Nebraska
Indiana’s sloppy play against Nebraska crystallizes narrow margin for error in Big Ten play
As Indiana men’s basketball’s night went from bad to worse on Wednesday, Xavier Johnson’s reaction said it all.
Nebraska outplayed IU for much of the first half at Pinnacle Bank Arena, and it turned into domination in the second half. With around seven minutes remaining, Cornhuskers guard Brice Williams banked in a 3-pointer with Johnson guarding him. And when the ball found the bottom of the net, Johnson just threw his arms up and then right back down to his side, exasperated.
It was that kind of night for the Hoosiers. Fortune didn’t find them, and they were wholly incapable of making their own luck in this contest. Nebraska ran away with an 86-70 win, its first win over Indiana in six years.
“We’ve been competitive off and on. I’ve just got to get us competitive for 40 minutes,” IU head coach Mike Woodson said after the game. “When we’ve got our fan base, we seem to play a little bit better. But it’s different on the road. You’ve got to do all the things right on the road to win basketball games. And we didn’t do that tonight.”
Nebraska (12-2, 2-1 Big Ten) deserves credit. The Cornhuskers appear to have their best team in the Fred Hoiberg era, and they contend for an NCAA Tournament bid. And they showed up on Wednesday.
But Indiana (10-4, 2-1) just had a litany of things go wrong.
For starters, IU’s veteran backcourt was completely outplayed. Johnson may have had rust to shake off after missing seven straight games with a foot injury, but he largely struggled on both ends of the court. Trey Galloway scored 10 points, but six came on 3-pointers later in the second half when the game was already out of reach.
Meanwhile, the Hoosiers couldn’t stop Keisei Tominaga (28 points), and Williams (15 points) and Jamarques Lawrence (12 points) caused issues as well. IU just let Nebraska’s guards dictate the game, particularly in the second half.
That was indicative of Indiana’s entire defensive effort on Wednesday. Nebraska, entering this game, ranked 68th in the country at 1.087 points per possession; NU scored 1.246 PPP against IU, including 1.364 in the second half. The Hoosiers allowed far too many easy looks to the Huskers, didn’t close out effectively enough on outside shooters, and compounded mistakes on top of each other, leading to many broken defensive possessions.
“This team is not as good as we were defensively the last two years,” Woodson said. “A lot of it is because we do have new faces, but we’ve got to overcome that. I’ve got to get them over the hump. When it comes to defending and rebounding and not turning the ball over, that’s my job to do that. We failed in that area tonight.”
But perhaps the biggest difference in the game was turnovers.
Indiana averaged 12.3 turnovers per game entering Wednesday, which ranked 167th in the country and ninth in the Big Ten. But it’s been a big problem over the last two games. The Hoosiers turned the ball over 17 times last week against Kennesaw State, and they committed 19 against Nebraska. And those 19 turnovers led to 27 points; meanwhile, IU forced just eight turnovers going the other way, and scored just six points off them.
Nebraska forced 11.5 opponent turnovers per game entering Wednesday. The Huskers aren’t a team that routinely turns opponents over at a high rate. But Indiana made it easy on them, with a plethora of unforced errors.
“That’s just something we’re going to have to work on in practice. We need to get better at just holding the ball and protecting the ball,” center Kel’el Ware said. “It wasn’t nothing on Nebraska’s part. It was more of us throwing bad passes to each other. We’ve just got to take care of the ball more and make smarter passes.”
Ware tied for a team-high four turnovers, along with Johnson and Malik Reneau. Galloway committed three. Anthony Walker finished with two. And Kaleb Banks and Mackenzie Mgbako had one each.
And that’s only the plays officially scored as turnovers. IU had plenty of other possessions that ended with a bad decision or a poor shot selection that weren’t marked as turnovers in the stat sheet, but were essentially also turnovers.
IU didn’t shoot especially poorly — 47 percent from the field (Nebraska shot 46 percent), 9 for 18 from 3-point range. The Hoosiers out-rebounded the Huskers. But when you give away as many possessions as IU did on Wednesday, it outweighs those positives.
Woodson said turnovers haven’t been an issue in practice.
“We preach a lot about not turning the ball over, because that’s (the difference between) winning and losing basketball games,” Woodson said. “Over the last two years, we’ve been pretty good in that area. The last two games, we’ve exploded the other way in terms of turning the ball over. Somehow, we’ve got to fix that. Because you can’t win, can’t beat anybody — especially on the road, you’re not going to beat anybody turning it over 19 times.”
Without a marquee non-conference win on its résumé, Indiana came into the restart of Big Ten play with a narrow margin for error. The highest-rated non-conference opponent, per KenPom, that the Hoosiers beat was No. 133 Morehead State — and they needed a big second-half comeback to escape an upset that night. They’re teetering towards falling out of the top 100, themselves.
Losing to Nebraska, even in blowout fashion, isn’t a result that extinguishes any NCAA Tournament hopes for Indiana. Not in early January, by any means.
But the Hoosiers can’t afford to exhibit many more performances like this one and still get to where they want to go in March. Because you won’t win many games by playing like that.
And particularly in conference play, Indiana won’t be able to get away with the types of mistakes it got away with in several non-conference games.
Related
NCAA Tournament softball returns to Bowlin Stadium this weekend as top-seeded Nebraska prepares to host its first regional since 2013.
The Huskers enter the postseason ranked No. 1 in both the NFCA and USA Softball polls for the first time in program history. Nebraska (46-6) earned the No. 4 overall seed after a historic season that included both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament championships.
Nebraska opens regional play Friday at 5:30 p.m. CT against Summit League champion South Dakota.
“It’s time to funnel it back down,” head coach Rhonda Revelle said. “We had a good day and a half after winning the Big Ten Tournament where the players could enjoy it, but now it’s time to focus.”
