The Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball team competes as part of NCAA Division I, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten Conference. Since it was founded in 1897, the program has appeared in eight NCAA Division I tournaments and twenty other national postseason tournaments. Nebraska has played its home games at Pinnacle Bank Arena since 2013.
Prior to the creation of the NCAA tournament, Nebraska was a Midwest power under head coaches Raymond G. Clapp and Ewald O. Stiehm. NU struggled through the post-World War II years, which included a stretch of twenty-eight years with just two winning seasons that stretched into the 1960s. Much of the team's modest modern-day success came during the fourteen-year tenure of Danny Nee, Nebraska's winningest head coach. Nee led the Cornhuskers to five of their nine NCAA Division I tournament appearances and won the 1996 NIT championship. Nebraska has reached the NCAA tournament just three times since Nee was fired in 2000, but won a second postseason title in 2025, the inaugural College Basketball Crown. Nebraska was the last major-conference school to win an NCAA tournament game, accomplished in 2026.
The team has been coached by Fred Hoiberg since 2019.
History Early years
The University of Nebraska's basketball history began on February 2, 1897, six years after the invention of the sport by James Naismith. The Nebraska "Bugeaters" defeated a team from the Lincoln YMCA 11–8 at Grant Memorial Hall, which was located on the site of the current Sheldon Museum of Art and served as NU's primary home venue until the NU Coliseum opened in 1926. Nebraska began playing other universities in 1898–99, defeating Nebraska Wesleyan and Doane, and faced an out-of-state opponent for the first time the following season, beating Naismith and Kansas 48–8 in what is still the worst loss in KU history. NU's 1899–00 team finished 5–0 and was retroactively ranked second nationally by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.
Multi-sport coach Raymond G. Clapp took over the basketball program in 1903 and led NU into the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association after playing its first eleven seasons as an independent. In its early years, the MVIAA divided teams into North and South divisions – Nebraska won six of seven North division championships, the first two under Clapp. During this stretch, Wilbur Wood became the second black player at a predominantly white university in men's college basketball history.
In 1911, fiery football coach Ewald O. Stiehm became the school's first full-time basketball coach. Stiehm – nicknamed "Jumbo" because of his large feet – won fourteen of fifteen games in his first season; The Daily Nebraskan blamed the only loss on Nebraska's inability to adjust to Minnesota's larger court. Under Stiehm and his high-pace offensive scheme, Nebraska won or shared the MVIAA championship in 1912, 1913, and 1914, and guard Sam Carrier became Nebraska's only first-team All-America selection. Stiehm had verbally agreed to remain at Nebraska until at least 1917, but given the successes of the entire athletic department, asked the Athletic Board for a raise in 1916. The board refused and declined an offer from local businesses to help pay the additional salary, and Stiehm agreed to take over Indiana's athletic department at an annual salary of $4,500.
Stiehm's abrupt departure meant the university was forced to turn to graduate student Samuel C. Waugh, who led NU to a 13–1 finish and a fourth MVIAA title in his lone season as head coach. In 1916, football coach E. J. Stewart was asked to lead the basketball program as well. Stewart advocated scheduling difficult opposition across all sports as the best way to "add to Nebraska prestige around the United States." NU's run of conference success ended under Stewart, who left the university after an abbreviated 1917–18 season to assist the YMCA during World War I. He returned and coached one more season before departing permanently. Football assistant Paul J. Schissler succeeded Stewart and immediately led NU to a twenty-two-win season, a school record that stood until 1991. Nebraska declined an invited to the postseason AAU tournament in Atlanta. Schissler resigned to become head football coach at Lombard College following the 1920–21 season, later coaching the National Football League's Chicago Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers and helping create the league's Pro Bowl.
Nebraska played its 1921 and 1922 home games at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum while Grant Hall was being remodeled. The Fairgrounds Coliseum had a larger court and higher seating capacity than Grant Hall. After two seasons, NU returned to Grant Hall and played there until 1926, when construction on the $445,000 NU Coliseum was finished. The Coliseum's seating capacity of 8,000 nearly quadrupled that of Grant Hall. The Cornhuskers lost 25–14 to Kansas in the first game at their new home on February 6, 1926.
After ending the decade with an 11–5 season under former Kansas All-American Charles T. Black, Nebraska had just two winning seasons over the following nineteen years, one of which was a Big Six championship in 1937. The 1930s produced four more Cornhusker All-Americans: Don Maclay in 1931, Steve Hokuf in 1933, George Wahlquist in 1936, and Robert Parsons in 1937. Maclay was the Big Six's scoring leader in 1930, scoring 112 points in ten league games.
Harry Good (1946–1954)
Harry Good was hired as head coach in 1946, and after two losing seasons he turned Nebraska's fortunes around. In 1948–49, Good's Huskers went 16–10, tied Oklahoma for the Big Seven championship and defeated the Sooners in a conference playoff to qualify for an NCAA berth. The Cornhuskers lost 52–35 to MVC champion Oklahoma A&M 52–35, which finished runner-up to Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats. In 1949–50, Nebraska again won sixteen games and shared the Big Seven title with Kansas and Kansas State, NU's most recent regular season conference championship. Claude Retherford and Bus Whitehead were named all-conference performers in 1949, and Whitehead earned the honor again the next year. The 6-ft 11-in. Whitehead averaged a then-school-record 15.7 points per game in 1950 and was the first Cornhusker selected to play in the East-West All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden. When he graduated, Whitehead held nine school scoring records. This period of relative prosperity was followed with fifteen consecutive losing seasons. Despite playing for a team that finished last in the Big Seven, Husker guard Jim Buchanan earned All-America and all-conference honors in 1952.
