Fred Hoiberg’s rolodex of concerts that he’s attended is good enough to make anyone jealous. The Nebraska head coach says he’s seen the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel and Elton John in person, but he says that being on hand to see the Eagles play at the Sphere in Las Vegas was the best concert experience he’s ever had.
For Hoiberg to even attend the concert, it had to be a candidate for the best he’s ever seen. Turns out the showing–which Hoiberg says was “unbelievable” and an "absolutely phenomenal” concert–was worth it.
When it concluded, though, it was back to work for Hoiberg and this Nebraska staff. It had to be. There was no other option. Hoiberg’s program was in the midst of competing for the College Basketball Crown title, practicing, going through scouting reports and was tasked with building its 2025-26 roster in the process.
“It was a blur,” Nebraska assistant coach Nate Loenser told Basket Under Review. “The one good thing is that we were in Vegas for quite a while. I've been in the NBA so I felt like it was Summer League for college basketball. You're out there for quite a while.”
Nebraska is one of the sport’s final programs that had to endure a full-on roster build in the midst of a postseason run as a result of new legislation that changed the college basketball transfer portal opening date until after the national championship. Hoiberg and company had no time to anticipate the legislation that was coming down the pike or to bask in the glory that came with the Eagles concert and a winning streak, though.
For nine days, it was full-steam ahead. Every essential member of the Nebraska program was in one place and had no time for anything unless it had to do with ending the season in a championship or landing a transfer portal commitment.
“There are transfer portal houses in some places and that was pretty much what we did in Vegas,” Nebraska general manager Luca Virgilio told Basket Under Review. “I think that helped us because we were all together.”
Loenser says there was “no typical day” in Vegas because of the varying responsibilities that the staff needed to fulfill. The closest thing to a routine day included a breakfast in the morning that everyone in the program attended, a team meeting in the afternoon and each assistant spending plenty of hours in hotel meeting rooms. When a Zoom call with a recruit came up, the coach that was the contact for the specific recruit retreated to his hotel room to take the call in private.
Virgilio says he worked particularly closely with Hoiberg and spent “a lot of time” picking his brain on certain players and the types of profiles that he should be using to compile players. When a recruitment got far enough along, Virgilio would set up a Zoom or phone call with a player and Hoiberg. Loenser appears to believe that Hoiberg’s intentionality on making himself available was a key to the process moving smoothly.
“I love Vegas as much as the next guy, but there wasn’t a lot of free time out there,” Hoiberg joked. “It was calls and zooms and practices, so it was busy.”
Nebraska guard Sam Hoiberg says the Nebraska staff did a good job insulating the team from their ongoing roster build as they pursued the College Basketball Crown. It appeared as if the Nebraska guard’s words had some credence. When the week was all said and done, Nebraska was the champion of the event and had knocked off Arizona State, Georgetown, Boise State and UCF–in the event’s championship.
The Cornhuskers haven’t lost since.
Nebraska is off to a program-best 18-0 start, has knocked off Michigan State, Indiana as well as Illinois. Between its start to 2025-26 and its run in Vegas, Hoiberg’s program has the longest winning streak in college basketball.
As it looks back on how it got here, it can’t skip over the moments in which Virgilio met with Hoiberg in a hotel room while Nebraska’s assistant coaches subsequently bounced back and forth between meeting rooms and their hotel rooms. That timespan included the Cornhuskers’ staff landing Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort–who visited prior to the team’s trip out west–Central Michigan transfer Ugnius Jarusevicius, St. Thomas guard Kendall Blue and getting former Nebraska guard Jamarques Lawrence back.
Hoiberg says he’s “glad” that the NCAA changed the rule in regard to the transfer window, but in some ways it appears as if the timing worked to Nebraska’s advantage as it built this thing. Turns out its staff was ahead of its time.
“We feel very fortunate about the guys that we added in the week when we were still playing,” Hoiberg said. “We got four guys in that week that we were out there and they’ve all had a major impact on our program.”
