Nebraska and Iowa are together in the Sweet 16. It\u2019s the basketball game no one envisioned before Selection Sunday \u2014 and no one expected until the matchup was set.<\/p>\n
The No. 4 seed Huskers and No. 9 seed Hawkeyes collide in a South Regional semifinal Thursday night in Houston. Iowa knocked off Florida, the top seed and defending national champion, to get here. Nebraska, the final power-conference team to win a game in the NCAA Tournament, survived a scare against Vanderbilt in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n
This Big Ten border rivalry is hot at the moment.<\/p>\n
For basketball purists, it is far from the most attractive matchup of the next round. But Iowa-Nebraska delivers intrigue the other Sweet 16 pairings can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n
Path to the present<\/p>\n
Nebraska and Iowa fans lived side by side in different conferences with only a handful of sports interactions for a century. Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011, but the rivalry vibes didn\u2019t take root until 2014, when Huskers athletic director Shawn Eichorst fired football coach Bo Pelini, who had beaten Iowa in overtime two days earlier. When asked if the result mattered, Eichorst said, \u201cIn the final analysis, I had to evaluate where Iowa was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Eichorst\u2019s words were intentionally condescending or just na\u00efve, they teed up the disrespect card for the Hawkeyes and their fans<\/a>. Iowa has won 10 of the last 11 in football, and the series has graduated from moderate disdain to full-fledged rivalry. It reached a full boil in 2024 when Iowa police officers prevented Nebraska players from gathering at the Tigerhawk logo at midfield before the game and then the Huskers refused to shake hands<\/a> with the Hawkeyes before the coin toss.<\/p>\n Both programs have other football rivalries that mean more historically, but on the hate scale, it has vaulted to the top spot for fans on both sides.<\/p>\n As for men\u2019s basketball, Nebraska\u2019s lack of historical success and Iowa\u2019s fierce rivalries with other Big Ten programs kept their meetings out of the national spotlight. This year, things changed.<\/p>\n Escalation<\/p>\n Iowa and Nebraska did not play a basketball game of high stakes during the first 14 years that they shared the court as Big Ten opponents. Just one year ago, in fact, they met in March not for a trip to the Elite Eight but for the final spot in the 15-team Big Ten tournament.<\/p>\n But when Nebraska visited Iowa City on Feb. 17 as the No. 9 team in the AP poll, a new kind of storm awaited.<\/p>\n Iowa fans serenaded Nebraska forward Pryce Sandfort, who spent the previous two seasons playing for the Hawkeyes, with boos and insults. Then the Iowa defense clamped down on the Huskers\u2019 record-setting shooter.<\/p>\n Hawkeyes star Bennett Stirtz got loose for 25 points, Sandfort finished with just 13, and Iowa secured a 57-52 win that prompted a court-storming, during which Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg swatted a phone out of the hand of a student who confronted him in the handshake line. The Iowa administration issued an apology the next day.<\/p>\n All of it added juice to an emotionally charged March 8 rematch in Lincoln, when Nebraska honored perhaps the most impactful class of seniors in program history.<\/p>\n The Huskers lost a 10-point lead in the final five minutes of regulation as Kael Combs hit a second-chance 3 with 2.7 seconds to play, but Cael Jacobsen and Sam Hoiberg, the former walk-ons in the Nebraska backcourt, hit clutch shots in overtime as Nebraska pulled away 84-75 to earn a school-record-tying 26th win.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know what we like to do,\u201d Sam Hoiberg said. \u201cAnd we know what they like to do.\u201d<\/p>\n In a matter of 19 days, the intensity around this basketball series jumped from a 4 on a 1-to-10 scale to a 9.<\/p>\n Tale of the Tape<\/p>\n NebraskaIowa<\/p>\n Record<\/p>\n 28-6<\/p>\n 23-12<\/p>\n Points per game<\/p>\n 77.1<\/p>\n 74.9<\/p>\n FG%<\/p>\n 46.6<\/p>\n 48.9<\/p>\n Opponent FG%<\/p>\n 40.2<\/p>\n 46<\/p>\n Turnovers\/game differential<\/p>\n -3.2<\/p>\n -3.3<\/p>\n Leading scorer<\/p>\n Sandfort (17.9)<\/p>\n Stirtz (19.7)<\/p>\n The fan factor<\/p>\n No. 2 seed Houston will be the de facto home team at the Toyota Center, home of the NBA\u2019s Rockets. Right?<\/p>\n The Cougars, playing less than 3 miles from their campus, are sure to feel the love from fans who\u2019ve anticipated a Houston appearance in this spot for weeks. Houston and coach Kelvin Sampson are favored to advance to the Final Four, a year after losing to Florida in the national championship game.<\/p>\n But don\u2019t underestimate the impact of traveling Big Ten fans. Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa fans rate as some of the best nationally at supporting their programs, home and away. And fans of both participants in the first regional semifinal Thursday are hungry for a reason to celebrate.<\/p>\n Iowa last played in the Sweet 16 in 1999. For Nebraska fans, this is a first. The Huskers won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in nine appearances last week in Oklahoma City. And Nebraska fans traveled some 15,000 strong, overwhelming almost every square inch inside and outside of the Paycom Center and earning praise from the mayor of Oklahoma City<\/a>. Media members and other longtime tournament observers described the scene as the most lopsided they\u2019d ever seen in the first weekend of tourney play at a neutral site.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt they had a huge impact on us winning those two games,\u201d Fred Hoiberg said.<\/p>\n