Huskers Face Knights for College Basketball Crown
Huskers.com
The Nebraska men's basketball program will look to become the first team to ever win the College Basketball Crown, as the Huskers will take on the UCF Knights in the finals in Las Vegas on Sunday. Tipoff at T-Mobile Arena is slated for 4:30 p.m. (central) and the game will be FOX and carried on the Huskers Radio Network. Live audio for the game can also be found on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.
Nebraska (20-14) earned its spot in the finals following a 79-69 win over Boise State Saturday morning.
Juwan Gary led three Huskers in double figures with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, nine rebounds and three blocked shots, as the senior went a perfect 4-of-4 from 3-point range and tied a season-high with three blocked shots. The Huskers also got 14 points, six assists and five rebounds from
Brice Williams and 10 markers from
Sam Hoiberg.
It was a team win, as Nebraska got contributions from its entire roster, as all nine players who played broke into the scoring column and grabbed at least one rebound as NU held Boise State to 39 percent shooting. The Huskers enjoyed a 39-31 advantage against a Bronco squad that entered the game ranked seventh in rebounding.
Nebraska's senior duo of Williams and Gary have led the way in Las Vegas. Williams is averaging 24.0 ppg on 53 percent shooting, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 rebounds per game while shooting 48 percent from 3-point range. Gary is at 18.7 ppg on 51 percent shooting, along with 8.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. He is 7-of-11 from 3-point range, as the Huskers are shooting 41 percent from beyond the arc in the three games.
Both players are within milestones heading into the final game of their college careers. Williams is just 16 points shy of the school record for points in a season (708 by James Palmer Jr. in 2018-19), while Gary is 24 points away from becoming the 33rd Husker to reach 1,000 points.
UCF (20-16) outlasted Villanova, 104-98, in overtime on Saturday behind a 42- point effort from Darius Johnson. He was one of five Knights in double figures in the victory. UCF averages 80.1 ppg for the season, including 89.3 ppg in three games in Las Vegas.
Nebraska's Postseason History
The 2025 College Basketball Crown marks Nebraska's 28th postseason appearance in program history, as Nebraska is 27-26 all-time in the postseason following Saturday's win over Boise State. The 2024-25 season marks NU's second straight postseason appearance, the first time that has happened for Nebraska since the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
- The list includes eight NCAA Tournament appearances, most recently last season, and 19 NITs and this year's College Basketball Crown.
- Nebraska is looking for its second postseason event title, as the Huskers also won the 1996 NIT. That is NU's only previous appearance in a final.
- With Saturday's win, Nebraska has won at least three postseason games for just the third time in school history (NITs in 1995-96, 1986-87 and 1982-83). A win Sunday would mark the second time NU has won four postseason games in a season (five, 1996).
- Brice Williams was the MVP of the 2023 CBI when he was at Charlotte, averaging 16.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the 49ers postseason run.
Experimental Rule to Make Debut in Postseason
One change from the regular season in place for both the Crown and the NIT is the use of an experimental rule which will allow a coach to appeal out-of-bounds calls for video replay review in the last two minutes of games.
The experimental rule would eliminate the official's voluntary ability to review out-of-bounds calls on the floor in the last two minutes of the game. Instead, these calls for a video review would be tied to the timeouts a team has remaining.
- If a team appeals the call and it is overturned, the team making the appeal would retain the timeout.
- If the review fails, the team making the appeal would lose a timeout.
- If no timeouts remain, coaches could still appeal, but if the appeal fails, they would be assessed an excessive timeout administrative technical, meaning their opponents would shoot two free throws and maintain possession of the ball.
Numbers to Know
2 -
Brice Williams and John Tonje of Wisconsin are the only players in Division I players who are shooting over 87 percent from the line with 200 or more free throw attempts.
$300,000 - The winning team receives $300,000 while the the finalist received $100,000.
43 - With Saturday's win over Boise State, NU has 43 wins over the past two seasons, which is the second-highest consecutive two-year total in program history. NU won 45 games spanning the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.
20.8 -
Juwan Gary is averaging 20.8 ppg over Nebraska's last six games. He has more 20-point efforts in NU's last six games - four - than he did in his first four seasons of college basketball (three). He is also averaging a team-high 7.2 rebounds in that stretch.
23.0 - Nebraska has gotten production from its bench, averaging 23.0 points per game this season to rank sixth in the Big Ten. Nebraska has gotten 30 double-figure efforts from its bench this season (Essegian-15, Morgan-12, Ulis-1, Worster-1 and Meah-1). The Huskers led the Big Ten in bench production last season at 21.4 points per game.
74 -
Connor Essegian has a team-high 74 3-pointers this season which ranks ninth on Nebraska's single-season list. His previous high was 69 when he was at Wisconsin in 2022-23. Essegian is two away from matching Keisei Tominaga (76, 2023-24) for eighth on NU's single-season list.
Worth Noting
• Sunday's game marks the second meeting between Nebraska and UCF. The other took place in the first round of the 2017 AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando. UCF posted a 68-59 win over the Huskers. It is NU's first game against a Big 12 foe since downing Kansas State, 62-46, in Manhattan, Kan., on Dec. 17, 2023.
