Nebrasketball is Officially in the Danger Zone

Now sitting at 12-7 on the year and 2-6 in the league, Nebraska is on the verge of not only failing to go back to the NCAA Tournament, but missing the Big Ten Tournament as well. Now with 18 teams in the league, the conference tournament will feature just the top 15 teams in the standings at the end of the regular season.

Nebraska is currently 16th in the league.

But how did Nebraska get to this point? How did so much promise seemingly disappear over a two-week span and lead to the longest losing streak since the 2021-22 team lost 10 consecutive games?

According to the head coach multiple times over this stretch: toughness.

"I thought we took a huge step in the right direction the last couple of games on the glass and the 50-50 balls, but tonight that was the difference," Hoiberg said Wednesday after the USC loss. "You have got to get on the ground, you have an opportunity, you can’t just lean over and just try to pick it up with one hand, these guys are too strong, too athletic that we are playing against every night. You have to find a way to get dirty, get grimy and finish off those possessions."

In the most dejected either has looked after a game in their time as Huskers, Juwan Gary and Brice Williams had similar statements after the latest loss.

"Toughness. Staying together. Sticking to our roots," Williams opened with. "We've done a poor job of that and it showed tonight. It showed in my leadership."

Leadership. That's among the issues that this team has seemed to have a hard time figuring out this season.

On last year's NCAA Tournament team, you knew where Keisei Tominaga, Rienk Mast, and Josiah Allick stood when the going got tough. While the latter two are still on the bench this year in different roles, they aren't on the court. Between the lines, outside of some Williams desperation buckets that turned out to be too little, too late, most guys are standing around and hoping.

"We’re slacking up on certain things, but at the end of the day, it’s business," Gary said. "This is a game we all sign up for, so we’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got to come together within the group, we can’t separate. We’ve got to make sure that we go into the next day of practice and harp on what we need to figure out."

Gary poured in a career-high 27 points in the loss to USC, but he was also 0-for-5 from deep. He's now just 27.5% on the year from beyond the arc. Inside the 3-point line, Gary is shooting 51.2%, including 11-of-14 on Wednesday.

None of the above is to place blame on Gary. Prior to Wednesday, Nebraska had failed to beat an opponent who shot at least 39% from 3. USC shot just 28.6%, but that allowed other issues than perimeter defense get the spotlight.

The Huskers just aren't as athletic or as physical as the top half of the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska gets bullied, something that one would hope was fixed in offseason with the addition of a 6-5 point guard and a trio of guys at least 6-10.

Speaking of point guard, that position has been largely underwhelming for the Huskers. After a 10-assist performance off the bench at Maryland, Ahron Ulis earned his first start as a Husker. He would play just over 14 minutes and finish with no points, no assists, and two turnovers.

Likely to go back to starting at that spot is Rollie Worster. He had six assists and two turnovers on Wednesday, but shot just 1-of-5 from the field. His season averages are 2.7 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game to go with a career-worst 21.4% shooting from 3.

Nebraska is currently 57th in the NET rankings. That number will need to be greatly improved if this team hopes to get back to the Big Dance.

The average NET ranking of the first four out teams over the last four tournaments is 47.4. The highest NET to be among those teams was Indiana State last season at 29, while three others were as high as 40.

Nebraska's chances for a return trip to March Madness have dwindled significantly this month. The Huskers will need to band together in a way that has been missing for the past few weeks.

"I still got more belief than anybody in this world with this team," Gary said. "It's never been a doubt that I will go through war and hell with these guys."

The path ahead begins with a trio of ranked opponents. Nebraska is at No. 18 Wisconsin on Sunday. The Huskers then host No. 17 Illinois before traveling to No. 15 Oregon.

"You just keep trying to take steps," Hoiberg said. "We took steps in a lot of things tonight, but again it all comes down to loose balls and toughness."

If Nebraska hopes to get back in the NCAA Tournament conversation, an upset over the next week would be the first step in righting the ship.

Optimism Lives

In a conversation with Jack Mitchell, he laid out an intriguing path for Nebraska to still get to 20 wins before the Big Ten Tournament and be in position for an NCAA Tournament bid.

Note: Jack is one of the most passionate people about Husker sports you'll find. Listen to us on the Nebrasketball Brunch Show every Friday at 11 a.m. CST during the season and become a patron of the I-80 Club for more great Jack content.

Jack put the rest of the schedule, 12 games, into two categories: "must have" and "find three". Those categories are below.

Must Have

• at Washington
• Ohio State
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Iowa

Find/Win Three

• at Wisconsin
• Illinois
• at Oregon
• at Northwestern
• at Penn State
• Michigan
• at Ohio State

If Nebraska wins everything in the first category and finds a way to get three in the second category, then that's 20 wins in the regular season and a conference tournament berth.

Likely? Maybe not. But if the Huskers want any chance of building on the success of last season then that means an immediate turn around. This team can't afford to go another couple weeks without a win.

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