Photo: Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg acknowledges the fans as he leaves the court after a game against Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 21, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Fred Hoiberg carried the nickname “The Mayor” during his playing days at Iowa State, a reflection of his popularity in Ames, Iowa.

With the following he's gained as Nebraska's head basketball coach, perhaps “Governor” would be fitting. And if he leads the Cornhuskers past rival Iowa in the Sweet 16, any election might be a landslide.

Hoiberg has lifted the Cornhuskers (28-6) from laughingstock to March Madness darling. The Cornhuskers were a combined 14-45 his first two seasons after he took over in 2019. Heading into this season, Nebraska, which had never won an NCAA Tournament game, was picked to finish 14th in the 18-team Big Ten Conference.

Instead, the Cornhuskers won their first 20 games and jumped into the top five of The Associated Press poll. They earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and a horde of Nebraska fans traveled to Oklahoma City to watch the program take over the Paycom Center and claim its first two March Madness victories — a blowout against Troy and a thriller against Vanderbilt.

Hoiberg said his players deserve the credit heading into the South Region matchup with Iowa (23-12) on Thursday in Houston.

“They’ve just done all the little things really well, and to me, it makes our job as coaches a lot easier when you have a group that does all those things," he said. "They hold each other accountable. We've got great leadership with this group — as good as any that I’ve coached.”

Hoiberg said the seeds for this year’s success were planted last season at the College Basketball Crown tournament. The Cornhuskers won four games to claim the championship at that event, making success a part of their identity.

“You don’t get a chance to cut down nets very often, so for us, it was a really cool and special event,” he said. “Again, the guys that got the opportunity to play that are helping us this year in a huge way — that was as important as anything.”

The success has carried over to this season. Troy coach Scott Cross was impressed after Nebraska defeated his team 76-47 last week.

“Nebraska is one of the best teams,” he said. “I’ve been doing this since 1998. They’re really, really freaking good. The way they shoot the basketball and the way they defend, watching it on video, you’re like, man, there’s no openings as you watch it on video.”

Hoiberg has been able to enjoy the run with his son Sam as the point guard. Sam Hoiberg averages 9.4 points on 54.5% shooting and has 151 assists to just 37 turnovers. Sam's twin brother, Charlie, is a graduate team manager.

“To be able to share that moment with these guys — you get so caught up in the coaching part of it that you really don’t think about it, but when that game was over and all the emotions were flooding out, to be able to share that with those two guys has been great,” Fred Hoiberg said.

It's not all grit and precision — there's talent, too.

The Cornhuskers picked up a star in Pryce Sandfort, who played for Iowa last season before transferring. He leads the team with 17.9 points per game. Rienk Mast, a 6-foot-10, 250-pound big man from the Netherlands, has been a stabilizer. The senior is averaging 13.5 points and 5.8 rebounds.

Braden Frager, a freshman from Lincoln, Nebraska, who hit the dramatic game-winning layup against Vanderbilt, averages 11.7 points as a reserve. Guard Jamarques Lawrence started his career at Nebraska, then played a season at Rhode Island for a season before returning to the Huskers. He averaged 9.8 points and 3.9 assists this season. Berke Buyuktuncel, a physical 6-10 forward from Turkey, has started every game.

Fred Hoiberg said each player's ability to find his lane has been key to the team's success.

“We all have our styles,” he said. “We all have our personalities. I think you’ve got to be who you are. These players are smart, and we have to be who we are. We can’t be frauds. It’s just kind of who I am and who I’ve always been.”

Houston, Illinois carry strong opening-weekend efficiency in March Madness into Sweet 16 collision

Houston coach Kelvin Sampson wanted his Cougars simply to stick to what they do best in defending with their typical toughness to open March Madness. Illinois coach Brad Underwood hoped his team would “just let it rip."

They got what they wanted in the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament while posting the two most lopsided scoring margins of any teams to advance to the Sweet 16. Now they will try those very different approaches against one another in a Thursday clash in Houston.

The second-seeded Cougars — who played in last year's national-title game — rolled to 31-point wins against both Idaho and Texas A&M. That came while allowing just 0.839 points per possession (104 points on 124 possessions).

“Everybody’s got a style,” coach Kelvin Sampson said after the 88-57 win against the Aggies. “We have a style. Texas A&M has a style, but it doesn’t come down to what you are doing vs. them. It’s how you do what you do.”

Houston allowed the Vandals and Aggies to score on just 37.1% of their possessions, with those teams shooting a combined 31.5% while making 12 of 54 3-pointers (22.2%).

The third-seeded Illini had the second-largest scoring margin (plus-56) of the first weekend while averaging 1.382 points per possession (181 points on 131 possessions). Illinois scored on 60.3% of its possessions against Penn and VCU.

“We're 34 or 35 games in, whatever we're in, and there's not a lot we don't know,” Underwood said. “I'm really glad to see us — I used the term before the tournament — ‘just let it rip.’ We’ve got to play that way, and we’ve got to play loose and we’ve got to play free.”

Things figure to be tighter against the stingy Cougars and which team is the most successful doing what it does best will likely advance. Houston is a 3.5-point favorite, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

Shooting the 3

Purdue is shooting the 3-pointer better than anyone heading to the regional round so far, while Alabama continues firing from long range at a frenetic pace under Nate Oats.

The Boilermakers made 22 of 38 3-pointers in wins against Queens and Miami, good for 57.9% to lead all tournament teams. They were the only tournament team to make more than half their attempts while playing multiple games.

In all, six Sweet 16 teams shot at least 40% from 3-point range in the tournament's opening weekend, including Michigan (46.8%, 22 of 47) and Michigan State (45.7%, 21 of 46).