The warm and enthusiastic demeanor that Virgilio uniquely possesses seemingly masks the competitive edge that he carries with him as he looks to position Nebraska to win recruitments that it hasn’t in the past, but it’s there.
Virgilio has developed an understanding of Hoiberg’s system and the type of player he gravitates towards more than just about anyone on the planet and is passionate about giving Nebraska a chance in recruitments as a result of being on the scent early.
“If I don’t do that, we really don’t have a chance because then we’re gonna be second call, the third call, the fourth call,” Virgilio said, “We have to be the first call.”
With Virgilio leading the charge in a front office role, Nebraska has built this thing with six natives of the state as well as four pieces that reflect the impact of Virgilio’s longstanding international connection.
With NBA teams on the prowl to maximize an increasingly-important international landscape, Virgilio got his break. The now-Nebraska general manager made a name for himself working for a scouting service in Europe that gathered intel on players for NBA teams to use as they worked to enhance their evaluations.
The work allowed Virgilio to become comfortable evaluating high-school aged prospects even though it was in the context of professional scouting. The opportunity eventually resulted in Virgilio earning a grad assistant role on the St. John’s staff under then-head coach Steve Lavin, staying on in that role when former NBA star Chris Mullin arrived in 2016 and being elevated to a role as a management assistant within the program.
Virgilio has always gravitated towards more front-office oriented roles rather than traditional on the floor coaching and has had most of his responsibilities oriented that way over the years. As a result, Virgilio has become more of a commodity as college basketball’s landscape has become increasingly transactional and more oriented towards strategic roster building.
Hoiberg didn’t necessarily know it–or how the landscape of college sports would change–when he hired Virgilio as his Director of Basketball Strategies and Business Operations in 2019, but he was ahead of the curve in doing so. Virgilio is the only member of Hoiberg’s coaching staff that has been with the program and has become more of a commodity over the years.
Virgilio manages player acquisition, contractual agreements as well as player evaluation and retention. Nebraska describes him as the “liaison” between the coaching staff, athletic administration and Nebraska’s 1890 Collective.
“Luca has been as important as anyone on our staff,” Hoiberg said. “He just takes so much off my plate with a lot of things–with conversations with agents, with the day-to-day conversations. Meeting with our compliance director that's in charge of NIL and revenue sharing, he’s done a really good job working with him on the specifics of the contracts and all that. I think when you're in that role, you have to have great connections and Luca certainly does.”
Without Virgilio’s international connections, Nebraska would likely have seen what life would’ve been like without former star guard Keisei Tominaga, current big man Rienk Mast and starting forward Berke Buyuktuncel. Loenser says that’s particularly important because of the evolution of international influence in college basketball.
Hoiberg appears to believe that with Virgilio, Nebraska has a capacity to get in front of more international players as well as highly-touted Americans. He appears to have been a focal point in Nebraska landing the type of player it’s needed to formulate this start once they get on campus, too.
“Luca is probably the most passionate person about basketball in our program,” Sam Hoiberg told Basket Under Review. “He’s meant the world to the program with how hard he works and how much he cares.”
Virgilio doesn’t say it in an effort to make an excuse, he says it to demonstrate how essential it is that he gets this right. The Nebraska general manager knows that–literally and figuratively–he can’t afford mistakes as he builds this thing.
The idea that Nebraska can swoop into a recruitment late and woo a player into a commitment with finances or brand recognition is foreign to Virgilio. If Nebraska is going to land a player, it’s going to do it in part because of resources. It’s going to be more about the things that worked in recruiting prior to the NIL era, though. That’s why it’s essential that Virgilio puts it in a position to do long-term leg work on each player it recruits.
“We don’t have this gigantic NIL budget,” Virgilio said in one of a few admissions. “We have to make sure that the guys that we are adding are a good fit from a basketball standpoint and also from a character standpoint.”
Virgilio admits that it’s impossible to completely eliminate mistakes in evaluation and value. This Nebraska roster reflects the idea that he’s been able to do it about as well as anyone, though.
A significant piece of Virgilio and Nebraska’s plan of how to build this thing without a big swing and miss relates to the idea of doubling down on players that are known commodities to them. This isn’t possible without multi-year players and their development.
“Retention is the number-one priority,” Virgilio said. “We had to get back the guys that were part of the team.”
Nebraska’s 2025-26 roster was built on the foundation of Mast–who played for the Huskers in 2023-24 before missing 2024-25 with an injury, Sam Hoiberg–who started his Nebraska career as a walk-on and has developed into its starting point guard, Buyuktuncel–who has started every game he’s played this season, redshirt freshman Braden Frager–who paid his dues within the Nebraska program in his 2024-25 redshirt year–and junior guard Cale Jacobsen–who has taken a junior-year leap for the Huskers after playing sparingly as an underclassman.
KenPom’s minutes continuity metric has Nebraska ranked just 156th in the country, but the number is misleading in some ways because of Mast’s injury, Fueger’s redshirt season and Jacobsen’s increased role. All but one consistent rotation piece had experience within Nebraska’s program prior to this season.
“I think it’s as important as anything when you can bring guys back that know all the ins and outs of your program,” Hoiberg said. “We needed to add some talent to our roster–which we did–but at the same time, we needed to keep our own players. We feel very fortunate to have a great group and a great core that we can build around.”
Hoiberg says resources are important in regard to retaining a roster, but that “at the same time it’s relationships and culture” that contribute to an ability to retain a roster. The Nebraska head coach says his program has to have a “long term approach” as it looks to retain its core each season. Virgilio also believes Nebraska possessing a sports science lab and other non-NIL resources have contributed to retention.
Perhaps the greatest testament to the retention this Nebraska program has built itself comes as a result of a player who left.
After the 2023-24 season, Lawrence was looking for something different than what he was experiencing at Nebraska and opted to transfer to Rhode Island. Lawrence averaged a then-career high in scoring, games started and 3-point percentage, but he wasn’t satisfied.
“He wanted to be back,” Virgilio said. “He wanted to lead his team to playing in the tournament. That’s a special story because you see a kid that matured so much and it’s great seeing him be successful right now.”
Lawrence has reaped the benefits by posting a new career high in scoring, starting every game and becoming a go-to guy in Nebraska’s rise. Mast, Buyuktuncel and the rest of Nebraska’s core of returners have their own compelling stories as to why they returned to the program, but Lawrence’s is the biggest indicator as to why this has worked.
Some around Nebraska’s program will say it while others would prefer to leave it unsaid. A small part of all of them likely thinks about the ‘what ifs’ involved with Mast’s absence from the floor throughout Nebraska’s 2024-25 season.
Mast missed the entirety of that season with osteochondritis dissecans–a knee condition that comes with serious risk–and left a gaping hole in Nebraska roster with his absence. Hoiberg calls Mast’s role the “most important spot on the floor” and recalls the impact that Georges Nieng, Royce White made in it while Hoiberg coached at Iowa State and what Derrick Walker–who averaged 13.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, becoming the first Husker to lead NU in all three categories dating back to the 1970s–did it in at Nebraska.
While Nebraska made the NCAA Tournament in 2023-24, Mast was its second-leading scorer, leading rebounder and led the team in assists. While Tominaga took the spotlight and America’s hearts, Mast was the engine that made that Nebraska team go. As a result of Mast’s injury, the 2024-25 iteration of Hoiberg’s team had a capped ceiling from the start.
One team’s loss is another’s gain, though. Had Mast not missed last season with injury, this Nebraska team would’ve had to find itself another heart and soul. If Mast wasn’t a part of this anymore–which he wouldn’t have been had he been healthy last season–then this Nebraska team would likely have a crooked number in the loss column by now.
It doesn’t, though, and it has its center–whose KenPom profile is full of red numbers–has been as big of a part of it as anyone.
“We decided to build the team around Rienk,” Virgilio said. “He is a unique human being and a unique player. He’s a special guy.”
Virgilio recalls that teams had reservations about Mast when he entered the transfer portal after three seasons at Bradley, but he always believed that if Nebraska could build around Mast then they would have a chance to “be good.” A widely-held concern was Mast’s rebounding, but Virgilio believed that Loenser’s defensive system as well as Hoiberg’s offensive system could help to untap some things that Mast didn’t show in the MVC.
Mast has proven Virgilio and Hoiberg right again throughout Nebraska’s 18-0 start as he’s averaged 15.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game while shooting 48.5% from the field. The Nebraska big man is nationally ranked in usage rate, effective field goal percentage, true shooting percentage, offensive rebound percentage, assist rate, fouls committed per 40 minutes, free throw percentage and two-point percentage.
“He is as good as any big man in our league,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “In fact maybe the best in our league, if you think about a guy that can shoot it, defend it and is tough as nails.”
Sam Hoiberg estimates that he’s scored double the amount of points around the rim this season than he did last season. As the Nebraska guard elaborates on the stat that’s propelled him to becoming an 8.4 point per game scorer after averaging 3.9 a season ago, it becomes increasingly clear that he isn’t giving himself all that much credit for his offensive rise.
Hoiberg’s explanation for his increase in production around the basket comes within the context of an answer about Mast and his gravity. The Nebraska point guard didn’t bring up anything other than Mast’s floor-spacing and secondary-distributing skillset when attributing the floor opening up, but he’d likely be the first to acknowledge the other factors in Nebraska’s increase in driving lanes and floor spacing.
Nebraska’s build of a supporting cast around Mast deserves as much credit for its offense moving from 62nd in efficiency in 2024-25 to 22nd in 2025-26 as he does.
“Rienk Mast needs shooting and smart players around him,” Virgilio said. “We had to get players that would fit with him well. So, shooting and basketball IQ were a priority for us in the portal.”
Virgilio says that in the last “three or four” years, the Nebraska staff made an intentional effort to shift their recruiting focus more towards fit rather than overall talent level. As Hoiberg and Virgilio met throughout the transfer portal season to discuss what player profiles they’d be targeting, they focused on their general principles of finding players tough enough to hold up in the BIG 10, guards that have attractive assist-to-turnover ratios and their off-the-floor fit at Nebraska. All the profiles of players they landed had to fit alongside Mast’s, too.
On the surface, Nebraska’s role allocation has been nearly seamless and its intention to improve its shooting has paid dividends. Hoiberg’s 2024-25 team was 190th in 3-point percentage and made just 225 over the course of the season. These days, it’s 26th in percentage and is on pace to make 348 shots from beyond the arc by the end of the regular season.
“That was the number-one thing as a staff that we talked about was upgrading our shooting,” Hoiberg told Basket Under Review. “You’re never out of it when you have shooting all over the floor. We’ve got lineups on the floor where we’ve got five guys that can all knock down shots at a high level.”
Hoiberg says Frager has been “great” from beyond the arc, that Sandfort is “one of the best shooters in the country,” cites Lawrence making five shots from 3-point range in a road win over Indiana as an example of his improvement, says Mast’s return helps Nebraska’s shooting and says Sam Hoiberg as well as Buyuktuncel are “shooting it better.” All but one player–Buyuktuncel–that Hoiberg listed is shooting above 35% from beyond the arc.
Sandfort, Lawrence, Mast and Frager are all pieces that Nebraska didn’t have a season ago and missed as it made nearly 100 less shots from beyond the arc than it did the season prior. Of the four, Frager appeared to be the least noteworthy addition to Nebraska’s rotation as he shed his redshirt. Here he is as its third-leading scorer and third-most efficient qualified 3-point shooter, though.
Frager’s story is indicative of the type of development that has allowed Nebraska to rise with the nation’s best despite a player compensation budget that is far from unlimited and a basketball history that includes zero NCAA Tournament wins.
Loenser says that he heard “a little bit of buzz” and got a few tips from people that he trusted throughout the local product’s high school sophomore season before they became his first offer and started recruiting him heavily that spring.
The Lincoln native had the positional size, shooting and competitiveness that this Nebraska staff has often looked for in the recruiting process. He also represented the potential for this staff to demonstrate that it could land a noteworthy prospect in its backyard. It ultimately did so as it fended off Iowa, Creighton, Iowa State and Northwestern to land his commitment.
Frager spent a year out of the spotlight learning Nebraska’s systems and the ability to bring it every day, but ultimately came out of his redshirt year ready to be a factor.
“[He] just did a great job of taking advantage of his redshirt year,” Loenser said. “He’s done a great job of raising his floor. He’s still got areas to grow, and he’s working on it and we’ll just kind of see where the trajectory goes from there.”
Frager’s individual trajectory and how this all ends for him individually is yet to be seen. He’s changed the course of Nebraska’s season, though. Bigger than Frager himself is what his development says about this program.
While other programs have chased the accumulation of the most talented players they can find, Nebraska’s staff has played the long game with players it believes in, prioritized fit as well as character and has went hard after areas in which it knows it can make up ground on the nation’s elite.
Sam Hoiberg had the wherewithal to know that if a team doesn’t start the players that it has starting on the scorebook, it receives an administrative technical foul. The Nebraska point guard–who has emerged as one of the BIG 10’s best stories after starting his career in Lincoln as a walk-on–also knew that he wasn’t making it long into Nebraska’s matchup with Oregon without a trip to the bathroom.
All that the Nebraska point guard had eaten that day was a Jersey Mike’s sub–which admittedly had “a lot” on it–and a plate of pasta with grilled chicken, but he says that oftentimes certain foods don’t sit well with him. This was one of those times.
The senior guard started the game, but exited early enough for it to be noted by a Nebraska media member. By the end of the evening, the early absence wasn’t anything to note.
Until injured Nebraska guard Connor Essegian took to Twitter to explain why his teammate was absent for a few early minutes of Nebraska’s 90-55 win.
The tweet itself appears to be relatively insignificant on its own, but it’s indicative of the position that this Nebraska team is in these days and how it’s gotten here. Prior to the 2025-26 season, Nebraska had only played eight games with a number next to its name. This season, it’s played nine and is ranked in the AP Top 10 for the first time since 1966.
“It’s been amazing,” Sam Hoiberg–who admits the success is “a little bit more” than he expected despite Nebraska’s “really high” goals–said. “I think a lot of the success we've had is due to our team chemistry being so good this year. Everyone gets along so well. We can have a joke around with each other and Connor can tweet stuff like that and I'm not gonna get upset at him or anything. We have amazing team chemistry and when everyone's rooting for each other and it's genuine, that really translates to on-court success.”
By the time this is all said and done, this record-setting Nebraska team has the potential to be the best in program history. It’s already done nearly enough–as a result of its five quad-one wins–to reach the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in program history. When it gets there, it’s likely to be a top-five seed at the very least and will be in position to win an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in program history.
The Hoiberg’s and everyone who's been on this ride since the beginning of this era defined by them has seen a number of highs, but has also experienced just as many–if not more–excruciating lows. Nebraska’s administration’s patience has paid off, though.
“My dad’s seat was getting hot there, and rightfully so with his first few seasons and how rough they were,” Sam Hoiberg said. “The most rewarding thing is just from where we were and how down we were in that locker room my first year to being a top 10 team and feeling genuinely like you're one of the best teams in the country, that's been so rewarding.”
Nebraska–along with Arizona and Miami OH–is one of just three-remaining undefeated teams in college basketball and has set its program record for most-consecutive wins to start a season. In some ways, it’s taken the road that many believed was closed off and boarded up in the current landscape of college basketball.
Here it is, though, and it’s not taking this for granted. Its head coach is also urging it to keep pushing.
“It doesn't matter if you win or lose, whatever it is, that doesn't change how you want to prepare,” Hoiberg said. “In this league if you don't prepare right, if you're not ready, you're gonna get pounded. I don't care who you play, one through 18 so our guys have to stay on point and they've done exactly that.”
