Nebraska Basketball 2026-27: After the Best Season, the Hard Part
Last winter was the best season in Nebraska men’s basketball history. The Huskers went 28-7, finished 15-5 in the Big Ten, won the program’s first NCAA Tournament game, beat Vanderbilt in the second round, and reached the Sweet 16 before falling to Iowa. Fred Hoiberg got a contract extension. Pinnacle Bank Arena felt like a real destination.
Now comes the harder year: doing it again without the seniors who made it possible.
What Walked Out the Door
Three starters exhausted their eligibility:
Rienk Mast — the frontcourt identity, a double-digit scorer and the team’s most important interior piece
Jamarques Lawrence — backcourt creator
Sam Hoiberg — the glue, the leader, the assist-to-turnover machine
Berke Buyuktuncel transferred to Vanderbilt. A few other rotation pieces left as well. Nebraska is bringing back roughly 40 percent of last year’s minutes. That is not a full rebuild. It is a significant reset at the positions that defined the Sweet 16 team.
What Is Coming Back
The two players who have to carry the next step are still here.
Pryce Sandfort was first-team All-Big Ten and the Huskers’ leading scorer. The 6-7 wing from Waukee is the closest thing this roster has to a proven star. If he plays like last year, Nebraska has a first option.
Braden Frager, the Lincoln Southwest product, was Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year and All-Freshman. He averaged double figures off the bench. This is the year he becomes a full-time starter.
Around them: Cale Jacobsen (Ashland-Greenwood) as a defensive guard, Connor Essegian back from a medical waiver after an injury-shortened season, 7-2 sophomore Leo Curtis, and local pieces Will Cooper and Henry Burt.
Hoiberg has already said the leadership question is the biggest one. Losing Sam Hoiberg and Mast is not just about points. It is about who talks when the gym is quiet.
The Portal Reload
Hoiberg did what he always does: he went to the portal and replaced production with production.
Key additions:
Damon Wilkinson, 6-11, South Dakota State — 13.9 points last season, the most direct Mast-style replacement
Sam Orme, 6-10, Belmont — 12.7 points, 39.7 percent from three, a stretch four
Trevan Leonhardt, 6-6, Utah Valley — 11.9 points, two-year starter, back-to-back WAC regular-season titles
Boden Kapke, 7-0, Boston College — size
Taj DeGourville, 6-6, San Diego State — wing/guard who can help replace Lawrence
Kadyn Betts, 6-8, Montana — forward depth
Freshmen Colin Rice (Waukee) and Jacob Lanier (Arkansas) add four-star length. Rice is another Iowa wing in the Sandfort mold.
On paper, the roster is bigger and still skilled. In practice, it is a new mix that has to learn Hoiberg’s pace, spacing, and defensive standards before November.
Year 8 and the New Standard
This is Hoiberg’s eighth season. For most of the first six, the conversation was whether Nebraska could get to the tournament. Last year ended that debate. The conversation now is whether this is a Sweet 16 program or a one-year spike.
The Big Ten is not going to get easier. Nebraska will not sneak up on anyone after 28 wins. Sandfort and Frager have to be better. Wilkinson and Orme have to be ready. Someone has to become the next Sam Hoiberg — not as a scorer, as a tone-setter.
A realistic step forward is another NCAA bid and a chance to win a game or two in March. A drop back toward the middle of the league would not be a shock given the turnover. The talent is here. The culture is here. The continuity is not.
That is the 2026-27 story: the best season in school history is the floor now, not the ceiling. Whether Nebraska can live with that is what this new roster has to answer.