Matt Rhule reacts to Trev Alberts departure; Plus Nebraska basketball NCAA tournament thoughts

Hey, Husker fans. Welcome to another episode of the Husker Big Red podcast with Chris Peterson

and Danny Gillette. As always, go Big Red. Good morning, Husker fans, and welcome back

to the Husker Big Red YouTube channel. I'm Chris Peterson, and joining me as always is

Danny Gillette, and we're back for another episode of our podcast. This morning we missed

yesterday, so sorry about that if we messed up some of your schedules, but we're back

here on this Tuesday. We've got a big week ahead of us with two NCAA tournament games

for Nebraska. We have Matt Rule meeting with the media yesterday, so a busy week for Nebraska

sports fans. So before we get to it, make sure that you guys like this video, subscribe

to the YouTube channel here if you haven't. You can also find our stuff on Spotify and

shoot Apple Podcasts, so you can also subscribe there. But at any rate, how are you doing

this morning, Danny? Good. It's nice to be busy in March, and it's nice to have things to look forward to in

March. I'm not a morning person, but I am always excited to talk Husker athletics, and

there is a lot to talk about, as always. It never seems to be a boring time

Yeah, and it's been interesting. On Monday, Matt Rule had his pre-spring press conference

which wasn't that much about spring football, but ended up being a lot about Trev Alberts

and that was kind of his first chance to meet with the media and talk about that. I'm

sure a lot of you folks have seen that. If you haven't seen that, you can go to the Nebraska

Cornhuskers YouTube page. They show all that stuff there if you want to catch a replay

But Matt talked about his son's going to be coming to Nebraska, his wife's going to be

starting a business here, so he talked about how he's all in on Nebraska, but he did talk

about how it was an important time. It seemed like they need to make investments. I took

a few things away from what he said, but what were your takeaways from Matt Rule yesterday

His wife is building a business here. To me, if you're building a business someplace, that

means you're going to stick around for a little bit. Also, just the way he talked about how

God made a farmer video that was put together by the creative department, and how he basically

said, I'm a guy from New York, but the ethos that Nebraska represents is kind of what I want in my

program. Say what you want about his football coaching, but he's a great speaker. You can tell

he's authentic, and I think that's something that Nebraska needs, especially right now as we saw

Trev Alberts do his little dance at his Aggie press conference yesterday. What the heck was

that? Did you see that? You probably saw that little dance. Yeah, they always do that. Yeah

that's what you have to do. The head coaches do it every time. Mike Elko did it, and that's just

what they do. It's stupid. I don't know what the hell it is, but it's annoying, and they look

really dumb. You all look really stupid. I hope any Texas A&M people doing it, you look really

dumb, and you look like a really weird cult. That's my thought on it. Trev Alberts looks like

the biggest sellout I've ever seen in my life, even though he didn't even really leave for money, but he looks like such a sellout. He left for money that he hopes is coming when he gets a

commissioner job for some conference somewhere. I think Matt Rule is the stabilizing force

and Fred Hoiberg is kind of ... Those two are going to lead the Nebraska athletic department

through these difficult times. I couldn't be more happy with what I heard from the press

conference yesterday. I'm excited to see how the positions develop and things like that

because there's a lot of talent everywhere, especially as spring begins. It'll be

interesting to see who breaks out from the rest of the pack, who's going to be the top dogs

who has a little bit more work to do but shows promise, things like that. In past years

Nebraska hasn't had the depth to make those determinations. It's either you're playing here

and that's it, or we're screwed. Now, we have some talent at several positions

Some of these position battles will actually be really interesting. Yeah, there's actually legitimate depth. Wide receiver, offensive line, I think there's some

pretty good depth. Defense, there's depth at basically all three positions. Linebacker

there's still some guys on the defensive line that need to show some stuff as well

And guys need to actually take a step forward too. Yeah, we're all sitting here looking at

Cameron Leonard and Prince William, they're going to be all Big Ten players this year. They still

have to put in that work. They still have to take that leap, but they should do that. I trust

obviously the strength and conditioning staff. Not that we've seen a ton from their workouts

but they look good and the guys looked good when they were doing the slam dunk contest

