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Nebraska Basketball finally met fan expectations vs Terrapins

By Leigh Oleszczak

CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 13: Nebraska Cornhuskers players huddle around Nebraska Cornhuskers guard Johnny Trueblood (4) during a Big Ten Tournament game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on March 13, 2019, at the United Center in Chicago, IL. (Photo by Patrick Gorski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 13: Nebraska Cornhuskers players huddle around Nebraska Cornhuskers guard Johnny Trueblood (4) during a Big Ten Tournament game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on March 13, 2019, at the United Center in Chicago, IL. (Photo by Patrick Gorski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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After “earning” a 13 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, Nebraska basketball is moving onto the third round, where they’ll face Wisconsin on Friday afternoon. The team fans watched vs Maryland is what we all expected to see this season.

Heading into the 2018-2019 season, Nebraska basketball fans expected a memorable season. That hasn’t been the norm for the program, as the Huskers have yet to win an NCAA Tournament game in the entire existence of Husker hoops.

This year seemed like the year that would break that ugly streak, as the Huskers had the playmakers to get the job done on the court. Unfortunately, Nebraska crumbled once they entered conference play.

An injury to Isaac Copeland seemed to be the nail in the coffin for this team, as he was a big time player and losing him was devastating for this team. The Cornhuskers went from being a ranked team to ending the regular season as the second worst team in the conference. That’s a far cry from what the Big Red faithful was expecting prior to the season beginning.

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The Big Ten Tournament, however, has been a pleasant surprise! Nebraska was the 13 seed heading into the tournament and faced Rutgers in their first game, winning 68-61 and advancing to the second day of Big Ten play.

Next on the agenda were the 21st ranked Maryland Terrapins, who had handled Nebraska twice during the regular season. It’s tough to beat a team three times in one year, but with how poorly the Huskers had looked throughout conference play, Maryland beating them for a third time wouldn’t have been crazy.

Well, the Cornhuskers meant business in this one, winning 69-61 and knocking off the Terrapins to advance to the next round. The Huskers led by double digits several times in this one and didn’t implode like they had been prone to doing throughout the last few months of the season.

These two victories were even bigger considering the Huskers have been pretty banged up and haven’t had much of a bench to lean on as a result. James Palmer Jr. was the star of this game, scoring 24 points while Glynn Watson Jr. had 19 and Isaiah Roby had 15.

These guys were the “big three” heading into the 2018-2019 season and their performances in this game showed what could have been had they balled out like this on a regular basis.

Beating Wisconsin won’t be easy, but Nebraska fans weren’t expecting the team to do much in the conference tournament anyway. Making it to round three has definitely exceeded expectations and this could be enough to get the Huskers into the NIT (if you’re into that kind of thing).

Next. NCAA Tournament History for Nebraska Basketball. dark

It’s probably too late to make it into the big dance, but if Nebraska wins the tournament, they get an automatic bid, so it’s not like these guys aren’t playing for anything. They could also be playing to save their coach’s job, though winning two games in the Big Ten Tournament might be enough to keep Tim Miles with the Huskers for another year.

Nebraska and Wisconsin are scheduled to tip off on Friday at 1:55 CST.

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