Brice has been cooking.

During this two-game win streak of Nebraska's, senior guard Brice Williams has been carrying the offense. There was a 27-point, 8-rebound, 4-assist night against No. 18 Illinois inside Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. Three days later in Eugene, Williams racked up 28 points, seven boards and six assists against No. 16 Oregon.

Those performances were enough for Williams to earn his second Big Ten Player of the Week selection of the season. Williams becomes only the second Husker to earn two Big Ten Player of the Week honors, joining Shavon Shields during the 2013-14 season.

Then on Tuesday, he was named the National Player of the Week.

Two games against ranked opponents, two wins. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, Nebraska's once-spiraling season is back on track. And the Huskers, with a 4-6 record against Quad 1 opponents and a NET rating of 50 following the Oregon win, are again popping up in NCAA Tournament projections.

In Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology, Nebraska is one of the "last four in" teams currently on the bubble:

And according to The Field of 68's latest projection, Nebraska is a 10-seed in the Big Dance:

How quickly things can change after a couple confidence-building wins against ranked teams. It was just last week that many were wondering if this Nebraska group would even qualify for the 15-team Big Ten Conference Tournament.

Long way to go, of course. No one is safe in a dog-eat-dog league like the Big Ten. As head coach Fred Hoiberg always says: one game at a time.

With nine games left in the regular season, the opportunity is right in front of Nebraska to keep climbing out of the hole it put itself in and pick up more of those all-important Quad 1 wins.

The Huskers will play five Quad 1 opponents in the next six games and six in the final nine. The Huskers get another crack at No. 18 Maryland, this time at home, while also hosting No. 24 Michigan.

Here's what the remaining schedule looks like, with each opponent's NET rating:

Wednesday: at Washington (94, Quad 2)

Sunday: vs. Ohio State (27, Quad 1)

Thursday, Feb. 13: vs. No. 18 Maryland (15, Quad 1)

Sunday, Feb. 16: at Northwestern (55, Quad 1)

Wednesday, Feb. 19: at Penn State (54, Quad 1)

Monday, Feb. 24: vs. No. 24 Michigan (16, Quad 1)

Saturday, March 1: vs. Minnesota (101, Quad 3)

Tuesday, March 4: at Ohio State (27, Quad 1)

Sunday, March 9: vs. Iowa (64, Quad 2)

So, to recap:

Away from PBA: Washington (94), Northwestern (55), Penn State (54), Ohio State (27)

At home in PBA: Ohio State (27), No. 18 Maryland (15), No. 18 Michigan (16), Minnesota (101), Iowa (64).

On Monday night while still on the West Coast with his team, Hoiberg held a phone interview with the Huskers Radio Network to talk about the win at Oregon and the upcoming tilt at Washington.

The head coach touched on Williams and what he's meant to the team during its turnaround.

"He's been absolutely phenomenal," Hoiberg said. "The biggest thing that we talked to Brice about was getting back to doing the little things. When he's out there defending and making the right plays, his offense just finds a way to come to him."

For stretches during the game, Nebraska's offense found success when the ball was in Williams' hands and the 6-foot-7 guard was at the controls of pick-and-rolls with his primary big, Andrew Morgan.

"I thought he did a really nice job of getting the ball in the pocket where Andrew was able to finish," Hoiberg said.

The clip below is Williams' first assist against Oregon, slowed down at the mesh point between Morgan and Williams to give one a better idea of the patience Williams needed to get the bounce pass past the 7-footer Nate Bittle (#32) with guard Keeshawn Barthelemy (#9) on his hip.

Williams waits for the window to open, and with Bittle going airborne and Barthelemy on Williams' hip, there's no one home to defend Morgan except Juwan Gary's defender, TJ Bamba (#5), who is in position on his defensive rotation, but doesn't provide any resistance:

On the second clip, Nebraska attacks Bittle again with a Williams-Morgan pick-and-roll. This time, Bittle hedges hard while Williams' defender, Jadrian Tracey (#2), goes over the screen.

Here's where a 6-7 ball handler comes in handy — Williams goes over the top and sneaks a pass through the traffic to a rolling Morgan, who one-dribble-and-spins past the late rotation of Jackson Shelstad (#3) and connects with his left hand for 2.

Not every 6-10 forward has the movement skills to do what Morgan did here:

On the third clip shown below, Morgan tags Williams' defender, Shelstad, with a solid screen to help Williams get separation. Bittle again leaves his feet, but doing so creates that pocket-pass window Hoiberg was talking about.

