The men’s and women’s Iowa State basketball teams, both ranked in the Top 25 for the first time in school history, face a big night tonight.

The men will take on Kansas State at Hilton Coliseum, while the women must travel to Nebraska to take on the Cornhuskers in Lincoln.

The Wildcats come in with a record of 8-10 overall, and just 1-6 in conference play. Included in that unimpressive performance is a string of six consecutive losses that has plagued the team recently.

But the ever-cautious Larry Eustachy says that the Wildcats are a dangerous team.

“They are coming in here hungry for a win. They’ve been struggling lately, but they’re better than what their record shows. They were leading Nebraska at half on Saturday, and the game against Colorado was closer than the score indicated,” Eustachy said.

This is the first team in the conference that the Cyclones will see for the second time, and with the first game being played only two weeks ago, memories are fresh of what kind of team Kansas State has.

“I said Cortez Groves was kind of like Larry Florence with a jump shot. He’s a dangerous player, the one type we usually struggle with,” Eustachy said.

In that first contest, the Cyclones came up with a 72-61 win, as Marcus Fizer, the Big 12’s leading scorer at 20.4 points per game, scored a team-high 23 points.

Also in double digits that game were Paul Shirley, who tallied 14 points, Jamaal Tinsley with 13, and Stevie Johnson with 12.

The Wildcats struck from the outside, as Groves and Galen Morrison combined to shoot 9-21 from beyond the arc en route to 37 points between the two.

The Cyclones sport a 16-game home winning streak, dating back to Feb. 8 of last year, when the team was beaten by the Missouri Tigers.

The squad now stands only six victories from the record of 22, which was set twice, once in 1985-86, and once in 1992-93.

“We know it’s important to protect our home court. We’ve got to win all these games here, and hope to get a couple on the road,” Fizer said.

The women, meanwhile, are coming off their third loss of the season, a hard-fought 58-49 defeat at Kansas.

They are trying to rebound from their worst two shooting nights of the season, as they made only 30 percent of their shots against Kansas, and just 33 percent against Kansas State a few nights earlier in Ames.

The two teams have met once before this year.

Iowa State came up with the win 89-66, but had to go on a 35-10 roll to end the game to do so.

At that time, Nebraska coach Paul Sanderford said that he “couldn’t wait” to play the Cyclones again.

Since that time, Nebraska has been red hot, having won four straight games in the Big 12 since the loss to ISU Jan. 15.

Nicole Kubik scored 26 points in the Huskers 68-61 win against Kansas State on Sunday, and overall has been stellar this season, averaging a team-high 16.2 points per game.

Hubik says that catching ISU after a loss is probably not a good thing.

“I think most people probably would rather not play an Iowa State ever,” Kubik said. “Especially after a loss — they’re going to come out fired up and ready to get back on track.”

Traditionally, Iowa State has had a lot of trouble in Lincoln, they have lost 15 of the 21 games played at the Devaney Center.

The Cyclones are led in scoring by sophomore center Angie Welle, who puts in 17.3 points and 10.4 rebounds in conference play. Welle was one of the few bright spots in the loss to Kansas with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

A year ago, Nebraska’s athletic department gave away 20,000 tickets, and ended up drawing over 13,000 to the ISU game, good for a conference record.

This season, no such plans are in store.

Nevertheless, the environment will be a tough one against a Husker team with revenge on its mind.