NU and Iowa Men’s Basketball challenge each other for the first time in 35 years

The hype surrounding the Iowa-Nebraska football game in November had bubbled and brewed for years. Fans from both sides had pleaded for an annual matchup. The Huskers' entrance to the Big Ten provided that opportunity, and both schools seized the opportunity to forge a rivalry, even creating a trophy for the game.

The hoopla surrounding the football matchup was tremendous.

Saturday's basketball game? Not so much.

In fact, the Huskers and Hawkeyes have hardly any hard court memories. The last time the two faced off? It was the first basketball game played in the Bob Devaney Sports Center, way back in 1976. NU coach Doc Sadler was still in high school.

"So it was like 10 years ago," Sadler joked before practice Monday.

So there won't be 90,000 people in the stands or a trophy waiting at midcourt for the victor. But because of the way both schools have started conference play, each is desperate for this victory.

Both teams have started slowly in their Big Ten schedules: NU is 2-6, Iowa 3-4. Both own upset wins over a conference foe: The Huskers took down Indiana and the Hawkeyes dispensed Wisconsin and Michigan.

And both aren't far away from the Big Ten cellar, currently occupied by Penn State. Iowa is ninth while the Huskers sit two spots lower in 11th.

But NU seems confident that things are going to turn around soon. The opening month of their conference slate was littered with ranked teams and games in hostile road arenas. Seven of those eight games were against teams in the top half of the conference.

The next 10 games appear to be much easier on the surface. As the rankings stand now, the Huskers would have only two more games against ranked teams.

Sadler seemed relieved to be done with the month-long gauntlet, admitting that he expected some rough patches during the stretch. But he stressed that while the following schedule appears easier on paper, the Huskers are in no position to let up at all.

"To be honest with you, I was hoping to be 3-5 out of this start," Sadler said. "If we could have come out of that eight game stretch being 3-5, I would've been the happiest guy in the world. When you play seven of your eight games against teams that are going to finish maybe first, second and third in this league, now you've got that behind you.

"That's not to say these next ten are going to be easy, because they're not. But they're games that if we come and play as well as we can play, we've got a chance to win every one of them."

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery acknowledged in his weekly press conference that even as he watched NU struggle early on, he knew they'd be a quality opponent once Jorge Brian Diaz and Dylan Talley returned from injury.

"I think the thing about them, when they sort of stumbled out of the gate, it really wasn't a reflection of that team. They had a great non-conference record. Two of their best players were injured for the first three games of conference play, and they played three great teams.

"When Talley and Diaz came back and it gave them the seven quality players that Doc goes with, that's more of a reflection of what this team is capable of doing," McCaffrey said.

The Huskers have struggled in past years to win games against teams with similar talent levels, memorably down the stretch last year. But if NU wants to pull itself out of the conference hole it has dug itself into, that has to start Saturday.

Just don't expect a lot of hype to precede the game. Asked about the history NU and Iowa share, Sadler was unable to even come up with an answer.

"I have no idea," he said. "I don't know what the history is. We're our opponent right now."

danhoppen@

dailynebraskan.com