Nebraska men’s basketball will look to keep the nation’s longest winning streak alive when it hosts Wisconsin on Wednesday night.
The Badgers and Huskers will tip at 8 p.m. CT at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. Big Ten Network will televise the game with Jeff Levering and Shon Morris on the call.
The Huskers are coming off their most impressive win of the season, 71-50 over in-state rival Creighton on Sunday. That win and the 9-0 start to the season have the Huskers rated No. 23 in the Associated Press Top 25, the first time they have been rated in the poll since 2018.
Nebraska is also ranked No. 22 in the Coaches Poll. The No. 23 ranking in the AP is the program’s highest ranking since Nov. 17, 2014, when the Huskers were rNo. 21. They are 38-22 (.633) all-time when ranked in the AP Poll.
Handling success is something that isn’t lost on head coach Fred Hoiberg.
“That stuff is all great,” Hoiberg said of the rankings. “I’m not going to discount what our guys have done to this point, and it is well deserved. But at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter. Right now, we are 0-0 in the Big Ten, and that’s what we are looking at as a team. We’ve got a great opportunity tomorrow to face a team that is absolutely rolling right now.”
Big Ten Play Begins
The Huskers are the last team to tip off conference play this season.
The last time Nebraska won its Big Ten opener was during the 2018-19 season, when it defeated Illinois 75-60. That is the only other time in the last 10 seasons Nebraska has opened Big Ten play at home.
Nebraska, the owner of the nation’s longest active winning streak (13), will look to match its best start in school history. The Huskers opened the 1977-78 season with 10 straight wins.
The school record for consecutive games won is 14, set by the 1990-91 team, which won a program record 26 games that season. The Huskers also won 14 in a row spanning the 1911-12 and 1912-13 seasons.
Defending the Arc
Both teams will need to defend the 3-point line to find success on that end of the floor. In the lone matchup between the teams last season, the Badgers blitzed the Huskers in Madison, 83-55.
“They smoked us with the 3-point line last year. They made 17 3s on us and got out to a 19-2 lead,” Hoiberg said. “We got back into it — I think it was 24-21 — but we just could not shut them off from the outside.”
Wisconsin is averaging 34.8% from 3-point range as a team this season. Senior John Blackwell is third in the league in scoring (21.0 per game) and is shooting 43.3% from distance while averaging 7.4 3-point attempts per game.
The Huskers and Badgers are two of the top 3-point teams in the Big Ten. Wisconsin leads the Big Ten in 3-pointers per game at 11.3, while the Huskers are second with 11.1 3-pointers per game. Both programs rank in the top 20 nationally in made 3s per game.
Not only will it be vital for both teams to defend the 3-point line, but it will be more important for the Huskers to have crisp closeouts, particularly on skip passes from the wing to the corner, which the Huskers’ defense is susceptible to giving up.
Scouting Wisconsin
After losing two of their previous three, the Badgers have won two in a row, defeating Northwestern 85-73 in their conference opener and in-state rival Marquette 96-76.
The starting backcourt of Blackwell and Nick Boyd combined for 46 points on 15-of-34 shooting in the home win against Northwestern.
Against Marquette, all five Badger starters scored in double figures. Shutting off Blackwell will need to be a priority for the Huskers. The junior has scored 26-plus points in his last three games and 24 or more in five of the last nine.
Defensively, the Badgers have struggled at times. This season, they rank in the bottom third (249th) in the country in opponent 3-point percentage. Despite that, the Badgers are in the top 50 in defensive efficiency at 41st.
Offensively, Wisconsin attempts 3s at a 51.4% clip, good for 12th nationally and nearly identical to the rate Nebraska’s defense has allowed this season.
Ideally, Nebraska will need to get back in transition and be patient offensively to slow down the high-powered Badger offense.
“The thing I’ve been really impressed with this Wisconsin team, their pace,” Hoiberg said. “They’re second in the Big Ten right now in pace.”
