Nebraska

HUSKER GAMEDAY: Nebraska seeks road win vs. No. 18 Indiana

Published

1 year ago

October 19, 2024

HUSKER GAMEDAY: Nebraska seeks road win vs. No. 18 Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WOWT) – A bye week gives way to another road trip for the Huskers as they march into the back half of the regular season.

Nebraska (5-1, 2-1) takes on No. 16 Indiana (6-0, 3-0) in a pivotal Big Ten matchup between two teams that — perhaps to the surprise of their respective fanbases — are still very much alive in the race for a bid in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff with just six games left.

GAME INFO

WHERE: Indiana Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, Ind.
WHEN: 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 19
WATCH: FOX
LISTEN: Huskers Radio Network
VEGAS ODDS: Nebraska +6.5, O/U 49.5

The Huskers entered their bye week off a 14-7 win over then-unbeaten Rutgers two Saturdays ago. The defense shined in a game that looked like a classic Big Ten slugfest. as Rutgers only mustered 78 yards on the ground against a Blackshirts defensive front that has yet to allow a rushing touchdown all season.

“They don’t get in,” said Nebraska’s veteran defensive lineman Ty Robinson in a press conference earlier this week. “Plain and simple. That’s just our mindset and mentality. That’s what we tell each other when we’re in the huddle. ‘They don’t get in.’ We go out there and work together.”

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule greets Ben Scott (66) and Ty Robinson (9) on the sideline.(Nebraska Athletics)

For the first time in 2024, the Huskers will be an underdog when they take the field in Bloomington on Saturday. In fact, Nebraska was favored a touchdown or more in each of its first six games. While it may be new for this year’s squad, it’s not like the Huskers are total strangers to being underdogs over the past decade, and they’re leaning into that status this week.

“I’d much prefer [being an underdog],” Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said in his press conference Thursday. “I love turning on [ESPN] Gameday and seeing them all pick the other team. That’s good for us.”

Rhule’s squad has business to tend to. A win would be Nebraska’s sixth of the season, meaning the Huskers would finally cross the threshold of bowl eligibility to end their 8-year bowl drought. That possibility gets Big Red nation fired up, but Rhule and company aren’t interested — at least for now.

“I’m only focused on the game,” Rhule said. “I answered that question last year and never got there. I’m just gonna focus on the football and make sure our guys are locked in. They’re all in on everything we’re asking them to do and it’s been a great week of practice. To me, it’s just about us playing well against a great team.”

That great team standing in their way Saturday are the darlings of the 2024 college football season. Well, at least in Power 4 college football. After all, Army and Navy are both ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since the 1960s.

But speaking of the ‘60s, Indiana is 6-0 for the first time since 1967, and head coach Curt Cignetti has managed to put the Hoosier State in a state of frenzy about a sport that doesn’t involve a round ball and a hardwood court.

Cignetti was the frontman for James Madison University during the program’s jump from FCS to FBS in 2022. Cignetti led the Dukes to become the first team to ever be ranked inside the AP Top 25 in their first year as an FBS program. Then last year, JMU went 11-1, won the Sun Belt East and appeared in a bowl game under Cignetti. And that was all she wrote.

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, center, watches the first half of an NCAA college football... — Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, center, watches the first half of an NCAA college football game against Florida International, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Bloomington, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)(Darron Cummings | AP)

Cignetti signed on to be the Indiana head coach in November 2023 and has yet to lose a game. During the offseason, he enlisted the help of one of college football’s best transfer quarterbacks, luring Kurtis Rourke to Bloomington from the University of Ohio. That move has paid off, as the fifth-year senior has thrown for over 1,700 yards and 14 touchdowns to just two interceptions while boasting the third-highest QBR in the entire country through six games.

“[Rourke] is an excellent player in a great system,” Rhule said. “I think the biggest thing, too, is they have weapons around him. They have a great O-line. They have an excellent tight end. They have two great backs. About five receivers who can make plays. They just have a great system. They know who they are and they know what they do.”

One of those receivers is Elijah Sarratt, who quickly developed a chemistry with Rourke. Sarratt came over from JMU with Cignetti after catching eight touchdowns and racking up nearly 1,200 receiving yards in 2023. So far this year, he’s just as productive, and he will pose a challenge to a Nebraska defensive that ranks in the top 30 in passing defense.

