Stukenholtz: Nine Days in March

With Nebrasketball’s ninth chance to dance at hand, a look back at the program’s past, its place in March Madness lore, and what’s at stake in Oklahoma City.

Fred Hoiberg and the Huskers are on the verge of history. How did Nebrasketball get here? | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

March 13, 1998

It was a Friday, the second day of March Madness’ opening weekend. Events on the sports calendar don’t get much more fun than the Thursday and Friday first-round games of the NCAA Tournament. I first fell in love with it on this day when I rushed home from Mission Middle School in Bellevue and turned on the TV just in time to see 13-seed Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew bury 4-seed Ole Miss with a buzzer-beater, 70-69.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

March 16, 2017

One seemingly innocuous Friday game of a more recent tournament’s first weekend struck a certain chord in Lincoln, Nebraska. Even if you weren’t listening for it at the time, you know it well by now.

That day, Nebraska basketball’s historical futility became unique and damning. It happened when Northwestern beat Vanderbilt 68-66 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City for their first tourney win in school history. In their first-ever tourney game no less! With that, the Huskers were left behind.

The one and only power conference program to have never won a single game in the big dance.

Accomplishing such a feat has required an exasperating combination of poor institutional support, plenty of bad basketball teams, a few great players who simply fell short, a handful of well-meaning coaches, and some plain old bad luck.

Nebraska has played basketball in a major conference every year since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1939. Before this season, they were selected for the field of 64/65/68 just eight times: 1986, 1991-1994, 1998, 2014, and 2024. And, of course, the Huskers are 0-8. A first-round exit every time.

The odds of winning and losing most first-round games, especially where Nebraska has usually been seeded, are fairly even. But to lose all eight? It’s kind of hard to do that. There are some bad basketball programs in power conferences out there. Think of one…yep, they have won a game before, probably more than you think.

Rienk Mast was a part of the 2024 squad that fell 98-83 to Texas A&M. Now he has a second chance in Oklahoma City. | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

So, what exactly does it mean that NU has never tasted a tourney dub? How bad is it?

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Back in 1939, the NCAA Tournament began with only eight teams, and the NIT was just as important. The field doubled to 16 teams in 1951. Two years later another round was added, and the field varied between 22 and 28 teams for a couple decades. By 1975, a full first round of 32 teams was in place.

March 26, 1979

The 1979 tournament is widely considered to be March Madness’ modern origin story, mostly due to the clash of future NBA superstars in the championship game that day. There were 40 teams in the ’79 tourney, they were all seeded for the first time – 1 through 10 across four regions – and 16 played in a new first round that created the six-step bracket we know today. Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores in Salt Lake City in the final, 75-64. Thus began the cultural explosion of “The Big Dance.”

From 1980-1984 the field expanded again, first introducing 11 and 12 seeds in a 48-team bracket, then experimenting with the first “play-in games” in ’83 and ’84. Finally, 1985 gave us an even 64 teams with six rounds over three glorious weekends in March and April.

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Each trip to the tournament for Nebraska has been in the 64+ team era. Ample opportunity for just about any team to win, and almost every team has.

There are 82 teams I’ll count in the recent consensus top six conferences: Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, ACC, and Pac-12 (RIP). That includes legacy Pac-12 leftovers Oregon State and Washington State, recent Big 12 newcomers BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF, new ACC member SMU, as well as South Florida, who played in the Big East for eight seasons.

SMU joined the ACC in 2024-25, coming over from the American. While their tournament wins date back to 1988 or earlier, they still count. Plus, they claim a 30-win season and top-10 ranking in the last 10 years.

USF used to be in the never-won-a-game club Nebraska and Northwestern occupied. The Bulls had not won a single tourney game until 2012, when they made the First Four and won two games as a Big East member. They moved to the American Conference in 2013, but even they have done what Nebraska has not.

Pryce Sandfort will play a big part if Nebraska is to join every other power conference school with a win in the NCAA Tournament. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Of the 82 power conference programs, 81 have at least one win. 80 have at least two wins. 75 reached the Sweet 16 at some point since 1979, and of those 75 schools, 62 have done it in the last 20 years. Eighty-three percent have played on the second weekend in late March just within the last two decades – could you imagine Nebraska getting there?

This year, St. John’s, Georgia, and Iowa are in the field with a chance of making the Sweet 16 for the first time since the late '90s. TCU getting there would be their first since 1968. UCF and USF, both in this year’s tournament, have never made the second weekend, both only ever seeing the second round one time each.

Finally, 65 power programs hang a Final Four banner in their rafters. Fifteen of those predate the 1979 birth of the modern NCAA Tournament, but that’s still 50 teams with not just a single win, but four wins in two weeks against some of the best competition they see all season. Sixty-one percent with a modern-day Final Four, including South Carolina, whose four wins in 2017 are their only tourney wins since 1974! If they could do it…

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Now that we have sufficiently defined how common it is for big schools to win – even multiple times – in the dance, just how close has Nebraska come?