The Crimson Tide, meanwhile, leads all tournament teams with 31 made 3s through two rounds, at least five more than any other team. And Alabama's 78 attempted 3s were tied with 12-seed High Point — which upset Wisconsin before falling in a shootout to Arkansas — for the most in the tournament, at least eight more than any other team.

Winning profiles and tiers

Going back to the 2001 tournament, 55 of 96 teams to reach the Final Four (57.3%) were ranked inside the top 25 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency for KenPom entering March Madness, with 21 of those ranking in the top 10 at both ends.

Slightly more than half of the remaining teams (21) ranked inside the top 10 at one end of the court to offset a ranking outside the top 25 in the other.

That leaves 20 outliers that reached the sport's final weekend without holding top-10 status in at least one category.

Looking at the three tiers of the 16 teams that will play this week:

— Six favorites entered the tournament with top-25 rankings at both ends of the floor: 1-seeds Duke, Arizona and Michigan; and 2-seeds Houston, Iowa State and Michigan State. Of that group, the Blue Devils and Wildcats were top-5 in both categories.

— Five teams ranked in the top 10 at one end of the court: 2-seed Purdue; 3-seed Illinois; and 4-seeds Alabama, Arkansas and Nebraska. The Huskers were the only one of that quintet to rank in the top 10 defensively.

— The five outliers: 2-seed UConn, 5-seed St. John's, 6-seed Tennessee; 9-seed Iowa and 11-seed Texas. The Huskies are the surprise addition in this group after flirting with earning a No. 1 seed coming down the stretch, but they entered March Madness ranked 30th in offense (122.0 points per 100 possessions) and 11th in defense (94.1).

In the era of NIL and transfers, the Sweet 16 is filled with veteran teams that have stuck together

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Purdue was struggling to put away Miami in the second half of their second-round NCAA Tournament game on Sunday when Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kauffman-Renn combined to score the Boilermakers' next 22 points, helping them to turn a three-point lead into a 79-69 victory and a spot in the Sweet 16.

It was exactly what coach Matt Painter has come to expect from his guys over the last four years.

The antithesis of college basketball in the age of free transfers and name, image and likeness money, the Boilermakers are two wins away from a second Final Four appearance in the last three years by keeping things decidedly old-school: They recruit players that fit their program, develop them over time, and then they lean on them when it matters the most.

“It comes down to culture,” Smith said. “Having what we have here in the last four years is really special. I think we've had maybe four transfers in my four years that we have had, and I think that’s pretty special, and not a lot of teams ever have that.”

It’s unique in college basketball, to be sure, but not necessarily unique in the Sweet 16.

In fact, the NCAA Tournament this year has underscored the value of continuity within a program, and that simply restocking with a new wave of transfers each offseason is not necessarily the best way to build a championship roster.

Five teams still alive have at least four starters who have played multiple seasons for their current coaches, according to a roster survey from The Associated Press, and nine of the 16 have at least three. Duke and Michigan State have starting lineups that consist entirely of guys who have played nowhere else in college, and 11 of the 16 teams have at least three such starters.

Those numbers exist despite the fact that Iowa (Ben McCollum) and Texas (Sean Miller) have new coaches, and both were forced to mine the transfer portal after the typical and unavoidable outflow of players from the previous regime.

At Purdue, Smith — now the NCAA career assists leader — and Loyer have been starters the last four years. Kaufman-Renn, also a senior, has been in the starting lineup the last three. Together, they are tied for the winningest class in school history.

“Who wouldn’t want to stay?” Smith asked. “Obviously if our situation was different, whatever. For us just being around a great group of people as a whole, the community at Purdue, the coaching staff, just staff in general — it just makes it super special.”

In the case of the Hawkeyes, four of the starters — Bennett Stirtz, Tavion Banks, Cam Manyawu and Kael Combs — followed McCollum from Drake, creating the same sort of continuity. The other starter, Jacob Koch, played for Fran McCaffery at Iowa last season.

“We've got really loyal kids, and I knew that going in,” said McCollum, who two years ago was coaching Division II ball. “Whether or not they’re perfect — they’re not. We’ve got our issues, I’ve got my issues, but what they’re perfect at is loyalty, and they’re tough, and they’ve established a foundation and a solid core.”

The Hawkeyes' in-state rival, Iowa State, is back in the Sweet 16 behind Tamin Lipsey, a fourth-year senior who grew up near its campus in Ames. Milan Momcilovic and injured forward Joshua Jefferson have been with T.J. Otzelberger for multiple years.

Over time, they have embraced what it means to be a part of the Cyclones program.

“We have a lot of pride that this program continues to do really well,” Otzelberger said, “and the consistency of it means a whole lot to us. We're going to continue to have those work habits that reflect that day-in and day-out.”

Spartans coach Tom Izzo doesn't just have five starters that he recruited out of high school but four who have stuck with him at least three seasons. That includes Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler, a pair of college basketball unicorns: fourth-year seniors.

“When you end up coaching and you have guys for three and four years, they do become like your own kids,” Izzo said. “In fact, I spent more time with some of my players than I did my own kids as they were growing up. I'm not really proud of that, just the fact of life.”

Yet it's a somewhat pleasant way of life for those who remember what college sports was before administrators began chasing money above all else, and players followed suit. Teams were embraced by fans when March Madness rolled around because they had watched their players grow up; they had a vested interested after years of shared joy and suffering.

In some ways, this year's Sweet 16 is a throwback to an increasingly bygone era.

“I kind of go back to just how we are right now, even in like, our meals in the hotel rooms, and just hanging out with the guys. I think that’s something that we’re all going to take for granted at some point,” Cooper said. “When we graduate, wherever the next step takes us, we’re going to think back and wish that we were back there, being able to hang out with the guys.”