Over his 16 years as a head coach, Fred Hoiberg has experienced enough highs and lows to know that you have to appreciate the highs.
Few can compare to March 19, 2026, when Hoiberg led Nebraska to its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, 76-47 over Troy. Two days later, his team had one of the most dramatic March Madness wins in recent memory, toppling Vanderbilt 74-72 when Tyler Tanner’s half-court heave rattled in and out. “You really do need to enjoy the good moments, because you’re certainly miserable enough in the bad ones,” Hoiberg, who took over Nebraska in 2019, tells Hoops HQ. “So when you accomplish something like we did, you have to find a way to enjoy it.”
But Hoiberg also knows that the joy is fleeting. To sustain success in the college hoops world, you have to be able to move on and refocus quickly. That has never been more true than today, in an era defined by dramatic roster turnover and constant rule changes. So when Nebraska’s magical, historic season came to an end in the Sweet Sixteen, Hoiberg and his staff immediately shifted gears to the 2026-27 campaign.
The results are impressive, to say the least. Nebraska retained several key players, including All-Big Ten star Pryce Sandfort and reigning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year Braden Frager, and filled its gaps with a solid transfer class. The program is ranked No. 15 in BartTorvik’s preseason projections (fourth among Big Ten schools). Expectations in Lincoln have never been higher, as Nebraska has a legitimate chance to be even better than it was last season.
It has been a long, often gloomy, road to this point for the Huskers. In Hoiberg’s first season at the helm (2019-20), they finished dead last in the Big Ten with a 2-18 record. They remained in the conference’s basement for the next few years, as Hoiberg’s seat grew hotter.
Then, in 2022-23, there were signs of life. Nebraska won nine league games, equaling the total of the previous three seasons combined. Hoiberg credits that team’s upperclassmen with helping him “flip the culture” of the program.
Building a solid culture was especially critical for the Huskers, considering their lack of NIL money compared to the powerhouses of the Big Ten. With a smaller budget to work with, Nebraska wasn’t going to land the biggest names on the market; but if it recruited the right guys who fit its playing style — fast-paced, five-out, three-point heavy — and maintained a strong culture, the program could punch above its weight.
That is precisely what the Huskers have done, winning at least 20 games in each of the last three seasons. In 2025-26, they got off to a 20-0 start and went on to set a program record with 28 wins. They were picked to finish 14th in the Big Ten and wound up finishing 14th in the nation. Among the schools that reached the Sweet Sixteen, Nebraska had the lowest payroll. But it had exceptional continuity, chemistry and veteran leadership.
For the Huskers, the most important variable has been — and will continue to be — retention. The 2025-26 team was anchored by Rienk Mast, Sam Hoiberg and Jamarques Lawrence, all of whom spent at least three years in Lincoln. With that trio graduating, there was even more pressure on Nebraska to hold onto its other key players this spring. “The most important thing is getting the guys back because they’ve been in it,” Hoiberg says. “They’ve been in the battles with each other. They know the culture. They know the standard. And then you can bring in other guys, and they know pretty early what they have to adhere to if you have the right guys back that have great leadership qualities. So that’s where it starts.”
The program’s unexpected success has enabled it to raise more NIL, enough to keep four rotational pieces away from the portal: 6-foot-7 senior forward Pryce Sandfort, 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Braden Frager, 6-foot-4 senior guard Connor Essegian and 6-foot-4 senior guard Cole Jacobsen. Still, the Huskers aren’t in the same financial position as other top-25-caliber teams and couldn’t afford to also retain 6-foot-10 senior center Berke Buyuktuncel, who landed a big contract with Vanderbilt.
Of the returnees, Sandfort is the headliner. As a junior, the All-Big Ten forward led the Huskers in scoring (18.1 points per game) and shot 41.6 percent from behind the arc. He is projected to contend for an All-American spot this season, which would make him just the second Nebraska player ever to receive such an honor (the other was Sam Carrier in 1913).
