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I just want to shout-out Juwan Gary. He plays with an edge and consistently makes winning plays. When UCLA was trying to come back and steal it at the end, it was Gary who slammed the door shut. It was also Gary who knocked down a couple 3s, forcing UCLA to guard him, which helped open up the floor for Brice to get to the rim (and get fouled). I do tire of some fans complaining about him taking 3s. His shot has obviously improved, and is to the point where he should be taking 3-5 open/rhythm 3s per game. The threat of him shooting opens things up for everyone. He just shouldn't try to make a living out there, and he hasn't. Gary is a program-changer, and I don't think we will understand just how valuable he is to this program until he's gone. I'd love to see the record of games with Gary in the lineup versus the same number of games without him.

Since I gave up my season tickets, Nebraska is 28-1 at home. You're welcome.

The turnaround by Hoiberg is remarkable. Simply astounding, tbh.

I mean when Cale Jacobsen can come in to a game like this to give you spot minutes and you don't feel terribly concerned about it, that's when you know you have a deep team.

I thought Connor would struggle today because I thought UCLA's quickness and physicality would bother him. I was wrong on that. He handled that part very well and was still impactful with 3 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. His defense is coming along. Offensively, he was patient and didn't really force anything. He got 6 good looks, they just didn't fall today. But he didn't let that negatively impact the rest of his game.

We’re a real PITA to play. This particular roster is exotic. Very long, deceptively athletic, and smart. It’s likely the best FT shooting team we’ve ever had. Just wanted to shout out Morgan who was a friggin dude this game. He and Sam were awesome. Brice didn’t shoot well against UCLA’s elite defense but he got to the line 12 times and made 11. That’s what pros do. Also, I’m not sure anyone could watch Connor’s play and not see an enormous improvement defensively. Being able to hold his own makes us almost unbeatable if he’s shooting well. Hell of a win. We should be ranked.

I realize the difficulty to sustain championship level intensity throughout the full season. Typically there will be bad games. We had a bad first half against St. Mary's and the Michigan State debacle. But man, if we can lock in like we did today, AND shoot the ball like we are capable, we are going to be viable team come March.

Fox was gushing over the UCLA defense before the game. Nebraska: Hold my beer

Really hopeful to be dancing this year. #GBR Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Keisei !!!!!!!

We are 16-1 in our last 17 conference home games -- in the 42 games before that, we were 10-32 at home in B1G games. We won our 12th straight B1G home game at PBA Saturday, which is a new arena record. Won 11 B1G games in a row in 2017-18 and 2018-19 and won 8 in a row in 2013-14.

Murray State got it done. Very nice, that will help us some.

Great win today. Very gutty performance against a solid team. Very good crowd as well - especially for a game without students. Agree with the comment made above about what I would have said about our chances without Connor making a shot. Thought he actually had better shot selection today - but they just wouldn't fall. But he played hard and impacted the game anyway. Really everyone that played made a solid contribution today. Special mention though to Brice and Juwan who are the leaders and difference makers that get us to this level. Also one of Sam's best games as a Husker. He just really has a knack for finding a way to impact the game. Really fun to be a Husker fan when we are playing so well at home like we have been the last couple years - especially with the effort these teams put out on the defensive end.

I just love that ex Huskers are coming to this awesome board! Keep them coming and providing amazing insight. Loved watching you Steve!

Probably sad to leave the Nebraska weather.

If you told me Conner would not hit a three and we would win I would have told you that you were nuts. UCLA is as advertised defensively. We had to work for every hoop. They were so solid, reminded me of the Virginia team from a few years ago. Coach did a nice job of getting Brice to the ft line in the second half with some different looks. Hope Brice keeps getting the Michael Jordan treatment by the refs by never getting called for pushing off with the off hand to clear space. Outstanding free throw shooting. Berke at times tried to do a little too much against his old team but sent a message to both teams that NU was a physical team. Sam made Sam plays, Rollie made Rollie plays and Juwan made a huge Juwan play down the stretch. I thought we got some calls today and I'm not going to complain! Way to hold service at home, now let's get that conference road win.

