Over the next few weeks, I'll be taking an in-depth look at every school in the Big XII.  I'll focus on the past (i.e. last season's strengths and weaknesses), the changes (i.e. incoming freshmen, departing seniors, new coaches), and the future.  

See past previews: Iowa State

Nebraska is a football school through and through.  They have a rich football history rife with national titles, All-Americans, and conference championships.  Unfortunately, this leaves the basketball team under-husked, under-funded, and under-appreciated.  Not quite the recipe for success.  Not surprisingly, Nebraska's basketball team has suffered for it.  It's been 60 years since the Cornhuskers have sniffed a conference title (and 94 since winning it outright) in the great sport of basketball.  To add insult to injury, Nebraska sits on one of the more exclusive lists in college athletics: the Cornhuskers (along with Northwestern and South Florida) are one of three BCS schools to never win an NCAA tournament game (although they did win the NIT in 1996).

Unfortunately, last season was a step backward from recent NIT success: the Cornhuskers struggled (to say the least) during conference play, losing all but two games (they beat a floundering Oklahoma team and Texas Tech in Lincoln).  They did play well against Baylor and Kansas State but left with two defeats.  
To make matters worse, the Huskers lost their only double digit scorer, Ryan Anderson, to graduation.  Unfortunately, the recruiting haul was slim as well; Nebraska adds three JuCo transfers.  Unless someone steps up in a big way, there's not much hope for a big improvement.  

I see the Huskers fighting for one of the bottom three spots in the conference with Oklahoma and Iowa State this season.  There may be hope on the horizon, as they just built a new practice facility that is scheduled to open in 2011-2012.  It should help woo recruits.  But by that point they'll be well on their way to the slower pastures of the Big 10.    

At the start of the season, B12H.com ran a "Five Questions For..." segment asking the five most pressing questions of each team. In our continuing review of the season, here are the answers to those questions.

Five Questions For... Nebraska basketball

1)       Last year NU was the smallest team in college basketball.  This year they brought in some size, will that help?

Let's see... a guard, Ryan Anderson, led the team in rebounding with 5.3 rpg. That placed his 23^rd in the conference in rebounding average. The Corn center, Brian Diaz, placed 36^th in rebounding at 4 rpg. So, I'd go with ‘no' on this.

2)       Will Doc Sadler's JUCO coaching experience help the three incoming JUCO transfers adjust to division 1 basketball?

Quite honestly nothing Doc did helped in any way, shape or form. Let's just put this out there... they won 2 conference games. One vs OU actually before Oklahoma spiraled out of control, and one in OT against a Texas Tech team that won 4 conference games. If you add up the combined wins by teams NU beat (8) they would have placed tied for eighth in conference under wins.

3)       Nebraska hasn't had a winning record this decade.  Will they go 10 for 10 in losing seasons?

That was the lock of the century. I should have gone to Vegas with this one. The Huskers ended up 2-14 in conference and 15-18 overall.

4)       How will the team cope with two transfers leaving Lincoln?

Poorly. I hate to be so bearish on the Huskers, but come on, they were awful.

5)       Who wins more conference games, NU football or NU basketball?

NU hoops, 2 conference wins.
NU gridiron, 6 conference wins.

Overall hoops did edge out football in total wins 15-10, although they played 19 games in order to do so.

Now that the college basketball season is officially over, we're going to take a look back at each Big 12 school to discuss their season. The rundown will go in order of conference standing. See the complete schedule after The Jump.

What Went Right: Hmmm, let's see. The Corn ended up 2-14 in conference and 15-18 overall. With numbers like those, you can say with a fair degree of certainty that not a lot went right this year for the team from Lincoln. They did topple a USC team that almost went .500 in a pitiful Pac-10. The beat Tulsa, who had previously beaten Oklahoma St. The defeated Oklahoma, back before we knew how bad Oklahoma would end up being, and defeated Mizzou in the Big 12 tournament. There... I think I just listed each notch on the 09-10 Corn belt.

What Went Wrong: Como se dice "Everything else"? I don't want to sugar coat it a bit, the Corn was BAD this year. Offensively they failed to crack 60 pts on 12 occasions.  If you are going to try and slow down the game, you need to shut down the opponents scoring also, but they held the opposition under 60 pts only twice in conference play... and both were losses.

Team MVP: Ryan Anderson was the only Husker to average double figure scoring this season, netting 11.3 ppg. He also led the squad in rebounding at 5.3 rpg.

Key Losses: Hopefully I have enough space to type in all these names. Sek Henry, Ryan Anderson, Quincy Hankins-Cole, Myles Holley, Ray Gallegos. As you can see, between graduation and transfers the Huskers are going to be hurting next year.

Outlook Next Year: If you take the best talent out of a team without much talent, you kinda are in for a world of hurt. Don't expect Nebraska to finish any higher next season than it did this one.

Continue reading this post »

In a recurring piece leading up to the start of the basketball season, we will examine the top 5 questions surrounding each Big 12 basketball team.

Today, the top 5 questions for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

1)       Last year NU was the smallest team in college basketball.  This year they brought in some size, will that help?

2)       Will Doc Sadler's JUCO coaching experience help the three incoming JUCO transfers adjust to division 1 basketball?

3)       Nebraska hasn't had a winning record this decade.  Will they go 10 for 10 in losing seasons?

4)       How will the team cope with two transfers leaving Lincoln?

5)       Who wins more conference games, NU football or NU basketball?

Check back tomorrow when we will ask Five Question For... Oklahoma basketball.
Also check out Five Questions For... Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas State

Follow Evan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MizzouHoops