Nebraska men’s basketball’s 2024-25 Big Ten home opener on Friday night will be a tough test.
The Hoosiers from Indiana (8-2, 1-0 Big Ten) come to Lincoln with one of the most talented rosters in the league and were picked to finish second in the unofficial preseason Big Ten poll.
The game will be televised on FOX with Brandon Gaudin and LaPhonso Ellis on the call. Friday’s game will also be carried on the Huskers Radio Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen on the call, including KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln and KKCD (105.9 FM) in Omaha.
The Huskers (6-2, 0-1) are coming off their worst game of the season in which they scored just 52 points and gave up 89 to Michigan State on Saturday.
“That hadn’t been us all year and that was the disappointing thing,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said of the game in East Lansing. “I really thought we had prepared well all season long … Last week, hopefully, was the outlier for this season.”
Hoosiers Playing Their Best
Indiana brings a four-game winning streak, all by double-figures, to Lincoln following an 82-67 win over Minnesota on Monday. Oumar Ballo had 18 points and seven rebounds to lead five Hoosiers in double figures. Indiana shot 56% in the win and out-rebounded the Gophers 35-22.
Indiana is playing its best basketball of the season, Hoiberg said in his media availability on Wednesday.
“They are big, they are strong, they are playing really good basketball right now, they are healthy,” Hoiberg said. “It’s a team that will pose a lot of the same problems that Michigan State did and if we don’t respond to a run, to adversity, the same thing is going to happen on Saturday afternoon the entire season.”
The Hoosiers landed two big transfer additions. The biggest is Ballo, a 7-foot transfer from Arizona who has been a key factor for the Hoosiers. He averages 13.2 points on 70% shooting, leads the Big Ten with 2.0 blocks per game and ranks third in the league at 9.1 rebounds per game.
Miles Rice, a transfer point guard from Washington State, is averaging 10.8 points per game while shooting 42% from 3-point range. He also is second on the team with 3.4 assists per game.
Junior forward Malik Reneau leads Indiana in scoring at 15.5 points per game on 60% shooting. Mackenzie Mgbako, the 2024 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, is averaging 15.1 points while shooting 51% from the field and 41% from 3-point range.
Indiana is 44th in the county in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom. Nebraska will likely need to use a similar game plan to what was successful against Creighton, fronting and doubling the post from the weak side to slow down the inside scoring threats of the Hoosiers.
Responding
The Huskers have a chance to right the ship in a game they are favored to win at home. They have had a week off to prepare after their worst game of the season.
“We just got punked,” Brice Williams said on Wednesday, referring to the Michigan State game. “We just got little brother’d for real.”
Hoiberg is hoping the veteran Husker team will respond after the tough week of practice.
“We are old,” Hoiberg said. “We should have really good leadership on this team … None of this means anything unless we respond on Friday night and when Indiana goes on their run, are we going to fold like we did on Saturday, or are we going to respond.”
Lineups
Nebraska is still figuring out rotations and lineups. As the season moves deeper into the league play, the rotation will likely trim even more.
Over the past five games, the most frequent lineup as far as time on the floor together has been Rollie Worster at the point guard spot, Connor Essegian at the two, Brice Williams at the three, Juwan Gary at the four and Braxton Meah at the five. That has been the starting five in each of the last two games.
The injury to Berke Büyüktuncel has something to do with him not being in that group. Andrew Morgan was the most productive player in the loss at Michigan State and has provided a scoring punch off the bench. In the last two games, he has two double-figure scoring performances and four in the first eight games.
The leaders in playing time at the five positions over the past five games are been Worster (62%), Sam Hoiberg (41%), Williams (39%), Gary (36%) and Morgan (49%).
Cale Jacobsen is taking minutes from Gavin Griffiths off the bench in recent games. At Michigan State, Jacobsen was the fourth player off the bench ahead of Griffiths.
Key Factors
For Nebraska to win the game, the Huskers need to be much closer in the rebounding category than they were at Michigan State (minus-19). Indiana out-rebounded Minnesota by 13 on Monday night and comes into the game with Nebraska with a plus-six rebounding advantage on the season.
Nebraska will need to get off to a hot start offensively to get the crowd into the game. Part of that is getting the three-point shot to fall. The Huskers likely won’t win the points in the paint battle but they have a small advantage from deep. Nebraska ranks just 290th in the country in 3-point percentage at 29.8 and 25.5% of their scoring has come from behind the arc.
The Hoosiers are just 350th in 3-point rate or attempts at 29.7% and 348th with only 22.8% of their points coming from behind the arc. They don’t attempt a lot of 3s, but leaving shooters open won’t likely go well. When they do attempt 3-point shots, Indiana ranks 85th in the country at 35.9%.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT on Friday.
