Go ahead and call the sold-out Nebraska basketball regular-season finale against the Iowa Hawkeyes (11:30 a.m. on Sunday) inside Pinnacle Bank Arena a must-win if the Huskers want to be one of the 15 teams that get to play in the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis next week.

Fred Hoiberg's crew woke up Saturday morning tied with four other teams for 11th in the league standings with 7-12 records — Minnesota, Northwestern, Rutgers and USC. All of them except Northwestern own a tiebreaker with Nebraska should it come down to it.

Iowa comes to Lincoln with a 6-13 conference record and is currently one of the three bottom-of-the-barrel teams in the standings who wouldn't make the tournament field if it were played today, so the Hawkeyes will be fighting for their Big Ten Tournament lives and hoping to ruin Nebraska's season, too.

Day/Time: Sunday at 11:30 a.m. CT

TV: FOX with Kevin Kugler and Nick Bahe on the call.

Stream: Fox Sports app.

Listen: Huskers Radio Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen on the call, including KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln, KXSP (590 AM) in Omaha and KRVN (880 AM) in Lexington. The pregame show begins an hour before tipoff and will also be available on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.

On Saturday after practice, Hoiberg, Brice Williams and Juwan Gary met with media ahead of the game, which also happens to be Senior Day.

Pregame ceremonies will begin at 11:05 a.m., with Nebraska recognizing the team's seniors: Williams, Gary, Rollie Worster, Andrew Morgan, Ahron Ulis, Braxton Meah and Jeff Grace III, who Hoiberg called one of the largest voices on the team.

For Gary, a South Carolina native, he wasn't sure how his time at Nebraska would go when he first transferred in after three seasons at Alabama. Lincoln isn't the South, where Gary grew up in. Nebraska had different people, different weather, different food. Just a different environment. It was a big change.

But after experiencing the state and the people who inhabit it, Gary quickly learned how much everyone cared about him. Not only on the court, but off it, too.

The support system at NU meant everything — "I'm just always going to consider it home to me."

"I would say my time in Nebraska has been an amazing experience," Gary said. "I can't say nothing else about it. Like, it's been something that helped mold me into the man I am today."

Williams said he felt the same way as Gary when he decided to transfer to Nebraska from Charlotte, the program he spent three seasons at. Like Gary, Williams, who grew up in North Carolina, had only known the South. So he had his reservations, no doubt.

But like it has a way of doing, Nebraska's community took in Williams and made him feel welcome.

"In two short years, this place has kind of been singed to my heart, where I'm gonna remember this place forever," Williams said. "Remember everything it's done for me. Remember all the experiences, the fans. Running out of the smoke and them being loud and cheering. I've never been in a stadium that sells out every game, or that gets as loud as the Vault.

"And then just the people, the long-lasting relationships that I built. And then just coming into my own and growing up and kind of spreading my wings."

Hoiberg said he'll forever be grateful for Williams and Gary and what those two helped accomplish at Nebraska. The coach even mentioned that, three years ago when Gary transferred to the program, Hoiberg wouldn't have guessed Gary would turn into the leader he is.

"The kid plays with so much heart and effort," Hoiberg said of Gary. "And I know he's going to go down as a lot of people's favorite, or up there with one of their favorites that's ever worn the uniform."

With Williams, Hoiberg said you never truly know how a player who's jumping up a level in competition will do until you see it . After spending three seasons at mid-major Charlotte, Williams has proven he can play, and score, at the highest level of college basketball.

"He had an unbelievable season a year ago, but we needed somebody to emerge into that go-to guy," Hoiberg said. "When you need a basket, who's going to have the ball in their hands. And Brice, consistently, has made the right play."

Williams has put himself in position to be named first-team All-Big Ten. His performance at Ohio State — 43 points, setting a new single-game scoring record at Nebraska — certainly should solidify that, as would his Big Ten-leading 21.4 scoring average in conference games.

Hoiberg said he believes Husker fans will get to watch more of Williams in the postseason. Which postseason that is, however, is still yet to be determined.

"Just everything that he (Williams) has done for this team, getting us in the tournament a year ago," Hoiberg said. "Still a lot of things to play out. I'm confident we'll play in the some postseason. Hopefully it's the big one."

There's still a game to play. And a game to win. So if Williams and Gary start feeling emotions of playing their final home game in a Husker uniform, both agreed — they hope they get over it fast.

