Huskers Shatter School Marks During 2025-26 Season

The Nebraska men's basketball program enjoyed a historic campaign in 2025-26. From a school-record 28 wins to the first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in school history, the Huskers put together a season for the ages. 

The season provided dominant performances, including 30-point wins over Wisconsin and Oregon, a trio of double-digit comebacks and magical moments such as Braden Frager's driving layup with 2.2 seconds against Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament and Jamarques Lawrence's buzzer-beating 3-pointer at Illinois. 

The season began with modest expectations, including a 14th-place pick by the media in the Big Ten preseason poll, but a program-best start thrust the Huskers into the forefront of the national conversation. The 24-game win streak, which began with four wins in the 2025 College Basketball Crown and included wins at Illinois and over Michigan State and Wisconsin, extended through late January before a short-handed Husker squad without two of its top three scorers, pushed eventual national champion Michigan to the brink in a three-point loss in NU's first-ever top-five matchup.  That performance showed the Huskers' staying power, as Nebraska was ranked in the top-10 for a school record eight weeks and spent the final 15 weeks in the national polls, culminating with the Huskers finishing 14th nationally in both the AP and USA Today Coaches polls. For the season,

Nebraska established school records for wins (28), conference wins (15) and conference road wins (seven) on its way to a second-place showing in the Big Ten, its best conference finish in more than 30 years.

Numbers to Know
28 -  Nebraska's 28 wins broke the school record of 26 set in 1990-91. That is the only other Husker team that finished in the top 15 of the AP Poll (final poll was before NCAA Tournament).

66.1 - NU finished the season leading the Big Ten in scoring defense at 66.1 points per game.  The Huskers also led the Big Ten in scoring defense in conference play at 66.2 ppg, the first time NU has led the Big Ten in scoring defense and the first time since NU led the Big 12 in 2008-09.

129 - Pryce Sandfort finished fourth nationally with 129 3-pointers, including 16 3-pointers in Nebraska's three NCAA Tournament games. That total ranks second on the Big Ten's single-season charts. Sandfort's 16 3-pointers in the NCAA Tournament tied UConn's Alex Karaban for the tournament lead.

373 - Nebraska's 373 3-pointers this season were a school record, breaking the school record of 319 set in 2023-24. NU hit 10-or-more 3-pointers in 23 games this season, including four games of at least 15 3-pointers.

9 - The Big Ten sent nine teams to the NCAA Tournament, which tied the most that the conference has sent to the NCAA Tournament. The Big Ten had six teams - Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Purdue in the Sweet 16, the second-highest total by a conference in March Madness.

15 - Nebraska spent a school-record 15 weeks in the AP poll during the 2025-26 season, breaking the school mark of 13 weeks in 1990-91. NU spent a total of 15 combined weeks in the AP poll from the 1991-91 to the 2024-25 seasons.

13.3 - In Nebraska's seven games against ranked opponents this season, Sam Hoiberg posted a 13.3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio with 40 assists and just three turnovers.

53.0 - Nebraska's top four scorers (Rienk Mast, Pryce Sandfort, Braden Frager and Jamarques Lawrence) combined for 53.0 points per game. None of them were in the Husker lineup in 2024-25.

80+ - Nebraska is 52-10 (.839) under Fred Hoiberg when scoring 80 or more points, including a 43-7 mark over the last four seasons. Of those seven losses since the start of the 2022-23 season, four came in overtime. NU went 15-0 this season when scoring 80+ points in 2025-26.

1094 - Rienk Mast finished with 1,094 career rebounds and was one of only five active players in 2025-26 with at least 1,000 career rebounds, joining Carson Towt (Notre Dame), Graham Ike (Gonzaga), Izaiyah Nelson (South Florida) and Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan).

15 - Pryce Sandfort had 15 20-point games on the season, which tied for the third-most by a Husker in the Big Ten era. The only Huskers with more 20-point games in a season in the Big Ten era are Brice Williams (20, 2024-25) and James Palmer (18, 2018-19).

1 - According to Stathead, Sam Hoiberg was the only player nationally at 6-0 or under averaging at least five rebounds per game in 2025-26. Over the past six seasons, only two power conference players 6-0 or under have grabbed five or more rebounds per game (Braden Smith, 2023-24; RJ Davis, 2022-23).

3.34 - The Huskers’ team cumulative GPA of 3.34 at the end of the fall 2025 semester is the highest in program history. Ten Huskers posted GPAs of 3.0 or better during the fall semester, led by Sam Hoiberg's 4.0 GPA.

