Tuesday, No. 9 Nebraska men’s basketball has a chance to do something no other Big Ten team has done this season: win the back-to-back road games in Los Angeles.
After the Huskers’ 82-67 win at USC Saturday, the team stayed in Los Angeles and won’t head back to Lincoln until after playing UCLA Tuesday night. Tipoff is set for 10 p.m. CT.
“Most of our guys went to the New Orleans-Clippers game last night and got to experience that,” Hoiberg said Monday during his pre-UCLA media availability from Los Angeles. “A lot of them had never been to an NBA game before and get the opportunity to see a guy that a couple of our players played with with Bryce (McGowens) and there’s Ty Lue on the other sidelines, so really cool experience for them. We had a good film session this morning.
“We’re going to go to practice here in a couple of hours, and just trying to do everything we can to fill the day for them and not have a lot of downtime.”
The late-night tip from UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion will be the latest tipoff of the season for the Huskers, but their body clocks should be adjusted with the extended stay in Los Angeles.
The extra practice time Sunday and Monday on UCLA’s home court has been an opportunity for the Huskers to get used to an arena the program hasn’t played in since 1956.
Should Nebraska sweep the trip, the Huskers would be just the third Big Ten team to do so since the two schools, USC and UCLA, joined the conference, the others being Michigan (2024-25) and Minnesota (2024-25).
In the last two seasons, the Huskers have had an unblemished record (7-0) in Pacific Time Zone games. If you include the 2025 Diamond Head Classic, which is in Hawai’i Standard Time (HST), the Huskers are 10-0 in extended road trips west of the Central Time Zone since the start of the 2024-25 season.
FS1 will televise the game with Carlo Jiménez and Don MacLean on the call, while the Huskers Radio Network will carry the radio broadcast with Kent Pavelka and Jeff Smith.
A Lot To Play For
Both teams, Nebraska and UCLA, still have plenty to play for in the final week of the regular season.
The Huskers are squarely in the NCAA Tournament; it’s just a matter of what seed line they end up with in both the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.
As of today, UCLA is on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble and not a first four out team. The Bruins could cement their standing in the field a Quad 1 against Nebraska (No. 12 in the NET).
If Nebraska (25-4, 14-4 Big Ten) wins, it will do two things: lock in a triple bye next week in Chicago at the Big Ten Tournament and tie the school record for wins in a season.
Beating UCLA at home is no easy task. The Bruins have lost just three home games in the last two seasons. Their lone home loss this season was a double-overtime affair (99-97) on Jan. 7 to Indiana.
“Right now, when you look at it, they’re the best home team in our league when you look at the numbers,” Hoiberg said. “We’re gonna have our hands full tomorrow night.”
Scouting UCLA
Senior guard Donovan Dent and senior forward Tyler Bilodeau lead the way for the Bruins.
Dent is seventh nationally in assist rate at 40.6%. In his last three games, the transfer from new Mexico is averaging 12.7 assists per game.
Bilodeau is the team’s leading scorer and is ninth-best in the Big Ten at 18.4 points per game. His ability to stretch the floor and connect from three (45.5%) makes him the 20th-best 3-point shooter in the nation by percentage.
“They’re unbelievable with what they do at home, with the way they shoot the ball,” Hoiberg said. “They’re 42% as a team from the 3-point line.”
Bilodeau isn’t even the best 3-point shooter on the team. That is Skyy Clark at 48.8% on 91 attempts this season.
Keys To the Game
Live-ball turnovers and the team that creates them will be a major factor. They should be hard to come by with Nebraska’s 14% turnover rate ranking 24th nationally and the Bruins’ 13.6% sitting in 13th. UCLA does an even better job of limiting steals, 12th best nationally at 7.3%. On the other hand, so does Nebraska. The Huskers are fifth nationally in limiting steals at 7%.
“Everything goes back to activity,” Hoiberg said. “We have to have great hands, we have to create deflections.”
The Huskers have done a great job of hitting its deflections goal of 25 per game this season. For them to beat UCLA it will need to convert the deflections into turnovers and points.
Whichever team wins the turnover margin and finishes scoring opportunities off of them should have an advantage in what projects to be a close game.
“BK was unbelievable,” Hoiberg said of Berke Büyütuncel’s performance against USC. “He led us in deflections the other night. I think he had eight, and that led to a lot of fast-breaks, those live-ball turnovers that we were able to create. On the other end, and you have to do a good job, they’ll convert on you with their speed, with their quickness, and with their ability to shoot it if we give them live-ball turnovers going the other way.”
The Bruins average just 9.1 turnovers per game, third-best in the Big Ten, while Nebraska averages 9.6, seventh-best in the league.
The second key is winning at the 3-point line.
UCLA can be an elite 3-point shooting team, especially at home. The Bruins’ 37.9% 3-point rate is 23rd-best in the nation, though only 35.4% of their shots come from beyond the arc (270th). Conversely, teams have taken 45.1% of their shots against UCLA from 3 (337th) and only connected at a 31.6% clip (56th). Few teams take a higher percentage of their shots from 3 than Nebraska (13th at 50.7%) and the Huskers are hitting them at a 35.7% rate (83rd). The Huskers give up a lot of 3-point attempts (49% rate, 360th) but they’ve held their opponents to 29.4% (10th).
“Dent is 40% at home, Bilodeau and Skyy Clark are both over 50% shooting the basketball at home,” Hoiberg said. “They run good stuff, they run good actions, they force you to make decisions. We’re gonna have to find a way to mix our coverages to try to keep them off balance.”
The third key is rebounding; it’s always rebounding for the Huskers, particularly being the first to hit will once again be a major area of focus for Nebraska.
UCLA isn’t a terrific rebounding team. Bilodeau leads the team with 5.8 rebounds per game, good for 19th in the Big Ten, just behind Rienk Mast’s 6.1 per game average.
The Bruins’ 31% offensive rebounding rate is 162nd in the country, and Nebraska has done a much better job of limiting offensive rebounds recently, improving to 50th best with a 27.3% offensive rebounding rate allowed.
Nebraska is directly in the middle of the Big Ten, or ninth in rebounds per game, with an average of 35.3 per game, just over three better than UCLA’s 32.2.