The Huskers bring the nation’s longest active winning streak into the tournament at 21 games and have established themselves as one of the country’s most complete teams. Nebraska owns 10 wins over current top-25 opponents this season, including victories over then-No. 1 Texas and Texas Tech.
A major reason for Nebraska’s success has been its pitching staff, led by back-to-back Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Jordy Frahm and freshman standout Alexis Jensen, the conference’s Freshman of the Year.
Frahm, a former national champion at Oklahoma, enters the postseason as one of the nation’s top two-way players, while Jensen leads all freshman pitchers nationally in wins and strikeouts.
“Coach has really emphasized taking it one pitch at a time,” Third Baseman Samantha Bland said. “We’re trying to slow ourselves down and stay in the moment.”
South Dakota enters with a 20-34-1 record but arrives in Lincoln with momentum after capturing the Summit League Tournament title — the first conference championship in program history.
“Forty-eight years and we’d never won a championship of any kind,” South Dakota head coach Robert Wagner said. “To be the first is really special.”
The Coyotes are led offensively by Brooke Carey, sister of Nebraska baseball player Dylan Carey, while Madison Evans has handled the bulk of the pitching duties this season.
On paper, Nebraska holds the advantage in nearly every category, including offense, pitching depth and postseason experience. Still, the Huskers know the NCAA Tournament leaves little room for error.
“Anything can happen,” Revelle said. “The key is mastering the little things and sticking to what got us here.”
Louisville and Grand Canyon will meet in the regional’s opening game Friday at 3 p.m. CT before Nebraska takes the field Friday night in Lincoln.
Nebraska’s new quarterback has high expectations for the upcoming season. Transfer Anthony Colandrea spoke with Pete Nakos of On3 (subscription required) about his decision to transfer and his goals for the Huskers this year.
Colandrea comes to Nebraska following a breakout junior year with the Rebels. The St. Petersburg, Florida, native finished the 2025 season throwing for 3,459 yards, 23 touchdowns, and nine interceptions with a 65.9 completion percentage.
The former Rebels’ play earned him the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year award. Before UNLV, Colandrea played two seasons at Virginia. In 19 games, he totaled 4,083 passing yards, 26 passing touchdowns and 20 interceptions.
The new Husker told Nakos that he has high expectations and is looking to play in big games at the end of the season.
“Expectations at Nebraska are to win. Like, you’re not here to just not win a national championship. I’m not coming here to just win eight or nine games. I want to win a national championship; I want to go to the playoffs. I have high expectations, and we have high expectations as a team.”
Colandrea joined a Nebraska team that was looking for a new opening day starter after Dylan Raiola transferred to the Oregon Ducks. The Husker quarterback room also includes sophomore and bowl game starter T.J. Lateef and former Virginia quarterback Daniel Kaelin. He also expressed excitement about playing in front of Nebraska fans.
“It’s the craziest fan base I’ve ever been around. My first impression was I went to a wrestling match. I would never think a wrestling match would be sold out. I walk in, and it’s like 35,000 to 40,000 people. I’m like, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. They bring the juice. I’m excited to play for them.”
Nebraska opens the 2026 season on Saturday, Sept. 5, when the Ohio Bobcats visit Memorial Stadium. Kickoff time and broadcast network are still to be determined.
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In the past few years, Joel said Norris has tried to lower its tax levies, especially as property valuations have gone up. Additionally, the school hasn’t put as much into its special building fund with the idea that it would help taxpayers save more.
“That’s what led to that decision to not save as much to take care of the work, but to pass that savings on to taxpayers, with the hopes that we could get a bond issue approved to take care of that work all at once,” Joel said.
Although the election didn’t go in the school’s favor, Joel said he appreciated the feedback and conversations with the community throughout the process.
“If anything, it allowed us to share additional information regarding safety, security, infrastructure, all of that with the community, to create an awareness of the state of the district,” Joel said. “Now we can plan forward based on what the outcome of May 12 was.”
Plainview Public School offered voters two bond proposals on Tuesday, both of which failed. The district boundaries go into Pierce, Antelope and Knox counties.
The larger of the two proposals was for $26 million, which focused on the district’s academic spaces. It included improvements for safety and security, updating career and technical education spaces and equipment, and updating spaces for students with disabilities.
It overwhelmingly failed with 636 voters against and 239 in support.
The second proposal could only pass if the first one had. It was for nearly $6 million to add a new gymnasium. There were 650 voters against it and 220 in support.
Centura Public Schools in central Nebraska also saw its $18.95 million bond attempt fail, with 613 voting against it and 463 voting for it, according to unofficial results in Hall, Howard, Sherman and Buffalo counties. The district hoped to improve safety and security, modernize building systems and update classrooms. According to the bond website, the school hasn’t had major improvements since 1981.
Two school districts seemingly succeeded in passing their bonds: Pierce Public Schools and Stanton Community Schools.
The Pierce Public Schools bond amounts to nearly $10 million to expand and renovate the elementary school. According to the bond website, staff shared safety concerns about pickup and drop-off lanes, door and window security, insufficient security cameras, an inadequate intercom system and the need for an electronic lock system.
The bond includes renovating special education classrooms, enhancing security and building additional classrooms and spaces for students. It passed with 668 votes in support in Pierce County and 625 against, and in Wayne county eight for and 28 against — a 23-vote total difference, according to unofficial results from both counties.
Voters rejected a previous bond proposal for $29.5 million in August.
Stanton Community Schools passed a nearly $25 million bond for the construction of a new elementary school, which will include a multipurpose gym, an early childhood center and access to a storm shelter inside the building. Currently, students have to go outside to reach the storm shelter.
There were 607 votes for the bond in Stanton County and 522 against.
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