Nebraska's NCAA Tournament History
The 2026 NCAA Tournament marked Nebraska’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance and 29th postseason appearance in school history (nine NCAAs, 19 NITs, 1 CBC). The Huskers made their second NCAA appearance in three years after making just one NCAA trip from 1999 to 2023.

• Nebraska reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history after wins over Troy and No. 16 Vanderbilt. Prior to this year, NU was winless in eight previous NCAA appearances.

• Fred Hoiberg joined Danny Nee (1991-92-93-94-98) as the only Husker coaches with multiple NCAA Tournament appearances. It marks sixth NCAA appearance of Hoiberg's coaching career, as he guided Iowa State to four straight NCAAs between 2012 and 2015. Hoiberg led Iowa State to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2014. In addition, Hoiberg's grandfather, Jerry Bush, guided Toledo to an appearance in the 1954 NCAA Tournament.

Fred Hoiberg Named AP National Coach of the Year
Nebraska men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg capped the Huskers’ historic 2025-26 season on April 3, as he was named National Coach of the Year by The Associated Press.

• Hoiberg becomes the first Husker men’s basketball coach to earn the award in the 59-year history of The Associated Press men’s college basketball coach of the year award. He is the 10th Big Ten coach to win the award since the award was first presented in 1967 and just the second in the last two decades (Juwan Howard, 2021). The award is determined by voting conducted by a national media panel that picks the AP Top 25 during the season.

• Hoiberg guided Nebraska to its best season in program history in 2025-26, as the Huskers finished with a 28-7 record and the school’s first NCAA Sweet 16 finish in school history.

• It marks the second time Hoiberg has been named national coach of the year after winning the 2024 Jim Phelan National Coach-of-the-Year award.

Sam Hoiberg Named First-Team Academic All-American
Nebraska senior guard Sam Hoiberg was honored for his performance on the court and in the classroom on April 14, as he was named a first-team Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators.

Hoiberg, who graduated from Nebraska last December, had a 3.479 GPA in sports media and communications, was one of five student-athletes chosen as a first-team honoree, joining Nick Martinelli (Northwestern), Tamin Lipsey (Iowa State), Zuby Ejiofor (St. John’s) and JT Toppin (Texas Tech).

Hoiberg is the first Husker men’s basketball player to earn first-team Academic All-America honors since Shavon Shields in 2015 and 2016.  It is the 10th Academic All-America award earned by a Husker basketball player and the first since Kobe Webster, a third-team honoree in 2021. Sam’s selection is a rare father-son accomplishment, as his father, Fred, was a first-team Academic All-American at Iowa State in 1995.

In the classroom, he was a three-time CSC Academic All-District honoree, a four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection and a three-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. He is an eight-time member of the NU Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll and was selected to the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society.

Worth Noting
• Braden Frager's driving basket with 2.2 seconds left against Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA Tournament marked the third time this year that Nebraska has won a game in the last three seconds of regulation. 

• All seven of NU's losses came against teams that reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, including six that reached the Elite Eight. 

• The Huskers finished the season with a 28-7 record, breaking the school record for wins in a season (26) that was set in 1990-91. 

• Nebraska tied for second in the Big Ten standings, matching its highest conference finish since back-to-back first place Big Seven Conference showings in 1948-49 and 1949-50. NU finished second in the conference standings six times between 1950 and 2025 (1965-55, 1966-67, 1977-78, 1979-80, 1980-81 and 1992-93).

• Pryce Sandfort became the fourth Husker to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors, joining Brice Williams (2025), James Palmer Jr. (2018) and Terran Petteway (2014). Nebraska has had consecutive first-team all-conference performers for the first time since 1998 (Tyronn Lue) and 1999 (Venson Hamilton). 

• Sandfort finished the season with 999 career points following his 25-point effort against Iowa in the Sweet 16. His 634 points this season ranked sixth on NU's single-season chart. 

• Fred Hoiberg is just the third coach in school history to earn multiple conference Coach of the Year accolades, joining Joe Cipriano (1966, 1978, 1980) and Moe Iba (1980, 1981).  In 1980, Joe Cipriano, who was stricken with cancer at the time, was named UPI Big Eight Co-Coach of the Year with assistant Moe Iba, who guided Huskers in Cipriano’s absence.

