The Huskers are going dancing

Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball teams are going dancing.

Mar 18, 2024

Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball teams are going dancing. This will be the fourth time that the two teams have made the NCAA Tournament in the same year. The three previous years are 1993, 1998 and 2014. This year marks the 16th appearance for the women, and the 8th for the men.

Let’s keep this introduction short and just dive in.

The men are headed to Memphis as the 8 seed and will face 9-seed Texas A&M.

Yes, Texas A&M.

You can already see the storylines coming from a mile away. The Huskers are set to face the Aggies, who Nebraska just lost its athletic director to. Heck, even Trev Alberts — the athletic director in question — understands the optics of this one. He didn’t just tweet about A&M on Sunday after the selection announcement. He shared a congratulations to both Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg and A&M coach Buzz Williams.

For what it’s worth, the “😅” emoji often represents a nervous laugh. Relatable.

But here’s the deal: while the Alberts storyline will certainly make headlines, it’s a disservice to let it take too much focus away from Nebraska itself. After all, this is the Huskers’ first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2014.1

Nebraska finished its regular season 23-9 overall and 12-8 in the Big Ten. The Huskers earned a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament as a result and had a great first night in the tournament, defeating Indiana Friday night, 93-66. Nebraska then fell to Illinois – the tournament champions — 98-87 on Saturday.

This season has been full of history for Nebraska. Not only was it the Huskers’ second-highest win total in program history (the 1990-91 team is the only one higher with 26 wins), it also marked the furthest the team has advanced in the Big Ten Tournament since joining the conference in 2011.

In addition to being the Huskers’ first Tournament appearance in 10 years, it’s also only the eighth trip to the Big Dance for the program. Nebraska has also never won an NCAA Tournament game, going 0-7 to date.2

Friday in Memphis won’t be easy for Nebraska as it chases that history and it will have to face a tough A&M team.

“I have so much respect for Buzz Williams, an incredible coach,” Hoiberg said post-announcement. “His teams are always well prepared. It’s one of the hardest playing, grittiest teams we’ll face all year. You look at their numbers — I haven’t watched a ton of them obviously because it’s a different league and how consumed you get with what we’re going through — but they’re the best offensive rebounding team in the country.

“They play extremely hard like all of Buzz’s teams.”

Prior to his time at Nebraska, assistant coach Ernie Zeigler coached at Mississippi State and has experience against Williams’ A&M teams. Hoiberg said he’s already talked with Zeigler about what Nebraska is up against, and the team will get to work first thing Monday.

“I could not be more thrilled for our guys,” Hoiberg said. “They’re excited to get back to work (on Monday). We’ll get a first-look film session in the morning and get the guys a good lift session and come back and practice (Monday) afternoon.

“Just really excited about being back in it this time of the year and hopefully we go out and continue to play well.”

And here the Huskers get to go for history against A&M and their former athletic director. Feels like the selection committee knew what it was doing, no?3

For now, let’s not worry about the Alberts angle. There will be enough of that in the days to come. Instead, let’s focus on the players. Their reactions to the announcement were everything.

“Here at Nebraska, this is the eighth time in the history of the program,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve had a lot of firsts this year with this team and we’re chasing another one. It’s an opportunity now to do something that has never been done in the history of the program . . .

“It’s a special time of year and it’s why you’re in this business.”

Nebraska and Texas A&M will tip off Friday at 5:50 p.m. CT on TNT.

The women are headed to Corvallis as part of Albany 1 Region as the 6 seed to face 11-seed Texas A&M.

Yes, Texas A&M again.

The storylines got even wilder over the two hours between the men’s announcement and the women’s on Sunday. Apparently the selection committees have a sense of humor. Alberts sure thinks so at least.

You really can’t make it up.

But again, it would be doing a disservice to focus only on Alberts, so let’s put the focus back on the Huskers.

The 6-seed is higher than most of the recent projections for Nebraska, but that’s what the Huskers were hoping for (obviously, I know). Assistant coach Jessica Keller tweeted her case for a higher seed after the overtime loss to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament championship game. It’s a good thread that breaks down what Nebraska faced all season, and highlighted just how tough the Big Ten Conference is.

“The (Big Ten Network) has been instrumental in growing the women’s game,” Keller said in one of the tweets. “Through it comes an opportunity for our teams to play nearly any night of the week & presents another variable in (Big Ten) game schedules. It’s a GRIND. We can argue it prepared us for our tourney run.”

In the end, seven Big Ten teams are in the tournament, including three that are in the Albany 1 Region — No. 4 Indiana, No. 6 Nebraska and No. 9 Michigan State.

“It was super awesome,” Alexis Markowski told Jessica Coody of Husker Sports Network after the announcement. “I definitely was not expecting a 6 (seed) but I was talking to Jaz (Shelley) and we just feel we are in a really good spot to make a run in this tournament.”

So, how did we get here? Well, the Huskers are 25th in the NET rankings, and have one win against a ranked team. However, that one win is pretty substantial: Nebraska defeated No. 2 Iowa in Lincoln on Feb. 11. The Huskers have also won eight of their last 11 games, which certainly doesn’t hurt either.

This is Nebraska’s first selection for the NCAA Tournament since 2022, however the Huskers fell to Gonzaga in the first round that year. The last NCAA Tournament win for Nebraska came in 2014. Coach Amy Williams has not won an NCAA Tournament game in her eight season at the helm of the Huskers.4

As for the Aggies, they went 19-12 overall and 6-10 in the SEC, tying the program for ninth place in the conference.

Nebraska hosted a watch party on Sunday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena. You can catch the reactions here, and I’m pleased to see Kendall Moriarty’s dance reaction return from 2022.

Now the work begins for the women’s team as well as the prepare to head to Oregon.

“It’s going to be really fun to see what we can do,” Markowski said. “Now that we’re there and now that we’re in a position to win games, we’re just ready. We put in the work. We’re going to trust our training, trust our coaches and it’s going to show.”

The Huskers and Aggies will face off on Friday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

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If you are already tired of the headlines before they happen, you might enjoy Rienk Mast’s quote on Alberts: "We're not playing the athletic director. We're playing the men's basketball team."

If you’re curious, appearing in the NCAA Tournament earned Hoiberg a $150,000 bonus. If the Huskers can get that first win and make it to the Round of 32, he’ll get another $30,000. From there, Round of 16 earns $40,000, Elite 8 earns $55,000, Final Four earns $75,000 and a national title earns $300,000. The $150,000 is guaranteed, and anything else earned is the greater of.

Funny enough, Hoiberg actually thought Nebraska would be paired up with Iowa State to play on that storyline. He wasn’t expecting A&M, but it doesn’t faze him or the team. “For us, for our guys, we couldn’t care less about any storyline, whatever it is,” he said. “We’ve just got to get to work, knowing we are facing a very, very tough basketball team that’s really, really talented.”

Williams will receive at least $71,500 as a bonus for Nebraska’s bid to the NCAA Tournament. That is based on 10% of her salary, which is $715,000. If Nebraska makes it to the Sweet 16, that increases to 15% of her base salary, while a Final Four appearance increases to 20% and a tournament championship is 25%.