1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Does Nebraska have everything it needs to win a national basketball title?: March 24th, 2026, 11:00am

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Husker MBB enters the Sweet 16 on Thursday against Iowa. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-the-ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Tuesday. Appreciate y'all hanging out with us. 11-0-2. Lincoln.

Waiting for the good weather to start showing up tomorrow. Just the time for us to leave. Early bird flight. Bach. early flight to try to beat some of the traffic and get to Houston. So that's what the plane is. For that, greatly appreciate y'all hanging out with us 4024-6-4-6-8-5-starter hymn

text line on the Liggin hotline. We appreciate all of you on the text line and all of the continual conversation that we're having. You can follow on on live video streams, Facebook, YouTube X, Allo, Channel 961. Download the ticket app, do it. Do it. Do it. Tuesday requires a loud and proud. Yes, sir. Got a good one for you today.

Two hours today. Carri-Craft today. So one-on-one, hour one. In the second segment, 1130, comedy giant, Adam Carolla will join us. He is going to be in town the entire weekend. We'll be in Lincoln. Tire Lincoln.

So if you're going to be around, if you're not going to Houston, around town, you may see Adam Carolla. And he is a, I don't throw that phrase out there without much consideration. But I'm not sure in the comedy and the broadcast space for comedy. I'm not sure there are many that have done all the things that Adam Carolla has done and been a part of. So we'll talk to him 1130 P. CoBelt from Husker tennis. We'll join us in the noon hour. He picked the Huskers going to Sweet 16.

We have it on tape. He said it's happening. So we will talk to him about this week, Sweet 16, what's going on with the men's program, the women's program with two top 25 wins as well. So shout out to Hermando Magro. Bachin, sir. How the heck are you? Hey, not too bad here.

It's like you said, just waiting for the weather to get a little bit better, but certainly just still on cloud nine from the recent events of Oscar basketball. Yeah, it hasn't worn off, right? The reality of it, the celebratory nature of it, and then the reality that not only was the team as good as we hoped they were, right? we now can dream a little bit about how good they can be. Bach, I'll ask you, and I'll ask the text line, how far can this team go?

How far can this team go? Now, you don't control your opponent. You don't control who your opponent is going to be. But, Bach, if we look at the remaining teams in the NCAA tournament, there's really nobody to be afraid of. right? I mean, is there, let's go through it. We understand the matchup that is Iowa. And you're in the street 16. So you're one of the top 16 programs in the country based on, on that base level thinking. Fair to say that Nebraska's top 10 in your mind, Bob?

Well, it's tough. I'll just go with ESPN's rankings. They came out with, they re-ranked the 16 teams. They've got Nebraska 13th ahead of Tennessee, Iowa, and Texas. So there, but here's the part, right? Because if they're going to do the receding and that, that's its own relative thing. If they're going to reseed, you then you're reseeding and Nebraska is ahead of Iowa. Fair? Yep.

So Nebraska beats Iowa. And then they're in the eight, in the eight of their likely opponents, Illinois and Houston also would rank be seated in the top 10. Fair? Yeah. I think that's the point is Nebraska not only has gotten there. They've effectively done what they could do to get there. So they beat the people they were supposed to beat, right?

Because technically they were ranked higher than Vanderbilt, but maybe not favored against Vanderbilt. Whose favorite Nebraska, Iowa? Nebraska. So we can, we can, in fact, dream. We can see this thing happening.

Does Nebraska have everything required to be one of the eight best teams in the country? Yep. Right? What are those things, Bach, that if we, if we, If we made a list of all the traits that the best, the elite eight teams should have, would have,

great leadership at the top, right? A successful and a knowledgeable head coach. A personality and a culture that can be consistently, lived and played. Their rules of engagement are things that they can do on a regular and consistent basis. That is a fair thing to say. Often they will tell you is to have a

skilled big man. A skilled big man. That is somebody that can get you points when you need in a possession, big rebounds, solid defender. Nebraska has that, correct? Yep. Veteran leadership at the point guard position.

right we we we can go back to the to the tommy amickers and matine cleaves all the way back to edie jordan and company we can go back to phil ford john lucas we can go back to to juan dixon we can steed blake if you want to go that route um isaiah thomas we can go back to great point guards Magic. Johnson, where great point guards help facilitate a long, deep run in March. Still on board? Yeah. Okay. An electric explosive, almost volatile score, right?