Emmitt Johnson looks like he's put on weight. Jeremiah Charles definitely looks like he's put

on some weight. He looks like he's ready to play Division I football. I know he's got a long way

to go up the depth chart, but I just think they finally have a strength and conditioning program

that's helping develop these guys like it really needs to be doing at an NFL-type level. That's

one thing that Michigan really did really, really well. They had probably the best strength coach

in the country who's now in the NFL. But I think that's another thing that Nebraska is trying to

replicate. Matt Rule says it all the time and he said it again yesterday, this has to be the best

development program in the country. And that's what was successful under Tom Osborne and that's

what he's trying to bring here. And that means doing all those, the strength and conditioning

And I liked that he was talking about going to Georgia and visiting Kirby Smart and all that

stuff. And just talking to the people that have had success and seeing what they do. I think

Nebraska is going to have a different formula than Georgia, obviously. But yeah, I think that

he's forward-thinking. I do think he's here for the long haul. And like he said

basically, we'll be here unless you guys kick us out. He has had one season where he won five

games. So everybody's talking about him leaving, but he still has to, talking about the NFL-type

thing, earn that second contract. He's still got to earn that second part of his contract. Because

if you have three straight losing seasons, you're going to get fired. I mean, that's just the way that the world works. I'm not saying that's going to happen or anything. And I don't think that Matt

Rule's going to have another losing season. But I'm just saying, he still has to prove that he

can take that leap at Nebraska, like his teams did at Temple and at Baylor. I mean, I think that they

will this year. All signs are pointing in that direction, but you still have to actually do it

Which is why, when he posted that God Made a Farmer video, he captioned it with 8-31-2024

That is the focus. That's the goal. That's everything that they're doing right now

Everything else is just secondary. Focus on winning those games, and everything else will take care of itself as far as this football program

And I heard that a new president could be decided by May. And I'll just say that I looked at some of

the potential candidates, and I'm not exactly jumping up and down. Not that I really can jump

much up and down anyway. But I'm not exactly too happy with what I see. So we'll see how the

president search goes. Because that's extremely important as well. I think you need a president

before an athletic director. But if a good athletic director is on the market, and we have to

hire him or her before a president, then so be it. Yeah, I mean, I agree with that. We'll see how it goes. I mean, I think it's hard to judge those

things. We'll just have to see how it plays out. And at the end of the day, I think that there's

just a lot of talented people at Nebraska in the athletic department. And as long as they can

get somebody that can keep those people there, I think that's the main thing. But it is going to be interesting to see what happens with the stadium thing. And frankly

I hope that that gets put on hold. I mean, it's just... I did read something where it's like

they're going to reduce the stadium to 60,000 just when this team really gets going again

That doesn't make any sense. So I don't know. Hopefully that whole project gets killed. And I

just feel like there's a lot of other investments that could be made to help Nebraska. I just don't

think that Lincoln Memorial Stadium is an issue with the program right now, in my opinion. So

I mean, I get that that was a nice project that Trev could put on his resume. And I think that's

why he really wanted to do it and manage it and all that type of stuff. But to be honest, I just

don't think that's that needed. So I mean, I would rather see more investments like in the

weight rooms, stuff that actually can help the football program or the basketball program. I

think seats can help, but I just don't see that as... Is that really going to help Nebraska

sign more recruits? I just don't see that. Yeah, I have what I was already saying. I think

for more of the stadium thing, there are some sections of it that need to be updated and

things like that. But like you said, I don't really see it as a pressing issue

But it'll be interesting to see what projects they do take on. And it'll be a good test to see

how much, again, how much the regents will allow to happen. Because if they are kind of dilly

dallying on all these projects, then we have a bigger issue. We already have an issue with the

regents. But it's kind of a little bit clouded by Albert's character and the way he departed

If they screw around on these renovations and certain projects for the next athletic director

then we're in major, major trouble because nobody's going to want to work for that

Yeah, we'll see how things play out. I will say that in this transition phase

Dennis LeBlanc seems to be the right guy for the job. I listened to him talk yesterday on the radio

and former players have had nothing but good things to say about him. He was on the Huskers

radio network on Monday, speaking about certain things. And he said, quote, I get a chance to

communicate with the players a lot and they absolutely love Coach Rule. I'm so fired up

about Nebraska football and Coach Rule. And he also said, quote, I'm going to give every ounce

of energy in this body to keep the Husker ship sailing in the right direction while I have this

opportunity. So although he may not be the ultimate choice for a full-time athletic director

