Nebraska basketball: Big Ten parity continues to underline opening for Huskers
The Nebraska basketball team has a real chance for a top-tier finish.
The Nebraska basketball team has watched plenty of Big Ten traditional powers struggle in 2017. Those struggles could make an opening for the Huskers.
While Michigan State looks to be the cream of the crop, and Purdue isn’t far behind, just who might fall into the rest of that top tier changes on a nightly basis. The Minnesota Golden Gophers were supposed to be one of those teams.
The Huskers showed the Gophers have some weaknesses when they visited Pinnacle Bank Arena. Michigan and Ohio State have posted pretty records, but they also have bad losses on their resume.
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Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa are all locked into what appears to be rebuilding years. The rest of the teams that the Huskers were supposed to do battle with at the bottom of the B1G have indeed looked as though they might be challenging for the bottom of the conference.
The Huskers haven’t had this kind of an opening since they made it to the big dance in Tim Miles’ second season. Like this year, the team was expected to be bad, but a combination of talented young players and resurgent transfers led the team on a long run.
They ended up making the NCAA Tournament and finished in the top of the conference. Both of those things seem possible once more.
In order to do that, Tim Miles’ team is going to have to show a better performance against teams they’re supposed to hang with. They’re also going to need to close out games against better talent.
Against Kansas and Creighton, the Huskers had a lead late in the game. Against both those teams, they ended up losing.
Both of those games would have been nice wins on the resume. Nebraska basketball is going to need to find a way to replace those games on the resume. If they do, they could be Big Dance bound.