Nebraska to the Final Four? Why that pie-in-the-sky notion isn’t so unfathomable

You could be shocked to be taught what Nebraska’s start line guard wrote down when Huskers gamers stuffed out aim sheets earlier than the season started.

“I informed all the workers I needed to make the Ultimate 4,” Sam Hoiberg informed Yahoo Sports activities.

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Wait, Nebraska? This system that was projected to complete 14th within the Huge Ten this season? That has solely made the NCAA match eight instances in its cursed historical past? That has famously by no means received an NCAA match recreation in any of these appearances?

“I knew if I informed folks that over the summer time they’d in all probability snicker in my face,” stated Hoiberg, the son of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg. “The principle factor for me was I didn’t wish to put a restrict on what we might accomplish. I favored our items and the way our chemistry was forming.”

The pie-in-the-sky notion of Nebraska making a deep NCAA match run now not appears fairly so unfathomable a number of months later. The unbeaten Huskers (12-0) are off to the very best begin in program historical past. They’re one among solely six Division I males’s faculty basketball groups who will get up Christmas morning with a zero within the loss column.

Nebraska first turned heads on October 18 with a formidable exhibition victory over preseason No. 8 BYU. The Huskers have since proved that was no fluke, taking down Oklahoma, Kansas State, New Mexico and Creighton in non-league play earlier than opening the convention season with a 90-60 drubbing of Wisconsin and a buzzer-beating highway win at then-No. 13 Illinois.

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These outcomes have propelled Nebraska to No. 13 within the AP ballot and into the highest 25 in every of the most important superior metrics. Bracket Matrix tasks the Huskers as a No. 3 seed within the NCAA match, which might match the best seed this system has ever obtained.

May this be the 12 months Nebraska lastly sheds the inglorious label of the one power-conference program by no means to win an NCAA match recreation?

“Clearly, it’s that one factor that everyone at all times mentions. You’ve obtained to win a match recreation this 12 months,” Nebraska ahead Rienk Mast informed Yahoo Sports activities. “It’s been a dialog matter in our locker room and with followers each single 12 months. You continuously get reminded of it and that motivates you to work even tougher.”

Overcoming Nebraska’s inglorious historical past

The Related Press has been rating the very best groups in males’s faculty basketball yearly since 1949. Solely twice has Nebraska appeared within the remaining ballot.

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In 1991, Danny Nee’s 26-win crew defeated mighty Kansas twice in a single week in early March, solely to crash out of the NCAA match in opposition to 14th-seeded Xavier. Three years later, the Huskers stormed to a shock Huge 8 match title however once more crumbled within the NCAA match, this time in opposition to Jerome Allen and Eleventh-seeded Penn.

Outdoors of Nee’s period of respectability within the Nineteen Nineties, Nebraska basketball has operated within the shadow of the college’s tradition-rich soccer program. Geographic isolation from basketball recruiting hotbeds has historically damage the Huskers, as has modest institutional and donor help in comparison with different power-conference rivals.

Even after shelling out greater than $200 million to erect a state-of-the-art follow facility in 2012 and a glitzy new downtown enviornment a 12 months later, the upgrades solely translated to modest success. Tim Miles made the NCAA match simply as soon as in seven seasons from 2012-2019. 5 of Miles’ seven groups didn’t win greater than six Huge Ten video games.

The person that Nebraska employed to supercharge the rebuilding course of was a Lincoln native whose grandfather coached the Huskers from 1955-63. Fred Hoiberg hoped to remodel Nebraska right into a vacation spot for prized transfers very similar to he had completed at his alma mater Iowa State from 2010-2015.

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With just one participant again who had suited up for a recreation the earlier 12 months, Hoiberg went 7-25 in his Nebraska debut. When the Huskers once more completed final within the Huge Ten each of the subsequent two seasons, Hoiberg truly needed to restructure his contract to decrease the buyout with a purpose to retain his job for one more 12 months.