March 14, 1986

The Huskers’ first NCAA Tournament game predates the 3-point line. The 9th-seeded Huskers took their first-ever NCAA Tournament lead on 8-seed Western Kentucky 14-13 on a Harvey Marshall three-point play. NU trailed the Hilltoppers 33-26 at the break and by as many as 18 points in the second half. Though Nebraska cut the deficit down to four, they ultimately lost 67-59 in Charlotte. Eight points is still the second-smallest margin of defeat in the Huskers' NCAA Tournament history.

If they'd had Dave Hoppen, maybe that 1986 season could have ended differently. Alas, Hoppen, still Nebraska’s all-time leading scorer, suffered a knee injury in early February that ended his college career.

Oh yeah, and head coach Moe Iba resigned after that 1986 loss to WKU. Like, that night! His resignation gave way to the most successful Husker head coach, Danny Nee, who led NU to five NCAA Tournament bids, including four in a row in the early '90s.

The Huskers’ closest result was their next March Madness trip in 1991. Heavy favorites in Minneapolis as the 3-seed against 14-seed Xavier, NU trailed most of the way but were in front 72-71 with 7:00 remaining. They relinquished that lead on Xavier’s next possession, Clifford Scales committed a pair of costly turnovers late, and the Musketeers pulled off the upset, 89-84. Coached by Pete Gillen, Xavier had played in each of the previous five tournaments, made the Sweet 16 in the year prior, and lost to the eventual national champion in the first round in both 1988 (Kansas) and 1989 (Michigan). Nebraska’s best team that won a school-record 26 games fell short when it mattered most.

Since then, it’s been a grab bag of mostly blowouts. In Cincinnati, 9-seed UConn beat them by 21, 86-65, in 1992. The next year in Syracuse, it was 7th-seeded New Mexico State by 14, 93-79. While they were still coming up short in the postseason, Nee’s teams were becoming consistent enough to become almost a March Madness regular.

March 13, 1994

After defeating eventual No.-1 seed Mizzou in the semifinals, Nebraska won the Big 8 Tournament final 77-68 over Oklahoma State at Kemper Arena in Kansas City – still their only conference tournament championship. Their reward as a 6-seed? Play a 23-2 Penn team just 150 miles away from their campus in Philadelphia at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. The Quakers took down Nebraska 90-80.

After a four-year hiatus, Nee got the Huskers back in the dance in 1998, but as their lowest seed yet. Sent up to Boise, 11-seed Nebraska drew 6-seed Arkansas and their “40 minutes of hell” pressure. Nebraska actually led 40-33 at halftime, the only NCAA tournament matchup in which they have held the advantage at the break. A Cookie Belcher three-pointer gave the Big Red a 10-point lead at 47-37, which is also NU’s largest lead in any tourney game. The Huskers led 59-58 before an Arkansas triple with just over four minutes to go gave the Razorbacks the lead for good. Arkansas hit their free throws and escaped 74-65.

Again an 11-seed in 2014, Nebraska got beat down by Baylor, 74-60, at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The Huskers put up a measly 16 first-half points, a program worst in the tournament. Not only was it never close, but Tim Miles was issued his second technical foul and ejected for pointing out a shot clock error. That embarrassing loss 12 years ago was NU’s last appearance on the March Madness stage until…

Sam Hoiberg and Jamarques Lawrence both played smaller parts in NU's tourney loss to Texas A&M in 2024. Now they are in leading roles for this record-breaking 2025-26 team. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

March 22, 2024

The day Nebrasketball fans invaded Beale Street in Memphis was supposed to be the day. Fred Hoiberg was destined to complete the turnaround, from back-to-back seven-win seasons to a March Madness win. They did get off to a hot start offensively. In fact, NU’s 44 first-half points were the most before halftime of an NCAA tourney game in school history. Only problem was Texas A&M’s 58 first-half points were the most allowed in any half of their soon-to-be eight losses. The Aggies kept a desperate scarlet-clad crowd at arm’s length the entire way in a 98-83 win over the still hapless Huskers.

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Nebraska has been a 3-seed, a 6, an 8 two times, a 9, a 10, and twice an 11. They have played, and lost, games in Cincinnati and Charlotte, Minneapolis and Memphis, New York State outposts Syracuse and Uniondale, along with Boise and San Antonio. Betting lines have incorrectly favored NU three times and rightly pegged them as underdogs in the five other losses.

Locked and loaded in the 2026 bracket as a 4-seed against Troy in relatively nearby Oklahoma City, the Huskers have a chance to further an already historic season. Twenty-six wins tied 1990-91 for most ever at NU, and their second-place finish in the Big Ten is the best conference season since winning the Big 7 in 1950. The 20-0 start to the season blew away the previous school record of 10-0 in 1977-78.

March 31, 2025

Starting with NU’s 86-78 victory over Arizona State in Las Vegas’ College Basketball Crown tournament – the first of four wins and a championship to end 2024-25 – the Huskers won 24 straight games. That bested the 1990-91 team’s 14-in-a-row run for the most consecutive wins in school history.

