UNI guard Spencer Haldeman talks about facing No. 8 Xavier at home on Friday. Dargan Southard/The Register
CEDAR FALLS, Ia. — There have been other ranked giants on Northern Iowa’s schedule — a visit to the defending national champs, a neutral-site tango with a now-No. 1 — but this specific opportunity doesn’t surface very often.
Call it the solar eclipse of college basketball, when everything fall perfectly into place and a mid-major squad lands a highly ranked nonconference foe on its home floor. Blue bloods and upper-echelon programs rarely agree to setups unless strings are attached.