The four words you don’t want to hear when it’s late in the season and you’re on the NCAA tournament bubble: Still work to do.

That’s the case for Nebraska as it prepares to host Big Ten Conference foe Minnesota on Saturday in Lincoln, Neb.

The Cornhuskers (17-11, 7-10 Big Ten) missed a big chance to burnish their tournament resume Monday night, falling 49-46 to No. 15 Michigan. It marked just the third time in the last 11 years that a Big Ten game was won with less than 50 points.

Nebraska got nothing offensively from anyone other than Brice Williams, who pumped in a game-high 26 points and is averaging 19.6 ppg. The Cornhuskers made just 16 of 62 attempts from the field, including 6 of 28 from the field.

Take Williams and reserve Sam Hoiberg, who made his only 2 attempts, out of the mix and the rest of the team connected on just 5 of 39.

“We don’t have a ton of shooting on this team,” admitted Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg. “We have to stay in games and give ourselves a chance with our defense. That’s been our identity when we’ve played well.”

While the Cornhuskers shoot for their first back-to-back NCAA tournament berths in more than 30 years, the Golden Gophers (14-14, 6-11) are just trying to reach the conference tournament. That quest took a step backwards on Tuesday night with a 75-63 home loss to Northwestern.

It was their fourth straight home loss, dropping them into a four-way tie for 13th with USC, Iowa and Northwestern. The bottom three teams in the 18-team league will be left out of the conference tournament.

“We’re stuck,” said Minnesota coach Ben Johnson. “We’ve got to fight through being stuck. We are just really mentally stuck right now. Can’t pinpoint what it is when we’re not on the road.”

The Gophers lost despite getting 26 points from fifth-year senior Dawson Garcia, who’s averaging 19.6 points and 7.6 rebounds.

This will be the only meeting of the season between the teams.

–Field Level Media