[Husker] NU Basketball

[Steve Reichenbach]

Massey has the NU men's basketball team #34 and Sagarin has the NU #37
in the predictor ratings.  Massey has NU 7th in the B1G and Sagarin has
NU 5th.  Both rank the B1G as the #1 conference.  Massey has only 2 teams
in the Big 12 ranked higher than NU and Massey has 3.

NU has an important game this week against Oregon in Lincoln.  Massey
has NU 62-52 and Sagarin has NU by 8.  NU already has a nice wins against
USC on the road and home blowout of South Dakota and Rhode Island.

Other name opponents on NU's schedule include Wake Forest and @TCU, but
the big non-conference game is Creighton, which Massey has #31 and
Sagarin has #36 in the predictor ratings.  Creighton just pummeled Iowa
in Des Moines.  NU and Creighton are about evenly rated, but the game is
in Omaha, so Creighton would be a 3-4 point favorite at this time.  If
NU has trouble finishing in the top half of the B1G (as is predicted),
then the Creighton game could figure huge in NU's chances for an NCAA
bid next March.

Massey has the NU women's basketball team #38.  The NU women had a big
win against #23 USC in Lincoln.  The win wasn't surprising, but the
blowout was impressive.  For the women, the B1G isn't as tough as the
Big 12 was.   Massey rates NU 4th in the B1G.  Massey has 8 teams better
than NU in the Big 12.