1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - New members of the Nebraska tennis team: May 12th, 2026, 11:25am

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Meet the newest members of the Husker tennis team. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

93-7 the ticket. We are back here on one-on-one on 93-7. The ticket, once again, DP out of studio, should be back at some point this week. But for day, we've got Nebraska men's tennis coach Peter Kobel in studio alongside myself, Jake Bakovan, as we're talking a lot of different things around the men's tennis program. I did want to at least highlight that the championship, which will take place this Sunday. They're down to 18. So from Thursday to Sunday, they will narrow it down from eight to one.

And we will crown our champion in men's tennis this year. Last year, Wake Forest defeated TCU, who was the defending champ. Both those teams still in the field. The eight teams now left playing in Athens, Georgia, will be Wake Forest in Arizona. They'll play the winner of Ohio State and TCU. And then Virginia and Mississippi State, the winner of that game will take on the winner of Texas and Baylor. seven seed LSU is the only top eight seed from the tournament from the get-go that did not make it to the final eight. The 10-seat Baylor took their place.

So a lot of a little bit of chalk bracket, as we like to call from NCAA men's tournament there. How often is that the case, Coach Gold Belt, as we kind of look at is, is tennis kind of dominated by a handful of program? Yeah, for sure. It's not a Cinderella sport. That's for sure. You don't see any of these small conference teams making its way through. Tennis is a long drawn-out game that takes time. There's not one lucky bounce that totally flips the outcome of a match.

You've got to win several points over and over and over and over again. So usually the better player wins and usually the better team wins. But now the margins are very small. the difference between a one seat and an eight seat is remarkably small. So going forward, there can be, and there probably will be some upsets. But if you're going to, most of the time, if you're a top eight seed, you're going to make it through your first two rounds into the, into the suite 16.

I would say 99% of the time. Okay. Yeah. Wow. So yeah, not the Cinderella sport. There's times. where you have funky, funky seeds that don't make it. 99's probably hyperbole.

It's probably 90, 95%. But, you know, like last year, UCLA had a very slow start to the season. They should have been a top 16 seed. They were a 17 seed, so they didn't host. And they ended up beating, who was it? I think it was San Diego at San Diego. So they were the team that made it through. But you're not going to see, you'll see enough.

upset maybe like that here and there, but you're not going to see like, I don't know, name of school, like Stetson made the NCAA tournament. Like Stetson's not getting out of the first round. You know, nothing against Stetson, but they're not going to beat Wake Forest in the first round of the NCAA tournament. That either those things I don't think will ever happen. And I don't know. College sports are weird now, but that would be, that would be extremely remarkable thing

that ever happened. Is that, you mentioned kind of the gap maybe getting a little bit smaller among the top in schools? Why is it just the modern day? Yeah, I think Revshire, NIL scholarships have all changed the game. Tennis used to be a sport where every school had four and a half scholarship and there was nothing really extra that was going on. So it was, you know, the teams that could that could field a roster of six or seven guys that were really good, were usually the teams that win. But you have teams that were good,

one through four, one through five maybe, and then they'd be soft at a spot. They'd start the match down one zero. Everyone kind of knew they were going to lose at that spot. That doesn't happen anymore. Everyone's got six, seven, eight, nine scholarships now. Everyone can go out and find extra money and pay guys. So you see a lot of teams that are really good,

one through seven, one through eight, guys that are really good. So, yeah, if you're able to kind of, if you're in a good spot financially and you're able to work through some stuff scholarship-wise, like you can really weaponize a team. And that's why I think like these teams that are going up at it right now,

they all look like that. So it's kind of like who's going to show up and be ready to go that day, who's going to handle the nerves, who's going to go out and execute their game plan because the levels are going to be remarkably high this weekend for sure. So if you're able to watch, tune in.

I think it's on ESPN Plus, you said. There's also a YouTube channel called Cracked Rackets. And they do a fantastic job of breaking down all the matches, matches, the matchups, all the interesting things that you might not know, that you get to learn in other sports. They do a really good job of doing that with tennis. And I've talked about, too, you know, I mentioned just one big 10 team, I suppose left in the field being Ohio State.

You played there. We talked about you being for Columbus, all that sort of stuff. So outside of that, you know, connection, is there a benefit of me? Is the rest of the Big Ten cheering for Ohio State? Are they cheering against Ohio State because they don't want to deal with the bragging rights? Or is there really maybe no one way or the other? I think it's just like every other sport.

I think you cheer for your, for your rivals, Ohio State's arrival. At the end of the day, we need the Big Ten to be elite. So if Ohio State goes out and wins it, like that actually helps us on the recruiting trail. It helps, you know, you know, move the conversation more towards, hey, the Big Ten is the best school for the best conference for tennis. Right now, I don't think we can say that quite yet.

But if the trend is anything like football and basketball, it's certainly trending towards that way. But ideally we have two, three, four teams in this position in the coming years. So those are the goals that we have for the men's program. You know, we're not just trying to be good. We're trying to be the best. That takes time. But, yeah, I mean, it's hard to not root for Ohio State, I guess, at this point of the stage with us being out and that being my alma mater.

So we'll hopefully, they'll go on and do well in these later stages of the tournament. But like I said, margins are really small and anyone can win. and it's the team that's going to be most prepared at the end of the day who's going to come home with the NCAA trophy. And I was looking through your bio too and kind of going back to you mentioned the players that are going to be ready that day, right? You know, coming up here Thursday and then obviously Sunday when a championship champion is crowned. You had some success at Ohio State.

Of course, enough to go professional, but even the most outstanding player in the 2014 National Indoor Championship, is that the indoor championship, would that be different than what, This event is? So it's the same teams. Okay. There's just, we have an indoor season in tennis and an outdoor season in tennis. It's all, it's all smushed into one.

The indoor season obviously happens first in January and February. And then the outdoor season kind of precedes that. So at Ohio State, we play mostly indoors. So it kind of leans in our favor a little bit. We're used to the indoor tennis a bit more. The outdoor season is a little bit tougher for the norther schools or the schools that are up north. because we don't get to play outside as much in the conditions, and that actually makes a big difference.

Just getting used to the, for one, the heat. You go down to Athens, Georgia right now. It's going to be hotter and more humid, and they're going to be in that environment longer than we've been. So they have that advantage plus the wind and the sun, and there's just a few different elements you've got to worry about when you have a ball that's small and it kind of moves through the air. It can be impacted by the wind significantly.

So, but yeah, I mean, Ohio State's been very successful in the national indoor scene, and they're still waiting for their first national title, outdoor national title. So maybe it's this year, maybe not, but they'll have a chance to win it for sure. Yeah, very interesting stuff. Again, tune in this weekend, if you can. Sunday will be the championship game. But Thursday through Sunday, they'll kind of have their elite aid, if you will, as the eight teams are battling it out.

again, ESPN2 or cracked rackets on YouTube as where you can check that out. We're up against. So we better take a break. I do want to ask Coach Cobelt when we return about a new signing. In fact, a few new signies coming to Nebraska tennis. We'll talk about that coming up next year on 937, the ticket. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com.