Nebraska basketball head coach Fred Hoiberg feels good about where the program is in terms of bringing back the players they want. While he wouldn't name anyone specifically who he thought would return for sure, specifically mentioning the return of Pryce Sandfort in June has some NU fans believing it might be a hint that the forward, coming off a breakout year, is leaning towards playing in Lincoln one more year.
"We feel good. We feel really good about the core group of guys that we will have back next year," Hoiberg said. "And those conversations are ongoing — exactly what it’s going to look like. But we feel good about the initial talks that we’ve had.”
Nebraska loses five seniors who have exhausted their eligibility, including Sam Hoiberg, Rienk Mast, Jamarques Lawrence, Kendall Blue, and Jared Garcia. Two other players are expected back in Connor Essegian and Ugnius Jaruševičius. Both guys missed almost the entire 2025-26 season, and Hoiberg said he believes both are no-brainers to get medical hardship waivers.
Nebraska basketball fans think Fred Hoiberg may have hinted at Pryce Sandfort returning
Sandfort was also injured for much of the season, though he played through it. Right after the season ended, Hoiberg shared that the transfer from Iowa had a sports hernia that was bothering him for several weeks. He’ll finally get surgery on it here very soon.
“As far as an exact timeline, we don’t know exactly what it is until they go in there and see the severity of the hernia,” Hoiberg told the media in a Monday press conference. However, the good news, Hoiberg added, is that Sandfort is expected to be ready for summer workouts in June.
Hoiberg, in fact, said he’d be back with the team in June. Some Nebraska fans have taken those comments to mean that he’ll be back for the summer, fall, and winter. However, it is worth pointing out that the NBA Draft is in late June. It’s possible Sandfort could come back just in time to show the pros he’s fully healthy and ready to make the jump.
While Hoiberg was clear he wants to retain as many of the “core” guys as possible, Nebraska keeping Pryce Sandfort would be a massive win.