Now It Gets Real

[coolonetoo]

League play starts Friday. My thoughts on the season so far and the road ahead:

February 17-March 5 - Season Opening Southwest Weekends - I think the two rained out games in Tempe really hurt. Win or lose, missing a pair of real games outside the first week slowed progress across the board. No shame in losing two to Oregon State. The Beavers are 21-1. One more win against Riverside/Utah/Okie State/Arkansas sure would have made a difference.

March 7-19 - Opening Home Stand - 6-2 isn't terrible and two bad teams in Northern Colorado and College of Charleston were utterly dominated. But losing two to Western Carolina was regrettable. I expected one more win in this stretch.

March 21-28 - Spring Break - I don't think a five-game sweep on the road should ever be anticipated but the games in California were against pretty weak competition and both losses were quite disappointing. Smashing K-State felt great. Again, I think this segment ended one win below what was needed.

So, add it all up and--with the two canceled games--Nebraska's four or five wins behind where it needed to be at this point in the season. In my opinion there should be two areas of focus from this point forward: Winning the Big Ten and taking care of business against UNO and Creighton. Doing so would probably mean 22-24 more wins before the conference tourney.

The next three weeks will probably determine if that's going to happen. Indiana and Maryland are contenders and Iowa isn't great but it has Illinois, Northwestern and Penn State--the bottom of the conference--on the schedule.

The non-con was rougher than it should have been but finally winning the league would remedy that...

 

[bigredrl]

Another year where we are behind the 8 ball coming out of non conference play. Team might get to 35 wins, but 40 came and gone a long time ago.

35 or slightly + might do it if all the cards fall right, but I still believe the only way this team is going to a regional is by winning he B1G tournament.

 

[sklarbodds]

I still think if we win 35 we've probably got a good chance, but yeah a lot of 'how' depends on that...

I think you summed up the season well, we have some high points and low points and a few near misses. The last 2 weeks have been good, but we're going to have to play really really well in B1G play to give this season an overall positive.

 

[Truehuskerfan]

If memory serves, last year there was a lot of doubt that we would be able to get enough wins to get in the NCAA tournament. We got in with 37 though, and that was even after going 0-2 in the B1G tournament. I think it's really hard at this point to say how many wins we need-that picture doesn't really become clear for at least another month or so.

 

[coolonetoo]

If memory serves, last year there was a lot of doubt that we would be able to get enough wins to get in the NCAA tournament. We got in with 37 though, and that was even after going 0-2 in the B1G tournament. I think it's really hard at this point to say how many wins we need-that picture doesn't really become clear for at least another month or so.

Exactly why finishing first should be the goal. Minnesota had 34 wins and a 50-ish RPI last year and was a #2 seed. Forget about overall wins. Just prove your the best team in a conference that should get multiple teams in the tournament.

 

[huskerbaseball13]

Exactly why finishing first should be the goal. Minnesota had 34 wins and a 50-ish RPI last year and was a #2 seed. Forget about overall wins. Just prove your the best team in a conference that should get multiple teams in the tournament.

A series win this weekend would go a long ways for our trek to #1 in the BIG 10. We haven't even played a conference game yet and we are already 1.5 games back from the Hoosiers.

 

[saluno22]

If memory serves, last year there was a lot of doubt that we would be able to get enough wins to get in the NCAA tournament. We got in with 37 though, and that was even after going 0-2 in the B1G tournament. I think it's really hard at this point to say how many wins we need-that picture doesn't really become clear for at least another month or so.

Yep, it was real sobering going from "Think we might host a regional?" one month to "Will we even make the field?" the next.