When she first arrived on campus, Natalie Potts didn’t expect to play much during her freshman season with Nebraska women’s basketball. Knowing the kind of challenge that awaited her in Lincoln, she didn’t want to get her hopes up.

Her mom, Sharon Potts, expressed concerns about her daughter’s readiness to compete physically with the other members of the Nebraska frontcourt while Coach Amy Williams was recruiting the 6-foot-2 forward out of O’Fallon, Missouri.

However, Williams and her staff saw something special in Potts. They believed in her ability to make an immediate impact.

“If you watched Natalie play even in the recruiting process, she plays with a motor and she just has that knack for game-winning plays, hustle plays,” Williams said at Big Ten Media Days. “I can remember coming home from watching her and saying, ‘I know she had double-figure deflections.’ I would lose track of how many times she’d get her hands on balls and just make hustle plays. That motor, it translates.

“So we felt very confidently that she would be able to make an impact on our team and we don’t recruit anybody into our program if we don’t believe they have that ability to have a positive impact for us, and she was no different. We believed in her from the moment she signed those papers, and we started to see some really good flashes early in her career that she was gaining confidence as well.”

The motor Williams described showed itself in Potts’ 5.5 rebounds per game, five double-doubles and 1.7 stocks (steals plus blocks) per game. She tied Nebraska’s Big Ten Tournament record with nine blocks in four games as the Huskers made a run to the conference title game. Potts said she loves running and, more importantly, she loves winning.

“I’ve always had a high motor,” said Potts, who represented Nebraska at Big Ten Media Days alongside senior Alexis Markowski. “Growing up, I was top of the press whole games, running with my head chopped off like I was a chicken. It just keeps me going, it brings energy to the team, and I think that’s a big momentum booster.”

Potts started all 35 games and was third on the team in scoring at 10.2 points per game in addition to her work on the glass and on defense. She won Big Ten Freshman of the Week eight times, and at the end of the season the coaches voted her Big Ten Freshman of the Year while the media voted her as an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection.

“She’s just a nonstop go-getter,” Markowski said. “She’s constantly trying to find a way to get another rebound, an offensive rebound. If you need a tough basket, Natalie’s your girl to go finish one. I think where I’ve seen her impact the game the most is defensively. She gets a lot of deflections; she’s really long.”

Isabelle Bourne left some big shoes to fill at the four spot as a three-year starter, captain and honorable mention All-Big Ten selection, and Potts felt the nerves early when Williams put her in the lineup from day one. By the end of the season, however, her production wasn’t far off what Bourne had given the Nebraska women’s basketball team.

“At first I was definitely nervous being thrown into that starting spot, but after a few games I got very comfortable with the system and playing with everybody,” Potts said. “They all have a lot of trust and confidence in me, which makes it super easy to get out there and get after it.”

Potts didn’t have to do much to earn her teammates’ trust; she won them over quickly by being herself. However, Markowski pointed to the Huskers’ 87-81 win over Maryland on Dec. 31 as a turning point for the freshman. She put up 17 points and a career-high 13 points in the victory.

“Natalie, you can just trust her,” Markowski said. “She just has this very calming presence about her. When she came in as a freshman, I just knew right away she would do big, great things … I think she had a lot of sparks in games, but I think the Maryland game was huge … It was a big game for us too; I think that was the second time we’ve ever beat Maryland, and she had such a great game, and I felt like she consistently played like that the rest of the year from that moment.”

Potts said she far exceeded her expectations for herself during her freshman year, and after an offseason focuses on polishing up key areas (most notably her 25.4% 3-point clip), she’s looking to take a step forward in year two as a Husker.

“With Natalie, the things we’ve talked about, the things that she has identified in postseason meetings and offseason that she wants to improve on is just a little extended range and consistency with her range,” Williams said. “She’s been working really hard and looking good from behind the arc.

“Her ball-handling skills have just continued to get better. She’s showing confidence going over either shoulder when her back is to the basket. Just dribbling, right and left hand, and making decisions off the dribble, just some things that as she’s now more comfortable in our system, she’s just able to take the expanded skill set that she’s worked hard to develop this offseason.”

Potts didn’t arrive at Nebraska expecting to play much, but after a stellar freshman season, whatever doubts she may have had are gone. The Huskers are looking to build off last year’s NCAA Tournament win and make a deeper postseason run in 2025, and to make that happen they’ll need Markowski and Potts to lead the way.

