Nebraska Men’s Basketball Falls to a 4-Seed, Setting Up Potentially More Difficult NCAA Tournament Path

Nebraska has lost three of five games and continues to slide in the latest ESPN Bracketology, which was released Tuesday morning.

Nebraska dropped to a 4-seed from a 3-seed, the third consecutive drop in ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s projections. Since the previous projections, the Huskers played one game, a 68-49 win over visiting Northwestern on Saturday.

Fourth-seeded teams, theoretically, face a challenging path to the Final Four. If seedings hold true, 4-seeds would play the 1-seed in the Sweet 16, then play the winner of the game between the 2-seed and 3-seed.

That’s all conjecture, as March Madness tends to knock off some low seeds on the way to the Sweet 16.

The Huskers’ status as a 4-seed will be challenged Tuesday night when they travel to play Iowa (18-7, 8-6 Big Ten; currently an 8-seed). Nebraska is 22-3, 11-3, two games in the loss column behind first-place Michigan. Nebraska was ranked ninth in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. Huskers leading scorer Pryce Sandfort transferred to Nebraska this season after two years at Iowa.

Tuesday’s game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena tips off at 8 p.m. (CT) and will be shown on Big Ten Network.

In CBS Sports’ Bracketology, dated Tuesday morning, Nebraska remained a 3-seed. In CBS Sports’ projections, Nebraska would play 14-seed UC Irvine in the East Region. The Nebraska-UC Irvine winner would play the winner of 6-seed Kentucky vs. an 11th-seeded First Four winner.

Huskers projected in Big Dance

Here are Nebraska’s last 20 Bracketology projections, where you can see the Huskers’ status through the season:

* Nov. 18: 11 (Last four in)
* Nov. 25: 10 (Last four byes)
* Dec. 2: 8
* Dec. 9: 7
* Dec. 16: 5
* Dec. 23: 4
* Dec. 30: 4
* Jan. 6: 3
* Jan. 9: 3
* Jan. 13: 3
* Jan. 16: 2
* Jan. 20: 2
* Jan. 23: 2
* Jan. 27: 2
* Jan. 30: 2
* Feb. 3: 3
* Feb. 6: 2
* Feb. 10: 2
* Feb. 13: 3
* Feb. 17: 4

For now, Lunardi has the fourth-seeded Huskers playing 13-seed Yale, of the Ivy League, in a first-round South Region game at Philadelphia. The Nebraska-Yale winner would play the winner of 5-seed Virginia vs. 12-seed South Florida.

UConn is the No. 1 seed in the South, Houston is the 2-seed and Florida is the 3-seed. South Region Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games will be played at Houston.

Michigan (Midwest) is the overall No. 1 seed. Arizona (West) and Duke (East) are the other No. 1 seeds.

Big Ten teams in the Big Dance

USC is the only Big Ten school in Lunardi’s ”Last Four Byes.” The others: Texas A&M, USC and Georgia. “Last Four Byes” teams skip the First Four round.

Lunardi’s “Last Four In” are UCLA, Santa Clara, TCU and San Diego State. They would play First Four games.

Lunardi’s “First Four Out” are Missouri, Ohio State, New Mexico and California. These teams are ranked 69-72 and would miss the cut for the 68-team field.

His “Next Four Out” are VCU, Virginia Tech, Seton Hall and West Virginia.

Lunardi has 10 Big Ten teams — the same number as the SEC — in his latest Bracketology (with seeding and projected first-round opponents in parentheses):

* Michigan (1 vs. winner of 16 New Jersey Institute of Technology vs. 16 Howard)
* Purdue (2 vs. 15 Navy)
* Illinois (2 vs. 15 Merrimack)
* Nebraska (4 vs. 13 Yale)
* Michigan State (4 vs. 13 UNC Wilmington)
* Iowa (8 vs. 9 Texas)
* Wisconsin (7 vs. 10 Texas A&M)
* Indiana (9 vs. 8 Auburn)
* USC (11 vs. 6 Kentucky)
* UCLA (11 vs. 11 San Diego State; winner to play 6 Tennessee)

Selection Sunday is March 15. The Final Four is April 4-6 in Indianapolis.

ESPN’s power rankings

Nebraska improved one spot to 18 in the latest ESPN College Basketball Power Index.

The projection for the Huskers’ wins and losses increased slightly: 26.3 wins and 4.7 losses, from 26.0 wins and 4.7 losses. In the Big Ten, Nebraska’s projections increased slightly: 15.3 wins and 4.7 losses, from 15.0 wins and 5.0 losses.

Nebraska’s projection to win the Big Ten championship decreased to 6.5 percent from 7.6 percent.

Four Big Ten teams are ranked ahead of Nebraska in ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index. Nebraska has defeated two of the teams ranked ahead of it, Illinois and Michigan State, and lost to Michigan, Illinois and Purdue.

* Michigan: 2
* Illinois: 7
* Purdue: 9
* Michigan State: 15
* Nebraska: 18

Duke (24-2) is the top-ranked team with Michigan (24-1) second, Houston (23-3) third, Arizona (23-2) fourth, and defending national champion Florida (19-6) fifth.

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