NU claimed more conference wins than ever with a 15-5 Big Ten record. They climbed as high as fifth in the AP poll, their highest ranking ever, and spent eight weeks in the top 10, doubling their previous total of four, all from 1966. They ended the regular season ranked 11th in the AP poll, tying 1990-91 for Nebrasketball’s highest-ever finish.

The list of program ‘firsts’ and ‘first time in a long times’ achieved in this 2025-26 season is long and distinguished. On Thursday, we could witness the ultimate first of taking a single step forward along everyone’s bracket.

This is not a matchup breakdown or tale of the tape. It is, however, a table setter for what Thursday could mean to so many. This potential first tournament win would be the ultimate payoff for anyone who gave their heart to one of the worst teams to support in America. The Cubs and the Red Sox have won the World Series, so why can’t Nebraska make some positive March memories for a change? Sure there will be plenty of casuals hopping on the “hey, Nebraska basketball is actually in the tournament this year?” bandwagon, but there are a bunch of you out there who have suffered through bottom of the Big 12 – or even Big 8 – finishes and long, frigid walks to and from your ride in the winter slop outside the Devaney Center.

Cale Jacobsen walked on at Nebraska. Now he's an important rotational player on a team making history. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Why could this ninth attempt be different? Not since the early-'90s Danny Nee teams have there been Nebrasketball players making a return trip to the dance with a chance to make it right. Four of the eight rotation regulars played in the 2024 loss to Texas A&M – Rienk Mast, who started and played 29 minutes on a painful left knee that would soon require surgery that took his entire 24-25 season; Jamarques Lawrence, NU’s then-6th man who came off the bench in what could have been his last game as a Husker before transferring to Rhode Island after the loss, only to return this season; Sam Hoiberg, who filled up the stat sheet with one missed 3-pointer and two fouls in 11 minutes; and Cale Jacobsen, one of the last guys on the bench, only in the game for the last two minutes so seniors Josiah Allick and Keisei Tominaga could get one last ovation from the pro-Husker crowd.

Now Mast, Lawrence, and Hoiberg start, and Jacobsen plays a vital, calming reserve role for a 4-seed with a single-minded focus on ending the most bizarre winless spell in major college sports.

A win would cement the 2025-26 Huskers as the best team in school history – if they’re not already. It would also validate all the other influencers that brought this version of Husker Hoops to this moment. I’m talking about Derrick Walker and Sam Griesel, Josiah Allick and Juwan Gary, Brice Williams and Keisei Tominaga, guys who were instrumental to the turnaround under Fred Hoiberg but exhausted their eligibility before this season.

These teams leave an impression on their followers forever. And, if you follow Nebrasketball, you can probably single out your own origin story. My Dad introduced me to Husker Hoops by driving us from Bellevue to Lincoln for an overtime win over Kansas State in 1997. I remember watching from up high on an old Devaney bench as Tyronn Lue hit some late free throws to ice the game.

March 9, 2014

My friend Jeff and I are driving down to OKC Wednesday morning. We attended No Sit Sunday together 12 years ago which, despite it being a 77-68 regular-season win over #9 Wisconsin in Lincoln as an unranked team, is probably NU’s most famous win of this century. Maybe soon it can be relegated to second place (or possibly third?) on our all-time Nebrasketball “I was there” list.

If it finally happens, call your parent or family member who took you to your first game, or your friend who made you watch some random meaningless Barry Collier-era game in the early 2000s. Reach out to your college buddies who you camped out overnight with in the bowels of the Devaney Center so you could heckle future professional KU players from the front row of the student section.

All the ugly history, all the unceremonious dismissals of this program can be wiped away within 40 minutes on Thursday. I hope for Kent Pavelka’s sake that this is it – and that he meets the moment on the air in this season of seasons. I hope we get an all-timer of a ‘Nebrasketball Hour’ postgame show from Jack & Kaleb. Former Husker greats new and old – James Palmer, Jr., Terran Petteway, Eric Piatkowski, Brian Carr – they all deserve one shining moment this March.

Berke Buyuktuncel has grown into an every game starter and is an X-factor for Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Most importantly, this team has earned the right to do the thing. They are talented and disciplined and relentless and well-coached. They have played more together from the first tipoff than maybe any team in the country. And, as a 4-vs.-13 game usually looks, NU is favored to beat Troy. Rienk Mast’s leadership and versatility are tough to match. Pryce Sandfort’s lights-out shooting is breathtaking. Sam Hoiberg is the best at all the little things. Jamarques Lawrence is lightning-quick on the fast break. Berke is a showman and a wild card. Braden Frager, Cale Jacobsen, and Jared Garcia have all embraced their roles off the bench and taken turns in the spotlight.

Everyone – including the casuals – will hear the answer to the trivia question either by tip-off or during the TV broadcast. Most already know. Only one team from a major conference has never won in the tournament. How is that possible? This 2026 game will be the program’s ninth day in March with a chance to make history. They’ve gotta win one eventually, right?

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One last thing before revealing day number nine: in researching this piece, I learned where the ’98 Valpo-Ole Miss game that clinched my obsession with March Madness was played.

Oklahoma City.

There is, of course, another game being played in that same city on…

March 19, 2026

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