Huskers Ring in 2022 Against No. 13 Ohio State Sunday Night

Nebraska returns to Big Ten action on Sunday evening, as the Huskers welcome No. 13/12 (AP/Coaches) Ohio State to Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the matchup will be carried on the Big Ten Network and the Huskers Radio Network.  Tickets for Sunday’s game are available by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets, calling the NU Athletic Ticket Office at 800-8-BIGRED and at the Pinnacle Bank Arena box office beginning 90 minutes prior to tipoff.
 

The Huskers (6-7, 0-2 Big Ten) have been off since an 88-74 win over Kennesaw State on Dec. 22. In that game, Nebraska broke out of a shooting slump by shooting 52.6 percent from the field, including a season-best 15-of-29 from 3-point range. Alonzo Verge Jr. led the Huskers’ attack with 16 points and a career-high 12 assists, the most by any Big Ten player this season. Four Huskers finished in double figures, led by Keisei Tominaga’s 18-point night, as the junior college transfer went 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Tominaga is fourth on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game, including a team-high 25 3-pointers.

Verge had 12 of the Huskers’ season-high 20 assists against Kennesaw State and enters the new year leading the Big Ten with 5.9 assists per game, a total which ranks 17th nationally. He is fifth nationally among power conference players in assists per game as of Dec. 28.  On the season, Verge tops Nebraska in scoring (16.4 ppg), assists (5.9 apg) and steals (1.6 spg).

Ohio State (8-2, 2-0) comes to Lincoln riding a four-game winning streak, but have been on a CoVID pause since mid-December. The Buckeyes have had their last three games canceled, including a matchup with New Orleans on Tuesday, and have not played since a 73-55 win over Wisconsin on Dec. 11. In that game, E.J. Liddell had 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting and nine rebounds while Zed Key added 11 points and nine boards. The Buckeyes, who are ranked 13th in this week’s AP poll, held Wisconsin to 34 percent shooting and out-rebounded the Badgers, 49-28.

Following Sunday’s game, NU will hit the road for three of their next four games beginning with a matchup at No. 10 Michigan State on Jan. 5.

B1G Numbers

3- Alonzo Verge’s three games with 10+ assists ties for third nationally, and matches the most by any power conference player in 2021-22 as of Dec. 29 (Kentucky’s Sahvir Wheeler). Verge never had 10+ assists in his two seasons at Arizona State.

15 – Nebraska’s 15 3-pointers against Kennesaw State was the most by a Husker team since also hitting 15 against Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 6, 2018. 

About Ohio State

Under the direction of fifth-year coach Chris Holtmann, Ohio State is 8-2 on the season and 2-0 in Big Ten play. Holtmann has guided OSU to four straight 20-win seasons and three NCAA Tournaments since taking over the program in 2017-18. Holtmann led Butler to three straight NCAA Tournaments in his three years at the school.

The Buckeyes returned four starters from a team that went 21-10 and reached the 2021 NCAA Tournament. OSU has two of the Big Ten’s best non-conference wins with a neutral-site win against Seton Hall (79-76) and a home win over No. 1 Duke (71-66) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. OSU’s two Big Ten wins were at Penn State and against Wisconsin, but OSU has been on a COVID pause since the win over the Badgers.

The Buckeyes return one of the Big Ten’s top players in junior forward E.J. Liddell, who returned after earning first-team All-Big Ten honors last season. Liddell is fourth in the conference in scoring at 20.6 ppg while shooting 56 percent from the field. The 6-foot-7, 240-pound forward also paces OSU in rebounds (7.2 rpg) and blocked shots (3.0 bpg). Sophomore Zed Key is second on the team in scoring at 10.4 ppg, while shooting 62 percent from the field, while Kyle Young comes off the bench and averages 10.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

Ohio State leads the all-time series, 19-4, in a series that dates back to 1936. The Buckeyes are 15-2 against the Huskers since Nebraska joined the Big Ten with Nebraska’s wins coming in 2014 (Lincoln) and 2017 (Columbus). Nebraska looks to snap a five-game losing streak to the Buckeyes, while Sunday’s game is the 13th time in the 18 meetings that OSU has been ranked since Nebraska joined the Big Ten.

