Opening night of the 2025-26 season tipped off for a Nebraska basketball team that is hoping to prove doubters wrong and show that the Huskers reloaded in a way that will allow them to make some noise in the Big Ten. NU, predicted to finish 14th in the conference in preseason polls, looked every bit of that bottom of the B1G team in most of the first half.
However, Fred Hoiberg's squad woke up in the second half and eventually roared to a blowout 86-53 win over West Georgia. In the process, there were some questions that arose after the Huskers' first game of the season.
Should Nebraska basketball expect this Braden Frager all season?
One reason why a Nebraska team that struggled in the first half was able to change the mood was Braden Frager checking into the game and dominating when he was on the court.
Frager, a redshirt freshman who has coaches excited about his potential, sure showed off what could be a very deadly guard as he finished with 22 points on 8 of 11 shooting. He added five rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in his first-ever college game.
So, is the Lincoln product someone who is going to be doing some variation of this on most nights, or was this because he was going up against West Georgia? That question won't get an honest answer for a few more weeks.
Can Nebraska stomp out the abysmal slumps?
An unfortunate signature of the Fred Hoiberg era is that his teams tend to have long periods where they simply cannot buy a basket. On Monday night, that was most of the first half when they had just 11 points in the game's first 12 minutes.
It wasn't hard to see why they struggled, as they were 1 for 10 from beyond the arc to start the game. They went 9 for 22 (41%) the rest of the way.
Monday night was West Georgia, starting out the way they did against a Big Ten team isn't going to go the same way. Was this opening night jitters, or something Nebraska fans should expect?
Who will be Nebraska's top scoring option?
On Monday night, Frager was the Huskers' leading scorer. Jamarques Lawrence was second on the team with 19. Neither one of those guys came into the season expecting to be the No. 1 or No. 2 options for scoring. So who will it be?
Rienk Mast is the obvious choice, but he's rusty after sitting out a whole year, and while he'll have games where he can score in bunches, he tends to be hot and cold.
Connor Essegian only scored 12 points, but that was mostly because he struggled badly from the 3-point line, hitting just 1 of 7 shots. Pryce Sandfort, another guy who NU was hoping would be a quick jolt of offense, was 0 for 5 from the field, all three-point shots.
Nebraska has a few games to get it figured out, but this schedule starts to get a little trickier starting against Oklahoma on November 15. Someone can take over the roles last held by Keisei Tominaga and Brice Williams. The guy you want to have the ball in crunch time.