Huskers Host Golden Gophers Saturday Afternoon

Nebraska completes a two-game homestand Saturday afternoon, as the Huskers host Minnesota. Tipoff from Pinnacle Bank Arena is set for 1 p.m. and the contest will be televised on BTN and carried on the Huskers Radio Network, as well as on Huskers.com and the Huskers app. The game will also be available on the Fox Sports App. 

Saturday is Stripe the Vault Day where fans are encouraged to wear red or white Husker gear to correspond with their section. Full details and seat maps are available on Huskers.com. Less than 100 tickets remain for the Saturday matinee and can be purchased by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets or at the PBA box office beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. 

Nebraska (17-11, 7-10 B1G) looks to bounce back following a 49-46 loss to No. 15 Michigan on Monday night. The Huskers held the Wolverines to just 29.5 percent shooting, but a cold-shooting night proved costly for the Huskers in their hopes to pull the upset. Despite shooting a season-low 26 percent, the Huskers had two good looks to take the lead or tie the game in the final 10 seconds of regulation but could not capitalize. 

The loss spoiled a strong performance from senior Brice Williams, who had a game-high 26 points for his ninth game this season with at least 25 points. Williams became the newest 1,000-point member at Nebraska on Monday, the 32nd player to reach that milestone. The senior guard is third in the Big Ten in scoring 19.6 points per game, including 20.2 ppg in Big Ten play. 

Minnesota (14-14, 6-11 Big Ten) looks to bounce back from a 75-63 loss to Northwestern on Tuesday. Dawson Garcia had a team-high 26 points and nine rebounds for the Gophers while Frank Mitchell added 10 points off the bench as the Gophers were held to 42 percent shooting. 

Numbers to Know
1 - Rollie Worster is one assist away from 500 for his career. He would be the first Husker basketball player to total 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists. 

43 - Nebraska had won 43 straight games when holding opponents to 60 points or less dating back to March 10, 2016, before the streak was snapped on Monday. 

2022-23 - Brice Williams and Minnesota's Lu'cye Patterson were teammates at Charlotte during the 2022-23 season. The pair helped the 49ers to a 22-14 record and CBI title that season.

14 - The 32 Huskers who have reached the 1,000-point mark at Nebraska come from 14 different states as well as Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Brice Williams is the second Husker 1,000-point scorer from North Carolina, joining Venson Hamilton, who scored 1,416 points from 1996 to 1999.

.600 - Over the last three-plus seasons, Nebraska has played some of its best basketball down the stretch, and NU was 4-3 in February with two losses coming to ranked teams. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, NU is 21-14 in Big Ten games after Feb. 1.

23.1 - Nebraska has gotten great production from its bench, averaging 23.1 points per game this season to rank fifth in the Big Ten.  Nebraska has gotten 25 double-figure efforts from its bench this season (Morgan-10, Essegian-12, Ulis-1; Worster-1; Meah-1). The Huskers led the Big Ten in bench production last season at 21.4 points per game.

Stripe the Vault
Saturday's game against Minnesota is the first Stripe the Vault game at Pinnacle Bank Arena since the 2017-18 season. Fans are encouraged to wear either red or white to correspond with their section and can find an updated seating map at https://go.unl.edu/stripeout.

Worth Noting
• Nebraska enters the weekend ranked No. 54 in the NET heading into Saturday's matchup with Minnesota as of Feb. 28.  Nebraska is currently one of 11 Big Ten teams in the top 55 of the NET on Feb. 26. All 18 teams are currently in the top 100 of the NET, including 16 in the top 75.

• Nebraska's NET strength of schedule is 25th nationally as of Feb. 27, which ranks fifth in the Big Ten. 

• Nebraska is now 4-4 against ranked opponents this season, as the four wins over ranked teams ties a school record done three other times in school

history. The 2024-25 season marks the third time in Fred Hoiberg's six seasons where NU played at least eight games against ranked opponents.  

• Nebraska has won multiple games against ranked foes in three of the past four years and is now 9-11 in its last 20 games against ranked teams dating back to March 1, 2022. 

• The Huskers allowed 49 points in Monday's loss to Michigan, the sixth time in 379 games against ranked opponents where NU allowed less than 50 points. It is the fewest NU has allowed to a ranked opponent since 2011 and only the third time in the last 40 years that NU held a ranked opponent under 50 points. 

• Fred Hoiberg will be looking to move into a tie for eighth place on Nebraska's career wins list on Saturday. Hoiberg has 80 wins at Nebraska and next up on the wins chart is his grandfather, Jerry Bush, who won 81 games between 1954-55 and 1962-63 Hoiberg is also five wins away from 200 career wins

• Brice Williams has played in 62 games at Nebraska, and he is averaging 19.7 ppg over his last 32 games dating back to the 2024 Big Ten Tournament. He has been in double figures in 30 of the last 32 contests, including 18 20-point games. Williams averaged just 12.5 ppg over his first 30 games at Nebraska in 2023-24.

• Williams saw his streak of six consecutive 20-point games end at Penn State on Feb. 19. It was the longest streak by a Husker since Tyronn Lue had seven straight 20-point effort in the 1997-98 season. The school record for 20-point games was set by Dave Hoppen, who had 10 straight during the 1984-85 season.

• Despite being held to a season-low 46 points against Michigan, Nebraska is averaging 74.6 points per game. It is on pace to be NU's second-highest scoring average since joining the Big Ten in 2011-12. NU has scored 70+ points 18 times, including nine games with at least 80 points.  Last season, NU averaged 77.7 points per game for 34 games, its highest offensive total since the 1995-96 season. 

