16. Nebraska (26-6)
At this current moment in time, Nebraska is not at their best but does that really matter? The Cornhuskers are having what’s probably the best season in program history and could be a few days away from their first ever win in an NCAA Tournament game. With that being said, Nebraska started the year with 20 straight wins before hitting some road bumps in Big Ten play and those bumps haven’t quite gotten out of their system.
It was actually good news ending last week, as they survived a tough test to win 84-75 over Iowa in overtime. Avenging an earlier loss, the Cornhuskers got 15-point affairs from Sam Hoiberg, Caleb Jacobsen, and Pryce Sandfort in an important win for momentum. Unfortunately that momentum did not carry over into the Big Ten Tournament. After resting with the triple-bye, Nebraska fell 74-58 to Purdue in their first game, with limited success on offense.
Obviously it’s not ideal finishing 6-6 after that perfect start to the season but don’t write off the Cornhuskers just yet. Fred Hoiberg’s team is very talented and wouldn’t have put themselves in this position otherwise. The offense has really struggled at times recently and they’ll really need their defense playing at a high level to have a significant run in the Tourney for the first time in program history.