 

Last Time Out

Alonzo Verge Jr. scored 16 points and dished out a career-high 12 assists, as Nebraska broke out of a shooting slump with an 88-74 win over Kennesaw State on Dec. 22.

Verge posted his fourth double-double of the season, guiding a Husker offense that shot 53 percent from the field, including a season-high 15 3-pointers, and over 51 percent from long distance. Verge was one of four Huskers to finish in double figures.  Keisei Tominaga poured in a team-high 18 points, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, while Bryce McGowens and Derrick Walker Jr. added 11 apiece for Nebraska, which snapped a five-game losing streak.

Nebraska trailed by as many as eight early on before using a 15-0 spurt to build a 23-16 lead after a 3-pointer from C.J. Wilcher. NU held the Owls without a field goal for nearly five minutes in matching the Huskers’ largest spurt of the year.  Kennesaw State fought back with a 6-0 spurt, cutting NU’s lead to 27-24 before 3-pointers from Tominaga and Webster and a basket by Verge stretched the lead to 11. NU kept the lead around double figures and went into the locker room with a 45-34 lead after Trevor Lakes’ 3-pointer beat the halftime buzzer.

Nebraska took control early in the half, as Tominaga had eight of his 18 points in a 12-0 run that stretched the lead to 21, at 57-36 with 16:07 remaining. NU, which forced 21 turnovers and held the Owls to 41 percent shooting, stretched the lead to as many as 25 points, at 67-51 with just over eight minutes remaining and cruised to a 14-point win.

 

Worth Noting

• Nebraska’s 15 3-pointers against Kennesaw State were not only a season high, but marked just the sixth time since 1990 that Nebraska hit at least 15 3-pointers in a game. It was NU’s highest total since Nov. 6, 2018.

Most 3-pointers by NU Since 1990

 

 
• Alonzo Verge Jr.’s 16-point, 12-assist performance marked the eighth points-assist double-double by a Husker in Fred Hoiberg‘s two-plus seasons at Nebraska (Cam Mack-4; Dalano Banton-1; Alonzo Verge Jr.-3). Over the previous 30 years (1989-90 to 2018-19), it occurred just five times. Verge is only the second Husker to have multiple points-assists double-doubles in the same season since 1990.
 
• Nebraska added a player over the break as Denim Dawson enrolled for the start of the spring semester. Dawson, a 6-foot-6 wing who attended Southern California Academy as a postgrad. He played at Orange Lutheran, averaging 16 points and five rebounds per game as the school reached the California Division 2AA CIF-SS quarterfinals last spring. Dawson, who started practicing, is expected to redshirt this season.
 

• Nebraska is 2-9 all-time against teams ranked 13th in the AP poll. NU’s two wins were against Texas A&M (2010-11) and Oklahoma (1990-91). Ohio State will be the second ranked team the Huskers have faced in 2021-22. The Huskers look to snap an 18-game losing streak to ranked teams dating back to the 2019 Big Ten Tournament.
 
• Nebraska guard Bryce McGowens ranks third nationally among all true freshmen in scoring at 15.6 points per game as of Dec. 30.  McGowens is one of only three true freshmen nationally averaging at least 15 points per game as of Dec. 30. McGowens, who leads all Big Ten freshmen in scoring and rebounding, is on pace to threaten single-season freshmen marks for the Huskers in both scoring (15.5, Joe McCray, 2004-05) and rebounding (6.3, Yvan Ouedraogo, 2019-20).

NCAA True Freshman Scoring Leaders (As of Dec. 30)

• Nebraska has produced a total of ten 20-point efforts in the first 13 games of the season (Bryce McGowens-4; Alonzo Verge Jr.-4; Kobe Webster-1; Keisei Tominaga-1). Last season, NU had just 12 20-point efforts in 27 contests. McGowens’ four 20-point games this season already ranks fourth all-time among Husker freshmen and is the most by any NU freshman since Joe McCray had a school-record 10 in 2004-05.
 
