No. 15 Nebraska is rolling with its best-ever start. Now it must build for Big Ten play ahead

Fred Hoiberg has his Nebraska team off to its best start in program history, owning the nation’s longest winning streak and armed with its best AP Top 25 ranking in more than three decades.

He wants it to be merely a start rather than a high point for the 15th-ranked Cornhuskers, along with a springboard into making more gains before diving into the meat of the Big Ten schedule. That starts with Sunday’s home game against North Dakota before taking the Christmas break.

“We’ve got to get tougher, there’s no doubt about it,” Hoiberg told The Associated Press on Monday. “We’ve got to find a way to finish possessions. That toughness, you have to have it in this league if you want to be consistent and you want to have any chance to win.”

Still, there’s plenty for Hoiberg to feel good about, too.

Nebraska (11-0, 2-0) Big Ten is coming off a week that saw the Cornhuskers beat Creighton by 21, beat Wisconsin by 30, then win at then-No. 13 Illinois on Jamarques Lawrence’s last-second 3-pointer. Throw in winning last year’s College Basketball Crown tournament, and the Cornhuskers have now won a program-record 15 straight games.

And that helped them on Monday to jump eight spots in the AP Top 25 poll, the program’s highest ranking since sitting at No. 11 in March 1991 in the final poll of that season.

Hoiberg, now in his seventh season in Lincoln, can point to a number of factors in Nebraska’s rise. Big man Rienk Mast — who led the Huskers in rebounding and assists for a team that reached the 2024 NCAA Tournament — is back for a sixth season of competition after missing last year with a knee injury.

They’ve gotten a boost from adding Pryce Sandfort (Iowa transfer averaging 17.1 points) and Braden Frager (averaging 10.8 points after redshirting last year), while Lawrence returned to Nebraska after playing a year at Rhode Island.

Hoiberg said an offseason priority was to improve the team’s 3-point shooting, after going from making 9.4 per game in 2023-24 to just 7.5 last year. They enter this week ranked 19th nationally by making 11.2 per game.

The test this week, beyond Sunday’s game, is having players stay focused instead of listening to family members and friends pat them on the back through the Christmas break for Nebraska’s strong start.

When the Huskers return, they host New Hampshire on Dec. 30 then return to Big Ten play against No. 9 Michigan State on Jan. 2.

“We talk to them all the time about keeping your walls up,” Hoiberg said, adding: “Listen, we’ve won two Big Ten games. … If we get satisfied, we’re done. And we remind our guys every day of that.”

Cards & Vols

The AP Top 25 national schedule features only four ranked-versus-ranked games on the men’s side. Of those, only one is being played in a team’s home venue: No. 11 Louisville’s trip to No. 20 Tennessee on Tuesday night.

The Volunteers (7-3) enter the week having lost three straight, falling to Kansas in the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas, at Syracuse in the ACC/SEC Challenge and Illinois despite having a home-state crowd in Nashville.

The Cardinals (9-1) suffered their only loss in another trip to a Southeastern Conference venue, falling to now-No. 14 Arkansas in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 3.

Neutral-court throwdowns

Three top-10 teams — No. 3 Duke, No. 6 Purdue and No. 8 Houston — face ranked opponents on Saturday in neutral-court matchups.

The Cougars (10-1) face Arkansas in Newark, New Jersey, in the first of those matchups. An hour later, the Boilermakers (10-1) tip off against No. 21 Auburn with a home-state crowd in Indianapolis.

The third is the Blue Devils (10-0) meeting No. 16 Texas Tech in New York’s Madison Square Garden. It’s the latest demanding nonconference matchup for Jon Scheyer’s squad after already logging wins against Kansas, Arkansas, Florida and Michigan State.

Watch list

USC (10-1) is the top vote-getter among unranked teams. The Trojans — who spent a week at No. 24 earlier this month — have home games against UTSA and Brown this week before the Christmas break, then return to visit No. 2 Michigan on Jan. 2.

Iowa (9-2) and Seton Hall (10-1) are hovering behind the Trojans. The Hawkeyes play Bucknell on Saturday, while the Pirates visit Providence on Friday in Big East play.

Iowa hasn’t been ranked in the AP Top 25 since November 2022; Seton Hall hasn’t been ranked since January 2022.

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