Nebraska basketball didn’t need to play perfectly on Wednesday night in order to beat Minnesota. They definitely needed to play better than they did, though.
The writing was almost certainly on the wall when the Huskers built a 7-0 lead that could have been as many as 14 if the Nebraska basketball squad could hit its shots to open the game. Minnesota came out looking like they had no business being on the court against Hoiberg’s Heroes. For most of the rest of the game, the roles were reversed.
That was most obvious in the failures of the Nebraska basketball team to his point-blank shots. At one point, they were an astonishing 14 for 27 on layups. In total, they missed 16 shots from within five feet of the basket.
Sam Griesel seemed to be the embodiment of the struggles. He missed six layups and bricked a couple of wide-open three-point shots late in the game that would have either tied, or taken the lead. In total, he was just 4-for-13 from the field.
Though he also wasn’t really the goat for the Nebraska basketball team as he also led his team with 11 rebounds. That was just two shy of being the leading rebounder of either team. However, the game was decided by the biggest Griesel mistake of the game. With just seven seconds left, Griesel tried to drive down the court, decided not to slow up, and promptly lost the ball out of bounds.
Nebraska basketball season might be over
The Huskers came into the game against Minnesota knowing that they likely needed a win to get an NIT bid. It is possible dreams of any postseason tournament are over with the 77-75 loss to Minnesota.
In the end, the game was far too indicative of what Husker fans have seen quite a bit of this season. There were times they looked like the best team on the court. There were more times they looked like the worst team in the game. And in the end, Nebraska basketball allowed the Golden Gophers to beat a Big Ten team for just the third time all season.