NCAA Basketball: 12 teams with most pressure to win in 2023-24 season

Mar 16, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter guides his teamâ€™s practice for the NCAA menâ€™s basketball tournament at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus DispatchBasketball Ncaa Men S Basketball TournamentSyndication The Columbus Dispatch /

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Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg 230305 Nebraska Iowa Mbb 016 Jpg /

11. Nebraska Cornhuskers

We’re entering Year 5 of the Fred Hoiberg era at Nebraska. The first three years were awful and largely non-competitive in the Big Ten. But there were some improvements for the program last year, finishing .500 overall and 9-11 in league play, showing true signs of improvement.

Now, the Cornhuskers have to build on that momentum to compete for a postseason bid in what looks like an underwhelming Big Ten conference outside of Purdue and Michigan State, two preseason projected top-5 teams. They bring back the electric sharpshooter, Keisei Tominaga, while also adding two good transfers in Brice Williams and Rienk Mast.

It won’t get any easier for Nebraska to compete in the Big Ten after next season. The conference is adding four teams from the Pac-12 in USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington, with the Bruins being a traditional “blue blood” that’ll compete at the top of the conference going forward. And the others all have a much better basketball history than the Cornhuskers.

If the team can’t show more progress and compete for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, it’s hard to see when they’ll have a better chance going forward. And after five years at the helm, it may be time for them and Coach Hoiberg to part ways.

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