On Saturday afternoon, the Nebraska men’s basketball team played in the first Big Ten Tournament semifinal in school history. The Huskers battled with the Illinois Fighting Illini, falling 98-87.
Following the loss, Head Coach Fred Hoiberg said that he’s excited about the fact that Nebraska’s season isn’t over.
I like where we are heading into this week, heading into tomorrow, where we will find out our fate. As I told the guys in the locker room after, one thing that still — it was such a pit in my stomach last year at this time, a couple days earlier when we lost, because I just had a feeling we wouldn’t be able to play again and I wouldn’t be able to coach that group, and I loved that group that we had a year ago. It was such a fun group to coach.
The Huskers’ semi-final appearance is their deepest run in a conference tournament since 2006. Nebraska lost for only the third time this season when leading at the half; they were 18-2 heading into Saturday’s game. The Husker head coach is looking forward to seeing who the Huskers will play come the start of the NCAA Tournament.
The blessing we have is we’re going to be playing next week. Whether that’s Thursday or Friday, we’re going to have the opportunity to continue to compete and hopefully make a little run right here and continue to do things that have never been done with this program.
Illinois will now advance to play the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten Title game on Sunday afternoon. Nebraska will learn their opponent in the upcoming NCAA Tournament later Sunday night.
You can find a photo gallery from Nebraska’s semi-final loss below.