As Fred Hoiberg tries to figure out a way to stop the Nebraska basketball team’s freefall, now the team is essentially playing it’s “Super Bowl” of course, the team is doing that in basically every game for the rest of the season. That’s because it needs to start racking up wins if the Huskers want to have any shot at March Madness.
When NU was 12-2, they looked like a shoo-in for the NCAA Tournament. Then they lost six straight games. All to Big Ten opponents. Two of those losses were at home, a place where the Huskers were once considered unbeatable.
Now the Nebraska basketball team has a biggie against Illinois on Thursday. It’s another home game and another game against a Top 25 opponent. Amid the importance of this game, the Omaha World-Herald’s Tom Shatel gives Hoiberg credit. He’s tried just about everything to try and stop the spiral that the team has been in most of January.
Nebraska basketball is playing one of several Super Bowls
“It’s all about tomorrow,” Hoiberg said on Wednesday. “We took our board down, had (Big Ten) standings and everything. We have Nebraska and Illinois.”
The point seemingly being that if the Huskers don’t win on Thursday, there’s not really a point to see what comes after. That’s certainly an interesting approach. It could also be a sign of just how close Hoiberg is to completely losing his locker room. What if they lose on Thursday? Has Hoiberg already told the team the rest of the season simply doesn’t matter? Is he wrong?
“These games have to be our Super Bowl for the rest of the year. One game at a time. I know it’s the oldest cliche in the book but that’s where we are right now.”
That quote seems to indicate that the aim isn’t to claim that Illinois only matters for the rest of the year. It just matters this week.
Still, if the Nebraska basketball team doesn’t show up, the way it hasn’t really showed up since the second half of Iowa, one wonders how the next “Super Bowl” looks any better.