The Nebraska basketball team is officially off to its best start ever under head coach Tim Miles. They are in the AP Top 25 for the second time this season after briefly dropping out last week. The Huskers entered the season as being the odds-on favorite to make the NCAA Tournament but now that the season has officially gotten underway, the expectations for a Cornhuskers team that just finished off blowout victories over Creighton and Oklahoma State are going through the roof. That includes one national analyst to predict Tim Miles and his team is going to go all the way to the Final Four come March.
Prediction met with incredulity
Lars Anderson, who got his start with Bleacher Report but now does most of his work for The Athletic came out after the Huskers' first win over a Big 12 team since they joined the Big 10 with one whopper fo a prediction. "This is crazy to say, but I'm telling you now: Nebraska is a team that is going to make the Final Four this year," Anderson tweeted out to his more than 15,000 followers. He concluded the tweet by saying he doubted his "pal" Seth Davis (who is a prominent college basketball analyst) disagrees.
This is crazy to say, but I'm telling you now: Nebraska is a team that is going to make the Final Four this year. Doubt my buddy @SethDavisHoops disagrees.
— Lars Anderson (@LarsAnderson71) December 17, 2018
Unsurprisingly, the prediction was a bit too rich for even Nebraska basketball fans' blood.
Even Husker broadcaster Kent Pavelka, who does the play by play for every Nebrasketball game wasn't willing to sign on to the prediction. "This tweet made my jaw drop. But if [Lars Anderson] is right, be listening for one epic mic drop," he responded through his own Twitter account. Anderson wasn't having any back chatter as he engaged Pavelka in a short discussion by answering that the broadcaster knows the team better than anyone and that he would see him "in Minneapolis." Minneapolis, Minnesota is the site for this season's Final Four games in the NCAA Tournament.
Anderson has been right before
Anderson's name might be relatively new to Nebraska basketball fans but he's become a familiar face to Nebraska football fans thanks to his other big prediction when it comes to the Huskers. During what was a dismal final season under Mike Riley, Anderson was one of the first to come and publicly say that sources had told him Scott Frost wasn't just a possibility to come to Lincoln but had already agreed to a contract.
While he took quite a bit of flack on social media for such a bold and concrete prediction, it turns out he was correct in the timing and the length of the contract.
The big difference in this situation, of course, is that insiders are not able to tell anyone who is going to the Final Four. Nebraska basketball would have to win a ton of games that haven't even been played yet before that prediction could come true. Lars Anderson will certainly go down as the first to call it if the Huskers do manage to go on an epic run later this winter.