"I hope there aren't any emotions until after the game, until the buzzer," said Williams, a player who resembles his head coach in that he always stays even on the court and doesn't get too high or too low. "But I'm just gonna try to stay in the moment, but also take in the moment and live in the moment, because it's gonna be something I remember forever."

Said Gary: "We still have an opportunity to make a run, and that's what we're reaching for. So no matter how things go tomorrow, no matter how emotional everybody's going to be during it or before it, we still got a job to do, which is win. After the game, of course, you get to sit back and just realize, man, I'm a Cornhusker. It's something that I embrace, something I love to be, something I'm always gonna consider home."

Hoiberg knows firsthand how those senior day emotions can make a negative impact. Hoiberg didn't have his best game on his own senior day while playing for Iowa State back in the day.

The Cyclones hosted No. 16 Oklahoma in 1995 and lost 71-68.

"I got beat my senior day because I was so charged up and I was so emotional going into that," Hoiberg said. "There's so much at stake for us with this game, and you just can't let your emotions get out of control. I was so hyped up. I was missing shots barely in the back of the rim that I'd made my whole career."

Hoiberg said he was 3-for-16 that day against the Sooners. And he could tell you about all 13 misses, too, because they're still fresh in his memory. Nothing really went right that game, he said.

"I stole the ball and I didn't slam it on the ground, like what happened," Hoiberg joked, referring to the no-call technical at Ohio State. "But it (senior day) messed me up. So you have to have your emotions in check with this game."

There were several blown calls by officials that went against Nebraska in the Huskers' double-overtime loss at Ohio State on Tuesday. Hoiberg said he received a phone call from the Big Ten's coordinator of basketball officials, Terry Wymer, after the game.

"I had a conversation, and he said most of my grievances, I was right on," Hoiberg said. "Which, that doesn't make me feel better, but that's the process. And I know there's nothing they can do about it."

Hoiberg likes the officials who worked the game — Brian Dorsey, Randy Richardson and Kelly Pfeifer — and has good relationships with them. Hoiberg knows they're human, and mistakes happen.

But at the end of the day, that was a crucial game for the Huskers. Hoiberg believed if his team would've beat Ohio State and picked up a Quad 1 win on the road, Nebraska would be a lock to go to the Big Dance.

That's the frustrating part, Hoiberg said.

"That was a play-in game, in our opinion, and our guys did everything to give us the opportunity to win it," Hoiberg said. "But again, it happened. You can't sit here and cry about it. You got to get over it and you got to move on to the next one. I give our guys credit for finding a way to bounce back as opposed to crawling in the corner and sucking your thumb and feeling sorry for yourself. So, you move on. It is what it is."

After the loss to the Buckeyes, Hoiberg came into the locker room to address his team. Thing is, Williams and Gary were already doing it.

"The reset happened right after the game," Gary said. "It didn't happen the day afterward. No, it happened like right after the game."

Fred let 'em go.

"They were talking about how they'll go to battle with those guys every day the week," Hoiberg said of the message. "And they talked about how proud they were of the effort through some tremendous adversity that we faced in that game. And we had to get over that. You can have hangovers obviously in this business, especially when you know you repeatedly get kicked in the gut, and that's what's happening, that's what's happened to us on multiple occasions this year."

Not only does Nebraska (17-13, 7-12 B1G) want to beat Iowa (15-15, 6-13) to earn a spot in the Big Ten Tournament, the Huskers want to right the wrong from Iowa City earlier this season.

Back on Jan. 7, Nebraska played at Iowa and things were looking good until the Huskers blew a 15-point lead with 15 minutes left in the second half. Nebraska ultimately lost 97-87 in overtime.

That loss was the beginning of that six-game losing streak Nebraska went on.

Iowa will come to Lincoln on a three-game losing streak. The Hawkeyes, who lost one of their best players to a season-ending injury in early February in big Owen Freeman, haven't been good down the stretch. Iowa has lost 11 of their last 14 games.

With Freeman out, Iowa has had to rely on its guards, and Husker fans know all about the Hawkeyes' top two scoring options in Payton Sandfort and Josh Dix.

The 6-foot-8 Sandfort is averaging 16.1 points while shooting 33% from 3. Dix is averaging 14.1 points and is shooting 42.7% from 3.

In the first matchup, Sandfort didn't score in the first half but turned into a flamethrower in the second and overtime by dropping 30 points, six threes and eight free throws. Dix scored 31 points, 16 of which came in the first half, when he hit four 3s.

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