LINCOLN — Basketball teams such as Nebraska that flip from a 12-19 record one season to 21-9 the next don’t do it by accident.
A confluence of events must occur:
Assemble more and better talent; reconfigure some offensive and defensive systems; and develop a hatred of losing. Yet even after accomplishing those things, it still takes “special seasoning’’ to turn into an NCAA tournament contender.
That means challenging each other to show up, whether at 7 a.m. or 10 p.m., for shooting practice, as guard Evan Taylor did.
Or it means even when you aren’t fully cleared from offseason surgery, you wait for the assistant coaches and the trainer to leave and then jump into summer pickup games, as guard Anton Gill did.
Or it means encouraging players to hang out together like center Duby Okeke did. Or it means building camaraderie and keeping teammates loose by helping create the “Bench Mob’’ like walk-on guard Malcolm Laws did.
What those four men have in common is they are the Huskers’ 2018 seniors, a group coach Tim Miles said is most responsible for adding winning ingredients.
That unit will be celebrated before Sunday’s 4:15 p.m. home finale between NU (21-9, 12-5) and Penn State (19-11, 9-8).
“For our senior leadership to have a team-first attitude sends a great message,’’ Miles said. “Nobody can complain if the senior is not complaining about being out of the starting lineup or about their minutes.
“The guys say, ‘Yep, I get it. We’re out here to have as much success as we can.’ “
Miles calls the seniors his “Statue of Liberty’’ group. They came from everywhere.
Gill is in his third year after transferring from Louisville. Laws is in his third year after coming from Florida Atlantic. Taylor is in his second year, by way of Samford and Odessa (Texas) Community College. Okeke is a one-year graduate transfer from Winthrop.
Varied backgrounds, Taylor said, but a unified goal.
“These guys came up with the idea of a farewell tour in the beginning of the year,’’ he said. “This is our last go-round together and we were going to make the best of it. Hopefully we can get into the NCAA tournament and leave a legacy.’’
Taylor showed the unity at Friday’s press conference.
Originally, the seniors were to be interviewed two at a time. Taylor gathered four chairs and declared that they all would talk together.
Gill and Taylor were named co-captains last fall. Normally, Miles holds a players vote to pick captains. On this team, he felt so strongly about their skills that he unilaterally appointed them.
“Those two kind of became the voice of our team, our voice of reason,’’ Miles said. “It’s like, ‘We’ve been other places. This is what a program looks like. Let’s get this right, we’ve got the talent, let’s go forward.’
“Those two have been critical pieces.’’
Taylor and Gill essentially share the same position, with Taylor starting 19 games and Gill 11. Taylor plays 26 minutes a game and Gill 24.
“We’ve both got real flamboyant personalities and leadership qualities,’’ Taylor said. “I look up to Anton in a lot of ways. I always go to him because I value his opinion. Both of our hearts are in the right place and we want to do what is best for the team.’’
Gill said he admires Taylor for his perpetual competitiveness.
“He pushes me to be the best I can be every day,’’ Gill said, “and I think he’d say the same about me. We both came in saying we’d do anything we could to get this team over the top.’’
For Gill, whose repeated leg injuries — including surgery for a torn patellar tendon — left him worried about playing at all this season, it meant leaning on his senior brethren for emotional support.
“Malcolm was the guy and Evan was the guy I was on the phone with,’’ Gill said. “We spent hours and hours and hours at the apartment talking, just helping me get through it.
“Those are the types of things I’ll take with me forever. When I felt I didn’t have any more (to give), they picked me up out of that.’’
Taylor cracked up the room by declaring, “We’re the best looking senior class in Husker history,’’ with Okeke adding: “Without question.’’
The four also joked about having their jerseys retired, even though none is a double-figure scorer.
Gill smiled and said: “It’s a bunch of guys who want to be good and believe in their talent. You’ve seen that throughout the year. And we like that we control our own destiny.’’