• Nebraska broke out of a 3-point shooting slump against Kennesaw State, shooting 51.7 percent from 3-point range with 15 3-pointers. In the previous five games, NU shot just 21 percent from beyond the arc.
 
• Alonzo Verge Jr. comes into the weekend as one of five players nationally – and the only Big Ten player – averaging at least 15.0 points, 5.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game. He joins Duke’s Wendell Moore as the only two power conference players at that plateau. Verge is looking to become the fifth Big Ten player since 2010-11 (D’Angelo Russell, 2014-15; Denzel Valentine, 2015-16; Marcus Carr, 2020-21; Ayo Dosunmu, 2020-21) to average 15 points, five rebounds and five assists per game.
 

H/T – Sports Reference
 
• For most of the year, the Huskers have done a good job of limiting turnovers, but NU has averaged 18.0 turnovers the last three contests. Prior to the Auburn contest, NU was committing an average of 11.2 turnovers per game over the first 10 contests. Despite the last three games, the Huskers have jumped from 205th to 52nd in turnover rate, as Fred Hoiberg‘s teams have traditionally been among the nation’s best in that category. Prior to last season, his last three teams ranked in the top 30 nationally in that category.
 
• Nebraska already has seven double-doubles this season (Verge-4; Walker-2; B. McGowens-1) in 13 games after just having three in 2020-21. The last time NU had 10 double-doubles as a team in a season was 2007-08 (17).
 
• Nebraska has been opportunistic on the defensive end, forcing a Big Ten high 16.1 turnovers per game as of Dec. 19. NU is second in the Big Ten in steals (8.1 spg) and fourth in turnover margin (+3.3 per game).
 
• Alonzo Verge Jr. has become more of a playmaker during his time at NU. He leads the Big Ten with 5.9 assists per game after averaging 2.9 assists per game during his two-year career at Arizona State. Verge has three games with 10+ assists as of Dec. 29, while the rest of the conference has combined for four. Verge’s 5.9 assists per game ranks 17th nationally as of Dec. 29.
 
• Bryce McGowens joined rare company on Nov. 12 against Sam Houston with his 29-point effort. It tied for the second-highest performance by a freshman in school history and was the most since Shavon Shields also had 29 at Penn State in 2013.
 
• The season opener against Western Illinois featured two of the highest-scoring debuts by any Husker in the last 50 years. Alonzo Verge Jr. (26) and Bryce McGowens (25) became just the third and fourth Huskers in the last five decades to score 20+ points in a Husker debut.
 
• The season opener against WIU marked only the third time since 2007 that Nebraska had two players score 25-or-more points in a game. It also marked the fourth time that NU had multiple 20-point scorers in a game in Fred Hoiberg‘s tenure.
 

 
• Nebraska’s 2021-22 roster features a trio of college graduates in Derrick Walker, Alonzo Verge Jr. and Kobe Webster. Walker became the first member of his family to get a degree when he graduated in May of 2021, while Webster (2020, Western Illinois) and Verge (2021, Arizona State) came to Nebraska as graduate transfers.
 
Husker Injury Update
Fred Hoiberg announced Dec. 22 that freshman forward Wilhelm Breidenbach underwent season-ending leg surgery for an injury suffered in Nebraska’s game against Michigan on Dec. 7.  Breidenbach, a 6-foot-10, 227-pound forward from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., had played in each of Nebraska’s first 10 games, averaging 3.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game.

Breidenbach joins starting guard Trey McGowens, who underwent surgery on Nov. 17 to repair a broken fifth metatarsal in his right foot. He is expected back in mid-January.  McGowens had started all 30 games since transferring to Nebraska prior to the 2020-21 campaign. He ranked second on the team in both scoring (10.7 ppg) and assists (2.3 apg) in 2020-21.

 

Super McGowens Brothers

The high-flying duo of Trey and Bryce McGowens will be sidelined for a bit, as Trey recovers from a broken foot suffered against Creighton on Nov. 16, but is expected back in mid-January.  The 2021-22 season marked the first time the brothers were on the same court together since they were kids and provided a number of early highlights.

