• Photo Showcase: Nebraska women's NCAA tournament practice - Saturday

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MINNEAPOLIS — The Huskers have a message for the rest of the Kansas City regional, the 15 other teams who may have secretly shared one gigantic sigh of relief upon learning that no traditional top-seeded powerhouse sits atop their corner of the bracket.

Nebraska’s here to make a run, and the NU players don’t think their sudden, one-year rise from obscurity should necessarily be used as a means to discredit their season’s accomplishments.

Without the program history of the three other No. 1-seeded Final Four favorites — Connecticut, Tennessee and Stanford — the surprising Huskers generally seem to be viewed as the most vulnerable of the elite.

To call Nebraska an underdog might be a stretch. But it’s apparent that the some of the NCAA tournament’s analysts and spectators, and maybe even some of its participants, are skeptical of the Huskers’ chances at surviving the next two weekends and earning a spot in San Antonio.

Senior Vonnie Turner and her teammates don’t share that opinion.

“If a team were to overlook us because we are Nebraska, that is their problem and not ours,” Turner said. “We need to come out and play Nebraska basketball and do what we do best, and that is to play together at all times.”

It starts Sunday, when the Huskers play No. 16 seed Northern Iowa at 6:06 p.m. inside Williams Arena. If NU wins, it’ll play either No. 8 seed UCLA or No. 9 seed North Carolina State Tuesday. The regional semifinals and finals are set for Kansas City next week.

Nebraska, 3-8 all-time in the NCAA tournament, did win a first-round game two years ago, but the program has never made it past the opening weekend, into the Sweet 16.

Safe to say, this group hopes for more this year.

But it’s not to prove a point to the naysayers. The Huskers aren’t motivated by those who may still be questioning their legitimacy.

As players, the outsiders’ perception isn’t something that’s ever mattered to them, junior Dominique Kelley said.

“A lot of us chose to come to Nebraska — not because it was one of the Top 10, or because it was one of the premier teams in the country — we all came here because we’re really hard-working kids,” Kelley said. “We wanted to make this program great. We wanted to come together with a common goal.”

That’s really been the theme of the season for NU.

The Huskers believed in themselves, even when no one else did.

They think their season-long résumé — highlighted by an unblemished record through the regular season — should say enough about their ability. Now, they’ll just try to continue playing at that level, senior Kelsey Griffin said.

“I think it’s deserved,” she said. “It takes your A game every night to be successful, as we had to do in the Big 12. I think that prepares us for tournament time. We’re just going to go out there and try our best. That’s all anyone can ask.”

Contact the writer:

402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com

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