After a 3-0 start to the season including a win over Big East foe Seton Hall in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, Nebraska has moved up one spot in the USA Today Coaches Poll to No. 24. The Huskers opened the season at No. 25 in the preseason iteration of the poll.
Nebraska smashed its first two opponents, Mississippi Valley State (106-37) and Southeastern Louisiana (87-35), before ripping off a big second-half run to beat the Pirates 80-57. The Huskers lead the country in points against, defensive rating, opponent field goal percentage (inside the arc, outside of it and overall).
Seniors James Palmer Jr., Glynn Watson Jr. and Isaac Copeland Jr. are all averaging double digits scoring led by Palmer’s 21.0 average.
The Huskers are just outside the top 25 in the AP Poll as Nebraska is first among the teams also receiving votes, up from No. 30 in the preseason poll and 28 in last week’s.
The AP Poll includes six Big Ten teams: Michigan at No. 9, Michigan State at No. 11, Iowa at No. 20, Ohio State at No. 23, Purdue at No. 24 and Wisconsin at No. 25. Indiana and Maryland are second and third among the teams receiving votes right behind the Huskers.
The Coaches Poll has Michigan at No. 8, Michigan State at No. 11, Purdue at No. 19, Iowa at No. 22 and Ohio State at No. 23. Wisconsin is 26th, Maryland 28th, Indiana 29th and Minnesota also received a few votes to come in tied with a few other teams at No. 44.
The Huskers have three games this week starting with a meeting with Missouri State at the Sprint Center in Kansas City on Monday night as part of the Hall of Fame Classic. The Huskers will face either USC or Texas Tech in the second game of the tournament. Nebraska will return to Lincoln to host Western Illinois on Saturday.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
