Nebraska stunner shows Cornhuskers are Big Ten contenders

The No. 23 Nebraska Cornhuskers notched a massive upset win on Saturday, inserting themselves into the conversation for Big Ten’s best.

In its second conference game, Nebraska (11-0, 2-0 in Big Ten) defeated the No. 13 Illinois Fighting Illini (8-3, 1-1 in Big Ten) on the road, 83-80, scoring a late three with 0.2 seconds remaining to secure the statement victory.

The Cornhuskers were led by junior forward Pryce Sandfort, who scored a career-high 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting, including 6-of-11 on three-point attempts.

Nebraska Cornhuskers scores major Big Ten road win

The win was Nebraska’s second consecutive against a ranked road opponent and kept it undefeated on the 2025-26 season. The Cornhuskers are one of two Big Ten teams without a loss, the other being No. 1 Michigan Wolverines (9-0, 1-0 in Big Ten), who have comfortably looked like the best team in the country through the first six weeks of the season.

While Nebraska has a long way to go to prove it’s on the Wolverines’ level, it’s also far too early to anoint anyone. Nebraska’s early-season success shows it should be a factor in the Big Ten while also putting the program on track for the most successful campaign of the Fred Hoiberg era.

Hoiberg, in his seventh season, is 95-108 since being hired as Nebraska head coach but has back-to-back 20-win seasons. Per KenPom, Nebraska is one of the most veteran teams in the country, averaging 2.39 years of Division I experience. It’s also among the most prolific teams from beyond the arc, averaging 11.1 threes per game entering Saturday. In the win over Illinois, Nebraska connected from deep 12 times.

The Cornhuskers have only one NCAA Tournament appearance in the past 10 seasons (excluding 2020) and have never won a tourney game in eight tries. Hoiberg has the program trending in the right direction, and its most recent win over Illinois reveals it isn’t done climbing.