For a second straight afternoon at the Big 12 Tournament, Nebraska’s basketball team resembled the one head coach Doc Sadler hoped he’d see throughout the conference season. The one all of us saw in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Tough. Methodical. Crafty. Undaunted.

Thanks to Texas A&M guard Donald Sloan’s 23 points - and some timely Aggie 3-point shooting - it wasn’t enough in a 70-64 loss. But NU, at 15-18, had already made its point. Doc had too.

The Huskers’ will to win, reasonably questioned after awful losses to Colorado and Oklahoma State last week, was still there. And Sadler, instead of fiddling around with lineups and pushing too many buttons, stuck with a core group of seven, kept center Jorge Brian Diaz well-fed, and trusted Diaz to kick the ball out to shooters when necessary. On defense, the Huskers communicated in their zone and fought for rebounds.

At long last, a return to a recognizable identity, with players who might get tired and make mistakes, but at least fit the roles they’ve been given. It shouldn’t have taken this long, and the losing and constant shuffling may cost NU a few offseason transfers, a notion to which Sadler appeared resigned after Thursday’s game.

“Hey, that’s just the way it is today,” he told reporters inside Kansas City’s Sprint Center.

That’s true at each school - for different reasons. At Nebraska, more than some, it often appears to be because the coaching staff miscalculated the talent of a player. Or recruited a guy who ultimately didn’t fit Doc’s style. We’ll know in the next month…well, we’ll know a lot of things. Whether NU really wants to drag itself through a CBI Tournament. Who transfers. Who signs in April. Which assistants, if any, Sadler reassigns or fires.

This also is true: There is enough talent on the roster, right now, for a NCAA Tournament berth next year. An offseason in the weight room - and possibly a trip overseas for some exhibition play - will make an even bigger difference. Sadler can search for his Donald Sloan or James Anderson in the JUCO ranks, but just in case he doesn’t find that guy, wise NU fans can’t just settle for mediocrity.

Doc won’t; he’s too proud and hard-working for that. But fans don’t need to make excuses for him in year five and simply write off next season, as some already have, to a sad-sack narrative of no tradition + no arena + no practice facility + the Barry Collier era + no “commitment” + no recruiting = little hope.

No, you can’t put the cart before the horse. But you also can’t leave it out in the February snow with 13 good enough horses in the barn, either. This nebulous debate over “commitment” is precisely the one Colorado and Iowa State (and Kansas and Kansas State and Missouri) would like Nebraska to have. For several years, preferably. If the thinkin’ in Lincoln is always “a dream deferred,” then so, I assure you, it will be.

The weight of history does bear down on Nebraska basketball. But history can be changed.

Is it easy? Of course not. Is Sadler charged, in many ways, with the same daunting tasks as Bill Snyder once was at Kansas State? Yes. Snyder probably had it worse. And yet, by year five, Snyder’s Wildcats finished 9-2-1, and won a bowl game. Former Nebraska baseball coach Dave Van Horn took over a team that used to schedule twin bills with UNO and Peru State to rack up easy wins. In his fourth year, NU earned a trip to the College World Series.

Maybe those comparisons are unfair. But they’re reminders of what’s possible.

“Let’s be real,” Sadler said Thursday. “I’ve got to get some wins.”

Refreshingly candid. And a darn good place to start.

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