ROSEMONT, Ill. — Nebraska men’s basketball will once again lean on maturity in the 2026-27 season.
The 2025-26 season was a historic one in which the Huskers won 20 straight regular season games, won their first NCAA Tournament game in school history and reached the Sweet 16.
Nebraska knows the expectations — nationally, from the fans and from the league — have been raised.
“This is what we wanted, we wanted those expectations to raise,” Pryce Sandfort said. “Getting that monkey off our back with the first tournament win … Success brings pressure; we are excited to have that this year and we are just going to continue to plug along every day.”
To continue the program build, the Huskers know it won’t be easy. They are now the hunted instead of the hunter after media picked them to finish fifth in the Big Ten preseason poll.
“We are the hunted this year,” Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “Where we were picked, where we were last year, we had a chip on our shoulder and used that as motivation. You can’t lose that even though you got picked much higher than we were a year ago.”
They lost a lot of the leadership from last season, particularly the team’s vocal leaders, Sam Hoiberg and Rienk Mast. Finding the right mix of good players to fill the positions of need and the vocal vacuum left by Hoiberg and Mast was the focus of the offseason.
“We got a lot of old guys: Trevan (Leonhardt), he’s very experienced; Boden (Kapke). All of these guys are very experienced, all these guys that we brought in have been great,” Sandfort said. “The main trait that stands out to me is just how everybody just wants to win. The desire to win that we had last year, it’s not about the individual successes, which you can see on a lot of college basketball teams. People are just trying to get theirs. Having that trait, that itch to win, to get as far as you can in the tournament, it’s a big part of our success last year, and it’s going to be a big part of our success this year.”
Identifying the toughness and leadership in the recruiting process, primarily the transfer portal, was a key for Hoiberg and his staff.
“Boden Kapke, transfer from Boston College, has been amazing with his voice,” Hoiberg said. “He’s as good as leader as I’ve ever been around. He’s really emerged into that as I’ve challenged our team.”
A few of the returners, including Sandfort and Cale Jacobsen, have tried to fill that void alongside newcomers like Kapke.
“Cale Jacobsen has a lot of intangibles,” Hoiberg said. “He knows this system not only as well as every player but as well as every coach. That helps us. He’s in the huddles, he’s making sure our guys are doing the right things after maybe a tough call or a bad foul or those kind of things, and helping our guys get to the next thing, the next play mentality.”
Exhibition Season
The Huskers’ season gets underway publicly Friday night with an exhibition game starting at 7 p.m. CT versus St. Louis at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
It will be the first chance for the Huskers to play against someone other than themselves and in front of a crowd.
One thing Hoiberg and his staff learned from last season is the value in a big big lineup. Michigan, the 2026 National Champion, and Illinois, a final four team, both played with two true (or more) bigs on the floor at the same time.
The Huskers have experimented with multiple posts on the floor at the same time during their practices this offseason. That big big lineup for Nebraska is a combination of two traditional centers from the trio of Kapke, South Dakota State transfer Damon Wilkinson and returner Leo Curtis.
“When you look at this conference, Michigan, Illinois, Michigan State — if you don’t have the ability to match that, it’s going to be tough to win,” Hoiberg said. “I’m experimenting with big-big lineups. I’m going to start a little smaller tomorrow against St. Louis. You have to have the ability to play big if you want to compete in this league.”
Expect to see some of that experimentation on the court against the Billikens, especially with a hamstring injury sidelining Belmont transfer Sam Orme, a likely starter at the four spot when healthy.
Fans can watch the Huskers and Billikens via a free stream on YouTube.
