LINCOLN — Dear Bruce Rasmussen: Don't forget Nebraska.
There's a basketball season alive in Lincoln. It perked up on Thursday night as the Huskers slapped No. 23 Michigan up across the face, and, in doing so, announced their candidacy for the 2018 NCAA tournament.
You don't make the tournament on Jan. 18. But you can play your way out. You can run out of time and Bracketology real estate.
The Huskers made a statement, a big one, and just in time. There are still over 30 shopping days left for big wins. But this year the Big Ten is like a Dollar Store.
There's not a lot to choose from.
That's the good news for a Husker team trying to make a power move up the ladder. But it's the bad news for a team trying to build an NCAA resume.
NU moved to 14-7 and 5-3 in the league, but those aren't the key numbers. Forget number of wins. Don't try to figure out how many teams from each league will get in; it doesn't work that way. Don't be obsessed with the RPI charts.
It's still about who you beat and where and when.
The NCAA Selection Committee has redefined its criteria, dividing the data into four quadrants. The first quadrant, or most important criteria for each school, is: home games vs. 1-30, neutral vs. 1-50, away games vs. 1-75.
You can get a headache trying to figure out the metrics. The bottom line, still, is this: Wins over good teams matter. Wins over good teams on the road matter more.
In the latest NCAA RPI, the Big Ten only had four teams ranked in the top 50. Maryland is 52, Minnesota is 67 and Nebraska was 69.
Basically, the Big Ten looks about four deep in NCAA tourney locks: Purdue, Michigan State, Ohio State and Michigan. These are the teams you want to beat to pad your resume. And it wouldn't hurt to have head-to-head over the Terps.
The Huskers had their chances against Creighton and Kansas. If NU had just taken care of one of those close games, the Huskers would be Joe Lunardi's best friend.
Now, they should be on the Bracketologist's radar. Finally, they got one.
Until Thursday night, the Huskers didn't have what you would call a quality win. Boston College, at 13-6 and 64 RPI, is wobbly. Minnesota is 14-7 after losing to Maryland on Thursday and tanking. Northwestern, well, has had a lost season. You can't depend on any help from that trio.
The rest of the Big Ten, and Nebraska's schedule, is slim pickings for eye-catching wins.
There's NU's game at Ohio State on Monday night. There's Maryland, at Pinnacle Bank Arena, on Feb. 13. That's about it. You can't even depend on Archie Miller and Indiana. Wisconsin? Ugh.
There might be an opportunity in the Big Ten tournament if NU can get into the semifinals. Who knows?
What the Huskers did on Thursday night, and how they did it, is huge. Beating Michigan by 20 will jump on the sheet in the NCAA committee room. But that alone won't do it. The Huskers need a follow-up.
If they can win at Ohio State, that's not only a quality win, it's on the road and the committee is giving bonus points for good road wins now. If Nebraska can leave Columbus with a victory, they'll be the committee's new best friend.
Husker fans will have enough to keep busy with their eyes on the Big Ten. But NU isn't necessarily competing against its own league here. The competition will be bubble teams from other leagues, such as the Big 12, Big East and the SEC, which looks loaded this year.
For instance, NU might have to compare its resume to Providence (which has beaten Xavier), or Kansas State (beat Oklahoma) or Mississippi State.
There's going to be a lot to sort out the next several weeks. And that was the entire point of Thursday night.
Nebraska threw its hat in the ring, with a buzzsaw of suffocating defense and an offense that clicked most of the night, guys sharing the ball, crisp passes, backdoor lay-ins, and a flurry of Isaiah Roby hoop theatrics. The Huskers had the Wolverines on their heels and the Pinnacle Bank crowd on its feet most of the night, and just to make sure, coach Tim Miles did a Tiger Woods fist pump imitation during one time out explosion.
Afterwards, Miles said: "This was fun." This is the fun part. But now the hard part. The Big Ten lacks sex appeal but it's still solid enough. There are a lot of coaches and teams left on NU's schedule waiting like gum on the sidewalk for Miles to step on.
The good news is, Rasmussen, the Creighton athletic director and chair of the NCAA Selection Committee, lives close enough that he was able to drive to see two Nebraska games (Minnesota, Kansas) in Lincoln and the CU game in Omaha. Rasmussen is on record that he likes Nebraska's team. And he says the committee is less into analytics now and more into basketball conversation.
It's up to Nebraska to give the committee something to talk about.
After Thursday night, they have a chance. Game on. Season On.
