Fred Hoiberg breaks down Nebraska’s plan for NCAA Tournament prep

Nebraska heads into the NCAA Tournament boasting a 23-10 record, which is enough to be a projected 8-seed in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest update.

With the Huskers being well within the bubble despite falling to Illinois 98-87 in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament, head coach Fred Hoiberg revealed how he plans to go about managing his team’s prep for the big dance.

“We’re going to do the exact same thing we’ve done all year,” Hoiberg said postgame. “We’re going to learn from this one and start focusing on whoever our opponent will be, and we’ll know that tomorrow. … Coaches will get in the film room and start working on the game plan, and we’ll get the guys in there and present a first look to them and start working that way.”

Nebraska will know their fate the same time as everyone else, but Hoiberg is planning to get ahead of the game by putting his staff and players to work right away with four-to-five days to scout their next opponent.

Still, after finishing third in the Big Ten and earning a double bye into the quarterfinals — winning one game in Minneapolis wasn’t what the Huskers expected heading into the big dance. After taking an 11-point lead against the Illini on Saturday into halftime, Nebraska ultimately couldn’t keep up with Illinois down the stretch after less than 24-hour turnaround between their quarterfinal and semifinal matchups.

“We haven’t played a back-to-back all year. Our MTE (multi-team event) this year was different than last year when we’ve had the experience of a back-to-back,” Hoiberg continued. “Especially the late game to the early game. That is hard. That is really, really hard. Especially when you have one of the main guys out of the lineup.

“Again, I give the guys a lot of credit for the way we came out of the gate. They were phenomenal for the first 25 minutes of the game. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to sustain it. Give Illinois credit, they had a lot to do with it.”

Ultimately, a 4-7 record against Quad 1 opponents — including one against projected 1-seed Purdue — has slotted them further down in the seedings the other teams in major conferences with similar overall records. At 19-3 in all other games, Nebraska is hoping its complete body of work speaks for itself.

Now, the Huskers head back to Lincoln as they wait to hear their name called on the Selection Sunday special on CBS, which will air live at 6 p.m. ET.