Stukenholtz: It’s Time
March 16, 2017, was a Friday, the second day of March Madness’ opening weekend. Events on the sports calendar don’t get much more fun than the Thursday and Friday first-round games of the NCAA Tournament. I first fell in love with it in 1998 when I rushed home and turned on the TV just in time to see 13-seed Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew bury 4-seed Ole Miss with a buzzer-beater. I’ve been hooked ever since.
That 2017 date, though, struck a different chord in Lincoln, Nebraska, even if you weren’t listening for it at the time.
That day, Nebraska basketball’s historical futility became unique and damning. It happened when Northwestern beat Vanderbilt 68-66 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the Wildcats’ first tournament win in school history. With that, the Huskers were left behind.
The only program from a power conference to have never won a single game in the big dance.
Accomplishing such a feat has required an exasperating combination of poor institutional support, plenty of bad basketball teams, a few great players who simply fell short, a handful of well-meaning coaches, and some plain old bad luck.
Nebraska has played basketball in a major conference every year since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1939. Before this season, they were selected for the field of 64/65/68 just seven times: 1986, 1991-1994, 1998, and 2014. And, of course, the Huskers are 0-7. A first-round exit every time.
The odds of winning and losing most first-round games, especially where Nebraska has usually been seeded, are fairly even. But to lose all seven? It’s kind of hard to do that. There are some bad basketball programs in power conferences out there. Think of one … Yep, they have won a game before, probably more than you think.
So what does it mean that NU has never tasted a tourney dub? How bad is it?
* * *
Back in 1939, the NCAA Tournament began with only eight teams, and the NIT was just as important. The field doubled to 16 teams in 1951. Two years later another round was added, and the field varied between 22 and 28 teams. In 1975, a full first round of 32 teams was in place.
1979 is widely considered to be the March Madness origin story. There were 40 teams now, they were all seeded for the first time – 1 through 10 across four regions – and 16 played in a new first round that created the six-step bracket we know today. Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores in the final.
From 1980-1984 the field expanded again, first introducing 11 and 12 seeds in a 48-team bracket, then experimenting with the first “play-in games” in ’83 and ’84. Finally, 1985 gave us 64 teams with six rounds over three glorious weekends in March and April.
* * *
Each trip to the tournament for Nebraska has been in the 64+ team era. Ample opportunity for just about any team to win, and almost every team has.
There are 80 teams in the consensus top six conferences: Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, ACC and Pac-12 (RIP). That includes this season’s four Big 12 newcomers BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.
(For eight years, South Florida was in the Big East. They had not won a single tourney game in their history until 2012, when they made the First Four and won two games as a Big East member. USF moved to the American Conference in 2013, so they’re not included in the 80, but even they have done what Nebraska hasn’t.)
(SMU will join the ACC next season, coming over from the American Conference. They won’t count in this analysis, either, but they have multiple tournament wins in their history along with a 30-win season and top-10 ranking in the last 10 years.)
Of the 80 power conference programs, 79 of them have at least one win. Seventy-eight have at least two wins. Seventy-seven7 reached the Sweet 16 at some point since 1939, and of those 77 schools, 63 have done it in the last 20 years. 79% have played on the second weekend in late March just within the last two decades – could you imagine Nebraska getting there?
Speaking of 63, that’s the number of power programs with a Final Four banner. Fourteen of those predate the 1979 birth of the modern NCAA Tournament, but that’s still 49 teams with not just a single win, but four wins in two weeks against some of the best competition they see all season. Sixty-one percent with a Final Four, including South Carolina, whose four wins in 2017 are their only tourney wins since 1974! If they could do it …
* * *
Now that we have sufficiently defined how common winning – and winning multiple games – is in the dance for the big schools, just how close has Nebraska come?
The Huskers’ first attempt was in 1986, the pre-3-point-line era. Their first NCAA Tournament lead was 14-13 over Western Kentucky on a Harvey Marshall three-point play. NU trailed the Hilltoppers 33-26 at the break and by as many as 18 points in the second half. Though Nebraska cut the deficit down to four, they ultimately lost 67-59. Eight points is still the second-smallest margin of defeat in the Huskers' NCAA Tournament history.
If they had still had Dave Hoppen, maybe that 1986 season could have ended differently. Alas, Hoppen, still Nebraska’s all-time leading scorer, suffered a knee injury in early February that ended his college career.
Oh yeah, and head coach Moe Iba resigned after that 1986 loss to WKU. Like, that night! His resignation gave way to the most successful Husker head coach, Danny Nee.
The closest result was in Nebraska’s next trip to March Madness in 1991. Heavy favorites as the 3-seed against 14-seed Xavier, NU trailed most of the way but was in front 72-71 with 7:00 remaining. The Huskers relinquished that lead on Xavier’s next possession, Clifford Scales committed a pair of costly turnovers late, and the Musketeers pulled off the upset, 89-84. Coached by Pete Gillen, Xavier had played in each of the previous five tournaments, made the Sweet 16 in the year prior, and lost to the eventual national champion in the first round in both 1988 (Kansas) and 1989 (Michigan). Nebraska’s best team that won a school-record 26 games fell short when it mattered most.
