Fred Hoiberg’s Illinois admission helps ease the pain of Nebraska’s 2nd-straight loss

Nebraska finally cracked the top 5 of the AP Poll last Monday with its 20-0 start to the season, but the week Fred Hoiberg’s team just had will send them tumbling back down. The Cornhuskers started the week with a 75-72 Tuesday night loss at No. 3 Michigan, then followed up their 24-game win-streak that dated back to last season with a two-game losing streak, falling to No. 9 Illinois 78-69 on Sunday. 

Despite the losses and the expected hit in the AP Poll, Nebraska’s torrid start built a margin for error. All of Nebraska’s goals, including a ninth NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, are still in front of it, and Hoiberg did his best to put the loss in perspective at his postgame press conference from Pinnacle Bank Arena. 

“That team is playing as well as any in the country right now,” Hoiberg said of the Fighting Illini. “Give Illinois the credit, they’re playing really good basketball right now.” Adding, “Listen, (Keaton) Wagler is playing as a first-team All-American right now.” 

Illinois is a different team after Keaton Wagler’s breakout

The win was Illinois’s 11th in a row, bringing its record on the season to 19-3 and 10-1 in Big Ten play. The Illini’s last loss came on December 13, at the hands of then No. 23 Nebraska on a night when the Huskers shot a staggering 46 percent from three. On Sunday, they finished at 43 percent, but it wasn’t enough. 

One of the reasons the outcome was different than two December in Champaign was Illinois’s dominance on the inside, grabbing 11 offensive rebounds. In his return from the flu, Nebraksa big-man Rienk Mast went 2-10 from the field across 26 minutes and finished with just four rebounds. It was clear he wasn’t 100 percent. 

However, the bigger reason that this game played out differently was Wagler, Illinois’s breakout freshman. A week ago, as the Illini took down Purdue, the point guard had his signature performance, dropping 46 points. With Kylan Boswell out, Wagler has emerged as one of the best players in the entire country and unlocked Illinois’s five-out spacing as another knockdown shooter for Brad Underwood. 

Wagler struggled in the first half against Nebraska, but scored 23 of his game-high 28 points after the intermission. Only an underrecruited true freshman, Wagler controlled the pace of the second half, scoring with ease in isolation and routinely bailing his team out of stalled possessions.

In the first meeting, Wagler had a strong 19-point performance, but he’s a different player six weeks later, and Illinois is a different team with him piloting the offense. Maybe the best team in the Big Ten. 

Sure, Nebraska hoped to hold that distinction, and at 20-0 had a strong case for it. But if Nebraska’s only losses of the year are to No. 3 Michigan and No. 9 Illinois amid an 11-game win-streak, that’s not the end of the world, or the end of the Huskers' Final Four dreams.