Those who have jumped out fast were still doing the jumping in the postgame locker room the last three years of this rivalry.
Nebraska stood on top of Creighton early in road games at Omaha in 2022 and 2024 and made those early landed punches hold up. Two years ago in Lincoln? The Bluejays smacked the Huskers in the face in the only game NU would lose at Pinnacle Bank Arena all season.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Husker coach Fred Hoiberg said. “We did a great job last year I thought going out there and playing a complete game from start to finish. And that’s what it takes in a game like this.”
Nebraska comes into Sunday’s 4 p.m. tip against its in-state rival with an 8-0 record. Eight is also how many days there will be between this game and the last time Hoiberg’s crew was on the floor. Is that layoff good or bad? We’ll nail down the verdict around dinner on Sunday.
“Whatever we’re playing against, we have to keep our movement. That’s when we’re at our best,” Hoiberg said. “It’s been a long layoff for us. Last time we did this in this series, it didn’t go well. I think we had a week off before we played them in this building the last time. So for us it’s important to get off to a better start. We obviously have not done that at home. We’ve done it on the road better for whatever reason.”
That 2023 Creighton win of 89-60 over the Huskers at PBA is old news just like the defensive gem Nebraska had in CU’s building last year that produced a Big Red 74-63 win.
The Huskers have won two of the last three in the series after Creighton previously taken 10 of 11.
Sam Hoiberg remembers in his first year as a Husker that Nebraska team went into a lot of games not expecting to win.
“And we didn’t win a lot of games and that was a big problem,” said the senior guard. “We’ve really changed that culture as we’ve talked about so many times that we go into every game expecting to win. Especially games at PBA. We want to protect homecourt. Not necessarily a Creighton thing, but every single game now we’re going to try to win and we think we should win, especially here.”
This Creighton squad comes in 5-3 on the season, though all three losses are against formidable foes in Gonzaga, Baylor and Iowa State. The Bluejays have won their last two, beating Oregon by 10 and showing how dangerous they can be behind the arc with 17 made 3-pointers in a 96-76 win over Nicholls last time out.
CU has four players averaging in double figures, led by Pryce Sandfort’s former Iowa teammate Josh Dix, who is averaging 12.0 per game. Fred Hoiberg also thinks former Iowa big man Owen Freeman has been finding his stride for Creighton lately.
“The way that I look at this Creighton team is they’re playing their best basketball of the season,” he said.
While some players on both sides are new to the rivalry, Sam Hoiberg said it’s pretty well understood by all what this game means without players needing to talk to each other about it.
“You get a lot of feel from the fans before you even play that game,” he said. “You get random fans telling you, ‘Hey, you’ve got to beat Creighton this year.’ So I think everybody is pretty well enamored and knows that it’s a big rivalry. But it’s just another game and you’ve got to prepare the same way and not make it more than what it is so you can be ready the same way.”
You can’t overhype it, Fred Hoiberg said. Players get tight when you do that. There’s going to be enough juice automatically.
The coach likes how connected his team has been and how the Huskers have excelled at finding the hot hand. When they’ve kept things simple and not overly complicated it they’ve put together some really solid basketball.
Now Nebraska needs to add those strong starts the Huskers have struggled to have in their own arena.
“There’s always a great environment in this game and we need to give our fans a reason to get into it right from the jump … If you do that it’s one of the best homecourt environments in the country. We have to give our fans a bigger reason to get behind us from the beginning of this game,” Hoiberg said.
“We’ve had a lot of really good stretches. I’m not downplaying where we are right now with the fact I think there’s 12, 13, 14 teams that are undefeated right now. So we’ve played some really good stretches of basketball … But yeah, it’s going to be electric. It always is whether it’s at CHI or Pinnacle Bank. It’s always a great atmosphere and it’s a fun rivalry and a game that our guys will remember.”
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