1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Replacing Berke, what's next for Husker MBB: April 9th, 2026, 11:00am

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

Looking at the current state of the Nebraska MBB roster. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. One-on-one on a Thursday here with you. A very big day in sports as the Masters gets going. And we've got that. We can see that going on in the background. I'm Jake Bockman. He is Austin,

Austin. Thanks for joining the show here once again. Again, if you're looking for DP, he should be back at some point, maybe next week dealing with a little bit of a surgery that he's going to have to recover from. He was told to stay off his, stay off his feet.

And I think he's obliging at least now. It can be hard to do. But hopefully that's best for the long term. healing process. Absolutely. Wishing the best for our fearless leader, DP. And I don't know if you invited me. I'm going to take it as you invited me. You're going to take it as you ended up with me stuck in this year. But either way, happy to be here for the hour. Well, I'm happy that you're here, too, whether I invited you or not. But we are here. We can hopefully entertain you. Of course, a lot of the news still in Nebraska kind of circling around the Berke-Buken jail news and what this

means I think the conversations kind of turned into, you know, post some news coming out about his asking price, more about kind of what the bigger picture in college basketball. You and Nick had an excellent breakdown of kind of about what they're going to have to do to replace Barakee Buching, Jell, and what you look for. And I always go back to just kind of reminding people, you're probably not going to find an exact Bear K replicate in the portal. there's a lot of guys. I mean, you might be able to.

But, you know, as with usual, when you're losing players with, that's rinkmaster, you know, Sam Hoyberg, there's certain qualities that you're probably not going to find, but hopefully whoever you fill in has some different qualities that can help out the team.

Oh, yeah. And I think that, again, I think you can find the stat line out there. I think the biggest issue for Nebraska, in terms of the resources here is the time that it's going to take to get another new piece into gel and another new piece to understand what Nebraska, Nebraska once out of it because we've seen this block with Fred Hoyberg teams and players

year after year, they're often a lot more comfortable in year two, you know, which is where you saw Bear Cape Eukton jail getting raked over the coals, well, where's the offense and what's he doing out on the court, just kind of taking up space. Why is he still out there in his first year? And then last year became, you know, fan favor in some ways and played a huge role. Was the second best defender on Nebraska's team and a lot of kind of catch-all metrics and played a role that not a bunch of other people on the roster could have played defensively. So, yeah, it stinks to see him go. You can probably replace the player, but that's, that's more time that Nebraska can have to spend

on the defensive end installing that scheme with a brand new player instead of having at least one piece of that back line seemingly put in place. Yeah, I mean, and that's, you know, that was funny with Fred Hoyberg's press coverage. He doesn't seem to be all that excited about the transfer portal season. I think it's because of the amount of work that it's that it's going to go in. Was that your read? He kind of made a joking quick like, oh, yeah, we're here we are, transfer for all season. Yeah, no, he was, yeah, he understands just the nature of the beast.

And I do think it's, well, certainly different, but I would think Fred Hoyberg likes it better being at home this year, as opposed to last year where they're doing all these Zoom calls in Vegas during the college basketball crown, which I know Nebraska was actually sitting down watching film gameplay before they weren't just going Yolo, let's roll a ball out there and see what happens. It's kind of hard to win a tournament. Even as disinterested as some of those teams were in being there. I don't know how interested Nebraska was in being there.

It seemed like they wanted to be there. They were there for a reason. But whether Nebraska was just interested enough in being at the crown or actually interested, they were still playing basketball at the time that the transfer portal opened last year. And I think moving the window back to after the final four in the championship game makes a lot of sense. I think Nebraska being back home and somewhat settled by the time the portal opens

and being back home by the time the dead period stops so you can start bringing guys in on visits either tomorrow or over the weekend is putting Nebraska in pretty much every other program in the country in a better spot to put their best foot forward with these portal guys. Yeah, it'll be fun to see what Nebraska adds. Of course, you go pretty quickly from, you know, just loving this past season to interest in what will be next year. Of course, we've seen all the preseason, you know, way too early polls that have Nebraska in the mix. And again, Berke is a loss, but not one that I think is going to significantly drop Nebraska in those type of polls or in preseason expectations,

as long as they are able to get a, you know, a comparable replacement. Again, not necessarily an exact type of player, but somebody that they can plug in in play there. So lots of work for Nebraska to be done. We talked about it yesterday specifically kind of very front court and very back court. They've got a lot of their wings situation kind of figured out. Notable also Justin Bullis is transferring. Of course, I think that's an old because he came from Southeast Community College. It was one of the cooler stories of this team was not just that they finally got it done,

is that after years and years of Nebraska basketball, if you had said, you know, what's going to be the key to get Nebraska back? It's like, well, they need at least a guy from Pious and a guy from Lincoln South West, maybe Southeast Community College player. That usually wasn't the answer as to what Nebraska was lacking over the years. So that's kind of interesting as they lose. Him. Also, Quentin Rhymes, which I don't know.

