Brooke Pryor
Multiple Authors
OKLAHOMA CITY — With a bit greater than two minutes till his crew formally made historical past, Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg despatched in a pair of substitutes to alleviate junior forwards Pryce Sandfort and Berke Buyuktuncel.
The overwhelmingly pro-Huskers crowd roared to life, simply because it had all through the landmark afternoon as No. 4 seed Nebraska captured its first-ever NCAA tournament win in a 76-47 drubbing of No. 13 seed Troy, raucously celebrating two of the boys who helped this system lastly seize the milestone that had eluded them of their previous eight journeys to the Big Dance. The pair joined senior guard Jamarques Lawrence and senior ahead Rienk Mast on the bench, the place they started soaking within the ambiance and the approaching victory.
“The five-minute mark hit, and you kind of know like, ‘Hey, this one’s in the pocket,'” stated Mast, who put up 11 factors, six rebounds and 7 assists. “You start looking around and just the amount of smiles you see from everyone in the crowd. It was truly special.”
Less than 30 seconds later, Hoiberg pulled his son Sam Hoiberg and sixth man Braden Frager for an ovation of their very own. When the ultimate horn blew, the Huskers emptied the bench, embracing one another, their coaches and longtime program staffers as they set a brand new single-season program file with 27 wins.
The second was the end result of seven seasons of laborious work by Fred Hoiberg, who had three consecutive shedding seasons to begin his tenure as Nebraska’s head coach from 2019 to 2022. But after going 16-16 in 2022-23, Nebraska has three consecutive seasons with at the least 20 wins, plus two NCAA tournament berths and now a tournament victory.
“It’s almost like a storybook ending in this tournament win,” stated Sam Hoiberg, a fourth-year senior who was a part of the Nebraska crew that misplaced to Texas A&M within the first spherical of the 2024 NCAA tournament. “We kind of felt like the last thing that we needed to do to get this program on top.
“It was robust being on these groups that weren’t profitable video games, particularly after I was on the bench. … So simply having the ability to reap the advantage of all of the issues we have finished this season has been unbelievable.”
Entering this year’s NCAA tournament, the Huskers were the only team from a major conference (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East) without a win in the event. Their 29-point win marks the largest margin of victory in a team’s first-ever win since Fordham beat Furman by 31 points in 1971, according to ESPN Research.
Sandfort led all scorers with 23 points coming on seven 3-pointers and a pair of free throws. The junior transfer from Iowa poured in 17 first-half points as he buried five of eight triples to help Nebraska surge past a fast-starting Troy team. Sandfort’s seven 3-pointers were one off his career high set earlier this year and set a program record for most 3-pointers in an NCAA tournament game.
Before the game, he was surprised by his brother, Payton Sandfort, who made his NBA debut for the Oklahoma City Thunder in Brooklyn the night before.
“These guys have been in search of me in transition off of rebounds,” Pryce Sandfort said of his teammates helping him get open. “They gave me nice passes. And Payton, seeing it on the market, actually particular. He’s been to, like, one sport this yr. So getting him to come back to this sport was particular.”
But for all of the relief and jubilation that came with Nebraska’s first-ever tournament win, Hoiberg was quick to remind his players that they’re not done with the round of 32 on the horizon.
“This is essentially the most emotional of all of them, for me,” Hoiberg said, adding that he started to let it soak in with 1:13 to go. “Both benches have been empty, and it is emotional for me. I consider my dad, who’s in a house proper now. I hope he received an opportunity to look at this one. I am unable to wait to speak to him simply due to what it means for our household. And it’s emotional. There’s little question about it.
“But these guys all year long have moved on. They’ve been so resilient. They’ve got over big wins. They’ve got over tough losses, and I’m confident that they’re going to do that again and be locked in.”
