By Susan Harman

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa women’s basketball team has a must-win game Saturday against Nebraska. All of its remaining games come with that tag if the Hawkeyes want to challenge front-running Indiana for the Big Ten regular-season championship.

First for the Hawkeyes is the enigma that is Nebraska.

Iowa beat Nebraska, 80-76, on Jan. 28. At that time the Huskers were a mystery. In the intervening 20 days the mystery has deepened. The Huskers have two victories over ranked teams, Kansas and Maryland. The win at College Park was especially puzzling, but suffice to say the teams went in opposite directions thereafter.

Nebraska has everything in terms of personnel to be successful. And many are returning veterans of the system. Quick point guard Sam Haiby is tough to defend in the open court. Guard Jaz Shelley leads in scoring (14 ppg) and assists (6), can drive or shoot the three and is coming off a 37-point performance at Minnesota.

 “You’ve got to keep the ball out of her hands if you can,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “You’ve got to play screens because they are going to give her a ton of ball screens. She has the ability to step back and shoot a ball screen three, which a lot of players don’t have the ability to do.”

The Huskers have bigs galore and use their bench.

Yet Nebraska has only two conference victories (MD, Purdue) against the first division. They only had to play Indiana and Ohio State once.

 “You don’t know what you’re going to get,” Bluder said of Nebraska.

 Bluder was asked why Nebraska hasn’t put it together, and she said it was likely more than streaky 3-point shooting.

“I don’t know why because to me they are a very dangerous team,” she said. “Just because of their ability to shoot threes, how fast Sam Haiby is, they have two really good players who can post up and shoot threes in (Izzy) Bourne and (Alexis) Markowski. That makes them a dangerous team to me.”

 Nebraska’s offensive tendencies make it hard to game plan.

 “This is a team that’s hard to defend because everybody shoots threes so well,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “They lead the Big Ten in threes made. About 40 percent of their shots are threes. They have so many outside weapons that makes it that much harder to guard their inside weapons like Markowski and Bourne, who both do great job of posting up.”

Iowa is holding conference opponents to 28 percent shooting behind the arc. Bluder said that was just execution of general principles like never giving up an uncontested three, movement in the zone and fighting off screens.

 Right now Nebraska is No. 49 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which go a long way to determining seeding and which teams get at-large bids to the post-season tournament. ESPN’s latest ‘bracketology’ has the Huskers among the first four out. Meaning they really need a big win. They have Illinois and Northwestern remaining, and while beating Illinois would help, beating Iowa would be a jolt.

 “They need a big win here, truthfully, but I don’t think we’re going to allow that,” Iowa freshman guard Taylor McCabe said.

 “I think Nebraska is a team that could be potentially in the NCAA tournament,” Bluder said. “I’m on this committee (NCAA Midwest Regional Advisory Committee) where I campaign for the Big Ten. They are definitely on my list that I try to promote them.”

 But not Saturday.

Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

NOTES: McCabe is the only Iowa player from Nebraska and expects at least 50 to 60 friends and family to be in the crowd. She was the Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior.

“It’s sort of weird in a way, but at the same time I’m really excited,” she said.

She has good vibes when it comes to Pinnacle Bank Arena, where the Huskers play.

“We had our state tournament there, so I’ve been there a few times,” she said. “My senior year we (Fremont High) won a state championship at Pinnacle so that’s a good memory.”

*ESPN College GameDay. Bluder was thrilled about the ESPN weekend show coming to Iowa for the matchup against No. 2 Indiana on Feb. 26.

“I think it is remarkable for our women’s basketball story here at the University of Iowa,” Bluder said. “For us in recruiting and our fan base. To be the only Big Ten school, it just shows you where our program is right now with the national respect and again attendance is a big part of that. I’m thrilled. I think our students will get behind it and really have some fun with it.”

“It’s super, super exciting,” McCabe said. “We’re a very fortunate program to get to have this opportunity. The fans and the community are all super excited about it, as they should be.”

The main event will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and the game tips off at 1 p.m. Iowa is one of only three women’s basketball schools to play host to the event. Among the ESPN commentators will be Andraya Carter, Rebecca Lobo, Carolyn Peck and Holly Rowe. 

“They want to showcase an exciting atmosphere,” Bluder said. “It’s all about the hype and the excitement and building that up, so I think that’s why our attendance is so important.

“We’re letting anyone come in. We’re letting students in – 800 students or something like that. We’ve got bus service. We’ve got free food for students. We’re really trying to get the students out of bed and get them to come to Carver on a Sunday morning.”

The game itself is a sellout.