I think just in general, unless you're kind of a high-end freshman these days, I mean, this almost feels like the path. And it's not just at Nebraska, but so many guys go somewhere, redshirt. I mean, we just saw Nick Janowski, who's back in the portal after a red shirt year at Nebraska, go off and play well in the Summit League. But, man, I just, it's almost getting to a point where for me, it's hard to expect. Of course, when you're going to the transfer portal and getting older guys that are proven guys,

they're going to come in and be part of that rotation. But I'm not going to get too attached to these younger guys anymore. I'm not shocked, Quentin Rhymes left. I may be a little surprised by it. Now, this is a young man from Arizona. I think Hillcrest Prep is where he did his final year. I think he's from Arizona, West Coast, certainly. And so maybe he wants to move back closer to home.

But, you know, he didn't see the floor. Eli Rice at least saw the floor at Nebraska, and he still left. But what we've seen, Bach, in the Fred Hoyberg era, and at one point I had a spreadsheet of this pulled up. I don't know if I can find it quickly here. But in terms of the transfers out during the Fred Hoyberg era, they, oh, I think I have here. I think I have here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Nebraska has had like one up transfer in C.J. Wilter. He went to A&M. Other than that, everyone who's transferred out of Nebraska in the Fred Hoyberg era specifically that I've been able to track has transferred down a level. And I think if you just look at Quentin Rhyme's offer sheet coming out of high school,

the names that will stand out, Nebraska, TCU, maybe Wichita State, but that's not the same program. Otherwise, you're talking a solid Boise State program. Okay, fine. New Mexico has certainly had its moments, fine, you know, mid-major program. Fresno, meh, loyal to Merrimount, meh, UC Santa Barbara, okay from time to time, Green Bay, hey Doug Gottlie, what's up? And Pepperdine.

You know, it's not like this kid with a huge offer list. I don't know if there was some financial compensation for him coming to Nebraska outside of the scholarship initially. I kind of thought that with... BetMGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has everything for the action on the ice. Hockey fans in Canada can place live bets, create same game parles, take player props on their favorite skaters,

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please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. The success Nebraska's had over the last couple of years and Fred Hoyberg told me in my face that the money is really what matters, and the role is really what matters.

But I thought for a guy like Quentin Rimes, I would have thought for guys like that offer list coming out of high school, how much has he done to improve his game? What does his film look like from scout team and whatnot? Does he actually put on a show enough to where his situation is going to be improved? Because Quentin Rimes is going to be a rotation piece

for Nebraska last year, at least have the chance to see the court. I can understand if he wouldn't see the court until he was a junior, right? So two full seasons from now. But as a redshirt freshman, I would think Quentin Rhymes would have played at least some minutes, right? Would have had some minutes there for the taking as a two guard.

And then in his sophomore years, his third year on campus, there's a non-zero chance that he could have started and probably would have been expected to start after Sanford leaves, especially, right? And after a siege and graduates, would have said kind of the same thing with Janowski. Would have been a rotation guy this coming year, and maybe even last year at times.

But certainly, you know, would have been in the conversation to replace to Marcus Lawrence in the starting lineup, potentially for this year, but they left. And so I thought Nebraska had started to build that pipeline where guys are okay to sit out their year and then get on the floor after that. But I guess not everyone sees that way, especially not if you're in the program.

Yeah, yeah. And like you said, there's a lot of different reasons. It's always hard from the outside to kind of speculate why it might happen. It just seems to happen more often than not in college basketball, at least at Nebraska these days. Again, I think that can maybe change if you're talking about a Colin Rice and Jacob Laneier.

And again, I'm so interested to see what they can kind of bring to the table. Again, for folks that don't know, I mean, they're top 100 recruits. Now, you know, I think Leo Curtis was the top 100 recruit as well. So it doesn't automatically mean they're going to be big time rotation guys. And Curtis certainly had at times where he stepped up for Nebraska. But, you know, they, again, fall into that kind of wing category of being six, seven, and six, five and just, you know, just kind of fitting. into that at the at the next level so it'll be interesting especially with with price

stanford and brayden fraser um taking those roles this year uh presumptively in the starting lineup right fraygar's gonna gonna move up and ask for a bigger role um you know if those are the two answers off the bench behind them as wing players right and i think and jay and i're going going to talk more about this but i think Nebraska figuring out the next step for the guys that are returning, how the offseason goes, how much they're able to add to their game will determine a lot of how we end up viewing this. Because Nick and I talked about this a little bit on the drive is Nebraska wasn't perfect in the portal last year, right? You know, at least two misses, two and a half misses, maybe three misses, but how they make up for it with development.

You know, I think Nebraska does have that good pipeline now of wings in the system, right? You think about going from from Bryce Williams to to Price Sanfort, to Braden Frager throw him in that mix after that. Colin Rice will be coming in. I think Lamar is more of a truer backcourt player, a guard, probably a two. But the thing about all the guys that came in for some of Nebraska's high profile games in January and February, not a lot of big men, not a lot of guards, heck of a lot of wings. So I think that's one position that Nebraska feels really good about its ability to recruit,

hopefully retain, and absolutely develop. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then again, it's kind of funny before knowing a roster, you know, we try to pick apart these certain things of, you know, Acesian or Jacobson B starters or like what's the ideal role. Again, it can just kind of be with the combination and sometimes even what kind of works. I thought you and you and Nick I was listening to kind of made a good point. Sometimes you can, your five best players aren't necessarily always the five, the best lineup, right? I mean, you can kind of overlap on some of their skills there.

So we'll have to see, you know, I think in... Well, when even best is so subjective. Right. Best is best at what, what has to, the way you have to define best is who are the five guys that give Nebraska the best chance to be successful? How do they fit together? So, I mean, Connor Seagen is probably the second best shooter on the team.

That doesn't necessarily make him the second best player on the team. Right, right. And for him, too, I mean, we'll have to see, you know, with his development, obviously coming off of injury. he's just a guy and at this point in his career for more often than not and you can if he's not hitting he's still spacing the floor

and so there's there's value there but he's just a guy that's very dependent on his shot if it's not falling then his value on the court drops quite a bit so that's why I still think he's best suited as a sixth man because he can get

provide that that punch off the bench and hopefully you know more often than not but is he consistent enough to be a starter and relied upon day after day? We don't know. Part of that is, like you said, the development, maybe that can happen in the offseason. But again, to my point was part of it's going to be what you bring in. I mean, you know, it just, we have these ideal situations.

But coming into last year, who would have ideally said, yeah, Bear case is starter, for sure, right? And then it turned out that. Well, Fred Hoy, because they love the defensive value, but fans were not seeing it. Right, yeah, not sold on it. And Becker, you know, we'll see where he goes, especially at his, you know, I think part of the intrigue and all of this, again, is his value compared to what Nebraska had and people want to have, you know, different opinions about it. But how often do we say, I mean, if there's a 610 guy in the portal that started for a sweet 16 team, I mean, that's, that's what you're looking for. And again, you can get overvalue basically because of that because there's just not a lot to pick from if you're in the portal. Absolutely.

I want to pick up on that point about, you know, if a Seijan starts. And Jay and I'll get into this a little bit. But someone on the text line, we didn't have a chance to get to, and I'm scrolling through trying to find who I replied to during a break. But they're asking, well, you tell me Nebraska can't do better than Conner Seagin? You know, can't you go out and upgrade over him? No, I think Nebraska very clearly could. I think there's a legitimate argument to be made that if Nebraska wants to continue to improve its standing,

they can go out and find someone that can do what Conner Seagin can do and maybe a little bit more with the budget that they have with the success that they've had. But here's the thing. Connor Seasons's a good dude. I don't know anyone that said a bad word about it. Nebraska values that cultural fit.

