‘Everybody’s in synergy’: Aggressive defense, culture buy-in boosts Husker men’s basketball to historic season

As the No. 8 Huskers keep climbing the Associated Press Top 25 poll, the men’s basketball team is crediting their scrappy and dangerous defense as their keys to keeping their 17-0 win streak alive.

“When our hands are good, our defense is good,” junior guard Cale Jacobsen said in a news conference this week. He said he has valued head coach Fred Hoiberg’s persistent messages this season about taking advantage of opportunities to turn over the ball or score during games.

“We talked just the other day [about how] passing up a bad shot is selfish, and that’s something to think about,” Jacobsen said. “It hurts our offense to pass up good shots no matter who it is. And so just being ready to score when the opportunity comes, helps everybody else.

The team is acknowledging that its strength this season has come from a persistent defense – not necessarily a reliable 3-point shooter or a team full of tall players that can easily hunt the hoop.

“Obviously, we’re not necessarily the most vertically talented team in this league,” Jacobsen said. “So when we get a chance to keep a guy out of the paint by getting the ball down low, we want to take advantage of that. Using hands and finding other ways to protect the paint – that’s something that we talk about all the time.”

The catalyst for the Husker defense has been senior guard Sam Hoiberg, son of the Huskers’ head coach, who finished the team’s most recent game against Oregon with 11 points, a career-high six steals and five assists in 32 minutes. Hoiberg is aiming to become NU’s first Big Ten all-defensive team member since the Huskers joined the conference in 2011-12. He's second in the Big Ten conference with 2.1 steals per game and is also 12th in assists.

When asked about Sam’s stellar defensive season, Coach Hoiberg said his son’s success stems from his ability to read plays and situations when the other team is handling the ball.

“He has a way of getting underneath guys,” Coach Hoiberg said Thursday. “If [a player] is a little bit out of position, he has the ability to go get the ball. There’s numerous players across our league, across the country that can do that, but Sam does a really good job of swiping down and getting the ball before it gets above his shoulders, because he can’t just with his size. He’s done just a remarkable job.”

But Hoiberg credited the entire team for staying on their toes when the other team has control of the ball.

“We’ve got a team full, I think, of smart defenders,” Hoiberg said. He pointed to the team’s most recent win against Oregon as a standout example of their ability to take advantage of another team.

“In the game against Oregon, we’re giving up size, inches and athleticism at every spot, but we didn’t give up an offensive rebound in the first half. We didn’t give up a transition point the entire game. A team may get hot on you some night, and you can’t do anything about that, but if you force them and take away easy baskets the way we did, and not give them extra shots, not give them extra opportunity with turnovers, with offensive rebounds, that’s what’s going to give you the best chance to win.”

And off the court, Hoiberg said the team is gelling together with consistent goals and priorities, which has helped keep their mission in mind. He said the team has really bought into “culture meetings” every week. What could be considered just another box to check off on the daily week’s schedule has instead turned into a priority for players, who Hoiberg said want to engage with each other on and off the court.

“These guys really apply that to their daily lives,” Hoiberg said. “I've talked a lot about the lack of distractions that we've had with this group, and being on time and going to class and three straight semesters of getting over a 3.2 GPA. Everybody's in synergy in our staff, and that's important. We're not creating mixed messages, where you're hearing one thing from this coach and another thing from the strength coach. Everybody's in line with what we're trying to teach and what we're preaching.”

Another team mantra that is front of mind during matches is, “Respect 94.” It’s an homage to the 94-foot-long court on which the teams play. Jacobsen said the team wants to take – and make – every advantage that opens up when the shot clock’s on.

“We have 15,000 [people] that come to every home game,” Jacobsen said. “And they’re not coming to watch us let the ball go out of bounds, right? It’s up to us to go compete for a whole 40 minutes, no matter what the score is, all the time.”

The Huskers will travel Saturday to Illinois for a road game against Northwestern, which has a regular season record of eight wins and nine losses. The Wildcats are coming off a loss to No. 13 Illinois.