They were likely on the outside looking in to begin the week. On February 16th, they beat Northwestern to go to 17-9 (7-6 in the Big 10). They were clearly in the race to make the tournament. They also only had Michigan left in their schedule of the front-runners in the conference, so a chance to get to 21-10 was very realistic. But then they lost on the road to Penn State. They fought Michigan at home in a defensive battle but lost by 3. They then got shocked at home by Minnesota as the Gophers’ Brennan Rigsby hit a three pointer with 4 seconds to win by 2.
But with a NET ranking in the 50s, Nebraska at 17-12 and 7-11 in the Big 10 conference still was in the conversation. Their toughest games in conference were done and so while Ohio State and Iowa were not easy wins, they certainly weren’t like having to play Michigan State and Maryland. They also had Quad 1 victories against Creighton, UCLA, Illinois and Oregon – so they had some big wins.
On Tuesday, they travelled to Columbus, but lost in double overtime to the Buckeyes 116-114 in a crazy game. Today, the Cornhuskers took on the Iowa Hawkeyes for their last home game of the season. And the Hawkeyes went on a run in the second half to beat Nebraska 83-68.
It never is good to go on a five game losing streak before the conference tournament, but that was not the worst news for the Cornhuskers. That is because their losing streak moved them from the middle of the standings to a five way tie for 12th in the conference. And after all the tie-breakers were done, Nebraska found themselves in 16th. Unfortunately, the Big 10 decided that only 15 teams would travel to Indianapolis for the conference tournament.
About a month ago, Nebraska looked like a team that had serious chances to make the tournament. Then, they finished on a 5 game losing streak, got eliminated from their conference tournament before it even started, and have lost any chance to improve their resume to the committee next week – there is no way they take a team that fell to 16th in the conference.
Some bubble teams have lost crushing games – such as Cincinnati losing to Oklahoma State on Saturday. But they still have games next week – they have another chance to show they should be at the dance. Meanwhile, the Cornhuskers lost by 3 to a ranked team, lost on a last second three-pointer, and the lost in double overtime – and now, their season is over. Their record is good enough to be considered for one of the post-season tournaments, but that won’t be the NCAA Tournament.
All of us have probably watched rough patches for our teams – it can be agonizing. But no one has had a worse 5 game stretch than Nebraska.