Huskers Battle Hawkeyes in Sweet 16 on Thursday
The Nebraska men's basketball program looks to reach the Elite Eight for the first time in program history on Thursday evening, as the Huskers will battle Big Ten rival Iowa in the NCAA Sweet 16. Tipoff between the Huskers (28-6) and Hawkeyes (23-12) is set for 6:30 p.m. (CT) and the game will be broadcast on TBS and truTV and carried on the Huskers Radio Network. It is also available on NCAA March Madness Live and on HBO Max.
The South Regional features a trip of Big Ten teams with No. 3 seed Illinois, No. 4 seed Nebraska and No. 9 seed Iowa joining No. 2 seeded Houston at the Toyota Center this week. In all, the Big Ten put six teams into the Sweet 16 and posted a 13-3 record over the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Nebraska (28-6) comes off a thrilling 74-72 win over Vanderbilt in the second round. Braden Frager's go-ahead basket with 2.2 seconds remaining were the decisive points in a game that wasn't decided until Tyler Tanner's heave from beyond midcourt rolled out at the buzzer. Frager and Pryce Sandfort led four Huskers in double figures with 15 points apiece, as the Huskers shot 56 percent from the field, including 9-of-19 from 3-point range. The Husker defense held a high-powered Commodore offense to 41 percent shooting and its lowest total point since Feb. 21.
The Huskers are led by Sandfort, as he enters the Sweet 16 averaging 17.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. In Nebraska's two NCAA games, he is averaging 19.0 points per game on 55 percent shooting, including 10-of-18 from 3-point range.
The Hawkeyes stunned defending national champion Florida, 73-72, as Alvaro Folgueiras' 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left gave Iowa the lead for good. Tavion Banks led four Hawkeyes in double figures with 20 points and six rebounds, while Bennett Stirtz added 14 points and guided an Iowa attack that shot 51 percent.
Thursday's matchup will mark the third meeting between the schools since Feb. 17. The two teams split the regular-season series with Iowa winning 57-52 in Iowa City and the Huskers recording an 84-75 overtime win in Lincoln on March 8.
Numbers to Know
0 - Thursday's meeting between the Huskers and Hawkeyes is the first neutral-site meeting of the series. All 44 previous matchups have taken place on campus.
1 & 2 - Thursday's game features the top two scoring defenses in the Big Ten. Nebraska leads the Big Ten at 65.8 ppg, while Iowa ranks second at 66.0 ppg. The Huskers and Hawkeyes are the only two Big Ten teams in the top 25 nationally in scoring defense entering the Sweet 16.
29 - Nebraska's 29-point margin of victory in the first round vs. Troy was the largest margin of victory in a first NCAA Tournament win by any school since 1971.
123 - Pryce Sandfort is fourth nationally with 123 3-pointers after his performance against Vanderbilt on Saturday. That total ranks second on the Big Ten's single-season charts. His seven 3-pointers vs. Troy in the first round marked the third time he has had at least seven 3-pointers in a game this season.
9 - The Big Ten sent nine teams to the NCAA Tournament, which ties the most that the conference has sent to the NCAA Tournament. The Big Ten has six teams - Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Purdue in the Sweet 16, the second-highest total by a conference in March Madness.
360 - Nebraska's 360 3-pointers this season is a school record, breaking the school record of 319 set in 2023-24. NU has hit 10-or-more 3-pointers in 22 games this season, including four games of at least 15 3-pointers.
52.9 - Nebraska's top four scorers (Rienk Mast, Pryce Sandfort, Braden Frager and Jamarques Lawrence) are combining for 52.9 points per game. None of them were in the Husker lineup last season.
13.3-to-1 - In Nebraska's seven games against ranked opponents this season, Sam Hoiberg has a 40-to-3 assist-to-turnover ratio.
1- According to Stathead, Sam Hoiberg is the only player nationally at 6-0 or under averaging at least five rebounds per game this season. Over the past six seasons, only two power conference players 6-0 or under have grabbed five or more rebounds per game (Braden Smith, 2023-24; RJ Davis, 2022-23).
80 - Nebraska is 52-10 (.839) under Fred Hoiberg when scoring 80 or more points, including a 43-7 mark over the last four seasons. Of those seven losses since the start of the 2022-23 season, four came in overtime. NU is 15-0 this season when scoring 80+ points.