• Bryce is 14th in the Big Ten in scoring at 16.1 ppg while grabbing 5.9 rebounds per game as of Dec. 30. He ranks among the B1G leaders in scoring, rebounding, free throw percentage and minutes played (33.2, ninth).
• A three-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week (Nov. 15, Nov. 29, Dec. 20), he leads all conference rookies in scoring and rebounding.
• He is the only Husker freshmen in either the Big 12 (1996-97 to 2010-11) or Big Ten (2011-12 to present) eras to be a three-time honoree as a freshman.
• cGowens has reached double figures in scoring nine times, including four 20-point efforts. His most recent 20-point game was a 24-point, nine-rebound effort in the 4OT loss at NC State on Dec. 1. McGowens has been in double figures in each of the last three games.
• He collected his first career double-double on Nov. 21 against Southern with 18 points and 11 rebounds. McGowens also had four assists and two steals in 31 minutes.
• He is just the second Husker freshman to ever put up multiple 25-point games, as he had 25 in the opener against Western Illinois and 29 in the win over Sam Houston. He joins Dave Hoppen, who accomplished the feat during the 1982-83 season (27 vs. K-State; 25 vs. Iowa State).
• As a high schooler, he totaled 2,341 points, including 285 3-pointers and was selected for the 2021 Iverson Classic. He was also selected to the Jordan Brand Classic, but the event was not held.
• Last season, he was the Gatorade South Carolina Player of the Year, averaging 21.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest for Legacy Early College and Coach BJ Jackson. 
• Trey has been a proven performer throughout his career, as he has started 94 of 96 games at the college level for Pittsburgh and Nebraska and scored over 1,000 career points.
• Trey started the first three games and was averaging 6.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game before suffering his injury midway through the first half against Creighton on Nov. 16. McGowens also drew the opponent’s top perimeter defender and shared point guard duties. He helped limit Sam Houston’s Demarkus Lampley, a returning first-team all-conference performer, to 2-of-14 shooting on Nov. 12.
• Last season, Trey averaged 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assist per game, while starting all 27 games. He reached double figures 17 times in 2020-21, including a season-high 20 points against No. 17 Michigan State.
• The McGowens brothers are one of 15 brother combos on the same college roster this season.

“Good things happen when we play through Derrick”
Fred Hoiberg understands the importance of having Derrick Walker on the floor for the Big Red, and Walker’s play has been a focal point for the Huskers.  Walker, who is in his third year at NU, has provided the Huskers a much-needed inside threat since becoming eligible last January.

The 6-foot-9 center is enjoying a career year in 2021-22, averaging 9.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting almost 80 percent from the field. He is seventh in the Big Ten in blocks per game and 20th in rebounds per game.

Walker is playing the best basketball of his career over the last 10 games dating back to Nov. 19, averaging 10.6 points on 83 percent shooting and 6.2 rebounds per game. He has posted his first two career double-doubles, including a 12-point, 13-rebound effort at NC State on Dec. 1.  His second one came in NU’s first game against a ranked opponent, as he filled the stat sheet with 10 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.

 

Zo Takes the Point

Alonzo Verge took over the point guard duties from 2021 NBA Draft pick Dalano Banton, and Verge has provided an immediate impact, averaging 16.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game. The 6-foot-4 guard from Chicago ranks in the top five of the Big Ten in both assists (first) and steals (fourth).