I think he's definitely worth keeping around in this department. He's been in the department for

40 years. And so he knows what it means to be a Husker. And he seems like a high energy

high character guy. And quite frankly, we need those type of people in the athletic department

So I'm glad we have him kind of in this transition time. And I'd love to see if he can

do anything or just kind of keep the ship stabilized. But I'm happy he's the guy that's

kind of looking over all of this because it's a mess right now. Yeah, it is a mess. But if you hire the right person and I really think if they could swing it

I don't know if they could, but I do think that Jamie Pollard of Iowa State would be

a great hire. I know that Matt Rule would probably support that. But beyond that

he's just a really smart guy. And I've come to know that partially just with Michigan's head

coaching search with their head coach, TJ, I have to look up his name, TJ Oldsperger or whatever

So he hired him from UNLV. And the way he worked his contract is really smart so that if the guy

leaves, he basically owes Iowa State the 17th of his buyout. So Michigan's like not even going to

sniff in that direction because of that. So I think he would be a really good hire who just

understands the changing landscape of college football and doesn't have any ties to Nebraska

per se. But that's my two cents on somebody that I think would do a really good job. But he's the

fourth longest tenured AD in college sports. It's not going to be easy, but he might take the chance

to go from the Big 12 to the Big 10 and still in the Midwest. So I don't know. Yeah. I would love

Ed Stewart. I mean, I've kind of been beating the Ed Stewart drum here for a little bit

but he has experience everywhere. I mean, at Michigan State University, he was an academic

counselor. He was an executive staff member for athletics at the University of Missouri

and he was the administrative liaison for the football program there. And he managed the

institution's Nike apparel contract and made a significant impact in fundraising for the

university. So the Nike contract piece of it kind of stuck out to me when I was reading it initially

because I'm ready to move on from Adidas. And if Stewart can land an apparel contract and things

like that, that would be pretty impressive. And just his overall background as an academic liaison

to athletic director to that type of well-rounded scope of roles, I think, is what an athletic

director needs. And I feel like he is, you know, very in tune with what the landscape of collegiate

athletics is today. I mean, he was the executive associate commissioner for the Big 12. Obviously

we talked about that a little bit yesterday or last week, and he negotiated $200 million

in stadium agreements for, I believe it was the Big 12 championship. So that kind of well-rounded

background, I mean, we talk about negotiations, academics, athletics, USC athletics is some of

the best in the country. And for me, he checks off all the boxes. Yeah, I would be down for that too

So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Hopefully, you know, there'll be an accelerated

timeline. But, you know, for now, honestly, I just want to not talk about ADs anymore for a while. And I

just want to let the interim dudes do their work. And then when they have a hire, they can, you know, they can tell me about it. But I'm really, I just, I'm done thinking about it. Trev can go to hell as

far as I'm concerned. And I will never welcome him back in Nebraska. He's a turncoat. He's Benedict

Albert. I love all those nicknames. They're all true. And, you know, I think he's a prick

frankly, I think he's a selfish prick and I, you know, Nebraska can do better. So that's my final

thought on the AD conversation. Yeah, we'll get into that right now. Nebraska, but yeah, so we'll

get into that, which really does, you know, and Matt Ruhl talked about that, you know, how he was

upset that the committees did that. And it is, it is kind of bothersome. I feel like they didn't

need to do that with both matchups. Although if you look at the committee, they all had a tie to

Nebraska or Texas A&M in some way. So that could be it too, not even the Alberts factor. I mean

yeah, but they, and they, they did it on purpose. I mean, first I think, you know

they always try to, yeah, of course. I mean, well, all right, there you go. I mean, the NCAA

tournament doesn't really need ratings though. I mean, maybe on the women's, but not really. I

mean, the women's tournament's getting really, so I don't know. I think that's like the one thing they don't have to drum up ratings for, but they just love to stir controversy when they can

