Nebraska is going to be an interesting case for the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, depending on what they do in New York later this week. Their fate might tell you how the Big Ten is viewed when it’s all said and done.
The Cornhuskers finished a 13-5 Big Ten run with a 76-64 win over Penn State on Sunday. They finished Big Ten play without a home loss, something no other team in the conference did. Will that, along with something in New York, be enough to get into the NCAA Tournament?
This team is somewhat comparable to Texas in 2014-15 – the most recent poster child for a team without bad losses but also without a lot in the way of quality wins. Nebraska has an RPI top 25 win – their win over Michigan last month. They also have one loss to a team whose RPI has three digits, which is their loss to Illinois a week ago. Other than Michigan, the Cornhuskers didn’t beat a single team that is a lock to make the NCAA Tournament. They are 4-8 vs. top 100 teams, including 1-4 against the top 25.
Largely, this owes to a very unimpressive non-conference schedule – their SOS is just above 300. What’s interesting, though, is that six of their 14 wins against teams with RPI of 151-351 came against Big Ten foes. We all pretty much know it was a down year in the Big Ten, but quantifying it has not been easy to this point.
But while I was basically making the case that Texas really didn’t belong in the NCAA Tournament that year (they ultimately made it), I am more inclined to put Nebraska in this field. This Cornhusker team has won a lot more than that Texas team did, and they still have a chance to post a quality win or two in New York. One other impressive thing this team has done is mostly avoid a losing streak – they lost consecutive games to at Creighton and at home to Kansas, but otherwise have not done so all year. They came through with Tim Miles’ job believed to be on the line.
Another good note refers to something that happened as a result of the conference having to move its tournament up a week in order to play at Madison Square Garden. This year, the Big Ten schedule had 34 instances of a one-day prep for a game – meaning a team played a game two calendar days after their prior one. Nebraska had four of those, and they won all four of them, including last Tuesday against Indiana. And only once did that win follow another win, meaning they had to bounce back from a loss quickly.
Whether they make it or not, the Cornhuskers have taken care of business and earned a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament. They put up their 13-5 mark despite being a bad rebounding team – they are the only team in the conference to be out-rebounded on the season. They are hardly spectacular in any one area, although only Rutgers was better than they were at guarding the three-point line in the regular season. But they have found a way, and could get another shot at Michigan in New York if the Wolverines take care of either Iowa or Illinois in the second round. A win there, and they may get a shot at Michigan State.
Opportunity may abound for Nebraska to enhance their profile. They could use it, but it’s entirely possible that they have done enough already. In this wild college basketball season, though, it will be better to be safe than sorry.
Side Dishes
Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Michigan State claimed an outright regular season title by holding off Wisconsin 68-63 in Madison. It was a regular season title that looked in doubt at times, but a late surge pushed the Spartans into the top spot. Purdue handled Minnesota 84-60, Illinois beat Rutgers 75-62 in Piscataway, and Iowa held off Northwestern 77-70 in Iowa City
In the Mountain West, Nevada clinched the top seed in the conference tournament with a 92-83 win over Colorado State.
NC State looks more likely to go dancing, as the Wolfpack have a good resume but enhanced it further with a 92-72 romp over Florida State in Raleigh. That pushes them to 10-6 in ACC play, and it was another big game for Allerik Freeman as he had 25 points.
Northern Kentucky claimed an outright Horizon League regular season title by going to IUPUI and cruising to a 75-56 win. They held off Wright State, who also won on Sunday.
East Tennessee State led the Southern Conference for most of the season, but after losing on Sunday to Furman at home, they surrendered the top spot to UNC Greensboro, who took care of Samford 88-75 to finish a game ahead of the Buccaneers at 15-3. Furman, by the way, finished third at 13-5, so the conference tournament could be anyone’s ballgame.
The MAAC has co-champions for the regular season, as Canisius and Rider both won at home on Sunday to finish at 15-3. The Broncs have the tiebreaker, so they will be the No. 1 seed in Albany next weekend and also have the conference’s automatic NIT bid should they not win the tournament. Rider’s 110-101 win came despite 40 points by Iona guard Ricky McGill, who was 12-16 from the field including 5-7 on three-pointers. The Broncs shot over 61 percent from the field.
Out west, UCLA suffered a damaging loss at Colorado, as the Buffaloes won 80-76 to win both meetings with the Bruins. UCLA is now 10-7 overall, and their at-large hopes were already in some danger before they got swept on the trip to Utah and Colorado. They might have to do some damage in the Pac-12 Tournament in addition to winning at USC on Saturday to close the regular season.
Off the court, we have more bad news out west as San Diego head coach Lamont Smith was arrested on Sunday for domestic violence and two other charges. The team was preparing to head home after losing their regular season finale at San Francisco, and Smith was arrested at Oakland International Airport on charges related to an incident the night before at the team hotel. An alum of the school, Smith is in his third season as head coach, and the Toreros have shown promise this season, so this is not a good way to head into the conference tournament in Las Vegas.
Tonight’s Menu
Conference tournament play gets going tonight alongside some of the last regular season games that are on the docket.
- The Atlantic Sun Tournament gets going with its quarterfinal round. No. 8 USC Upstate visits No. 1 Florida Gulf Coast, No. 6 Kennesaw State visits No. 3 Jacksonville (7 p.m.), No. 5 North Florida travels to No. 4 NJIT (7:30 p.m.) and No. 2 Lipscomb hosts No. 7 Stetson (8 p.m.)
- Duke tries to remain on a roll as they take on a Virginia Tech team trying to strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume in Blacksburg (7 p.m.)
- One final CAA game is on tap, a make-up of a game that had to be postponed a couple of weeks ago, and it has seeding implications as James Madison travels to Elon a game back of the Phoenix (7 p.m.)
- A showdown is on tap in the MEAC, where North Carolina A&T travels to conference leader Bethune-Cookman, a team they trail by a game (7:30 p.m.)
- The Big 12 takes over a little later as Texas Tech goes to West Virginia and Texas travels to Kansas, both tipping at 9 p.m.
- Another make-up game on tap is Fresno State traveling to Air Force, a reschedule of a game that had to be postponed due to the federal government shutdown back in January (9 p.m.)
