Nebraska Basketball: Huskers need quality win to crack top 25

Nebraska basketball is playing like a top-25 team, however, the Huskers will need a quality win before they start getting any recognition.

Early-season college basketball polls are meaningless and that is something to keep in mind when the Nebraska basketball team was left out of the top 25 poll released this week by the AP.

The idea that Nebraska basketball would be ranked isn’t far-fetched. In fact, the Huskers almost crept in the AP poll after two impressive wins over Mississippi Valley State and Southeastern Louisiana, receiving enough votes to rank 28th.

In one game, the Huskers scored more than 100 points and in both, Nebraska allowed just 36 points a game, which is the best in the country as of right now.

The Huskers were certainly more impressive than another Big Ten team, Michigan. This isn’t meant to rag on the Wolverines at all. Yet, Michigan did trail Holy Cross at halftime Saturday night and won the game just 57-38. Through two games, the Wolverines are averaging less than 60 a game and rank outside the top 300 in scoring.

And Michigan has played only two very poor teams. Nebraska basketball has done the same, but the Huskers are scoring 96 points a night and winning by an average of 60. However, the Wolverines moved up a spot this week from 19th to 18th, despite two games where they didn’t perform that well.

The point is, it’s hard to judge teams based on these early games. I am not saying Michigan shouldn’t be ranked or should have dropped, just that it doesn’t necessarily have a valid reason for moving up. That will change Wednesday for Michigan, which plays Villanova and Nebraska, which will take on Seton Hall.

Beating Mississippi Valley State and Southeastern Louisiana isn’t going to catch the attention of anyone, no matter what the margin the victory. But if the Huskers can knock off Seton Hall, a top-40 team according to KenPom, then Nebraska should be able to move into the rankings next week.

The truth is, the rankings don’t matter much, we all know that. But it would be nice to see the Huskers get their due. More importantly, though, it would be nice to see them get a resume-building win against Seton Hall in Lincoln Wednesday night.