[Husker] Huskers spank CU

[Steve Reichenbach]

> If the Huskers win out, I'd expect them to get a #4
> seed and get a first round bye in the Big XII
> tournament.  Winning 2 would put them in the
> championship game then.  Obviously, winning 3 would
> get them an autobid. :-)
> 
If NU wins out, they finish ahead of A&M and would get the #4 seed
unless CU wins out --- including a win at KU.  CU would win the
tiebreaker against NU if it wins out, including beating KU.  If
NU is in sole possession of fourth place, wins even one game at
the conference tournament (against the #5 seed, perhaps CU or
Texas Tech), and then loses to the #1 seed (Texas or KU) in the
semi-final, I think NU would go to the NCAA tournament even with
its weak RPI, just because it is difficult to imagine only three
Big 12 teams in the tournament and it would be difficult to imagine
a team finishing behind NU in both the conference schedule and the
conference tournament being picked ahead of NU.

Best for NU would be avenging the loss against Texas Tech as the #5
seed, but for Texas Tech to finish #5, CU would have to lose two and
Texas Tech would have to win out.  For A&M to finish #5 after losing
to NU, they would have to beat Texas and win at Texas Tech and would
still need a CU loss.

Of course, NU is still a solid underdog at A&M and wins against KSU
and @MU aren't assured, but NU looked pretty good against CU.  The
next three games will be interesting.  Certainly, NU has exceeded
expectations this year (to be #4 at this point in the conference
season) despite some pretty disappointing games.  Will NU continue
to exceed expectations or are more disappointments ahead?


> I think winning out, and an opening round win at the
> tourney will get them some bubble consideration.  The
> early season weak schedule will hurt, but the NCAA
> does put an emphasis on your performance late in the
> season, and winning 8 of the last 11 regular season
> games might offset the weak RPI.  (Especially when 2
> of those 3 losses are to Texas and Kansas...)
> 
> It's hard to imagine a Big XII team with 20 wins not
> making the tournament, but this isn't your usual Big
> XII season.