Nebraska (17-14, 7-13 B1G) will play postseason basketball on Monday when it takes on Arizona State (13-19, 4-16 Big 12) at 7:30 p.m. CT at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for the inaugural College Basketball Crown Tournament.
After the ugly late-season collapse by the Huskers — five straight losses, including three games by three or fewer points — head coach Fred Hoiberg said his team wasn't ready to shut the lights off, hang up the shoes and end the season.
After the regular-season finale loss to Iowa, which kept Nebraska out of the 15-team Big Ten Conference Tournament, Hoiberg brought the team's leadership group into his office and asked them if the team wnated keep playing.
"To a man, they said we're playing. We're playing," Hoiberg said during a press conference on Wednesday. "Not one guy said, Well, I don't know, coach. I don't know if we should continue on with this."
After the meeting in the office, Hoiberg and the leadership group spoke with the team. It was Brice Williams, the first-team All-Big Ten guard, who told the team it will continue playing.
"Brice was the one that got up and said, 'Guys, we're doing this, and we're going to go out there and this isn't one foot in, one foot out. We are both feet in,'" Hoiberg said. "And we're going to do everything we can to compete for a championship."
Said Williams, who also spoke on Wednesday: "I just wasn't ready to be done with college basketball, the way it ended. That's really it. Wasn't ready to be done. I wanted to continue to play in the uniform. Wanted to play for a championship."
A handful of teams that missed the NCAA Tournament and were invited to play in the Crown and other postseason tournaments, like the National Invitation Tournament, declined the offer to play. Many chose to focus on building their rosters for next season through the transfer portal.
But with college basketball's transfer portal window of March 24 through April 22 running right in the middle of postseason tournaments, it's created a juggling act for coaching staffs playing postseason ball. And on top of that, Hoiberg is also tasked with finding a replacement for assistant coach Adam Howard, who took an assistant job on Will Wade's first NC State staff.
How to watch, stream, listen
Day/Time: Monday at 7:30 p.m. CT
TV: FS1 with Kevin Kugler, Robbie Hummel and Kim Adams on the call.
Stream: Fox Sports app.
Listen: Monday’s game will be carried on the Huskers Radio Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen on the call, including KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln, KXSP (590 AM) in Omaha and KRVN (880 AM) in Lexington. The pregame show begins an hour before tipoff and will also be available on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.
