The Nebraska basketball team is off to as good a start as anyone could have possibly hoped for the 2025-26 season. The Huskers are 5-0 after rallying for a comeback victory over Oklahoma and never trailing against New Mexico.
Now Hoiberg's Heroes might get their best test of the season on Friday night against Kansas State. The Wildcats are hoping to show that last year's flop was a one-year stumble by a team ready to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
So what does the Nebraska basketball team have to do to make sure they improve to 6-0 on Friday?
Nebraska has to find a way to stop everyone but P.J. Haggerty
It's probably too big a task to say the Huskers should "stop" Haggerty, considering he's coming off a season where he was the AAC Player of the Year with Memphis and picked up right where he left off so far this year.
In Kansas State's win over Mississippi State on Thursday night, Haggerty scored 37 points, hauled down 7 rebounds, and dished out 8 assists. It's the second game in a row that Haggerty scored 30 points.
The key will be stopping everyone else. If Haggerty gets 30, the rest of the team has to only score 40 points. Don't allow him to get to the glass. Don't allow him to log nearly 10 assists.
In an 84-83 win over Tulsa, Haggerty hit 10 of 17 shots while the rest of the team hit just 39% from the field. The Huskers need to get that percentage below 35%.
Nebraska has to play two halves.
On the whole, the Huskers have played very well this season. However, there have been some long periods where they could absolutely play better. That was on display on Thursday night.
Nebraska roared out of the gate, blowing New Mexico away, at one point forging a 33-13 lead. They led 43-25 at the half, and then in the second half, the Lobos went on a run that reduced the NU lead to four points.
Nebraska closed out the game, never trailed, and ended up winning by 12. Against Oklahoma, the Huskers had to forge a massive comeback to win. They need to play 40 minutes in order to win.
Get Braden Frager going early and often
Nebraska's redshirt freshman is having a fantastic start to the season. After two games, the guard averaged 18.5 points per game. He then played a grand total of 26 minutes in his next two games, thanks in large part to being a bit banged up.
On Thursday, he did Braden Frager things, scoring 20 points and hauling down 8 rebounds in 27 minutes. The Huskers need more of that.
If Thursday night was a sign that Frager is fully healthy and ready to shine, then Nebraska has someone who can counter Haggerty, at least a little bit.