Nebraska has a chance
I would imagine the basketball conferences in the college ranks are somewhat confusing if you are not a follower of college basketball and you just wonder across conference standings and try to figure it all out.
First of all, the conference math must be some of the common core stuff, because it’s difficult to understand why a conference is called the Big 10, but it has 14 teams. The Big 12 goes the other way. They only have 10 teams there.
Then there is the positioning question. The Big East has Creighton as a member and I have never heard or questioned myself if the State of Nebraska could ever be anything but a Midwestern State. Creighton is however, positioned pretty much in the eastern part of Nebraska, but if it gets any closer to the river it would be in Iowa and then would probably have to move to the Big 12 or the Big 10.
I am glad it doesn’t really matter because it would be too hard to explain the rationale for the conference alignments. I have too much trouble just with the numbers situation, but I dabbled in teaching English so numbers were never a strong area for me.
Some of this confusion I think has drifted into the state newspapers as the Lincoln Journal headline for the Huskers win over Iowa read, “Tshimanga Tshines.” Granted, Tshimanga did play about as well as anyone has seen since enrolling at Nebraska. Just a few weeks ago, Jordy Tshimanga took a few days off from being a Husker to work out some personal problems and missed a couple of games after starting the first 18 games.
The Husker crowd has treated Tshimanga pretty well as they have given him at least one partial standing ovation his first game back. Last Saturday night, he came off the bench and had a season high of 11 points, and a season high of eight rebounds in 19 minutes of play. He did a pretty good job of playing defense most of the time. He was shining, but he had help.
James Palmer, Isaac Copeland and Isaiah Roby all had good games in the Huskers’ 98-84 win over Iowa. Palmer had 28 points and five assists while shooting 11-14 from the FT line and seven of 12 from the field. Copeland had 23 points and 11 rebounds hitting eight of 11 shots and Roby had a career high of 17 points along with eight rebounds, three blocked shots and two assists.
In my opinion, that is what the Huskers need the rest of the season if they are going to make it to the NCAA tournament. I think Palmer, Copeland and Roby are as talented as most players Nebraska will face, especially in the remaining games. If Jordy can even improve just a little bit more there is a chance to make the tournament field and maybe even win a game, which Nebraska has never done.
Nebraska has Penn State, Indiana, Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Rutgers and Illinois left on their schedule. Each one of those games is winnable IF the Huskers play well. I think I see improvement in the Huskers each time I go to Lincoln, but I also still see periods where scoring becomes very difficult, not always because of the defense, but because of shot selection.
I realize I am way old school, but there are times when a two-point basket will do just as much damage as a three. I think sometimes players just get caught up in the game and think a three will win it. I saw the Huskers have a 14-point lead at half over Iowa and watched Iowa cut it to two in less than 5 minutes.
Shot selection on the Huskers part played into that run. Anyway, Pinnacle Bank Arena was loud and full and it was a fun game to watch! Let’s hope the Huskers can continue this run and see what happens in March.