Husker back up to #9 in 3/2/26 polls

Husker Basketball
1

Huskers are back up to #9 in the 3/2/26 polls. Michigan is #3, MSU moved up to #8, Illinois dropped to #11, Purdue dropped to #15,

2

Huskers remain a 3 seed in the latest Joe Lunardi Bracketology, slated for Oklahoma City.

Michigan remains a #1 seed, MSU and Illinois remain #2 seeds, Purdue drops from a 2 to a 3 seed,

So 5 of the top 12 seeds are Big Ten schools.

Wisconsin is a 7 seed, Iowa is a 9 seed, UCLA is a 10 seed, Ohio State and Indiana are both 11 seed with first round play-in games in Dayton.

That could produce an Indiana-Nebraska game in the round of 64, I wonder if the NCAA will shift teams around to avoid conference matchups in the round of 64?

3

Huskers are 1.5 point underdogs at UCLA tonight.

4

Looks like a win tonight would lock up no worse than the 3 seed in Chicago, I think I tried all the possible matchups at mred's Big 10 MBB Tournament Seeding Tiebreaker

Interesting factoid: The Big Ten Tournament hasn’t had a 1 vs 2 finale in the last 17 years.

5

Even with that thumping in LA, it looks like the Husker can still be a 2 seed in Chicago if they beat Iowa, but run the risk of dropping to a 5 seed if they lose to Iowa.

6

This might drop them into the 4 seed category for the NCAA Tournament, though, unless they make a deep run in Chicago. And all of those are lousy destinations for midwest-based fans: Portland (2), San Diego and Tampa.

Probably hurt Hoiberg in the coach of year awards, too.

Mike Nolan

7

Most of the updated brackets have Nebraska as a 4 seed now.

8

Lunardi’s latest brackets still have Nebraska as a 3 seed, but in Greenville SC rather than Oklahoma City.

If they beat Iowa and MSU loses to MIchigan, it looks like they’ll wind up as the 2 seed in Chicago. If that happens and they don’t make it to Sunday could that hurt their placement?

9

Wisconsin just beat Purdue, and if I have it right, that locks up no worse than 4th place (and a triple bye) for the Huskers in the conference. If they win tomorrow, they’ll be in 2nd place assuming MSU loses to Michigan. Wisconsin can still get the #4 seed if Illinois loses to Maryland tomorrow.