The Nebraska basketball team will be without one of its best big men when it takes on the Maryland Terapins on Thursday night.
That's awful news, considering that the Cornhuskers hope to extend their winning streak to five games. A fifth straight win would also move Hoiberg's Heroes closer to clinching a second straight NCAA Tournament. But the Terps are hardly a squad NU can afford to go up against down a man.
Still, the Nebraska basketball team will take the court in Lincoln without center Berke Büyüktuncel. Büyüktuncel suffered a sprained ankle in the waning moments of the Huskers' win over Ohio State on Sunday. After the game, head coach Fred Hoiberg said that the big man's injury was bad enough that he's expected to miss "some time." Just how long he'll be out is very much up in the air, but the vibes point to March being the earliest he'll be back if everything goes right.
Nebraska basketball without Berke Büyüktuncel in rematch vs Maryland
The loss is an especially frustrating one, considering that Büyüktuncel is coming off his best overall game since the Nebraska Cornhuskers started Big Ten play.
He finished the contest against OSU with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. The 15 points are just one point shy of his Husker career-high. It's also a big loss because the center had been stepping into the role that Rienk Mast made so deadly a year ago. The former UCLA Bruin is dangerous down low, but he's an extra weapon out on the perimeter as well, where most centers fear to tread.
The Nebraska basketball team will now have to hope that Andrew Morgan and Braxton Meah can fill the hole left in the lineup while they take on a Maryland team that can be pretty hard to stop near the rim.