Huskers moving on from first tournament win, locking in on Vanderbilt

LINCOLN, Neb. - Nebraska Men's Basketball has already made history this week. The Huskers recorded their first ever tournament win on Thursday 76-47 over Troy - but as much as the huskers are taking the time to appreciate the accomplishment, they’re dedicating just as much time to their round of 32 till with Vanderbilt.

The Huskers are turning the page to Saturday night. 

“It was definitely an emphasis to enjoy it, we earned that thing, it was a long time coming to get that tournament win,” Senior Sam Hoiberg said. “We can enjoy it for a few hours, we got the film on them and that’s when we switched to tomorrow.”

“I know when I went back to the hotel, I tuned into the game  I watched more on them [Vanderbilt] as well to help me not think as much about what wed just done,” Senior Jamarques Lawrence said. “Maybe it’ll hit me after the season, but I’m really locked into this next one.”

The Commodores are the five-seed in the south region, knocking off 12-seed McNeese Stare 78-68 in the Round of 64. Vanderbilt has a story similar to Nebraska’s, jumping out to a 16-0 record to start the year. They finished runners up to Arkansas in the SEC Tournament. 

Head Coach Fred Hoiberg continues to emphasize that the Huskers keep their walls up. 

“We really have to be on point with this,” Hoiberg said. “If we’re not ready to go, it’s not going to be pretty. They [Vanderbilt] are that good they are that talented… I’ll say this, our guys were locked in on our film session last night, were they s=excited, should they be excited, absolutely. It’s been fun, but our guys have gotten over it and they’re ready to move on to the next one.”

The Paycom Center has become known as PBA South by many in OKC this weekend - and the Huskers don’t see that changing on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to be even louder, people will be off work and come down for the weekend,” Sam Hoiberg said. “We fully expect to have another amazing crowd, but we can’t rely on that to win a game. We have to still execute and it’s such a quick turnaround and Vandy did so many good things we’ll have to be keyed in on.”

Nebraska and Vanderbilt tips off at 7:45 CT on Saturday night.