Huskers Host Hawkeyes on Senior Day

Mar 7, 2025 / NU Athletics

Nebraska looks to punch its ticket to the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis on Sunday morning when the Huskers host Iowa on Senior Day. Tipoff from a sold out Pinnacle Bank Arena is set for 11:31 a.m. (CT) and the contest will be televised on FOX and carried on the Huskers Radio Network, as well as on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.

Fans are encouraged to be seated by 11 a.m., as pregame ceremonies will begin at 11:05 a.m. The Huskers will recognize seniors Jeff Grace III, Braxton Meah, Rollie Worster, Andrew Morgan, Ahron Ulis, Juwan Gary and Brice Williams for their contributions to Husker basketball. As a reminder for fans, Sunday morning is also the first day of Daylight Saving Time.

Nebraska (17-13, 7-12 B1G) comes off a dramatic 116-114 double overtime loss at Ohio State on Tuesday. Nebraska overcame double-figure deficits in both halves and had chances to win in the final seconds of regulation and overtime, but the Buckeyes prevailed in the highest scoring game in Nebraska school history.

Senior Brice Williams put up a performance for the ages in Tuesday's loss to the Buckeyes, setting a school record with 43 points on 16-of-29 shooting. His 43-point night broke the school record of 42 by Eric Piatkowski in 1994, and Williams tied the school mark with 16 field goals and hit a career-best five 3-pointers. Williams, whose previous career high was 32 points, enters the weekend leading the Big Ten in scoring at 20.4 points per game and is averaging 21.4 ppg in Big Ten play.

Most Points in B1G Conf. Game Since 2011

No.	Player (Season)	Pts	Opp	Date
1.	Luka Garza (Iowa)	44	Mich	12/6/19
2.	Brice Williams (Neb.)	43	OSU	3/4/2025
	Brandon Paul (Ill.)	43	OSU	1/10/12
4.	Jalen Pickett (PSU)	41	ILL	2/14/23
	Marcus Carr (Minn)	41	NEB	2/27/21
	Teddy Allen (NEB)	41	PSU	2/23/21

The Huskers come into the final weekend of the season needing a win over the Hawkeyes to reach the TIAA Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament next week.

The Hawkeyes (15-15, 6-13 Big Ten) are also in a must-win situation on Sunday following a 91-84 home loss to No. 7 Michigan State on Thursday.

Numbers to Know
230 - The 230 combined points between Nebraska and Ohio State is tied for the most combined points in school history. It was set two previous times against Oklahoma in 1987 and 1991.

17 - Brice Williams leads Nebraska with 17 20-point games this season, which ranks second among Huskers in the Big Ten era (2011-12 to present). He trails only James Palmer Jr., who had 18 in 2018-19. NU's school record is 21 set by Dave Hoppen in 1984-85.

70 - Connor Essegian has a team-high 70 3-pointers this season which ties for ninth on Nebraska's single-season list. His previous high was 69 when he was at Wisconsin in 2022-23.

4 - Juwan Gary enters the Iowa game needing only four points to reach 900 for his Husker career and is one point from 1,200 career points. During his first three seasons, he scored a combined 464 points.

41 - With a win over Iowa, NU would have 41 wins over the past two seasons, which would tie for the second-highest consecutive year total in program history. NU won 45 games spanning the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons and won 41 games spanning the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seaasons

23.2 - Nebraska has gotten production from its bench, averaging 23.2 points per game this season to rank fifth in the Big Ten. Nebraska has gotten 28 double-figure efforts from its bench this season (Essegian-14, Morgan-11, Ulis-1, Worster-1 and Meah-1). The Huskers led the Big Ten in bench production last season at 21.4 points per game.

.630 - Over the last three seasons, Nebraska is 17-10 (.630) in Big Ten regular-season games after Feb. 1. That ranks second only to Purdue (17-9, .654) among Big Ten programs.

Worth Noting
• In addition to the seven players, Nebraska will also honor its graduating support staff members on Sunday. That group includes Drew Fridrich (equipment), Logan Kuker (creative media), Ben Bizal (student manager), Cam Rine (student manager), Nihilo Ibarra (graduate manager) and Justin Moore (graduate manager).

• Nebraska enters the week ranked No. 57 in the NET on March 6 heading into Sunday's game with Iowa. Sunday is a Quad 2 game as Nebraska is currently 9-11 against the first two quads.

