Huskers Balancing Rest, Results During Historic 18-0 Run

There's plenty that can be said about the 7th-ranked Nebraska men's basketball team on the court, but their head coach is equally proud of how his team's approaching the physicality of a long season off the court.

Scrappy play has become a trademark of Nebraska's 18-0 start to the year, but it comes with an aggressive recovery schedule each week. | David Banks-Imagn Images

A significant winning streak of any kind in any sport is admirable, but to accomplish what the now 7th-ranked Nebraska men’s basketball team has done this season is unthinkable.

By now, if you’ve followed the team, you know just about everything there is to know about this particular run. It’s a school-record 18-straight wins to start the year, which is also a program-record 22-straight wins when you account for the Huskers winning the inaugural Crown championship to end last year.

It’s the nation’s longest winning streak in the sport, and the next team standing in Nebraska’s way of making it one game longer is a Washington squad that won’t be afraid of coming into Lincoln Wednesday night.

The Huskies are 10-8 on the year, but they’ve held their own against top competition this year. UCLA just beat No. 4 Purdue Tuesday night, mirroring a 2-point loss Washington had to the Bruins back on December 3. Husker fans will also remember how competitive Ohio State was for most of the game in Columbus. The Huskers escaped by three. Washington knocked off the Buckeyes just ten days ago by 11.

Washington will be yet another physical team looking to pull off an upset in Lincoln this season. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

In summary – Wednesday night isn’t a lay-up for NU.

While Nebraska’s done plenty of winning on the court this season, what’s proving to be even more important for the Huskers during this historical stretch is what they’re doing off the court.

“We’re fighting like hell to stay where we are, and a big part of that is recovering properly and winning the off days,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said during his Tuesday media availability. “That’s another thing we really stress to our guys is the massages, the nutrition, the rest. It’s an important part of it, and these guys listen.”

It’s been well documented that Nebraska's more comfortable wins as of late have allowed them to rest star senior Rienk Mast. The Huskers put their foot on the gas in a 35-point win over Oregon before hitting the road to hand Northwestern a 19-point loss.

Thanks to recent blowout wins, Nebraska star senior Rienk Mast has been able to play sparingly and in turn heal up from a physical first half of the season. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Against Oregon, Mast was only on the floor for a little more than 16 minutes in the rout. In Evanston, Mast stayed under 20 minutes of game time yet again. It’s a rare chance for an unbeaten team to rest some of the guys who have led the effort to this point.

“We’ve been joking with Rienk that he’s out of the rotation now because we played so well without him,” Nebraska senior guard Sam Hoiberg said during Tuesday’s press conference. “It shows that if he’s in foul trouble or gets a minor injury and has to go out of the game, it shows that we can play well without him. Early on, I don’t think we had the confidence that we could do that. These last few games have proven that even if he’s on the bench, other guys can step up, and we can still have our offense and execute the same way if he’s not out there.”

It’s also allowed Sam’s dad to see how other lineups look.

Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg has been able to experiment with different lineups during a few comfortable wins in recent weeks. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

“It’s nice to be able to go out there and have different lineups, different combinations that we can see how they work together,” Fred Hoiberg said. “We’ve got a lot of data now with two, three, four, five-man lineups. You just try to put the best group out there that’s giving you the best minutes. We’ve had different groups that have done it all year long. That’s the sign of a true team and what this group is all about.”

Because Nebraska really has moved the ball around and been a balanced attack, it means more than just Rienk Mast needs tended to at various parts of the season. As the season’s progressed, players have been able to take the bumps and bruises in stride, but Nebraska’s not free from the injury bug.

As many remember, the Huskers lost senior guard Connor Essegian to a season-ending ankle injury against Winthrop back in November. Fortunately, Nebraska expects to have him back for a super-senior year if his medical redshirt is approved.

Whether it’s season-ending injuries or the bumps and bruises you expect to get in the Big Ten Conference, the team’s off-the-court health might be the true driving force behind its on-the-court success.

It's expected that Nebraska will hit the deck to make key plays, but their recovery efforts both at home and on the road has made the difference. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

“I don’t know if there (are) a lot of teams that take cold tubs on the road with them, but we have portable cold tubs that we get the guys in,” Fred Hoiberg said. “We’re generally in the arena for an hour minimum. After the game, before we get on the bus our guys are doing the cold tubs, they’re doing their stretching, their modalities – all the things that they have to do to make sure they recover properly.”

Nebraska’s also in the midst of a stretch where they’re playing their fourth game in 11 days, and they expect Washington to be right up there with some of the Big Ten’s most physical teams. The last team that tried to muscle the Huskers around in Lincoln was then-No. 9 Michigan State, and the Spartans nearly escaped with the win.

Even against Northwestern, Fred Hoiberg admitted his team got beat up a bit in the first half before they figured it out in the second half. He said lapses like they had against Northwestern won’t be able to work against physical teams like Washington.

Northwestern only trailed by five in the second half to Nebraska, but the Huskers put the foot on the gas to pull away for a 19-point win. | David Banks-Imagn Images

However, the head ball coach also praised his team’s toughness late in games. Despite multiple slow starts this season, his team had been conditioned to simply run away from opponents in the second half.

“I think that’s a credit to our support staff,” Hoiberg said. “We have a meeting as far as loads on their bodies and we follow it to a “T.” When they get close to where they want to be, our sports scientist comes up and says we need to get ready to start shutting it down, and we’ll do more mental reps if we haven’t gotten through everything as far as the game plan.”

For the Huskers, the game plan will be to continue playing with a large “X” on their back. As Nebraska has climbed in the national polls, they continue to back up the high ranking with high performances on the hardwood.

Nebraska's magical ride this season now has them ranked No. 7 nationally. | David Banks-Imagn Images

It’s led to the team earning a bump up to No. 7 in this week’s AP Poll, and both Hoibergs know it’s a bit tough to ignore at this point, but they also can’t let it get the better of them.

“It’s nice for our guys to get some recognition for what they’ve accomplished,” Fred Hoiberg admitted. “I’ve said they should enjoy the ride and everything that they’ve got going on right now, but you just talk to them every day about putting up their walls, putting up their barriers and not feeding into all the things that are being said. You’ve just got to continue to focus and that’s what I give our guys all the credit in the world (for).”

“We try not to think about that too much right now just because we have so many goals that we haven’t completed yet,” Sam Hoiberg echoed. “I kind of like to sit back and think about where I came from in this, as like being part of a program, and we lost I don’t remember how many Big Ten games in a row, but going from like 0-4 start or something in the Big Ten my freshman year to being 18-0 and off to the best start in school history – that’s an amazing feeling, and you don’t want to get too caught up in it right now because we have to keep improving.”

Their next chance at improvement comes Wednesday night with an 8 p.m. CST tip against Washington.

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