Gophers at a glance: Players have said they need to come out and make a statement in the final scheduled game, against the basement-dwelling Huskers. The Gophers' only chance now is that they win outright at the Big Ten Championship on March 11, and the run for that would start now. The Gophers shouldn't have any trouble beating Nebraska, but they need to come in with plenty of focus in order to improve on the cache of areas where they've been struggling. Turnovers have been a problem all season, while in the past two games the Gophers haven't shot better than 31 percent from the field -- including 22.7 at Wisconsin -- an across-the-board low for any Big Ten team this season. ... Saturday is Senior Day for the Gophers, who will be honoring Ralph Sampson III and Trevor Mbakwe. ... Point guard Julian Welch has not practiced all week and is still questionable for the game.

Nebraska at a glance: Even a win over Illinois seems long ago, and anecdotal for the struggling Cornhuskers, who managed only four victories in the Big Ten. The funny thing is that Nebraska has been able to beat some pretty good teams at times. Illinois is considered to have much more talent, and the Huskers have also recorded victories at Iowa and against No. 18 Indiana. To win again, the Huskers would need to shoot better -- particularly in first halves, where they have the tendency to start out slow -- and rebound better than they have in the past three games. Toney McCray leads the Huskers with 10.5 points and 5.1 rebounds a game.

AMELIA RAYNO