The turnaround started with some frank conversations between Hoiberg and his son Sam after the coach’s disappointing third season in Lincoln. Whereas redshirting as a real freshman, Sam noticed “some issues that had been occurring in this system that weren’t resulting in success.” He relayed that to his father, who responded by overhauling his workers and by focusing on transfers who got here from profitable applications.

“We utterly rebranded the tradition and what we regarded for in recruits,” Sam stated. “The principle factor was getting folks that had been going to place every part that they had into profitable. There have been no agendas, no individuals caring about their private stats. Recruiting guys that got here from profitable applications was an enormous emphasis and it labored out for us.”

Nebraska’s fortunes started to alter the next February when the Huskers received six of eight video games to complete a 16-16 season on an encouraging be aware. A 12 months later, Nebraska received 23 video games and made the NCAA match with room to spare.

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Had Mast been wholesome final season, the expert 6-foot-10 Dutchman probably would have been the centerpiece of one other Nebraska crew with NCAA match potential. Mast as an alternative suffered a knee harm and underwent surgical procedure that sidelined him for all the 2024-25 season, leaving the Huskers with sufficient expertise for a strong season however not a particular one.

“If Rienk would have performed on final 12 months’s crew, it might have been the most effective Nebraska groups within the historical past of this system,” Hoiberg stated.

The silver lining to Mast’s harm was that it opened the door for the 24-year-old fifth-year senior to return to Nebraska this season. If something, Mast has been higher than he was pre-injury. He’s averaging crew highs of 17.0 factors and 6.8 rebounds whereas capturing 52.9% from the sector and 40.8% from behind the arc.

One other key to Nebraska’s season has been the event of Sam Hoiberg, who’s now not only a defensive menace whose major contribution on offense is holding the ball shifting. The fifth-year senior level guard is second within the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. He’s additionally chipping in a career-best 8.7 factors and 4.0 rebounds per recreation whereas capturing 40% from behind the arc.

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With out prompting, Illinois coach Brad Underwood heaped reward on Sam Hoiberg after the Huskers went into Champaign and emerged with an 83-80 victory. Underwood famous that Nebraska was plus-23 with Sam on the ground and stated the sport was “dominated by a man who did all of the little issues, all the additional effort issues, to permit his crew to win.”

The expertise round Nebraska’s veteran leaders isn’t limitless, however the items match and the chemistry is second to none.

There’s 6-foot-7 ahead Pryce Sandfort, an Iowa switch who Fred Hoiberg badly needed out of highschool and considers a possible NBA prospect. Sandfort is a deadly motion shooter who this season has additionally showcased spectacular court docket imaginative and prescient, the flexibility to assault a closeout and a knack for ending by means of contact on the rim.

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There’s 6-foot-7 freshman Braden Frager, a local of Lincoln who selected the hometown Huskers regardless of curiosity from Creighton, Iowa and Iowa State. Frager is averaging an environment friendly 11.3 factors in 21.9 minutes per recreation off the bench and is impacting video games together with his exterior capturing and his inventive methods of attacking the basket.

Six-foot-10 ahead Berke Buyuktuncel produced the fourth triple-double in program historical past this previous Sunday in opposition to North Dakota. Six-foot-3 guard Jamarques Lawrence hit the game-winning 3-pointer the earlier weekend in opposition to Illinois.

Extra assistance is on the best way too. Six-foot-10 Lithuania native Ugnius Jarusevicius, an all-conference ahead at Central Michigan final season, is lastly wholesome once more. He ought to thrive in Hoiberg’s five-out system as a result of he can rating inside but can be very comfy stepping out to the 3-point line and releasing up driving lanes for his teammates.

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“We did a very good job constructing this crew and placing a bunch collectively that matches,” Hoiberg stated. “The chemistry on this crew is pretty much as good as any crew I’ve been round.”

So how good can Nebraska be? Is that this a crew that may win a recreation within the NCAA match? Or, gulp, possibly even a couple of? An excellent barometer arrives shortly after New Years when Michigan State involves Lincoln on January 2.

“Proper now, we’re on a fantastic streak however we hold reminding ourselves it’s solely December,” Mast stated. “It’s nonetheless a really lengthy season. It’s no time to rejoice proper now.”