• Nebraska is seeking its 21st win of the season on Sunday vs. UCF. NU now has 15 20-win season in program history and a win on Sunday would tie for seventh on the Husker single-season win chart.
• Nebraska now has consecutive 20-win seasons for the third time in school history and the first since the late 1990s. Nebraska Head Coach
Fred Hoiberg joins Danny Nee (2x) as the only coaches in school history to accomplish the feat.
• With a 20-14 record, Nebraska will finish with a .500 or better record for the third straight season. It would mark the first time that has happened at Nebraska since a six-year stretch spanning the 2003-04 to 2008-09 seasons.
• Going west has been very fruitful, as the Huskers are 8-0 west of Nebraska this year following the three wins in the College Basketball Crown. NU went 3-0 at the Diamond Head Classic and swept the Big Ten West Coast trip of Washington and Oregon in February.
•
Brice Williams comes into Sunday's College Basketball Crown in second place in the Big Ten scoring race with 20.4 ppg. Williams would need 25 points in the title game to edge out Northwestern's Nick Martinelli for the Big Ten scoring lead.
• Nebraska is averaging 76.0 points per game heading into Saturday's game with Boise State. It is on pace to be NU's second-highest scoring average since joining the Big Ten in 2011-12. The Huskers are averaging 82.0 points per game on 48 percent shooting during the three games at the Crown. On the season, Nebraska is 9-2 when scoring at least 80 points.
• With his 30-point effort against Arizona State,
Brice Williams now has four 30-point games this season. It ties for second on NU's single-season chart, trailing only Dave Hoppen, who had six in 1984-85. The only Big Ten player with more 30-point games this season was Wisconsin's John Tonje (six).
• NU is 12-1 when holding opponents to under one point per possession, but 8-13 when opponents are above 1.0 PPP. NU has held all three of its opponents in Las Vegas to under 1.05 PPP. Nebraska had won its last 29 games dating back to the 2022-23 season when holding an opponent under 1.0 PPP before the Feb. 24 loss to the Wolverines. Over the last three years, NU is 40-5 when holding opponents to under 70 points following Saturday's win over Boise State.
• Nebraska has had seven games this season with multiple 20-point scorers, most recently at Ohio State on March 4 with
Brice Williams (43) and
Juwan Gary (24) going over the 20-point mark. NU now has multiple players who have scored 20+ points 18 times in
Fred Hoiberg's six seasons.
• Nebraska posted its third double-figure comeback of the season against Arizona State on Monday, rallying back from an 11-point deficit. Earlier this year, NU overcame a 20-point second-half deficit to win at Northwestern on Feb. 16. It was the largest deficit overcome by a Big Ten team in a road conference game since Feb. 17, 2018, when Michigan State overcame a 27-point deficit at Northwestern at Allstate Arena.
• Nebraska went 4-4 against ranked opponents this season, as the four wins over ranked teams tie a school record done three other times in school history. Nebraska has won multiple games against ranked foes in three of the past four years and is now 9-11 in its last 20 games against ranked teams dating back to March 1, 2022.
• Brice and his father, Henry are one of seven father-son duos to combine for 4,000 career points at the college level. The pair is now sixth all-time entering Saturday's game with Boise State. Brice is over 1,900 career points, including 1,147 at Nebraska. Henry Williams, who passed away in 2018, was Charlotte's all-time leading scorer with 2,383 career points.
• With 1,147 points, Williams is in 23rd place on NU's scoring chart. He could move past Brian Banks (1,150) and Brian Carr (1,182) with a strong effort on Sunday.
• On Thursday, Nebraska announced that the Huskers will host BYU in an exhibition game at Pinnacle Bank Arena in October. It will be the first of a two-year exhibition series with BYU, which went 26-10 and reached the NCAA Sweet 16 this season. The Huskers will travel to Provo for an exhibition game in 2026. The date and time of October's game will be finalized later this summer.
•
Connor Essegian has been one of the Big Ten's best sixth men this season, as the junior guard averages 10.4 points per contest. Essegian is the only Big Ten reserve currently averaging double figures while making eight or fewer starts.
• Of Nebraska's 14 losses, nine were one-possession games within the last 45 seconds of regulation. In five of the six home losses this season, NU was within one possession in the final 40 seconds, including four in the final 10 seconds (Rutgers, USC, Michigan and Minnesota).
• With its 20-14 record in 2024-25, Nebraska is 49-28 dating back to the start of February 2023. NU's .632 winning percentage is fifth among all Big Ten rams in that span. NU went just 33-80 from the start of the 2019-20 season until Feb. 1, 2023.
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Brice Williams is just sixth Husker in the Big Ten era to have multiple 30-point games in the Big Ten era (2011-21-present). His three 30-point games match James Palmer Jr., who had a trio of 30-point efforts during the 2018-19 season.
• As a team, Nebraska enters the Crown title game shooting 75.3 percent from the line. The Huskers' free throw percentage is on track to be one of the best in school history. Nebraska is shooting 81 percent in three games in Las Vegas. Nebraska's 531 free throws made this season is fifth in school history. NU is just 10 free throws from moving into a tie for fourth on Husker single-season annals.
