Huskers Travel to No. 20 Purdue on Sunday
The Nebraska men's basketball team wraps up a two-game road swing Sunday afternoon, as the Huskers travel to West Lafayette, Ind., for a Big Ten matchup with the Purdue Boilermakers. Tipoff from Mackey Arena is slated for 11 a.m. (central) and the matchup will be shown on BTN and carried on the Huskers Radio Network as well as on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.
Nebraska (12-3, 2-2 B1G) comes off a tough 97-87 overtime loss at Iowa on Tuesday night. Nebraska had a golden opportunity to get a big road win, building a 52-37 lead with just under 15 minutes remaining, but Iowa rallied behind the shooting of Payton Sandford and won the game in overtime by going 14-of-16 from the charity stripe in the extra session. The loss broke Nebraska's six-game win streak and was only the second loss for Nebraska in the 11 games dating back to Nov. 22.
The loss overshadowed another strong performance by Brice Williams, who led Nebraska with 28 points on 10-of-20 shooting along with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. The senior guard hit four 3-pointers, including one as time ran out to send the game to overtime. Williams is tied for second in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.4 points per game while setting career highs in points per game, shooting percentage (.492) and free throw percentage (.909).
If Nebraska is to improve to 3-0 against ranked opponents this year, the Huskers will need a strong defensive effort. Entering the Iowa game, NU had held its previous five opponents to 56.2 ppg on 35 percent shooting. Despite the loss, Nebraska held the Hawkeyes to its lowest home point total in regulation (76) and currently ranks second in the Big Ten in field goal percentage defense (.388) and is seventh in scoring defense (66.7 ppg).
Purdue (12-4, 4-1 B1G) has won four straight following a 68-50 win at Rutgers on Friday. Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn had 16 points apiece while the Boilermakers held Rutgers to 33 percent shooting.
Worth Noting
• Nebraska enters Sunday's game with a 12-3 record, matching the program's best start in the Big Ten era (2011-12 to present) and best since the 2010-11 team won 13 of its first 15 contests. NU was also 12-3 after 15 games last season.
• Nebraska is 2-0 against ranked teams and will be looking for its third straight win over a ranked opponent on Sunday at Purdue. NU is 4-2 in its last six games against ranked teams dating back to the win over No. 1 Purdue on Jan. 9, 2024. A win over the No. 20 Boilermakers would tie a school record for most consecutive wins over ranked opponents, which was done five previous times, most recently in 2002 (at Ohio State, at
Wisconsin, at Creighton). The only other time it happened in the same season was in 1999 (Kansas, Missouri, at Kansas).
• Nebraska looks to improve to 5-3 away from Pinnacle Bank Arena on Sunday at Purdue. The Huskers are 1-2 on the road, including a win at Creighton, and 3-1 at neutral sites. Nebraska is looking for its first win in West Lafayette since Dec. 17, 1957, a 65-62 win over the Boilermakers. The coach of that Nebraska team was Jerry Bush, the grandfather of NU Coach Fred Hoiberg. Purdue comes into Sunday's game with a 25-game home winning streak, which is the sixth-longest nationally.
• With road wins at No. 14 Creighton and Hawai'i, Nebraska won multiple non-conference road games for the first time since the 2011-12 season and just the second time in the last 25 years. Nebraska’s two non-conference road wins account for half of the Big Ten's true road wins in non-conference play, as Oregon (1) and Penn State (1) collected the other ones.
• Nebraska is No. 37 in the NET on Jan. 10 and enters this weekend as one of 10 Big Ten teams in the top 50 of the NET. The Big Ten currently has seven teams in the top 25 while 17 of the 18 conference teams are in the top 100 of the NET.
• Nebraska's strength has been on the defensive end, where it ranks 14th nationally in KenPom's defensive efficiency as of Jan. 10. NU has held three of its last six opponents (Murray State, Hawai'i and Southern) to season-low point totals while UCLA's 58 points were the Bruins' second-lowest total of the year.
