2025-26 Big Ten basketball season preview: Nebraska Cornhuskers

Nebraska's Rienk Mast attempts a shot.

With the start of college basketball season in early November, Inside the Hall is taking a team-by-team look at the Big Ten and a player-by-player look at IU basketball’s roster over the next two months.

Today, our team previews continue with Nebraska.

Previously: Penn State, Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern, Washington

Nebraska made the most of its NCAA tournament miss last spring by winning the inaugural college basketball Crown tournament in Las Vegas.

The Huskers beat Arizona State, Georgetown, Boise State and UCF in the Crown and finished 21-14 overall.

As Fred Hoiberg prepares for his seventh season at the helm in Lincoln, expectations aren’t high for the Cornhuskers. The Blue Ribbon College Basketball yearbook and Lindy’s Sports picked Nebraska to finish 14th in the league.

Rienk Mast, who missed last season with a knee injury, is back for his final season of eligibility. The 6-foot-10 center averaged 12.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and three assists for Nebraska’s 2024 NCAA tournament team. If Mast is fully healthy, he’s the clear go-to piece for the Huskers.

“It’s just so good to have him out there,” Hoiberg told reporters in early August. “You kind of forget all the things that he does for this team. Not only with his ability to shoot it and stretch the floor but defensively, he’s one of the better pick-and-roll defenders on this team. Gets deflections and his communication. The way he talks throughout the possession on both ends of the floor, we really missed that last year.”

The veteran big man will be joined in the frontcourt by 6-foot-10 junior Berke Buyuktuncel, who began his career at UCLA before transferring to Lincoln before last season. He started most of the season last winter and averaged six points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 22.7 minutes per game while shooting 40.1 percent from the floor.

Depth behind Mast and Buyuktuncel will come from Central Michigan transfer Ugnius Jarusevicius, Tulsa transfer Jared Garcia and freshman Leo Curtis, an Icelandic native.

Jarusevicius, a 6-foot-11 senior, earned first-team All-MAC honors last season at Central Michigan. He averaged 16.2 points and 7.3 rebounds and had multiple 32-point games last season for the Chippewas. Jarusevicius made 60 percent of his 2s last season and shot better than 70 percent from the line.

Garcia, a 6-foot-8 senior from Houston, Texas, will give Hoiberg another experienced big man for the rotation. The 245-pound forward averaged 9.6 points and 4.2 rebounds in 17.3 minutes last season.

And Curtis, a one-time IU basketball recruiting target, a legit 7-footer, was the No. 110 player in the final 247Sports Composite rankings for the 2025 class. He could take some time to develop, but he might be Nebraska’s best rim protector this season.

The guard and wing rotation will have a much different look after Brice Williams, Juwan Gary and Rollie Worster all graduated.

Jarmarques Lawrence was on Nebraska’s 2024 NCAA tournament team, but transferred to Rhode Island last season. Lawrence, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, is back in Lincoln for his final season. He averaged 9.9 points and 2.5 assists while shooting 39.1 percent on 3s last season for Archie Miller.

St. Thomas transfer Kendall Blue was a double-figure scorer last season and could challenge for a starting spot. The 6-foot-6 wing was a 41.7 percent 3-point shooter last season and averaged a solid line of 12.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and a steal in 27.1 minutes per game.

Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort will look to make a leap in his junior season. The 6-foot-7 Sandfort decided to enter the portal after Fran McCaffery’s dismissal in Iowa City and he should have the green light in Hoiberg’s free-flowing offense. Sandfort averaged 8.8 points last season for the Hawkeyes and shot 40 percent on 3s.

The Huskers also return senior guard Connor Essegian and redshirt senior guard Sam Hoiberg. The 6-foot-4 Essegian got his career back on track last season for the Huskers and averaged 10.7 points and connected at a 37.7-percent clip from distance.

The 6-foot Hoiberg doesn’t fill up the stat sheet, but is a pest defensively and knows the system better than anyone on the roster. He can also knock down the occasional 3-pointer (35.7 percent).

The rest of the roster is filled out by redshirt freshman forward Braden Frager, redshirt junior wing Cale Jacobsen and freshman guard Quentin Rhymes.

The 6-foot-7 Frager worked on the scout team last season, but could compete for a rotation this winter. Jacobsen, a former walk-on, is a 6-foot-4 guard who played a prominent role in last season’s run in the Crown tournament. And Rhymes was the No. 126 player in the final 247Sports Composite rankings for the 2025 class. The 6-foot-6 guard could have a tough time breaking into the rotation this season, but the Huskers view him as a key piece for the future.

Bottom line: Getting Mast back will be helpful for a Nebraska program that will struggle to replace Brice Williams. Williams developed into one of the best wing scorers in the league over the last two seasons in Lincoln. Mast will be one of the Big Ten’s best frontcourt players, but this group needs solid point guard play from Lawrence and will need Blue, Essegian and Sandfort to shoot it well from the perimeter to compete for a top half of the Big Ten spot. It’s an important season for Hoiberg, who has reached the NCAA tournament just once in his first six seasons.

Quotable: “The thing that I think we’ve really addressed with this team is our shooting. When we played live, our guys aren’t hesitating, they’re making the extra play, they’re playing very unselfishly. I’ve been really impressed with that aspect. I think it’s going to be a team that’s really fun to coach as we continue along.” – Hoiberg to reporters in June.

(Photo credit: Nebraska Athletics)

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