Hoiberg Glad to 'Hit Some Adversity’ in Win

First game jitters...check.
Rusty shooting...check.
Anxious timeouts and anxious fans...check.
Nebraska's first men's basketball win of the year...check.

Welcome to the 2025-26 season, Husker fans. West Georgia gave Nebraska all it could handle in the first half of its season opener Monday night, but a very strong second half eventually gave way to an 86-53 blowout win.

However, the game was just a five-point NU lead at the half, and Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg knew why.

West Georgia proved to be the more physical team on the floor for most of the first half against Nebraska. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“I thought they did a really good job of bringing the physicality to the game,” Hoiberg said in his postgame press conference. “They got four offensive rebounds before the first media timeout. We turned the ball over. They did a good job controlling tempo in that first half. I thought we played right into their hands by taking quick shots, and then finally we got into a little bit of a rhythm late in the half.”

The slow start for the Huskers came down to not only game readiness, but overall toughness early on for the Huskers. Hoiberg admitted he was relatively happy with the looks they were getting on offense, but he didn’t see what he wanted to see from his team on the other end.

The four offensive rebounds he alluded to earlier showed the Wolves weren’t going to roll over lightly.

West Georgia set the tone early against Nebraska with aggressive play and several offensive rebounds. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“They came in, they set the tone on the glass off the rip,” NU senior guard Jamarques Lawrence said. “We came out a little sluggish, so that was really it. That led to some bad shots, some quick shots on our end, but second half, we came out, we settled, and we stayed poised. We (were) just a little too impatient. We (were) taking quick shots in the first half.”

Those quick shots led the Huskers to just a 30-25 halftime lead, but a late run in the first half followed by a continuance of that run in the second half resulted in a stretch where Nebraska outscored West Georgia 26-2.

Justifiably, a lot of people wanted to know what the heck was said at halftime.

Nebraska settled down in the second half against West Georgia, at one point going on a 26-2 run. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“We talked about our pace, and we picked up, we pressured more and that’s what got us going,” Hoiberg said. “I thought we did a really good job of rebounding the ball in the second half and finding the open man.”

That open man ended up being nearly the entire team, as 11 of the 12 players who took the court scored points in the win. Redshirt freshman Braden Frager led all players with 22 points on the night, and he was quite efficient, hitting 8-of-11 from the field.

While things were working on the offensive end, the Lincoln Southwest product credited the dominant second half to the team’s defense.

Redshirt freshman Braden Frager led all scorers with 22 points in Nebraska's win over West Georgia. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“We just talked about our defense,” Frager said of the halftime speech. “We weren’t scoring and they weren’t scoring. It was just kind of a defensive battle. We just came out strong (in the second half), and that’s kind of what set the tone for the rest of the game. We went on a huge run there, and it was kind of out of hand from there.”

Lawrence (18 points), senior guard Connor Essegian (12 points) and senior forward Rienk Mast (10 points) joined Frager in double figures by the end of the night, and a lot of it came in that second half when Nebraska picked up the pace.

As Lawrence mentioned, their sluggish play was attributed to a sluggish pace in the first half, but once NU got out and ran, there was nothing West Georgia could do to slow them down.

Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said his team found its stride when it got out and ran against West Georgia. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“I’ll look forward to seeing the analytic report tonight on our efficiency when we got out in transition in the first six, seven seconds of the shot clock because that certainly appeared to be when we were at our best tonight,” Hoiberg said.

Hoiberg also mentioned that he was more than okay with his team’s struggles in the opener. Ultimately, you’d love a blowout win where everything clicks, but when things don’t – it’s good to do a little self-reflection in the moment and turn them into teaching moments.

“Everybody was so uptight, and you have a little bit of that,” Hoiberg said of playing in season openers. “It’s good we hit some adversity in this game, and we’re going to learn from it. It’s always better to learn in a win. We did a lot of really good things in the second half.”

The Husker men's defense did its part in a win over West Georgia. Now they eye a tough test against FIU. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Attention now focuses on an FIU team that had no issues to deal with in its season opener. The Panthers obliterated Florida National 101-49 in their opener Monday, but a road trip to Lincoln figures to be a bit of a tougher task.

Regardless of who you play, however, Hoiberg said if a team can put up 101 points, they will be able to find success against most teams.

“We’ve got our hands full on Saturday,” Hoiberg said. “We’re going to have to regroup, win the recovery day (Tuesday) and get back on the floor for a good three days of prep starting on Wednesday.”

It’s safe to say a primary focus of that prep will be starting just a little bit faster in games, but also how to deal with adversity if it shows its face early, like it did against West Georgia Monday night.

The Huskers will be looking for a faster start in their next game after a sluggish opening against West Georgia Monday night. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“It was just one of those games early on, it was a rock fight, you know, then in the second half we opened it up and got out,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve just got to come out of the gate with better urgency, and it started on the glass. We just didn’t play very smart in the first half, and they made us pay and they capitalized on it, and they built a six-point lead at one point, but once we calmed down and got back to who we are, we were fine.”

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