The number of people who would have seriously taken the bet on Nebraska being 20-0 at the end of December is vanishingly small. It probably consists only of the guys on the team, and then maybe not even all of them. The Huskers, you may recall, were picked 14th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten.
But here they are. STILL the improbable owners of THE NATION’S LONGEST CURRENTLY ACTIVE WINNING STREAK, they’ve arrived at the magical number of 20 wins, and more incredibly, 0 losses. For a fun bit of context,
Nebrasketball has played for 130 seasons – and only hit 20 wins or more in the entire season on 16 occasions. Seven of those 16 seasons were 20 wins, total. So even if Nebraska were to lose out this season (unlikely, I think), they’re still looking at an utterly historic season.
This brings us here, to tonight’s match-up – a TOP FIVE match-up involving Nebrasketball. I know I sound a bit repetitive in this article, hammering these numbers home, but please respect that I literally cannot believe I’m typing some of these words. #5 Nebraska goes to #3 Michigan for a 6 pm (7 pm local time) for an absolutely epic regular season match-up that pits two teams with a combined 38-1 record (the one loss is Michigan’s, just pointing it out again) against each other. It’s #1 in the Big Ten (Nebraska) vs. #2 (Michigan).
For some reason, it is being aired on Peacock.
The smart money is on Michigan, certainly. Road games in the Big Ten are notoriously tough, and Michigan is a genuinely very good team. They really should win this. The Huskers, in all likelihood, are in for a potentially rough few weeks, following up this game by hosting #9 Illinois and traveling to #12 Purdue (they will also travel to Piscataway in there.)
But— and Michigan, Illinois, and Purdue presumably know this— all of these talent-stacked teams would be absolute fools to count Nebraska out or assume they will simply give the game to them.
Because the thing about this Nebrasketball team is not just its Cinderella-like trajectory in a timeline filled with tragedy and things that are unbelievable in a bad way. It’s because this team plays like teams that made you fall in love with college sports. They’re gelled. They’re unselfish. They refuse to be outworked. They’re having fun. They never, ever, ever give up. In the NIL and portal eras, all of these are vanishingly rare. I think we all know it, and I think that’s why this team has resonated with so many people beyond Husker Nation. We’re a country looking for underdogs and looking for unlikely heroes. As chaos reigns and evil flexes, for a moment, looking at a basketball court and the little basketball team that could is a balm. We hope that we too will find our inner Nebrasketball, and not throw away our shot.
