Nebraska Hoops Game Day: Rutgers
On the heels of back-to-back Big Ten road losses, Nebraska hopes to get back on track tonight with a home showdown against Rutgers.
Here is what you need to know going into the Huskers’ return to Pinnacle Bank Arena…
Who, What, Where, When
Nebraska Cornhuskers (12-4, 2-3 Big Ten) vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-8, 2-4 Big Ten)
Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025 – 8:00 p.m. CT
Pinnacle Bank Arena (15,500)
TV: FS1
Radio: Huskers Radio Network
Internet/Streaming: Fox Sports App
Subscribe to get exclusive Huskers content on HuskerOnline today!
Nebraska projected starters
| Rollie Worster | G | Sr. | 6-5/210 | He played just 16 minutes in Nebraska’s blowout loss at Purdue, finishing with five points, two rebounds, one assist, a turnover, and a +/- of -21. |
| Brice Williams | G | Sr. | 6-7/214 | Held to a season-low nine points on 2-of-8 shooting in the loss at Purdue. That marked just the second time in 16 games this season that he’s been held under double figures. |
| Juwan Gary | F | Sr. | 6-6/226 | He’s now shot 9-for-31 (29%) from the field over the last two games, including 0-of-8 on 3-pointers. He had a team-low +/- of -27 over 29 minutes at Purdue. |
| Berke Buyuktuncel | F | So. | 6-10/224 | Had eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, including two made 3-pointers, and snagged a career-high four steals in the loss at Purdue. |
| Braxton Meah | F | Sr. | 7-1/264 | Made both of his shots for four points, one rebound, an assist, and a block over 15 minutes of work in Nebraska’s defeat at Purdue. |
Rutgers projected starters
| Dylan Harper | G | Fr. | 6-6/215 | A projected 2025 NBA lottery pick who is averaging 20.0 points on 50 percent shooting while leading the team with 4.4 assists per game. |
| Tyson Acuff | G | Sr. | 6-4/210 | Rutgers’ only non-freshman in the starting lineup, he averages 4.5 points, 1.5 0.8 apg |
| Ace Bailey | G/F | Fr. | 6-10/200 | Another projected 2025 lottery pick who is averaging 19.0 ppg and leads Rutgers in rebounding (7.7 rpg) and blocks (1.3 bpg). |
| Dylan Grant | F | Fr. | 6-7/205 | A freshman expected to make just his second start of the season tonight. He’s averaging just 3.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg, and 0.5 apg. |
| Lathan Sommerville | C | Fr. | 6-10/275 | He’s scoring 7.2 points on 53.8 percent shooting from the field this season. He also averages 4.4 rebounds per game. |
3 keys to victory
Handle the star power
Pinnacle Bank Arena should be loaded with NBA scouts and front-office personnel tonight. Unfortunately, they’ll mostly be in Lincoln to watch the other team. Rutgers freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey are two of the projected top-five picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. Despite their youth, that’s as high-profile of an opposing duo as the Huskers have seen this season. Averaging 39 points per game, slowing down Harper and Bailey will be no easy task. However, Nebraska cannot allow those two to take the game over tonight. Harper recently returned to the lineup after missing time to an injury, and he immediately helped the Knights get back on track with a win over UCLA. While the national spotlight will be on those two, the Huskers can’t allow them to steal the show.
Lock in on defense
Nebraska must be ready to defend from the opening tip and maintain it until the final buzzer. Harper and Bailey are obviously two reasons why, but that importance goes beyond NU’s opponent. For the Huskers to achieve any of their lofty goals this season, they need to be one of the best defensive teams in the Big Ten. They’ve been anything but over their last 65 minutes or so of play. Sam Hoiberg said the team had to find better energy on that end, especially when it didn’t have a home crowd behind them. Nebraska must lock in and play up to its defensive potential on every possession, regardless of what happens on the offensive end. When that happens, NU can compete with and beat any team on its schedule, especially at home.
As always, value the ball
Nebraska had a lengthy list of issues in its 104-68 loss at Purdue on Sunday. An all-too-familiar problem was, once again, poor ball security. The Huskers committed 17 turnovers in the defeat, leading to a 22-11 advantage in points off of giveaways. Fred Hoiberg’s message, as always, has been NU playing under better control and “making the simple plays” with the ball. That means not over-penetrating the ball and “playing in a crowd” in the paint, which happened far too often at Iowa and Purdue. The Knights won’t challenge much in terms of on-ball pressure, but they also won’t turn it over much, either. Focusing on hitting singles and not only home runs will be critical for Nebraska tonight.
Quotable
“I think sometimes you know there’s such an overreaction when something happened like it did the other day at Purdue. You know, what do you do with the system? Do you start over? Or what you’re doing, do better, do it longer, do it harder. Those are the things that we’re really trying to focus on right now, because we’ve had a formula. You look at where we are, I think we’re like 20th in the nation defensively, but in league games we’re 17th out of 18 teams. So we’ve got to just get back to being who we are and doing it with more consistency and having longer stretches where we do it right. If we do that, we’ve shown we’ve got a formula that’s pretty good.”
Head coach Fred Hoiberg on what Nebraska must do to get back on track defensively.
Prediction
Nebraska 78, Rutgers 68
Robin’s season record: 14-1
Vs. the spread: 8-7
Never miss breaking news or another HuskerOnline article again. Click HERE to sign up for HuskerOnline’s Daily and Breaking News Newsletters.
