Huskers Battle Broncos in Crown Semifinals

The Nebraska men's basketball program looks for its 20th win of the season Saturday afternoon, as the Huskers take on Boise State in the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas.   The scene moves to T-Mobile Arena for the semifinals and finals, and Saturday's game between the Huskers and Broncos will tip off at 12:30 p.m. (central) and will be televised on FOX and carried on the Huskers Radio Network. Live audio for the game can also be found on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.

Nebraska (19-14) earned its place in the semifinals following a 81-69 win over Georgetown on Wednesday night. Brice Williams had a game-high 28 points to lead three Huskers in double figures, as the Huskers never trailed against the Hoyas. Juwan Gary posted a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Andrew Morgan added 12 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Nebraska held Georgetown to 39 percent shooting and out-rebounded the Hoyas 40-31. 

Nebraska's senior duo of Williams and Gary have shined during the Huskers trip to Las Vegas. Williams is averaging 29.0 ppg on 53 percent shooting while shooting 47 percent from 3-point range. His 30-point game Monday against Arizona State was the fourth of the season, a total which ties for second on NU's single-season charts. 

30-Point Games in a Season

No.	Name	Gm	Year
1.	Dave Hoppen	6	1984-85
2.	Brice Williams	4	2024-25
	Andre Smith	4	1979-80
	Eric Piatkowski	4	1993-94
	Tyronn Lue	4	1997-98

 

Gary is chipping in 17.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals per game. His double-double vs. Georgetown was the 10th of his Husker career. Gary, who has been in double figures in each of the past five games, is now just 45 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career. 

Boise State (26-10) comes into the semifinal following a 100-93 win over Butler on Wednesday. Javan Buchanan led the Broncos with 27 points on 11-of-13 shoot-ing while Tyson Degenhart had 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Boise State shot 60.3 percent from the floor, including 11-of-24 from 3-point range. 

The winner of Saturday's game will advance to Sunday's championship game, which is set for 4:30 p.m. (central). The second semifinal will feature UCF and Villanova and that game will start approximately 30 minutes after Nebraska-Boise State.

Wednesday Recap
Brice Williams’ 28-point night led three Huskers in double figures, as Nebraska advanced to the College Basketball Crown Semifinals with an 81-69 win over Georgetown on April 2.

Williams hit 8-of-14 shots from the field, including five 3-pointers to match his career high, as Nebraska improved to 19-17 on the season. Juwan Gary added his second double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Morgan provided a strong effort off the bench with 12 points and nine boards for the Huskers. 

After Georgetown whittled a 19-point Husker lead to 10 with just over five minutes remaining, Williams hit consecutive 3-pointers in a 31-second span to push the lead back to 76-62 with 4:18 remaining. 

The Hoyas eventually pulled to within 77-69 with 2:43 but could get no closer as a basket from Andrew Morgan and two Williams’ free throws provided the final margin. Georgetown, which was held to 39 percent shooting, was held scoreless the rest of the way.
 
Nebraska's Postseason History
The 2025 College Basketball Crown marks Nebraska's 28th postseason appearance in program history, as Nebraska is 26-26 all-time in the postseason following Wednesday's win over Georgetown. The 2024-25 season marks NU's second straight postseason appearance, the first time that has happened for Nebraska since the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. 

• The list includes eight NCAA Tournament appearances, most recently last season, and 19 NITs and this year's College Basketball Crown.

• With Wednesday's win, Nebraska has won multiple postseason games for the first time since the 2003-04 season when the Huskers won their first two NIT games. A win on Saturday would mark only the third time that Nebraska has won three postseason games in a season (NITs in 1995-96, 1986-87 and 1982-83). 

• The last time Nebraska reached the semifinals of a postseason tournament was the 1996 NIT, when NU won five straight games to win the title. 

• Of the 17 players on Nebraska's 2024-25 roster, 11 have been on a postseason roster previously during their college career. The list includes: Ahron Ulis (four); Juwan

Gary (three); Connor Essegian (two); Brice Williams (two); Rienk Mast (two); Sam Hoiberg (one); Jeffrey Grace III (one); Rollie Worster (one); Cale Jacobsen (one); Henry Burt (one) and Braxton Meah (one). 

• Brice Williams was the MVP of the 2023 CBI when he was at Charlotte, averaging 16.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the 49ers postseason run.
 

