Nebraska basketball players have taste for the NCAA Tournament

A year ago, Juwan Gary was the only active Husker with experience in the Big Dance. NU now has eight players who have stepped onto the floor in a tournament. Williams, Gary, Sam Hoiberg, Cale Jacobsen, Jeffrey Grace III and the injured Rienk Mast all got into the game against Texas A&M.

Ahron Ulis has postseason experience from his time at Iowa and now has one more year of eligibility, and Rollie Worster played in the tournament when he was at Utah State. Connor Essegian was on Wisconsin’s roster a season ago but didn’t play in the Badgers’ lone tournament game.

All are players who have spent time under the microscope of the postseason, who will have a better sense of what to expect if the Huskers find themselves playing deep into March for the second year in a row — something that hasn’t happened since 1994.

“It’s always like three seasons to a season: the nonconference, the conference and then the postseason,” Williams said. “But when it gets to the postseason you really have to turn it on and really play like your head’s on fire and like it can all end tomorrow because it really can, especially when you’re in the NCAA tournament.”

Nick Janowski has a lot of questions. His college career is months away from beginning, and the freshman from Pewaukee, Wisconsin wants to get up to speed, so he goes to forward Juwan Gary, five years his senior. What should he do in a given situation?

“I love Nick to death,” Gary said. “His personality is off the charts. He talks like no other person.”

Said Williams: “Dude never gets tired.”

Janowski, a 6-foot-3 sharpshooting guard, is only second-youngest player on the team. Braden Frager would be entering his senior year at Lincoln Southwest if he hadn’t reclassified to the class of 2024.

Frager has been limited by a wrist injury since summer workouts began but has packed weight onto his slender frame since arriving on campus, Gary said. Frager averaged 18.3 points and seven rebounds for Southwest a season ago, his last year as just a fan of the team he grew up watching.

“Didn’t know I was one of his favorite players on the team last year, so just having a teammate who actually was a fan of yours is actually kind of weird,” Gary said, “but at the same time I love him like one of my little brothers. Just the love they got for the game, I feel like they’re sophomores and juniors right now.”

After the addition of Worster and eligibility granted to Ulis, Williams expects to play off the ball more often in 2024-25. The sixth-year senior became Nebraska’s starting point guard late in the season, sliding over from his usual position on the wing.

Williams will likely remain a primary ball handler, but like last season, NU will often have several players capable of taking the ball up on the floor at a time. When possible, players are encouraged to push the ball and initiate offense immediately after a rebound.

“That’s what Fred (Hoiberg) likes and that’s what he encourages and emphasizes more this year,” Williams said. “So it really just makes us more of a threat, whereas last year it was like I kinda felt like I had to get the ball and run the offense whereas now the offense is just ran. We can get the ball off the rebound because of our personnel.”