LINCOLN, Neb. — For the fourth time on the 2024 calendar, Nebraska blew out Indiana in a basketball game. The Cornhuskers rolled to an 85-68 victory at Pinnacle Bank Arena, and made the Hoosiers look bad in the process.

Again. And again.

The Hoosiers (8-3, 1-1 in the Big Ten) had no answer for Nebraska’s Brice Williams, who went off for 30 points, and they completely collapsed down the stretch. A one-point game with 7 minutes to go turned into a rout when the Huskers finished the game on a 17-1 run. It’s the fourth straight time Nebraska has beaten the Hoosiers, and all four have been by 15 points or more.

And this is Nebraska we’re talking about.

Indiana was a wreck defensively, allowing 85 points or more for the third time this season, all losses. Nebraska shot 61.2 percent from the field, and were just 8-for-14 from three-point range. Considering they made 40 threes in the three wins last season, that was a modest number of makes and not much of a storyline, outside of the two late threes by Williams and Juwan Gary that iced the game.

But they still scored 85 points, scoring 36 points in the paint and making 17 free throws.

“It didn’t just start late. We had no defensive presence to start the game either,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said. “We have to get that fixed, because especially on the road you have to establish your defense. I know defense wins, especially when you’re not making shots, and we weren’t very good defensively.”

The three-pointer storyline was really more on the Indiana side. The Hoosiers camde into the game only attempting 17 threes per outing, which ranks 344th nationally out of 355 teams. On Friday, they took 35 attempts — but only made eight. They were just 3-for-20 from deep in the second half.

It was the first time in the Mike Woodson era — covering 115 games — that the Hoosiers had taken 35 three-point attempts. The previous high under Woodson was 27 in a double-overtime 112-110 loss at Syracuse on Nov. 30, 2021. The last time Indiana topped that was Jan. 19, 2016 when a Tom Crean-coach Hoosier team took 36 shots in a 103-69 win over Illinois. They made 19 that night.

Imagine that.

“I thought we had good looks (from three-point range) tonight, we just didn’t make them,” Woodson said in the understatement of the night. “I don’t care if you take 30, 40, 50 threes, when you take them, you’ve got to make them. They took the inside play away, and I thought we did a good job of sacrificing the ball. We make some of those and it’s a different game.”

The entire cast was culpable. Luke Goode made three deep balls, but missed seven others. Trey Galloway was 3-for-9. Kaanan Carlyle was 0-for-5, Bryson Tucker 1-for-5 and Myles Rice 1-for-4.

The Hoosiers dug themselves a big hole early, falling behind 13-3, but they scrapped their way back into it fairly quickly when a Luke Goode three gave them a 23-19 lead with 11:09 to go in the first half. The teams traded blows most of the rest of the half, but a late 11-2 Nebraska run gave them a 44-41 advantage at the break.

Nebraska got up nine early in the second half, but then the Hoosiers answered again. Myles Rice had the last of his four steals, and scored on a runout to tie the game at 62-62. Goode made another three at the 6:51 mark to pull Indiana within one (68-67).

It was their last field goal of the game.

During that final 6:51, Indiana went 0-for-12 from the field and had four turnovers. The errors were a bit of a surprise bcause they only had five for the game before that mark. The cold streak was not a surprise. They went scoreless the final four minutes of the first half, too.

“We kind of took a couple out of rythm and we didn’t defend well down the stretch, and that’s a recipe for disaster when you put those both together,” Rice said. “We got to be better down the stretch and play better as a team. ”

Indiana had no answer for Williams, a 6-foot-7 senior from Huntersville, N.C. who been a Hoosier kille during this losing streak. He had 30 points on 10-of-15 shooting, and also made 8-of-11 free throws. His straight-line drives to the basket were an issue all night. He also had six rebounds and five assists.

”He got downhill, got to the free throw line and he made a couple of tough shots,” Woodson said of Williams. “Once he got going, it was tough to slow him down. A lot of it was in isolation off the bounce, and we’ve got to get better with that, guarding guys off the dribble.”

Rice had 20 points to lead the Hoosiers. The steals led to some easy baskets, but he was also in attack mode all night.

“I just saw in transition that they were running with their backs to the rim and it was a chance for us to get easy shots at the rim. I though the flow of the game was right there for me, and it kind of led to us coming back a little but, but we’ve just got to be better down the stretch.”

The December portion of the Big Ten schedule is now complete, and 12 of the 18 teams split their games. Only Michigan, Michigan State and UCLA won both. Conference play will. resume for the Hoosiers on Jan. 2 with a home game against Rutgers. They have two nonconference games left, on Dec. 21 against Chattanooga, and Dec. 29 against Winthrop.

