Weekend review, what lies ahead this week, milestones, latest reports and rumors on the Huskers

Welcome to Nebraska Weekly! Every week in February, this is where we will review the biggest highlights of Nebraska’s weekend, preview what lies ahead for Husker Athletics and – whenever possible – touch on any of the latest reports and rumors on Nebraska football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and more.

=================================

In case you’re not a member of our Insider’s Board – and, really, you should be at this point and most of you reading this probably are – then you’re missing out.

Just go check out all of the latest day-by-day updates (pretty much hour-by-hour if not minute-by-minute) on all of the Bracketology analysis and projections on where the Hoiberg Huskers currently stand in their bid to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade.

Not only is Nebraska getting everrrr so close to locking up a ticket to go dancing, the Huskers could very well wind up with one of the four double byes of the Big Ten Tournament. An incredible season so far for Nebrasketball.

Here are our top three stories of the weekend in Husker Athletics:

Speaking of Nebrasketball…

Husker women’s basketball stud freshman Natalie Potts was honored with the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Week award.

That marks a league-leading seventh B1G FOTY honor for Potts, a 6-foot-2 forward hailing from O’Fallon, Missouri who averaged 15.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals to help lead the Huskers to wins over Northwestern (75-50) and Minnesota (70-51) over the past week.

Potts posted her fourth double-double of the year against Northwestern with game-highs of 18 points, 10 rebounds and three steals on Tuesday before wrapping up her week with 12 points, seven boards, one steal and one block against the Gophers on Saturday. She shot 68.9 percent from the floor (11-of-16) and a perfect 100 percent on free throws (7-for-7) during the two-game run.

Potts, who has started all 28 games, is now averaging 10.4 points and 5.4 rebounds this season while posting a 52.6 percent shooting percentage on field goals and 85.9 percent from the line. She is the only Big Ten freshman to win more than three weekly awards this season in helping Nebraska (19-9, 11-6 Big Ten) reach fourth place in the Big Ten standings and inch closer to locking down an NCAA Tournament berth.

Potts and the Huskers can hit the 20-win plateau in Sunday’s regular season finale at Illinois (3 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network) before the conference tournament begins March 6.

Potts is in line to capture the conference’s Freshman of the Year award for the season, which will be announced next Tuesday (March 5).

More like Natalie P(OTY)tts.

Potts is not the only Nebraska women’s athlete seeing her stock soar and winning awards.

Husker softball star Billie Andrews was named Big Ten Softball Player of the Week following an outstanding performance at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic over the weekend.

Andrews went on a tear during the Huskers’ five-game run – all of which came against teams that reached the NCAA Tournament last season – going 13-for-21 (.619 average) with four home runs, one double, six RBIs, eight runs scored and a 1.238 slugging percentage.

Andrews and the Huskers (8-6) went just 2-3 over the three-day span but did face stiff competition with games against three ranked opponents and a fourth that is receiving votes in the top 25 polls.

Nebraska took down No. 23 Oregon (6-0) and Cal State Fullerton (6-3) while falling to San Diego State in eight innings (3-2), No. 19 UCLA (9-8) and No. 20 Utah (9-5). UCLA remains ranked 19th while Oregon is now ranked 25th. Utah has since fallen out of the polls but received 61 votes in the poll (Oregon received 69 to edge out the Utes) and SDSU received 10 votes.

It was a good showing against quality opponents for the Huskers, and it was led by the power bat of Andrews.

Against UCLA, she went 3-for-5 with two home runs, two RBIs and three runs. The next day, she was 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and three runs scored against Oregon. She then went a perfect 4-for-4 with a home run against Utah to close out the tournament. Her best performances came against ranked teams as she finished 10-for-13 with four home runs, five RBIs and seven runs scored against those three clubs.

She led all players at the Mary Nutter Classic – a loaded field featuring 30 teams, including nine ranked clubs – in hits, home runs and slugging percentage while finishing third among all players in batting average and runs scored. Andrews went on a five-game hitting streak during the event, including a four-hit game, a pair of three-hit games and a two-hit game.

It was the second Big Ten Player of the Week award for Andrews, who followed up Sydney Gray’s standout performance the weekend prior that landed her Co-Big Ten POTW honors at the Troy Cox Classic in New Mexico.

We’re putting this in the No. 3 slot on purpose:

For those wanting – needing – their fix of Nebraska football as we grind through these trying times of the February offseason, the Huskers gave you a little taste with the release of another Nebraska FB documentary.

This one is entitled “Chasing 3” which goes behind the scenes for an in-depth look at the Huskers’ winter workouts. Check out the 47-minute EPISODE ONE RIGHT HERE.

=========================

ENJOYING INSIDE NEBRASKA?

CONSIDER AN ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION for less than $2/week to unlock all of our premium articles and sound off on the hot topics on our INSIDER’S BOARD