Fred Hoiberg shares importance of Nebraska's winning season

Nebraska ended their regular season strong, defeating Iowa in their final game 81-77 on Sunday. The win gives the Cornhuskers a winning record, finishing the regular season 16-15 with a 9-11 record in Big Ten conference play. And after the game, Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg spoke about how important a winning season was.

“It certainly wasn’t looking like that six weeks ago when we had the two starters go down, but we found a way to keep fighting, keep clawing, and scratching,” Hoiberg said. “And you know this team has really been built on a competitive spirit that every time we step on the floor, whatever is happening, they continue to go out there and battle.”

The win marks Hoiberg’s first winning record at the helm for Nebraska in his four seasons as their head coach. Hoiberg had nine total Big Ten conference wins in three years heading into this season, but secured nine in this season alone, celebrating undoubtedly his best season with the Cornhuskers. Which was full of plenty of ups and downs according to the head coach.

“I just look back at a couple of those, the Purdue game, that was a tough finish for us, lost that one in overtime. This last one against Michigan State where we had a 15-point lead of what could’ve been, even with the adversity and the injuries that we had,” Hoiberg said.

Nebraska dealt with their fair share of injuries and heartbreaking losses this season, but after a 3-9 start in conference play became one of the hottest teams in the Big Ten. The Cornhuskers have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games of the regular season, capping it off with an impressive road win over Iowa, the Big Ten’s highest-scoring offense.

“But they’re continuing to go out, this Iowa team’s coming off I think as good a performance as there was in the conference this year with that 22-point win in Bloomington after one of the craziest finishes I’ve ever seen against Michigan State,” Hoiberg said. “They’re playing great basketball, so for our guys to come in here and compete the way they did I think it shows everything or tells you everything you need to know just about their character, their grit, and how they’ve continued to fight through some pretty tough times.”

There’s no question that Nebraska showed a ton of grit on the backend of their season, but not enough to get outside of the bottom four of the Big Ten standings. The Huskers will face Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament this Wednesday directly after the 6:30 p.m. matchup between Wisconsin vs. Ohio State.