Williams delivers the pass and Morgan finishes through Kwame Evans Jr. (#10). The play worked so well that Morgan could've even dished off to Berke Buyuktuncel if he wanted due to Evans' rotation and the slow help from Barthelemy (#9):

On the fourth clip shown below, Bittle is attacked again by the Williams-Morgan pick-and-roll.

This time, Bittle stays in drop coverage while Barthelemy fights over Morgan's screen, fairly well.

Not well enough, though, when the offensive player is Williams, one of the top bucket-getters in the league and best mid-range shooters. Williams took what the defense was giving him here and there was little the 6-1 Barthelemy could do while giving up six inches:

One more Williams-Morgan clip and we'll move on.

In the below clip, watch Sam Hoiberg screen Bittle before Morgan gets to his spot at the top of the key. The defender to keep an eye on here is Bamba (#5) — he starts to cheat over the screen as soon as he sees Williams' hesitation dribble.

Once Bamba turns his head, it's over. Williams plants his right foot and explodes to his left, turning down the screen. Oregon's Brandon Angel (#21) is stuck trying to defend a driving Williams and the potential corner 3 from Gary, and Williams gets an easy 2.

Again, Williams is reading the coverage and taking what Oregon gave him:

On top of the accurate pocket passes to Morgan, Williams also took it upon himself to attack the rim and either score with a layup or dunk or get to the foul line, which he did, going 6-of-7.

Williams is averaging 6.0 free-throw attempts per game and is making 89.4% this season. That percentage ranks 27th nationally and second among players averaging more than six attempts per game, behind only Wisconsin's John Tonje (6.4 attempts, 92.9%).

"It's just getting back to being aggressive and finishing games for us, it's what we were doing earlier in the year and it's been good to see him get back in his rhythm," Hoiberg said.

For as strong as Williams has looked lately, he can't do it alone. Batman needed Robin, and Nebraska's Robin is Gary.

The 6-6, 226-pound Gary has played hard and within himself recently. In the last two games, Gary has averaged 38 minutes, 18 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 55% (11-of-20) from the field and 81% (13-of-16) from the free-throw line.

"That's who Juwan Gary has been his entire time at Nebraska, he's just a guy who does a little bit of everything for us," Hoiberg said.

While there's been a tendency for Gary to settle for 3-point shots while he's made just 27.3% on the season, he did connect from deep when his team needed a 3 late in the game against Oregon.

"He hit a huge three for us late in the game that I think pushed the lead back up to eight, and he's just making plays at both ends of the court — winning basketball plays," Hoiberg said.

During the six-game losing streak, Gary was letting it fly from 3-point land, but he went a combined 3-of-26. But in the win against Illinois, he didn't attempt any 3s and instead did all of his damage inside the arc and at the free-throw line. Same deal with the win at Oregon — Gary cut down on his attempts from deep, going 1-of-3, but found success in the paint and at the line, where he went 10-of-12.

Nebraska finished the Oregon victory going 13-of-15 in layups and 4-of-4 on dunks. The Huskers made the shots they're supposed to make from close range.

"He's not settling as much from the outside, he's doing a better job getting to the rim," Hoiberg said of Gary. "We want him taking the open ones (3s), but when he has the opportunity to attack a long closeout, we want him being aggressive and getting to the hole, where he's doing a much better job playing under control, playing off of two feet and just making plays for us."

The Huskers will next hit the court on Wednesday night. Get the coffee pot going, it's a 9:30 p.m. tip central time on BTN.

Washington is a team playing with confidence, just like Nebraska, Hoiberg said. The Huskies, who had their own six-game losing streak recently, are coming off a road win of their own — at Minnesota. That's a Gopher team that had a January that included wins over No. 20 Michigan and No. 15 Oregon.

Hoiberg also mentioned Washington's zone defense, like the 1-3-1 it likes to mix in, can create problems for opposing offenses, so making sure the ball is moving will be a key Wednesday night.

The Washington player to watch is 6-8, 250-pound forward Great Osobor, who's averaging 15.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.1 steals per game.

"Washington, they play with so much effort and they're very disciplined and they're very physical," Hoiberg said. "They have one of the more unique players in the league in Osobor, who is extremely versatile with his ability to get in to the paint. He has a variety of moves — runners, floaters — and he can knock down shots as well."

Wednesday will mark the first game between Nebraska and its old player Wilhelm Breidenbach, who transferred from Nebraska in May 2023. The 6-10 Breidenbach has played in 20 games with 13 starts this season and is averaging 4.6 points and 2.5 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game.

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