Nebraska (20-14) will play the UCF Knights (20-16) for the championship of the inaugural College Basketball Crown Tournament in Las Vegas today.
Here's a quick preview of the game, which will be played at T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights. Tip off is set for 4:30 p.m.
How to watch, stream, listen
Day/Time: Sunday at 4:30 p.m. CT
TV: FOX with Gus Johnson, Jim Jackson and Kristina Pink on the call.
Stream: Fox Sports app.
Listen: Sunday’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.
How'd Nebraska get here?
At one point during the regular season, Nebraska was sitting pretty in the NCAA Tournament discussion. Then disaster hit.
The Huskers lost the last five games of the regular season, and an 83-68 loss at home to Iowa officially knocked them out of not just the Big Dance, but the 15-team Big Ten Tournament.
Nebraska accepted an invitation to play in the first-ever Crown tournament. It beat Arizona State 86-78 on Monday and Georgetown 81-69 on Wednesday.
Arizona State and Georgetown were both missing several pieces of their roster when Nebraska played them, leading many to wonder how the Huskers, short-handed themselves as starting point Rollie Worster was shut down with a foot injury, would handle an NCAA Tournament snub in Boise State, a team that had all its players available.
Nebraska proved it didn't matter who Boise State had or didn't have on Saturday. The Huskers played well and rolled to a convincing 79-69 win behind a season-high 12 3-pointers, four of which from a hot-shooting Juwan Gary.
Gary has scored 20-plus points in four of NU's last six games and is averaging 20.8 points per game over his last six. Gary now has 976 points at Nebraska and needs 24 to become the 33rd Husker to reach 1,000 points.
The win over Boise State gave Nebraska 20 wins for the second consecutive season. This is the third time in school history a team has posted back-to-back 20-win seasons, and the first since 1997-98 and 1998-99 under Danny Nee.
How'd UCF get here?
Head coach Johnny Dawkins' UCF Knights finished tied for 12th in the 16-team Big 12 Conference and missed the NCAA Tournament for a sixth straight season.
Dawkins is in his ninth season at UCF and is currently 167-119 overall with one NCAA Tournament appearance.
UCF has a top-50 offense with a scoring averaging of 79.5 points per game, 49th in the country. The Knights get up and down the court and get fouled, too. They make 17.3 free throws per game, 14th nationally.
But while UCF can score, it's struggled to stop opponents this season. The Knights allow 80 points per game, 345th.
UCF won't be at full strength as it's missing its best player in the 6-7, 235-pound guard Keyshawn Hall. Hall, the leading scorer (18.8) and rebounder (7.1) this season, hit the transfer portal and committed to Auburn.
The Knights have shown they're still capable of winning games without Hall, though. UCF snuck by Oregon State 76-75 in the first round before ousting Cincinnati 88-80 in a quarterfinal. In the semifinal, the Knights beat Villanova 104-98 in overtime.
Potential fatigue from UCF is something Nebraska could take advantage of in the game.
The top player Nebraska needs to limit on Sunday is guard Darius Johnson. The 6-1, 200-pound senior is averaging 17.1 points per game and is dangerous behind the arc. He's shooting 40.4% on just over six 3-point attempts per game.
Johnson scored 42 points and dished out seven assists in the win over Villanova and poured in 31 points and five 3s with another seven assists against Cincinnati.
UCF's roster features a giant in the middle in the 7-2, 235-pound freshman center Moustapha Thiam. The native of Senegal is averaging 10.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks, which is the 8th most in the country.
Thiam was a four-star recruit and No. 31-ranked prospect overall in the 2024 class.
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