OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Keep shooting, for 85 years. That’s what Nebraska men’s basketball has done.
Through the winning and the losing, the joy and the heartache, the Huskers kept shooting. After all, that’s what you do when you’re in a slump.
For years, Nebraska men’s basketball hovered between anonymity and fame for the wrong reasons. The losing seasons nearly doubled the NCAA Tournament appearances over the past four decades, and even the best seasons failed to bear fruit at the end. Fans watched over the years as all Nebraska’s peers dropped off the list of schools still seeking that first March Madness victory.
It was, before Thursday’s 76-47 win over Troy in Oklahoma City, a program that has lived in infamy for decades.
Zero wins in eight tries in March Madness from 1986-2024.
For decades it was a program that was a sports history note that no one — especially the fans — wanted to be a part of.
“Really thankful that we could share this moment with our unbelievable fans,” Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “I promise you, we’re gonna keep fighting and keep swinging.”
That’s what this program has done since it started in 1896. The Huskers have kept fighting and swinging, and most importantly, they kept shooting.
The multiple athletic directors made changes to the staff and secured the dollars for facility upgrades. The multiple university presidents made changes to no avail. They all kept shooting.
Several coaches tried and tried to get the elusive NCAA Tournament win, coming up short eight straight times across many years. On the ninth try, Hoiberg made the shot — and it was nothing but net.
Pryce Sandfort celebrates making a 3-pointer against Troy in the first round the NCAA Tournament. Photo by John S. Peterson.
On Thursday, Hoiberg’s Huskers made many shots. Pryce Sandfort, the team’s best shooter and former Iowa Hawkeye, missed his first offering from deep but made his second — and six more after it. He finished 7-for-12 from 3-point range and scored a team-high 23 points. Four others connected from beyond the arc as Nebraska hit 14 triples as a team in the 29-point history-making win.
After years of toiling, they all now know what it’s like to win an NCAA Tournament game — most importantly, the coaches and their support staff. From before Hoiberg’s grandfather Jerry Bush to Joe Cipriano, Mo Iba, Danny Nee, Barry Collier, Doc Sadler and Tim Miles, they all kept shooting for that history.
Fred Hoiberg was the one to take the program and its fans from purgatory to heaven with his son, Sam, a key piece for the now forever famous Nebraska men’s basketball team.
“With about 5 minutes left, I think we were up about 30 and went to a timeout,” Sam said. “That’s when you start looking up in the crowd, seeing their reactions. Yeah, it was a special feeling, to kind of cherish that.”
The near capacity Husker crowd at Paycom Arena was desperate for a win yet confident the team could get it done. Those fans, the ones that kept shooting despite the years of mediocrity, the heartbreaking losses during Nebraska’s best seasons or the injuries that derailed potential NCAA Tournament runs, they wanted it, and you could feel it.
At the sendoff just over two hours before tipoff at the team hotel, fans lined the foray, the walls and the street outside next to the buses. The cheers were loud, louder than two years ago in Memphis. You could feel the excitement on the five-and-a-half-block walk back to the Arena.
For some, the memories of the 1991 team losing in the first round as a No. 3 seed likely remained in the back of their minds. For the most part, however, the overriding feeling was confidence — confidence the shot would go in today after so many tries.
“You can tell it was a desperate crowd, and desperate for a tournament win,” Sam Hoiberg said. “We were a desperate team, so it worked well together.”
The journey has been long, with countless shots fired up in the NU Coliseum, Devaney Center, Hendricks Training Center and Pinnacle Bank Arena.
On a warm and sunny afternoon in Oklahoma City, after all of the misses in the Big Six, Big Eight, Big Twelve and Big Ten, the shot didn’t hit the rim and bounce out as it had so many times before. It went through the bottom of the net without it moving.
The grown men with tears streaming down their faces when the clock hit quadruple zero, the fans in the 300 level, the ones back at home listening to Kent Pavelka on the radio with the televisions muted in their living rooms, they all took part in the shot finally going down.
Forever, the 2025-26 Huskers will live in glory.
