'We were supposed to win': Nebraska embracing expectations during historic start
LINCOLN — When Nebraska fans stormed the court after winning its second-ever home game against a ranked opponent, big man Rienk Mast didn’t have a smile on his face.
Instead, the senior, who scored a team-high 19 points with six triples to pull out the 58-56 victory over Michigan State, went to the handshake line and then straight back to the locker room.
“If you are the No. 13 against the No. 9 and you’re at home, in my opinion you’re supposed to win the game,” Mast said postgame. “I don’t blame the fans at all that they got excited for that win, but I think from here on out, we’ve proven that we belong in these games and that we’re supposed to win these types of games. So yeah. In the moment I was like, ‘Agh, we’re supposed to win this one.’ But I get it.”
Senior guard Jamarques Lawrence felt the same way.
“We were supposed to win that game guys,” he said. “No more court storms please.”
That response says everything you need to know about this Nebraska team and where the Cornhuskers could be headed. Nebraska is off to its best start in program history at 14-0. It has done things the program has never done before this season.
Yet the Huskers remain cool, calm, collected and focused on the mission.
“It was fun to see our guys celebrate,” head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “But once we got in the locker room, they were ready to move past it.”
While the celebration was short-lived for the players, Nebraska fans will likely remember this game for a long time. And it’s because the Huskers won in a way few would have expected.
The Cornhuskers have been known for their elite offense and 3-point shooting this season, but they beat Michigan State with their defense. The Spartans turned the ball over a season-high 19 times and were held to a season-low 56 points. Michigan State managed just one point over the final 4:30 and shot just four layups the entire contest.
If you were told the final score was 58-56 pregame, you’d probably think Michigan State found a way to win a rock fight, much like Tom Izzo’s teams have done in his 31 years as head coach. But Nebraska beat the Spartans at their own game.
Despite shooting just 32% from the field, getting out-rebounded by 14 and Hoiberg’s 0-25 record as a head coach when scoring under 60 points, Nebraska still found a way.
At the final media timeout, when Nebraska was down 55-52 with 3:29 to play, Hoiberg said there was no panic. The guys were in the huddle saying “this is what it’s all about, now go win it.” That says a lot about the makeup of this group. They never lost their composure, even in one of the biggest games in Nebraska history, in an arena that was anything but calm.
“I don’t know if you can tell from my voice, but my voice is gone,” Mast said on After Dark. “[The crowd] was deafening. I want to know how [Carson] Cooper felt with that last free throw at the end because that was probably the loudest I’ve ever heard Pinnacle Bank Arena. The fans really showed up today.”
The pandemonium in Lincoln was telling that this program is reaching new heights. But in the locker room, this team simply refuses to give in to all the outside noise.
“There’s a lot of things for these guys to be proud of,” Hoiberg said. “But at the same time, the most impressive thing to me about this group is how they’ve handled it. They haven’t gotten big headed.”
“I think we have a group that’s old and knows if you ride that high you can fall flat on your face,” Mast said. “So we stay even. How do you do that? Take it one game at a time.”
That mindset is why the Huskers didn’t celebrate like a team that pulled an upset (for one, they didn’t, as Nebraska was favored by 2.5 points). But still, they acted like a team that understands expectations have shifted. Winning is no longer something to be surprised by, even against a top-10 opponent.
So has Nebraska officially arrived?
“No,” Mast said. “No. We have a long season to go and we got to keep that mentality of every single game we have to prove that this isn’t a fluke, that we’re not just on a hot streak and can go cold. We just have to stay poised and continue to prove people wrong.”
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