Nebrasketball 2022-23 early non-conference schedule details coming out

The 2022-2023 college men’s basketball season officially starts for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 214 days. Nebraska will officially kick off the season on Nov. 7 against the Maine Black Bears in Lincoln. Husker fans also know game dates already for Nebraska-Omaha, Creighton, and Kansas State along with the dates and participants but not brackets for the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 24-27.

Maine will be visiting Lincoln Monday, Nov. 7 coming off a 6-23 campaign, 3-15 in the American East Conference, this past season that saw head coach Richard Barron mutually part ways with the program in late February. Former Boston College assistant Chris Markwood was hired as the new head coach of the program.

Jai Steadman, a former Husker men’s basketball student manager, UNL alumnus, and native Lincoln, is an assistant coach at Maine. Steadman took on the interim head coach role for the Black Bear’s final four games of the 2021-22 season, going 1-3. The matchup will mark the first time the two programs will play one another, though the women are 1-1 all-time against the Black Bears.

After Maine, the Huskers will host University of Nebraska-Omaha on Thursday, Nov. 10. The in-state programs have not played since Nov. 25, 2014 when UNL defeated the Mavericks 80-67. All-time, the Huskers are 4-0 in the series dating back to 1988 with all four games being played in Lincoln.

The Mavs went 5-25 last season and made a coaching change as well that saw Derrin Hansen let go after 17 seasons at the helm. Former Oregon Ducks assistant Chris Crutchfield was named the new head coach of the program on March 21.

In addition to the regular season games, the Huskers will be making an exhibition trip to Colorado one of the final two weekends in October, though the exact date has not been set yet. The two teams played an exhibition matchup in Lincoln this past season for charity and will be repeating the charity event in Boulder.

The Huskers won the 2021 charity exhibition game 82-67. The game will be the first time UNL has played in Boulder since March 5, 2011. That was also the final regular season game Nebraska played as a member of the Big 12 Conference.

The other two games Husker fans can put in their calendars now are Creighton and Kansas State. The Creighton matchup has been set for Dec. 4 in Omaha. Last year the annual in-state rivalry game was lumped in as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games series with the Huskers falling 69-77 to the Bluejays. UNL trails CU 26-29 all-time after that loss and is riding a three game losing streak in the series.

Former Big 8/12 foe Kansas State is on the schedule for Dec. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. The matchup is part of a three-game three-year series that was scheduled to start in 2020 in Manhattan, Kansas. The 2020 game was postponed to 2023 as a result of COVID-19.

The bracket still needs set, but the Huskers will face off against three of the other seven participants in the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Florida Nov. 24-27. Those include Memphis, Oklahoma, Florida State, Stanford, Seton Hall, Ole Miss, and Siena. Depending on how the bracket shakes out, that could mean a Black Friday matchup on the hardwood with the Sooners.

Other events fans will have to await matchups and exact dates for include the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. There is also the possibility UNL could be tabbed for another game in the Gavitt Tipoff Games against a Big East foe, but there are seven Big Ten teams that must participate to meet their minimum number of games required of them this year, leaving just one other matchup needing filled.

The Huskers are one of seven programs in the league who have played the required four games already. The series is set to end after this year without any further extension agreement between the two leagues being announced. It was started in 2015 and scheduled through 2022. The Big Ten is 2-1-3 all-time in the series and UNL is 1-3.