In order to win this game Nebraska needed to win the turnover battle, get to the foul line, and win the rebounding battle. The Huskers did all three. Our game planning and execution have been phenomenal all year. Brice and Connor combined 2-18 from the field and we still won by 8. It’s also good to win in front of all the alumni that were back. Go Big Red!

It's a good thing we got some practice reps against Creighton then. Should be well prepared for this game now.

Football season ended last week

I started to get some Husker Hoops PTSD with about 4 min left. Where'd that 13 point lead disappear to? And it's like, not this shit again. But, we pulled it out. Players made plays. Rollie, Andrew, Sam and Brice hit some clutch free throws. And we beat the spread on a day when we shot like crap. This wasn't quite a must-win but winning it sure takes some pressure off down the road.

We won the game but I'm not sure we deserved it after blowing a 17 point lead.

Prince passes off way too much.she needs to take the shot instead of going for an assist.

It’s really remarkable from game 1 to 14 how much essegian has bought into the defensive concepts and just the effort needed to stay on the floor. Goes 0 for 6 from 3 on 6 pretty good looks but yet his biggest impact on the game may have been how he effects spacing just by being on the floor.

I don't mind him taking them for all the reasons in your post. He's earned the right. Obviously worked hard at it too. But damn his shot looks like 1/2 of the McDonald's Arch.

Agreed with all this, he's statistically the 3rd-best 3-point shooter on the team and it's not close. I want to shout-out Sam Hoiberg. Yes he makes game-changing plays, we all know what he does out there. But I think it's extremely underrated how watching him play inspires other guys on our team to give the same effort/focus. Wisconsin fans said Connor Essegian wouldn't play defense and wouldn't care on that side of the ball. Now he may not ever be the best or smartest defender, but a large of part of defense is just caring. And right now Essegian clearly cares out there and is trying his best and it showed yesterday, even when his shot wasn't falling. +24 in an 8-point game against a top-15 team when he had 2 points? That's crazy considering he's supposed to be a liability on the other end of the floor. Coaches and Connor deserve credit for that, but ultimately great teams need players like Sam, who at "6-0" are out there busting their tails with no excuses. New players like Connor and Gavin who needed to pick up their play on defense have to be watching that every game and thinking "if he can do all that, why shouldn't I be?"

One thing that has not been mentioned much that might be the most important reason we won the game was the horrible shooting by UCLA from three. Our defense will give you some open threes but you better make them. The thing about our D is the shots we give up might be open but are not always in rhythm and not by the person they want to shoot the shot.

Even though Essegian didn't make a shot, his presence opened up the driving lanes. We couldn't get anything going when Meah was in there - the lane was too clogged. Not his fault - this just wasn't a game where his skills fit well. Once Essegian was on the floor, though, it all opened up. Quick back-of-the-napkin math, but I think we only scored 15 points in the 15 minutes Meah was on the floor. Again, not a criticism of his abilities, but just not a game that fit his skills well. Essegian being on the floor changed how we could attack them significantly.

Arguably, Sam’s best two games as a Husker and ones where he’s made the biggest impact is an upset of UCLA and and upset of #1 Purdue. Thats quite the role player resume right there.

Jesus Brando, “I love coming here to Nebraska, here’s why UCLA makes it so special”. It’s frustrating not getting respect, but it’ll make it sweeter when it comes.

This team is dangerous. 1. Point guard play matters. We have that this year. 2. As much as I love(d) Tominaga, Wilcher, and Mast….our team defense is significantly better without them. We close out faster and rebound better. Defense and point guard play both travel and matter in March. Make the NCAA Tournament this year and I think our history of bad fortune comes to an end.

Small man with small man syndrome. I would play the tiniest violin but I think it'd fit him better.

The eternal optimist inside me says we have 3 B1G road wins in 2025. Might as well start Tuesday.

