As Nebraska men's basketball prepares to play No. 25 Maryland (18-6, 8-5 B1G) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. inside Pinnacle Bank Arena, it's hard to ignore the Berke Büyüktuncel storyline.

With under a minute remaining in Nebraska's win over Ohio State on Sunday, Büyüktuncel grabbed his sixth rebound of the afternoon but unfortunately landed awkwardly on his left ankle and rolled it.

On Wednesday during a press conference via Zoom, Hoiberg made Büyüktuncel's status official: out for the Maryland game.

But Nebraska's head coach sounded optimistic about the recovery timeline and even said the 6-foot-10 UCLA transfer would be considered day-to-day following Thursday's game.

"He's actually made really good progress the last couple days," Hoiberg said of Büyüktuncel. "It was swollen and it's already got a lot of color in it, which is a good thing. It's starting to bleed out. Swelling has gone down significantly in the last 48 hours."

Day/Time: Thursday at 7:30 p.m. CT

TV: Big Ten Network with Kevin Kugler (play by play) and Shon Morris (color) 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

Büyüktuncel's sprained ankle is one storyline heading into the Quad 1 opportunity on Thursday (Maryland currently has a NET rating of 18). Another is how Nebraska plans to handle Maryland's bigs — the 6-foot-9, 252-pound Julian Reese and the 6-10, 246-pound Derik Queen — without its starting power forward there to help.

After the Ohio State win, Hoiberg said there could be stretches where Nebraska goes with a "big-big" lineup that includes the 6-10 Andrew Morgan and the 7-1 Braxton Meah. The coach said he's been toying with different lineups at practice.

Thursday could be a prime opportunity for Meah, who started 18 games this season but has seen a change in his role lately. Meah averaged 15 minutes in the first six Big Ten games he played in. In the last five conference tilts, that average has dipped to 6.6.

Meah is coming off a strong first half against Ohio State. He played seven minutes while Morgan and Büyüktuncel had to sit for stretches in the first half with two fouls. Meah scored five points in those seven minutes and even showed improvement at the foul line by hitting all three of his attempts. He came into the game as a 23.1% free throw shooter.

"He's handled it great. He's handled it very professionally," Hoiberg said of how Meah's taken the role change. "When he's been asked to go in there, I think he's given us good minutes."

It won't just be Morgan and Meah defending Reese and Queen, though. The strong and physical Juwan Gary, all 6-6, 226 pounds of him, will definitely need to battle in the paint and be a factor, too. Hoiberg even mentioned the 6-4, 195-pound Cale Jacobsen is acting as the team's third center right now, which could be an option when the team goes small.

"Cale right now, offensively, probably is our third five. He just knows everything so well," Hoiberg said. "He knows the system. So we're gonna have to play smaller lineups as well, until we get Berke back on the floor."

After that six-game losing streak in January, Nebraska is riding a four-game win streak that has completely revitalized the program and fan base. The Huskers (16-8, 6-7) are continuing their strong play in February and are undefeated at 3-0 in the month.

Since 2023, Nebraska has a 13-5 record in February.

The recipe for success this month, Hoiberg said, is all about the effort and edge to begin games. And even when they're not there for the opening tip — the Washington game is an example of that — the team has eventually come around.

"Our guys have figured some things out," Hoiberg said. "Our offense has been better. We've been screening better. Our cutting has been better. And that stuff all pays off, especially when you're playing close games. Every possession matters."

Hoiberg also credited his team's "scout discipline." The coach said his players have executed newly-installed offensive sets and actions for specific opponent defenses.

As opponent defenses have changed, Nebraska's offense has done a good job, for the most part, of playing with pace.

"Whatever the defense is, you have to shift to it, you have to get that ball side to side," Hoiberg said. "And you can't just get stagnant. I thought we had a little bit of that when Juwan got in foul trouble at the end of the first half against Ohio State. But other than that, I thought we were pretty darn good."

While Maryland snuck past Nebraska 69-66 in College Park on Jan.19, Reese and Queen weren't huge parts to the win if you looked at the scoring column.

Reese and Queen combined to shoot 33% from the field and score 11 points that Sunday, with Reese adding eight and Queen three. They did make an impact on the boards — Reese with 10, Queen with seven. Reese also recorded a whopping four blocks.

Queen is coming to Lincoln on a heater, though. He went berserk at Rutgers on Sunday, scoring 29 points (11-of-13 at the free-throw line) with 15 rebounds and five assists. He's averaging 15.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game.

"It was as good a performance as I've seen of any player in the league," Hoiberg said of Queen's outing against the Scarlet Knights.

While Reese only scored four points with two rebounds while fouling out in 18 minutes against Rutgers, he was a beast at Ohio State last week and recorded a double-double of 24 points and 13 rebounds, four of which were offensive. He was also strong at the free-throw line, going 10-of-11.

Reese, who's in his fourth year, will come to Lincoln averaging 13.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game on the season.

"Reese is a proven player who's been in this league for a long time," Hoiberg said. "This team's clicking, man. They are playing really, really good basketball."

Reese and Queen get the headlines, but Nebraska knows the primary Terrapin guards are also dangerous — especially from deep.

Guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie is averaging 14.3 points and shooting 40% on an average of 5.8 attempted 3s per game. Rodney Rice is averaging 13.2 points and shooting 37.2% on 5.6 3s. Selton Miguel is averaging 11.5 points and shooting 42.6% on 4.8 3s. That trio combined to score 50 points (Gillespie 22, Rice 15, Miguel 13) and 10 3s the first time around.

>> GAIN ALL-ACCESS with an annual or monthly subscription for less than $10/month

>> NEW SUBSCRIBERS get 30 days FREE

>> Sound off on the hot topics on our INSIDER'S BOARD

>> Follow us on Twitter (@NebraskaRivals)

>> Follow us on Instagram (@nebraskarivals)

>> Subscribe for FREE to the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel