Fred Hoiberg not taking moral victories after OT loss vs Purdue

The potential that Nebraska basketball possesses was evident to coach Fred Hoiberg on Saturday against Purdue. The Cornhuskers took the No. 4 Boilermakers to overtime, but couldn’t pull off the upset as they eventually lost 65-62.

But despite the solid play against one of the country’s top teams, Hoiberg noted his players didn’t see it as a moral victory. Instead, they took the loss to heart, knowing that there is still plenty of work to do moving forward.

“Listen, there’s no moral victories,” Hoiberg said. “That’s the thing about this group. There was a lot of dejection in that locker room. At the same time, the way they went out and battled, if we do that every night we’re gonna have a chance to have a hell of a year. That’s the thing I told ’em. Walk out of here with your head high. Get some things fixed.

“Again, we haven’t had a lot of practice time. It’s been getting back late, put in the game plan, go a little bit live the next day and then we play. You gotta be careful of taking their legs away in practice. We get a good opportunity to get back on the practice floor and clean some things up this week.”

Nebraska never led the entire game, trailing by as many as 14 points in the second half. However, the Cornhuskers clawed their way back to eventually tie the game at 56 and force overtime after Keisei Tominaga nailed a 3-pointer with eight seconds left.

Neither team could get much going to start the overtime period, as the first two minutes were scoreless. Nebraska once again had a chance to tie the game and force a second overtime, but a 3-point attempt from Sam Griesel failed to fall through. Tominaga led the team in scoring off the bench, finishing with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting including 4-of-8 from 3-point range.

The loss dropped the Cornhuskers to 6-5 on the season and 0-2 to start Big Ten play. Fred Hoiberg will hope some extra practice time can help Nebraska bounce back when it next faces Kansas State at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday.