The Nebraska basketball team opens the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on Wednesday, March 10, when the 12th-seeded Cornhuskers face No. 5 seed Missouri at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The Huskers and Tigers will square off at approximately 2 p.m. on Wednesday following the Colorado-Texas Tech matchup to open the session at 11:30 a.m.

The game will be seen in select markets on the Big 12 Network as well as nationally on ESPN FullCourt. The telecast will feature Mitch Holthus (play by play) and Reid Gettys (analyst) and is expected to be seen on KLKN in Lincoln; KXVO in Omaha and Lincoln; and KIIT in North Platte.

The game will also be heard live around the state of Nebraska on the IMG Husker Sports Radio Network (Kent Pavelka, play by play; Matt Davison, color). Free audio and live stats will also be available on the Internet at Huskers.com.

Nebraska will be looking to become the second No. 12 seed in three years to earn a first-round victory when it faces Missouri on Wednesday. Colorado became the first league squad to win a game as a No. 12 seed with an upset of fifth-seeded Baylor in two overtimes in 2008.

The Huskers will need a balanced offensive and defensive attack to knock off the Tigers for the third straight time in postseason action. Nebraska trails 3-2 against MU at the Big 12 Championship, but has won the last two matchups in 2006 and 2008. It will not be easy, however, as the last time the Huskers won at the league championship while playing as the lower seed was 2006 when No. 6-seeded NU defeated No. 3 seed Oklahoma in the second round.

Nebraska has gotten solid offensive production out of its freshmen this season, led by the 8.6 points per game from center Jorge Brian Diaz. The Caguas, Puerto Rico native needs 11 points to move onto the Nebraska freshman top 10 scoring chart. He already is on among the program’s top 10 freshmen for rebounds (124) and tied the freshman blocked shots record with his 39th block of the season at Oklahoma State on Saturday.

Along with Diaz, freshman Christian Standhardinger has given NU and offensive boost the past four games since joining the starting lineup. In those games, he leads the team with 13.3 ppg and has three games in double figures, including twice on the road. His 25 points at ISU were the ninth most ever by a Husker freshman.