• He has a 1.51-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio after posting a 1.29-to-1 ratio in his two seasons at Arizona State.
• Verge is sixth in the Big Ten with fourth double-doubles (vs. W. Illinois, vs. Tennessee State, at NC State and Kennesaw State).
• He is one of four Division I players – and one of two power conference performers – averaging at least 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game as of Dec. 29.
• Verge had his fourth double-double of the year with 16 points and a career-high 12 assists in the win over Kennesaw State.
• He had his fourth 20-point effort of the season with 21 points, five assists, five rebounds and four steals in the loss to Kansas State on Dec. 19.
• Verge posted his second career 30-point game against Michigan on Dec. 7, as he had 31 points and eight boards. It was his first 30-point game since the 2019-20 season when he was at Arizona State.
• Verge nearly had a triple-double in the Huskers’ epic game at NC State on Dec. 1 with 25 points, a career-high 11 assists and nine rebounds before fouling out in the fourth OT.
• He led NU with 18 points and 10 assists in the Huskers’ win over Tennessee State on Nov. 23.
• He posted his first collegiate double-double in the opener with 26 points – the most points ever in a Husker debut – a career-high 13 rebounds and five assists.
• Verge was a combo guard during his two seasons at Arizona State, where he teamed with current Kansas guard Remy Martin in one of the highest scoring backcourts in the Pac-12.
• He averaged 14.0 points, 3.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game in 2020-21, ranking among the Pac-12 leaders in scoring (15th), assists (seventh), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.55-to-1, sixth), steals (1.2, 13th) and free throw percentage (.809, 13th).
• In his first season at ASU, he was the 2020 Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year and an honorable-mention all-conference pick after averaging 14.6 points per game, 3.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
• A two-time NJCAA All-American at Moberly Area (Ill.) CC, he ranked in the top three nationally in both scoring and assists in 2018-19. He tallied 1,086 points (30.9 ppg in 35 games), but also dished out 8.2 assists per game en route to first-team accolades.

Keisei for 3
The addition of Keisei Tominaga has helped the Huskers’ 3-point shooting. The 6-foot-2 guard is fourth on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game while connecting on a team-high 25 3-pointers entering the Ohio State game. He has also committed just five turnovers in 279 minutes this season.

Tominaga started slowly as he had just three points in his first three games, but is averaging 10.8 points per game on 41 percent shooting in NU’s last 10 games. He has six double-figure games in that stretch, including a career-high 23 points against South Dakota on Nov. 27. He comes off an 18-point effort in NU’s win over Kennesaw State on Dec. 22.

 

Four OT Thriller at NC State

Nebraska’s four-overtime game at NC State on Dec. 1, was one for the record books. The four OT game matched Nebraska’s school record set in 1979 and was the longest Big Ten game in at least a decade. It tied for the second-longest Division I game in the past 10 seasons, trailing only a five OT game between Louisville and Notre Dame on Feb. 9. 2013.

• It was the longest game in Big Ten/ACC Challenge history, but was one of three OT games in the 2021 challenge. The Big Ten won the challenge, 8-6, with three of the six losses coming in overtime.
• It marked only the eighth time in school history where both teams scored over 100 points.
• The 100 points NU scored marked the 44th 100-point game in school history, but only the fifth time that NU scored 100 points and lost.
• Nebraska had a pair of double-doubles from Alonzo Verge (25 points/11 assists) and Derrick Walker (12 points, 13 rebounds). Verge (assists) and Walker (rebounds) both set personal bests on their way to double-doubles.

NU Graduation Success Rate Hits All-Time High of 95 Percent
Nebraska student-athletes have posted a 95 percent NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR), continuing the Huskers’ long tradition of being a national leader in the classroom. The NCAA released its GSR scores on Dec. 2, with Nebraska improving its GSR for the 11th straight year.

• The 95 percent GSR rate for all student-athletes ranks third among 14 Big Ten schools. On the national scale, Nebraska’s GSR is tied for 10th out of 130 FBS institutions. The 95 percent GSR rate marks the 11th straight year Nebraska has increased its GSR.
• The Husker men’s basketball program achieved a 100 percent GSR for the second straight season and was one of 13 Husker programs to post a 100 GSR in the latest rankings. NU was one of five Big Ten teams with a perfect GSR this year.

Husker Recruiting Class Seeing Stars
The Huskers brought one of the nation’s top recruiting classes to campus this fall. The class is ranked as high as 13th by ESPN as well as 18th by 247Sports and 21st by Rivals and is the third-highest ranked class in the Big Ten.

