Nebraska Shows It’s a Team on the Road to Possible Greatness

Teams take many paths to greatness. What Nebraska did at Minnesota on Saturday afternoon is how a good team — a very good team — becomes great.

When a team defeats a quality opponent at a tough venue like Williams Arena, without one of their main players and three others with three fouls, and comes from behind to do it, you have a team taking their own gilded path to greatness.

The seventh-ranked Huskers, an astounding 20-0 on the season, showed all of this and more in their 76-57 win over the Golden Gophers. Nebraska trailed, 36-30, at the half, then outscored the stunned Gophers, 46-21.

“We challenged them. We challenged them hard at halftime,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said in a postgame news conference. “Championship teams respond the right way and that’s exactly what our guys did.

“I felt fortunate to only be down six at halftime … We didn’t play a great offensive game in that first half and we were only down two possessions. So that’s what I left it with. If we went out and turned it around and got it back to being who we are, we were gonna have a chance to win the game.”

Pryce Sandfort, stepping up again with valuable reserve Braden Frager out with a sprained ankle, scored 20 of his 22 points in that fateful second half.

Sandfort was so hot that after making yet another basket in the second half, gave the Michael Jordan shrug with his arms outstretched and a big smile to his bench and the large number of Nebraska fans in Minneapolis.

“We were going to keep going to him,” said Huskers guard Jamarques Lawrence, who had 14 points, five rebounds and five assists. “We keep believing in him.”

Sandfort also had a career-high 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“I thought we rebounded the ball well,” Hoiberg said. “I love Pryce. His 22 points is great, but the 10 rebounds, the four blocks, that shows toughness.”

Huskers’ all-around game

There was more to like about the Huskers. How about 24 assists on 29 baskets. And 48 percent shooting from the floor. Nebraska only had eight turnovers. Nebraska also made all nine of its foul shots.

“I think this team is very mature,” Huskers guard Sam Hoiberg said in a postgame news conference. “We’ve talked about that and I never felt any sort of panic in our body language. Coaches jumped us at halftime, thought they [Minnesota] were playing harder than us. That’s all it really was. There was no panic, though.”

And the Nebraska defense? Simply, it was terrific.

“I thought our defense was really on point,” Fred Hoiberg said.”That’s what I thought turned the game around. We weren’t taking the ball out of the net every time down the floor and we got Pryce loose finally after missing a couple.

“That’s the confidence he’s playing with right now. I think it was 0-for-4 or 5 to start and he got rolling and our guys did a really good job finding him.”

Minnesota shot 9-of-31 from distance (29 percent) and 21-of-53 from the floor (40 percent). The Huskers had eight blocks. They had five steals.

Sam Hoiberg scored 14 points in the first half. He finished with 14 points. Several times in his scoreless second half, the point guard had opportunities to drive and maybe force a shot. He didn’t. Instead, he kept the ball moving, hit the open man and the smooth-flowing offense cooking.

Nebraska outrebounded the Gophers, 39-31. “We ended up outrebounding them after being down at halftime,” Fred Hoiberg said.

“The good teams, they find a way. Things weren’t going great but again the second half, we’ve done a really good job coming out of the locker room and I just thought we played with so much more urgency.”

Nebraska guard Jamarques Lawrence celebrates his three-point basket against Minnesota during the second half. — Nebraska guard Jamarques Lawrence celebrates his three-point basket against Minnesota during the second half at Williams Arena. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Nebraska had excellent ball movement which led to so many open shots. And with so many excellent shooters, the Huskers are going knock down more than their share of open looks.

“The fact that they’ve done this now on the road a couple of times and just had that killer instinct,” Fred Hoiberg said. “It’s important to know you can do it.”

Now, Nebraska gets its possible season-defining game Tuesday at third-ranked Michigan.

“You know, I asked them the same question I always ask in the locker room,” Fred Hoiberg said. “Are you satisfied? To a man, they said no. And you know we got an unbelievable opportunity in front of us against what I think is arguably the best team in the country.”

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