• Nebraska’s 15-5 Big Ten record set the mark for most conference wins in school history. The previous high for conference wins was 13, set in 2017-18 when NU finished with a 13-5 mark. 

• Nebraska has 49 wins over the past two seasons. It is the most wins in a two-year stretch in school history. NU won a combined 45 games spanning the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.

• Nebraska's 88 wins over the past four seasons is the most in a four-year span in school history. The Huskers won 85 games between 1990-91 and 1993-94. Sam Hoiberg was on the floor for 82 of the Huskers' 88 wins and is one of only three players to win 80 or more games as a player, joining Eric Piatkowski (84, 1990-94) and Bruce Chubick (81, 1990-94). 

• Rienk Mast recorded his 100th career double-figure game with his 13-point effort against Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. 

• Nebraska finished 7-3 on the road in Big Ten play in 2025-26. The seven road wins in conference play broke the school record of five, set most recently in 1965-66.  NU finished 12-5 away from Pinnacle Bank Arena in 2025-26. The loss to Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament snapped a streak of 10 straight wins at neutral sites dating back to the 2024-25 season. 

• Nebraska finished 16-2 at home this season and is 55-13 (.809) at Pinnacle Bank Arena over the past four seasons. Nebraska finished the regular season with nine straight sellouts and averaged 14,671 fans per game to rank 16th nationally. 

• Nebraska's 20-0 start to the season marked just the third time in the last 30 years a Big Ten team has started 20-0 and the first since Ohio State opened the 2010-11 season with 24 straight wins. 

• Nebraska was No. 14 in the NET on Selection Sunday and was one of five Big Ten teams in the top 15 of the NET (No. 2 Michigan, No. 8 Illinois, No. 9 Purdue, No. 11 Michigan State and No. 14 Nebraska). Nebraska finished the regular season with a 15-6 mark in the first two quads (9-6 in Q1, 6-0 in Q2).

• Since the start of the 2023-24 season, NU is 72-32 (.692) while the 72 wins over the past three seasons are tied for fifth among Big Ten teams in that span (Purdue-88; Illinois-79; Michigan State-77; Wisconsin-73; Nebraska-72, Michigan-72).

• Nebraska saw its school-record 24-game win streak snapped on Jan. 27. It nearly doubled the previous mark of 14 set two other times (1912-13 and 1990-91) and was the longest win streak by a Big Ten team since Ohio State won 24 straight to open the 2010-11 season.

Noting the Husker Offense
• Nebraska averaged 77.0 ppg, which was just outside the top 10 scoring averages in school history. NU's highest average in the Big Ten era (2011-12 to present) took place two years ago when the Huskers averaged 77.7 ppg.

• The Huskers were second in the Big Ten and 17th nationally with 10.6 3-pointers made per game, breaking the single-season record of 9.54 set in 2001-02. NU, Wisconsin and Illinois all broke the Big Ten's single-season mark for 3-pointers per game (10.4 by Penn State in 2022-23). A Hoiberg-coach team has led the conference in 3-pointers per game in five of his 12 college seasons. 

• Nebraska's 373 3-pointers were a single-season school record, breaking the mark of 319 set in 2023-24. Four of the top six 3-point seasons in school history have come in Fred Hoiberg's seven seasons at Nebraska. 

• NU made 10-or-more 3-pointers 23 times this season, going 18-5 in those contests. NU had four games with at least fifteen 3-pointers (17 vs. Oregon and FIU; 15 vs. Oklahoma and vs. Illinois) and set a postseason school record with 14 3-pointers against Troy and had 13 vs. Iowa.

• The Huskers finished sixth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.86-to-1), breaking the school record of 1.81-to-1 which had stood since the 1984-85 season. The Big Ten had five of the top 10 teams nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (Purdue-1st; Northwestern-2nd; Nebraska-6th; UCLA-8th, Wisconsin-9th). 

• Nebraska was 12th nationally with 18.0 assists per game, an increase of 3.8 assists per game from last season. Nebraska's 631 assists were the most by the Huskers since the 1990-91 season. 

• The Huskers set a school-record with 9.71 turnovers per game, breaking the old record of 9.96 set in 2018-19. NU finished 30th nationally in fewest turnovers per game, one of seven teams that ranked in the top 30 in that category. 

Noting the Husker Defense
• Nebraska was stout defensively this season, ranking second in the Big Ten and 22nd nationally in field goal percentage defense (.405). Only two opponents shot 50 percent from the field against the Huskers in 2025-26. It was the second time in the last three years that Nebraska ranked in the top 25 in field goal percentage defense.

