Husker Basketball Schedule Finalized with Release of Big 12 Slate

Lincoln ? The 2009-10 Nebraska basketball schedule is now complete as the Big 12 Conference released the dates and matchups for the league contests on Wednesday. Televised games determined through the league’s TV contracts were also announced with the Huskers set to be seen 11 times on the ESPN family of networks or the Big 12 Network during conference play. An additional eight televised games through Nebraska’s contract with Fox Sports will be announced at a later time.

 

With the addition of the league contests, Nebraska will face a 31-game schedule this season, including 18 regular-season contests at home in the Devaney Center. The non-conference schedule released in June also included marquee matchups with Saint Louis, TCU, USC, Creighton, Oregon State and a two-game tournament in Las Vegas that also includes BYU, Tulsa and Nevada.

 

“We have a good non-conference schedule and we’ll need it to help prepare for what will be a brutal Big 12 Conference this year,” fourth-year coach Doc Sadler said of his young team that returns only five scholarship letterwinners. “Every night, you’re going to face either a ranked team or a team that has a chance to reach the postseason. There are no games that are going to be easier than others in this league. That’s why this year the Big 12 will be the best it’s ever been, and probably the best conference in the country.”

 

Nebraska will open play in the 2010 conference season when it hits the road to take on Texas A&M on Saturday, Jan. 9 in College Station. After beginning league play at home four of the past five years, this season’s Big 12-opening road trip will mark the 10th time in 14 seasons since the formation of the Big 12 that the Huskers have opened conference play away from Lincoln.

 

The Huskers’ game against A&M will be seen on the Big 12 Network, one of eight NU contests slated to be seen on the league’s network package. Nebraska also has three nationally televised games on the slate, starting with its second contest of the Big 12 season against Kansas. The Jayhawks, who will likely start the year as the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, will open the Huskers’ home league slate at the Devaney Center on Wednesday, Jan. 13, in a contest seen around the country on ESPN2.

 

Next up for the Huskers will be a home contest against Iowa State on Saturday, Jan. 16, followed by a pair of road contests against Missouri (Saturday, Jan. 23) and Colorado (Wednesday, Jan. 27) before NU gets into the meat of its schedule. Nebraska’s next seven contests will be against teams that won at least one game in the postseason last year.

 

A pair of home games against Oklahoma (Saturday, Jan. 30) and Kansas State (Tuesday, Feb. 2) are followed by a road trip to Kansas on Saturday, Feb. 6, that will be seen around the country on ESPNU. The KU contest starts a stretch of three road contests in four games, with the only home game in that time coming against Baylor on Wednesday, Feb. 10 (ESPN2) in the Huskers’ second straight nationally televised game.

 

Road trips to face Texas, another potential preseason top-five opponent, on Saturday, Feb. 13, and at Kansas State on Wednesday, Feb. 17, round out the difficult road stretch.

 

Nebraska then reverses course with three of its next four contests at the Devaney Center, starting with a home game against Missouri (Saturday, Feb. 20).  Following a trip to Iowa State on Wednesday, Feb. 24, the Huskers complete the home schedule with home games against Texas Tech (Saturday, Feb. 27) and Colorado (Tuesday, March 2).

 

Nebraska completes its regular-season schedule with a road trip to Oklahoma State on Saturday, March 6. The Big 12 Championship will then take place Wednesday to Saturday, March 10-13, in Kansas City, Mo., at the Sprint Center.