2025-26 Polls and Rankings

After last night's win the Huskers are 11 in the NET, 19 at Ken Pom, 21 at Bart Torvik (T-Rank), 19 at Evan Miya, 23 in ESPN's BPI & 3 in ESPN's SOR.
 
After last night's win the Huskers are 11 in the NET, 19 at Ken Pom, 21 at Bart Torvik (T-Rank), 19 at Evan Miya, 23 in ESPN's BPI & 3 in ESPN's SOR.
OK, you know way more about this than I do.


How can Illinois be at 10 and us at 11? We are undefeated, they are 11-3 with one of those losses being to US on their own court.

Quad 1
Nebraska 4-0
Illinois 3-3

Quad 2
Nebraska 4-0
Illinois 2-0

Quad 3
Nebraska 1-0
Illinois 0-0

Both have 6 wins in quad 4.

Nice thing is, in basketball, it will be decided on the court. So, this is more of an interesting thing to me than actually upset about it.
 
OK, you know way more about this than I do.


How can Illinois be at 10 and us at 11? We are undefeated, they are 11-3 with one of those losses being to US on their own court.

Quad 1
Nebraska 4-0
Illinois 3-3

Quad 2
Nebraska 4-0
Illinois 2-0

Quad 3
Nebraska 1-0
Illinois 0-0

Both have 6 wins in quad 4.

Nice thing is, in basketball, it will be decided on the court. So, this is more of an interesting thing to me than actually upset about it.
NET is flawed - it over values blowout wins. The fact that Illinois has played 6 Q1 games vs Nebraska's 4 is also a factor because their strength of schedule is better. Apparently 8-0 in Q1-2 is not as good as 5-3 if the 5-3 team has played more Q1 games (another flaw in the NET).

It's even bigger at Ken Pom (Illinois is 8) because their NC SOS is 88 vs Nebraska's 300. Total SOS is 52 for Illinois & 92 for Nebraska.
 
Huskers are 7th in ESPN's Power Rankings this week.

ESPN Power Rankings 1/8/26

7.​

Previous ranking: 12
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When Fred Hoiberg was at Iowa State, he was considered one of the best offensive coaches in the country. His final four offenses in Ames ranked in the top 25 nationally, including the 2013 and 2014 teams, which were inside the top 10 at KenPom. He hasn't had the same success at that end of the floor in Lincoln, but there has been a fascinating flip: The Cornhuskers' defense has ranked ahead of their offense in five of his seven seasons at the helm. That's the case this season, too. The Cornhuskers have a top-20 defense and recently held Michigan State to 0.87 points per possession. Only five of their 15 opponents have surpassed 1 point per possession.

Next seven days: at Indiana (Jan. 10), vs. Oregon (Jan. 13)
 
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