The Nebraska Cornhuskers haven't had a lot of hope on the Men's Basketball floor for many seasons. They had languished either on the bubble or far off of the bubble for quite some time in Lincoln. They came into last season and had not made it into the NCAA Tournament since 1999. That was a streak that was broken when they would fall to the Baylor Bears in the second round 60-74. Making it into the tournament is a big accomplishment for a Nebraska team, and they had marquee wins against Big 10 powers Michigan State and Wisconsin. The Huskers were downright dominant at home, going 15-1, with the only loss coming to a Michigan Wolverine squad by a final of 70-71. But the overall record was 19-13 (11-7), which shows that they struggled mightily on the road. But this season they are starting with some lofty expectations, being ranked 4th in the Big 10 in the preseason rankings, and 21st overall in the Nation by both the AP and Coaches poll. Here is a look at the Cornhuskers schedule for the 2014-2015 season.

A couple of games to mark down on your calendars. The first of them is when the December 1st game down in Florida for the Big 10/ACC Challenge. They will play Florida State, which is the biggest non-conference road game that the Huskers have this season, because the only other one is in Rhode Island. The rivalry game against the Creighton Blue Jays will be a big one as well on December 7th. As far as new Big 10 opponents, the Huskers have Rutgers at home on January 8th and face Maryland twice, visiting there on February 19th and for the regular season finale on March 8th. The toughest game as it appears today is the contest in Madison on January 15th when they have to take on Frank Kaminsky and the Badgers.

The main reason for the optimism this season in Lincoln is returning Forward Terran Petteway. Last year he led the team with 18.1 points per game and would be the primary scorer when the offense started getting stagnant. Also they have Junior Forward Shavon Shields who had 12.8 points per game. But the primary reason that the Huskers had success was the strong defensive system of Tim Miles. They have done well at holding opponents to a reasonable amount and scoring just enough to get victories. They are not the team that is going to blow their opponents away by scoring from deep, which can be so inconsistent to achieve victory if the shooting gets cold, but defense can always be strong.

The Huskers have high expectations again this year, but they will look to go to the NCAA tournament in back to back seasons for the first time since the 1993-1994 seasons when they were back in the Big 8 conference, and the Huskers took the league title in 1994. If they are successful they will be able to erase the ugly mark of going 0-7 in the NCAA tournament this year, and possibly make Nebraska a place where top recruits will want to play.