NU men's basketball ranked in top five for the first time in school history

Nebraska moved up two spots in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, hitting the top five for the first time in school history and the first time in the state’s history.

The 20-0 and No. 5 ranked Huskers have now set the mark for the highest ranked team among the state’s Division I institutions. Creighton’s best ranking is No. 7, which occurred multiple times in the last decade.

At a press conference Monday, NU head coach Fred Hoiberg continued to harp on blocking out the noise and focusing on a very challenging road trip to Michigan Tuesday.

“It's a great accomplishment, but it doesn't mean anything until the end of the year,” Hoiberg said. “We're just fighting to keep this thing going, keep it moving in the right direction. And the only thing that matters is what goes on at the end of the year.”

The 18-1 and No. 3 Michigan Wolverines look like an NBA team with their size and speed on the court, Hoiberg said.

“They're just a machine. (Head coach) Dusty (May) has done an unbelievable job with this group,” Hoiberg said. “We got to be smart. They're one of the best shot blocking teams in the country. They're a great steal team. We have to take care of it — that's where it starts — take care of the ball, get back in transition, and find a way to compete on the glass against a team that is elite in that area as well.”

Michigan’s one loss came against Wisconsin earlier this month. In that game, the Badgers made 15 three-pointers in a 91-88 win. Hoiberg pointed out the Wolverines own the only win against now-No. 6 Gonzaga and that came by a 40-point margin.

“It's a great opportunity, yes, and we got to go in there and give everything we got to have a chance,” the seventh-year head coach said.

The Huskers struggled in the first half against Minnesota on Saturday, in part, because freshman spark plug Braden Frager missed his first game of the season with an ankle injury.

“Braden is making great progress,” Hoiberg said, “and he got a really good workout in yesterday (Sunday), did some things again today, so we'll have him as a game-time decision for tomorrow (Tuesday vs. Michigan).”

Frager, a Lincoln Southwest grad, is the team’s third-leading scorer at 12.2 points per game. He’s also one of the team’s more efficient scorers, shooting 54% from the floor. That’s second to point guard and coach’s son Sam Hoiberg.

With the Huskers leaving for Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Monday afternoon, Hoiberg said at his press conference that he would have to talk with team doctors before deciding whether Frager would travel with the team.

As far as the slow start against Minnesota, Hoiberg and assistant coach Nate Loenser yelled at the team at halftime, in a recap video posted on the Huskers’ social media. But this is an “unbelievably coachable” team, Hoiberg said.

“I thought Minnesota played harder than us in the first half. That was the disappointing thing to me,” Hoiberg said. “That was the disappointing thing to our staff is I thought we just got out worked in that first half, and then you saw when we flipped it and I give the guys a lot of credit, they went out and responded in a huge way to a pretty good chewing out.”

The players are good at holding one another accountable, he said.

Other than Nebraska, Arizona and Miami-Ohio are the only undefeated teams in Division I.

Nebraska is just the seventh Big Ten team to start the year 20-0, according to ESPN. The team’s 24-game win streak is the longest in the conference since Ohio State started 24-0 in 2010-11. Those records will be tested over the next two weeks when the Huskers face three top 15 teams, including No. 3 Michigan on Tuesday and No. 9 Illinois on Sunday.

When the Big Red hits the court against Michigan, it will be the Huskers’ first-ever matchup between two top five teams. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on Peacock.