Lincoln
--- The Nebraska basketball team will face one of its strongest schedules in the
Big 12 era as Husker coach Doc Sadler announced a 31-game slate featuring 16
games (13 opponents) against teams that competed in the 2009 postseason. Eight
of the teams Nebraska will face during key non-conference matchups won at least
18 games last year, led by a strong field in a pre-Christmas tournament in Las
Vegas that includes possible preseason top 25 opponent Tulsa along with
perennial postseason participants BYU and Nevada.
Ticket
renewals for fans who held season tickets last year will be mailed in late July.
New ticket packages will go on sale at Huskers.com and the Nebraska Athletic
Ticket Office at 8 a.m. on Monday, July 27.
Among
the non-conference schedule, the Huskers will face five teams that competed in
the postseason last year, including four contests on the
road.
“This
is going to be a difficult non-conference schedule for us with such a young
team,” Sadler said of his squad that could feature eight scholarship players who
have never played in a Division I contest. “But we know we need to be tested
early and learn how to play together because it will not get any easier in the
conference.
“Last
season nine teams (including Nebraska) from the league went to the postseason.
That may have surprised some people, but it didn’t surprise any of the coaches
in this league. I think all of us know that this year, the league will be even
more difficult. From top to bottom, the Big 12 will be the best it’s ever been.
So we need to be ready to play from Day One and this non-conference schedule
will help us get ready for that.”
At
home, the Huskers will open the schedule with USC Upstate on Nov. 14. A week
later, Nebraska will play host to TCU at the Devaney Center on Nov. 21, the same
day the Husker football team takes on Kansas State at Memorial Stadium. NU
follows up three days later with a regional showdown with UMKC (Nov. 24) before
opening December at home, facing Texas-Pan American on Dec. 2.
Three
straight home games from Dec. 10 to Dec. 19 follow, starting against Chicago
State, which won 19 games last year to lead all Independent schools in
victories. The Huskers turn around two nights later for one of their toughest
non-conference home matchups of the year when they host Oregon State on Dec.
12. The Beavers are expected to be much improved for the second straight year,
after winning 18 games and earning the postseason title of the College
Basketball Invitational. NU finishes the streak with a Dec. 19 matchup against
Jackson State, which won 18 games a year ago and finished second in the
Southwestern Athletic Conference standings.
After
Christmas, the Huskers will host Southern Utah (Dec. 29), Maryland Eastern Shore
(Jan. 2) and Southeastern Louisiana (Jan. 5) to round out the non-conference
home schedule.
On
the road before the start of league play, Nebraska will be heavily tested as all
five of its opponents won at least 18 games last year, including possibly three
that posted 25 or more victories. NU opens the difficult road schedule at Saint
Louis on Nov. 18 and will play in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series at USC on
Nov. 29.
The
Huskers will also make the trip up I-80 to face Creighton on Dec. 6 and will
head to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Classic on Dec. 22-23.
The Huskers will be part of a solid field that will include Tulsa, BYU and
Nevada, three teams that each won at least 21 contests and played in the
postseason last year.
In
Big 12 Conference action, the Cornhuskers will face eight league teams at home,
including Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas Tech and Colorado. Dates for the Big 12 Conference games will be announced in
late July or early August after the television contracts are completed with the
league’s broadcast partners.
The
Cornhuskers will open the season with a pair of exhibition games starting with
Arkansas-Fort Smith on Nov. 6 followed by a game against Hastings College on
Nov. 10.
Nebraska
returns two starters (Sek Henry, 8.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg; Chris Balham, 2.0 ppg, 2.3
rpg) from last year’s squad that won 18 games and reached the National
Invitation Tournament for the second straight season. Also returning is senior
Ryan Anderson (7.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg) and sophomores Toney McCray (5.7 ppg, 2.8 ppg)
and Brandon Richardson (4.1 ppg, 1.3 rpg). Eshuante Jones, who played just four
games before taking a medical redshirt to have surgery on his foot, will return
to the court and will be joined by two scholarship centers (Christopher Niemann
and Brian Diaz) who practiced with the team last season but have yet to suit up
for a game. The Huskers have signed six scholarship newcomers for this
fall.