WILSON MOORE
WorldHerald Staff Writer
Brice Williams' college career is almost over, and he's picking up some hardware before he leaves Nebraska. The guard was named to the All-Big Ten first team Tuesday, capping one of the most productive NU seasons in recent history.
"It's been fun to see how consistent he's become in that go-to guy role," Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said before the final regular-season game. "Brice's talent has been phenomenal."
Williams is the first Husker first-teamer since James Palmer in 2018. Nebraska's only other first-teamer since joining the Big Ten was Terran Petteway in 2014. Last season, Keisei Tominaga and Rienk Mast made the second and third teams, respectively.
Williams averaged 20.0 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while starting all 31 contests for Nebraska in the regular season. He was the Huskers' primary scorer in the final minutes of games, and his 43 points against Ohio State broke Eric Piatkowski's single-game program scoring record. In December, Williams was the Diamond Head Classic MVP. NU won the holiday tournament and he scored 32 and 25 points in the last two games.
The most recent Husker to average 20 points per game was Tyronn Lue in 1998. Williams likely has at least one game left in a postseason tournament, so he'll have to maintain his current pace to finish the season above 20.
Williams is out of college eligibility after six seasons. He spent four at Charlotte, missing one after undergoing knee surgery, before transferring to Nebraska in 2023. He started every game in 2023-24, first as a wing before moving to point guard in February. He averaged 13.4 points per game as the Huskers made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014.
Boilermaker named player of the year
Purdue's Braden Smith was named the Big Ten player of the year and Michigan State's Tom Izzo coach of the year by coaches and the media in voting coordinated by the conference. Smith and Izzo won the same honors from the Associated Press on Tuesday.
The coaches voted Penn State's Ace Baldwin the defensive player of the year, Maryland's Derik Queen the freshman of the year and Illinois' Will Riley the sixth man of the year.
The coaches' All-Big Ten first team was made up of Smith, Queen, Williams, Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn and Wisconsin's John Tonje, an Omaha Central graduate. The coaches' second team included Michigan's Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf, Minnesota's Dawson Garcia, Northwestern's Nick Martinelli and Ohio State's Bruce Thornton.
The media's first team included Goldin, Williams, Kaufman-Renn, Smith and Tonje. The second team was made up of Queen, Wolf, Garcia, Martinelli and Thornton.
-- The Associated Press