Nebraska Basketball: NCAA Tournament history for Cornhuskers

Nebraska basketball has not had success in the NCAA Tournament and are currently the only Power 5 school not to have recorded a win in the big dance.

While it’s frustrating for Nebraska basketball fans to have never witnessed their team win a March Madness game, the Cornhuskers have never been a basketball school. When I told my mom that stat about the Huskers never winning a postseason game, she just shrugged and said “We’re not a basketball school.”

She may not care, but I certainly do. With another year of college hoops in the books and the Huskers not in the big dance, I decided to take a trip back through time and recount all of the seasons in which Nebraska made it into the tournament.

1986 NCAA TOURNAMENT

In what would be Moe Iba’s final year as the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, he led Big Red to a 19-11 regular season and 8-6 conference record. That was good for third place in the Big 8.

The Huskers faced four ranked teams that year and went 1-3 against them. They knocked off tenth ranked Oklahoma near the end of the season and that was what made the nation notice Nebraska.

Nebraska beat Oklahoma State in the conference tournament, but fell to Iowa State in the next round. They were still able to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament, but weren’t able to overcome Western Kentucky in the first round.

Moe Iba left Nebraska after that season and it’d be a few years before the Huskers would make it back to the promise land.