Nebraska set to play St. Mary's at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls

Nebraska's non-conference schedule for the upcoming 2024-25 season is filling out.

On Tuesday morning, it was reported Nebraska will play the St. Mary's Gaels on Sunday, Nov. 17 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. St. Mary's is routinely one of the best programs on the West Coast and in the West Coast Conference. Randy Bennett's Gaels, who won the WCC Tournament last season, have been a No. 5 seed in the past three NCAA Tournaments and are a combined 79-24 during that stretch.

This game will be one Husker fans keep an eye on throughout the season as it has strong potential to be of the Quad 1 variety if St. Mary's has another strong year. It will also be a great test for a team full of new faces looking to build on-court chemistry before the grind of the Big Ten season.

St. Mary's will need to replace its leading scorer (13.9 points) from last year's team in guard Aidan Mahaney, who transferred to two-time national champion UConn. Forward Joshua Jefferson, who averaged 10.2 points, transferred to Iowa State.

The Gaels do return guard Augustas Marciulionis, who was the WCC Player of the Year, and forward Mitchell Saxen, who was the Defensive Player of the Year.

It will be the third time Nebraska has played at the Sanford Pentagon while it will be St. Mary's fifth. Nebraska smacked Oregon State 84-63 at the Pentagon last year.

"Returning to the Sanford Pentagon to play Saint Mary’s is a great opportunity for our basketball team,” Fred Hoiberg said in a statement. “Our players and coaches enjoyed playing in Sioux Falls last year, and our fans made it a phenomenal atmosphere. We appreciate the work that Sanford Sports has done to put together this year’s matchup. Saint Mary’s has been in three straight NCAA Tournaments and is one of the best programs in the country, so it will be a very good early-season test for our team.

"We have a lot of Nebraska alumni in the Sioux Falls region and look forward to seeing the Pentagon full of Husker fans for both the men’s and women’s games that weekend.”

Nebraska's reported, but not officially announced, non-conference opponents:
>> vs. UT Rio Grande Valley on Nov. 4
>> vs. Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 9
>> vs Fairleigh-Dickinson on Nov. 13
>> vs. St. Mary's on Nov. 17
>> at Creighton on Nov. 22
>> vs. South Dakota on Nov. 27
>> at Diamondhead Classic in Hawaii from Dec. 22-25 (Nebraska, Loyola Chicago, Oregon State, Charleston, Charlotte, Hawaii are the teams in the tournament, with two more teams yet to be revealed)
>> vs. Southern on Dec. 30
>> vs. North Florida (date yet to be announced)

Nebraska is coming off a season in which it won the second-most games in program history (23-11) and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 10 years. Hoiberg was tabbed the 2024 Big Ten Coach of the Year and signed a two-year contract extension through 2028-29 worth $4.25 million in 2024-25 with annual increases each season.

Hoiberg and his staff went to work this offseason to rebuild the roster. They landed seven new faces, including six scholarship transfers and one high-upside walk-on from the junior college ranks.

"It's a team where there's going to be expectations going into this season," Hoiberg recently said on Sports Nightly. "...We're coming off some success. Now it's about taking the next step."

Amy Williams' Nebraska women's team will also play at the Sanford Pentagon, but a day before the men on Saturday, Nov. 16, which happens to be the same day Nebraska's football team plays at USC.

It will mark the first game played at the Pentagon for the Nebraska women, who made the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. The Huskers will play South Dakota, the program Williams' coached before coming to Nebraska.

"We are excited to take our team to play at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls for the first time," Williams said in a statement. "It is an incredible basketball venue and it will be a great environment against a great opponent. We are also looking forward to seeing lots of Husker fans there to support us!"

>> CONSIDER AN ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION for less than $2/week to unlock all of our premium articles and sound off on the hot topics on our INSIDER'S BOARD

>> Follow us on Twitter (@NebraskaRivals) and Instagram (@nebraskarivals)

>> Subscribe for free to the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel