Rienk Mast among Nebraska players to watch against Badgers
How Aleksas Bieliauskas has grown in first season with Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard has high praise for Aleksas Bieliauskas about a month into the Lithuania native’s freshman season.
- Wisconsin’s first road game of the season is against Nebraska, which holds a 13-game winning streak.
- Nebraska forward Rienk Mast is a key player, averaging 18.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
- Wisconsin’s ability to start strong will be crucial, as it has been throughout the 2025-26 season.
Wisconsin men’s basketball’s first road game of the season will be against a team that has yet to lose in 2025-26.
No. 22 Nebraska has a spotless 9-0 record, with high-major wins against Oklahoma and Kansas State at neutral sites and Creighton at home.
Combine that with the four wins from taking the inaugural College Basketball Crown tournament title at the end of last season, and Nebraska has the country’s longest winning streak at 13 games.
None of the Huskers’ nine wins in 2025-26 have come against teams at least receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll, however. Wisconsin has the fourth-most votes against unranked teams.
Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. Dec. 10, and it will air on Big Ten Network. Here are three things to watch:
How do Wisconsin’s forwards fare against Rienk Mast?
Rienk Mast — a 6-foot-10, 250-pound forward from the Netherlands — has been at the heart of Nebraska’s 9-0 start, averaging 18.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and shooting 54.8% from the field and 45.2% from 3-point range.
“He reminds me a little bit of Nick Martinelli, but bigger,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said, referencing Northwestern’s star player. “But just a physical, old-school, grizzled vet. It’s fun to watch him play as you’re watching Nebraska’s offense kind of come together and how all the pieces fit together, but it’s not real fun having to game-plan against him or play against him.”
He also is third on the team with 29 assists as he “presents a lot of problems” with his passing.
“He hits guys cutting to the rim,” Gard said. “He hits guys going back door. Obviously his ability to shoot the ball from three. And then he will straight-line drive you, and they’ll work him in the post a little bit, too.”
Mast redshirted the entire 2024-25 season after getting offseason knee surgery. He averaged 12.3 points in 2023-24. He especially thrived that year against the Badgers, scoring 16 and 20 points in two games.
The Bradley transfer also faced UW in the NCAA tournament during his third and final season with the Braves and scored 14 points and 12 rebounds, although Wisconsin advanced comfortably with an 81-62 win.
“He’s gotten better every year,” Gard said. “I remember him at Bradley when we played them. I thought he was a good player, and he’s grown leaps and bounds since then.”
Does Wisconsin ‘stay true to who you are’ in first true road game?
Wisconsin had a neutral-site game against BYU that, as Gard put it, “was basically a road game.” It had a BYU-friendly crowd and was held in Salt Lake City, which was roughly a 45-mile drive from BYU’s Provo campus.
But the Dec. 10 game at Nebraska will be the first true road game for a Wisconsin team that has relied on freshmen such as Aleksas Bieliauskas, Will Garlock and Hayden Jones and sophomore Austin Rapp.
“You stay true to who you are,” Gard said. “Make sure that everything that impacts the game happens between the lines. So we’ve thrown in crowd noise and super loud music the last couple days just to try to shake it up a little bit.”
Nebraska has averaged 14,095 fans in its six home games so far. Official attendance numbers often have their caveats, but it is noticeably higher than the listed attendance of 8,987 for the not-so-neutral BYU game.
“Hey, everybody dressed in red is cheering for Wisconsin,” Gard said with a long pause and grin. “Maybe.”
Does Wisconsin establish its momentum early?
When Wisconsin has struggled this season, it almost always has coincided with a subpar start to the game.
In the 98-70 loss to BYU, the Badgers found themselves in an early 18-6 deficit. In the 74-63 loss to TCU, the Badgers found themselves in a 23-11 deficit. Meanwhile, the Badgers enjoyed a 21-8 lead over Northwestern and a 21-9 lead against Marquette in those big wins.
“You want to get off to a good start, no matter who you’re playing or where you’re playing,” Gard said. “Those first 10 possessions are important in order to get your footing, establish what you want to establish. And there’s some feeling out a little bit.”
Wisconsin’s process of figuring out its foe could play out differently at Pinnacle Bank Arena with the way Fred Hoiberg’s team defends.
“Nebraska comes with a little unique defensive concept in how they really flood from under the rim and trap the post and try to push you baseline,” Gard said. “So there’ll be some of that. … We’ve tried to simulate that well in practice as well as we could in two days.”