• Nebraska's NET strength of schedule is 31st nationally as of March 6, which ranks seventh in the Big Ten.

• Nebraska's Brice Williams enters the final weekend of the regular season in a three-way battle for the scoring title in conference play. Williams is averaging 21.4 ppg in Big Ten action following Tuesday's outburst at Ohio State and is one of three Big Ten players averaging at least 20 points per game in conference action.

Big Ten Scoring Leaders (all games)

No.	Player	PPG
1,	Brice Williams (NEB)	20.4
2.	Nick Martinelli (NW)	19.9
3.	Trey Kaufman-Renn (PUR)	19.4

Big Ten Scoring Leaders (B1G Games)

No.	Player	PPG
1,	Brice Williams (NEB)	21.4
t2.	Trey Kaufman-Renn (PUR)	20.1
	Nick Martinelli (NW)	20.1

Williams is bidding to be the first Husker since Terran Petteway in 2013-14 to lead the Big Ten in scoring in conference play and just the sixth Husker in over a century to accomplish the feat.

• Nebraska's 114 points against Ohio State was the fifth-highest output in school history and most points since also scoring 114 against Oregon on Nov. 25, 1995.

• Of Nebraska's 13 losses, nine were one-possession games within the last 45 seconds of regulation, including Tuesday's loss at Ohio State. NU's last three losses are by a combined seven points. In all five home losses this season, NU was within one possession in the final 40 seconds, including four in the final 10 seconds (Rutgers, USC, Michigan, Minnesota).

• Nebraska is 4-4 against ranked opponents this season, as the four wins over ranked teams tie a school record done three other times in school history. Nebraska has won multiple games against ranked foes in three of the past four years and is now 9-11 in its last 20 games against ranked teams dating back to the win over Ohio State on March 1, 2022.

• The Huskers allowed 49 points in the loss to No. 15 Michigan on Feb. 24, the sixth time in 379 games against ranked opponents where NU allowed less than 50 points. It is the fewest NU has allowed to a ranked opponent since 2011 and only the third time in the last 40 years that NU held a ranked opponent under 50 points.

• Nebraska posted its seventh double 20-point game of the season at Ohio State on March 4 with Brice Williams (43) and Juwan Gary (24) going over the 20-point mark. NU now has multiple players who have score 20+ points 18 times in Fred Hoiberg's six seasons.

The 67 combined points by Gary and Williams was the most by two players in a game in school history. The previous mark was 65 by Eric Piatkowski (42) and Bruce Chubick (23) vs. Oklahoma on March 11, 1994.

• Nebraska is averaging 75.6 points per game. It is on pace to be NU's second-highest scoring average since joining the Big Ten in 2011-12. NU has scored 70+ points 19 times, including 10 games with at least 80 points. Last season, NU averaged 77.7 points per game for 34 games, its highest offensive total since the 1995-96 season.

• NU has relied on its depth with six players averaging at least 6.5 points per game. Eight players have posted double-figure efforts, while three players (Brice Williams, Connor Essegian and Juwan Gary) have recorded 20-point games. Williams is the only Husker in the top 20 of the Big Ten in scoring as of March 6.

• Andrew Morgan went 8-of-8 from the field against Penn State on Feb. 19, as his eight field goals without a miss in a conference game trailed only Venson Hamilton, who was 9-of-9 against Iowa State on Feb. 3, 1996.

• Nebraska overcame a 20-point second-half deficit to win at Northwestern on Feb. 16. It was the largest deficit overcome by a Big Ten team in a road conference game since Feb. 17, 2018, when Michigan State overcame a 27-point deficit at Northwestern at Allstate Arena. The 20-point comeback was NU's largest of the Big Ten era. Nebraska nearly posted another comeback on March 1 vs. Minnesota, coming from 19 down to take the lead before Minnesota's game winner in the final seconds.

• NU is 12-1 when holding opponents to under one point per possession, but 5-12 when opponents are above 1.0 PPP. Nebraska had won its last 29 games dating back to the 2022-23 season when holding an opponent under 1.0 PPP before the Feb. 24 loss to the Wolverines. Over the last three years, NU is 38-5 when holding opponents to under 70 points.

