Huskers still have a chance for NCAA tournament
The Husker men’s basketball team has been knocking on the door of the NCAA tournament this season and held their fate in their hands with three winnable games left in regular season.
That door may have closed last Sunday when Nebraska lost a road game to Illinois 66-72. The Huskers still have a chance but I would say they better have beaten Indiana at Pinnacle Bank Arena (PBA) last night (Tuesday) and not lose this Sunday to Penn State at PBA.
Not only do they need to win over Indiana and Penn State, but they need to win a game or two in the Big 10 tournament just for NCAA Tournament insurance.
The Huskers had more than just a chance to beat Illinois, but in my opinion took some really ill-advised shots late in the game, and also shot really poorly from the free-throw line. This will usually put a world of hurt on you in a close game and it did hurt the Huskers in this one.
If Nebraska can now win their final regular schedule games and win one in the Big 10 tournament, that would give them 20-plus wins. A lot of times this will get you dancing with the blue bloods of NCAA basketball.
I think it will hurt the Huskers because they have no tradition as a basketball program and will maybe get over looked for teams that might not have as good a record, but have been in the tournament more times and more recently than Nebraska.
Like a lot of things, when participants are somewhat determined by a committee, there are politics involved. Then on the other hand, maybe if the wins come there will be people who want to see some different blood in the tournament and a bid would come Nebraska’s way. Whatever it takes works with me.
The Big 10 has had some good games and some strange ones. One of the strange ones to me was the Northwestern and Michigan State game. Northwestern had a first half coaches are really happy with as about everything they shot went in against the No. 2 team in the nation. At half it was 49-27 Northwestern.
Then everything went south for Northwestern and they lost the game 65-60. They scored 49 in the first half and 11 in the second half. Apparently they cooled off shooting and didn’t play real well on defense either. They are college players with talent and yet they have some of the problems any team can have when the ball won’t go in the basket.
The strange thing is this was not the biggest comeback in Michigan State’s history. In 2006 they came from 35 down to beat, yep, you guessed it, Northwestern. I would bet Northwestern feels that no lead is safe when they play Michigan State.
There have been a lot of basketball games the past few weeks and we have kept the road traveled between here and Lincoln going to the Husker games.
Last week’s Heartland Hoops Classic was very enjoyable if you really like basketball and want to sit through eight or nine games in a day. I did. Then I traveled right on up the road and took in the Husker game with Maryland.
This week it is back to Lincoln for the Indiana game which was played before this was published. Then back in time to hopefully watch the Plainsmen boys in the finals of the sub-district in Hershey.
I’ll miss the Maxwell game on Tuesday but have confidence the Plainsmen will keep playing in post-season games.
Last Friday night the Plainsmen and Bridgeport boys had an exciting game to finish up the regular season schedule. It was a closely fought game, right down to the post-route pass from Michael Beck to Charlie Johnson for a game clinching slam dunk to finish off the night with a win.
That was about the most exciting play I think I had seen in a game for a while. About the only way it could have been more exciting would have been if it was the winning basket. It was good enough.
Good luck to the Plainsmen as they start on the road that leads to Lincoln. Play hard. Play smart. Play together.