The tougher, more connected team was Nebraska men’s basketball on Sunday in the Huskers ‘ 71-50 I-80 Rivalry win over Creighton.
The Huskers raced out to a 15-2 lead just seven minutes and 32 seconds into the game. Getting out to a fast start was going to be a key for both teams for different reasons. For Creighton, it was to try and quiet the Nebraska home crowd. For Nebraska, it’s been an area of emphasis all season.
“We always talk about holding them under seven points every media [timeout]. In the first two medias, they had two and zero,” Sam Hoiberg said. “We were very locked in on defense, and that gives you time, if you’re not hitting shots early, to get it going, and we kept that defense up the whole game. We played really well on that end.”
The staple for the 2025-26 Nebraska squad so far has been more than their 3-point shooters. It’s been more than the return of Rienk Mast (don’t get me wrong, that absolutely helps). It’s been the defense, and more specifically, the Nate Loenser-led Husker defense.
The one constant to the season has been that defense. Maybe the football team has some black jerseys that the men’s basketball team could use. After the win, the Huskers’ defense is among top 50 in the nation in defensive efficiency (37th).
The Cornhuskers held Creighton to just 30.8% shooting in the game, forced 12 turnovers while committing just eight of their own, and were so connected in their defensive philosophy.
“I thought our communication and rotations were on point the whole game,” Pryce Sandfort said. ‘It’s five-as-one defense and I thought that our bottom guys were really communicating, letting each other know where the shooters were, and it helped all of us move together as one.”
That five-as-one defense is predicated on a few concepts. The first, not allowing the offense to get into the pocket or the middle of the floor/ The second, high foot, meaning the defender’s foot is high and forcing the opponent outside of the lane. The third is no 3s on the wing and top of the key.
Nebraska’s defensive philosophy will let you take corner 3s, and Creighton took a lot, the Bluejays just didn’t make them. This season, Nebraska’s opponents are attempting 51.3% of their field goal attempts from beyond the arc, ranking 362nd out of 365 in the country. However, their opponents’ 3-point field goal percentage is 30.2%, 74th in the nation.
Nebraska held Creighton to just 24.2% or 8-for-33 from distance in the game.
The Nebraska defense was so engaged on that end of the floor, their five-man, Rienk Mast, was able to skip comfortably to the wing from his mid-post position because he trusted the low-man to do his job.
“Credit to our players for going out there and really executing the game plan,” Fred Hoiberg said. “Coaching staff, Nate (Loesner), did a great job putting a defensive game plan together, and our guys followed it. When they do that, when they execute it, we’re generally pretty successful on that end of the floor.”
So far this season, Nebraska has been highly successful in the win column.
The 9-0 mark is just the third time in school history the Huskers have started 9-0 (joining 1977-78 and 1915-16). The school record for consecutive wins to start a season is 10 (set in 1977-78).
The Huskers are now winners of 13 straight dating back to last season, good for the nation’s longest winning streak, and are now tied for the third-longest streak in school history, the longest since the 1990-91 season.
With a win on Wednesday night in Lincoln against a Big Ten opponent in Wisconsin, the Huskers would tie the longest winning streak in program history.
