No. 25 Nebraska is back home, back in the gym and already onto the next one.
After grinding out a 67-58 win over Providence at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., the Huskers will try to move to 3-0 Wednesday night when they host Lindenwood at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:05 p.m.
CT on FS1, with Jack Rinaldi and Nick Bahe on the broadcast. The game will also air on the Huskers Radio Network with Kent Pavelka and Jeff Smith.
Fred Hoiberg said Monday that the turnaround started well before Nebraska ever got to practice.
“We get home at 3 in the morning, probably getting to bed at 3:30, 3:45,” Hoiberg said on Monday during his media availability. “Yesterday was a day off and then how are you going to bounce back?
How are you going to respond? I talked about the highs and the lows over the course of the season.
It doesn’t matter. You’ve got to prepare the same way, and I was proud of our guys for getting back in the gym and having a good, productive practice today (Monday).”
That Providence win wasn’t pretty early. The Friars came out with pressure, forced six turnovers and turned five offensive boards into nine second-chance points in the first 8:10. Nebraska absorbed the punch, settled in and then took control.
The Huskers answered with an 11-0 run late in the first half and held Providence to 2-for-14 shooting over the final 11 minutes before halftime. Hoiberg said the game showed him plenty about his team’s toughness, especially in an environment that felt far more hostile than neutral.
“I’ve talked a lot about the process of how your guys are going to handle adversity, and you really don’t ever truly know until it happens in a game like that,” Hoiberg said. “I’m telling you, it was electric in there when they turned us over on those first couple possessions and got an offensive rebound on that first one. You couldn’t even hear in that building.”
Nebraska kept that edge after halftime. The Huskers leaned on their defense, sped Providence up, closed out better and turned stops into easier offense at the other end. They attacked the basket and made the Friars pay for every mistake.
“We turned it over 15 times, but we forced 18 turnovers on the other end,” Hoiber said. “We converted those into points, which we had to do as tough as they are defending in the half court.”
Providence finished at just 30.6% shooting, and Nebraska’s defense created 20 points off those 18 turnovers. Hoiberg called it the kind of performance his staff can build on.
“That was as good a defensive performance,” Hoiberg said. “Coach Nate (Loenser) continues to put great game plans together on that end and our guys went out and really executed well … We talk a lot about wall-ups. Cale Jacobson’s wall-ups in that game, he even got called for a couple fouls that I thought were textbook as far as jumping up with verticality and taking it in the chest, and that’s where I think I’ve seen the most growth with our team.”
Lindenwood arrives in Lincoln at 2-1 after blasting East-West University 115-44 on Saturday. The Lions’ first win of the season came against Central Bible University, an NCCAA program.
The program officially finished its move from Division II to Division I on Aug. 1, 2025. Last season, its first as a full Division I team, Lindenwood went 18-15 and finished sixth in the Ohio Valley Conference at 11-9.
The Lions have not beaten a power conference team since beginning the transition to Division I in 2022, going 0-8 in those games. That includes a 98-59 loss to TCU to open this season.
Lindenwood also has two Nebraska ties on its roster. Former Husker Matar Diop has started all three games and is averaging 3.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
Millard North product Derek Rollins has appeared in all three games, started one and is putting up 9.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. The 2025 graduate spent a year at Spire Academy Post Grad in Geneva, Ohio, before committing to Lindenwood.
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