Nebrasketball.

If you haven’t heard of it, I contend that you are not a true college basketball fan in the state of Nebraska.

This year’s Nebraska men’s basketball team is one of the best in school history, if not the best.They are the No. 4 seed in the Big 10 tournament, but are considered a bubble team.

Why?

Nebrasketball has caught fire as of late. Winning 10 of the last 12 games. I get that they don’t have those “good wins” and don’t really pass the eye test, but they are playing great. Since losing to Kansas on Dec. 16, the Cornhuskers are 15-4. They have only lost four games in the last two and a half months. None of those four losses have come in Lincoln at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Those four losses were: at Purdue, at Penn State, at Ohio State and at Illinois.

Those four teams are likely to produce, at the very least, two NCAA Tournament bids. These four teams are on another level than Nebrasketball, but I don’t think that should be the reason the Huskers are kept out of the tournament.

In case you didn’t know, the chair of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball selection committee knows Nebraska quite well. He even attended Nebraska’s final game of the season at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Bruce Rasmussen is the aforementioned chair of the selection committee. He is also the athletic director at a school that basketball fans in Nebraska should know well: Creighton.

When looking at the other bubble teams, Nebraska has one of the best records through the last 12 games, going 10-2 over that stretch.

They need to be considered a legit contender. Unfortunately, they are not there yet. But they can definitely get there in the next week.

The simplest way to get into the NCAA Tournament and the only 100 percent guaranteed spot is to win the Big 10 Tournament. If they win, they get an automatic bid into the tournament and would also have a few “big wins.”

The next way the Huskers would have a better chance than they do right now is to make it to the Big 10 championship game. That would require Nebraska to win two games. The chances are good that one, if not both, of those wins would come against Michigan schools. The first game will probably be against Michigan in the quarterfinals. They blew out Michigan the only other time they played this season, but that game was in Lincoln, whereas this time around the game would be at Madison Square Garden. The next
step in this scenario would be to beat the semifinal opponent, probably Michigan State. This should also get NU into the big dance.

Short of doing the above, Nebraska has to really impress the selection committee. The best way to do that would be to blow out Michigan and put up a respectable fight against Michigan State.

The Huskers should be in the NCAA Tournament, no question, but right now the ball is in their court and they need to take advantage of the opportunity they have before them.