Here’s what we have left Photo Creds: https://bracketologists.com/team/nebraska-cornhuskers

Let's go & beat Iowa in Iowa City, that's what is on my mind at the moment. GBR

In order to win 3 of our first 5 league games we need to pick up a road win at either Iowa or Purdue. I'll say Iowa is most likely. Be nice to get one of them. To win 3 of the next 5, we have winnable home games against Rutgers and USC. We also face a ranked Illinois team at home. And then two road tilts at Maryland and Wisconsin. Be nice hold serve at home and to win in Madison. Our third 5 features road contests at Oregon, Washington and Northwestern sandwiched around two home games against Ohio State and Maryland. That'll be tough to find three wins, but @Washington and the two at home seem the most likely opportunities. Final five is our chance to really finish strong: Three at home with Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa all coming to town. The two road games are both tough at Penn State and Ohio State. If we absolutely had to find 4 wins to finish out the regular season, there are opportunities to do so in those final 5 games. If we don't win at least 3 of them, it'll be very disappointing. If we can manage 3 wins out of each group of 5 league games, well, obviously, that's 12-8 in conference to go with a non-con record of 10-1. I'd have to think we'd be better than an 8-seed if we did that.

NU is 2-2 in Q1 games NU is 2-0 in Q2 games NU is 2-0 in Q3 games NU is 6-0 in Q4 games

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised that Essegian was a +24 in the aftermath of that game and he didn't even make a shot from the field. He and Sam both played well together on the defensive end of the court, I would have been shocked to have said that very thing before the ballgame. Connor has expanded his game to the defense, and NU is better off long-term with Sam's influence on Connor.

There's a few games I have circled as games that will shift the season one way or another based on how close the metrics have it. This was a passed test. -uclas defense is real. Very real. They pressure the shit out of the ball and scramble. Does not shock me that Brice and Berke shot poorly from the field. Connor was wide open all night, so that was more a him missing shots thing. -sam needed to have a good offensive game soon, and boy did he have one. That 3 was such a timely 3 and he forced their guards to have bad nights -morgan is going to be a good big ten player. He can score in flurries and just plays so goddam hard. He's a perfect compliment for Berke and meah. Meah is just a tall body to catch lobs and shut off the water at the rim. Good win. Iowa's defense is going to be like playing a hs team compared to UCLA. Really poor defensive team.

Worster was outstanding today - wasn't sure what would happen against that UCLA pressure, but he was great with 0 turnovers. Plus he gave us a bit of offense early & hit big free throws late. Probably his best game with NU. Ulis gave us nice minutes too. I don't think we gave up a 'pick-six' live ball turnover - that was huge in a game where points were going to be tough to come by and after we've been giving up a few of them per game lately. UCLA could've had a couple, but Brice's foul stopped one (and UCLA only got 1 point on the possession) and Worster stopped a 2-on-1 by himself in the 2nd half. When Berke picked up that 4th foul with 10+ min to go, I thought we were in trouble. But the bench guys extended the lead nicely after that and really put it out of reach. Our early defensive communication was poor, but we dialed in far better after the first media timeout. Between the first media timeout and last media timeout (~32-ish min) we gave up only 38 points. In a conference game. Against the #15 team in the country. Insanely good defense. Ultimately our ability to get to the FT line - and make them - was the difference. That ability to draw fouls and score from the stripe when the other shots aren't falling is what makes Brice elite. Big opportunity to steal one on the road Tuesday against an Iowa team that is down from normal. Win that one and the sky's the limit for this group.

I'm just gobsmacked that a game officiated by that stretched dick-with-ears, D.J. Carstenson, didn't end up with the foul tally strongly in favor of NU's opponent. Miracles do happen.

Going to put this here: Rollie was a dawg today. 11/4/2, ZERO TOs!! He deserves a lot of praise for this UCLA rock fight. He is built for the B1G! GBR!

Nah. We just need to win games. Absolutely. We're setting ourselves up in a good position where our resume can speak for itself. No need to worry about the Marists and Delaware States of the world (sorry, @royalfan). Win and we're in.

Was Mara in the paint long enough to qualify for in-state tuition?

Hellva game, As asked in the game thread, What is foul? Huskers matched UCLA'S thugness.

What does that say about us?