A Minnesota native, Sam Haiby likes to look at the women's basketball schedule and circle the games against the home-state Gophers.
But there's at least one more game the Husker junior guard has had circled "for a long time."
It's Tuesday night against No. 8 Michigan at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Easily the Huskers' biggest test to date, the Wolverines are a top-10 team, they have one of the Big Ten's top players in Naz Hillmon and their roster includes a familiar face in ex-Husker Leigha Brown, who transferred to Michigan after two seasons with NU.
Tuesday's 8 p.m. contest on BTN will mark the first time Nebraska has played against Brown.
"Leigha is obviously a good player and Michigan's a really good team," said Haiby, who was a Husker teammate of Brown's. "Just in general if we can get this win on our home court, it would be great."
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Nebraska and Michigan played each other last season — Michigan won 64-62 in Ann Arbor — but Brown didn't play after being sidelined by a positive COVID-19 test. The 6-foot-1 forward will make her first appearance on the PBA floor since her sophomore season at Nebraska when she was named the Big Ten sixth player of the year.
NU coach Amy Williams said she expects Husker Nation to welcome her back.
"One thing we feel like, we're at the point where we've moved past that," Williams said. "I know she has, too. She's a great player. We'll wish her well other than tomorrow night at 8 o'clock and we're focused on this team (and) moving forward with the pieces that we currently have."
Tuesday's game begins the toughest part of the schedule for the Husker women. After playing eighth-ranked Michigan, NU will meet No. 22 Iowa, No. 6 Indiana and No. 22 Iowa again.
So, yeah, a possible season-boosting stretch awaits the Huskers.
"That's the beauty of the Big Ten," Haiby said.
Above all, NU just wants to bounce back after enduring its first loss of the season, 72-69 last week at Michigan State.
The ol' saying is you learn more from a loss, and Williams senses that with her team.
"I think we've made more growth in a few days of practice since then (the MSU loss) than we probably did before that," she said.
In fact, the day after the loss, Dec. 31, Williams arrived for work in the morning to the sound of basketballs echoing throughout the gym.
"It was an off day for us, but they were not satisfied with 21 percent (shooting) from the three-point line and missing a few easy layups," the coach noted.
With a top-10 opponent coming to town, NU (12-1, 1-1 Big Ten) has a great chance to put the Spartan setback behind it quickly. To do so, the Huskers will need to slow down a Michigan team that is "incredibly confident," according to Williams.
The Wolverines (12-1, 3-0) are coming off a 90-71 drubbing of then-No. 25 Ohio State. Three players scored 18 points or more in that win. Emily Kiser had 18, Hillmon had 29 and Brown had 24.
It's going to be a really tough defensive task for the Huskers, Williams said, but one that will make her team much better in the long run.
For the Huskers, who had been knocking on the top-25 door for weeks, Tuesday presents a chance to make a Big Ten and national statement.
"We know where we want to be in March, at the end of the year, so this is just one step in the way of that," Haiby said. "We're going into this one very excited. It's another opportunity we have in front of us."