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Nebraska Basketball: Can the Huskers keep trending up in 2014?

By J.P. Scott

Nov 12, 2013; Lincoln, NE, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Tim Miles holds up the game basketball after his 300th victory after defeating Western Illinois Leathernecks in the second half at the Pinnacle Bank Arena. Nebraska won 62-47. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2013; Lincoln, NE, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Tim Miles holds up the game basketball after his 300th victory after defeating Western Illinois Leathernecks in the second half at the Pinnacle Bank Arena. Nebraska won 62-47. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Over the years, when most people talk about college basketball, the state of Nebraska isn’t one of the first places mentioned. That changed last year for a couple of reasons. The one more obvious reason was the fact that the best player in the nation, Doug McDermott, was wrapping up his career in the state.

The other reason was the emergence of the Nebraska Cornhuskers basketball program onto the national scene.

The Huskers turned heads around the country at the end of the 2013-2014 regular season by winning eight of their last ten regular season games. Among the teams they knocked off during that stretch were Michigan State and Wisconsin — two top ten programs at the time. Despite losing its first game of the Big Ten tournament to Ohio State, that late-season push was enough to earn Nebraska its first NCAA Tournament birth since 1998.

As a new season approaches and all of the predictions and prognostications start rolling out, the Nebraska basketball team looks to be in a position to continue what they started last season on the hardwood.

Mar 20, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers guard/forward Terran Petteway (5) shoots during during practice before the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 20, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers guard/forward Terran Petteway (5) shoots during during practice before the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

For starters, they’ll return their top three scorers in Walter Pitchford, Shavon Shields and last season’s Big Ten scoring leader Terran Petteway. Tom Dienhart of BTN.com has Petteway listed as the No. 2 most likely player to be named MVP of the Big Ten this season.

In addition to the return of its key contributors — including the bulk of the bench production from a year ago — Nebraska continues to be led by popular and quirky head coach Tim Miles — the coaches choice for Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2013-2014. Miles has mastered the art of social media as it relates to recruiting and communicating with the Nebraska fans base. More importantly, the guy flat out knows how to win.

Like he has done throughout his entire coaching career, Miles took a losing program at Nebraska and made them relevant in just a few years. Last season marked a two-year turn-around that saw Nebraska go from being an annual afterthought who finished in the bottom third of the conference to one of the Big Ten’s most dangerous teams. When the dust had settled at the end of the regular season, Miles had coached the Huskers to a 4th place finish in the best conference in college basketball.

The in-game success at Nebraska speaks for itself in the moment, but there are a few other factors in play that will help Nebraska sustain its basketball success this upcoming season and beyond. The university has made a visible investment in the program with the addition of two new state-of-the-art facilities.

The first of those facilities built was the Hendricks Training Complex, opened in 2011. It features a players lounge, a 5000-square foot weight room and lockers with built-in iPads. Sure, this facility will get the job done in terms of training and development of current players, but the impact on recruiting cannot be overstated. Recruits love shiny, new and unique things. The one word I’d use to describe the Hendricks training complex is lavish. It’s been called one of the premier practice facilities in the nation.

The second of Nebraska’s facility upgrades is the Pinnacle Bank Arena. The building — known as “The Vault” in some fan circles in Omaha and Lincoln — is a massive upgrade when compared to the Bob Devaney Center. Going to a game at the Devaney Center felt like you were walking up to an old hangar at an Air Force base that might house the remnants of a UFO crash. The Pinnacle Bank Arena, on the other hand, is an NBA-caliber arena built as a basketball-first entertainment facility.

Between the logistics of the fans being on top of you and the noise those fans generate, the Pinnacle Bank Arena quickly earned a reputation as one of the toughest places to play in the Big Ten a season ago. Five of Nebraska’s final wins to close out the season came in the arena.

Given the return of some of the Big Ten’s best players, the conference’s most exciting young coach and a newly energized fanbase that became basketball crazy seemingly overnight, I don’t think trips to Lincoln and the Pinnacle Bank Arena are going to get any easier in 2014-2015.

Nebraska basketball is a program to keep and eye on this season and going forward. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them emerge as a sexy Final Four pick as the season progresses.