Nebraska’s five signees are headlined by five-star Bryce McGowens and four-star recruit Wilhelm Breidenbach, both of whom were top-100 recruits. McGowens was a consensus top-25 recruit who played in the Iverson Classic and was selected to the Jordan Brand team. NU rounded out the class with junior college All-American Keisei Tominaga and freshmen Oleg Kojenets and Quaran McPherson.

While McGowens has been one of the Big Ten’s top newcomers, Tominaga and Breidenbach have made significant contributions. Tominaga has played in all 13 games, averaging 8.5 points per game while leading NU with 25 3-pointers. Breidenbach was Nebraska’s top frontcourt reserve before suffering a season-ending injury against Michigan on Dec. 7. He played in NU’s first 10 games and averaged 3.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game.

 

Up-Tempo Basketball

One trait of any Fred Hoiberg-coached team is to play at a fast pace. The Huskers have led the Big Ten in pace in each of the last two seasons, ranking 16th nationally by KenPom in 2019-20 and 35th in 2020-21. NU has been the only Big Ten team to rank in the top-50 nationally in each of the past two seasons.

In seven full seasons as a college head coach (five at Iowa State and two at NU), Hoiberg’s teams have ranked in the top-50 in tempo five times, including three times in the top-20.  Prior to Hoiberg’s arrival, the last time a Husker team was in the top-100 nationally in tempo according to KenPom was in 1999-2000 under Danny Nee.

 

 
All in the Family
Several members of the 2021-22 Huskers have family members who have played basketball at the college or professional levels. The list is led by former NBA players Eric Piatkowski, who spent 14 years in the NBA after scoring nearly 2,000 career points at Nebraska, and Fred Hoiberg, who played in the NBA for a decade after a standout career at Iowa State. Keisei Tominaga’s father didn’t play college basketball, but was a center on the Japanese national team at the 1998 FIBA World Championship and played professionally in Japan for a decade.
 

 
An Olympic Effort by Tominaga
Nebraska’s 2021-22 roster features an Olympian, as Keisei Tominaga played for his native Japan in 3×3 basketball during the Tokyo Olympics. Tominaga, the youngest player in the eight-team field, helped Japan reach the medal round and finished third among all players in scoring (6.9 ppg), fourth in 1-point shooting (74 percent) and seventh in 2-point shooting (36 percent).  He was one of only two active NCAA players to play in the Olympics, joining Virginia’s Francisco Caffaro, who played for Argentina in men’s basketball. 

Tominaga became the third Husker basketball player to play in the Olympics, joining Aleks Maric (2012, Australia) and Ade Dagunduro (2012, Nigeria).

 

NBA Coaches Go Back to School

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg is one of nine active NCAA coaches to have coached in the NBA, as he spent three-plus seasons with the Chicago Bulls. Hoiberg’s 270 regular-season NBA games rank third among the 10 former NBA coaches in the collegiate ranks.

 

It is Academic For Webster

Kobe Webster became the latest Husker men’s basketball player to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America honors, as he was a third-team selection in May of 2021. Webster, who graduated from Western Illinois in 2020, has a 3.75 GPA while working on his master’s degree in educational administration.

Webster was the first Husker men’s basketball player to be honored since Shavon Shields in 2015 and 2016.  NU Head Coach Fred Hoiberg was a two-time Academic All-American at Iowa State (1994 and 1995) and was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2016. Entering the 2021-22 school year, Nebraska leads all NCAA Division I schools with 347 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.

 

Big Ten and Holiday Break Tickets on Sale

Catch all of the action at Pinnacle Bank Arena this winter, as single-game men’s basketball tickets for all Big Ten games and the holiday break games are on sale now.

Tickets for all of Nebraska’s  Big Ten upcoming matchups against Ohio State, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Northwestern, Minnesota, Maryland and Iowa are available.

Prices range from $7-$25, with 100 Level student seating available for select games. There is a limit of six tickets per game. To purchase tickets, visit Huskers.com/tickets or call the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office 800-8-BIGRED during business hours (M-F, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.).