It’s a bit of a blessing and a curse for a program to have a first-ballot Hall of Fame coach. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has won enough championships and seen all there is to see in his sport, so he’s certainly earned the right to speak his mind a bit more than most.
However, a candid comment from Izzo a day before his team took on Nebraska ended up being the punch line for the Husker social media team Friday night after Nebraska’s stunning 58-56 win over the 9th-ranked Spartans.
Nothing to do.
But win. pic.twitter.com/VsLDSeBjEM
— Nebraska Men’s Basketball (@HuskerMBB) January 3, 2026
Not bad for a state that has “not a lot else to do.”
While the comment came in response to Izzo expecting a great crowd and environment when his team took on the undefeated and 13th-ranked Huskers Friday night, it was a jab subtle enough to maybe tack two more points on the scoreboard for the now 14-0 Nebraska men’s basketball team, marking best start in program history.
“Listen, we were not favored to win here,” Izzo said in his postgame press conference. “Not that I care about the gambling, but I mean, the environment was the best I’ve seen here, and it’s always good here, but it was one of the best I’ve seen in a lot of years anywhere in the Big Ten.”
#9 Michigan State actually entered Friday night’s game with #13 Nebraska as a slight underdog. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images
The Huskers certainly needed all 14,841 fans in their corner Friday night in a game that could be best described as ugly. Both teams were held under 35% shooting on the night, with the Huskers really struggling in the second half, where they shot just 24.1% from the field.
That’s where the scrappy play of NU’s defense saved the day.
“It was a huge factor,” Nebraska junior Pryce Sandfort said about NU’s defensive effort during his postgame press conference. “We talked about it with the turnovers, with the active hands and getting hand on the balls. We talked about that at halftime, too, being the first to the floor, making that dive to the floor. We knew getting that energy behind us with the crowd was going to be big, and I feel like we did that pretty well.”
Nebraska’s defense held Michigan State to a season-low 56 points Friday night, and all the credit went to NU’s hard-nosed approach. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images
After a first half that saw the Spartans and Huskers jockeying for positioning, the second half leaned the Huskers’ way early. NU opened up a game-high nine-point lead on the Spartans only to watch MSU storm back and take a small lead of its own.
All week leading up to the game, Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said the Spartans would be the toughest and fastest team the Huskers may see all season, which certainly played out Friday night. Fortunately for him, his players listened to the messaging all week, and it showed on the floor.
“We knew they would make a run,” Hoiberg said during his postgame press conference. “Total team effort, you know, Rienk obviously was our offense tonight. Our communication was much better in the second half. We adjusted, went to a switch and did a better job. (I’m) just proud of our guys – found a way to win an ugly one, and we can certainly learn from this. It’s always better to learn when you’re in the left column.”
Fred Hoiberg has Nebraska off to a school-record 14-0 start this season, and it’s starting to change the narrative. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images
For any fan who has followed Nebraska for the last half-century, an ugly win doesn’t traditionally come against the No. 9 team in the nation, but this season has already been a season where the Huskers have forced fans to throw out everything they thought they knew about the team.
Friday night’s win over Michigan State is just the 27th win over a top-10 team in school history, so it’s not quite commonplace for this team or its fan base. When counting the end of last season, the Huskers have now won a school record 18-straight games. Another fun nugget – Nebraska has only played two “ranked vs. ranked” home games in program history, and they’re now 2-0. The other came when a ranked Nebraska knocked off No. 15 Kansas 85-75…in 1991.
The Huskers had one of their worst nights this season, but they were able to bring the Spartans with them. MSU’s 19 turnovers in the loss are a season high for Tom Izzo’s bunch, and it came on a night where the Huskers snapped another streak.
Michigan State committed a season-high 19 turnovers in its 58-56 loss to Nebraska. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images
Under coach Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska was 0-25 when scoring less than 60 points. Now, they can scratch out the “oh-fer” thanks to stifling defense. The Huskers held the Spartans to their lowest output of the season, but MSU certainly did its part to help. Of the 19 turnovers Michigan State committed, only seven of them were Nebraska steals.
“That means 12 times, we just turned the ball over for no reason,” Izzo said after doing some simple math. “We stepped out of bounds twice, dribbled it out of bounds. You can’t win against good teams. This is a very good team. If I found some silver lining in an absolutely dark cloud, we weren’t playing very good most of the game in my humble opinion, and we still were in there.”
The same could be said about Nebraska, which not only didn’t shoot well from the floor Friday night, but also missed some key free throws throughout the game that certainly would have changed the scope of the game down the stretch.
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said his team never panicked after Michigan State mounted a comeback in the second half. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images
“It was no panic,” Hoiberg said of his team’s composure on the tough shooting night. “When you’re down at the under four media timeout and you don’t see any panic, you see the guys in there and you know, we’re saying this is what it’s all about to be in this position in this situation, now go win it, and our guys found a way.”
The Huskers now have 48 hours to get some work in, but also get off their feet before heading back out on the road to take on Ohio State Monday night. Win or lose, Hoiberg has preached having a short memory, but it might be okay to hold on to the happiness of this one for a while.
Nebraska will be heading to Columbus with a bigger “X” on their back than ever before after two upset wins over Illinois and the Spartans. The secret’s out – Nebraska’s good. Now, they have to be able to put this game behind them, which senior forward Rienk Mast says shouldn’t be an issue.
Nebraska senior Rienk Mast scored a team-high 19 points Friday night. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images
“It’s pretty good,” Mast said of Nebraska’s now 14-0 start to the year. “You’ve got to be in the moment and enjoy it, but I think we have a group that’s old and knows that if you ride that high, you can fall flat on your face. You’ve got to stay even.”
The Huskers will tip off with Ohio State at 5:30 p.m. CST, and the game will be televised by FS1.
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