1,088 - Rienk Mast now has 1,088 career rebounds and is one of only five active players with at least 1,000 career rebounds, joining Carson Towt (Notre Dame), Graham Ike (Gonzaga), Izaiyah Nelson (South Florida) and Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan).
14 - Pryce Sandfort has 14 20-point games on the season, which ties for the third-most by a Husker in the Big Ten era. The only Huskers with more 20-point games in a season in the Big Ten era are Brice Williams (20, 2024-25) and James Palmer (18, 2018-19).
3.34 - The Huskers’ team cumulative GPA of 3.34 at the end of the fall 2025 semester is the highest in program history. Ten Huskers posted GPAs of 3.0 or better during the fall semester, led by Sam Hoiberg's 4.0 GPA.
Nebraska's NCAA Tournament History
The 2026 NCAA Tournament marks Nebraska’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance and 29th postseason appearance in school history (nine NCAAs, 19 NITs, 1 CBC). The Huskers are making their second NCAA appearance in three years after making just one NCAA trip from 1999 to 2023.
• Nebraska has reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history after wins over Troy and No. 16 Vanderbilt. Prior to this year, NU was winless in eight previous NCAA appearances.
• Fred Hoiberg joins Danny Nee (1991-92-93-94-98) as the only Husker coaches with multiple NCAA Tournament appearances. It marks sixth NCAA appearance of Hoiberg's coaching career, as he guided Iowa State to four straight NCAAs between 2012 and 2015. Hoibeg led Iowa State to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2014. In addition, Hoiberg's grandfather, Jerry Bush, guided Toledo to an appearance in the 1954 NCAA Tournament.
• Four of the 11 Huskers who saw action in the 2024 NCAA Tournament are back in 2026, including Rienk Mast, Jamarques Lawrence, Sam Hoiberg and Cale Jacobsen. When Nebraska made its NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024, only one player on the roster had been to an NCAA Tournament.
Notes from Saturday's Win over Vanderbilt
• Nebraska improved to 28-6 on the season and reached the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time in school history
• The 28 wins extends Nebraska’s single-season school record for wins, bettering the 26 wins in 1990-91.
• Nebraska shot 55.8 percent from the field, its second-highest percentage of the season. In fact, NU's two highest field goal percentages came against SEC teams (57.6 percent vs. Oklahoma).
• NU has now won 49 games the last two seasons, the most the Huskers have ever won in a two-year span.
• Nebraska has now won six straight postseason games dating back to the 2025 College Basketball Crown.
• Nebraska improves to 2-0 against SEC teams this season, adding to a November victory over Oklahoma. Before this season, the Huskers had not beaten a team from the SEC since the 2015-16 season.
• Nebraska improved to 3-4 against ranked teams this season and the win over No. 16 Vanderbilt evened NU’s all-time record vs. teams ranked 16th in the AP Poll to 7-7.
• Nebraska has now won 12 of its last 13 neutral-site games dating back to the 2014 Diamond Head Classic.
• Pryce Sandfort scored 15 points in the game to increase his season total to 609. Sandfort’s 609 points rank sixth on the NU single-season list. He connected on three 3-pointers in the game, giving him 123 this season, good for second on the Big Ten single-season list.
• Berke Buyuktuncel made a pair of 3-pointers marking the third time this season he has made multiple 3-pointers. He finished the game with 12 points for his sixth game in double figures and his first since Dec. 30 against New Hampshire.
Worth Noting
• Braden Frager's driving basket with 2.2 seconds left marked the third time this year that Nebraska has won a game in the last three seconds of regulation.
• All six of Nebraska's losses came against teams that reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, including five to teams which are in the Sweet 16. The Huskers went 3-5 against the other Sweet 16 qualifiers.
• According to Turner Sports, the Nebraska-Iowa matchup marks only the second Big Ten matchup in the Sweet 16 and the first since 1980 (Purdue 76, Indiana 69).
• The Huskers enter the NCAA Sweet 16 with a 28-6 record, breaking the school record for wins in a season (26) that was set in 1990-91.
• Nebraska tied for second in the Big Ten standings, matching its highest conference finish since back-to-back first place Big Seven Conference showings in 1948-49 and 1949-50. NU finished second in the conference standings six times between 1950 and 2025 (1965-55, 1966-67, 1977-78, 1979-80, 1980-81 and 1992-93).
