Forget the NCAA tournament, Nebraska might miss the NIT
Not long ago, Nebraska basketball was being mentioned as a No. 4 or 5 seed for the NCAA tournament and now the idea of the Huskers even making the big dance is laughable. The Huskers are now 13-9 overall and 3-8 in the Big Ten after five straight losses.
The loss to Illinois, as I said earlier, now has Nebraska in a tie for 12th place right alongside Illinois. The only team with a worse record in the conference is Penn State. So what does that mean for Miles and the Huskers?
Well, it means that not even the Nit is guaranteed. Teams don’t generally make that tournament unless they are a few games over .500 and with the way Nebraska is tanking at the end of the season, who knows how bad it could get. If they finished 3-6, their overall record would be 16-15 and if they lost in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, they would be 16-16.
If Nebraska fell that far, I doubt they would make it. So even though it might be incredibly disappointing, this team has work to do just to make the NIT, something that seemed unfathomable just around a month ago.