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’s a better player than he was a year ago,” Hoiberg says about Sandfort. “He really worked on his playmaking, ball handling, decision making. He was a better rebounder than he was the previous season, but he can still take the next step in that area and we’re going to need him. And then on the defensive end of the floor is where we need to continue to see growth.”
Hoiberg is also hopeful that Frager — the Huskers’ other big returnee — will make a leap as a defender, becoming a two-way force. After redshirting the 2024-25 campaign, Frager had one of the best debut seasons in Nebraska basketball history. The former three-star prospect averaged 11.8 points and 3.8 rebounds off the bench, winning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year and earning a spot on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team. He will step into the starting lineup this season alongside Sandfort on the wing.
Essegian missed most of last season with an ankle injury, but the sharpshooting guard is back and, according to Hoiberg, a lot stronger than he was before being sidelined. Jacobsen, who’s entering his fifth year with the program after walking on in 2022, will once again play an important reserve role.
As he ventured into the portal to fill the rest of his roster, Hoiberg was careful about who he pursued. The most glaring holes were in the frontcourt. Nebraska was in desperate need of more size, rebounding and physicality. Luckily, there were several players whose agents actually reached out to the program, believing that the fit was ideal. That gave the Huskers a significant edge in those recruiting battles.
When the dust settled, Hoiberg had landed six transfers, three of whom — 6-foot-9 junior forward Sam Orme, 6-foot-10 junior center Damon Wilkinson and 7-foot senior center Boden Kapke — are proven big men. Orme, a former standout at Belmont, makes perfect sense in the Huskers’ free-flowing, pace-and-space system. He earned All-MVC Second Team honors last season with averages of 12.7 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 39.7 percent from three. Wilkinson (13.9 points and 6.4 rebounds at South Dakota State) and Kapke (10.6 points and 5.7 rebounds at Boston College) are more traditional bigs that should shore up the interior.
To help replace the playmaking of Hoiberg and Lawrence, the Huskers signed 6-foot-5 senior guard Trevan Leonhardt, who averaged 11.9 points, 6.0 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals for Utah Valley in 2025-26. The jumbo floor general can shoot from deep (36.8 percent) and break down defenses off the bounce. He is expected to assume the starting point guard role.
Overall, Hoiberg believes his new squad is deeper than the 2025-26 team. It also has the shooting, length and versatility to allow him to play around with different lineup combinations and offensive schemes. “It’s a similar system, but I have experimented with some things, just moving the parts around on the floor,” Hoiberg says. “We’re going to be very similar defensively. We had the eighth-ranked defense in the country a year ago (per KenPom). But I’ve experimented with some things that I really like. You’ll see a lot of the same type of alignments with our offensive system, but I’ve got the pieces in different spots on the floor, and it’s made us more random. I think it’s going to make us harder to scout and harder to prepare for. I like how it looks, but until you start playing against somebody other than yourself, you truly don’t know.”
The Huskers have a far tougher nonconference schedule in 2026-27, with games against Providence (Nov. 7), Boise State (Nov. 15), Butler (Nov. 22), Ohio State (Dec. 2), Creighton (Dec. 5), Penn State (Dec. 8) and Missouri (Dec. 12). They will take the floor for the first time later this week in an exhibition against Saint Louis at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
As the regular season rapidly approaches, the excitement is mounting in Lincoln. Combine last year’s success with a fruitful offseason — which included receiving a commitment from Class of 2027 star Dawson Battie, the highest-ranked prospect in program history (No. 26 in the 247Sports Composite) — and there has never been as great a buzz surrounding Nebraska basketball. But to keep the momentum going, Hoiberg knows his team must block out the noise and lock back in.
“There’s a great energy around the program right now, but at the same time — when we were going through our run of 20 straight wins to start the (2025-26) season, we talked to our guys every day about keeping our walls up,” Hoiberg says. “As soon as you start buying into the hype and believing what people are writing about you, it’s going to be over pretty quickly. Our guys have done a good job with that. But as far as the overall energy around our program, it’s been awesome to see. Our guys have done a great job of getting out and doing a lot of work in the community. I’m really proud of them for doing that. But it’s time to get to work. And it’s time to take the next step.”
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