The Fieldhouse crowd watches as Sherron Collins penetrates the Cornell defense for a bucket to give the Jayhawks the lead late in the second half, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2009 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Big name, big game?

The Big 12 Conference may find out tonight if Nebraska freshman Christian Standhardinger is for real.

The 6-foot-8, 210-pounder from Munich, Germany, who was ineligible the first 15 games, scored a team-high 13 points off 4-of-7 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds in Saturday’s 64-53 loss at Texas A&M.

Tonight, he’ll try to propel the Cornhuskers (12-4, 0-1) to a victory against No. 3-ranked Kansas (14-1, 0-0) and prove his debut was no fluke.

“They’ve got a guy eligible that may have the longest name in college basketball,” KU coach Bill Self said with a smile, “but he is good. I asked coach Dooley (Joe, KU assistant) who he reminded him of, and he said the guy who plays for the Houston Rockets, (Luis) Scola, with long floppy hair and a high motor.”

Standhardinger averaged 22.2 points and 8.5 boards a game for German club Ehingen a year ago.

“He’s going to be a nice player,” NU coach Doc Sadler said. “By no means is he all of a sudden going to be the difference maker in Nebraska basketball, but he is a guy that can score points, shoot out on the floor and make a tough matchup.”

Looking back

Sherron Collins scored 17 points, including four free throws in the last minute, in helping KU overcome a 13-point first-half deficit in last year’s 68-62 victory over the Huskers in Lincoln. KU’s Cole Aldrich, who came in averaging 15.4 points and 9.8 rebounds, was held scoreless and had no rebounds in the first half. He finished with eight points.

Tempers flared in last year’s game at NU. Cookie Miller, who has since transferred, tied up the basketball and tried to yank it away from KU’s Mario Little with two hands. Miller kept grabbing and pulling and yelling things in the process that fired up the Jayhawks, who went on a 15-7 run to grab a 59-51 lead with four minutes left.

“Cookie,” KU’s Collins said with a smile. “It’s always tough to play there. Their crowd is always great. They’ll be ready to play.”

Bus tweet

The Jayhawks rode a charter bus to Lincoln on Tuesday afternoon. Here’s Self’s twitter account “tweet” of the trip: “Good workout, nice meal, on bus to Lincoln, coach (Kurtis) Townsend picked out movie ‘The Hangover,’ his fav Dumb and Dumber was sold out.”

This, that

Big 12 teams are 114-1 at home entering tonight’s action. Iowa State lost to Northern Iowa at home in early December. … NU allows just 58.6 ppg to KU’s 59.8. … KU leads the all-time series 166-71. KU is 17-16 in the Devaney Center. … KU has won 13 straight against Nebraska and 22 of the last 23 dating to the 1998-99 season. The last Nebraska victory in the series was a 74-55 decision on Feb. 15, 2004, in Lincoln, Self’s first season at KU and his only loss to Nebraska. The previous NU win was 64-59 on Feb. 10, 1999, in Lawrence.