Griesch's The Word - Jan. 8

Sometimes teams come out of non-conference play with great records, but you're still not sure what to think about the team. Honestly, dozens of teams around the country headed into their league seasons with just one or two losses feeling confident in there chances in the conference races.

In most cases, those teams should feel good about themselves, but in other cases, some teams played non-conference schedules that were so weak, they may be left wondering what kind of team they are going to be when conference action heats up.

Nebraska is not one of those teams this year. The Huskers closed the first perfect non-conference season in school history with a 13-0 record, ranked No. 4 nationally in the RPI after playing a top-25 non-conference strength of schedule. NU is ranked 12th nationally by the media and 13th by the coaches.

All those numbers suggest good reasons to be optimistic heading into Big 12 play. But those aren't the only numbers that should give the Huskers reasons to think positively about the future.

Statistically speaking, Nebraska has been one of the few dominant teams in the nation so far this year. The Huskers rank No. 5 nationally in scoring margin in the most recent NCAA statistics released Jan. 3. That rank came before NU's 44-point road win at RPI No. 14 Vermont on Jan. 4.

Nebraska ranks ninth nationally in field goal percentage and ninth in three-point field goal percentage defense. A couple of stats that suggest that the Huskers are getting it done on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. NU ranks 13th nationally in scoring offense and 18th in scoring defense, while ranking 17th in team rebounding margin.

Again, those rankings don't include the win over Vermont, and Nebraska's impressive national rankings have not been inflated by playing a schedule filled with overmatched opponents. In fact, Husker non-conference foes posted a cumulative 101-57 record (not including NU's 13 wins against them) as of Jan. 5, and every team on the Husker schedule had won at least five games.

Individually, Kelsey Griffin is ranked third nationally in field goal percentage and Cory Montgomery is ranked 24th. Griffin also ranks among the top 40 players in the nation in points per game and rebounds per game, despite playing just 24 minutes per contest in non-conference action.

Catheryn Redmon ranks 12th nationally in blocked shots despite coming off the bench and playing less than a half of basketball per game, and Yvonne Turner ranks 29th nationally in three-point field goal percentage.

I think all of these numbers give Nebraska a reason to think big in Big 12 play. We'll see how the numbers hold against the nation's best conference starting tomorrow night at Iowa State.

Go Big Red!