Nebraska Basketball: Can the Cornhuskers make the NCAA Tournament?

Nebraska basketball enters the month of February as one of the biggest surprises in the Big Ten this season. Can the Huskers go dancing?

There were a lot of questions surrounding Nebraska basketball entering the season. How good would their transfers be? Would they be able to win games with these additions? How would the Huskers stack up against the rest of the conference?

At the beginning of the season, things didn’t really look all that great. The Cornhuskers were mediocre at best and weren’t playing great basketball. They started out the season at 3-2 with losses to St. Johns and UCF.

Heading into conference play in December, Nebraska was 6-2, their best win over an average Boston College team. After getting blown out by Michigan State in their first game, the Huskers were able to pick up a good win over then-No. 15 Minnesota. At the time, Minnesota was thought to be competing with Purdue and Michigan State for the conference title.

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Although Tim Miles’ team lacks quality wins at the moment, they do sit in the fourth spot in the conference standings, boasting an 8-4 conference record (17-8 overall). Now, the Huskers would really have to put together a solid run for the remainder of the Big Ten season in order to have a shot at a tournament berth, but this is very achievable.

As it stands, the Huskers play four of their final six games against teams in the bottom of the conference. Because they do lack quality wins, all of these games are very important for the Huskers. A loss still gives them a chance, but they would definitely have some work to do in the Big Ten Tournament.

The biggest game remaining for the Huskers is their last game at home against Penn State. The Nittany Lions narrowly defeated Nebraska by two points in their first meeting this season. If the Cornhuskers are able to win their final six games, this would put them at 23-8 heading into the conference tournament. They will likely need a couple of wins there to have the best chance of making it to the dance.

A game that might really hurt the Huskers is their one-point loss to Kansas in Lincoln earlier this season. This would have been a quality win, and surely would’ve helped them on Selection Sunday. Currently, Tim Miles and company have just one RPI top-50 win (at home vs. Michigan). Their only other RPI top-100 win was against Boston College.

Next: Most recent Bracketology field (Jan. 29)

Right now, Nebraska is currently ranked No. 59 in the latest RPI rankings. They are also ranked No. 56 in the KenPom rankings. While these aren’t great rankings, they could be enough to propel the Cornhuskers into the tournament.

They probably have only 2-3 losses total (including in the Big Ten tournament) to spare in order to have the best shot at the dance this year. This team definitely has the talent and experience to make it there, but it will be interesting how the rest of the season plays out.

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