Huskers Head to Sioux Falls to Face Gaels on Sunday

The Nebraska men's basketball team faces its toughest test of the young campaign on Sunday afternoon, as the Huskers travel to Sioux Falls, S.D., for a matchup with the Saint Mary's (Calif.) Gaels. Tipoff at the Sanford Pentagon is set for Noon. A limited number of tickets are available and can be purchased on Ticketmaster.com.  The game will be shown on BTN and carried on the Huskers Radio Network.

Nebraska (3-0) comes off its best performance of the season in an 86-60 win over FDU on Wednesday. Juwan Gary led NU with 19 points and a career-high five assists, while Berke Büyüktuncel (12) and Brice Williams (10) also finished in double figures for the Big Red. NU showed its depth with seven players scoring at least eight points, as Nebraska's bench out-scored FDU, 29-5 in the win despite being without Braxton Meah, who missed the game because of an injury.

The Huskers have relied on their veterans, as seniors Brice Williams (15.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg) and Juwan Gary (13.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg) lead a balanced Husker attack. Seven of NU's top nine scorers are seeing their first action for Nebraska, which won 23 games last year and reached the NCAA Tournament.

Nebraska has been very good defensively, forcing 19.7 turnovers per game to rank third in the Big Ten, while holding all three of its opponents to under 0.9 points per possession. NU has also done a good job of keeping its opponents off the foul line, allowing just 9.0 free throw attempts per game.

Saint Mary's (3-0) comes off an 87-68 win over Akron on Tuesday. The Gaels got a game-high 18 points from Mikey Lewis to pace five players in double figures while Augustas Marciulionis had 11 points and 11 assists without a turnover. Saint Mary's also got double-doubles from both Paulius Murauskas (17 points, 15 rebounds) and Mitchell Saxen (11 points, 11 rebounds) as the Gaels out-rebounded Akron, 55-26.

Numbers to Know

2.5-to-1 - Nebraska had 20 assists and a season-low eight tunovers on Wednesday. Its team assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.5-to-1 was its best since Jan. 23, 2024 against OSU (3.17-to-1).

1 - Fifth-year senior Rollie Worster is the only Husker who has faced Saint Mary's in his college career. Worster tied for ateam-high honors with 17 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in Utah's 78-71 win in Moraga on Nov. 28, 2023.

24 - Nebraska has won 24 straight games dating back to the 2022-23 season when holding an opponent to under 70 points. Over the last two-plus years, NU is 30-2 (.938) when holding an opponent to below 70 points.

26.0 - Nebraska has gotten great production fron its bench in the early going, averaging 26.0 points per game over the first three games. The Huskers led the Big Ten in bench production last season, averaging 21.4 points per game.

27 - Nebraska has won 27 straight games when out-rebounding its opponent dating back to Nov. 27, 2022, against Florida State. The Huskers were 16-0 in 2023-24 season when out-rebounding foes.

.941 - Nebraska is 16-1 at home in non-conference play over the last two-plus seasons and is 29-9 (.757) at home in non-conference action in Fred Hoiberg's six seasons at Nebraska.

Scouting Saint Mary's

One of the premier programs on the West Coast, Saint Mary's comes to Sioux Falls with a 3-0 record after posting wins over Towson, Chattanooga and Akron. The Gaels won the West Coast Conference last year with a 15-1 mark and finished with a 26-8 record and NCAA Tournament appearance long-time coach Randy Bennett. Under Bennett, the Gaels have been to three straight NCAA Tournaments and have made the postseason every season since 2007-08, except for the 2019-20 season which was ended early because of the pandemic.

The Gaels were picked to finish second in the expanded WCC, which added Pac-12 members Oregon State and Washington State for a two-year period this season. The Geals have two of the top players in the WCC in seniors Augustas Marciulionis and Mitchell Saxen, both of whom were first-team all-conference picks in 2023-24.  Marciulionis (12.4 points, 5.3 assists in 2023-24), who was voted the WCC’s Player of the Year, is averaging 16.0 points, 8.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game while Sexton is at 8.3 ppg and 4.7 rpg. Murauskas, an Arizona transfer, is averaging a team-best 18.0 ppg and 13.0 rpg.

Sunday's meeting will be the third all-time matchup between the schools and first since 1975-76 season. The teams split the previous two meetings, with NU winning 68-57 on Dec. 10, 1975, and Saint Mary's winning the inaugural contest, 58-54, on Dec. 17, 1946.