Jerry Bush (1954–1963)
Jerry Bush, dubbed the "Big Bear of the Coliseum," never produced a winning team in his nine seasons at Nebraska, and never finished higher than fourth in conference play. Nevertheless, his colorful personality and uncanny ability to fashion upsets kept Cornhuskers fans entertained. The most dramatic of these upsets came against No. 4 Kansas in 1958. The Jayhawks defeated the Cornhuskers 102–46 earlier in the year, with star center Wilt Chamberlain single-handedly matching Nebraska's forty-six points. In the rematch, guard Jim Kubacki hit a jump shot with two seconds remaining to give Nebraska a 43–41 win. Kubacki started the game out with a knee injury, but when team captain Gary Reimers hurt his leg with seven minutes remaining, Kubacki convinced Bush to let him suit up.
Bush coached the school's first 1,000-point scorer, Indianapolis native Herschell Turner, who was rated the second-best high school player in the state as a senior, behind only Oscar Robertson. Turner earned All-America honors in 1959 and followed with All-Big Eight honors in 1960 and ended his collegiate career with 1,056 points.
Joe Cipriano (1963–1980)
In March 1963, Bush was replaced as head coach by thirty-one-year-old Joe Cipriano. Nebraska athletic director Tippy Dye had coached Cipriano at Washington, where they led the Huskies to the 1953 Final Four and a 79–15 record during the energetic Cipriano's varsity career. Following graduation, he served as an assistant coach at his alma mater until he was hired by Idaho in 1960. His Vandals improved in each of his three seasons and posted a 20–6 record in 1962–63, led by future Basketball Hall of Famer Gus Johnson. "Slippery Joe" brought an up-tempo style of basketball to the Coliseum; his Nebraska teams ran a full-court press and fast-break offense, which led the Big Eight in scoring average in 1966, 1967, and 1968.
Cipriano's first two teams struggled to a combined record of 17–33. But his third team, in 1965–66, was one of the most successful in school history, finishing 20–5 and second to Kansas in the Big Eight. However, that was not enough to garner a postseason bid, as only the conference champion was guaranteed a berth in the twenty-two-team NCAA tournament.
The 1966–67 team finished 16–9 and made the school's first postseason appearance, in the fourteen-team NIT at Madison Square Garden. Guard Stu Lantz, a two-time All-Big Eight selection, led the Cornhuskers in scoring and rebounding in both 1966–67 and 1967–68. Guard Marvin Stewart and center Chuck Jura earned All-Big Eight honors in 1971 and 1972, respectively. Guard Jerry Fort, who finished his career with a then-school record 1,882 points, was the first Nebraska player chosen first-team all-conference three times. Led by Cipriano and Fort, Nebraska began a string of fourteen consecutive winning seasons.
In the fall of 1976, NU basketball moved out of the Coliseum and into the state-of the-art NU Sports Complex (now the Bob Devaney Sports Center), located on the State Fairgrounds. The $13 million athletic complex was financed by a special cigarette tax.
Cipriano coached Nebraska to another twenty-victory season in 1977–78. The Cornhuskers, led by All-Big Eight guard Brian Banks, finished 22–8 and advanced to the second round of the NIT. By the 1979–80 season, Cipriano's failing health – he would die of cancer in November 1980 – meant he had to share coaching duties with assistant Moe Iba, and they took Nebraska to the NIT again. The duo were named co-recipients of Big Eight Coach of the Year.
Cipriano brought Nebraska into the modern era, coaching seventeen seasons and 450 games. His record of 253–197 gave him nearly one-fifth of Nebraska's all-time wins, and 168 more than any previous NU head coach.
Moe Iba (1980–1986) Iba was named head coach following Cipriano's death in November 1980. In Iba's six seasons, Nebraska was 106–71 and advanced to postseason play four times.
Center Andre Smith was the 1981 Big Eight Player of the Year and twice earned all-conference honors. However, it was Jack Moore, a 5-ft 10-in. playmaker from Muncie, Indiana, who captured the hearts of Nebraska fans in the early 1980s. Moore earned All-Big Eight honors in 1982, when he won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the nation's top player six feet tall or shorter. Moore scored 1,204 points, shot .901 from the free throw line during his career, and was NU's first three-time academic All-Big Eight selection.
The cornerstone of Iba's teams from 1983 through 1986 was Omaha native Dave Hoppen, a three-time All-Big Eight center and the first Nebraska basketball player to have his jersey number (No. 42) retired by the school. In 1982–83, Hoppen's freshman season, the Cornhuskers went 22–10 and won three games in the NIT before losing to DePaul in the semifinals. The Cornhuskers returned to the NIT each of the next two seasons, advancing to the second round both times.