Since then, it’s been a grab bag of mostly blowouts. UConn beat Nebraska by 21, 86-65, in 1992. The next year it was New Mexico State by 14, 93-79. 1994 saw NU win the Big 8 Tournament – still their only conference tournament championship – and the reward was to play a 23-2 Penn team just 150 miles away from its campus in Philadelphia at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. The Quakers took down Nebraska 90-80.
After a four-year hiatus, Danny Nee got the Huskers back in the dance in 1998, but as their lowest seed yet. Eleven seed Nebraska drew 6 seed Arkansas and the Razorbacks' “40 minutes of hell” pressure. The Huskers actually led 40-33 at halftime, the only NCAA tournament matchup in which they have held the advantage at the break. A Cookie Belcher three-pointer gave the Big Red a 10-point lead at 47-37, which is also NU’s largest lead in any tourney game. The Huskers led 59-58 before an Arkansas triple with just over four minutes to go gave the Razorbacks the lead for good. Arkansas hit its free throws and escaped 74-65.
Again an 11 seed in 2014, Nebraska got beat down by Baylor 74-60. Not only was it never close, but Tim Miles was issued his second technical foul and ejected for pointing out a shot clock error. That embarrassing loss 10 years ago was NU’s last appearance on the March Madness stage.
Until now.
* * *
Nebraska has been a 9 seed, then a 3, 8, 10, 6, and twice an 11 seed. They have played, and lost, games in Charlotte, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Uniondale, Boise and San Antonio. Betting lines have incorrectly favored NU three times and rightly pegged them as underdogs in the four other losses.
Locked and loaded in the 2024 bracket as an 8 seed against Texas A&M in Memphis, the Huskers have a chance to further an already historic season. Twenty-three wins is already the second most ever at NU, and their trip to the conference semifinals was their first since 2006 when they were still a member of the Big 12. Eighteen home wins is a new school record. The 27-point win over Indiana last week was Nebraska’s largest conference tournament margin of victory ever.
The list of program “firsts” and “first time in a long times” achieved in this 2023-24 season is long and distinguished. This Friday, we could witness the ultimate first of taking a single step forward along everyone’s bracket.
This is not a matchup breakdown or tale of the tape. It is, however, a table setter for what Friday night could mean to so many. This potential first tournament win would be the ultimate payoff for anyone who gave their heart to one of the worst teams to support in America. The Cubs and the Red Sox have won the World Series, so why can’t Nebraska make some positive March memories for a change? Sure there will be plenty of casuals hopping on the “hey, Nebraska basketball is actually in the tournament this year?” bandwagon, but there are a bunch of you out there who have suffered through bottom of the Big 12, or even Big 8, finishes and long, frigid walks to and from your ride in the slop outside the Devaney Center.
A win would cement the 2023-24 Huskers as the best team in school history. It would also validate all the other influencers that brought this version of Husker Hoops to this moment. I’m talking about Derrick Walker and Sam Griesel, a couple of guys who were instrumental to the turnaround under Fred Hoiberg but exhausted their eligibility before this season.
These teams leave an impression on their followers forever. And, if you’ve followed Nebrasketball, you can probably single out your own origin story. For me, I think about how my Dad introduced me to Husker Hoops by driving us from Bellevue to an overtime win over Kansas State in 1997. I remember watching from up high on an old Devaney bench as Tyronn Lue hit some late free throws to ice the game. (Dad and I are headed to Memphis later this week. This time, I’m driving.)
If it finally happens, call your parent or family member who took you to your first game, or your friend who made you watch some random meaningless Barry Collier-era game in the early 2000s. Reach out to your college buddies who you camped out overnight with in the bowels of the Devaney Center so you could heckle Kansas players from the front row of the student section.
All the ugly history, all the unceremonious dismissals of this program can be wiped away within 40 minutes on Friday. I hope for Kent Pavelka’s sake that this is it. I hope we get an all-timer of a “Nebrasketball Podcast” from Kell & Sutt, the OGs. James Palmer, Jr., Terran Petteway, Eric Piatkowski, Brian Carr – they all deserve one shining moment this March.
Most importantly, this team has earned the right to do the thing. They are talented and deep and disciplined and relentless and well-coached. And, as of Sunday night, they’re favored to beat Texas A&M. Keisei Tominaga lives for the big shot. The moment is never too much for Brice Williams. The front line of Juwan Gary, Rienk Mast and Josiah Allick is legit. C.J. Wilcher and Jamarques Lawrence have embraced their roles off the bench. And you can always count on Sam Hoiberg to spark positive plays.
Everyone will know the answer to the trivia question by tip-off. Most already do. Only one team from a major conference hasn’t won in the tournament. How is that possible? They’ve gotta win one eventually, right?
It’s time.