• Pryce Sandfort became the fourth Husker to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors, joining Brice Williams (2025), James Palmer Jr. (2018) and Terran Petteway (2014). Nebraska has had consecutive first-team All-Conference performers for the first time since 1998 (Tyronn Lue) and 1999 (Venson Hamilton).
• Sandfort enters the Iowa game needing just 26 points to reach 1,000 career points. His 609 points this season ranks sixth on NU's single-season scoring chart.
• Fred Hoiberg is just the third coach in school history to earn multiple conference Coach of the Year accolades, joining Joe Cipriano (1966, 1978, 1980) and Moe Iba (1980, 1981). In 1980, Joe Cipriano, who was stricken with cancer at the time, was named UPI Big Eight Co-Coach of the Year with assistant Moe Iba, who guided Huskers in Cipriano’s absence.
• Nebraska’s 15-5 Big Ten record set the mark for most conference wins in school history. The previous high for conference wins was 13, set in 2017-18, when NU finished with a 13-5 mark.
• Nebraska has 49 wins over the past two seasons. It is the most wins in a two-year stretch in school history. NU won a combined 45 games spanning the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.
• Nebraska's 88 wins over the past four seasons is the most in a four-year span in school history. The Huskers won 85 games between 1990-91 and 1993-94. Sam Hoiberg has been on the floor for 82 of the Huskers' 88 wins and is one of only three players to win 80 or more games as a player, joining Eric Piatkowski (84, 1990-94) and Bruce Chubick (81, 1990-94).
• Rienk Mast recorded his 100th career double-figure game with his 13-point effort against Vandebilt last Saturday, Mast has played in 152 career games including his time at Bradley and will be looking for his 100th win as a college player.
• Nebraska finished 7-3 on the road in Big Ten play in 2025-26. The seven road wins in conference play broke the school record of five, set most recently in 1965-66. NU is 10-4 away from Pinnacle Bank Arena this season. The loss to Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament snapped a streak of 10 straight wins at neutral sites dating back to the 2024-25 season.
• Nebraska finished 16-2 at home this season and is 55-13 (.809) at Pinnacle Bank Arena over the past four seasons. Nebraska finished the regular season with nine straight sellouts and averaged 14,671 fans per game to rank 16th nationally.
• Nebraska's 20-0 start to the season marked just the third time in the last 30 years a Big Ten team has started 20-0 and the first since Ohio State opened the 2010-11 season with 24 straight wins.
• Nebraska was No. 14 in the NET on Selection Sunday and was one of five Big Ten teams in the top 15 of the NET (No. 2 Michigan, No. 8 Illinois, No. 9 Purdue, No. 11 Michigan State and No. 14 Nebraska). Nebraska finished the regular season with a 15-6 mark in the first two quads (9-6 in Q1, 6-0 in Q2).
• Since the start of the 2023-24 season, NU is 72-31 (.799) while the 72 wins over the past three seasons are fifth among Big Ten teams in that span (Purdue-87; Illinois-77; Michigan State-77; Wisconsin-73; Nebraska-72).
• Nebraska saw its school-record 24-game win streak snapped on Jan. 27. It nearly doubled the previous mark of 14 set two other times (1912-13 and 1990-91) and was the longest win streak by a Big Ten team since Ohio State won 24 straight to open the 2010-11 season.
Noting the Husker Offense
• Nebraska is averaging 77.1 ppg, which is just outside the top 10 scoring averages in school history. NU's highest average in the Big Ten era (2011-12 to present) took place two years ago when the Huskers averaged 77.7 ppg en route to a 23-11 record.
• The Huskers are third in the Big Ten and 10th nationally with 10.6 3-pointers made per game as of March 22. The Huskers will break the single-season record of 9.54 set in 2001-02. NU, Wisconsin and Illinois are all on track to break the Big Ten's single-season mark for 3-pointers per game (10.4 by Penn State in 2022-23). A Hoiberg-coach team has led the conference in 3-pointers per game in five of his 12 college seasons.
• Nebraska's 360 3-pointers is a single-season school record, breaking the mark of 319 set in 2023-24. Four of the top six 3-point seasons in school history have come in Fred Hoiberg's seven seasons at Nebraska.
