Nebraska men’s basketball improved to 19-0 on the season and 8-0 in Big Ten play with a 76-66 win over Washington in Lincoln Wednesday night.
The win marks the best start to a season by a Big Ten team since Ohio State’s 24-0 start in 2010-11. The 8-0 start to Big Ten play is the best conference start for the Huskers since going 10-0 in 1965-66.
The biggest news of the night wasn’t the win but the health of Big Ten Freshman of the Year candidate Braden Frager.
Frager made a layup at the 13:04 mark of the first half and landed awkwardly on Washington forward Cortland Muldrew. One minute and 29 seconds later, Frager headed straight to the locker room after subbed out of the game.
“He’s pretty sore, we’ll know a lot more tomorrow,” Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “Don’t want to say too much until we see how he does overnight. We’ll X-ray him tomorrow, just really for precautionary reasons. Our trainer thinks everything’s going to be fine. But right now, it’s an ankle sprain, and we’ll know more tomorrow.”
Frager, wearing street clothes with a walking boot on his left lower leg, appeared emotionally distraught when he returned to the bench after the halftime break.
“You feel for somebody that puts as much time into his craft as Braden does,” Hoiberg said. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around. To see him go down like that was tough, and the emotions that came out, that’s what makes him special. He’s got an unbelievable passion for this game. He plays with an edge and a swagger. We all feel for him.
“At the same time, we’ll get through it. That’s why you put all the work in; everybody’s going to have to step up.”
Next Man Up
The margin for error for this Husker team, which uses primarily a seven-man rotation after injuries to Connor Essegian and Ugnius Jaruševičius, gets thinner as the games get closer.
With the Huskers’ next game less than three days away at Minnesota, there is little time to rest and recover or sulk in the latest injury.
Should Frager miss some extended time, Nebraska will need to have the cliché “next man up” mentality.
“I just told the guys in the locker room everybody’s got to be ready,” Hoiberg said. “Braden’s given us a lot, obviously, this season, on both ends of the floor. Everybody’s got to be ready to step up in his absence and contribute.”
That next man up in the win over Washington was Jared Garcia. In the senior forward’s 11 minutes, he chipped in five points and five rebounds.
“It’s good to see Jared knock down that 3 in the first half,” Hoiberg said. “I thought he had a really good post move and got to his jump hook there in the middle of the second and got a couple of good rebounds for us as well. Obviously, his role will change a little bit moving forward here.”
Sandfort Stays Hot
Junior Pryce Sandfort scored 23 points, making Wednesday his third consecutive 20-plus-point game, his eighth of the season and his ninth of his career.
“He’s got a lot of confidence and we are going to do everything we can to find him,” Hoiberg said.
Sandfort has been shooting the ball with confidence in the last three games. Against Washington, he was 4-of-7 from the 3-point line, and he has now made 16-of-28 3-pointers over the last three games (57.1%).
“Thought we ran a couple of good actions and our guys made good plays,” Hoiberg said. “They set good screens to get him loose. When we get stops and we get out in transition, we always have to know where Pryce is, and our guys have done a good job of recognizing that.”
