Britt Prince is two points from 1,000. The quieter story walking into Saturday is Natalie Potts. The 2024 Big Ten Freshman of the Year is on the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Preseason Watch List after missing nearly two full seasons with leg injuries, and she scored 14 points with six rebounds and three steals in Monday’s 81-54 win over San Jose State.
The road back
Potts suffered a season-ending leg injury in the fifth game of 2024-25, took a medical redshirt, then lost all of 2025-26 to a stalled recovery. She was expected back last year and even made the Katrina McClain Award watch list before the second redshirt. In October she showed the burst again: 13 points at Kansas State in a closed scrimmage and 12 points with four steals in 17 minutes against Wayne State.
What she was
In 2023-24 Potts started all 35 games, averaged 10.2 points and 5.5 rebounds, and earned unanimous Big Ten All-Freshman honors plus honorable-mention all-conference. She led Big Ten freshmen in rebounding and field-goal percentage that year for a team that reached the Big Ten title game and the NCAA second round.
Saturday
Nebraska (1-0) hosts defending OVC champion Western Illinois (1-0) at 2 p.m. CT at Pinnacle Bank Arena on B1G+. Mia Nicastro, the reigning OVC Player of the Year, leads the Leathernecks. Potts coming off the bench behind a loaded frontcourt gives Amy Williams a different look if the game tightens the way five of Williams’ eight wins over JD Gravina have.
Featured image: Photo: John Mac. CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maryland_vs._Nebraska_semifinal_of_2024_Big_Ten_women’s_basketball_tournament_019_(53577351936).jpg.