So honestly, the men's matchup is actually, I think it's going to be a good game. I don't

think it's just for ratings. Like I think it's a pretty even game. Yeah. And Texas A&M, I mean

they're a very, they, you know, they're like 20 and 14 or 19 and 14 or whatever, but they're a

dangerous team. And you know, the thing you, the guy you need to know is Wade Taylor, the point

guard, six foot 186 pounds out of Lancaster, Texas. And this guy's absolutely been on fire

He, in his last two games, he's made six three-pointers each, six of 14, six of 12

So like in his last five games, he's made 22 three-pointers, 30, you know, he had 30 points

in the semifinal, 32 points in the SEC quarter final. He's a high volume shooter. He shoots over

eight three-pointers a game. He makes two, like almost 2.9 per game. So him and him and Tyrese

Radford, like these guys are going to shoot the hell out of the ball. They shoot, you know

a combined, so basically Texas A&M shoots 63 shots per game. Those guys shoot 30 of them

So those two guards are going to shoot the ball most of the time. And I would say, you know, in this tournament, I would say Wade Taylor is going to try to take even more than

you know, he's really going to try to carry this team. So, you know, they do have

they do have some other players, you know, that can shoot the ball, especially, and they're just

when you look at their team, man, they are going to shoot a lot of inefficient shots. I mean

I'm not, I haven't watched a ton of them on film and just looking at their statistics and they

don't shoot the basketball all that well in terms of their field, overall field goal percentage

They're 399th or they shoot 39%, which is 348th in college basketball, which is not good

And their, their two point percentage is 320th. Their three point percentage is 354th in college

basketball. However, the thing that they do better than anybody is crash the boards. They get 17

offensive rebounds per game. And so, you know, if you're allowing a team, like when they lost even

to Florida, they rebounded 35% of their misses. Rutgers against Nebraska earlier this year

rebounded like 40%. That's what Illinois, you know, did to us as well in the road game at Illinois

So, I mean, Nebraska is susceptible to teams that can offensive rebound

And I am worried about that. So Nebraska really, I think they, you know, if you're watching a

statistic in this game, which you can't always track this, but, you know, the percentage of

rebounds that Texas A&M is getting off of their misses, you know, so if they're, you know, if

they've missed, you know, 24 shots and they've got eight offensive rebounds, like that's a

problem. They've got to keep that number around 30% or below. And if not, I don't know how they're

going to win this game. We talked about Wade Taylor and Solomon, Solomon Washington. I almost

said Solomon Thomas, but you can, you should also watch out for Anderson Garcia. He, he has

you know, only six points per game, but 9.4 rebounds per contest and a 44.4% shot from

beyond the arc. And so he is kind of that rebounding stabilizer for the program

but he can also score. He's not a one-dimensional player. So there's a lot of ways that Texas A&M

can attack you. And although they are inefficient, it's not that like they don't have players that

can absolutely, you know, score and shoot the basketball. So this is going to be a very

interesting matchup. I'm curious to see, you know, if Nebraska can continue to rebound at a higher

level, they've been better. But this is going to be a test for them. And, you know, even in the

game against Illinois on Saturday, which we didn't really talk about too much. I mean, we can a

little bit if you want to hear, but, you know, rebounding was a little bit of an issue and

you know, second chance points. And, you know, I don't really see the Aggies as a stellar three

point shooting team coming into this game. They're only shooting, you know, 28.4% as a team

but second chance points, I think will be a big theme in this game. And it's the, I mean, that number I feel like is, you know, they can be a bad team

but they can go off. I mean, Wade Taylor can make six by himself, you know, so like he

so I mean, they're in, they shoot bad shots and that's what, you know, sometimes you just have

players that do that. And sometimes that's, you know, a shot clock type thing. And when you have

heavy guard play, I mean, you can kind of force, you know, those guys to shoot perimeter shots

zone defenses and different stuff like that. The other thing, Texas A&M doesn't really have

a post presence. You look at their offense, their entire lineup. They have one guy who is taller

than six foot seven on their entire team. And he's only played like eight minutes per game. So he'll

play a little bit. I think that's really going to be interesting in this matchup is what does

