CBS Sports graphic
Out of 365 Division I men’s basketball teams, only two woke up Thursday morning with a 10-0 record. One is Duke, a program with 126 NCAA Tournament wins and five national championships. The other is Nebraska — the only power-conference school that has never won a single NCAA Tournament game.
In other words, historically at least, these teams come from very different places. But both are off to impressive starts this season, with Nebraska’s latest outing doubling as its most convincing.
Final score: Nebraska 90, Wisconsin 60.
Rienk Mast delivered a team-high 17 points and 10 rebounds in Wednesday’s Big Ten opener inside Pinnacle Bank Arena. After missing all of last season with a knee injury, the 6-foot-10 forward is now averaging 18.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 28.4 minutes per game.
“We have a very mature group,” Mast said after the 30-point victory over Wisconsin. “I liked our talk even after this game in the locker room. It was like, ‘Hey, we’re supposed to defend home court. … Now we have to go on the road and get a tough one.'”
That tough one comes Saturday, when Nebraska visits Illinois. The Cornhuskers are No. 18 in Thursday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings; Illinois is No. 16. So, yes, that’ll be a challenge — especially considering Illinois is undefeated inside Assembly Hall.
Regardless, the Cornhuskers are turning into quite the story. They’ve won 14 straight dating back to last season, when they closed with four straight to claim the inaugural College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas. Now they’re rolling in a way that could yield the highest NCAA Tournament seed in program history — the first step toward improving on their 0-8 all-time record in NCAA Tournament games.
Top 25 And 1 rankings