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – The top collegiate men’s basketball coaches in Nebraska are coming together for a cause: cancer awareness.

It’s a rare sight to see Creighton head coach Greg McDermott, Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg and UNO head coach Chris Crutchfield all sitting on the same side of the bench.

However, when it comes to the fight against cancer, they’re on the same team.

The coaches hosted a breakfast benefitting Hope Lodge Nebraska: a home away from home for cancer patients traveling great distances for cancer care.

“It’s touched my life tremendously,” said Crutchfield. He lost his mother to cancer.

McDermott’s wife, Theresa, is a survivor.

Each basketball season, his team hosts a “Pink Out Game,“ raising money and awareness for the disease.

“The options that are available today to cancer patients that were not available five years ago let alone 20 years ago, it’s absolutely incredible,“ McDermott said. “It’s why we have to continue to research this disease and why we have to continue to raise money to fight this disease and then, like we are today, the money is going to have a real impact.”

The lodge houses patients and their families completely free.

“You think we’re all enemies and we hate each other. We actually like each other,” Hoiberg said. “We’re very competitive on the court but this is what it’s all about. Coming together and raising money for a great cause like this.”

This is the first year for the event and they plan on doing it again.

According to the American Cancer Society, the risk of dying from cancer has steadily declined over the last 30 years.

However, at the beginning of the year, the society anticipated 2024 would be first time new cases of cancer are expected to cross the 2,000,000 mark.

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Not all 6-0 teams are created equal.

There are nine 6-0 teams in this week’s AP Top 25. Texas, Oregon, Penn State, and BYU all have wins over currently ranked teams. Miami, Pitt, and Army have a win over a team with a winning record. Iowa State has multiple of such wins. Even 5-0 Navy has a win over 5-1 Memphis.

That ninth 6-0 team is Indiana. Hoosier opponents are a combined 14-23. Not a single team that has faced Indiana has a winning record at the moment.

Sure, the Hoosiers have done what you’re supposed to do: win. Indiana has done that and is up to No. 16 in the latest AP poll. But who is their best win halfway through the season? The other undefeated teams have a game they can point to.

Who does Indiana point to so far? Is it the 42-13 win at 1-5 UCLA, or the wins over 3-3 Maryland and Northwestern that were one-score games going into the fourth quarter?

ESPN rates Indiana’s strength of schedule through the first seven weeks at 112th out of 134 teams.

On the other side, Nebraksa is 5-1 with a loss to currently No. 22 Illinois. Husker opponents are a combined 16-20, including three with winning records. Are Colorado and Rutgers great teams? No, but they, and the Illini, are much stronger than anything the Hoosiers have faced this season.

That said, ESPN rates Nebraska’s strength of schedule so far as 117th. UTEP (0-6), Northern Iowa (2-4), and Purdue (1-5), along with five of the six games being at home, are doing some major damage here.

This isn’t to say Indiana can’t beat Nebraska on Saturday. The Hoosiers have a high-powered offense—led by a MAC transfer at quarterback and James Madison and Wake Forest transfers as statistical leaders—that has feasted on supremely inferior opponents. Curt Cignetti is bowl eligible in his first year in Bloomington. This will be statistically the strongest offense that Nebraska has faced so far this season.

But Nebraska fans know what a fake 6-0 looks like (see Mike Riley’s 2016 season). Nebraska will be by far the strongest team Indiana has faced so far this season.

A loss for either team Saturday doesn’t derail their season, but how the game plays out will say a lot about how strong either team is entering the second half of the 2024 campaign.

Kickoff from Bloomington is set for 11 a.m. CDT. The game will be televised on FOX with Big Noon Kickoff providing pregame coverage. The Huskers Radio Network will carry the broadcast on affiliates across Nebraska.

MORE: Ranking the Remaining Games on Nebraska’s Schedule

MORE: Indiana’s Curt Cignetti Compliments Nebraska Defense, Dylan Raiola Ahead of ‘Important Game’

MORE: Husker Football Begins Second Half at 5-1

MORE: Why Nebraska Football’s Exclusion From the AP Poll Makes No Sense

MORE: Is Nebraska Football’s Offense a Liability against Indiana?

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