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• Photo Showcase: NU basketball, Jan. 18

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LINCOLN — We've seen this before. The upset. The spontaneous mosh pit on the Devaney Center floor.

Maybe one day Husker fans won't rush the floor after beating Indiana. Maybe one day they will actually expect to do that. But they aren't there. They are miles from there. We know that.

We know what probably happens next, too. Just last year, Nebraska knocked off Texas here when the Longhorns were ranked No. 3 in the country. That was supposed to be the beginning of something big. But then came losses to Kansas State, Colorado, Oklahoma State and a burst bubble.

We know how to put this in its proper perspective. One big win, one big night.

And yet, there was something different about this one.

That mosh pit wasn't so much the ecstasy of big dreams and what might be, dreams that often fizzle out.

It was one huge sigh of relief for what might have been.

Nebraska needed this one. That's the bottom line here. There's no other way to put it or reason to sugarcoat it. The Huskers were on the ledge of their season and it was getting close to time to jump.

They entered this game 9-8 overall and 1-5 in the Big Ten. And it wasn't so much the losing as how they were losing.

They have looked absolutely inept on offense. When all you can do is defend, you lose ugly. When you score 40 and 45 points in defeats, there's nothing quite as ugly.

Lose this one and it's 9-9 and 1-6. And that light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. The Buckeye Express.

Then comes games at Iowa and Northwestern. Then Minnesota and Michigan and so forth and so on.

And then the final six weeks become a long walk through the brutal winter. It becomes harder to show up for practice, harder to try. Everywhere you go, people talking about who your new coach will be next year.

Now, those things may in fact still be lurking for Nebraska this season. Husker Hoops is like the movie "Groundhog Day." We've seen this before, year after year.

But for one night, they stopped the insanity. Rewrote an ending.

This one was for them. This one was for effort and continuing to play when the odds are stacked against you from here to Bloomington, Ind.

"That's a credit to them," NU coach Doc Sadler said of his players. "They showed up here with a bounce in their step. It's hard, but they've done it."

The Huskers wanted this one. They deserved it. They somehow got it. That's the story here.

That it came against Indiana was gravy. NU has seen hoops royalty here every year in Kansas blue. But this was fun. The Indiana red-striped warm-ups were in the house. And coach Tom Crean's Hoosier Hoops revival was in town. IU is on the way back and on the way through Lincoln.

The Hoosiers flashed the style that beat Kentucky and Ohio State early. They swished almost everything. They pushed it and pushed it. Meanwhile, Crean paced the sidelines. He must walk an entire mile during a game.

Indiana was up 13 early in the second half. They scored 69 points against offensively challenged Nebraska. They shot 51 percent and held NU to 37.7 percent. They won the boards.

And yet, somehow, Nebraska left with the victory. How?

The Huskers did it with defense. Even down 13, they hounded the Hoosiers and point guard Jordan Hulls. It was relentless. It was impressive.

And then they got some offense. Big shots. Fearless shots. Guards Bo Spencer, Toney McCray and Dylan Talley took turns knocking down shots from all sorts of spots. What's more, Nebraska wasn't supposed to be able to run with IU, and it held its own.

They were the dog holding onto those red-striped warm-up pants. NU wouldn't let go.

But why? Where did this come from? Why haven't we seen these clutch shots before? This late-game execution?

Afterward, nobody could say. Call it desperation. That's as good an explanation for this as any. When you're hanging from the branch over a waterfall, you figure out a way to climb up.

"We really needed it," Spencer said. "It got pretty tough down the stretch there. But we stayed with it. We kept talking during timeouts, we kept picking each other up.

"We weren't going to let them put us away. We had had enough of that."

Their reward came at the end. Hulls, an 89 percent free-throw shooter, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 16 seconds left and IU clutching a 69-68 lead. NU set up a play and Spencer drove the lane and found Jorge Brian Diaz with a bounce pass. Diaz was fouled and made both free throws.

The Hoosiers had time for one play. Hulls drove to the hoop but couldn't get a layup off, lost the ball, got it back and threw up a prayer that missed.

Nebraska's prayer was answered.

We shouldn't be surprised by Nebraska's effort. That's what Doc's teams do. They play hard. Those are the two constants with Sadler's program. The coach has good people skills. And his teams try real hard.

You don't win games or keep your job on people skills and effort. The Huskers are still devoid of offensive skill, inside presence and depth. Big-time talent, period. It's all about wins.

But Wednesday night, effort — spawned by desperation — was enough for the win.

"There is so much basketball left for this basketball team," Doc said. "It isn't going to be easy."

But it will be easier to face now than it would have been. That's what that mosh pit was all about.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

twitter.com/tomshatelOWH

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