It’s basketball season, folks. Well, it’s lots of sports at once season, if we’re being honest.
That said, Nebraska basketball is back and both teams open the regular season Monday. It makes sense that basketball would tip off this Friday Five then. It’s only fitting.
Let’s get into it.
1. Britt Prince and Natalie Potts on national watch lists
Junior point guard Britt Prince was named to the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year preseason watch list Monday, then landed on the 50-player Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Watch List on Thursday. Surprising after her previous season? Not really.
Prince led Nebraska in scoring at 17.9 points per game, assists at 4.4 and steals at 1.5 while shooting 53.5% from the field, 45.7% from 3 and a Big Ten-best 91.2% from the free-throw line. She was also particularly good in the NCAA Tournament, averaging 24.5 points across Nebraska’s two games.
Prince already offered a preview of what Year 3 might look like, scoring 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting in Nebraska’s closed scrimmage at Kansas State.
She is not the only Husker getting preseason attention either.
Natalie Potts was named to the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Watch List after finally returning to full strength following two seasons disrupted by injury and recovery. Potts had 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals against Kansas State in a closed exhibition, then added 12 points and four steals in 17 minutes during Nebraska’s exhibition win over Wayne State.
After everything it took for Potts to get back on the floor, seeing her on a national watch list before the season even begins is a pretty big deal.
Nebraska opens Monday at noon against San Jose State at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
2. Nebraska men’s basketball got what it needed from its final exhibition
The box score from Nebraska’s 88-84 win over Kansas State on Monday starts with Braden Frager and Pryce Sandfort. Frager scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Sandfort added 23, giving Nebraska 51 points from the duo in the exhibition finale in Grand Island.
However, it might have been what happened late in the game that mattered most. Nebraska had built a 13-point advantage with a little more than four minutes remaining. The Wildcats kept coming, eventually cutting the lead to two three separate times in the final 30 seconds.
The Huskers answered at the free-throw line. Taj DeGourville made two, Frager made two and freshman Jacob Lanier finished it with two more with 3.1 seconds remaining. Nebraska went 6-for-6 at the line in the final 30 seconds and 21-for-27 for the game.
Damon Wilkinson also provided 12 points off the bench, while DeGourville and Lanier combined for 17 as Nebraska got 29 bench points overall.
There will be plenty more to figure out once the games count— especially with Fred Hoiberg sorting through a deeper rotation — but Nebraska leaves exhibition play having already dealt with a late-game push from a power-conference opponent and found a way to close it.
The regular season starts Monday night against Le Moyne at 6:30 p.m. on B1G+.
3. Nebraska wrestling will begin the season at No. 3
The Huskers landed at No. 31 in the preseason NWCA Division I Coaches Poll, behind only defending national champion Penn State and Oklahoma State. Nebraska finished third at last season’s NCAA Championships and the preseason ranking puts the Huskers ahead of No. 4 Iowa, No. 5 Virginia Tech and No. 6 Ohio State.
The Big Ten is well represented as usual. Four conference teams are inside the top eight and seven are ranked in the top 25.
Nebraska will also get plenty of opportunities to test that No. 3 ranking. Nine ranked opponents are currently on the schedule, including five that will come to Lincoln. The Huskers open Nov. 8 against No. 18 Wyoming, while No. 20 Rutgers, No. 19 Illinois, No. 8 Minnesota and No. 13 Arizona State will all visit later in the season.
That doesn’t even include road tests against programs like Oklahoma State, Iowa and Ohio State.
4. A Nebraska women’s golf assistant picked up another coaching honor
Halley Morell is only in her first season as an assistant coach at Nebraska but she arrived in Lincoln with a pretty strong résumé. That résumé added another line Wednesday when Morell was named the 2026 LPGA Central Section Coach of the Year for her work at Bradley last season.
Morell led Bradley to a runner-up finish at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships, the program’s best showing in 20 years. The Braves finished just one shot behind Murray State for the league title and NCAA regional berth.
All five Bradley golfers placed inside the top 20 individually at the conference tournament, and three earned All-MVC honors. Bradley also won the 19-team Rio Verde Invitational during the spring.
This is Morell’s third LPGA sectional coaching honor after previously winning Midwest Section Coach of the Year at Bradley in 2019 and 2021.
Now she joins a Nebraska program that had an excellent fall of its own. The Huskers finished with a 36-13-1 head-to-head record and a 285.25 team scoring average through four tournaments.
5. Andrew Marshall’s midseason honors keep coming
At this point, Andrew Marshall is becoming a bit of a regular in the Friday Five. The Nebraska cornerback was added to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list Wednesday, putting him in consideration for the honor given annually to college football’s top defensive player. It follows first-team midseason All-America selections from both On3 and Sports Illustrated.
Marshall has started all seven games and recorded 21 tackles, four pass breakups and an interception, but his most impressive number may be eight. According to Pro Football Focus, opponents have completed only eight passes on 27 targets thrown his way.
That helps explain why Marshall’s raw statistics don’t necessarily jump off the page. Teams have not had much success testing him.
He has been one of the anchors of a Nebraska defense that enters Saturday ranked ninth nationally in total defense and 14th in scoring defense, allowing 15.4 points per game.
The Huskers return from the bye Saturday night against Washington at Memorial Stadium, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. on BTN.
Do you like how I put this at the No. 3 spot in the newsletter? Felt fitting.