OKLAHOMA CITY — Braden Frager froze.
Seconds earlier, the Nebraska forward and Lincoln native had seemingly etched his name in his hometown program’s annals.
Facing a tied game with nine seconds go to, Frager collected a pass from guard Pryce Sandfort, drove the lane and kissed the ball off the glass with his left hand for the bucket that gave the Cornhuskers a 74-72 lead with 2.2 seconds left and appeared destined to send Nebraska to its first Sweet 16.
Then, off a final timeout, Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner caught the inbounds pass, took a dribble and launched the ball from the half-court line. With the clock reading 0.0, the ball dropped into the cylinder.
But as fast as it dropped in, the ball ricocheted out — and the crowd exploded. So did Frager and his teammates.
“I thought it went in,” Frager said. “I didn’t know how to react, and I was just — everybody started celebrating. I was like, “Yeah, he actually missed it, so …”
Sitting beside Frager as he described the moment on the postgame dais, Sandfort added his own recollection as his teammate shook his head, still in disbelief.
“I just about died,” Sandfort said. “I was on the side, so I didn’t know the angle it was on. But man, I just want to thank the good Lord Jesus Christ for that one.”
When Nebraska guard Sam Hoiberg saw the ball pop out of the cylinder, he let out a guttural yell — not that anyone could hear it over the roar of the crowd.
“My heart sank as that ball went in the hoop, and then it went out,” said Hoiberg, who had eight points and six assists. “And I think it took me half a second to register it didn’t go in, and then I just screamed in elation. I thought it was in.”
Mere inches from heartbreak, Nebraska instead survived to clinch the program’s second-ever NCAA tournament win, just two days after notching its first.
“That last shot, man, it just took my breath away,” Huskers coach Fred Hoiberg said. “That kid [Tanner] is an unbelievable player, and when that thing was up in the air, I was like, ‘Man, that’s going in.’ It hit every part of the rim. Thankfully, it bounced out.”
As Nebraska players emptied the bench, leaping and bounding across the hardwood as they ran to hug each other and their coaches, fans threw popcorn like confetti in the stands and waved handmade signs that read, “Sweet 16 Corn Season” and “GBR” (for “Go Big Red”).
For 40 minutes, the overwhelmingly pro-Nebraska crowd never left its feet and kept the din at a constant fever pitch throughout the back-and-forth battle.
“I know it had to be incredible on TV,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said of the atmosphere. “It was an incredible game. I mean, it sucks that we were on the side that we were on. But, I mean, a high-level game, and I’m sure the crowd lifted them up and had them playing — they played so hard.
“That’s one of the best environments or toughest environments that I’ve ever coached in. The fans were incredible for them, incredibly supportive and wild.”
On the court, the Huskers gathered around forward Berke Buyuktuncel as he held up a giant Sweet 16 flag and shook it at the crowd. Meanwhile, Frager and a couple of others ran across the court to hug and celebrate with Kent Pavelka, the radio voice of Nebraska basketball for more than 50 years.
Then, as Frager and Sandfort did a postgame interview with Pavelka, the rest of the team ran a giant lap around the arena to high-five spectators and show appreciation to the fans who spent two games on their feet, willing the Huskers to a pair of historic victories. As the team made its way around the Paycom Center, a loud cheer accompanied its loop like a verbal wave rippling through the arena.
Once they finished their media obligations, Frager and Sandfort ran their own lap, eliciting another wave of jubilation.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Frager said. “It couldn’t be done without all these guys up here, all these guys on the team. We had a great crowd. I feel like they carried us a lot through this, and that was a big part of it.”
Even as the team exited the court to another ovation, the celebration didn’t stop. As the arena DJ blasted “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas, the Nebraska cheerleaders formed a conga line and pranced around on the baseline as the band danced and took pictures. Still wearing his headset, Pavelka stood up from his courtside seat, turned around to face the cheering fans behind him, extended his arms and bopped along to the music with them.
It was a party fitting of a national championship, yet it was only a second-round win.
But for a program without any NCAA tournament victories just a few days ago, it was an occasion worth celebrating — just not for too long.
“We’re flying back home at 11 o’clock tomorrow,” Fred Hoiberg said. “We’ll get back. We’ll regroup. We’ll find out who we’re going to play after the game tomorrow — if I’m not mistaken, Iowa and Florida — and then start working right away, get the game plan put together. Don’t know if we play Thursday or Friday. And then we’ll just take it from there.”
