Regular-season accolades have poured in for 11th-ranked Nebraska as it prepares to take on No. 18 Purdue in a Big Ten quarterfinal matchup on Friday evening in Chicago.
The second-seeded Cornhuskers (26-5) seized their highest placement in a postseason conference tournament, compliments of a turnaround season that earned coach Fred Hoiberg Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.
The seventh-seeded Boilermakers (24-8) advanced to the quarterfinals with a wire-to-wire, 81-68 win over 15th-seeded Northwestern on Thursday.
Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff each scored 19 points to lead Purdue. Cluff also had 10 rebounds, Fletcher Loyer added 14 points, and Braden Smith set a Big Ten tournament single-game record with 16 assists.
Friday’s game will be a rematch of Purdue’s 80-77 overtime road win on Feb. 10. The Boilermakers nearly squandered a 22-point lead in the second half before Cluff’s layup with 3.9 seconds left in overtime secured the win.
“It’s going to be a difficult game,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “They have a lot of skill. They have a lot of good players, two-way players, that play on both ends. They are well-coached. We did a great job the first time rebounding. We got a lot of really good opportunities. We didn’t shoot it great, but they didn’t shoot it great either.”
The Boilermakers entered the Big Ten tournament with a 2-4 record in their previous six games, but Smith said postseason play allowed a veteran team to hit the reset button.
“We have an understanding that it’s win or go home for us,” said Smith, who earned first-team All-Big Ten for the third consecutive season.
“The next tournament (NCAA) is the same way. I think for us we are an older group and have that understanding. We are an older group with a lot of games in the tournament. For us we need to relay that message to the younger guys and just go out there and compete.”
As Nebraska basks in the glow of a regular season that saw leading scorer Pryce Sandfort (average of 17.9 points per game) named first-team All-Big Ten and Braden Frager (11.7) earn Sixth Man of the Year and all freshman honors, the Cornhuskers will try to advance past the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals for the first time.
“I’m so proud of Pryce; he came into this year after basically being a role player at Iowa,” Hoiberg said. “He basically played that role to perfection with some really good players he was surrounded with. Coming into this season to establish himself as the go-to-guy that we run so many actions for and how we would play alongside Rienk (Mast) that was a really big thing.”
Mast and Sam Hoiberg were named honorable-mention All-Big Ten, while the latter also posted a team-best 66 steals and was named to the Big Ten all-defensive team.
The Cornhuskers hope to use the Big Ten tournament as a springboard for a strong showing in the NCAA Tournament, where they own an 0-8 all-time record.
“Whatever the result, we are going to grow from it and get better headed into the next stage,” Fred Hoiberg said. “Hopefully, we’re there (in Chicago) for three days. This is the first of the ‘you lose and you’re out’ games. It’s beneficial for us headed into the next stage.”
