibition season 2-0 after a 91-50 win over NAIA Midland Monday night.
Every available player saw the floor for Nebraska. The second exhibition featured a different starting lineup: Sam Hoiberg, Jamarques Lawrence, Pryce Sandfort, Berke Büyüktuncel and Rienk. Ten Huskers saw action in the first eight minutes.
Nebraska started slow from beyond the arc as a team, making just two of their first 10 3-pointers in the first 6:48. The first two 3s were from Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort, who finished with 18 points on 4-7 from deep. Nebraska was just 7-of-25 from behind the arc in the first half as a team.
“Came out, obviously didn’t shoot it very great, but I thought we just kept with it,” Sandfort said. ‘We had some media timeouts where we talked with coaches and just need to be more physical. Once we just settled in I thought we did a good job of that.”
Nebraska finished the first half on an 11-2 run in the final 4:15 to extend the lead to 18 (44-26) at the break.
The second half was a much different story as the Huskers were able to get consecutive stops and found their 3-point shooters in the shot-ready pocket.
In the final 20 minutes of the game Nebraska connected on eight of their 19 3-point attempts.
Freshman Frager
Redshirt freshman Braden Frager was an instant spark off the bench, connecting on his first two free throws and his first two 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions with the Huskers leading 19-16.
“Seeing that first shot go down it just helps a lot with the rest of the game,” Frager said. “Especially when I got that first shot to go down early., It just kind of carried out, my confidence was carried out that whole game.”
The confidence has always been there for Frager, who didn’t score in the exhibition win over BYU. Monday, he was the team’s leading scorer with 21 points while connecting on six of his 12 3-point attempts.
“I’d like to hit six 3s every game, but I know that is not going to happen,” Frager said. “I just gotta make sure to affect the game in other ways than just scoring.”
Husker coach Fred Hoiberg was happy with Frager on the defensive end against BYU and was happy to see in him get it going offensively Monday night.
“I thought he played well against BYU. He was the one guy that played that didn’t score, it was good to see [him have offensive success],” Hoiberg said. “It was good to see. This is what Braden can do. He can really get it going. He is very streaky when he gets hot like that. It’s almost like there’s nobody else on the floor but him … He really took the lid off the basket.”
Learning from Exhibitions
The Huskers found some confidence in the first two exhibition wins, one against a top-10 team in BYU and the other more of a friendly Monday against Midland.
There were plenty of learning moments in the exhibitions.
“Finding ways to get a lead and extend those leads when shots aren’t falling, I think we will continue to work on that,” Sandfort said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of it today. Obviously, a pretty slow start, but we just stuck with it.”
The BYU win and not playing down to an opponent like Midland were positives, but a team with the goal of making the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years needs to stay focused. That was the message heading into the second exhibition game.
“Coach Fred talked about they don’t hang banners for exhibition games,” Sandfort said. That is what he was saying pretty much right after the win, and we had some good practices leading up to this (Midland) game.”
Local Ties
In recent years, Nebraska has had an exhibition against a local NAIA team. Monday was the second ever meeting between Nebraska and the Warriors, located in Fremont. Monday’s win improves Nebraska to 20-0 all-time in exhibition games against in-state foes.
There are a combined 16 players that graduated from Nebraska high schools on the Nebraska (six) and Midland (10) rosters.
“You play a team with a lot of local players that have played in this building in the state tournament, this game means a lot to them,” Hoiberg said.
Nick Dolezal, a Millard North graduate who won a state title at Pinnacle Bank Arena with the Mustangs in 2022, led the Warriors with nine points.
