After two straight home losses, Nebraska men’s basketball will look to get back on track when it hosts Northwestern Saturday for a noon tip-off at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network with Jeff Levering and Jordan Taylor on the call. It can also be heard on the Husker Radio Network with Kent Pavelka and Jeff Smith.
The Huskers will look to complete a regular-season sweep of the Wildcats after winning 77-58 in Evanston on Jan. 17.
A win Saturday would extend the Huskers’ streak over the Wildcats to three after Northwestern had won seven in a row in the matchup between the two schools.
After losing to Purdue 80-77 Tuesday night, in a game that saw the Boilermakers out-rebound the Huskers 21-6 on the offensive glass, the Huskers had plenty to clean up in practice the last two days to get ready for Northwestern.
“They had 76 attempts to our 59 in that game,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said. “It’s hard to win. Not only the offensive rebounds, but the sloppiness and the turnovers. A lot of that had to do with Purdue. They do a great job with their deflections, but we had a lot of unforced ones as well. So just things we need to clean up, we addressed, really worked at it here these last couple days, and now we gotta carry that over into this game.”
The response to more physicality in practice has pleased Hoiberg.
“It’s been a good response by our guys,” he said. “Obviously, we watched every one of those offensive rebounds on film; that was Thursday when we got back in the gym. And then our guys came out and really had a good, hard, physical practice. We backed off today.”
Alumni Weekend
Saturday is the program’s annual alumni weekend, as more than 75 former players, coaches and staff are expected back on campus.
“We love welcoming them back for this weekend,” Hoiberg said on Friday. “We’ve got a dinner and a banquet tonight, and it’ll be fun to, again, see everybody and catch up with everybody.”
The event features a reunion of the 1996 NIT Champion Huskers as Coach Danny Nee and many members of that team will be honored Friday night at a private banquet and recognized at the game on Saturday.
“We probably had 50 of them at practice this morning,” Hoiberg said. “Just to be able to catch up, a lot of the former players have been coming to this alumni weekend for a lot of years.”
The success of the current Huskers this season and the style of play the 2025-26 team plays with is a focus for the alumni who attend practice on Friday.
“I just talked about 15 or 20 of them, whether before practice or after practice, and they love how this group competes, how hard they play, how unselfish they are, how they play for each other,” Hoiberg said. “And I think it brings back great memories for these guys.”
Scouting Northwestern
At 2-12 in league play, Northwestern is at the bottom of the Big Ten standings this season, but the Wildcats are still dangerous.
“I just think the confidence that they’re bringing into this game, not that they weren’t confident the first time, but they’ve shown they can compete against anybody,” Hoiberg said.
The Wildcats pushed Michigan to the limit Wednesday night, with a double-digit lead for most of the second half before losing 87-75.
“You look at not only that game, but the Iowa game on the road where they had a great chance to win against a really talented team that’s in the upper half of our of the Big Ten,” Hoiberg said. “They continue to come at you and new guys are stepping up. They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now as well. The performance they had against Michigan to go up 16 points in the second half against the team that was absolutely rolling.”
Northwestern is the second-lowest turnover percentage in the country at 12.4%. In the first matchup between the two teams, the Huskers forced 11 Wildcat turnovers.
Nebraska recorded seven steals in the game on Jan. 17, something the Wildcats typically don’t give up offensively. Northwestern is 12th nationally in steal percentage allowed at 7.3%.
Wildcat forward Nick Martinelli has led the league in points per game all season and is averaging 22.5 this season. In league play alone, his 22.4 per-game average is third behind Indiana’s Lamar Wilkerson (24.4) and Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz (23.6).
The Wildcats have switched their starting lineup recently, with junior guard Jayden Reid and 6-foot-8 freshman Tre Singleton providing a different look.
“They’re very dynamic in the back court,” Hoiberg said. “Those two guys are really playing with a high level of confidence. That to me is the biggest thing. Singleton has got great physicality with the way he’s playing. I thought (Arrieten) Paige was unbelievable in that game against Michigan. I thought his physicality, the way he battled Michigan’s bigs, was unbelievably impressive.”
Keys To the Game
The keys for Nebraska to get a win over Northwestern on Saturday are similar to the first time they played.
The Wildcats clearly take care of the ball. They rank in the top 10 nationally in three offensive categories. As mentioned above, their turnover rate leads the nation and their non-steal turnover percentage of 5.1% is sixth-best in the country. Northwestern’s assist rate (64.7%) is ninth nationally.
Against Northwestern, playing solid, focused defense for the full possession and forcing double-digit turnovers should be enough for Nebraska.
“They take the ball, take care of the ball better than anybody in the country when you look at their turnover percentage,” Hoiberg said. “If you can get some of those deflections and get out on the break, certainly that’s going to help your offense.”
The second key is speeding up Northwestern defensively. Nebraska had 15 fast break points in the first matchup this season and playing with the smart pace, finding Pryce Sandfort for a few trail 3s to get him back on track for the rest of the season could be critical.
The third key is improving on the offensive rebounding numbers.
Although they didn’t need it to win, the Huskers had just six to Northwestern’s nine in the first matchup between the two teams this season.
