Will The Basketball Gods Shine Upon the Huskers?

Big Red's men's and women's basketball teams are heading into March with dreams of NCAA tourney bids.

I was all set to write about how both the Husker men's and women's basketball teams had hit the 20 win mark for the season. The men's had already reached that earlier by downing the Minnesota Gophers 73-55 on Sunday, February 25th. They added another victory last Sunday by beating Rutgers at home 67-56.

Husker Women

So how are the women doing so far? All they had to do to reach 20 wins was to take care of business Sunday by beating 9th place Illinois (7-10 /14-14) on the road.

But the ladies went cold late in that game and fell 74-73.

So close but yet so far.

Coming up this week is the Big Ten women's tournament in Minneapolis. The fifth-seeded Huskers with a 19-10 /11-7 record earned a bye for the first day (Wednesday) of the tournament.

The following afternoon, NU will play the winner of the Northwestern (4-14 /9-20)-Purdue (5-13 /12-17) game at about 3:00 p.m. Central. By winning that game, NU would join their male counterparts with 20 wins.

Obviously, any win in the conference tourney would help NU's chances of earning a ticket to the Big Dance.

This Just In

The basketball gods are smiling on the women's basketball team-at least on Tuesday. Congratulations are in store for the following Huskers:

1.) Alexis Markowski (First Team All Big Ten)

2.) Jaz Shelley (Second Team All Big Ten)

3.) Natalie Potts (Big Ten's Freshman of the Year)

4.) Huskers Natialie Potts and Logan Nissley made the Big Ten All Freshman Team.

Awesome, ladies!

Husker Men

The men's team seems to have already clinched an NCAA bid and will be trying to pad their resume during the Big Ten tournament next week. The tourney March 13-17 will also be held in Minneapolis. (The men's schedule has yet to be determined.)

While the women's season ended Sunday with a loss at Illinois, the men still have a game at Michigan this coming Sunday, March 10th. With a record of 3-16 and 8-22 overall, the Wolverines are in sole possession of last place in the conference.

Should they beat Michigan, Nebraska would bring a 22 win record into the Big Ten tournament.

Needless to say, Husker fans would love to see both Husker teams qualify for the NCAA tourney. If you really want to dream big, think what it would be like if the men's team were to finally get its first NCAA tournament win in program history!

Just the thought of that should send chills down the spine of every Husker fan.