Nebraska's NIT hopes took a major blow, but the Huskers are still holding out hope
CHICAGO – Had Nebraska beaten Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, it could have all but solidified a trip to the postseason.
Instead, Wednesday night’s 78-75 loss put the Huskers’ chances of a possible NIT berth on life support.
Varying NIT Bracketology on Thursday morning had NU as a fringe at-large team or out of the 32-team field completely.
How the next few days of conference tournaments play out will ultimately decide whether Nebraska reaches the postseason for the first time since 2018. As the Huskers now sit and wait, they can only cling to hope that they’ll get a shot to keep playing.
“We’ll see what happens Sunday,” head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “Hopefully somebody recognizes what this team did and sees that this was one of the hotter teams in the league, and they give us a chance.”
The 3-Point Play: Nebraska left wondering what if after crushing Big Ten tourney loss
The Huskers’ NIT chances are slim, but maybe not dead yet
When the latest projected NIT brackets came out on Thursday morning, the impact of Nebraska’s loss to Minnesota was glaring.
John Templon, who has done NIT Bracketology for over a decade, still had the Huskers in his field as an unseeded at-large. But he told 93.7 The Ticket on Thursday that he’d give NU roughly a 30% chance of earning a bid when all was said and done.
The issues now are how many smaller conference teams get automatic bids and how many NCAA Tournament bubble teams drop down to the NIT field. Any mid-major team that wins its regular-season league championship but loses in its conference tournament gets an automatic NIT at-large bid.
Eight teams have already punched their NIT that way, and Templon thinks a few more could, too, before Selection Sunday.
The game before Nebraska’s loss on Wednesday night was an example of the other scenario. Wisconsin fell to Ohio State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, dropping it off the bubble and firmly into NIT projections.
“If that does (happen), I think it makes Nebraska’s case more tenuous,” Templon said. “But I think, right now, I’d give them about a 30% chance. Somewhere around a one-and-three shot of getting in the tournament.”
Nebraska presents a unique postseason case
Templon added that Nebraska was definitely “an outlier” regarding its season metrics and the overall body of work. Postseason measuring tools like the NET, KPI, KenPom, and SOR all ding the Huskers for their win/loss margins – there are a lot of close wins and blowout losses.
However, NU also has seven Quad 1 and 2 victories compared to just one Quad 3 or 4 loss, which came to Minnesota in Chicago.
That’s what Hoiberg and his players were clinging to when asked about their postseason resume following the loss to Minnesota.
The Huskers would love to continue to the NIT to reward their seniors and give valuable tournament experience to its core of young players.
Nebraska can only sit and wait with its postseason fate officially out of its hands. Senior Sam Griesel said that regardless of what happened, he was proud of what his team accomplished to even be in this conversation.
“With me personally and why I came here, it’s more of a smile because it happened,” Griesel said. “Right now, it sucks. It hurts. If it is the end, it hasn’t really sunk in. Obviously, we’re going to wait and prepare like we’re going to play in the postseason.
“We’ll see what happens Sunday, but if it is (the end), I’ll just smile because it happened.”