Suffice to say the obstacles are aplenty for the Huskers as they enter what promises to be a hostile environment in front of a crowd that hasn’t experienced success on the gridiron in several decades.

But the focus remains all the same for the Huskers: Block out the noise, throw out the records and go win a football game.

“The team that plays the best wins,” Rhule said. “Not the team with the best roster, not the team with the best record, not the team that won last week, not the team that has better music in the locker room. The team that plays better wins. So we’ll just try to be in the moment, [play] one snap at a time, and don’t worry about the scoreboard.”

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Nebraska

Vanderbilt braces for a ‘road game’ in NCAA Tournament as Nebraska fans flood Oklahoma City

Published

2 hours ago

March 21, 2026

Press Room

Vanderbilt braces for a ‘road game’ in NCAA Tournament as Nebraska fans flood Oklahoma City

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington expects a hostile environment when the Commodores play Nebraska on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Byington is well aware of how Nebraska’s fans flooded Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center for a first-round game. A sea of red witnessed history on Thursday as Pryce Sandfort led the fourth-seeded Cornhuskers (27-6) to a 76-47 victory over Troy for their first-ever tournament win.

Byington said his fifth-seeded Commodores (27-8) will need to stay connected and lean on their experience to deal with the atmosphere. The arena is just a six-hour drive from Nebraska’s campus in Lincoln, and Cornhusker fans took advantage by creating a caravan down Interstate 35.

“I think it’s neutral by name only,” Byington said. “This is going to be a road game. I heard reports. They said it was even better than the home games in Nebraska — the noise, the environment.”

Nebraska entered March Madness as the only team from a power conference without an NCAA Tournament win. Now, the loyal fanbase wants more. Nebraska guard Sam Hoiberg believes the crowd could be more intense on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to be maybe even louder, because people are going to be off work and come down for the weekend,” he said. “Yeah, we fully expect to have another amazing crowd, but you can’t rely on that to win a game. You have to still execute and focus on the game plan.”

Vanderbilt, which rallied to defeat McNeese in the first round on Thursday, has faced tough environments this season, and things have not gone well. The Commodores played Southeastern Conference road games against NCAA Tournament teams Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee and came out of those contests with a 1-4 record.

Big Red shenanigans

Hoiberg addressed a Nebraska fan jumping into the Bricktown Canal in downtown Oklahoma City on Thursday night.

“I saw one guy jumped in the canal last night,” he said. “Yeah, they (Nebraska fans) took over. It’s almost like they didn’t want the day to end, you know? That was fun to see all that stuff, although I’m guessing he got in a little bit of trouble for doing that.”

‘Better and better’

VCU has kept winning since mid-February, including a run through the Atlantic 10 Tournament to get a bid to March Madness and set up its massive comeback from 19 down to beat sixth-seeded North Carolina in overtime. And coach Phil Martelli Jr. had a clear message about what could be ahead for his 11th-seeded Rams (28-7) entering Saturday’s second-round game against Illinois.

“What I told those guys is every time you win in March, the wins feel better and better and better as you go along,” Martelli said. “Last night felt pretty good. Winning the championship felt good. Last night felt a little bit better.

“I told them, if you want to feel a pretty sweet feeling, you go get No. 2 tomorrow.”

That said, the pressing challenge is stopping an offense ranked No. 1 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency by averaging 131.7 points per 100 possessions.

“One thing I know about these guys is they’ve responded to every challenge and they’ll be ready to go,” Martelli said.

The third-seeded Fighting Illini (25-8) faced the least drama of any winner in Thursday’s four first-round games in Greenville, South Carolina. Illinois advanced with a 105-70 win against Penn after shooting 50% and making 15 of 36 3s (.417), while the Illini dominated the glass (48-25) with their size.

“We have so many versatile players on the team that we kind of spaced the floor, and we were able to pick the defense apart with our skill,” guard Andrej Stojakovic said.

This is Illinois’ sixth consecutive NCAA bid. The Illini have failed to reach the second weekend in four of the previous five years, the outlier being a run to the Elite Eight two years ago before falling to UConn on the Huskies’ romp to a second straight national title.

Another Cinderella run?

VCU looks to add to its long history of tournament upsets.

Illinois is a 10 1/2-point against VCU, favorite according to BetMGM. But VCU has a long history of pulling shockers during March Madness.