Experimental Rule to Make Debut in Postseason
One change from the regular season in place for both the Crown and the NIT is the use of an experimental rule which will allow a coach to appeal out-of-bounds calls for video replay review in the last two minutes of games. 

The experimental rule would eliminate the official's voluntary ability to review out-of-bounds calls on the floor in the last two minutes of the game. Instead, these calls for a video review would be tied to the timeouts a team has remaining.

• If a team appeals the call and it is overturned, the team making the appeal would retain the timeout.
• If the review fails, the team making the appeal would lose a timeout.
• If no timeouts remain, coaches could still appeal, but if the appeal fails, they would be assessed an excessive timeout administrative technical, meaning their opponents would shoot two free throws and maintain possession of the ball.

 

Numbers to Know
2 - Brice Williams and John Tonje of Wisconsin are the only players in Division I players who are shooting over 87 percent from the line with 200 or more free throw attempts.

42- With Wednesday's win over Georgetown, NU has 42 wins over the past two seasons, which is the second-highest consecutive two-year total in program history. NU won 45 games spanning the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.

9 - Cale Jacobsen has led the Huskers in assists in each of the past two games after having just eight assists in NU's first 31 games. Prior to his career high five assists against Arizona State, his last assist was on Dec. 29, 2024 vs. Southern.

73 - Connor Essegian has a team-high 73 3-pointers this season which ranks ninth on Nebraska's single-season list. His previous high was 69 when he was at Wisconsin in 2022-23. Essegian is three away from matching Keisei Tominaga (76, 2023-24) for eighth on NU's single-season list.

22.9 - Nebraska has gotten production from its bench, averaging 22.9 points per game this season to rank sixth in the Big Ten.  Nebraska has gotten 30 double-figure efforts from its bench this season (Essegian-15, Morgan-12, Ulis-1, Worster-1 and Meah-1). The Huskers led the Big Ten in bench production last season at 21.4 points per game.

Worth Noting
• Saturday's meeting is the first-ever matchup between Nebraska and Boise State in men's basketball. It is also NU's first meeting against a Mountain West Conference opponent since playing Nevada in the 2020 Golden Window Classic in Lincoln. 

• Nebraska is seeking its 20th win of the season on Saturday against Boise State. If the Huskers win, it would mark the first time Nebraska has posted consecutive 20-win seasons since the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.

• With a 19-14 record, Nebraska will finish with a .500 or better record for the third straight season. It would mark the first time that has happened at Nebraska since a six-year stretch spanning the 2003-04 to 2008-09 seasons.  

• Going west has been very fruitful, as the Huskers are 7-0 west of Nebraska this year following the two wins in the College Basketball Crown. NU went 3-0 at the Diamond Head Classic and swept the Big Ten West Coast trip of Washington and Oregon in February. 

• Brice Williams became the first Husker since Terran Petteway in 2013-14 to lead the Big Ten in scoring during conference play. Williams finished with 20.7 ppg, edging out Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn (20.5) and Northwestern's Nick Martinelli (20.5) in Big Ten action.  Overall, Williams leads the Big Ten and ranks ninth nationally in scoring at 20.5 ppg as of April 3. 

• With his 30-point effort against Arizona State, Brice Williams now has four 30-point games this season. It ties for second on NU's single-season chart, trailing only Dave Hoppen, who had six in 1984-85. The only Big Ten player with more 30-point games this season was Wisconsin's John Tonje (six). 

• Of Nebraska's 14 losses, nine were one-possession games within the last 45 seconds of regulation. In five of the six home losses this season, NU was within one possession in the final 40 seconds, including four in the final 10 seconds (Rutgers, USC, Michigan and Minnesota). 

• NU has relied on its depth with six players averaging at least 6.6 points per game. Nine 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 20 of the Big Ten in scoring as of April 3.

• Nebraska went 4-4 against ranked opponents this season, as the four wins over ranked teams tie a school record done three other times in school history. Nebraska has won multiple games against ranked foes in three of the past four years and is now 9-11 in its last 20 games against ranked teams dating back to March 1, 2022. 

• Nebraska is averaging 75.9 points per game heading into Saturday's game with Boise State. It is on pace to be NU's second-highest scoring average since joining the Big Ten in 2011-12. NU has scored 70+ points 20 times, including 11 games with at least 80 points. The Huskers are averaging 83.5 points per game during the two games at the Crown.  Last season, NU averaged 77.7 points per game for 34 games, its highest offensive total since the 1995-96 season.

