Nebraska men’s basketball will face No. 18 Illinois Thursday night in Lincoln.
The Huskers (12-8, 2-7 Big Ten) and Fighting Illini (14-6, 6-4) will tip off at 7:30 p.m. CT on the Big Ten Network with Kevin Kugler and Nick Bahe on the call. The game will also be carried on the Huskers Radio Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen.
Nebraska is 8-2 at home this season. They had tied a program record with 20 consecutive home wins before the Rutgers loss on Jan. 16. Over the past three years, Nebraska is 37-8 inside Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Nebraska comes into the game on a six-game losing streak, the team’s longest since January of 2023, when the Huskers dropped 10 in a row.
Nebraska is 2-2 against ranked opponents this season. A win against the Fighting Illini wouldn’t just end the losing skid, it would give the Huskers three wins over ranked teams for the first time since 2013-14.
“We can turn this thing around, but I’m sick of saying it,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said Wednesday. “It’s like I’m beating a dead horse in that room saying, ‘All right, there’s time.’ There are chances, but we’re running out of them. We’re running out of time.”
Numbers to Know
Despite the losing streak, the Huskers still have a top-40 defense nationally. Nebraska is ranked 36th in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom.
In the six-game losing streak, Nebraska’s 3-point defense has been an issue. The six opponents have scored 47.1% of their points from behind the arc against Nebraska.
There are 364 Division I programs in the country. Nebraska’s defense ranks 360th (49.2%) in 3-point rate and 206th in opponent 3-point percentage at 34.1%.
Illinois scores 34.6% of its points from 3-point range, good for just 104th in the nation.
The Fighting Illini rank 17th in the Big Ten in 3-point percentage (31.9%) for the entire season. In league play, Illinois is also 17th at 29.2%. Nebraska is last in 3-point percentage allowed (38.3%) in conference play.
Scouting Illinois
Illinois comes to Lincoln with a 14-6 record following an 83-74 win over Northwestern on Sunday.
The metrics like Illinois and its season so far. The Fighting Illini are 10th in the NET Rankings and 11th in KenPom.
Illinois is led by one of the top freshmen in the country in Kasparas Jakucionis. He is averaging a team-high 15.9 points and 5.4 assists per game. Arizona transfer Kylan Boswell is at 12.4 points and nearly four assists per game, while Tre White is averaging 10.4 points and 5.4 rebounds.
Tomislav Ivisic, who is averaging a team-high 8.5 rebounds per game, has missed the last two games with mono. The Fighting Illini have four players who average over 17 minutes per game while shooting above 45% from the field on Morez Johnson Jr., White, Jakucionis and Dra Gibbs-Lawthorn.
As a team, Illinois averages 85.8 points and is out-rebounding teams by 11.5 per game to lead the nation.
Key Factors
Nebraska is far past the must-win phase of Big Ten play. They are in a just-win-a-game phase at this point. A win against a top-25 opponent would do wonders for the team’s psyche.
“We were playing with a lot more joy, it felt like, in the beginning of the year,” Andrew Morgan said on Wednesday.
The Huskers need to get off to a good start and maintain it for a full 40 minutes. That is something they haven’t done consistently in the losing streak, and something Hoiberg has mentioned publicly more than once recently.
Valuing possessions is always a topic with this team. Nebraska ranks 13th in the Big Ten with 12.4 turnovers per game including 12th in non-steal turnover percentage (8.4%) in league play. Their 8.8% non-steal percentage for the season ranks 291st in the country. Nationally, Nebraska ranks 180th in offensive turnover percentage at 17.4%.
Rebounding will be a tough task against Illinois. The Fighting Illini are averaging 13.5 offensive rebounds and 43.9 total rebounds per game in Big Ten play. This is a game where Braxton Meah, who didn’t play one minute at Wisconsin, and Andrew Morgan need to have an impact around the rim.
The Huskers can’t hang their heads if shots aren’t falling and must stay in the fight with Illinois. The Fighting Illini feature the 11th-best defensive efficiency in the nation.
“We’ve had a lot of very long, real discussions with our group these last couple of days, and I hope it carries over,” Hoiberg said. “We can’t have a here-we-go-again mentality, and I’ve seen that. When the ball isn’t going in the basket, when teams are hitting shots, whatever they are, semi-contested, contested, heads drop, and we just are not worth a damn when that happens.”