After a successful 90-41 exhibition win over Wayne State, the Nebraska women's basketball team was ready to tip off the season, hosting the San Jose State Spartans from the Mountain West on Monday. Following the Sizemore Sportsmanship Pep Rally, in front of the second largest opening-day crowd in school history, the Huskers led wire-to-wire and won their eighth-straight season opening and improved to 50-3 all-time in home season openers.

Led by Britt Prince's 23 points and Amiah Hargrove's 15, Nebraska utilized almost their entire roster as head coach Amy Williams substituted players in and out to give them time and experience with one another against an outside team. The only two who did not play, Arek Angui and Logan Nissley, sat only due to some lingering health issues and are expected to play in the near future.

Early non-conference matchups are great opportunities for teams to learn a lot about themselves and where they can continue to grow. Read on for some key observations following the 81-54 win for the Huskers.

Focus on Rebounding in Off-Season Paying Off Early

At Big Ten Media Days, head coach Amy Williams called out the team's rebounding. "We pulled up every offensive rebound that we gave up a year ago and tried to address, statistically speaking, how many times that it was more of a defensive rotation problem, we couldn't keep the ball in front, we were rotating over, pulling ourselves out of rebounding position. How much of it was a technique problem? How much was an effort or desire problem? It's something that we spent a lot of time as a coaching staff analyzing how can we get better in the rebounding, finishing defensive positions with rebounds."

Last season, Nebraska averaged 33.1 rebounds per game, with 10.25 offensive rpg and 22.8 defensive rpg. In Big Ten play, they averaged 29.4 rpg, 9.2 offensive, and 20.2 defensive rpg. During their six-game losing streak, Nebraska averaged 28.3 total rebounds per game but their opponents averaged 35.5. It gets worse when you look at defensive rebound numbers: 18 per game for the Huskers, 25 per game for their opponents.

It's only the first game. But Nebraska tallied 44 rebounds in their opener against San Jose State. 25 of those were defensive. Prince had 8 rebounds (all defensive), Hargrove had 9 (mostly offensive) and Edessa Noyan continued her impressive game by pulling down another 7 (mostly offensive).

There is still almost the entire season to go and plenty of high powered teams left on the schedule to test Nebraska's focus on rebounding, especially as they enter the extremely competitive and physical Big Ten schedule.

Welcome Back Natalie Potts

After a nearly two year hiatus from collegiate basketball following an ACL injury, no one was more ready for Natalie Potts to get back on the court than Natalie Potts. In her last full season, she averaged 10.2 points per game at a 48.9% field goal efficiency. But it was her spectacular defense that really earned her the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award, averaging 5.5 rebounds per game, 33 steals and a team-high 26 blocks. Potts' length and athleticism made her an absolute menace on defense and fans of the sport haven't forgotten it, since she was named to the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Preseason Watch List.

In the exhibition game, her first full competitive game since November 2024, Potts played a limited 17 minutes but still scored 12 points and had four steals. Any lingering questions about what she would look like once she came back didn't have to wait much longer.

Potts came off the bench with about 7:30 minutes to play in the first quarter and instantly settled into her familiar style of stifling defense, disrupting the San Jose State shooters and forcing early turnovers. She contributed 14 points, six rebounds, three steals and a block in her 20 minutes of play. Williams will likely continue to ease Potts back into the rotation but don't be surprised to see her as a part of the starting five soon.

Avalanche of Turnovers Helped the Huskers

Nebraska opened the game forcing a turnover, which led to Hargrove's first layup at the 9:45 mark in the first quarter. From there, San Jose State struggled to maintain possession against a gritty Husker defense. From travels to mistimed passes, Nebraska players were able to pester the Spartan's offense and take advantage of their opponent's mistakes.

The worst, or best depending on how you read it, of the turnover party came in the third quarter. After Prince turned the ball over on an offensive foul, the Nebraska went on a 10-0 turnover run and scored 14 points off of those plays alone. Overall, the Huskers scored 37 points off of the 32 forced turnovers and only turned the ball over 14 times.