LINCOLN, Neb. — Is this hoops heaven? No, it’s Nebraska.

On Sunday morning in the second full week of March, Nebraska basketball, the men and the women, captured the attention of this state in a way that we’ve rarely seen. The women battled No. 2-seed Iowa back and forth into overtime on CBS in the Big Ten tournament final. Meanwhile, the men raced past Michigan on the Big Ten Network.

The games intertwined, tipping off in the same 10-minute window. At halftime in Ann Arbor, Keisei Tominaga had scored 23 of the Huskers’ 50 points. In Minneapolis, the women, playing a fourth game in four days, led Iowa by double digits. Caitlin Clark, the Hawkeyes’ superstar, started 0 for 9 from 3-point range.

Dual-screen TV arrangements flourished. Sports bars served basketball for brunch.

After the men won 85-70 to secure their 22nd victory and a double-bye this week in the conference tourney, Fred Hoiberg blurted a question to announcers Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen as the coach began his postgame interview on the Huskers Radio Network.

“What’s the score of the women’s game?”

Nebraska trailed by two points late, reported Muhleisen, a former three-year captain of the Huskers.

The women lost 94-89 as Clark exploded for 30 of her 34 points after halftime.

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Regardless, neither Nebraska squad needs to sweat it out on Selection Sunday. For the first time since 2014 and just the fourth time in school history — also in 1993 and 1998 — the Nebraska men and the women should be headed together to the NCAA postseason.

Hoiberg talked to his players about the women’s recent run as the men readied to play Michigan.

“It’s been really inspiring,” he said before discussing his team’s historic feat.

Picked to finish 12th in the Big Ten after winning 40 games without a postseason invite in Hoiberg’s first four years, the men are 22-9. Their win total equals the second-highest figure in program history.

Kept the receipts. pic.twitter.com/LMZZTIXIpC

— Nebraska Men’s Basketball (@HuskerMBB) March 11, 2024

Hoiberg ought to win Big Ten coach of the year on Tuesday. Without a player among the Big Ten’s top 15 in scoring, Nebraska earned the No. 3 seed at the league tournament. It will play No. 6-seeded Indiana, No. 11 Penn State or the No. 14 Wolverines Friday night in a quarterfinal.

Zoom out a bit and you’ll see there’s more happening here. Up the road in Omaha, a host site on March 21 and 23 to NCAA games at the CHI Health Center, the Creighton men and women are locked into the 68-team fields, too. Both are nationally ranked. The men, seeded second in the Big East tournament, are angling for a No. 2 seed in the tourney one year after they advanced to the Elite Eight.

Never have all four of the major-conference teams in the state advanced to the Big Dance. That’s about to change.

The basketball fans love it. Home attendance for the Nebraska men ranked 22nd nationally a year ago and jumped more than 1,300 per game this season to 14,596. The Nebraska women ranked 13th in attendance last year and increased their average slightly to 6,088.

The Creighton men ticked upward, too, to 17,269 per home after ranking sixth last year.

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So is this a basketball state?

Well, no.

Consider that the biggest attraction last week at the high school boys state tournament was a Nebraska football signee, Carter Nelson, the tight end from Ainsworth who picked the Huskers over Notre Dame and Georgia. There wasn’t a player in the 48-team field who signed with a major-conference basketball program.

Yes, the state of Nebraska produces basketball talent. Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman and Josiah Allick of Nebraska rate as indispensable parts of their teams. Hunter Sallis at Wake Forest, Chucky Hepburn at Wisconsin, Saint Thomas at Northern Colorado and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. at Alabama are thriving.

Braden Frager of Lincoln Southwest signed with Nebraska. A’mare Bynum, an elite power forward in the 2025 class, is transferring this year from Omaha Bryan to Link Academy in Missouri and will sign with a power program.

Britt Prince, a national-level prospect who won four state titles at Elkhorn North, is headed to play for the Nebraska women.

But what’s happening with the Huskers this season — on both teams — is not about an abundance of overwhelming talent.

“I’m so proud of these guys for what they’ve done, playing together,” Hoiberg said. “And there’s no egos on this team. Whoever’s got the hot hand, it was Keisei (Sunday), we have done a great job finding him.”

It’s a similar story for Amy Williams’ team, which sits at 22-11. It doesn’t have a player in Clark’s category, but there’s something to be said for balance. Alexis Markowski earned first-team All-Big Ten honors. She had 23 points and 13 rebounds against Iowa. Jaz Shelley, who scored 30 against Maryland on Saturday, was a second-team choice. Natalie Potts and Logan Nissley made the league’s All-Freshman team.

“This team is special,” Shelley said Sunday as she, Markowki and their coach talked through tears during the postgame news conference. “We just have to build off what we did.”

What an incredible basketball game. I’m so proud of these players. Grit. Toughness. GBR. https://t.co/1wMrXNiDO1

— Trev Alberts (@TrevAlberts) March 10, 2024

Next week will mark the 16th trip to the NCAA Tournament for the Nebraska women and the third under Williams, who was hired in 2016.

“We believe in each other,” Markowski said. “We believe in what our coaches are saying. Belief can take you really far.”

Markowski’s father, Andy, started in 1998 for one of the seven men’s teams at Nebraska to participate in March Madness. The Huskers’ record in those appearances is 0-7, making them the only major-conference men’s program without an NCAA Tournament win.

The most recent opportunity came in 2014. Since then, the postseason ledger includes two NIT appearances.

Last year, the men narrowly missed the NIT. The difference this season largely involves the belief of which Alexis Markowski spoke. Hoiberg’s team over the past month has won six of seven games.

This is March. pic.twitter.com/zm8BATiZAl

— Nebraska Men’s Basketball (@HuskerMBB) March 10, 2024

“We don’t need to change anything,” Hoiberg said. “We just need to continue doing what’s made us successful.”

If his group can extend the magic — or if more than one of these programs makes a deep run in March — hoops hysteria in Nebraska will ascend to an unseen level.

(Top photo of Jaz Shelley: Matt Krohn / USA Today)