On Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio State and Nebraska will do battle in what could be described as a duel to find footing with the regular season waning.
For the Buckeyes, who have lost back-to-back games, it’s a chance to flex their muscles against one of the worst teams in the Big Ten and gain back confidence after a deflating loss to Michigan last weekend.
For the Cornhuskers, who have lost five straight in what’s been a disappointing and underwhelming season in coach Tim Miles’ third year, it’s a chance to notch a win that’s symbolic more than anything else in late February.
Soon, the bitter cold of winter will give way to the milder March. And barring what Miles called a “miracle,” on the Big Ten teleconference Monday morning, Nebraska is not going to make the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State, on the other hand, most likely will make the field, barring an unlikely and untimely collapse.
Which brings us back to Thursday night, where these two teams will meet for the first time since the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis last spring. Almost a year later, they are on dissimilar trajectories.
Ohio State enters the contest in search of another win to add to coach Thad Matta’s growing collection of 20-win seasons in 11 campaigns with the Buckeyes. Nebraska enters in search of something to cling to in a season that began with the promise of the rise of “#Nebrasketball.” One team is heading to the sport’s postseason and the other is not.
But for the time being, both clubs are busy licking wounds suffered in Big Ten play last week. The teams have handled its respective setbacks differently.
For example, after an embarrassing 74-46 loss to Iowa at Pinnacle Bank Arena — a state-of-the-art, basketball-centric arena — in football-obsessed Lincoln, Neb., Miles barred his players from entering their luxurious locker room. In fact, Miles has reportedly chained the doors shut.
Miles told reporters his team "half-assed" their outing against the Hawkeyes and it was so bad that it looked like "the bad news bears," according to the Omaha World-Herald.
“You never want to throw your players under the bus, but that was beyond disappointing," he said, according to the newspaper. "That’s not what we represent. ... We quit easily today, and that’s a great disappointment."
On the Big Ten teleconference Monday morning, Miles explained his decision, citing deep frustration with which the effort of the Cornhuskers, which finished last season strong.
"I'm looking at our team, we look soft ... That's a little bit generational, it's easy to quit ... I don't care if we're not going to the NCAA unless a miracle happens, that's unacceptable," he said Monday on the conference's teleconference.
He added: "I mean, compared to our effort, the punishment is less than punitive."
Meanwhile, at the Schottenstein Center, Matta is away at work presumably trying to figure out a way to spark his Buckeyes back to their winning ways.
In February, they won five of six games — including pivotal wins against Indiana and Maryland — before back-to-back losses to Michigan State and Michigan. The latter of which raised questions regarding Ohio State, which had previously appeared to turn a corner.
After the defeat to the Wolverines, Matta told reporters, “I wish I could give you a detailed answer" that would explain the loss to a team that had previously lost five-straight games.
"Give them credit, they came out and were banging shots and we weren’t able to draw the line and get the stops that we needed," Matta said. "We were kind of sloppy offensively in terms of taking care of the basketball, but we dug ourselves in such a hole.”
On the coach's weekly radio show Monday, Matta said the Buckeyes would "open things up" and see what happens in practice. And when it comes time to tip Thursday night, they'll do so against a Nebraska team that has taken upon itself a far more unconventional strategy to remedy far greater woes.
Asked what it would take for Miles to unchain the Cornhuskers' locker room, he joked it could be done if they held "D'Angelo Russell scoreless." Which, if this season is any indication, likely won't happen.
But can Nebraska pull the upset at the Schottenstein Center? Crazier things have happened.
