Digging into the Nebrasketball Non Conference Slate

So the non conference slate came out this week for Husker Basketball. Like normal, there are a hand full of marque games sprinkled between a bunch of no name schools. Here is a brief rundown of each non conference opponent for the upcoming season.

Sunday, Nov. 13 - Sacramento State

Hornets end up near the bottom of the Big Sky Conference last year. They had a decent season in 2014-15 and are most likely still rebuilding. Expect this to be a big scoring game for the Huskers to start the year off.

Tuesday, Nov. 15 - University of Mary

The Marauders are coming of a decent 19-12 season. That is though, in Division II. Never sleep on these lower level teams but I wouldn’t expect anything outside of a blowout.

Saturday, Nov. 19 - Louisiana Tech

At face value this looks like a guarantee W for the Huskers. However, this bulldog team ended up 23-10 last year with a fairly young team and first year head coach Eric Konkol. It’s even more impressive that they beat Ohio State last year 82-74 in Columbus. Expect a more experienced team to come in to Lincoln and try to pull off a victory against the Big Red. This should be the first game the Huskers will be tested.

Wooden Legacy Tournament

Thursday, Nov. 24 vs. Dayton (Wooden Legacy)

Nebraska heads to California for the Wooden Legacy tournament this season. First game is against Dayton who made the NCAA Tournament last season with a 25-8 record. This all while starting the season with only 6 scholarship players. Most of the experience comes back in 2016 and could cause some mismatch problems for Nebraska.

Friday, Nov. 25 vs. UCLA/Portland (Wooden Legacy)

Depending on what happens the Huskers could be playing either UCLA or Portland in the second game of the tournament. Brief synopsis is that Portland stinks and has a first year head coach in Terry Porter. UCLA had a rough 2015-16 season but return a majority of the team along with some pretty impressive recruits. Many are looking at the Bruins as a Top 25 team.

Sunday, Nov. 27 vs. Cal State Northridge, New Mexico, Texas A&M or Virginia Tech (Wooden Legacy)

I’m not going to go deep into each one of these teams as we will most likely not play all of them. Cal State Northridge - Not great, New Mexico - Not terrible, Texas A&M - Fairly good, and Virginia Tech - Fairly decent. #Slacker

Wednesday, Nov. 30 at Clemson

Clemson ended last year at 17-14 and in the middle of the ACC. They did pull off some impressive wins against Syracuse, Louisville, Duke, and Miami. Expect a touch game in South Carolina to end the month out.

Saturday, Dec. 3 - South Dakota

14-18 and second to last in the Summit League. Next school please.

Wednesday, Dec. 7 - Creighton

The Bluejays had a fairly respectable 20-15 record and ended up in the middle of the Big East with wins over Xavier, Butler, and Seaton Hall. They made it to the quarterfinals of the NIT before being knocked out by BYU. Expect an improved team this year, even with all the departures in the offseason.

Saturday, Dec. 10 at Kansas

Who misses Big 12 basketball? I sure do and this game will give us a little taste of the old days. Basketball is just more fun to watch there. Unfortunatly, KU beat us a lot back then and this game might not be much different. The Jayhawks made it all the way to the Elite Eight last year and should be a contender again this year. All these folks do is reload, even with so many leaving for the draft and graduating.

Sunday, Dec. 18 - Gardner-Webb

These aren’t the Bulldogs, they’re the “Running Bulldogs”. I’ll try to find out why and explain for our preview of this game later on. They made it a winning season by going 17-16 with a fairly small squad. Nebraska shouldn’t have much trouble.

Tuesday, Dec. 20 - Southern

Southern had a fairly decent run in the SWAC and ended the season at 22-13. They ended up winning the conference tournament and was closely defeated by Holy Cross 55-59 in the NCAA Tournament. This is my pick for a possible upset by the visiting team.

That’s it for now. Make sure you keep in with us for deeper analysis when the season gets closer.

• GBR!