As Fred Hoiberg joined his players to watch the film from the Penn State loss, he sensed it almost immediately. Confidence was low after the beat down by the Nittany Lions in State College.

So Hoiberg called an audible. No one watched the Penn State film.

"I just kind of sensed the guys had their heads a little bit down, and that's why I just tried to keep everything in check," Hoiberg said Saturday afternoon after his team's practice inside Pinnacle Bank Arena. "We didn't watch the game. We talked about it a lot, believe me. We worked on it on the court. But I felt the more productive thing was to find a way to get them back going again."

It happens every year for most college basketball coaches. As the calendar gets closer to March, coaches need to become psychologists in a way.

Seasons are filled with ups and downs, and coaches need to find the right buttons to push to keep players headed in the right direction, both physically and mentally. The timing wasn't right to go after the players, Hoiberg said.

"I just didn't feel like that was the day to go in there and pound them into the ground," Hoiberg said. "Now, we've had plenty of those this year, believe me, but it was getting their spirits back up and going out and having a spirited workout on the court. It was moving on. It was flushing that game away and moving on to Michigan and putting in a game plan that hopefully gives us a chance to win — if we follow it."

Sam Hoiberg said he played his worst game of his college career. Sam didn't score at Penn State and led the team with four turnovers.

"I like that we didn't watch it back. I mean, sometimes you just have an off game and you need to move on from it as quick as possible," Sam said Saturday. "I know what I did was uncharacteristic, and it's not like they need to yell at me and say, hey, don't do this. They know that I can learn from it and not do it again. So I think a lot of us felt that way."

Fred knows better than anyone there are peaks and valleys to this game. The goal going into that two-game swing out East was to go 2-0 obviously. But splitting that trip would've sufficed, Hoiberg said, and that's what happened.

But at the end of the day, you're only as good as your last game. No one cares about the words right now. It's a results-based business. The taste after the "poor effort" at Penn State still lingers. So does the noise outside the program's walls.

"I know the sky-is-falling-in mentality that you have when you have a poor effort," Hoiberg said. "But my job right now is to get them back right, because if you're reading everything, we're the worst team in the country right now."

The biggest challenge at the moment, Hoiberg said, is not listening to the noise and staying level-headed. Don't get too low when those outside the program do. Don't get too high, either, thinking you're going to run through a conference that no one is running through after a four-game win streak.

"You have to stay even in this business, you can't look and listen and read everything. It'll drive you nuts in this business," Hoiberg said. "So my job these last couple days was to let them know — we are a damn good basketball team."

Look around at other college basketball teams right now, and many are planning for next year because their current seasons aren't headed anywhere. They might want to play the role of spoiler for someone else, sure. But that's not the case at Nebraska, Hoiberg said. The Huskers still have a strong résumé and a real shot to make the NCAA Tournament again.

Nebraska enters the weekend ranked No. 53 in the NET heading into Monday's game with Michigan. The game with the Wolverines is a Quad 1 opportunity for the Huskers, who already have five Quad 1 wins this season.

Hoiberg has done the math and told his team what's ahead. There are five more games guaranteed. Two-hundred minutes of basketball left, or around three hours and 20 minutes remaining on the court.

There's a lot to keep playing for. A loss at Penn State, ugly as it was, didn't change that.

"Where we are right now, the reality of our situation is we are in a good position, and three of our last four at home. What more you could ask at this time of year?" Hoiberg said. "And you just got to go out there, bust your butt and do everything you can to put yourself in a position to have a chance to win."

Nebraska (17-10, 7-9 B1G) welcomes No. 12 Michigan (20-6, 12-3) to PBA on Monday night. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.

Day/Time: Monday at 7 p.m. CT

TV: FS1 with Kevin Kugler and Nick Bahe on the call.

Stream: Fox Sports App.

Listen: 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.

It'll be a quick turnaround for the Wolverines, who lost 75-62 to in-state rival Michigan State at home on Friday.

Michigan had won the six games prior to the defeat to the Spartans. What Hoiberg has noticed most about first-year Michigan coach Dusty May's team is its ability to win tight games.

"They've won nine games by four points or less. That's incredible," Hoiberg said. "...They're coming off what I would think is a disappointing game for them. What what happened to them last night, they've been doing that to other teams, with their physicality, with their rebounding, and that poses a challenge for us."

Michigan has maybe the biggest and most dynamic frontcourt in all of college basketball with 7-footers Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin. Nebraska's best forward, Berke Büyüktuncel, who's missed the last three games with a sprained ankle, might miss his fourth straight. Read about his status here.

While both Wolf and Goldin pose different challenges, the key player to watch here is Wolf, whose game resembles more of a jumbo guard than your typical 7-footer.

Wolf in his first season at Michigan after playing at Yale the past two seasons and is averaging 12.8 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists while pulling off plays like the one below, from Friday night's game against Michigan State, that showcases his excellent movement and ball skills for someone his size:

Golden, who hails from Russia, followed his head coach to Ann Arbor from Florida Atlantic and his production hasn't dropped off in Big ten ball — he's averaging 15.9 points and 6.1 rebounds after averaging 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds last season.

Another player to watch is Roddy Gayle Jr., an Ohio State transfer who was a starter for most of the season until a couple games ago where his role has changed to coming off the bench. Gayle is an uber athlete averaging 10.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

Ball security issues have reared its ugly head once again for the Huskers. During the five-game stretch from the win over Illinois to the loss against Maryland, the Huskers averaged just 8.8 turnovers and only had one game with more than 10 — at Oregon. In the last two games, though, Nebraska has turned the ball over 30 times — 14 against Northwestern and 16 against Penn State.

"Not taking care of the basketball early gets teams confident," Hoiberg said. "We have to be better than that."

And of course, Nebraska needs a fast start. Basically the opposite of what happened the past two games away from PBA.

"We're a quiet group, man. We're a quiet group," Hoiberg said. "We've got to find a way to come out with our hair on fire, talking, foaming at the mouth, make an effort play early."

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