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Bad night for ranked Big Ten teams
Nebraska upsets Illinois, while UCLA stays hot and topples Oregon. Plus: the rest of Thursday's results to know, setting up a massive Friday night showdown, a famous son commits to USC, and we preview a weekend packed with compelling storylines, including Florida-Tennessee, UNC-Duke and Calipari's return to Lexington.
Tristan Freeman
January 31, 2025
In partnership with
Good morning! And thanks for reading the Field of 68 Daily. We’re glad you’re here. Let’s get to what mattered in college hoops on Thursday.
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1. Nebraska keeps tournament hopes alive
When Nebraska opened 2025 with a win over UCLA, things seemed promising for Fred Hoiberg’s team. It was 12-2, had won six straight, and was eyeing a road to a second-straight NCAA Tournament berth.
Then it lost six straight and entered Thursday night as one of the teams who wouldn’t even qualify for the Big Ten Tournament. Maybe after a thrilling 80-74 overtime win over No. 19 Illinois, things’ll shift again.
It’d be great to see the Cornhuskers’ Brice Williams on a big stage, too. He was marvelous in the win, scoring a game-high 27 points and outdueling Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis in OT.
Relive Brice Williams’ clutch 6-0 run that sealed the Huskers’ B1G win over No. 18 Illinois 🔥
#B1GMBBall x @HuskerMBB
— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall)
5:18 AM • Jan 31, 2025
It’s a Quad 1 win for Nebraska (13-8, 3-7 in Big Ten), which has other quality victories over Creighton and UCLA.
Illinois (14-7, 6-5) is still firmly in the NCAA Tournament field. But cracks are showing, particularly from the 3-point line. The Illini shot 10-of-42 from deep, which is only slightly worse than their season average.
Factoring in tonight's shooting numbers, Illinois is the 300th ranked team in the NCAA in 3-point shooting percentage at 31.42% out of.. 355.
They have taken the second-most 3 point shots of any team in D1.
Might be time to re-think the philosophy.
— Ryan Easterling (@RyanEasterling)
4:12 AM • Jan 31, 2025
Jakucionis (18 points and 13 rebounds) was the lone starter in double figures for the Illini. The most glaring issue was Ben Humrichous, who had just one point on 0-of-8 FG shooting, including missing all seven three-point attempts. They’re still without starting center Tomislav Ivisic (mono), but at this rate, we have to ask if this team still has Final Four potential.
2. UCLA’s back to winning ways + more results
There was another ranked Big Ten team who lost on Thursday night, though this one didn’t go down to the wire.
