Hoiberg expects another intense game between Nebraska, Iowa

Nebraska basketball coach Fred Hoiberg is looking forward to the Huskers’ first-ever Sweet 16 game, but he knows it’s going to be a tough matchup. Nebraska will play conference rival Iowa for a third time this year, and the coach said the Hawkeyes are playing at a high level.

“I think they're playing their best stretch of basketball of the season right now. And you know, we're going to have to have a great couple days of preparation to get ourselves ready,” Hoiberg said.

Nebraska and Iowa play at 6:30 p.m. CT in Houston Thursday. The game will be televised on TBS.

The two teams split their regular season matchups, with Iowa winning 57-52 in Iowa City on Feb. 17 and Nebraska returning the favor with an 84-75 overtime win in Lincoln on March 8.

Those games were both very intense, and Hoiberg said he doesn’t expect anything different Thursday.

“You know, listen, our first two games were highly, highly competitive, emotional games, and it's going to be like that again on Thursday,” he said.

Both teams are having success in the NCAA tournament that perhaps wasn’t expected.

Nebraska, a No. 4 seed, won its first tournament game ever last Thursday with a 76-47 win over Troy and then followed it up with a nail-biting 74-72 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday. Redshirt freshman Braden Frager scored the winning points on a layup with 2.2 seconds left, and then the Huskers watched Vanderbilt come within inches of making what would have been a game-winning three-pointer from beyond half court.

Iowa, a No. 9 seed with a first-year coach, beat Clemson in the first round and then upset No. 1 seed Florida on Sunday by hitting a game-winning three-pointer with less than five seconds left in the game.

The Hawkeyes have had much more NCAA tournament success than Nebraska, but this is their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 1999.

Hoiberg said one of the keys to the game will be making sure his team is ready to play Iowa, who he said is “really hot” right now.

“Now, you know, we talk about walls up and talk about limiting distractions and laser focus, now more than ever, because there's more attention, and if you get caught up in it, you're not going to be ready to play,” Hoiberg said. “And so far, our guys have done a good job with that, but it's gonna have to be even better on going into this game on Thursday.”

He said the team will practice Tuesday morning before boarding a plane for Houston.

If the Huskers win Thursday, they would play Saturday against the winner of the Illinois-Houston game for a chance to go to the Final Four.