The former Indiana University basketball team doctor accused of sexually assaulting players back in the 1990s invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination dozens of times during a recent deposition when he was asked whether he performed rectal examinations on young athletes, according to the transcript of his testimony.

Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr., who testified on Dec. 4 via video, also twice invoked his Fifth Amendment right when asked if then-coach Bob Knight told him to do “digital rectal exams on his players.” However, he did answer several questions about his general scope of duties and time working for the university.

Bomba, 88, had been ordered to submit to a deposition by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mario Garcia, who is presiding over a federal lawsuit filed in October by two former players, Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller, against the university’s trustees. Neither Knight, who died last year at age 83, nor Bomba are listed as defendants.

They claim Bomba repeatedly sexually assaulted them and their teammates under the guise of doing physical examinations and that the school was aware this was happening but did nothing to stop him.

Bomba first invoked the Fifth Amendment when he declined, through his lawyer, to answer whether he ever performed a physical exam on a player “anywhere other than on campus.”

The now-retired doctor also declined to answer a question about whether he ever reported the “abuse of a student athlete to anyone,” and another question asking if he knew what Title IX is.

Mujezinovic and Miller are suing the IU trustees under Title IX, a federal law that requires all universities that receive federal funds to put safeguards in place to protect students from sexual predators.

Bomba did testify at the deposition that IU provided him with a questionnaire that needed to be completed and that he documented the procedures he did on those forms, which were then returned to the university. He also agreed, under questioning, that he and Knight had been “close friends.”

Kathleen Delaney, who represents Mujezinovic and Miller, said in the lawsuit that there could be “at least one hundred” alleged victims. She had no immediate comment Friday on the deposition, which Bomba’s guardians had unsuccessfully attempted to delay by claiming he was not competent to testify.

“I’m pleased that the Court required Dr. Bomba, Sr. to testify,” Mujezinovic, who watched the deposition by video, said in a statement first reported by The Herald Times. “He did not even try to justify what he did to me and others under the guise of ‘medical care.’ Watching him testify was a difficult experience for me, but an important step in the pursuit of justice.”

“This is important evidence confirming that the University knew what was going on and did nothing to protect us from what I now understand was sexual abuse,” Miller said in his statement. He too watched the deposition by video.

Indiana University is represented by the Indianapolis-based Barnes & Thornburg law firm and three of the firm’s lawyers were monitoring the deposition but, according to the transcript obtained by NBC News, did not pose any questions.

Also watching the deposition was IU’s “in-house counsel” Anthony Prather, the transcript showed.

Indiana University hired Bomba to provide medical care to all of its sports teams from 1962 to 1970, and from 1979 until the late 1990s he was the basketball team’s doctor, according to the lawsuit.

Mujezinovic and Miller said in the lawsuit that they “were routinely and repeatedly subjected to medically unnecessary, invasive, and abusive digital rectal examinations” by Bomba.

Bomba had played football for Indiana University and was nicknamed “Frankenstein” by coaches and players “due to the large size of his hands and fingers,” the lawsuit added.

“Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s routine sexual assaults were openly discussed by the Hoosier men’s basketball players in the locker room in the presence of IU employees, including assistant coaches, athletic trainers, and other Hoosier men’s basketball staff,” according to the lawsuit.

Mujezinovic, who spent two seasons at Indiana from 1995 to 1997, and Miller, who played for the Hoosiers from 1994 through 1998, are seeking unspecified damages. They have also urged former teammates to come forward and join their lawsuit.

Indiana’s first road game tips off Friday night in Lincoln against Nebraska at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Huskers are 6-2 and are coming off an 89-52 loss at Michigan State.

Friday’s game is an 8 p.m. ET tip on FOX:

Indiana’s struggles against last season are well documented. The Hoosiers lost three times to the Huskers and none of the games were competitive. Nebraska won 86-70 in Lincoln on January 3, 85-70 in Bloomington on February 21 and 93-66 at the Big Ten tournament on March 16. That’s an average margin of 18.

Both teams underwent roster makeovers in the offseason. Still, Fred Hoiberg’s ability to spread Indiana out and score an average of 88 points in three easy wins was a major reason the Hoosiers didn’t sniff the NCAA tournament a season ago.

The Hoosiers have won four straight games (all by 15 or more points), but a win Friday would be a surefire signal the Hoosiers are trending in the right direction after a shaky performance last month in the Bahamas.

MEET THE HUSKERS

After reaching the NCAA tournament for the first time under Hoiberg last March, the Huskers are in a transition period in his sixth season. Keisei Tominaga graduated, Rienk Mast is out for the season with a knee injury and the offense has taken a significant step back statistically.

