By Pat Harty

Ben McCollum has another chance to join Tom Davis in very select company when the Iowa men’s basketball team faces Nebraska in the NCAA Sweet 16 on Thursday in Houston.

McCollum already shares with Davis the distinction of being the only Iowa head coaches to make the NCAA Tournament in their first season as head coach, while also advancing to the Sweet 16.

Iowa advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 by defeating defending national champion and No. 1 seed Florida 73-72 in the second round this past Sunday in Tampa.

If Iowa were to defeat Nebraska in Thursday’s rubber match, with the teams having split two games in the regular season, with each winning at home, it would then mark the first time since Davis’ first season as head coach in 1986-87 that Iowa will have advanced to the Elite Eight.

“Obviously we’re excited to be playing,” McCollum said Wednesday at a press conference in Houston. “I think anytime you go to a Sweet 16 or you advance in a tournament, I think you can settle in a little too much.

“So hopefully, what we’re trying to do is understand that we’re still trying to win and trying to advance and keep going further and further. We got a tough group, a group that’s connected and, again, excited about the opportunity to play tomorrow.”

That was McCollum’s way of telling his players not to be satisfied.

Iowa already has accomplished something very special by making the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 1998-99 season, which was Tom Davis’ final season as head coach.

So from a coaching standpoint, the circumstances couldn’t be much different with McCollum in his first season, while Davis was in his last season in 1999 after then-Iowa Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby refused to extend his contract.

The players and fans rallied around Davis as he became sort of a sentimental figure.

Iowa would fall to eventual national Connecticut 78-68 in the third round in Denver, marking the end of the Davis era after 13 seasons, and the last time Iowa has played in the Sweet 16.

Until now.

Another big difference between the circumstances in 1999 compared to now is that Iowa will be facing Nebraska for the third time this season, whereas the Sweet 16 game in 1999 between Iowa and Connecticut marked just the second time that the two teams had ever faced each other.

The players and coaches from both teams probably have a pretty good idea what to expect in Thursday’s game, so it’ll mostly come down to who executes at a higher level.

McCollum tried to downplay the significance of playing a Big Ten border rival with so much on the line.

“When you’re in it, like, when you’re playing, you probably don’t really pay attention to it, to be perfectly honest,” McCollum said. “I hate to say that for Iowa and Nebraska fans, but it’s irrelevant that they’re Nebraska and we’re Iowa, in my mind.

“Maybe from an outside perspective, it’s a little bit different, but for me, it could be Florida, Clemson, Nebraska. It’s irrelevant. It’s the next opponent and they’re a really good team.”

Iowa defeated then-ninth-ranked Nebraska, 57-52, on Feb. 17 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, giving Iowa its first top 10 home win since 2019.

The Hawkeyes also rallied to force overtime on March 8 in Lincoln before the Huskers snapped a four-game losing streak in the series with an 84-75 victory.

“I thought they just played better than us the second time around,” McCollum said. “Obviously, they made a few adjustments, we made a few adjustments. I think they just played better and they beat us. So hopefully we can play better this time.

“Obviously, there was some little nuances that they changed. They changed a few things spacing-wise, they changed a few things with their defensive presence, how they did things. Then we adjusted some things too. But they just outplayed us. They were just better that night.”

Iowa entered the NCAA Tournament having lost four of its last five games, with the low point being a 71-69 loss at last-place Penn State on Feb. 28.

But now after two wins the Big Dance, the narrative has shifted dramatically.

The team could’ve easily splintered when the losses started to mount, but it didn’t.

“I thought we stuck together in the hard times,” Stirtz said Wednesday. “I feel like we were in every game, even if we were down a lot we still found a way to make it close we just couldn’t get over the hump. We knew if we stuck together and with our backs against the wall no one thought about themselves or anything like that no one was selfish we just wanted to win.

“That’s what I think we did. We knew we could make a run and then just in the Big Ten tournament we unfortunately didn’t get it done. We were close again. Then we stuck together more than anything just getting ready for March Madness, so that’s what we did and hopefully we can keep rolling.”

Iowa defeated Florida even with Stirtz missing all nine of his shots from 3-point range.

He said to the media on Wednesday that the best way for him to bounce back is to just keep shooting.

Thursday’s game will almost certainly be physical because that’s how both teams like to play.

Iowa will have to contend with former Hawkeye Pryce Sandfort, who leads Nebraska in scoring with a 17.9 per-game average and with 123 3-point field goals — second-most in Big Ten history.

The Waukee native and All-Big Ten selection also averages 4.9 rebounds, two assists and one steal, while shooting 47.5 percent from the floor and 41 percent from long range.

Sandfort also averages 3.62 3-point makes per game, which is fifth-best nationally.

Pryce Sandfort was asked Wednesday how he thinks Iowa fans will react to him in Thursday’s game.

“I’m not really sure,” he said. “It’s not something I’m focused on.

“We’re treating the game as any other game. Same approach as we’ve had all season and just kind of block out that outside noise.”

Defensively, Nebraska has the top scoring defense in the Big Ten (15th nationally), allowing 65.8 points and limit opponents to .402/.301 shooting. The .301 3-point percentage is leading the Big Ten, while ranking 15th in the NCAA.

The coaching matchup between McCollum and Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg will be another interesting storyline that will impact Thursday’s game.

“You’ve got to be ready to adjust on the fly. …Ben has been elite at what he’s done in year one with the roster and getting the right guys to fit his system,” Hoiberg said Wednesday. “They’re playing at a high level.”

Meanwhile, one of the lasting images from Iowa’s win over Florida – besides, of course, the game-winning three by Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras – was the play in which Folgueiras and Florida forward Alex Condon crashed to the floor while wrestling for the basketball.

Folgueiras tried to punch the ball away from Condon, but at first it looked as if Folgueiras had punched Condon.

Florida head coach Todd Golden became irate apparently thinking his player had been punched, and that led to a heated exchange between both head coaches.

McCollum was then interviewed on the court shortly thereafter during a break in the action and he said that the Florida bench was being too sensitive.

“They were just going for the ball…then everybody got all sensitive,” McCollum said.

The officials reviewed the play and ruled that Folgueiras did not punch Condon. Both players were given a Flagrant 1 technical foul, which also didn’t sit well with Golden.

McCollum’s reaction to the incident seems to have lit a spark with his players.

McCollum takes pride in coaching tough teams and his players gain inspiration from knowing he has their back.

“Our kind of thing is we’re all fighters, and he’s the main one,” junior forward Cam Manyawu said Wednesday about McCollum. “So knowing that, I mean he’s going to go down swinging, we’re all going to go with him. So knowing that we’re going to follow him wherever he goes, so we’re going to, we’re just going to make sure that if he’s — he’s our leader we’re going to follow him to where he’s trying to take us and he’s trying to take us to the top, so just trying to follow everything that he does and listen to him and he’ll help us get these wins.”

Iowa (23-12) vs. Nebraska (28-6)

When: Thursday, 6:30 p.m. CST

Where: Houston, Texas, Toyota Center (19,000)

What: NCAA Sweet 16

TV: TBS/TruTV

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series history: Thursday’s game in Houston will be the first meeting in the postseason or on a neutral court. Iowa has won four of the last five and seven of the last 10 in the series, dating back to the 2019-20 season.