Huskers' Hoiberg shoulders personnel blunder

HOUSTON — Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said a late-game blunder that left his team with only four players on the court before a critical three-point play in the final minute of Iowa‘s 77-71 win over the Cornhuskers in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night was his fault.

With 58.8 seconds to play, Iowa’s Kael Combs stood on the baseline to inbound the ball as his teammates pointed toward Alvaro Folgueiras — who hit the game-winning shot in his team’s upset over 1-seed Florida on Sunday — who was racing down the court, wide open, before he scored on a critical layup and completed a three-point play to extend his team’s lead to six points. It appeared that Nebraska’s Rienk Mast was trying to check into the game before the shot, but he was too late.

After the game, Mast was asked to explain that play, but Hoiberg intervened.

“Put that one on me,” he said. “It was a miscommunication and I’m the head coach, so put that one on me.”

Hoiberg also said he wasn’t sure whether the officials should have checked to make sure his team had five players on the court before they restarted the game.

“I’ve never been in a situation like that. I know they always count to make sure there’s not six,” Hoiberg said. “I don’t know the rule on that with four. But yeah, again, it was a miscommunication, and unfortunately, it happened. But as far as the rule, I’ve never been a part of anything like that.”

Iowa took its first lead of the game on Bennett Stirtz‘s 3-pointer with 2:10 to go. Tate Sage extended that edge to six points on another shot from beyond the arc less than a minute later. But Pryce Sandfort — who played at Iowa last season — responded with a 3-pointer of his own to set up the wild play in the final minute.

Stirtz and Sage, who were both pointing to the other end of the floor when they saw Folgueiras running unguarded as Combs launched a deep pass to him, said they were surprised to see their teammate open.

“I was pretty shocked to see [Folgueiras] wide open,” Stirtz said. “I didn’t even know they had four players until we were in the locker room.”

Added Sage: “We were going to throw it to [Stirtz], but then we looked down and [Folgueiras] had nobody on him, so we’re, like, ‘Kael, throw it,’ and he ended up getting the bucket.”

Iowa coach Ben McCollum said he wonders whether his team might one day be the subject of a feature film. He and Stirtz have now advanced in the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year with their third program following postseason success at Division II Northwest Missouri State in 2024 and Drake last year.

Folgueiras, the hero against Florida in the second round with a game-winning 3-pointer and against Nebraska with his late three-point play, would certainly have a role in that production. His heroics for the second consecutive game sent Iowa to a place it has not been in nearly 40 years.

“I think he’s just not shy in the moment and he’s not scared,” Stirtz said. “I think some people shy away from it and go in their little shell when moments get too big, and he embraces it and he wants to play well in these big environments.”

It was the culmination of a hard-fought win for an Iowa team that made history. The Hawkeyes, a 9-seed, are the lowest-seeded Big Ten team to make the Elite Eight, replacing Wisconsin, which reached the Final Four as an 8-seed in 2000, per ESPN Research. The Hawkeyes have also made a run to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987. And Stirtz, who scored 20 points, played all 40 minutes, giving him three 40-minute games in the NCAA tournament. He is now tied for the most 40-minute games by a Big Ten player in the NCAA tournament over the past 45 seasons, per ESPN Research.

It has been a fortuitous run for Iowa, which had weathered a 3-7 stretch before the NCAA tournament. The Hawkeyes have now knocked off Clemson, Florida and Nebraska, which advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history.

There has been a lot of talk about the lack of mid-majors that have survived in March this season. Only one double-digit seed, Texas, made the Sweet 16. But the Longhorns lost to Purdue on Thursday night in a thriller, leaving Iowa as the lowest remaining seed in the field.

Does that make the Hawkeyes this year’s Cinderella? McCollum said he’s fine with the label.

“We were so close in a lot of games and I don’t like to use that. We were right there. And then we lost some games we probably shouldn’t have,” McCollum said about this season. “Yeah, Cinderella, whatever they want to call us. We’re in the Elite Eight. That’s what they need to call us.”