Hawkeyes men’s basketball team can’t get lax at Nebraska, and knows it

The Iowa men’s basketball team has lost in each of its last four visits to two Big Ten arenas.

One is Purdue’s Mackey Arena. That isn’t an all-time stunner, given the Boilermakers are on the verge of winning at least two-thirds of their conference games for the seventh time in eight years.

But the other? It’s Nebraska’s Pinnacle Bank Arena, where Huskers men’s basketball has seldom gotten even a glimpse of the Big Ten’s pinnacle.

Still, the nine-year-old venue has been rough on the Hawkeyes, who lost there in every year from 2017 through 2020. They didn’t play there last season.

Only the ‘18 Huskers were good, with a 13-5 Big Ten record. The other three Nebraska teams that have beaten Iowa in PBA were 6-12, 6-14 and 2-18 in league play.

In 2017, Nebraska beat Iowa 93-90 in double-overtime. In 2018, it was 98-84. The Huskers shot 57.1 percent from the field.

In 2019, the Huskers prevailed 93-91 in overtime after trailing by 16 points in the second half, and being behind by seven with 43.9 seconds left in regulation. In 2020, the Hawkeyes made only 4 of 33 3-pointers and fell 76-70 after committing five turnovers in the final four minutes.

“I think in both of those games, we felt like we had it won and didn’t,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said Thursday.

This year’s matchup in Lincoln is Friday night. Iowa will be an overwhelming favorite. The Hawkeyes are 9-7 in the Big Ten with wins in five of their last six games. The two most-recent triumphs were a 75-62 decision at Ohio State last Saturday and a commanding 86-60 victory over Michigan State Tuesday in Iowa City.

Nebraska, meanwhile, has been dismal. The Huskers are 1-15 in the league, including a 98-75 loss at Iowa on Feb. 13.

“They went on a 20-3 run on us in that game,” McCaffery said, “so that obviously has our attention. We know what they’re capable of and know what this league is. So (Friday’s game) is every bit as important as the last two.”

It isn’t as if the Huskers haven’t thrown scares into teams. They lost by single-digits at home to Ohio State, Wisconsin and Rutgers, all first-division Big Ten teams.

Iowa, meanwhile, is 3-4 on the road in the Big Ten with all the losses by single-digits. Its last two road games certainly were stellar. Those were ta 110-87 blitzing of Maryland and the aforementioned Ohio State game.

“It’s great to get really excited for any particular game,” McCaffery said. “That might work that day. But with this league and how difficult it is and how different each road atmosphere is, if you don’t have a professional, businesslike approach, you will not be successful.

“And our guys know and understand that.”

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