• On Jan. 26, Brice and his father, Henry, became the seventh father-son duo to combine for 4,000 career points at the college level. The pair is now sixth all-time following last Monday's game with Michigan. Brice is over 1,800 career points, including 1,025 at Nebraska. Henry Williams, who passed away in 2018, was Charlotte's all-time leading scorer with 2,383 career points.

Father-Son Duos with 4,000 Points

No.	Father (College)	Years	Points	Son (College)	Years	Points	Total
1.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Stephen Curry (Davidson)	2006-09	2,635	5,024
2.	Mike Davis (Alabama)	1979-83	1,211	Antoine Davis (Detroit)	2018-23	3,664	4,875
3.	Steve Burtt Sr. (Iona)	1980-84	2,534	Steve Burtt Jr. (Iona)	2002-06	2,034	4,568
4.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Seth Curry (Duke/Liberty)	2009-13	2,101	4,490
5.	Steve Alford (Indiana)	1983-86	2,438	Bryce Alford (UCLA)	2013-17	1,922	4,360
6.	Henry Williams (Charlotte)	1988-92	2,383	Brice Williams (Charlotte/Nebraska)	2019-25	1,869	4,252
7.	Greg McDermott (Northern Iowa)	1984-88	1,033	Doug McDermott (Creighton)	2010-14	3,150	4,183

• Connor Essegian has been one of the Big Ten's best sixth men, as the junior guard enters Sunday's game with Iowa averaging 10.7 points per contest. Essegian is one of only two Big Ten reserves currently averaging double figures while making five or fewer starts.

• With its 17-13 record in 2024-25, Nebraska is 46-27 dating back to the start of February 2023. NU's .630 winning percentage is fifth among all Big Ten programs in that span. NU went just 33-80 from the start of the 2019-20 season until Feb. 1, 2023.

• Brice Williams is just sixth Husker in the Big Ten era to have multiple 30-point games in the Big Ten era (2011-21-present). His three 30-point games matches James Palmer Jr., who had a trio of 30-point efforts during the 2018-19 season.

• Ahron Ulis dished out a career-high 10 assists on Jan. 19 at Maryland. It more than tripled his previous season high of three and marked the first time a Husker dished out 10 assists in a game since Alonzo Verge Jr. in 2022.

About Iowa
Iowa comes into Sunday's game with a 15-15 record following Thursday's 91-84 loss to No. 8 Michigan State in Iowa City. Fran McCaffery is in his 15th season in charge of the Hawkeyes and has guided Iowa to five straight postseason appearances, including last year's NIT.

The Hawkeyes feature one of the Big Ten's best offensive attacks, as they rank second in the Big Ten in scoring at 82.3 while shooting 48.6 percent from the floor. Iowa is also among the Big Ten leaders in 3-pointers per game (9.7) while shooting 37.6 percent from beyond the arc. With the season-ending injury to Owen Freeman (16.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg), Iowa has relied on guards Payton Sandfort and Josh Dix to carry a lot of the offensive load. Sandfort, an All-Big Ten performer last season, averages 16.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game while pacing the Hawkeyes with 72 3-pointers. Dix is at 14.1 ppg while shooting over 50 percent from the field and 42 percent from 3-point range.

Series History: The Hawkeyes lead the all-time series, 26-15, in a series that dates back to 1907. It is NU’s third-oldest series against a Big Ten foe, as only NU’s series with Minnesota and Wisconsin have been around longer. The teams had not met since 1976 before NU joined the Big Ten in 2011-12. Nebraska is 8-14 against the Hawkeyes since joining the Big Ten, as Iowa is 6-4 against Nebraska in the last 10 matchups. The home team has won 13 of the past 15 meetings dating back to 2016-17 and Sunday's game is Iowa's first appearance in Lincoln since Dec. 29, 2022.

Last Meeting: Brice Williams tied the game with a three-pointer at the buzzer to end regulation, but the Huskers suffered a 97-87 setback in overtime at Iowa on Jan 7. Williams carried the Huskers, scoring 28 points on 10-of-20 shooting to go with four rebounds, a pair of steals and two assists. Juwan Gary collected a double-double with 13 points and 13 boards, while Rollie Worster chipped in 14 points on six-of-nine shooting from the floor. Josh Dix led Iowa with 31 points, while Payton Sandfort finished with 30, all coming in the second half and overtime.

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