Soft and Clear

A once-promising Nebraska season officially lost its promise Sunday, but even a dim day had at least one bit of brightness.

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

From a better than 75% chance to make the NCAA Tournament to not making the 15-team Big Ten Tournament. Nebraska basketball fans are used to suffering—it’s the dominant theme throughout the program’s history—but Sunday’s 83-68 loss to Iowa was sports suffering dialed all the way up.

Needing a win at home on Senior Day to make the tournament, where a couple of wins were the only way left for Nebraska to make the Tournament, the Huskers couldn’t make it happen.¹ That this play-in game came against the Hawkeyes—where most of the recent talk around the program was whether coach Fran McCaffery would survive this .500-ish season or be fired—was another cruel twist. Iowa sure has a knack for inflicting maximum pain² on Nebraska of late.

Credit the Hawkeyes with an excellently executed, if not straightforward, defensive play. They blitzed almost every ball screen for Brice Williams. A week after scoring a program-record 43 points in the double-overtime loss at Ohio State, the Big Ten’s leading scorer (20.4 ppg) was held to 7.³ Iowa mixed in some zone, primarily in the second half, and asked NU to make some shots. It didn’t. The Huskers shot 28.6% in the second half and went six minutes without a field goal before Ahron Ulis got two buckets in garbage time. Connor Essegian, a 39% shooter from 3, went 0-for-8 behind the arc and 0-for-11 overall.

“Some things happened to our group that haven’t happened in my 30-plus years of being around this game,” Fred Hoiberg said, mentioning the one-possession losses. The Huskers had six and another by 5 points.

You have to give Hoiberg’s history with the game the benefit of the doubt here. I have no doubt he was genuine in saying that, but I also get it if you’re a Nebraska basketball fan, whose history is Husker-exclusive, how that same quote doesn’t offer much solace. Is there a German word⁴ for something being completely unbelievable and believable at the same time?

If there is, I’d make it the title of my documentary on the last 10 years of Nebraska-Iowa.⁵

As it went, Sunday represented the only lose-and-go-home game the Huskers will play this season where the stakes felt literal. Hoiberg said he thinks the team will play in the postseason, and Nebraska, a 17-win team with some seriously good wins, will almost certainly have the opportunity to do so outside the NCAA Tournament.⁶ There will probably be more basketball, just not the kind that a team shoots for, the kind that felt more probable than not just a month ago.

Outside of what the loss to Iowa meant, there are two moments I’ll remember for a while from this game.

One, early in the second half, as Iowa was building its lead, BTN play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler remarked about how quiet it was inside the sold out Pinnacle Bank Arena, saying he wasn’t sure it came across on the broadcast. Did for me, soft and clear. The ball bouncing was a little too loud for what you’re used to, the shoes a little too squeaky. It was uneasy, and I was just watching from home on my couch.

Two, Juwan Gary led all scorers with 24 points but fouled out late in the game on what felt like a frustration foul. It only offered him the sad version of a Senior Day walk off the court, but it was amazing in that way. The Iowa players on the floor shared a handshake or hug with Gary as he exited.

“I’m not the most talented player, I’m not the best shooter out there, but you can’t question my toughness or how hard I play, they respect that,” Gary said. “I’d do the same thing to all of them. Credit to all those guys, for sure. I respect their game a lot, especially over the three years I’ve been here. It’s a respect thing, and I’m grateful to play against a lot of great players in this conference.”

As a tearful Gary made his way to Nebraska’s bench, he then shared a long embrace with Hoiberg. Long enough you could feel that as well, even though it was clear by then that the season the Huskers wanted, and was very likely to have at one point, was over.

“I’m not sure I’ve had a guy I’m more proud of in his development and his growth with everything, on-court, off-the-court and everything Juwan has done to put himself in this position to be one of the more respected players to wear a uniform because he leaves it all on the court,” Hoiberg said. “You never have to worry about Juwan. He’s going to go out there, diving on the floor, doing little things, and he’s just one of my favorites. Favorites of all time.”

You also have to respect Hoiberg’s history, and the heights he’s reached in basketball, here too. Gary’s long walk was a bit of brightness nobody in red wanted, but bright all the same.

You could hear PBA then.

1. I think that’s the right way to put it. They didn’t come up short. They didn’t blow it. They just couldn’t make it happen.

2. Iowa football has beaten a five-win Nebraska team three times in a regular-season finale: 2015 (28-20, NU still back-doored into a bowl thanks to APR), 2019 (27-24) and 2023 (13-10). (There was also 9-2 Iowa being an underdog to 3-8 Nebraska and winning by 7 in 2021.) Now basketball has its version.

3. Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli took the Big Ten scoring crown after Sunday, averaging 20.2 points per game to Williams’ 20.0.

4. Just think of how useful “schadenfreude” is. I don’t have peer-reviewed data on this, but I believe the English word we reach for most often when confronted with the unbelievable/believable dilemma is “surreal,” but I don’t think it’s quite right. Surreal is overused in sports. That’s my hottest take today, and I’m putting it in a footnote because I might not be good at this. Save us, save me, German philosophers.

5. Not volleyball though, which has still never lost to Iowa. There’s that.

6. There’s a new tournament in the fold this year for non-Tournament teams, the College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas. It’s sort of interesting on a couple of fronts, but we’ll get to that if the Huskers head there.