Pitchin' with Pritch: Huskers’ chance at NCAA tourney slim

There are 68 men’s basketball teams that will make the NCAA tournament. The remaining teams are eligible for the NIT. 

Most basketball fans know NIT stands for the National Invitational Tournament, but a lot of people thinks it means NOT IN THE TOURNAMENT because the NIT is not the goal of the D1 teams in college. 

The Nebraska Husker men’s team partially shut the NCAA door when they lost to Rutgers and pushed it closer to being shut when they lost to Michigan State last week. There is only a crack open after losing to Ohio State this past weekend. 

This season had great possibilities because the Huskers have a team that had a lot of experience. 

The players are pretty talented and they had a pretty good season last year, winning 22 games and going 13-6 in the Big 10 but not making the NCAA tournament. 

So with a lot of returning players, the thought was that this year was the year they would make it to the Big Dance. 

The Huskers didn’t help themselves last week when they lost to Rutgers on the road, but they had a chance to make the season look a little better by having a home game with Ohio State this past Saturday. They did not help themselves in any way, losing to Ohio State 70-60. 

Nebraska had played Michigan State back on Jan. 17. 

Even though they lost, they played pretty well at times but just never good enough to win. That win would have meant a lot in the NCAA tournament committee’s eyes. 

I think also the loss to Rutgers probably made the committee look away. 

Some losses are really bad ones and then you have to probably win some games no one thinks you could to make up for it, but coming home and losing again really digs a hole you might not be able to get out of with the schedule that is left. 

Another problem with the loss to Ohio State is that the team played really poorly. The offense was terrible in the paint, and for that matter, outside the paint also. Teams will have bad nights shooting so you have to make up for that with good defense. I thought the defense against Ohio State at times wasn’t all that bad but it didn’t make up for other things the team did. 

Being there and watching is different than watching on TV and I thought their body language was not good. Their hustle at times just wasn’t there. 

On at least three occasions, OSU stole the ball, dribbled to their basket, shot a lay-up and missed and only one Husker was back, and while two or three Ohio State players raced to the other end, the Huskers were barely more than jogging. 

The Husker fans have been pretty supportive with great attendance at games as there were 15,000 there against Michigan State and over 13,000 there Saturday, but you could hear some boo-birds late in the game and a Bronx Cheer went up when the Huskers finally got an offensive rebound. 

The other thing that is not good was the mass exit with a couple of minutes left and the Huskers only behind single digits. 

The Huskers are going to have to have one of the most outstanding finishes in men’s basketball history to be able to make it a tournament team. 

To make that situation even more difficult, they lost Isaac Copland Jr to a torn ACL early in the second half and the schedule still has Maryland, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, and Iowa in Lincoln and Purdue, Illinois, Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State on the road. I would say the road is long and steep and that is truly an understatement.

There is no doubt in my mind the pressure on Coach Miles has gone up a bunch the last two weeks. 

I don’t know if the team has given up on the coach but the intensity with which they played was not good. 

I disagree with how the Huskers attack on offense, but all coaches have certain ways they approach the game and there are a lot of ways to be successful in the game. 

I do believe the saying “If you keep on doing what you are doing, you keep on getting what you’re getting,” and the Huskers are not getting enough to get to where they want to go. What looked like a lay-up just a few weeks ago to get to the NCAA tournament, now looks deeper than a Steph Curry 3-pointer.