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

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You might be surprised to learn what Nebraska’s starting point guard wrote down when Huskers players filled out goal sheets before the season began.

“I told the entire staff I wanted to make the Final Four,” Sam Hoiberg told Yahoo Sports.

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Wait, Nebraska? The program that was projected to finish 14th in the Big Ten this season? That has only made the NCAA tournament eight times in its cursed history? That has famously never won an NCAA tournament game in any of those appearances?

“I knew if I told people that over the summer they’d probably laugh in my face,” said Hoiberg, the son of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg. “The main thing for me was I didn’t want to put a limit on what we could accomplish. I liked our pieces and how our chemistry was forming.”

The pie-in-the-sky notion of Nebraska making a deep NCAA tournament run no longer seems quite so unfathomable a few months later. The unbeaten Huskers (12-0) are off to the best start in program history. They’re one of only six Division I men’s college basketball teams who will wake up Christmas morning with a zero in the loss column.

Nebraska first turned heads on October 18 with an impressive 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 before opening the conference season with a 90-60 drubbing of Wisconsin and a buzzer-beating road win at then-No. 13 Illinois.

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Those results have propelled Nebraska to No. 13 in the AP poll and into the top 25 in each of the major advanced metrics. Bracket Matrix projects the Huskers as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, which would match the highest seed the program has ever received.

Could this be the year Nebraska finally sheds the inglorious label of the only power-conference program never to win an NCAA tournament game?

“Obviously, it’s that one thing that everybody always mentions. You’ve got to win a tournament game this year,” Nebraska forward Rienk Mast told Yahoo Sports. “It’s been a conversation topic in our locker room and with fans every single year. You constantly get reminded of it and that motivates you to work even harder.”

Overcoming Nebraska’s inglorious history

The Associated Press has been ranking the best teams in men’s college basketball every year since 1949. Only twice has Nebraska appeared in the final poll.

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In 1991, Danny Nee’s 26-win team defeated mighty Kansas twice in one week in early March, only to crash out of the NCAA tournament against 14th-seeded Xavier. Three years later, the Huskers stormed to a surprise Big 8 tournament title but again crumbled in the NCAA tournament, this time against Jerome Allen and 11th-seeded Penn.

Outside of Nee’s era of respectability in the 1990s, Nebraska basketball has operated in the shadow of the school’s tradition-rich football program. Geographic isolation from basketball recruiting hotbeds has traditionally hurt the Huskers, as has modest institutional and donor support compared to other power-conference rivals.

Even after shelling out more than $200 million to erect a state-of-the-art practice facility in 2012 and a glitzy new downtown arena a year later, the upgrades only translated to modest success. Tim Miles made the NCAA tournament just once in seven seasons from 2012-2019. Five of Miles’ seven teams failed to win more than six Big Ten games.

The man that Nebraska hired to supercharge the rebuilding process was a Lincoln native whose grandfather coached the Huskers from 1955-63. Fred Hoiberg hoped to transform Nebraska into a destination for prized transfers much like he had done at his alma mater Iowa State from 2010-2015.

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With only one player back who had suited up for a game the previous year, Hoiberg went 7-25 in his Nebraska debut. When the Huskers again finished last in the Big Ten both of the next two seasons, Hoiberg actually had to restructure his contract to lower the buyout in order to retain his job for another year.

The turnaround began with some frank conversations between Hoiberg and his son Sam after the coach’s disappointing third season in Lincoln. While redshirting as a true freshman, Sam observed “some things that were going on in the program that were not leading to success.” He relayed that to his father, who responded by overhauling his staff and by targeting transfers who came from winning programs.

“We completely rebranded the culture and what we looked for in recruits,” Sam said. “The main thing was getting people that were going to put everything they had into winning. There were no agendas, no people caring about their personal stats. Recruiting guys that came from winning programs was a big emphasis and it worked out for us.”

Nebraska’s fortunes began to change the following February when the Huskers won six of eight games to finish a 16-16 season on an encouraging note. A year later, Nebraska won 23 games and made the NCAA tournament with room to spare.

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Had Mast been healthy last season, the skilled 6-foot-10 Dutchman likely would have been the centerpiece of another Nebraska team with NCAA tournament potential. Mast instead suffered a knee injury and underwent surgery that sidelined him for the entire 2024-25 season, leaving the Huskers with enough talent for a solid season but not a special one.

“If Rienk would have played on last year’s team, it could have been one of the best Nebraska teams in the history of the program,” Hoiberg said.

The silver lining to Mast’s injury was that it opened the door for the 24-year-old fifth-year senior to return to Nebraska this season. If anything, Mast has been better than he was pre-injury. He’s averaging team highs of 17.0 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 52.9% from the field and 40.8% from behind the arc.

Another key to Nebraska’s season has been the development of Sam Hoiberg, who is no longer just a defensive menace whose primary contribution on offense is keeping the ball moving. The fifth-year senior point guard is second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. He’s also chipping in a career-best 8.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game while shooting 40% from behind the arc.

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Without prompting, Illinois coach Brad Underwood heaped praise on Sam Hoiberg after the Huskers went into Champaign and emerged with an 83-80 victory. Underwood noted that Nebraska was plus-23 with Sam on the floor and said the game was “dominated by a guy who did all the little things, all the extra effort things, to allow his team to win.”

The talent around Nebraska’s veteran leaders isn’t limitless, but the pieces fit and the chemistry is second to none.

There’s 6-foot-7 forward Pryce Sandfort, an Iowa transfer who Fred Hoiberg badly wanted out of high school and considers a potential NBA prospect. Sandfort is a lethal movement shooter who this season has also showcased impressive court vision, the ability to attack a closeout and a knack for finishing through contact at the rim.

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There’s 6-foot-7 freshman Braden Frager, a native of Lincoln who chose the hometown Huskers despite interest from Creighton, Iowa and Iowa State. Frager is averaging an efficient 11.3 points in 21.9 minutes per game off the bench and is impacting games with his outside shooting and his creative ways of attacking the basket.

Six-foot-10 forward Berke Buyuktuncel produced the fourth triple-double in program history this past Sunday against North Dakota. Six-foot-3 guard Jamarques Lawrence hit the game-winning 3-pointer the previous weekend against Illinois.

More help is on the way too. Six-foot-10 Lithuania native Ugnius Jarusevicius, an all-conference forward at Central Michigan last season, is finally healthy again. He should thrive in Hoiberg’s five-out system because he can score inside yet is also very comfortable stepping out to the 3-point line and freeing up driving lanes for his teammates.

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“We did a really good job building this team and putting a group together that fits,” Hoiberg said. “The chemistry on this team is as good as any team I’ve been around.”

So how good can Nebraska be? Is this a team that can win a game in the NCAA tournament? Or, gulp, maybe even more than one? A good barometer arrives shortly after New Years when Michigan State comes to Lincoln on January 2.

“Right now, we’re on a great streak but we keep reminding ourselves it’s only December,” Mast said. “It’s still a very long season. It’s no time to celebrate right now.”

This news was originally published on this post .

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