• The Huskers tied a school record for consecutive home wins with the win over UCLA. Nebraska has now won 20 straight home games, matching a school record which had been set twice previously. Nebraska's next home game is against Rutgers on Jan. 16.
• The Dec. 30 win over Southern wrapped up a successful non-conference slate. NU went 10-1 in non-conference action, only the seventh time since WWII that NU finished its non-con slate with one loss (also 10-1, 2023-24; 10-1, 2018-19; 10-1, 2003-04; 12-1, 1991-92; 15-1, 1990-91; 11-1, 1977-78).
• Nebraska's 2024 Diamond Head Classic title marked the program's first MTE event title since the 2000 San Juan Shootout. With the win, Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg became the first coach to win multiple Diamond Head Classic titles, as he coached Iowa State to the 2013 championship.
• With its 12-3 start in 2024-25, Nebraska is 41-17 over the last 58 games dating back to the start of February 2023. NU's .707 winning percentage trails only Purdue among Big Ten programs in that stretch. NU would still be second if you included the four new Big Ten schools (Oregon, UCLA, Washington and USC) during that same stretch. NU went just 33-80 from the start of the 2019-20 season until Feb. 1, 2023.
• Over the last 19 games dating back to last season, Brice Williams is averaging 19.5 points per game on .493 shooting and has 10 20-point efforts in that span. He has been in double figures in 18 of 19 games in that stretch. He averaged just 12.5 ppg over his first 30 games at Nebraska.
• Brice Williams earned MVP honors at the Diamond Head Classic, as he averaged 22.0 points per game on 56 percent shooting, 3.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Williams averaged 19.3 ppg on 57 percent shooting in seven December games following his 11-point, seven-rebound effort against Southern.
• Juwan Gary is playing some of the best basketball of his career over the last three weeks. The senior is averaging 12.9 ppg while shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range over the last seven games. Gary also has played a major role in holding opponents to 37 percent shooting in that stretch.
• NU has relied on its depth during the first half of the season, with six players averaging at least 7.5 points per game over the first 15 games. Eight different players have posted double-figure efforts, while three players (Brice Williams, Connor Essegian and Juwan Gary) have recorded 20-point games. Williams is the only Husker in the top 40 of the Big Ten in scoring as of Jan 10.
• With a pair of 30-point games since Dec. 13, Williams is just the sixth Husker in the Big Ten era to have multiple 30-point games. He had 30 points in the win over Indiana on Dec. 13 and tied his career high with 32 points against Hawai’i on Dec. 23. In addition, he is tied for the Big Ten lead in 30-point games this season with two, joining Rutgers' Dylan Harper, Ohio State's Bruce Thornton and Wisconsin's John Tonje and John Blackwell.
• Nebraska has been prolific at getting to the foul line for most of the season. Nebraska ranks among the Big Ten leaders in free throws made and attempted per game and free throw percentage. Despite going 12-of-22 from the line at Iowa, Nebraska is third in the Big Ten in free throw percentage at 75.9 percent. That nearly matches last year's season percentage of 76.0.
• Nebraska comes into Sunday's game averaging 77.5 points per game. NU has scored 70+ points in 10 of 15 games, including six games with at least 80 points. Last season, NU averaged 77.7 points per game for 34 games, its highest offensive total since the 1995-96 season.
• Nebraska is averaging 8.3 steals per game to tie for fourth in the Big Ten as of Jan. 10. Five Huskers average at least one steal per game led by Sam Hoiberg's 1.5 spg. Of the 51 Big Ten players averaging at least one steal per game as of January 10, Hoiberg is one of two averaging less than 20 minutes per game (Washington's Makhi Mason).
• The Huskers are 37-4 over the last two seasons when out-rebounding opponents. NU had won 27 straight games when out-rebounding opponents before the streak was snapped against Saint Mary's on Nov. 17. NU has
been out-rebounded only once in 15 games this season.
• Nebraska comes off one of its most successful seasons in program history. The Huskers went 23-11 in 2023-24 and tied for third in the Big Ten standings before reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013-14. The Huskers’ 23 wins were the most since setting a school-record with 26 wins in 1990-91, while NU’s 12 conference wins also ranked second in school history.
