It is officially April and the College Basketball season has ended. In the same vein that The Floor Slap did season previews and in season spotlights for every team in the Big Ten, now it’s time to look back on everyone’s season and reflect. Going from the Bottom to the Top in the standings, we will be releasing Exit Survey’s for all 14 teams in the conference. Today, we have the 11th place Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Round 4 of this article template.
If you haven’t read the other three for Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin… go read them, but here is the formula.
Touch on preseason expectations, recap the season, and then wrap up with post season performance, where the program is going, and how fans should feel.
Here we go Big Red!
The Preseason
Nebraska entered this season in a state of futility.
The Huskers had hired an NBA pedigree coach in Fred Hoiberg, but that pedigree had yet to rub off.
Hoiberg had gone 24-67 in three seasons and 9-50 in the Big Ten since starting as head coach. He had already lost more games in three seasons at Nebraska than he did in 5 at Iowa State.
My preseason article on Hoiberg and the Huskers focused on the idea that it was now or never for him at Nebraska.
Coach Hoiberg went all in this offseason and overhauled the roster. Nebraska lost eight players from the previous season and added seven new ones.
Gone were the McGowens brothers and in came a handful of transfers and a couple freshmen.
Sam Griesel, Emmanuel Bandoumel, Juwan Gary and Blaise Keita transferred in from various levels of college basketball. They figured to be plug and play players to fill out role player spots.
I expected big things out of highly recruited Ramel Lloyd Jr. … who was swiftly redshirted. However, Freshmen Jamarques Lawerence and Denim Dawson were a part of the plan.
Derrick Walker, CJ Wilcher, and (at the time little known) Keisei Tominaga also returned to build out the roster.
The goal was simple.
Get out of the basement of the Big Ten. Be a competitive team for once.
Nebraska didn’t need to make the tournament necessarily, but please give the fans something to root for.
And oh boy did this Nebraska team give the fans something to root for!
The Season
Nebraska had highs and lows all season.
Their season started with a low as they went 3-3 with losses in their first three games to power conference opponents by double digits.
Big Red rebounded with three straight wins over Florida State, Boston College and in state rival Creighton.
Before the Creighton win could become a signature win for the program, Nebraska entered another low with losses to IU, Kansas State, and an overtime heartbreaker to Purdue in Lincoln.
Nebraska went on to win just three of their next ten conference games. Along the way, the Huskers lost two starters and 30 minute a game players in Juwan Gary and Emmanuel Bandoumel to season ending injuries.
It seemed like Nebraska’s defense and season was lost with their departure. Optimism was low. Yet, that was when Hoiberg did his best coaching in Lincoln.
With two of his best defenders lost, Hoiberg pivoted the teams focus. He stopped trying to win games 63-60 like a Big Ten team and instead went all-out-offense.
Hoiberg released Tominaga!!!
Keisei Tominaga became a cult hero this season as he scored 20+ points in 8 of his last 12 games (after Gary and Bandoumel were lost) and Nebraska won 6 of their last 8 games in the Big Ten.
Fred Hoiberg turned the season around and the Huskers seemed poised for a last second push for a post season berth.
Sadly, the Tominaga and Nebraska fan high came to an abrupt halt when Nebraska lost to Minnesota in their first game in the Big Ten Tournament.
Post Season
Nebraska was trending towards a post-season invite if they could win some games in the Big Ten Tournament. Maybe not March Madness, but maybe the NIT.
Losing to Minnesota ended what was turning into a great story in Lincoln.
The Huskers finished the season with a .500 record at 16-16 and won 9 games in the Big Ten. That matched Hoiberg’s total wins in conference from the first three seasons.
Nebraska was finally competitive again.
What made this Nebraska team so fun was that it was a different story, a different player each night.
Juwan Gary and Emmanuel Bandoumel’s defense and athleticism energized the team early in the season.
Keisei Tominaga was electric late in the season.
Some nights the hometown kid Sam Griesel powered them to victory. Other times the energy of Wilhelm Breidenbach or Blaise Keita off the bench lit a fire for the Huskers. Not to mention Jamarques Lawrence’s shooting outbursts, Derrick Walker’s all big ten level play, Coach’s son Sam Hoiberg or others on the roster.
On any night anyone’s name could be called.
Coming into the year, I was questioning can Hoiberg make Nebraska competitive? Will it work in Lincoln?
My preview emphasized that Hoiberg is a great coach. You don’t make the NBA without being a great coach, but could it translate at a disadvantaged program like Nebraska?
Hoiberg answered that in my mind.
He faced adversity all season and was at a disadvantage most nights. To pull out a .500 season and win 9 Big Ten games proved that Hoiberg can adapt and survive.
Can he do more than survive? Can he turn Nebraska into a winning program?
We will see.
This season showed the formula for Hoiberg and Nebraska going forward.
The transfer portal is the Huskers friend, and Hoiberg’s history will help him to land portal recruits.
Nebraska has already landed a couple of impressive ones this offseason. Rienk Mast and Brice Williams are double digit scorers (and great shooters) who were both highly ranked transfers in the portal. Hoiberg even landed a 4-star guard from the ’24 recruiting class in Nick Janowski this week too.
Big Red’s roster isn’t finished. Ramel Lloyd Jr. will join the mix. Nebraska awaits a decision from Keisei Tominaga. More transfers are coming.
There is still work to be done in Lincoln… but if this is where Hoiberg wants to be, then Nebraska fans should feel good about his chances of turning the program all the way around.