Nebraska travels to Northwestern looking for first B1G road win

After losing 87-84 in overtime at No. 14 Illinois last Sunday, Nebraska (16-7 overall, 6-6 in Big Ten) hits the road again three days later to play the Northwestern Wildcats (15-7, 6-5).

Tonight’s game is scheduled for an 8 p.m. tip. It’ll be televised on the Big Ten Network with Connor Onion and Stephen Bardo on the call.

This will be another opportunity to earn a Quad 1 win for Nebraska as Northwestern currently sits at No. 59 in the NET rankings. After losing to Illinois, the Huskers moved from No. 57 to No. 52 in the NET rankings.

Both the Huskers and Wildcats will need to dig deep in this one. Each team is coming off two consecutive overtime outings. Nebraska knocked off No. 6 Wisconsin in Lincoln in overtime while dropping the game at Illinois three days later. Northwestern lost on the road at No. 2 Purdue 105-96 in overtime last Wednesday before losing 75-66 in 45 minutes of action at Minnesota on Saturday. The Wildcats will have one more rest day than the Huskers.

Northwestern leads 13-10 in the series with Nebraska. The Huskers are 7-12 against the Wildcats, but snapped a seven-game losing streak in Lincoln earlier this season.

Rice would provide Hoiberg a nice scoring threat off the bench, but he likely won't be available for the rest of the week as he nurses the high-ankle sprain he sustained at practice following the Maryland loss.

"He's getting better. He's still not doing anything live," Hoiberg said Tuesday. "Those high-ankle sprains take a long time to recover from. He's basically doing anything that he can right now, but not a lot of on-court movement. He's making good progress and we'll hopefully get him back on the court next week."

After Saturday's home game against Michigan — a contest 2026 recruit Aidan Chronister will attend during a visit — the Huskers are off until the following Saturday when they host Penn State.

>> Win the rebounding battle: Hoiberg has been saying it all season — win the boards, and you're going to give yourself a chance. That didn't happen against Illinois, which out-rebounded Nebraska by 17 while giving up 17 offensive rebounds — five of which were from 6-foot-6 forward Ty Rogers.

If Nebraska wants to leave Evanston with a win, it'll need to rebound much better than it did in its last game. In the first matchup inside Pinnacle Bank Arena, Nebraska won the rebounding battle against Northwestern 40-26 (the Huskers also committed a whopping 18 turnovers, but still won by six points).

>> Keep the Wildcats under 70 points: There seems to be a point total to follow this season. Nebraska has been a winner in 15 games dating back to last season when it holds an opponent to 70 points or less. This season, the Huskers are a perfect 11-0 when the other team doesn't reach 70.

>> Limit Boo Buie: Easier said than done of course. Buie may be focused on having a better game against the Huskers than the first time around, when he finished with nine points on 2-of-15 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 from 3-point range. It'll be a team-wide effort against Buie, one of the best guards in the country who's averaging 23.25 points since his nine-point effort in Lincoln. During that four-game stretch, he's hitting 62% of his 3-point attempts (15-of-24). Brice Williams, Sam Hoiberg and Jamarques Lawrence did a solid job on Buie in January. Can they throw him off his game again?