• Nebraska has increased its win total in each of the past three years, marking the first time NU has done that since the mid-1960s (1963-64 to 1965-66). If Nebraska can improve its win total this year, it would mark the first time since a four-year stretch from 1945-46 to 1948-49 that the Huskers improved their win total in four consecutive seasons.
• Over the past two seasons (2022-23 and 2023-24), NU has won 21 conference games, the highest two-year total since the 1965-66 and 1966-67 teams won 22 conference tilts. The last two seasons under Fred Hoiberg mark just the fourth time in school history that Nebraska has won 20 or more conference games in a two-year span.
Numbers to Know
13 - Juwan Gary's 13 rebounds against Iowa was a season high and the most by any Husker since Gary grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds at Kansas State on Dec. 17, 2023.
30 - Fred Hoiberg has 30 wins over ranked opponents, including 11 career wins against top-10 teams, in his collegiate coaching career following Nebraska's 66-58 win over UCLA. In addition, his four road wins is second only to Danny Nee's seven all-time among NU men's basketball coaches.
25.6 - Nebraska has gotten great production from its bench in the early going, averaging 25.6 points per game over the first 15 games. Nebraska has gotten 15 double-figure efforts from its bench this season (Morgan-8, Essegian-6, Ulis-1). The Huskers led the Big Ten in bench production last season, averaging 21.4 points per game.
3,930 - Career points scored between Brice and his father, Henry, who played at Charlotte from 1988 to 1992. Henry, who was Charlotte's all-time leading scorer, totaled 2,383 points in his career while Brice went over the 1,500-point mark for his career on Dec. 30 against Southern.
92% - Nebraska is tied for fourth in the Big Ten with a 92 percent GSR rate, as the NCAA released its most recent rankings on Nov. 20. That includes all 18 members in the Big Ten Conference for the 2024-25 academic year.
Scouting Purdue
Purdue comes into Sunday's game with a 12-4 record following a 68-50 win at Rutgers on Thursday night. Under Matt Painter, who is in his 20th season at Purdue, the Boilermakers are looking for their third straight Big Ten regular-season title and have been tested early on. Purdue already has wins over Alabama, NC State, Ole Miss and Northwestern.
Despite losing two-time national player of the year Zach Edey, Purdue returns three starters from a team that went 34-5 and finished as the NCAA runner-up. The Boilermakers are led by a veteran trio in Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Smith, the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, averages 15.4 ppg and paces the Big Ten with 8.9 assists per game while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. Loyer averages 13.9 ppg while shooting 46 percent from beyond the arc while Kaufman-Renn paces Purdue in scoring (17.7 ppg) and rebounding (6.3 apg).
Series History: Sunday's game between the Huskers and Purdue will be the 28th all-time meeting between the two programs in a series that dates back to 1947. Purdue holds a 20-7 lead in the all-time series, including a 13-5 mark (13-4 in regular season; 1-1 in Big Ten Tournament) since Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011-12. Nebraska snapped a five-game losing streak to Purdue with an 88-72 win over the No. 1 Boilermakers last season. Nebraska has won only once in West Lafayette, a 65-62 win on Dec. 17, 1956.
Last year: Keisei Tominaga led four Huskers in double figures with 19 points as Nebraska shot 51 percent from the field and 14-of-23 from 3-point range. Brice Williams nearly posted a triple double with nine points, 11 rebounds and a career-high nine assists.
Chasing 1,000
Nebraska now has a trio of 1,000-point scorers on its roster (Brice Williams, Rienk Mast, Rollie Worster) with two more looking to join the club in the near future. Rollie Worster became Nebraska's most recent 1,000-point scorer following his 11-point effort against UCLA on Jan. 4. Andrew Morgan comes into the Purdue game needing just 18 points to reach 1,000 points, while Juwan Gary enters Sunday's game with 964 career points. Williams went over 1,500 career points on Dec. 30 against Southern.