According to KenPom.com, Nebraska had the nation’s 32nd-best offense last season but is currently ranked 99th this season after eight games.

Three Huskers are averaging double figures – seniors Brice Williams, Juwan Gary and junior Connor Essegian.

This wing-heavy offensive attack presents problems for an Indiana rotation featuring a frontcourt that doesn’t guard well away from the paint (Oumar Ballo and Malik Reneau) and struggles to guard movement and execute switches (Mackenzie Mgbako).

Williams is a 6-foot-7 fifth-year wing who is excellent at getting to the line and converts at an elite rate. He leads the Huskers with 17.5 points per game and shoots 92.5 percent (53 attempts) from the line. He’s also a capable 3-point shooter and has connected on 11 of his 29 attempts from deep.

The 6-foot-6 Gary, another fifth-year player, is an undersized four averaging 10.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in 25 minutes per game. Gary is just 7-for-27 on 3s (25.9 percent).

Essegian, an Indiana native, was one of the Big Ten’s best freshmen two seasons ago at Wisconsin. After falling out of the regular rotation in Madison last season, Essegian entered the transfer portal and landed in Lincoln where he’s returned to form in his third season. Essegian is Nebraska’s second-leading scorer at 13 points per game. He’s made a team-high 20 3-pointers and is shooting 42.6 percent from the perimeter.

Utah transfer Rollie Worster has taken over the starting point guard spot for the Huskers. Another fifth-year player, the 6-foot-5 Worster is averaging a team-high 2.6 assists and is second on the team with 1.5 steals per game.

Ahron Ulis, who sat out last season following a gambling probe and Sam Hoiberg provide most of the backup minutes in the backcourt. The 6-foot-3 Ulis is just 2-for-13 on 3s and is shooting 33 percent from the field. Hoiberg is an energy player who is fearless in attacking offensively and is a major pest defensively. His 1.8 steals per game lead the Huskers.

On the wing, Rutgers transfer Gavin Griffiths hasn’t made a 3-pointer since Nov. 13 and is 3-for-19 from distance on the season. The 6-foot-7 sophomore was considered one of the best shooters in the country coming out of high school.

With Mast sitting out this season, Hoiberg has pieced together a frontcourt that includes three transfers: Braxton Meah, Andrew Morgan and Berke Buyuktuncel.

Meah, who previously played at Fresno State and Washington, provides the Huskers with legitimate size in the post at 7-foot-1 and 264 pounds. He’s averaging 3.7 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes per game.

Morgan is a 6-foot-10, 245-pound arrival from North Dakota State who is the team’s second-leading rebounder. Morgan pulls down 5.3 rebounds in 17 minutes per game off the bench while averaging 8.4 points on 45 percent shooting.

Buyuktuncel transferred from UCLA and started the first six games for Nebraska. He’s the leading rebounder at 5.9 per game, is making 75 percent of his 2s and has a team-best six blocked shots.

TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW

Both teams are playing with pace, with Nebraska ranking 88th in adjusted tempo, per KenPom.com and Indiana at 39th.

The Huskers, however, are handling the ball much better than the Hoosiers and forcing more turnovers. Through 10 games, Indiana has committed 140 turnovers and forced just 121, while Nebraska has committed 90 and forced 130.

The free-throw line will also be key for both programs. The Huskers excel at drawing fouls and then converting at the line. Nebraska’s free-throw percentage of 76.6 ranks 51st in the country and 30th in free-throw rate (FTA/FGA).

While 3-point shooting was Nebraska’s primary strength offensively last season, that isn’t the case this season. The Huskers are taking fewer 3s – their 3PA/FGA is 38.2 percent this season versus 44.3 percent last season. Nebraska shot 35.7 percent from deep last season and is just 29.8 percent this season from deep.

WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO

The KenPom projection is Nebraska by one, with a 47 percent chance of an IU victory. Bart Torvik’s ratings favor the Huskers by two, with a 43 percent chance of a Hoosier victory.

Indiana played one of its best games this season against Minnesota on Monday but still struggled for stretches in the second half.

The Hoosiers will have to take care of the ball and limit Nebraska’s free throw attempts to prevail in what should be a hostile environment in Lincoln. Nebraska has one of the better home-court advantages in the league and has dominated Indiana recently.

The Huskers will also be looking to rebound from an embarrassing 37-point beatdown in East Lansing and avoid an 0-2 start in Big Ten play. For Indiana, the road trip marks an opportunity to grab a fifth-straight win and establish clear momentum heading into the two final non-conference games in Bloomington later this month.

Filed to: Nebraska Cornhuskers