Iowa Prepares For Top 20 Showdown vs. Nebraska

New Years Day is usually reserved for College Football, but Carver-Hawkeye Arena will be packed for a Top 20 showdown in women's basketball.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are fresh off a win in the ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Vanderbilt, but now all eyes are on head coach Jan Jensen and her women's squad.

Iowa may have dropped games to No. 10 Iowa State and No. 1 UConn, but those are quaity losses, to say the least. They sure would've loved to have the Cyclones game back, but it's clear they were outmatched against the Huskies.

Thankfully for Jensen and company, they came back with a 23 point win over Penn State. That pushed them to 11-2 (2-0) as they're set to face No. 20 Nebraska, a team who just lost their first game of the year.

No. 14 Iowa vs. No 20 Nebraska

Bold & Gold 🤩 pic.twitter.com/tWZzPZqbWv
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) January 1, 2026

There's two ways to look at this game as it could be a blessing or a curse they have to face the Cornhuskers now. Sure, Nebraska just fell to No. 17 USC, so now they're seemingly going to be more hungry than ever.

The other side of the coin is Nebraska is a bit weakened by that loss to the Trojans and Iowa can further exploit that. Playing at home is a huge advantage for the Hawkeyes, and they also are coming off an extra day of rest.

Nebraska has an extremely high-powered offense, and even that may be an understatement. In their 12 wins, they haven't scored fewer than 80 points. They've dropped triple digits three times, including scoring 101 on the same Penn State team Iowa just beat.

The Jury Is Still Out On Nebraska

🍿👀 @autumnjohnsontv 's Games of the Week#NCAAWBB pic.twitter.com/59BuqFGNWF
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) December 31, 2025

Just 13 games into the season, it's hard to tell exactly how good this Cornhuskers squad is. If they drop back to back games against the Trojans and Hawkeyes, it's clear they aren't a Top 20 team. Should they pull off an upset and beat Iowa, in Iowa City no less, that would certainly turn some heads.

That said, Nebraska doesn't have many quality wins this season. Earlier in the year they took down Creighton, but the Blue Jays are just 6-7 on the year. Nebraska did hand Virginia one of their three losses, so that's probably their best win of the year. That said, Virginia also lost to 5-7 UMBC so it's not like the Cavaliers are some super feared squad. Having just lost to USC, a loss to Iowa would cement Nebraska as a non-contender which is something they're looking to avoid.

Don't forget to bookmark Iowa Hawkeyes on SI for the latest news. exclusive interviews, recruiting coverage and more!