The customary dominant color seen on St. Patrick's Day is green.

However, the women's basketball team will be treated to a healthy dose of red when Nebraska travels to the Al McGuire Center for a 7 p.m. tip-off in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament.

The Huskers enter Thursday's game the owners of a 17-13 record, including an 8-8 record in the Big 12. Nebraska last played in the Big 12 quarterfinal round before losing to Kansas State.

The Golden Eagles have not played since March 5, when they lost to Louisville, 64-59, in the quarterfinal round of the Conference USA Tournament.

Though the last time the team played was 10 days ago, the downtime doesn't worry junior point guard Carolyn Kieger.

"It is not a concern," she said.

"Other teams had it too. We have been practicing and scrimmaging each other a lot and keeping our conditioning up. When it comes to game time it comes down to competition."

"We have attempted to play as much as we could," head coach Terri Mitchell said. "We have scrimmaged real game time, 40 minute games, a couple times. It has been five-on-five. I'm sure there is going to be a little of that because it has been awhile, but Nebraska was in the waiting game.

"I think when that ball goes up Thursday we will dig down deep because of the kind of shape we are in."

The Thursday game presents kind of a "look in the mirror" situation for the two teams. Up and down the season stat sheet, the Golden Eagles and Huskers have put up similar numbers all year.

The Golden Eagles will look to contain sophomore guard Kiera Hardy, who led her team in scoring this season, averaging 18.7 points per game.

"We feel like we have met some great guards in conference and non-conference," Mitchell said. "The team is trained quite well in terms of understanding personnel and we have already given them sheets today. They will read up on them and we will address it tomorrow."

The first 200 students to the game will be let in free, courtesy of Marquette and Nelligan Sports.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 15 2005.