Nebraska beat Indiana 86-70 on Wednesday night to secure the program’s first win over the Hoosiers since 2019 (1-7). The 16-point victory was Nebraska’s largest margin since the Huskers’ first win in the series (1920).
Nebraska is now 12-2 on the season which is tied for the best 14-game start to a season since 1990-91.
“A really good complete win for us,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said. “I’ve used the word consistency with our group… talked about that from the day we got back from the break. I thought tonight was about as consistent as we’ve been for 40 minutes.”
Raining Threes
Keisei Tominaga had 18 of his game-high and season-high 28-points in the second half. It is his third 20-point game of the season and 13th of his career. With his parents in the crowd, Tominaga shot 4-of-10 from 3 including 3-of-6 in the second half.
As a team Nebraska attempted 32 3-point shots and made 12 for a 37.5 percentage. That is not just above average but a great percentage considering the amount of attempts.
C.J. Wilcher provided a significant spark in the first half off the bench, connecting on his first three attempts from behind the arc and leading the team with 11 points at the half. Brice Williams was 3-of-4 from 3 and Jamarques Lawrence 2-of-6.
Effort Plays
Maybe it was Rienk Mast returning from a knee injury, maybe it was the crowd, but whatever it was Nebraska out-efforted Indiana the entire night.
Josiah Allick didn’t attempt a field goal but had a tremendous impact on the game diving for loose balls, grabbing eight rebounds and securing two steals.
“You could argue he was as important as anyone on the floor,” Hoiberg said. “Jo, with foul trouble that we had, I thought was huge for us.”
Allick understood the assignment. Kel’el Ware, a 7-foot projected lottery pick, was going to be Nebraska’s toughest task to date.
“Coach had been telling us all week and we were aware that this was the best test we will have in terms of a team trying to win the game in the paint,” Allick said. “We knew right away that everyone was going to be attacking us inside. They’ve got an all-conference-level big, extremely talented. Their four-man too. I knew I was going to have a big responsibility, so coming into this game, I knew me and Rienk were really going to have to set the tone in order for us to get any momentum going.”
Turnover Battle
Coming into the game Nebraska’s assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.3 was sixth in the Big Ten. Its best in the last decade is 1.32, set in the 2018-19 season. Hoiberg was disappointed with the sloppy play in the second half of the South Carolina State win.
“We can’t turn it over,” Hoiberg said in his pregame media availability on Tuesday. “We’ve been getting in a bad way, especially in the second half the other night of turning the ball over, when you have a 1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. We have to get back to taking care of the ball.”
The Huskers were significantly better in that department on Wednesday, forcing 19 Hoosier turnovers and committing just eight of their own while dishing out 15 assists. That is good for an almost 2-to-1 ratio (1.8) which for any good team is the standard.
“This is certainly a step in the right direction after the last couple of games,” Hoiberg said.
Lead guard Jamarques Lawrence finished with three assists and one turnover as did Alllick.
Is Nebraska Good?
Lean into it Husker fans. Despite the disappointing loss to Creighton and the atrocious second half in Minnesota, this team has played pretty good basketball. Yes, the strength of schedule isn’t amazing, but a team that needed some confidence has found it.
After Wednesday’s win, Nebraska is 18-5 in its last 23 games dating back to Feb. 1, 2023.
They are clearly a team that can be on the bubble if not better. How about a 6-11 rematch with Creighton in Salt Lake City or Indianapolis the third weekend in March?