Somebody that can get you a bucket on a regular and consistent basis. We have that, right? Then you have the supplemental players. who will do all the things required defensively and offensively to keep the machine moving. Supplemental players who do, and

I don't want to call them role players, but these are supplemental players who will do all of the things. Tough rebounds, ball on the floor, setting picks, being vocal defensively and offensively, being facilitators. We have

those things, right? Yeah. And then the plus one, the plus one, normally is someone off the bench who can get you a bucket in a time of need, right, that can come off the bench and not have the moment be too big for one of your sixth or seventh best players to get a bucket. Nebraska has that, right? Yeah. Okay. we saw an okay C, which is this fan base.

This fan base, the extra added energy provided by Nebraska basketball by its fan base. How many points a game do you think that's worth? Bach. How many moments in a game do you think Nebraska fans can

help produce? I mean, it certainly helps in the momentum category. Nebraska can get going. and they play off the fans. So, you know, I mean, in football, I know in betting terms, usually give it like three points. And so in basketball, maybe so somewhere around there,

five points a game. And we would fully admit that the fan base was worth three to five points Saturday night. Yeah. Right? So all of the things in play, all of those things that we talk about, if we said it checks the boxes and it checks the boxes, almost as completely as any other team remaining in the tournament.

What am I missing? If I asked you, what is the one thing that Nebraska does not consistently have that leads to March, deep March success? You know, I think they've, again, they're there. They can do it. So every team has a flaw. we've talked about that. Every team has flaws. So there are things that are missing, right?

They don't have a huge amount of rim protection. The rebounding, you know, could leave some to be desired compared to some of these other teams. I think what's interesting, and you can compare it over the years, I mean, Duke's got like three or four guys that are going to be picked in the first round. You know, Arizona's got a couple of guys. So maybe like top in talent, but that's not always necessary to win a championship. Right. Top-end talent. Let's go through. Can we think of a national championship team that didn't have top-end talent? Can you think of any recent teams who did not have top-end talent?

Pull up my championship list. I mean, you know, usually these guys, and sometimes it's funny because you will think of it one way, right? Like Jalen Brunson is a college guy. He's not going to be good in the pros, but he's not. he's a great college player. It turns out he's a pretty good pro player. So, you know, you have to kind of go through that. I mean, generally, you are going to need somebody that is in that conversation or ends up being in that conversation as a result of their March run. Yeah, I just found it interesting that as we talk about what's required to win in March.

And this is why when we were having the discussion last week and two weeks ago and three weeks ago, I kept saying all the boxes are being checked. Think about it this way, that one of the more valuable players for Nebraska, we haven't even talked about. We don't talk about the defensive effective, the way that Jamarcus Lawrence effectively redirects opponent's offenses.

How high of an IQ this team has, a basketball in-game IQ this team has. we also don't talk about the toughness, the mental toughness, that in critical moments, you're able to remove chaos and play the game. Marcus Lawrence is as big a part of this run and this season as anybody we talk about, we just don't talk about them a lot. And listen, by a show of hands, Bach, please tell me if you had leading, going into Saturday's game,

who in the pool had the first offensive play and the first offensive series and the first offensive bucket leading to an open three and an open May three by Bearcay? Who had that in the pool? anyone? I don't think so. I don't know if it's a great game plan all the time, but it worked out. Listen,

when I saw the rotation and I saw him, and there's a thing that Husker shooters do, and they do it pretty well. And I would imagine it's coached and taught. But the footwork is consistent in getting in a position and preparedness for a catch and shoot through. And when I saw Bearcase footwork, he was not in triple threat footwork.

He was in catch and shoot footwork. And a part of me, to my core, Bach in my heart, I was, oh, no, Bach is going to shoot this. I am I wrong? Am I wrong? Am I wrong? No, I'm not.

I mean, I thought about that all game. Like if you're watching this from the Vanderbilt standpoint, everyone was seeing Nebraska. Yeah. And you just like look at it's like, oh, that guy can shoot too. Man, this team's good.

And it's like, yeah, he can shoot. Yeah, like I thought if you're Vanderbilt, you're going great possession. Great defensive possession. It led to a bear. K-3. Like, we want, we can, we can check the boxes. The great game plan. Let's, let's take it to the crib. Like, let's, and then it goes down and, but what was your reaction when it went down? Like, what do we do it? Well, again, I don't, I don't think you want to rely on that too often. Um, but, you know,

it's not like you can't shoot. We've seen him make it before. He's just over the season, you know, at the beginning of the season, he kind of had the green light to take those sorts of shots. And then I thought correctly, they kind of decided to tamper that down, maybe wait until the end of the shot clock if he's going to hoist up a three. But got the green light again there on Saturday. Oh, man. I thought in full that I wanted to, I kept waiting for the game to get its personality. And the personality is generally this.

