Nebraska Basketball: 2022-23 season preview for the Cornhuskers
By Bryan Mauro
Schedule Breakdown
The schedule is not favorable for a team who needs to win games. Nebraska under Hoiberg has always been willing to play anyone, anywhere at any time and they are taking that to heart this year. The Huskers have four games against non-power schools and given how they are breaking in a lot of new pieces could spell doom for the Huskers.
Nebraska opens on November 7th against Maine, and then they play three nights later when they take on Omaha in Lincoln. The other non-power games are on November 20th against Arkansas Pine Bluff and on December 20th when they take on Queens University of Charlotte.
In the non-conference, the Huskers have their usual in-state battle with Creighton, a Gavitt Tip-Off game in New York against Saint John’s, the ACC/Big Ten Challenge game against Boston College in Lincoln, and finally a neutral site game against Kansas State in Kansas City. Nebraska, like many other teams, plays in a holiday tournament, and this year they are headed to Orlando to take part in the ESPN Events Invitational.
In that tournament, they will open with Oklahoma, then play one of Memphis or Seton Hall before wrapping up the tournament on Sunday. The non-conference schedule is going to present a challenge and it is going to test Nebraska for the Big Ten slate, hopefully, they can play well enough to win some of those games.
The Big Ten slate is never kind to anyone especially a bottom-tier team like Nebraska. The biggest problem for Nebraska as they faltered in their winnable games against teams like Northwestern, Minnesota, and Penn State they have not always fared as well under Hoiberg. They were able to beat both Minnesota and Penn State last year but have yet to beat Northwestern under Hoiberg.
The league has a 20-game conference slate and every team gets five double plays in the conference portion of the season. This year Nebraska has a very favorable double play. They get Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota, Penn State, and Iowa as their double plays. The Minnesota and Penn State games are going to be winnable games for Nebraska, and if they can get some confidence going, they could potentially knock off a few teams.