• NU has made 10-or-more 3-pointers 22 times this season, going 18-4 in those contests. NU has had four games with at least fifteen 3-pointers (17 vs. Oregon and FIU; 15 vs. Oklahoma and vs. Illinois) and set a postseason school record with 14 3-pointers against Troy.
• The Huskers rank sixth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.85-to-1) as of March 22. It is on track to break the school mark of 1.81 set in 1984-85. The Big Ten has five of the top 10 teams nationally in that category (Purdue-1st; Northwestern-2nd; Nebraska-6th; UCLA-8th, Wisconsin-9th).
• Nebraska is 12th nationally with 18.0 assists per game as of March 22. It is an increase of 3.8 assists per game from last season. Nebraska's highest assist per game total under Hoiberg is 15.3 per game in 2023-24.
• The Huskers are among the Big Ten leaders with just 9.71 turnovers per game. NU is on pace to break the school mark of 9.96 per game set in 2018-19. Those are the only times in school history where NU has averaged 10 or fewer turnovers per game.
Noting the Husker Defense
• Nebraska has been stout defensively this season, ranking second in the Big Ten and 19th nationally in field goal percentage defense (.402). Only one opponent has shot 50 percent from the field against the Huskers this season.
• The Huskers lead the Big Ten and rank 15th nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 65.8 ppg. The 65.8 ppg allowed is 6.8 points per game fewer than last season and on pace to be NU's lowest scoring defense since the 2014-15 season (63.1 ppg).
• Nebraska leads the Big Ten with 7.3 steals per game and ranks second in turnover margin (+3.3) and turnovers forced per game (13.0).
• The Huskers have now held 19 opponents to under 1.00 points per possession and have an 18-1 mark in those games. Over the last four seasons, NU is 59-4 (.936) when holding foes to under 1.00 PPP and 61-6 when holding opponents to under 70 points.
• In Big Ten play, the Huskers finished first in scoring defense (66.2 ppg), steals (7.45/gm), 3-point percentage defense (.297) and turnover margin (+3.20/gm) and third in field goal defense (.423).
• Nebraska has improved its KenPom defensive efficiency in each of the past four seasons and ranks sixth nationally entering the Sweet 16. NU's best KenPom rank on defense was 15th nationally in 2008-09. NU finished in the top 20 in defensive efficiency twice in the KenPom era (2008-09, 2007-08).
This and That
• The Huskers have excelled in close games this season, going 5-2 in games decided by one possession after going winless in six games during the 2024-25 season.
• As a team, Nebraska's .753 free throw percentage is on pace to be one of the best team percentages in school history.
• Nebraska is 3-4 vs. ranked teams in 2025-26 following Saturday's win over No. 16 Vanderbilt. Since March 1, 2022, the Huskers are 12-15 in the last 27 games against ranked teams, including 5-4 against top-10 teams. Prior to that, NU had lost 24 straight against ranked teams dating back to the 2019 Big Ten Tournament.
• Nebraska is 1-1 in OT games, as the Huskers lost to No. 13 Purdue on Feb. 10 and defeated Iowa on March 8. Nebraska is 68-59 all-time in OT games.
• The Huskers posted their third double-digit comeback of the season against Indiana on Jan. 10, overcoming a 16-point second-half deficit. It marked the 12th time under Hoiberg NU has overcome a double-digit deficit, including seven times in the last two seasons.
• NU has 30 double-digit scoring runs (Kill Shots) this season which tied for 16th nationally as of March 22.
• Nine Huskers have posted double-figure efforts this season, while four players have had at least one 20-point performance (Pryce Sandfort-13; Braden Frager-6; Rienk Mast-5; Jamarques Lawrence-3).
• As of March 22, there have been 29 triple-doubles in Division I basketball this season while NU is the only school with multiple players recording a triple double. Over the last seven seasons, only five schools - NU (2025-26), Iowa State (2023-24), Western Kentucky (2021-22), Portland (2021-22) and Utah (2019-20) - have had multiple players record triple-doubles in the same year.
• Nebraska completed its non-conference slate with a perfect 11-0 record, marking the first time since the 1928-29 season where NU posted an unblemished non-conference mark (6-0). The Huskers are 31-2 in regular-season non-conference play since the start of the 2023-24 season (10-1 in 2023-24; 10-1 in 2024-25).