Nebraska continues trudge through Big Ten play with Wisconsin matchup

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Nebraska basketball continues to battle through adversity as the season nears the end.

On Friday, head coach Fred Hoiberg previewed Saturday’s matchup with Wisconsin, which is coming off a win against Penn State.

He said the Huskers will need to play “strong” and not “bite on the pump fakes.”

“They’ve got some really effective shooters, and they do a good job finding them,” he said at a press conference.

Wisconsin shooters, including Omaha native Chucky Hepburn, might have free reign over a banged-up Husker defense.

Nebraska has been without defensive backbones Juwan Gary and Emmanuel Bandoumel since Jan. 25.

And the Huskers have struggled since, losing four of five matchups, including a 21-point loss to Michigan on Wednesday.

Hoiberg admitted that Nebraska has been “completely different” since Gary’s and Bandoumel’s season-ending injuries.

“We’ve switched, we’re switching things up a lot more,” he said. “We’re playing a lot more zone, certainly than we were earlier in the year. And we have to.”

With six games left, Hoiberg said the Huskers will need to play hard against teams like Rutgers, Maryland and Michigan State.

“Right now, obviously, we’re small, we’re inexperienced, but I’ll take our guys because they play hard, they compete,” he said. “And we have to continue to do that down the stretch.”