Fred Hoiberg do with his lineup? Does he stick with, you know, a Domanaga elite, you know

a Josiah leak, Gary, you know, does he stick with the big line of Bryce Williams? Matt

does he stick with those big guys or does he go smaller, you know, and put your Marcus Lawrence

in there and take out somebody like Alec? You know, that would be, that would be my, you know

my one thought is maybe, you know, maybe Josiah comes off the bench in this game

Yeah. I would always go smaller just for the, just to guard the guards. I just don't know how you're going to guard Radford and Wade Taylor with, I mean, who's

going to guard, I mean, Domanaga probably take one. I mean, they probably zone them, I guess

but I don't know if that, I don't know if you want to do that either and give those guys, you know, somewhat decent looks from the perimeter and then, you know, is Juwan Gary

going to guard one of those guards? I mean, I think he probably could maybe Bryce Williams, but to Marcus Lawrence is going to have to play a lot in this game. He's going to

they're going to need him for his defense and, and frankly, his ball handling. And he's actually played very well over this last stretch here. I mean, sorry, I think he had like

nine points off the bench, which the bench play on, on Saturday was very positive. So I, I kind

of like that coming into this game. Hopefully the refs have an even whistle on Friday, but we'll see

Yeah. The officiating was that's all. I mean, that's not the only reason Nebraska lost the game

on Saturday. I mean, they did, but at the same time though, like if you look at the, where the

game really changed and really flipped is you know, Terrence Shannon came down basically in like had

four or five drives and went to the free throw. They basically gave him like eight or 10 free

throws when they were down by 15. Like, yeah, he made some threes, but a big chunk of those points

were all free throw attempts. And at the other end, you know, Duwan Gary case a Bryce Williams

all taking the ball to the basket, doing the same thing, getting similar contact and no call

So if Nebraska gets some of those calls, they make some of those free throws for one, the players get

their confidence back up. And two, that momentum doesn't switch like it did because Illinois doesn't

go on a 12 or run. I mean, it literally like boggle. It doesn't boggle my mind because it's

big 10 officiating. And look, I mean, yeah, Terrence Shannon's a great player, but he shot

way too many free throw. Like the fact that any time he drove the ball to the basket, it was going

to be a foul no matter what. And you know, like I literally paused it and was slowing it down on my

TV. And every time Duwan Gary went to the basket, he was getting contact, he was getting hit. And I'm

like, okay, why are you calling it? Why is it a foul on one end, but not on the other? I mean

in like literally I watched Terrence Shannon, like the, I can't remember who it was, which player

but the guy was planted there firmly in the, in Terrence Shannon just runs them completely over

should have been an offensive foul. And they just called it out of bounds. I want to say it was Hoiberg, but I could be wrong

Yeah. And he was literally planted there for like two or three seconds. And then a guy

an Illinois guy shoves a guy and then there's no call, gets the ball and gets an and one

It's like the, I mean, that's not the reason they lost. They missed a lot of open looks, but

but if they had been able to, you know, actually get some more free throw attempts when it

in that stretch where it really mattered I think it would have been a different game. So, I mean

it is what it is. You have to overcome that stuff, but that's a frustrating part of the

NCAA tournament is the officiating is bad. I mean, it just, the officiating in college

basketball is inconsistent. I think it'll be a little bit better in the actual tournament itself versus the big 10 tournament, but. Slightly. Cause I mean, big

big 10 refs are doing these games too. That's the thing. Like I'll say it's slightly better

but it's just. It's not an entire big 10 crew though, is it

No. Well, I'm not sure how that works. I think they pick out some of the, I honestly don't know

if I was saying I just be lying, but it's just, you know, the, the thing that bothers me is just

the inconsistency. If you're going to let guys play on one end, you have to let them play on

the other. It's you can't, you can't call a different game on both ends of the floor. That's just incredibly unfair to one team. And that's what happened for most of the game on

Saturday. I mean, Illinois fans can say whatever the hell they want, but that's what happened. I

mean, and it's frustrating, but Nebraska still had opportunities and they just didn't make shots. So

