Fred Hoiberg shares message to Nebraska players amid 11-0 start to season

The Nebraska Cornhuskers won a thriller on Saturday night, knocking off Illinois. In the process, the Cornhuskers moved to 11-0, the best start to a season in program history.

In the emotional aftermath of that win, Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg met with the media. There, he’d share his message to the Nebraska players and share what is coming up for the Cornhuskers.

“I told the guys this,” Fred Hoiberg said. “They just accomplished something that’s never been done in the history of Nebraska basketball. Now, the next test is how are you going to respond to it? We’ve talked to them about their phones, they’re toxic. When things are going great, all the good things that are being said about them. And on the flip side when things aren’t going well all the negativity, can you tune all those out? We talked a lot about this game putting up your walls. And our guys, I thought, did a good job of that. You could tell because how we handled the adversity and continued to fight throughout this game.”

On Saturday night, Nebraska had to battle with Illinois to remain unbeaten. After the game was tied at the half, and it came down to a contested three that Jamarques Lawrence took, knocking it down with less than a second left on the clock to win. Pryce Sandfort led the way for both teams with 32 points on the game. He was one of four Cornhuskers scoring in double digits.

“So, we’ll see how we respond. We need a great week of prep. The last time we played North Dakota in the getaway game before the break, I think we were down 17 in the first half. It’s a good team. It’s a well coached team,” Hoiberg said. “And we’ve got to end this thing the right way before the guys go home for a couple of days for the Christmas break. But I’m proud of them. I’m not going to discount what they’ve accomplished because they should be proud of themselves for what they’ve done.”

The win over Illinois would prove to be the first Q1 win of the season for Nebraska. The Cornhuskers had previously added four Q2 wins, including against Wisconsin in Big Ten play. Of course, in conference play, Nebraska will see a notable increase in those Q1 opportunities.

“We finally got a start at home for the first time in the Big Ten in seven years,” Hoiberg said. “But to win your home and road game and to be 2-0 after these games, it’s huge for your guys. Now, we’ve got to finish this thing off before we get back against Michigan State on the 2nd.”

Nebraska will have two more non-conference games coming up in the month of December. First, the Cornhuskers will play host to North Dakota on December 21st. After that, they’ll take on New Hampshire on December 30th. From there, they’ll return to Big Ten play against Michigan State on January 2nd.