The Fallout: Big Ten title still within reach; Huskers have rough weekend

Even with back-to-back losses in the Big Ten conference, Nebraska basketball still has a good shot to win the league championship. The Huskers need to get healthy.

That’s something that hampered Nebraska in both losses to Michigan and Illinois. The officials didn’t help either, as Fred Hoiberg pointed out after both games.

His comment on Pryce Sandfort was on the money. Just re-watch some of the second half, and you’ll see his arm grabbed multiple times (talk about hook and hold).

Regardless of that, if Rienk Mast and Braden Frager were 100 percent, the Huskers probably win that game. Mast was 2 of 10 from the field. Three or four more baskets from Mast would have changed the outcome. Frager also couldn’t attack the rim the way he normally does.

That’s part of the reason why Nebraska, a team that normally shoots 60 percent on 2-pointers, made just 41 percent of its attempts inside the arc against Illinois.

The Huskers also have just one game left against a team in the top five of the Big Ten (Purdue). Michigan (3), Michigan State (3), and Illinois (2) have at least two. Michigan, Michigan State, and Illinois each play each have two games against each other, so the Huskers are still right there.

They need to run the table at home. If Nebraska basketball does that, goes 2-2 on the road, it would finish 16-4 which might be enough to earn a share of the conference title.

Regardless, every goal is still on the table.

Rough weekend for the Huskers

The men’s basketball team went 0-2 last week, although both losses were to top-10 teams. The women’s basketball team split, besting Northwestern earlier in the week (89-73) thanks to a 28-point effort from Britt Prince.

11th-ranked Ohio State rolled past the Huskers 90-71 on Sunday. Nebraska is 16-6 overall and 5-6 in the Big Ten (tied for 9th). They are solidly in the NCAA tournament, according to a recent ESPN projection, which has the Huskers as a seven seed.

Nebraska wrestling also dropped a dual to No. 1 Penn State on Friday. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. The Nittany Lions have six wrestlers ranked No. 1. Antrell Taylor, who is ranked fifth, knocked off the No. 3 wrestler in his weight class. Brock Hardy had a pin, and AJ Ferrari won a 2-1 decision in the 26-12 loss.

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