Last Time Out

Juwan Gary scored a season-high 19 points and dished out a career-high five assists, as Nebraska topped FDU, 86-60, Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Gary led three Huskers in double figures with his 19-point night to pace three in double figures, it was NU’s depth that shined in the win. NU got 29 points from its bench, including eight apiece from Gavin Griffiths and Ahron Ulis, as NU’s bench enjoyed a 29-5 advantage in the win.

Berke Büyüktuncel joined Gary in double figures with 12 points, along with seven rebounds and three assists, while Brice Williams had 10 points, including five straight in a 13-2 Husker run after FDU pulled to within nine points with just over 11 minutes remaining.

Nebraska was opportunistic, turning 17 Knights turnovers into 28 points as NU held FDU to 60 points, nearly 25 points below its season average.

Terrence Brown led the Knights (1-3) with a game-high 23 points.

Notes from the FDU Game

*- Nebraska has won 15 straight games at home dating back to last season.

*- Juwan Gary recorded season bests in points (19), assists (five), blocked shots (two), free throws made (seven) and attempted (eight). Gary’s assists and free throws were both career highs.

*- Nebraska finished with a season-high 20 assists and a season-low eight turnovers. Its 20 assists marked NU’s highest assist total since the 2024 Big Ten Tournament against Indiana.

*- Nebraska went on a 10-0 run in the first half, its second double-digit run of the season.

*- Berke Büy  üktuncel finished with a season-high 12 points and matched career bests in both rebounds (seven) and assists (three). It is the third straight game he has grabbed at least six rebounds.

*- Brice Williams finished with 10 points and has now been in double figures in seven straight games, which matches the longest stretch of his Huskers career.

*- Cale Jacobsen saw his first action of the season and set career bests in rebounds (four) and assists (assists) in a stint of 5:04 in the first half. Jacobsen finished with a +12 in 6:44 of game time.

*- Nebraska held FDU to 60 points, well under its 84.7 ppg average in its first three games.

Painting Sioux Falls Red This Weekend

For the second straight year, Nebraska will be playing a neutral-site game at the Sanford Pentagon when the Huskers take on Saint Mary's. It will be a busy Husker basketball weekend, as the Sanford Pentagon will host a women's basketball matchup between Nebraska and South Dakota on Saturday night.  The Husker men are 2-0 in the building, which hosted its first college game on Nov. 8, 2013. That was also the date of the first game at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.  NU defeated Oklahoma State, 94-75, on Dec. 16, 2018, and topped Oregon State, 84-63 on Nov. 18, 2023.  A near capacity crowd of 3,200 is expected as tickets went quickly once they went on sale in September.

Worth Noting

*- Nebraska has relied on its depth during the early going. The Huskers have had six different players post  double-figure nights while only Brice Williams has reached double figures in all three contests. In addition, three others have scored at least eight points at least once of the first three games. At 15.0 ppg, Williams is the only Husker in the top 20 of the Big Ten in scoring entering this weekend's action.

*- Sophomore Berke Büyüktuncel has been a factor for the Huskers in the opening two weeks of the season. The 6-foot-10 sophomore leads NU in rebounding (6.7 rpg) while chipping in 8.0 ppg on a team-high 56 percent shooting. Büyüktuncel has tied or set career bests in rebounding in each of *- NU's three games after not grabbing more than five in a game last year at UCLA. He has also tied or set career highs in assists, blocks and steals in the first three games.

*- Nebraska has trailed for a grand total of 12:14 during its first three games. NU trailed for just 19 seconds in Wednesday's win over FDU.

*- Braxton Meah could make his 50th career start on Sunday vs. Saint Mary's. Meah had his best game of the year with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and four rebounds against Bethune-Cookman but missed Wednesday's game with an injury. A fifth-year senior, Meah did not start a game in his first two college seasons.

*- The Huskers are third in the Big Ten in free throw percentage at 77.5 percents, going 69-89 from the foul line this season. Last season, Nebraska shot 76.0 percent from the line, its highest percentage from the charity stripe since the 2011-12 team set a school record with a 76.6 free throw percentage.

*- One area where Nebraska has excelled early on is converting on opponent turnovers. Nebraska has averaging 25.0 points per game off opponent turnovers in the first three games, while opponents have totaled just 30 points off Husker miscues in the first three contests.

With its 3-0 start, Nebraska improved to 32-14 over the last 46 games dating back to the start of February 2023. NU's .696 winning percentage is second only to Purdue in that stretch.

*- Nebraska has averaged 10.0 steals per game over the first three games of the season to rank fourth in the Big Ten. Juwan Gary (2.67, third), Rollie Worster (2.33, eighth) and Sam Hoiberg (2.0, 11th) are all averaging at least two steals per contest. Gary had a career-best five steals against Bethune Cookman, which marked the ninth time a Husker has had at least five steals in a game under Fred Hoiberg.

