The School: University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Formerly just known as the University of Nebraska, until 1968 when they absorbed the Municipal University of Omaha. Somehow not the newest university in the Big Ten. Somehow in the Big Ten. When I was a kid, they were in the Big Eight.
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska. As the name would imply. The capital of the state of Nebraska, and Nebraska is one of those states that just kind of… exists. I’ve never been there and don’t really have anything mean to say about
it. I know, you’re disappointed. I’m disappointed, too.
Mascot: Herbie Husker. Used to be a fat blond farmer in overalls. Much like Vanderbilt’s Mr. C, later updated the look to, uh, I guess, be more “modern” or something, even though the whole concept of “Cornhusker” seems like you’d be resisting modernity? I don’t know. Bring back the fat blond farmer in overalls is all I’m saying, Nebraska.
Record: 27-6 (15-5 Big Ten.) 27 wins is literally the most in school history. I’d make fun of them for this, except that our 27 wins is just one away from the most in our school history.
How’d they get here? Got an at-large bid. Started the season on a long undefeated run (20-0), then hit a rough patch as the schedule got tougher, but mostly just took care of business and a bid was never in doubt even if their seed ended up being a couple lines off where they thought they’d be a couple months ago. Sound familiar?
Best win: Won 83-80 at Illinois back on December 13. Prior to that, Nebraska was 10-0 but just sort of a vague curiosity that had just broken into the top 25 that week. After that, a lot of doubts started to be removed, even if everybody kind of looked at the name on their jerseys and said “yeah, it’s going to fall apart at some point.”
Most embarrassing loss: Losing by 20 at UCLA on March 3 is as embarrassing as it gets. (That’s not all that embarrassing.)
Coach: Fred Hoiberg. Ames High School, got the nickname “The Mayor” back when he was a player at Iowa State, embarked on a bit of an NBA career, later coached (pretty well) at Iowa State, went to the NBA for a bit, then finally decided he wanted the challenge of coaching Nebraska basketball. Looked like it wasn’t going to work out for a few seasons, then he got to the NCAA Tournament a couple of years ago, stepped back a bit to 21-14 last year and then… this.
Best player: Pryce Sandfort, who averaged 8.8 points per game at Iowa last year, transferred to Nebraska, and suddenly became an 18 ppg scorer. A classic instance of a guy who doubled his shot volume and kept his shooting percentages the same. Also looks exactly like you would imagine someone named “Pryce Sandfort” looks.
All-Name Team Nominee: Berke Buyuktuncel. I’m not even going to attempt to pronounce that and neither should you.
Famous alumni: Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, Class of 1951.
Infamous dropout: Larry the Cable Guy, who, in spite of playing a hillbilly with a Southern drawl on television, is actually from Nebraska.
Best NCAA Tournament result: This is Nebraska’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. In the previous eight, they lost in the first round. By default, this is already their best NCAA Tournament result.
Should Vanderbilt be scared? I don’t think “scared” is the right word here. This is a really weird article to write because I read all about Nebraska and think “oh my God, they’re us,“ a historical nonentity that in the brave new world where you can just get somebody like John Ingram or Warren Buffett to throw around money, you can be good at basketball, even right down to having a beloved mascot that got ”modernized” in spite of nobody really wanting them to. Hell, I can’t even hate their billionaire alum, not with the fetid swamp of tech billionaires who keep telling us they’re going to make a machine to write slop and call it “Anchor of Gold.”
Can they beat us? Sure. Are there about 30 other teams left in the tournament who I’d be madder about losing to than these guys? Yes.
