Nebraska's players and coaches enter the Big Ten with eyes wide open and no preconceived ideas about what their first season in the conference will be like.
Most expect more of the same for a program that hasn't won a title in any conference since 1950.
''Everybody asks me what the difference is between the Big 12 and Big Ten,'' senior guard Toney McCray said. ''The Big 12 was so hard to me, it's hard to imagine there's going to be a conference that's going to be tougher.''
The Big 12 was plenty tough. In their 15 years in the league, the Cornhuskers posted just two winning records in conference play and finished higher than fifth place once. They had two first-team all-conference picks, most recently in 1999.
Junior forward Brandon Ubel said he and his teammates have set goals of finishing in the top six and earning the school's first NCAA tournament bid since 1998.
''We've talked about how it's not something we hope to do. It's something we're going to do,'' he said.
The Huskers are confident better days are ahead, and sooner than later.
An $18 million, amenities-filled practice facility that opened in early October should result in an immediate upgrade in recruiting. Home games will move in 2013-14 from the 13,000-seat Devaney Center, which opened in 1976, to a 16,000-seat downtown arena built as part of a $344 million revitalization project.
Within the program, coach Doc Sadler has battled a myriad of personnel issues for five years. He now has his most experienced team.
The Huskers have five seniors and return five players who started at least 13 games last season, when they were 19-13 and lost in the first round of the NIT after finishing tied for seventh in the Big 12.
The most promising additions are transfers Bo Spencer and Dylan Talley.
Spencer started at point guard two of his three years at LSU. He averaged a team-leading 14.5 points as a junior, scoring in double figures in 21 of 30 games before he was dismissed for academic reasons.
Spencer also was at the point on LSU's 2009 Southeastern Conference championship team that lost to eventual national champion North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
''He's ultra-talented, an explosive kind of guy,'' Ubel said. ''He's an aggressive guard and he can put some points on the board. That's a piece of the puzzle we were missing the last couple years, someone who could create his own shot or create for someone else.''
Talley, a junior shooting guard, played in junior college last season. He was the America East rookie of the year as a freshman, averaging almost 12 points and 4 rebounds for Binghamton.
Center Jorge Brian Diaz (10.5 ppg) is the top returning scorer. Sadler said the 6-foot-11 junior has overcome feet and ankle injuries, has added almost 20 pounds and now weighs 245.
Other players have been slowed by injuries and other health issues in the preseason.
Andre Almeida, a 6-11, 310-pounder, still is hurting after having surgery last spring. Christopher Niemann, a 6-11, 275-pounder, also is having knee pain as a result of three surgeries in 2 1/2 years. Both have been limited to conditioning work.
Talley (thigh bruise), McCray (foot bruise), Ubel (ankle sprain) and guard Corey Hilliard (ankle sprain) also have missed practiced time.
As for how Nebraska fits in the Big Ten, there are promising signs.
Big Ten teams aren't generally as offensive. Only Ohio State and Purdue - compared with seven Big 12 teams - averaged more than 69 points in conference games last season. For the season, Nebraska averaged 66.4 points to rank 235th nationally.
Nebraska always has played strong defense under Sadler. Last season, the Huskers were seventh nationally in field-goal percentage defense (38.9 percent) and 16th in points allowed (60.5 ppg). None of the Big Ten teams held opponents to a lower shooting percentage, and only Wisconsin and Ohio State gave up fewer points per game.
Sadler said Big Ten opponents will get out and run if they can, but offenses generally are more structured.
''But I do think they grind you and grind you, shot selection is a little bit different, and the halfcourt defense is a whole lot different,'' Sadler said.
So is the atmosphere at Big Ten arenas compared with some of the library-like venues of the less competitive Big 12 teams.
The Big Ten has led the nation in attendance for 35 years in a row and averaged 12,826 fans a game last season. Seven Big Ten teams averaged better than 13,000 a game. The only Big 12 teams to do the same were Kansas and Texas.
The road hasn't been kind to Nebraska. The Huskers have lost 15 of their last 16 away games and 32 of 40.
''I think it might help us going into a new place,'' Ubel said. ''We don't know anything about them, we have no prior experience. We might feel we can't take any days off where we might have gone into a game last year thinking we'll just beat this team and then we have Texas or Kansas coming up.
''Now we know nothing about these teams, so we have to bring it every night, and that might help us not have a letdown at all.''
Sadler said it will be crucial for the Huskers to avoid getting too high or too low over the course of the conference season.
''There are going to be tough times,'' he said. ''You look at our schedule. Wow, it's going to be difficult. We're probably not going to go undefeated. How we handle some of those tough losses when there might be two in a row is going to have a lot to do with what kind of season we have.''
