BLOOMINGTON, Ind. Here in the universe they met at noon. Nebraska, the perennial football school, is currently busy being a top 10 basketball power. Indiana, forever a basketball blueblood, is now one win away from being the capital of college football. What kind of world is it when the Cornhuskers send a 15-0 team into the first game and the Hoozers send a 15-0 team into the next game?
Do you want to go to school? If Indiana’s football players get the job done against Miami, the area will hold the last undefeated national champions in both basketball and football.
So the irony was understandable on Saturday. Wandering in the midst of this mighty Hoosiers karma was a Nebraska basketball team that was breaking barriers of its own. The Cornhuskers had the nation’s longest winning streak at 19, their first top-10 finish in 30 years, their first non-11-0 conference record since 1929, their first 5-0 start in league play in 60 seasons and their first 3-0 league start in half a century. They reach the postseason and look to do something about their 0-8 NCAA Tournament record, making them the only school in the powerhouse league to go without a win in March Madness. Traditionally with Indiana 68 on the other side of the tracks.
Nebraska fans, accustomed to watching from the sidelines, have been waiting for years for this moment to arrive. Know who this sounds like? Yes, Indiana football.
For a while, it looked as though the Hoosiers’ athletic program was in for an incredible 17 hours on Saturday. Wallop Oregon defeated undefeated Nebraska in the College Football Playoff semifinals Friday night and Saturday afternoon in basketball. Indiana led by 16 points with 17 minutes left.
Five minutes later, the game was tied. Nebraska scored 53 points in the second half to win 83-77. Perfection advanced and Michigan’s passing cut the undefeated streak to five teams.
“It just shows that we’re not going to go away and we’re going to keep hitting. We’re not a team that’s going to roll,” said quarterback Cale Jacobsen, referring to the competitive tenor of Nebraska’s summer and fall practices. “We’ve had those moments where one team beats the other and you’ve got to find a way, right? You’re going to get stomped on or set back all your training.
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“Since we’ve been here, we’ve been working on how we’re going to respond. Maturity is a big word. We’ve got some older guys in that locker room. They’ve been through big wins and big losses.”
Well, not much loss lately.
Indiana State created its own football saga with a locker room story that only recently began to be noticed. Nebraska basketball is the most fascinating story. Coach Fred Hoiberg has now joined his son Sam in the position his grandfather once held. A demonstration of generations of families who have paid their taxes. Especially Fred, who spent seven seasons trying to bring such glory to his hometown of Lincoln. It was a journey. The Cornhuskers went 14-45 in his first two years.
Featured player Rienk Mast has a physics degree from the Netherlands and an M.Sc. Next in scoring is Nebraska’s Price Sandfort, who passed through Iowa. There’s Jamarquez Lawrence, who started his career at Nebraska and returned after a sabbatical in Rhode Island. He scored a career-high 27 points against Indiana Saturday. One Husker from Turkey, another from Lithuania, another from Iceland. Jacobsen is a do-it-all sub, a big 10 academic from a small town near Omaha.
They remained undefeated throughout, outscored Oklahoma by 16 points, outscored Wisconsin by 30 points, outscored neighboring Creighton by 21 points, outscored Michigan State 58-56 and Ohio State 22-0 on turnovers while shooting 51.6% while Illinois committed just six turnovers.
“I’m happy for Fred Hoiberg. Everyone was on their ass years ago,” Tom Izzo said after the Spartans committed 19 turnovers against the Cornhuskers. “He did a lot of work. Nebraska did a lot of work. It was probably the best game, the biggest game they’ve had in 36 years,” they responded.
They also responded with another comeback on Saturday. Hoosier fans were in attendance, many of them bleary-eyed from watching football late into the night. A 16-point lead seemed to confirm that things are magical right now at IndianaWorld. The only problem was that someone parked in the IU women’s basketball coach Teri Moren’s parking lot and announced to the crowd that the vehicle needed to be moved.
GREAT SATURDAY: Michigan, ranked No. 2 among five teams, fell on Saturday.
But the Hoosiers built their fantasy with confidence, winning one game after another.
“There’s no panic in this group. That’s what impressed me the most. Their emotions are the same, their body language doesn’t change,” Hoiberg said. “We talk about it in this business. You’ve got to be able to do that. You’ve got to bounce back from an emotional win, you’ve got to bounce back from a tough loss. This team is still going through the win. I asked them again if they’re happy. To a man, they’re not.”
Nebraska still has something to prove, just as there were doubters in Indiana football until recently. Last Saturday’s win was an improvement, with 83 points, just eight turnovers and 57% shooting in the second half.
“I’m not going to discount what our guys did,” Hoiberg said. “But we’re not going to let them get comfortable about it. We’re halfway through the season today and credit to our lads that we haven’t had any setbacks yet. But at the same time, you can’t sit back and be fat and happy. You’re going to do that in this league.
“Yeah, putting up some of those numbers that you’ve never seen in history meant a lot to our team, to our program. But there’s a lot ahead of us. We’re going to keep grinding with this team. … We’ve got to keep them hungry, and that’s the bottom line.”
Didn’t Kurt Cignetti say that about his Indiana football team?
Two worlds collided here on Saturday, crossing each other on the same campus. Hoiberg wanted to send a message to Indiana football. “It was an unbelievable performance last night,” he said. “Good luck to the Hoozers.”
From one program to another to reverse history.
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