In 2011, the 11th-seeded Rams got all the way to the Final Four, defeating No. 3 seed Purdue and No. 1 seed Kansas along the way. In 2007, No. 11 seed VCU knocked off No. 6 Duke in the first round. In 2012, No. 12 VCU defeated No. 5 Wichita State in the first round.

Almost home

Houston is one win from going back home for the Sweet 16.

The Cougars (29-6) will face Texas A&M (22-11) in the second round Saturday in Oklahoma City. If they win, they would then need two wins at the Toyota Center in Houston — just a few miles from campus — to return to the Final Four.

The Cougars have fought the urge to look ahead from the moment the brackets were announced. They looked focused when they rolled past Idaho 78-47 in the first round on Thursday.

They’ll face a tough Aggies team that defeated Saint Mary’s 63-50 on Thursday.

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AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard contributed from Greenville, South Carolina.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

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Nebraska

Nebraska’s Baxter, Jorgenson earn second-team All-America honors at NCAA championships

Published

14 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Nebraska’s Baxter, Jorgenson earn second-team All-America honors at NCAA championships

LINCOLN, Neb — Nebraska picked up two second-team All-America honors as the 2026 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships moved into its final stretch, with Abby Baxter and Gena Jorgenson earning the awards during prelim sessions.

Jorgenson, a senior distance swimmer, earned second-team All-America recognition in the 500 freestyle with a 14th-place finish. It was a career best in the event and her fourth All-America title.

Jorgenson’s time of 4:38.77 also stood as a school record. She had broken the previous record just weeks earlier at the 2026 Big Ten Championships, lowering her time by 0.38 from 4:39.15.

The format for All-America recognition has also changed. Until this year, swimmers could compete in the evening session for the B finals. Now, places nine through 16th are awarded honorable mentions in the All-America category.

On the 3-meter springboard, Baxter scored 312.15 to finish 11th. The junior from Coppell, Texas, finished 20th at nationals last year with a score of 290.45. Her 11th-place finish marked the best showing for a Nebraska diver in the event since Abi Knapton placed 15th at the 2019 NCAA Championships.

In the 50 freestyle prelims, Hungarian swimmer Beatrix Tanko posted a 22.36. Tanko set the school record at the Hawkeye Invite in November, swimming a 22.17 for a second-place finish. Seeded 46th, Tanko moved up to 39th in the event.

Nebraska’s NCAA Championship competition will continue with Kelsey Clairmont in the platform dive to conclude her time at Nebraska. Tanko is also set to swim the 100 freestyle to wrap up her inaugural championships.

The meet is streaming on ESPN+. Prelims begin at 9 a.m. CT, with diving trials starting at 11:15 a.m. CT. Finals resume at 5 p.m. Results can also be followed on MeetMobile.

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What Troy coach Scott Cross said after first-round loss to Nebraska

Published

1 day ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

What Troy coach Scott Cross said after first-round loss to Nebraska

Troy coach Scott Cross met with the media following his team’s 76-47 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The victory was the first NCAA Tournament win in Nebraska basketball history.

The Huskers were led by Pryce Sandfort, who scored 23 points in the victory. The former Iowa Hawkeye shot 7-of-13 from the floor and 7-of-12 from the 3-point line. Rienk Mast contributed 13 points and 6 rebounds in the win.

As a team, the Huskers shot 25-of-65 from the field, 14-of-39 from the 3-point line and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Troy shot 13-of-46 from the floor, 8-of-28 from beyond the arc and 13-of-14 from the charity stripe.

Cross told the press that while the defeat was difficult to take, he knows his team won’t let this season be defined by this one loss.

“Thank you for being here. I would like to thank the good Lord for the opportunity to just have your guts absolutely ripped out. It stinks, but I told our guys in the locker room, they’re not defined by this basketball game.”

Troy entered the NCAA Tournament on a four-game winning streak after earning the regular-season and tournament titles in the Sun Belt Conference. Cross acknowledged that this Nebraska team is one of the best teams he’s seen in his over 25 years of coaching.

“They played an amazing team. Nebraska is one of the best teams. I’ve been doing this since 1998. They’re really, really freaking good. The way they shoot the basketball and the way they defend, watching it on video, you’re, like, man, there’s no openings as you watch it on video.”

Nebraska and Vanderbilt will play on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on TNT.

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This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: What Troy coach Scott Cross said after first-round loss to Nebraska

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