• The Huskers led the Big Ten and ranked 18th nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 66.1 ppg. The 65.8 ppg allowed was 6.5 points per game fewer than last season and was NU's lowest scoring defense since the 2014-15 season (63.1 ppg). 

• Nebraska finished second in the Big Ten and 24th nationally in 3-point percentage defense (.305).

• Nebraska led the Big Ten with 7.1 steals per game and ranked in the top three of the Big Ten in turnovers forced per game (12.7, second) and turnover margin (+3.0). 

• The Huskers held 19 opponents to under 1.00 points per possession and had an 18-1 mark in those games. Over the last four seasons, NU is 59-4 (.936) when holding foes to under 1.00 PPP and 61-6 when holding opponents to under 70 points.

• In Big Ten play, the Huskers finished first in scoring defense (66.2 ppg), steals (7.45/gm), 3-point percentage defense (.297) and turnover margin (+3.20/gm) and third in field goal defense (.423). It marked the first time since 2008-09 where NU led the conference in scoring defense in conference play. 

• Nebraska has improved its KenPom defensive efficiency in each of the past four seasons and finished eighth nationally in 2025-26. It was the first time in program history that NU ranked in the top-10 nationally in defensive efficiency. NU's previous top KenPom rank on defense was 15th in 2008-09. 

This and That
• The Huskers excelled in close games this season, going 5-2 in games decided by one possession after going winless in six games during the 2024-25 season.

• As a team, Nebraska's .755 free throw percentage finished fourth in school history. NU has posted three of the top seven free throw percentages during the past three seasons. 

• Nebraska finished 3-4 vs. ranked teams in 2025-26, posting wins over No. 13 Illinois, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 16 Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament.  Since March 1, 2022, the Huskers are 12-15 in the last 27 games against ranked teams, including 5-4 against top-10 teams. Prior to that, NU had lost 24 straight against ranked teams dating back to the 2019 Big Ten Tournament.

• Nebraska went 1-1 in OT games, as the Huskers lost to No. 13 Purdue on Feb. 10 and defeated Iowa on March 8. Nebraska is 68-59 all-time in OT games. 

• The Huskers posted three double-digit comebacks on the season (vs. Oklahoma, USC Upstate and at Indiana), overcoming 16-point deficits against the Sooners and Hoosiers. Nebraska has overcome double-digit deficits 12 times under Fred Hoiberg, including seven times in the last two seasons. 

• NU had 30 double-digit scoring runs (Kill Shots) this season which was fourth in the Big Ten and tied for 17th nationally. Only Michigan (41), Illinois (39) and Purdue (32) had more double-digit runs in than NU among Big Ten teams. 

• Nine Huskers posted double-figure efforts this season, while four players had at least one 20-point performance (Pryce Sandfort-15; Braden Frager-6; Rienk Mast-5; Jamarques Lawrence-3).

• There were 30 triple-doubles in Division I basketball this season while NU was the only school with multiple players recording a triple-double. Over the last seven seasons, only five schools - NU (2025-26), Iowa State (2023-24), Western Kentucky (2021-22), Portland (2021-22) and Utah (2019-20) - have had multiple players record triple-doubles in the same year. 

• Nebraska completed its non-conference slate with a perfect 11-0 record, marking the first time since the 1928-29 season where NU posted an unblemished non-conference mark (6-0). The Huskers are 31-2 in regular-season non-conference play since the start of the 2023-24 season (10-1 in 2023-24; 10-1 in 2024-25).

Huskers Finished 14th in Final Polls
Nebraska finished the 2025-26 polls ranked 14th in the final Associated Press poll and 14th in the USA Today Coaches Poll on April 7

• Nebraska has been ranked in the AP Poll for 15 straight weeks, which is the longest streak in school history. The Huskers were ranked for 13 straight weeks during the 1990-91 season.

• On Jan. 26, Nebraska earned its highest ranking in school history, moving to No. 5 in both the AP and Coaches polls following a 20-0 start. It one one of eight weeks NU spent in the top 10 during the season.

• The Huskers are 57-29 (.663) all-time when ranked in the AP poll following the loss to Iowa in the Sweet 16.

• Prior to this season, the 1965-66 season was the only other season where Nebraska was ranked in the top 10. NU spent four straight weeks in the poll (Feb. 7-28) in 1965-66, reaching as high as eighth on Feb. 21, 1966.