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Nebrasketball Meme Army: The Post-Win Phenomenon Taking Over Twitter

By Kaleb Henry Feb 21, 2023 | 12:17 PM

Nebraska fans have long-dominated online. From polls to message boards, you can’t escape the Husker faithful.

And now, God help your social media team if you lose to Nebraska men’s basketball.

The latest addition to the Husker fan toolbelt is the combination of elite memes and trolling. Let’s start with quick clarification for those unaware of the meaning for either of those.

A meme is an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online, especially through social media. Trolling is deliberately trying to get a rise out of someone by leaving an intentionally annoying message.

The Nebrasketball Meme Army took root on Twitter after the Huskers beat Creighton back in December. Immediately following the game, the Bluejays posted the final score and Husker fans flooded the replies, running the total up to 186.

Here are some of my favorites, from before any of us knew what “this” could be come.

And thus, a Husker tradition was born. Flood the opponent’s final score post with memes to let them know the shame they should feel in this moment.

Nebraska fans proceeded to do the same to Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Maryland.

Note: Nebraska also beat Minnesota in that stretch, but the social team turned replies off on their final score post. Let’s see if that cowardice returns Saturday.

But what are the numbers and why are they significant? As noted, 186 replies were left on the Creighton Tweet. The numbers stayed in the triple-digits for the other victories:

Iowa 194

Ohio State 243

Penn State 111

Wisconsin 273

Rutgers 144

Maryland 281

So how do those numbers compare to other Tweets after these teams lose? The results are shocking, and hilarious.

In Creighton’s other eight losses, the average number of replies is 47, with the highest being 78 after a loss at No. 12 Xavier.

Iowa has a definite outlier this season, with 250 coming in after the loss to Eastern Illinois. Still, Nebraska fans ran that number well above the 78 reply average, which drops to 57 without the Eastern Illinois post.

Ohio State lost to Michigan, and rightfully had Wolverine fans go off to the tune of 274 replies. That helped bring the average to 107, which is still less than half of what non-Buckeye rival Nebraska fans had.

The other averages for replies per loss Tweet were 41 for Penn State, 100 for Wisconsin, 50 for Rutgers, and 62 for Maryland. Nebraska smashed all of those.

And yes, many of the memes themselves are ridiculous. But they aren’t meant to be taken seriously. Calling Maryland a poverty program? The Terrapins have an NCAA championships while NU is still looking to win a single game.

KLIN Radio host Jack Mitchell on Twitter summed up the context of the memes well, saying “fair to say the text of these are not offered for the truth of the matter asserted and that’s part of the chaotic joy of this movement. ”

The memes are there to be funny; a jubilant release for a fanbase that hasn’t had an overwhelming amount of success in football or men’s basketball for awhile. Are some stupid? Yes. But stupid is funny in the right context.

There are three games left in the regular-season. This team is just 14-14. Nobody knows all of this excitement is over a .500 team more than this particular fanbase.

And yet, there is excitement for Nebraska men’s basketball in February.

Should the Huskers add a couple more wins before the 2022-23 campaign is complete, expect the Twitter activity to stay high.

Never change, Husker fans.