Nebraska men’s basketball season in review

A referee asked Gary if he had said anything. The forward hadn’t. Just a look at a demoralized opponent whose season was coming to a swift end before he ran back on defense.

The Huskers’ win over IU ended up being their last of the season, which ended with losses to Illinois a day later and Texas A&M in the NCAA tournament. With the final game now more than a week ago, here’s a look back on the season, handing out some superlatives of the best and worst aspects of a season that ended in the tournament for the first time since 2014.

With a relatively light non-conference slate, Nebraska had few opportunities to pick up marquee wins. When the Huskers struggled to win on the road, the margin of error at Pinnacle Bank Arena tightened. It all came together Jan. 9 when Nebraska put together maybe its most complete performance of the season against the No. 1 team in the country at the time. For 40 minutes, NU radiated with the confidence of a team that believed it was just as good as Purdue. Rienk Mast took it to Zach Edey down low. Sam Hoiberg jumped passing lanes and harassed the Purdue guards on the perimeter. It stood as the Huskers’ signature win over the next three months, a major building block of their tournament resume and proof they could compete with the giants of the Big Ten.

So much went wrong in Piscataway. Nebraska held separate double-digit leads at different points and coughed up both of them. There was the physical pummeling the Huskers took at the hands of a longer, more aggressive Rutgers team and consequential 25 offensive rebounds allowed. There was Gary’s calf injury, which looked disastrous at the time.

Even after all that, Nebraska had a chance to escape with a win in the final seconds and couldn’t capitalize. Mast missed an open 3-pointer from the corner that would have put the Huskers ahead by 4 with 30 seconds left. Brice Williams dribbled the ball off his foot with the score tied and the shot clock off. The game went into overtime, and NU, running on fumes, stumbled to the finish line.

He entered the portal at the end of the season, but Wilcher was a revelation off the bench. His 39.4% clip from 3-point range was a career high, and the junior carried Nebraska’s offense at times. In the February comeback win over Wisconsin, Wilcher caught fire from deep in the second half, knocking down five treys and scoring 19 points. It was part of a three-game stretch during which he was 13 for 20 from beyond the arc. Wilcher’s ability to heat up gave Nebraska another weapon, another player who could potentially pick up the slack when others weren’t hitting shots.

Five players shot at least 33% from downtown on a high volume of attempts this season, and Nebraska was 35.7% from deep as a team, the best mark of the Fred Hoiberg era. It was the result of both personnel and a modern, NBA-style offense. NU buried teams from outside at times. A Keisei Tominaga-led barrage put the nail in Indiana’s coffin 20 minutes into the quarterfinal of the Big Ten tournament. Against Ohio State, Mast got on a heater that prevented any potential Buckeye comeback.

It was a common thread throughout the season. When Nebraska lost, it often couldn’t match its opponent’s grit and strength under the basket. Rebounding was a factor in the Huskers’ Big Ten tournament loss to Illinois, then a week later against Texas A&M. Maryland, Illinois in the regular season, the aforementioned Rutgers all took it to NU on the glass. Nebraska’s offensive rebounding percentage was the worst in the Big Ten in conference play. On the defensive end, the Huskers were 11th out of 14 teams. Even in a successful season, allowing other teams second and third shots on a given possession put a ceiling on Nebraska’s potential.

Lawrence rediscovered his jump shot and his mojo when he moved to the bench from the starting lineup in February. From Feb. 4 to the end of the season, Lawrence averaged 9.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 51.4% from outside. Beyond the stats, he looked different. He played with more confidence, more ambition. He hunted shots and set up teammates on passes he didn’t attempt in the early months of the season. Nebraska needs that guy from the opening tip of next year. Nebraska has a significant amount of offense to replace on the perimeter with Tominaga leaving, and Lawrence showed he has more to contribute as the Huskers try to build toward a longer tournament run.

“Just coming out knowing that we have to reestablish ourselves and show that we’re the more dominant, physical, explosive team really just kinda got us going. It wasn’t all flamethrowers and four-wheelers to start it, but we came out and we had a couple good stops and good plays and really just kinda got us back in that groove, and then that’s when, obviously, Keisei just opened up and kinda blew the doors off.”