Yeah, they really struggled to kind of get back into that rhythm. It seemed like all of their

three point shots were used in the first half. And I think honestly, the fatigue from Friday

might've set in a little bit because they also shot the lights out on Friday too. And

then it just seemed like they ran out of gas. I mean, Bryce Williams, you know, struggled to make his mid range jumpers. I mean, Casey, he had 18 points, but he was basically

non-existent in the second half for long stretches. And it just goes to show that

you know, if the three point shot is not flying for Nebraska, then that's a major

part of their offense. And, uh, it wasn't falling on Saturday and, and, um, you know, I'm not

I'm not going to say it cost them the game as if they tried to miss the shots, but it was a big

part of the reason why they lost as well. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, that's the game for Nebraska

If, uh, Texas A&M is one of the worst three point defenses in college basketball. I mean

it's gotten better during the sec, you know, tournament or a conference play, you know

but they gave up 34% from beyond the arc and, um, they give them up and that's, that's what

I mean, Nebraska has to make, you know, double digit threes to win this game. They have to do

that and they have to, you know, keep the rebounding battle, you know, somewhat even

I mean, they can't, they can't let Texas A&M get 17 offensive rebounds, which is their average

So that's where it is tough because, you know, if you play, um, you know, if you do go big

if you're in Nebraska, then, you know, Texas A&M still has to defend you too. I mean, so that's the

other part of it. I, you know, maybe Nebraska could do, you know, some zone stuff. Some

I mean, they are long. That's, that's another thing is if you play zone and you're, you've got

that length, like Syracuse used to, that can help, you know, at least make it. So you're not giving

up, you know, wide open three point shots. So it's going to be interesting to see how, you know

how the, how Fred plays it in the beginning, how they come out and defend Texas A&M and

and how they make Texas A&M defend them. Because, you know, you've got mass, um, you've got a leak

you've got, you know, Bryce Williams, you've got a lot of guys that can go. I mean, Bryce Williams

is six, nine. So give him the damn ball in the post and, you know, see what they can do. And

then, you know, see who's going to cover him on the drive too, because he can think about Bryce

Williams is, you know, he'll be able to shoot over any, any, basically any player on their

entire roster that's going to guard him. So, you know, he needs to have a big game and

Casey needs to have a big, I mean, that's just, that's the, that's the formula for this team

They need to have mass get going early. Cause I feel like when he gets going early

everything else kind of falls into place. With the exception of Saturday, he started off on fire

on Saturday and, you know, help the brass could get out to the early lead. And then, you know

things went South, but when, when mast gets into one of his grooves, it makes the rest of the team

you know, open and very difficult to stop. And the thing about, you know

the thing about Illinois, and I wrote this in my preview, but this is what they do is they

they make you basically, you know, make individual plays. Like you have to beat us one-on-one. That's

just what they do. And, you know, Nebraska just wasn't able to do that. They had opportunities

you know, the case, they hit a few tough shots in the second half. Bryce Williams had some looks

didn't make them. And then that's when you do get open looks, you know, you gotta hit them because

they don't, they don't give you very many of them. And so that's why Illinois is, they can be a

really tough matchup. We'll see how things go for them in the, the big 10 or in the NCAA tournament

But yeah, as far as Nebraska basketball in this game, it's, it's going to be the same old you

know, keys basically, because the one thing that Texas A&M does well on defense is forced turnovers

They force over 11 per game. So, you know, that's been an issue at times for Nebraska

So, you know, if I, if I had three keys, it's keep the turnovers under 10, keep the offensive

rebounds of Texas A&M under 10, make 10 three-pointers. If Nebraska does those three things

they will win the game. I guarantee it. Yeah. I mean, this is certainly a winnable

game for Nebraska. And honestly, I think it's a good draw for Nebraska as it relates to

you know, the level of play. And I think honestly, the play of the bench

for example, the play of DeMarcus Lawrence, although he may not be on the bench on Friday

depending on what they do. I mean, he is a tremendous catalyst offensively. We saw it a

little bit last year when he was able to start and he needs to continue to get going because

he provides some much needed points off the bench. It's interesting how both him and Bryce

