[Husker] Husker men's basketball

[Steve Reichenbach]

After a stretch of losing 4 of six games during, NU seemed headed for
a long season. But, with a 4 wins in a row, including a victory on the
road at Tennessee and two conference wins, one at home and one on the
road, things are looking up.  However, NU faces a really tough stretch:

	Texas at NU
	at Kansas
	at Missouri
	Texas A&M at NU
	at Texas Tech

Mratings has KU #2, Texas #18, Texas A&M #40, Texas Tech #51, and
Missouri #70.  Nebraska is #100 and the wins have come against
#67 Colorado, #108 Tennesse, and #80 Kansas State.

Sagarin's predictor has NU the underdog in 4 of the 5 games and a
big underdog at KU and Texas Tech:

	Sagarin #26 Texas by 2.5
	Sagarin #5 KU by 13.8
	Sagarin #98 Missouri by 1.1
	Sagarin #23 Texas Tech by 14.1

Sagarin #73 NU is favored only against Sagarin #28 A&M at home by 0.7
points, but A&M may be under-rated.  (NU may be underrated too, as the
games against Creighton and Minnesota could have gone the other way.)
With predicted performance of two difficult games and three close
games, I think NU will do well to go 2-3 in its next five games.  I
think anything better would be a positive result and anything worse
would be disappointing, although 1-4 would not be surprising.

After this stretch, NU has a non-conference game, then a road game
against KU, and then the schedule gets easier.  The games at Oklahoma
and against Oklahoma State in Lincoln look tough, but NU's chances are
very good in the other six games (ISU in Lincoln, at Baylor, Missouri
in Lincoln, at ISU, Colorado in Lincoln and at KSU).  With a good shot
at winning 5 or 6 of the last nine, I think NU would position itself
for a winning conference record with a 2-3 record in the next five games.
Even if NU goes 1-4 in the next five games, I think 8 or 9 conference
wins is still possible.  (Sagarin has OU #11, ISU #86, CU #93, KSU #110,
and Baylor #229.)

NU is 10-4 now.  Would NU make the NCAA tournament if they finish 18-11
and 9-7?  Or 17-12 and 8-8?