Nebraska men’s basketball will look to win its first tournament title in over two decades when the Huskers face Oregon State in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship on Wednesday night.
The Huskers (9-2, 1-1 Big Ten) will face the Beavers (10-2) with a scheduled 7:30 p.m. CT tip.
The game will be televised on ESPN2 with Roxy Bernstein and Sean Farnham on the call and will also be carried on the Huskers Radio Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen.
After playing three games in the first 21 days of December, the Huskers will play their third game in four days on Wednesday.
Hawai’i Recap
Nebraska improved to 2-1 on the season in true road games and 3-2 in games away from home with another strong defensive effort in the 69-55 semifinal win over Hawai’i on Monday.
“I thought we really put the clamps on them,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said in his postgame radio appearance.
After Hawai’i took an eight-point lead (17-9) at the 12:22 mark in the first half, the Huskers’ defense flipped the game. Nebraska locked in and frustrated the Rainbow Warriors into missing 16 of their last 21 shots from the field in the first half after starting the game 5-of-8.
Nebraska used a 15-0 run and the Husker defense forced Hawai’i into an eight-minute scoring drought in the latter part of the first half.
The defense ruled the game, holding the Rainbow Warriors’ leading scorer, Gytis Nemeiksa, who was averaging 15 points per game, to just one point and 0-of-5 from the field after he scored 24 points in their quarterfinal win over Charlotte.
The 55-point outing for Hawai’i was a season-low. Nebraska also held Murray State to a season-low 49 points on Monday.
Hawai’i had 15 turnovers in the game and eight of those were Nebraska steals.
After the first 11 minutes of the second half, Hawai’i had as many shot attempts as turnovers, which was eight. Hoiberg praised the Huskers’ hand activity on the defensive end in his post-game radio comments.
Brice Williams tied his career-high with 32 points (previously set on March 4, 2023, against UAB while he was at Charlotte) and the most points he has scored as a Husker. Williams now has two 30-point games this season and five for his career.
“He was the one that had it going tonight,” Hoiberg said. “Our guys did a good job of finding him.”
Williams started the game just 1-of-5 from the field but made nine of his last 13 shots. Juwan Gary finished the game with 21 points, just one shy of his career high. Williams and Gary scored 34 of Nebraska’s 40 points in the second half and 53 of the team’s 69 in the game.
Scouting Oregon State
The Beavers enter the game as winners of six straight. They needed overtime on Monday night to defeat Oakland 80-74. The Beavers rallied back from a 12-point deficit in the final 4:30 of regulation to force overtime. In the extra period, they used a 9-0 run to pull out the win.
Redshirt sophomore guard Liutauras Lelevicius led four Oregon State players in double figures with 17 points and nine rebounds.
The Beavers have three players averaging double figures, led by junior forward Micheal Rataj at 16.3 points per game.
The Christmas Day meeting will be the second straight year Nebraska and Oregon State have met at a neutral site. Last year, Nebraska dominated the Beavers in a game that took place at the Sanford Pentagon (84-63 on Nov. 18, 2023 in Sioux Falls, S.D.).
Led by junior Nate Kingz’s 52.5% (21-of-40), which ranks 16th nationally, Oregon State is shooting the ball from 3 at a high clip as a team. Their 37.7% mark is 48th in the country while holding opponents to just 27.2% from deep, ranking 12th nationally defensively.
Key Factors
Which team can make their 3-point opportunities at a high rate is a key factor in most games. In this game, both teams do a good job of defending the arc.
Nebraska’s post defense has been tremendous almost the entire season and Husker opponents have scored 31.3% of their points from 3-point range, which ranks 93rd nationally. Oregon State has done a better job of defending the 3-point range this season with a 27.2 percentage, ranking 12th nationally.
Nebraska will need to find Kingz and sophomore guard Josiah Lake (44.8% from 3) and stay connected defensively when they come off the bench.
Valuing possessions and not committing unforced turnovers is something Nebraska has struggled with but overcome for the most part this season. In the Huskers’ first two games of the tournament, Nebraska has committed 27 total turnovers. The average of 13.5 is right at the number the Beavers force per game.
Against Hawai’i, Nebraska didn’t value possessions enough in the first half. The Huskers committed seven first-half turnovers and they started the game with two giveaways on their first three possessions. Four of those seven first-half turnovers were dead-ball turnovers and two more came on moving screens.
In the first half, Hawai’i had seven points off turnovers and were opportunistic in transition offensively. Oregon State will likely be more opportunistic if Nebraska is once again over the 10-turnover mark. The Beavers average 15.8 points off turnovers per game.
Nebraska ranks 307th in the nation, with 9.2% of their turnovers not coming from steals; that is the true definition of not valuing possessions.
This isn’t a key factor to watch in the game, but it’s been two decades since Nebraska men’s basketball has been crowned champion of a tournament. The last was the San Juan Shootout in 2000, a tournament where Nebraska won three games (against Iona, Kent State and SMU) by a total of four points.
