With No. 9 Nebraska men’s basketball on it’s mid-week bye this week, it seems like a good time to take a look at the season to date and make note of what’s working as well as a few areas for improvement with nine games left in the regular season.
There are two ways to look at the timing of the nearly full week between games.
The first, it couldn’t come at a better time for Nebraska due to the injuries and illness, primarily Braden Frager’s ankle and Rienk Mast’s illness, both of which kept them out of the close loss at Michigan. However, those two aren’t the only players dealing with a recent ailment.
Jamarques Lawrence has a lower leg injury that he’s played through, Sam Hoiberg had a bit of a sickness in recent weeks, and Ugnius Jaruševičius, who has been dealing with a back injury, was away from the team leading up to the Illinois loss on Sunday because he had gotten sick.
“We’ve had some guys that it’s a little bit different,” Fred Hoiberg said after the Michigan loss. “Rienk’s was more stomach-related, then everybody else is kind of dealing with the head stuff right now.”
The second, losing back-to-back games for a team that won 20 straight to start the season is not ideal.
Like all true competitors, which this Husker team is, it’s best to get right back out there and get a win or get that losing feeling out of your mind.
Sky Isn’t Falling
After back-to-back losses against top-10 teams, the sky isn’t falling for the Huskers.
This isn’t football, where you only get 12 games to prove you are worth a College Playoff Football spot.
There are 31 regular-season games, and if you are a Nebraska basketball fan, you know the history.
You could make the case that Nebraska has only been a lock to make the NCAA Tournament prior to February twice in the program’s history. The 1990-91 season, when the Huskers were a No. 3 seed, and the 1993-94 season, when they were a six seed.
At 20-2, it’s the best start in program history. The two losses, at then-No. 3 Michigan and home to then-No. 9 Illinois, aren’t bad losses. The Huskers didn’t get blown out in either and had a second-half lead in both games.
If you follow college basketball closely, take your mind back to the AP Top 25 preseason rankings. Michigan started the season at No. 7 and Illinois at No. 17. The Wolverines haven’t been ranked outside of the top 10 all season.
Like Nebraska, Illinois was clearly underrated to start the season.
Nebraska is still in the hunt for a Big Ten regular-season title, something that hasn’t been done this late in the season since the Huskers joined the conference in 2011.
The Huskers are in the top 30 nationally in both offensive (24th) and defensive efficiency (12th) after 22 games.
One of the biggest areas of improvement from a season ago is the team’s non-steal turnover rate. The 2024-25 team finished the season with a 7.9% non-steal turnover rate, 242nd in the country. Through 22 games, the Huskers are 71st nationally at 6.5%. You can thank the return of Jamarques Lawrence and Rienk Mast for the cleaner play.
After averaging 8.8 points per game and playing 22.8 minutes a game for Iowa last season, Pryce Sandfort has taken a massive jump within the Husker offense. He’s averaging a team-high 17.2 points per game and is playing 31.8 minutes per game.
Sandfort isn’t the only player who has made marked improvements.
The narrative on Sam Hoiberg is that he is the scrappy, defensive stopper who dives on loose balls and gets deflections. Two things can be true. Yes, he’s the glue guy that does the little things to help his team win. However, in nearly every major statistical category, Hoiberg has made a significant jump.
The fifth-year senior is averaging eight more minutes per game, and he’s shooting 11% better from the field, including 3.2% better from 3-point range. His 5.2 rebounds per game is a 2.9-per improvement. He’s also averaging 2.4 more assists and more than half a steal more per game.
The biggest jump for Hoiberg has been his 9.4 points per game, the most since his freshman season (2022-23), where he averaged 4.1 points per game.
As of Tuesday, Feb. 3, a deep dive into the analytics tells you that Hoiberg is third in the country in effective field goal percentage (61.6%) for players listed at 6-foot or under.
His offensive rating, 136.2, is 23rd overall in the county, good for second in the nation of players listed at 6-foot or under.
Areas for Improvement
Yes, Nebraska lost two games, and back-to-back games at that. Guess what, they might lose a couple more before the regular season is over.
Here’s why.
Of the four road games left on the schedule, there is only one team, Rutgers Saturday, that is outside of the top 50. Winning on the road is hard to do in any league, let alone the best or second-best league in the country.
The home games are Purdue (which many think has the talent to win a national title and is a top-10 team), Northwestern, Penn State, Maryland another top-25 team in Iowa.
The matchups on the court will be key in those games. Nebraska doesn’t wow anyone with athleticism and length. They don’t look like an NBA team with their size, like Michigan or Illinois does.
That is where the offensive rebounding comes in. The Huskers have a 26% offensive rebounding rate, 323rd nationally. It’s more than just size and athleticism that have hampered the offensive rebounding rate; the style of play and the more recent opponents are factors.
Of the Huskers’ eleven conference games, they have played seven of the top 10 rebounding teams in the Big Ten. Michigan, Illinois, Michigan State and Washington are at the top of the list.
The Huskers are ninth nationally in 3-point rate, with 51.4% of their attempts coming from beyond the arc. They are also 10th in the country in percentage of points scored from the 3-point line at 41.4%.
It’s hard to draw fouls when attempting a bunch of 3s, but getting to the free-throw line has been an issue this season. Nebraska is 354th in percentage of points scored from the foul line at 15.1%. It really hasn’t mattered until the Huskers played at Michigan and Sunday at home to Illinois. Getting a whistle in the free-flowing Husker offense is something that can improve and should improve.
“Freedom of movement, that’s got to be enforced,” Hoiberg said after the Illinois loss. “We run a pretty aesthetically pleasing offense, but when you’re being held, you can’t run it. We’re going to try to continue to do it and cut with force and do everything we can to get these guys open and free them up.”
A wise man once said, “There is a lot of ball left to be played,” and Nebraska is one of the top teams in the country.
Enjoy the ride.
