By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Nebraska men’s basketball team is nearing the end to what has been a storybook season, but over the last third of the regular season, the Cornhuskers have been more ordinary than extraordinary.
After starting the season with 20 consecutive wins, Nebraska is 5-5 over its last 10 games. The Huskers are 25-5 overall and 14-5 in Big Ten play, sitting in a two-way tie for third place in the standings.
The Huskers suffered their largest loss of the season in their most recent game, falling 72-52 at UCLA this past Tuesday.
And now here come the Iowa Hawkeyes, who upset then ninth-ranked Nebraska 57-52 on Feb. 17 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
But Iowa also has its own problems, having lost two straight games to last-place Penn State (71-69) on Feb. 28 in University Park, Pennsylvania, and to Big Ten regular-season champion Michigan (71-68) this past Wednesday in Iowa City. Iowa also has lost five of its last seven games.
So both teams are looking to get back on track as postseason approaches.
Emotions always run high when Iowa and Nebraska square off and that will certainly be the case on Sunday as the Cornhuskers look to avenge their loss in Iowa City, which led to fans storming the court and one of them sticking a phone in the face of Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg, who then tried to knock the phone away.
However, in doing so, Hoiberg accidently struck a member of Iowa’s staff.
Fans celebrate on the court after Tuesday’s win over Nebraska. Photo courtesy of hawkeyesports.com.
Iowa apologized for the incident and said steps would be taken to prevent something like that from ever happening again.
Hoiberg also explained why he reacted the way he did, saying that he relies on a pacemaker. He said his reaction stemmed from awareness and concern that close contact with cellphones can interfere with the heart device.
It is reasonable to assume that the Nebraska fans, and especially the students, will be ready to support their head coach and to make life miserable for the Hawkeyes on Sunday.
Even without the drama that occurred in Iowa City, they’d be ready to roar with it also being Senior Day and with the Cornhuskers having unprecedent success.
Nebraska is playing for NCAA seeding and trying to add to its historical season, while Iowa is trying to stay on the right side of the NCAA bubble and gain some much-needed momentum heading into postseason.
It is widely believed that Iowa, with records of 20-10 and 10-9 in conference play, already has clinched an NCAA Tournament bid under first-year head coach Ben McCollum.
But the last thing a team wants is to be struggling heading to postseason, and a loss on Sunday would be three in a row for Iowa, and that would certainly qualify as struggling, especially with one of the losses being to the last-place team in the conference.
Nebraska is 15-2 at home this season, including 7-2 in Big Ten play. The two losses came against No. 9 Illinois (78-69) and No. 13 Purdue (80-77).
Illinois and Purdue also defeated Iowa on the road this season.
Former Hawkeye Pyrce Sandfort, a 6-foot-7 forward from Waukee, leads the team, averaging 18 points on 47.6 percent shooting with a Nebraska record 108 3-point field goals. He also averages 4.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and one steal per contest. He is No. 1 in the Big Ten in 3-pointers (108; sixth in NCAA), 3-pointers per game (3.60), 3-point attempts (267) and is third with a 40.4 3-point percentage.
But in the first game against his former team, Pryce Sandfort was held to just 13 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field, including 2-of-6 from three.
Nebraska only shot 5-of-24 from three as a team.
Iowa’s defense has been spectacular at times this season, including in the loss to Michigan earlier this week, and in the win over Nebraska.
But there also have been games in which the defense has struggled, especially on the road where Iowa has lost to Minnesota, Maryland and Penn State, all of which have losing records.
Iowa is obviously more vulnerable on the road, which is the case for most teams.
The challenge on Sunday will be have the same energy, toughness and consistency on defense that Iowa had throughout the Michigan game, and throughout the first game against Nebraska, but without help from Hawkeye fans.
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Iowa probable starters
G 11 Kael Combs 6-4 205 Jr.-TR Nixa, Mo. 5.6 2.4 2.3 .477 .333 .897 25.4
Started Iowa’s last 25 games… career-high 16 points, 4 3-ptrs. at Purdue… 68 assists, 36 TOs… Drake & Wyoming transfer.
G 14 Bennett Stirtz 6-4 190 Sr.-TR Liberty, Mo. 20.5 2.4 4.5 .500 .386 .849 37.1. 126 consecutive starts… 6+ assists in 9 games… 20+ pts. in 18 games… 32/6 ast. at MD, 36 pts. vs. NW, 32 pts./7 ast. at Oregon… Bob Cousy Top 10, Wooden Award Top 20, Naismith Late Season.
F 3 Cam Manyawu 6-9 250 Jr.-TR Kansas City, Mo. 6.9 4.8 0.9 .625 .000 .655 18.7
65 consecutive starts…double figures in 9 games… 14 pts./8 reb. vs. #3 Michigan… 13 pts., 3 steals at Purdue, 12 pts., 7 reb. vs. Ohio State… Drake & Wyoming transfer.
F 6 Tavion Banks 6-7 215 Sr.-TR Kansas City, Mo. 10.4 4.7 1.2 .528 .424 .807 23.0 20 pts./7 reb vs. USC… DI career-high 26 points, 8 rebounds at Indiana… double figures in 14 games, 2 20-pt. games… Drake & NW Fla. St. College transfer… MVC Sixth Man of the Year.
F 8 Cooper Koch 6-8 220 RS Fr.-1L Peoria, Ill. 6.9 3.1 1.1 .421 .361 .778 26.8 Double figures in 9 games; 2+ 3Pt in 12 contests… career-high 18 pts., 5 3PT at Penn State… 1st career double-double vs. Ole Miss (14 pts./10-reb.)
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KEY RESERVES HT. WT. YR.-EXP. HOMETOWN PPG RPG ASST FG% 3FG% FT% MPG
F 7 Alvaro Folgueiras 6-10 230 Jr-TR Malaga, Spain 8.3 3.7 2.2 .506 .333 .714 20.7
G 10 Jacob Koch 6-2 185 So.-1L Iowa City, Iowa 0.4 0.0 0.2 .333 .000 .000 2.1
G 15 Brendan Hausen 6-4 220 Sr.-TR Amarillo, Texas 4.2 0.7 0.4 .329 .333 1.000 10.3
G 23 Isaia Howard 6-5 215 So.-TR Plattsburg, Mo. 5.4 2.8 1.2 .441 .264 .724 18.9
G 24 Tate Sage 6-7 210 Fr.-HS Weatherford, Okla. 6.0 2.0 0.7 .496 .368 .714 16.6
C 27 Trevin Jirak 6-11 250 Fr.-HS West Des Moines, Iowa 3.7 1.0 1.1 .500 .188 .680 8.6
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Iowa (20-10, 10-9) vs. Nebraska (25-5, 14-5)
When: Sunday, 4:10 p.m.
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska, Pinnacle Bank Arena (15,500)
TV: FOX
Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network
Series history: Sunday’s game is the 44th meeting all-time between Iowa and Nebraska, dating back to 1907. The Hawkeyes lead the all-time series, 28-15.
Iowa has won four straight and seven of the last nine in the series, dating back to the 2019-20 season. The Hawkeyes downed the ninth-ranked Huskers, 57-52, on Feb. 17, giving Iowa its first top 10 home win since 2019.
The Hawkeyes swept the season series during the 2024-25 campaign, winning 97-87 in overtime in Iowa City and 83-68 in Lincoln in a Big Ten Tournament qualifying elimination game.
Nebraska is 11-8 against Iowa in Lincoln, but the Hawkeyes have won two of the last three.