The first step in Nebraska’s budding Big Ten Tournament run — beat Minnesota

As Nebraska basketball’s resident expert on winning games in conference tournaments, Sam Griesel’s been where his teammates want to go — on a run in March. In four years at North Dakota State, his teams finished 10-2 in the Summit League soirees, with two titles.

March is a sprint after a marathon. The “fun” part, according to coach Fred Hoiberg, is after the grind. And once the conference tournament begins, Griesel said Monday, adrenaline takes over.

“You might be feeling it after the game, it in the morning, whatever,” Griesel said before 11th-seeded NU takes on No. 14 seed Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. “But when the ball’s tipped, I think that all goes out and you’re just focused on doing. It’s do-or-die.”

Chicago’s United Center will be NU’s next proving ground. The 16-15 Huskers have won five of six — one of them was over the Gophers — to put themselves on the NIT bubble. A few bracket projections for that event have Nebraska in the field. A few don’t. NU’s long-shot NCAA Tournament hopes likely hinge on winning five games in five days for the league’s automatic bid.

Hoiberg, who won two Big 12 Tournaments while at Iowa State, wants his team’s focus on Wednesday night.

“We can’t look at this monumental task that we’ve got to go out win five games to make the tournament,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve just got to win one and go on to the next one.”

In three seasons under Hoiberg, Nebraska hasn’t advanced past opening night. In 2020, at the start of the COVID pandemic, Hoiberg left the bench with the flu as the Huskers lost to Indiana. The following two seasons, NU squandered terrific first halves against Penn State and Northwestern with second-half collapses. Fourteen-point halftime leads turned into a 72-66 loss in 2021 and a 71-69 loss in 2022.

“Northwestern went on a great run on us — as all teams do in this league,” Hoiberg said, recalling last year’s Big Ten tournament loss. “It’s how you respond to that. And one thing I do appreciate about our group is how we handled adversity and how we’ve responded when teams go on runs.”

He pointed to Sunday’s stunning road win at Iowa, where NU trailed 62-55 midway through the second half and appeared on the verge of a blowout. The Huskers regrouped, scored the next five points and eventually won 81-77. In overtime wins earlier this season over Maryland — which would be NU’s second-round opponent in Chicago — and Wisconsin, Nebraska overcame second-half deficits as well.

In its most recent win over Minnesota (8-21, 2-17), the Huskers grabbed an early double-digit lead and held it for the duration of the contest, frustrating the Gophers with a series of aggressive close-outs on threes.

But Minnesota worries Hoiberg. The Gophers have a giant front line — 6-11 Dawson Garcia, 6-7 Jamison Battle, 6-7 Joshua Ola-Joseph — that give the Huskers headaches on the offensive glass. NU allowed 31 second-chance points in its win over Iowa, and may not have the services of center Blaise Keita, who continues to nurse a swollen ankle.

“If I’m Minnesota, if I’m the coach, I’m telling them to crash the boards,” said forward Derrick Walker, who earned second-team All-Big Ten honors Tuesday. “They have the size advantage over us, especially with Blaise being up and down — not sure where he’s at yet.”

Hoiberg said NU will have an all-hands-on-deck approach — necessary for a tournament run. Keita may only play a few minutes — but that’d be enough to get a teammate some rest. Deep reserve center Oleg Kojenets will play, as well.

Nebraska had a crisp practice Monday, Hoiberg said, culminating in a visit from NU football coach Matt Rhule. His post-practice message to the team remained private, but Rhule’s presence is a marker of the eyeballs currently on Hoiberg’s players. They made February fun, and continued the fire on Sunday at Iowa. Can they paint Chicago scarlet for a few days?

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve been playing pretty good basketball, we just have to continue to do the things that have gotten us to where we are right now.”

NU’s game with Minnesota should tip off around 8, provided the night’s first game — between Wisconsin and Ohio State — doesn’t roll into overtime.

The Badgers, squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, can’t afford to lose to the Buckeyes.

A win for Bellevue West graduate Chucky Hepburn’s team might be enough to secure an NCAA invite — at least to the First Four contests.

Nebraska has won four straight over Minnesota, and Hoiberg has a 4-2 record against the Gophers since becoming NU’s coach.

UM coach Ben Johnson, a former Husker assistant who is 21-38 in two seasons with the Gophers.