BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Hilltopper Basketball will begin play in this week's Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic against Northern Iowa at 3:30 p.m. CT Wednesday.
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The game will air on ESPNU from the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
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Northern Iowa went 25-6 last season, won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title and finished with a NET ranking of 48.
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WKU is 3-0 all-time against the Panthers, but the teams haven't met since 1982. Rick Stansbury has never faced UNI as a head coach, but he was on the bench as an assistant for Texas A&M when the Aggies came back from 12 down with 35 seconds to go to beat the Panthers in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
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After Northern Iowa, WKU will face either Memphis (21-10, 59 NET ranking in 2019-20) or Saint Mary's (26-8, 31 NET) in its second game at 11 a.m. or 4 p.m.
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West Virginia, South Dakota State, Utah State and Wichita State round out the other side of the bracket.
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WKU's first five known opponents for this season went a combined 110-45 last season. All of WKU's first seven opponents will have won at least 19 games a year ago. At least four of them will have finished in the top 60 in the NET last year, while at least two others won their regular season league title.
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