Williams have this kind of collection of mid-range shots, kind of a throwback to the days of older

basketball. But Lawrence needs to, you know, make the most of his minutes and get going and drive

to the hoop. I think the starters will do what they need to do. It's going to be more about

for me at least, how the bench does and what they can do during, you know, the stretches when the

starters are out. Because, you know, on Saturday I thought the bench, when Aliq and Mast went to

the bench, played well. You know, I thought, you know, they didn't exactly light the world on fire

but they gave solid minutes. And the bench is going to need to give solid minutes on Friday and

you know, continue to utilize more of that depth. Yeah, I mean, I think, I guess the way I look at

it, you know, I'm not, you know, if you want to win these games in the tournament, I think your

best players have to show up too. And so I think KC's got to have one of his days. And if he doesn't

I really, I don't know. I don't know if this team's going to win, but that's, you know

it's possible. I mean, they have, yeah, they just, I think other guys are going to have to get hot

I just feel like this is the kind of game where, you know, they need his shot making ability to

shine through because, you know, that's just, that's just my thought on it. I just feel like

when you get to this moment, you know, it's hard to win these games if your best players don't show

up. And so hopefully, you know, him, I would say, you know, Nebraska needs the two guys that got

you know, all big 10 selections, you know, they need those, you know, Mass and Tomonaga have got

to play, you know, their best basketball that goes for everybody. And you're going to have some off moments, but, you know, at the, at the end of the day, those, those three things hold true

you know, take care of the ball, shoot it, shoot it well, and do a good job on the boards. And

you'll be playing Houston for a chance to go to the sweet 16. So, well, I think if there's any

silver lining, it's the fact that Saturday, for example, against Illinois, I mean, Illinois

defended Tomonaga incredibly physical, you know, grabbing his Jersey, much like they did in

champagne. Like everybody does. Everybody does. It's ridiculous. And don't even get me started

on that. Don't even get me started on it. But no, I'm going to say you might not see that same

level of physicality from Texas A&M, which could lead to him moving, you know, being able to move

a little bit more because Shannon was right up in his face all game. And I don't think that's

going to be the case against A&M. So maybe, maybe some more open looks, but yeah, he gets, he gets

clawed and scratched and grabbed. And I think just because they're so tired, like they can't

continue to move with them. Cause if you, if you watch him during the game, like I'm exhausted

watch him. He's moving here. He's moving there. He's moving this way. Like he moved so well

they almost have to grab him. That was driving me crazy is like, you know, I'm like, so are we

have we just decided that Terrence Shannon can't get fouls called on him? Because I mean, almost

every time that Tomonaga was trying to go off the screen, he was just straight up grabbing him

Come on. You can't. Yeah. And that's like that grab. Okay. It's like, that might not look that

big of a deal, but that's the difference between an open shot and a not open shot. Letting somebody get around. That's what KSA does. He comes off screens and hit shots. And so

and big 10 refs let teams do that all year. It's not just Terrence Shannon, but

you know, just the way that, you know, so for, to let, to let Illinois go down and just mug Tomonaga

And then you can't even touch Terrence Shannon without it being a foul call on the other end. Like that just, it, it annoys me to no end. And it's like, yeah, you can't, I mean, it's just

I hate, I hate like blaming the refs, but it's like, give both teams a fair shake

A factor on Saturday. I mean, I noticed that, you know, as to Tomonaga, I noticed it

with with a leak, he would go up for a basket and, you know, he would, you know, get hit on the arm

and he would get no call on the other end. He would go straight up, no contact, but we got called

So, I mean, yeah, one time he went straight up and Terrence Shannon went into him and they called him

for them. Like I, I mean, maybe they called it on the ground person. I don't, but I mean

the thing about Shannon is that he's just a bull at a China shop and he just like

goes towards the rim and, and, you know, can get that call because he could fall down after like

running into the player. But yeah, I mean, yeah, it is what it is in every, every, every fan base

you know, thinks that they got screwed by the refs after. So there is some, there is some like

part of that, like that's what you always have to like correct for some of that. So, I mean

I'm sure some of this is sour grapes, like, you know, partially that take, but not all of it

There definitely was some officiating that wasn't good, but at any rate you know, we'll wrap it up

there. We'll have more time to talk about the women's matchup too. We didn't really get to that

one, but we'll talk about that more on Friday. We're going to do a little pregame you know

preview about the matchups you know, Texas A&M and Nebraska. So make sure that you guys join us for

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well, thanks for hanging out with us and as always go big red, go big red