*- Nebraska enters Saturday's game averaging 78.67 points per game. The Huskers had scored 80-or-more points in five straight games before the streak was snapped against Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 9. It marked the first time NU had scored 80-or-more points in five consecutive games since a 10-game stretch between Nov. 25-Dec. 19, 1995.

*- Nebraska enters the 2024-25 season coming off one of its most successful seasons in program history. The Huskers went 23-11 in 2023-24 and tied for third in the Big Ten standings before reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013-14. The Huskers’ 23 wins were the most since setting a school-record with 26 wins in 1990-91, while NU’s 12 conference wins also ranked second in school history.

*- Nebraska has increased its win total in each of the past three years, marking the first time NU has done that since the mid-1960s (1963-64 to 1965-66). If Nebraska can improve its win total this year, it would mark the first time since a four-year stretch from 1945-46 to 1948-49 that the Huskers improved their win total in four consecutive seasons. According to BTN Research, Nebraska was one of four teams nationally and the only team in a power conference to improve its win total by at least six games in each of the past two seasons

(2022-23 and 2023-24). The others are James Madison, Lamar and South Florida.

*- Over the past two seasons, NU has won 21 conference games, the highest two-year total since the 1965-66 and 1966-67 teams won 22 conference tilts. The last two seasons under Fred Hoiberg mark just the fourth time in school history that Nebraska has won 20 or more conference games in a two-year span.

*- Nebraska was one of 24 teams nationally that finished in the top 50 both in offensive and defensive efficiency in KenPom. NU was one of four Big Ten programs to accomplish that in 2023-24, joining Purdue, Wisconsin and Michigan State.   It marked the first time that Nebraska has been ranked in the top 50 in both offensive and defensive efficiency in the KenPom era (1996-97).

*- Nebraska made its biggest jump on the offensive end in 2023-24, averaging 77.7 points per game. It is an increase of nearly nine points per game from the 2022-23 campaign and NU’s highest scoring average since 1995-96 (80.2 ppg). NU climbed from 149th to 32nd nationally in offensive efficiency in KenPom. Prior to last season, NU’s highest average since joining the Big Ten was 73.3 ppg in 2021-22.  The Huskers are 25-8 under Fred Hoiberg when scoring at least 80 points, including 20-5 over the last three seasons.

*- Jack McVeigh became the 16th Husker to play in the NBA as he made his debut in Houston's win over San Antonio on Nov. 6. McVeigh, who played professionally in Australia and Germany, played three seasons at Nebraska from 2016-18. McVeigh scored his first career points at Oklahoma City on Nov. 8.

Williams Looks to Build on Postseason Success

Senior guard Brice Williams looks to build in his postseason success of a year ago as he begins his final college season. The 6-foot-7 senior proved to be a go-to scorer in the Huskers' postseason run, averaging 23.3 points per game during the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments.

His 23.3 ppg after the end of the regular season is the highest by a returning Big Ten player entering 2024-25. Of the seven players who averaged 20+ ppg in the postseason, he is the only one back at a Big Ten school this season.

Williams has more 20-point games in three postseason games (three) than in 31 regular-season games (two) during 2023-24.

This season, Williams leads the Huskers in scoring at 15.7 points per game and has reached double figures in all three contests.  He has now reached double figures in each of the last seven games dating back to last year, matching his longest streak at Nebraska.

He opened the season with a 27-point effort against UTRGV. It was Williams' high in his Husker career and five points off his collegiate career best. Williams' 27-point night was one of the highest opening night totals in the last 25 years.

Gary Returns as Huskers' Glue Guy

One luxury Nebraska has is the return of senior forward Juwan Gary. The 6-foot-6 senior from Columbia, S.C, has shown the ability to stuff a stat sheet, but revels in doing the little things to help NU be successful. 

Gary comes into Sunday's game with Saint Mary's averaging 13.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 2.0 assists per game. He leads the Huskers in steals and assists and is second in scoring and rebounding.  He comes off a 19-point, five-assist effort against FDU on Wednesday. His five assists were a career high while he also went 7-of-8 from the foul line. Gary showed his versatility in the win over Bethune-Cookman, as he led NU in points (11), rebounds (nine) and steals (five).

It continues a trend of Huskers making significant third-year jumps under Hoiberg, as Keisei Tominaga (2024) and Derrick Walker (2023) both earned All-Big Ten honors in their third year at Nebraska after transferring into the program.  Last season, Gary averaged a career-best 11.6 points per game on nearly 50 percent from the floor. He tallied 16 double-doubles after posting 20 during his first four collegiate seasons.