• NU has relied on its depth with six players averaging at least 6.9 points per game. Eight players have posted double-figure efforts, while three players (Brice Williams, Connor Essegian and Juwan Gary) have recorded 20-point games.  Williams is the only Husker in the top 25 of the Big Ten in scoring as of Feb. 26.

• Nebraska posted its fifth double 20-point game of the season against Maryland on Feb. 13, as Juwan Gary (22) and Brice Williams (20) both went over the 20-point mark.  NU now has multiple players score 20+ points 16 times in Fred Hoiberg's six seasons.

• Andrew Morgan went 8-of-8 from the field against Penn State on Feb. 19, as his eight field goals without a miss in a conference game trailed only Venson Hamilton, who was 9-of-9 against Iowa State on Feb. 3, 1996. 

• Nebraska overcame a 20-point second-half deficit to win at Northwestern on Feb. 16. It was the largest deficit overcome by a Big Ten team in a conference game since Feb. 17, 2018, when Michigan State overcame a 27-point deficit at Northwestern at Allstate Arena. The 20-point comeback was NU's largest of the Big Ten era. 

•  Fred Hoiberg has 32 wins over ranked opponents, including 11 career wins against top-10 teams, in his collegiate coaching career. In addition, his five road wins against ranked opponents is second only to Danny Nee (seven) all-time among NU men's basketball coaches.

• Nebraska held Michigan to a season-low 0.71 points per possession (PPP) on Monday. It was NU's second-best effort of the season, as the Huskers held Southern to 0.66 PPP on Dec. 30.  NU is 12-1 when holding opponents to under one point per possession, but 5-10 when opponents are above 1.0 PPP. Nebraska had won its last 29 games dating back to the 2022-23 season when holding an opponent under 1.0 PPP before Monday's loss to the Wolverines. 

• On Jan. 26, Brice and his father, Henry, became the seventh father-son duo to combine for 4,000 career points at the college level. The pair is now sixth all-time following Monday's game with Michigan. Brice is over 1,800 career points, including 1,004 at Nebraska.  Henry Williams, who passed away in 2018, was Charlotte's all-time leading scorer with 2,383 career points.

 Father-Son Duos with 4,000 Points

No.	Father (College)	Years	Points	Son (College)	Years	Points	Total
1.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Stephen Curry (Davidson)	2006-09	2,635	5,024
2.	Mike Davis (Alabama)	1979-83	1,211	Antoine Davis (Detroit)	2018-23	3,664	4,875
3.	Steve Burtt Sr. (Iona)	1980-84	2,534	Steve Burtt Jr. (Iona)	2002-06	2,034	4,568
4.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Seth Curry (Duke/Liberty)	2009-13	2,101	4,490
5.	Steve Alford (Indiana)	1983-86	2,438	Bryce Alford (UCLA)	2013-17	1,922	4,360
6.	Henry Williams (Charlotte)	1988-92	2,383	Brice Williams (Charlotte/Nebraska)	2019-25	1,805	4,188
7.	Greg McDermott (Northern Iowa)	1984-88	1,033	Doug McDermott (Creighton)	2010-14	3,150	4,183

 

• Connor Essegian has been one of the Big Ten's best sixth men, as the junior guard enters Saturday's game with Minnesota averaging 10.5 points per contest. Essegian is one of only three Big Ten reserves currently averaging double figures while making five or fewer starts.

• Of Nebraska's 11 losses, seven were one-possession games within the last 45 seconds of regulation. 

• With its 17-11 record in 2024-25, Nebraska is 46-26 dating back to the start of February 2023. NU's .648 winning percentage is fifth among all Big Ten programs in that span. NU went just 33-80 from the start of the 2019-20 season until Feb. 1, 2023.

• Brice Williams is just the sixth Husker in the Big Ten era to have multiple 30-point games.  He had 30 points in the win over Indiana on Dec. 13 and tied his career high with 32 points against Hawai’i on Dec. 23. 

• Ahron Ulis dished out a career-high 10 assists on Jan. 19 at Maryland. It more than tripled his previous season high of three and marked the first time a Husker had 10 assists in a game since Alonzo Verge Jr. in 2022. 

 About Minnesota
Minnesota comes to Lincoln with a 14-14 record after falling to Northwestern on Tuesday. Ben Johnson is in his fourth season at the helm of the Golden Gopher program.  Johnson, who played at both Minnesota and Northwestern during his college career, guided the Gophers to 19 wins and an NIT appearance in 2023-24. Johnson has ties to NU, as he spent one season at Nebraska as an assistant coach under Tim Miles in 2012-13.

The Gophers have gone 6-5 in Big Ten action after opening conference play with six straight losses. Minnesota is 4-4 in road games, including a sweep of UCLA and USC, but just 2-7 at home. Minnesota features one of the Big Ten's top players in senior Dawson Garcia, who played at Marquette and North Carolina before returning to his home state. Garcia, a second-team All-Big Ten pick in 2024, is averaging a career-best 19.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. He leads the Big Ten in 20-point games with 16.  Charlotte transfer Lu'cye Patterson averages 11.5 points and 3.4 assists per game, while Mike Mitchell Jr. is at 9.5 ppg and has hit a team-high 46 3-pointers. 

Series History: Nebraska and Minnesota will meet for the 87th time on Saturday, which is the most between the Huskers and any other Big Ten member. It is NU’s longest-running series in the Big Ten, dating back to February of 1902. The Gophers lead the all-time series, 59-27, while the Huskers have won 12 of the past 18 meetings. The two teams split a pair of meetings last season with the home team prevailing which continues the series trend. The home team has won 17 of the past 19 meetings on campus dating back to March of 2012, with NU posting wins in Minneapolis in 2019 and 2023. Prior to joining the Big Ten in 2011-12, NU and Minnesota met in non-conference action every year from 1995 until 2004 after not playing for 16 years.