• Nebraska used its ninth starting lineup of the season against Georgetown, as Cale Jacobsen made his first career start. The 6-foot-4 guard tied or set career bests in points (seven), rebounds (five), steals (three), blocks (two) and minutes (36). 

• On Thursday, Nebraska announced that the Huskers will host BYU in an exhibition game at Pinnacle Bank Arena in October. It will be the first of a two-year exhibition series with BYU, which went 26-10 and reached the NCAA Sweet 16 this season. The Huskers will travel to Provo for an exhibition game in 2026. The date and time of October's game will be finalized later this summer. 

• Nebraska has had seven games this season with multiple 20-point scorers, most recently at Ohio State on March 4 with Brice Williams (43) and Juwan Gary (24) going over the 20-point mark. NU now has multiple players who have scored 20+ points 18 times in Fred Hoiberg's six seasons.

The 67 combined points by Gary and Williams in the OSU game were the most by two players in a game in school history. The previous mark was 65 by Eric Piatkowski (42) and Bruce Chubick (23) vs. Oklahoma on March 11, 1994. 

• Nebraska posted its third double-figure comeback of the season against Arizona State on Monday, rallying back from an 11-point deficit. Earlier this year, NU overcame a 20-point second-half deficit to win at Northwestern on Feb. 16. It was the largest deficit overcome by a Big Ten team in a road conference game since Feb. 17, 2018, when Michigan State overcame a 27-point deficit at Northwestern at Allstate Arena. 

• NU is 12-1 when holding opponents to under one point per possession, but 7-13 when opponents are above 1.0 PPP. Nebraska had won its last 29 games dating back

to the 2022-23 season when holding an opponent under 1.0 PPP before the Feb. 24 loss to the Wolverines. Over the last three years, NU is 39-5 when holding opponents to under 70 points following Wednesday's win over Georgetown. Nebraska has improved its KenPom defensive efficiency in each of the past three seasons.

• On Jan. 26, Brice and his father, Henry, became the seventh father-son duo to combine for 4,000 career points at the college level. The pair is now sixth all-time entering Saturday's game with Boise State. Brice is over 1,900 career points, including 1,133 at Nebraska.  Henry Williams, who passed away in 2018, was Charlotte's all-time leading scorer with 2,383 career points.

 Father-Son Duos with 4,000 Points

No.	Father (College)	Years	Points	Son (College)	Years	Points	Total
1.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Stephen Curry (Davidson)	2006-09	2,635	5,024
2.	Mike Davis (Alabama)	1979-83	1,211	Antoine Davis (Detroit)	2018-23	3,664	4,875
3.	Steve Burtt Sr. (Iona)	1980-84	2,534	Steve Burtt Jr. (Iona)	2002-06	2,034	4,568
4.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Seth Curry (Duke/Liberty)	2009-13	2,101	4,490
5.	Steve Alford (Indiana)	1983-86	2,438	Bryce Alford (UCLA)	2013-17	1,922	4,360
6.	Henry Williams (Charlotte)	1988-92	2,383	Brice Williams (Charlotte/Nebraska)	2019-25	1,934	4,317
7.	Greg McDermott (Northern Iowa)	1984-88	1,033	Doug McDermott (Creighton)	2010-14	3,150	4,183

 

• Connor Essegian has been one of the Big Ten's best sixth men this season, as the junior guard averages 10.5 points per contest. Essegian is the only Big Ten reserve currently averaging double figures while making eight or fewer starts.

• With its 19-14 record in 2024-25, Nebraska is 48-28 dating back to the start of February 2023. NU's .632 winning percentage is fifth among all Big Ten rams in that span. NU went just 33-80 from the start of the 2019-20 season until Feb. 1, 2023.

• Nebraska's 114 points against Ohio State on March 4 was the fifth-highest output in school history and most points since also scoring 114 against Oregon on Nov. 25, 1995. It also was the most points NU had ever scored in a loss. 

• Brice Williams is just sixth Husker in the Big Ten era to have multiple 30-point games in the Big Ten era (2011-21-present). His three 30-point games match James Palmer Jr., who had a trio of 30-point efforts during the 2018-19 season. 

• As a team, Nebraska enters the Crown semifinal shooting 75.1 percent from the line. The Huskers' free throw percentage is on track to be one of the best in school history.  Nebraska's 516 free throws made this season is eighth in school history. NU is just 11 free throws from moving into a tie for fifth on Husker single-season annals.