Bracketology update after Nebraska basketball loss to Penn State

There weren’t any positives for Nebraska basketball to take away from the loss to Penn State on Wednesday night.

The Huskers just got their butts kicked. That’s all there is to it. Penn State forced some turnovers early and Nebraska basketball just wasn’t competitive.

It was a bad look. Many Nebraska basketball fans were critical of the performance, rightly so, but those acting like the Huskers are in jeopardy of missing the NCAA tournament now are overreacting a little.

Nebraska came into the week with two road games. They didn’t need to win both. It would have been nice but the objective was to win one of the two road games. Nebraska achieved that with the comeback win over Northwestern.

The win over the Wildcats counted as a quad-1. Wednesday night’s game was a quad-2 and don’t get me wrong, it was a bad loss. It was among the most dreadful performances of the season for Nebraska, but it’s also not going to hurt the Huskers.

It could hurt them if they don’t bounce back. But this loss doesn’t mean Nebraska is missing the NCAA tournament. Nebraska is still projected to make the field in 103 out of 103 bracketology projections according to Bracket Matrix. 

The average seed is 9.5. So Nebraska is on the right side of the bubble. There are four games to go with three at home against Minnesota, Michigan, and Iowa, as well as a road game against Ohio State.

If Nebraska wins two of those games, the Huskers should be in the field as long as they win a game in the Big Ten tournament. 20 wins feels like the magic number and that didn’t change after last night. It is still a wasted opportunity though and the Huskers can’t afford to let many more pass by.

Nebraska women’s basketball with a huge win

The Nebraska women’s basketball team is also on the bubble. ESPN had the Huskers listed among the last four byes in its most recent bracket projection.

Oregon was also among the last four byes. Nebraska and Oregon met in the Vault on Wednesday and thanks to 35 points and 15 rebounds from Alexis Markowski — her 50th career double-double — Nebraska escaped with a 94-90 overtime win.

That should improve their positioning for the NCAA tournament. The home finale is Sunday at 2 p.m. against Washington, followed by a road game next week against Northwestern before the Big Ten tournament.

Either way, Nebraska has to feel better about making the tournament today than it did on Wednesday morning.

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