If a team starts hot, they will come back to the path. You know, a lot of the conversation for the women's tournament is that teams start off hot and they just stay hot. Like you've got these routes that are happening, these 40-point wins that are going on in the women's tournament. In the men's tournament, that's really difficult to do. It's really difficult to do because they're good teams. They have some point. And then the human element comes into it that you get up 20 and you take you exhale and you start to do some other things. Nate Linger talks about the human nature that you want to put that away and not let people in games.

If you have them down, put your, as they say, put the verbal foot on their throat and let them play through. But I kept in the back and forth, the late Iowa lead gave me some comfort in. they were going to stop, I mean, the late Vanderbilt lead that it was going to give them some reason to pause to stop doing what they were doing. And their movement stopped a little bit. They kept wanting to get in the paint.

The mid-range game for them, that wasn't what they were doing. That wasn't where they were having success. And so I felt a little bit better about it. But, well, of course, Nebraska switched his own. I don't know if we talk about that too much, but that was a defensive adjustment they made. That seemed to be rather effective down the stretch.

Yeah, and there's some real guts to that, right? There's some real, you know, Nate Linder Marbles that, you know, when it was pitched, like when the idea was pitched, hey, what are your thoughts on, and those conversations happened quite a bit. Hey, what are your thoughts on switching up a thing, right? you go through that. And Fred talked about it yesterday in an interview that, yeah, it was pitched

and he thought, well, anything to get them out of their rhythm. Even if it's just for a possession or two, and it's stealing possessions. Like, you don't expect it, you don't expect or want for it to be necessary to win. But in certain games, certain opponents, those two or three plus possessions are necessary.

They're absolutely necessary. And so to go through that, you know, you have to shout out whoever made that decision. I felt like this. Going one three one was a good decision. I actually expected it earlier. Just from a foul, when Jamarcus has four fouls,

then you have to kind of go, okay, what are you doing? Like, you have to do something. And if Kail's not matching effort and energy, then you have to, in order to keep Jamarcus on the floor to get the offensive looks that you need, right? Because Vaintervote was defending, they weren't defending Kale in space. Like they were challenging Kail to shoot the three.

And Kail didn't want to do it. So then you have to go back to the guy that at least will hold a defender, will delay an extra defender, and that's what they did. And it was pretty interesting along the way. The text says this. That Jamarcus was average, average against Iowa last time. Let me say this.

And Bach read the text as it was saying. Yes, Mr. Marcus Lawrence was average at best last time playing Iowa covering Skirts. Okay. I always tell people, be careful with that. Bach, do you remember what Sturt's numbers were for that game of PBA? Last time out was four of ten from the field, 11 points, 2 of seven from beyond the yard. Five rebounds, three assists, three turnovers, three steals on the other end.

Is that below average for him? That's below average. That's way below average. Yeah. He averages almost 20 a game. Yeah. No, we're not. No.

No, that's not what happened. He didn't have his best day shooting, but let me tell you, when you work, I tell, listen, I would tell players all the time, if you're going to struggle, struggle on offense, do not struggle in defense. Empty the tank on defense. We will find other ways to score, but I need you to empty. the tank on defense. I just, I find that. I thought his performance was gritty. It was tough. I thought there was depth to it. He was also a great help defender along the way. As a matter of fact,

a couple of the big plays that he made defensively also came into it. So I, you know, plus two steals. And he made Sam a better defender that day too. So yeah, I get a little careful. about that. I like the, I like, I like the way he played against Iowa. I like the way the team played against Iowa. And I think that there's a lot of room for better play from Nebraska against Iowa. I think neutral officials are going to call this differently than Big Ten officials did. Bach, does that make you feel any kind of way with neutral officials, not necessarily Big Ten officials on the Sweet 16 stage? I don't know. I mean, fishing seems to be a hot button topic no matter what.

So, I mean, we'll see. You know, maybe there's a lot, a little bit more physicality. You know, Iowa has to grit out these possessions a lot of the time. And that's what's interesting about Sturts is he's bailing them out. He's like the end of the shot clock, hey, do something with it type of guy. Yet he's shooting 48% on the year. That's why when you look at it come, you know, his two matchups on Nebraska shooting about 38% on the year.

So, I mean, he did so Lawrence and Nebraska did so well that it caused SIP to go viral, Iowa viral, not believing in Bennett Sturt. So, you know, I think, I think Nebraska's done pretty darn well against him so far. I'm a member of that club. And we will go to break. We will get back to Husker basketball in the 12 o'clock hour, but up next. Special guest, he's coming to town for Howler Comedy Club Tour appearance. We will bring in Comedy Giant.

Adam Carolla, who will join us via the Honda Licken hotline when we come back to one-on-one. Download our app by searching 93.7 a ticket in your app store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.