By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

It’s not something that is brought up in conversation, but Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery figures his team is quite aware of what’s at stake in Sunday’s game at Nebraska.

A win gets the Hawkeyes the last spot in the Big Ten Tournament. A loss ends their season.

“It’s something everybody’s aware of, but our focus is on the game plan for Nebraska,” McCaffery said Saturday. “I’m quite sure they’re feeling the same way. You’re just stating the obvious otherwise.”

The Hawkeyes (15-15 overall, 6-13 Big Ten) are on the outside looking in at the 15-team field at the moment. The bottom three teams in the newly-expanded conference don’t get to go to next week’s tournament in Indianapolis, something McCaffery said was a topic of discussion last summer among the coaches, and likely will be this time around.

“I was really kind of surprised that it would be as unanimous and as strong and didn’t seem to go anywhere with the people in charge,” McCaffery said. “I’m very disappointed in that. We all are.

“Again, it’s nothing to do with me. It’s (about) the players and opportunity.”

The Big 12 and Southeastern Conference, which each have 16 teams, have every team in their tournament. The ACC, which like the Big Ten has 18 teams, has the same 15-team bracket as the Big Ten.

“I don’t understand the reasoning behind it,” McCaffery said. “And quite frankly, we didn’t get any reasoning behind it. And I think that’s what was disappointing, if we asked the question and voiced our opinion about what we think should happen, and there was intelligent reasoning behind why we’re not doing it. We’re all professionals. We didn’t get that. We got nothing, basically. So there is a reason somewhere, but I don’t know what it is.”

So, for the Hawkeyes, it is what it is — win or go home.

They may have to do it without fifth-year guard Drew Thelwell, who re-injured his ankle in Thursday’s home loss to Michigan State. Thelwell, who averages 9.7 points per game, has made 17 starts for the Hawkeyes this season, has been bothered by the ankle injury for the last month.

“I think he’ll be available,” McCaffery said. “He hasn’t practiced. Don’t know if he’s going to practice today, but I think he’s going to be available. It’ll be a game-time decision, so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow morning.”

McCaffery said he knows it will be hard to keep Thelwell out of what could be the last game of his college career.

“I think you probably know the answer to that question,” McCaffery said. “He’s going to tell you ‘I’m playing, I’ll be ready,’ and he’ll play. I’m not holding anything back. But we want him to feel like he can be himself. He’s going to do everything he can to be out there, and we want him out there. We need him out there.”

It is the finale of the first regular season of the expanded conference, which added USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington in the offseason.

“When I first came in the league we had 11 teams, and then we went to 14, and then now we’re at 18,” McCaffery said. “It’s a much stronger group of teams. We added four really good teams, and the other teams were really good. There are challenges with travel. Now we’re going east, we’re going west, but every league has the same thing. I just think it’s an incredibly competitive conference when you look at the quality of teams, 1 through 18.”

Now the Hawkeyes have one game to be one of the last 15 still playing.

Photo: Iowa guard Drew Thelwell (3) drives to the basket against Michigan State forward Xavier Booker in Thursday’s game. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)