Final stretch taking shape as Huskers eye return to action

It’s been two and a half weeks since Nebraska men’s basketball last played a game, and it will be another 10 days before they finally retake the court against a live opponent.

Like many other programs around the country, COVID-19 has ravaged through the Huskers over the past three weeks, with at least seven players and head coach Fred Hoiberg among a slew of Tier 1 personnel to test positive for the virus.

As a result, NU could only play two games in January, and its next contest won’t be until Feb. 6, when it travels to take on Michigan State.

Even worse, Nebraska had to pause team activities on Jan. 11 due to the team-wide outbreak.

According to a source close to the situation, the Huskers won’t resume full-team work until this weekend. That means they will have gone nearly three weeks without any team activities – games, practices, film sessions, or otherwise.

But while the situation has been an absolute mess for Nebraska, there is some good news.

HuskerOnline.com was told that all NU’s positive players are expected to be cleared to return by the end of this week. Several Huskers have already been getting individual work in this week.

HOL has also heard that Hoiberg has recovered as well as could be expected and was even able to return to the basketball offices this week.

So, assuming NU gets back to practice this weekend as planned, it will have 5-6 full days to prepare as a group for its return game at Michigan State.

That brings up the next question of what type of schedule Nebraska can expect starting on Feb. 6?

As of today, Nebraska is slated to follow the MSU game at Minnesota on Feb. 8 and then at home vs. Wisconsin on Feb. 11.

After that, though, any additional changes have not been announced.

A source said that dates for 14 of the Huskers’ 15 remaining regular-season games had already been set.

The lone exception is the road game at Penn State, originally set for Feb. 14. Due to scheduling conflicts with the Nittany Lions, who are trying to reshuffle their own schedule after four postponements last month, there’s a chance that the game could be canceled altogether.

As it stands, the Big Ten is expected to hold its conference tournament as scheduled from March 10-14.

That means Nebraska will likely have to play 14/15 games over just 31 days before likely playing in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, which reportedly could be moved from Chicago to Indianapolis.

In other words, buckle up.