Nebraska values continuity. You know, a season, there's a spot starter a couple of years ago. Came off the bench in seven games to start this year before the unfortunate injury. By all counts, has worked hard to get back in Chavesman

doing some straight line running now for Nebraska. And it's still a little bit of ways away from, you know, doing obviously full speed stuff. He's doing some light shooting. as well. Again, the box score, the line score, the top level skills are probably replaceable. But this program wants to pride itself on some level of continuity on getting guys into the program for multiple years. And so I can see Nebraska legitimately believing that Connor Seagen is the guy they want on the roster because this isn't just NBA 2K build a team where you can manufacture any

trades or free agent signings that you want. Could Nebraska upgrade? yeah, is it worth upgrading maybe in some ways. But the question then from the text lane was, well, how many teams would Conor Sagan start on? They made the NCAA tournament this year. And number one, I don't think Nebraska is going to ask him to start. Number two, if he starts, that makes their additions at the one

and probably the four, maybe the five, even more important because there's going to be a bunch of redundancy between Conner, Sejan, Price Sanford, and Braden-Fragher. The reason coaches like players they can do a bunch of different things. The reason that coaches like versatility is because you don't get pigeonhole. You don't get targeted in one way or another.

But let's not pretend like the top teams in the country don't have their own version of Connor Ossetian. Don't have their own version of Kail Jacobson, don't have their own version of Jared Garcia. Would Connor Esegian have started it at Florida last year? No, probably not. But he would have played a role. You know how I know that?

Because Florida went out and got a guy that was their version of Conor Sijian in the transfer portal and made him come off the bench. Conor Sijian would start for some, I think, lower level tournament teams. TCU had their version of Conor Sijian. Missouri had their version of Conor Sijian. I'm just to do the high major ones, right? There are some versions of Wisconsin, funny enough, that the Conner Sijian could have started on in years past, right? Maybe Miami, depending on the team construct.

But the point is, is that if Conner Sijian is starting for Nebraska or any of those other teams I mentioned, he's not tops on the scouting report. And that's fine. You can live with that. The same way Nick and I were talking about, you can live with one, you know, defense, first, second, third player in your lineup in Bear Cape Eukton, Jell,

is because you have a legitimate defensive skill set that he does well. You can hang your hat on pretty much night in night out, and you cover for him in other ways offensively. It's the same thing but inverse with Conor Ossigin. You don't want to make the whole boat out of Conor Ossigin necessarily. But you can tell me there's not a role for a guy that can shoot like that, that can step into the midrange and do it.

Not a great defender, but he competes. And so the point of building a team around a role guy is that doesn't happen. You figure out who your stars are, Price stands for it. You put your ancillary pieces around him, see how they compliment. And you make it work that way. Because the point is that you don't want to overextend Conor Ossigion, or your team's version of Connor Ossigion, because he doesn't have the most well-rounded skills.

set, but that doesn't mean in the right team context, he can't fit in some lineups where his skills are amplified and his weaknesses are covered. Well, I think it almost just can just remind me, he was a key rotation piece two years ago for a team that should have made the NCAA tournament. Obviously, one of the crown, but very well should have made the NCAA play tournament. I don't know if people remember, he averaged almost 11 a game two years ago. Yeah. And there were several games where he hit four, five, or six threes. Again, I don't think it's been consistent enough for you to bank on him as the reliable starter, but that changes games when you have somebody that can come in.

And especially usually with him, he's kind of a, if he gets hot, he can hit, you know, back to back or back to back to back threes. That can absolutely change games and has at Nebraska with Conner Seedion. With Conner Seedon specifically, primarily in the non-conference. Right. Okay, got to, got to find another gear for conference play. Otherwise, you might lose some minutes there. But I said this with Nick, and I'll run it past you, too.

I think the hope for Nebraska was that on any given night, in any given game, you could rely on two of the four of Sanford, Esejan, Blue, and Frager. Problem was, the Seagin got hurt. Blue was out of the rotation, couldn't trust him to play, and Frager was a freshman. So that put a lot of undue extra pressure on Price, Sanford, even with the other pieces that Nebraska played with. So, again, you're not going to ask Conner Seigen to go full Bennett starts. that's not good for anyone.

He's not going to do that. You can't ask even Conner Sejan, I think, to go beat to Marcus Lawrence. They're not the same player. But he has a specific skill and a skill set that you can work in in conjunction with other guys on the roster. And that's the important part. Yeah, no, absolutely agree. And I also think, you know, as you kind of brought it up, looking at it, you know, from

that way is that I don't know. I mean, if you never, you know, you never won injuries or, I can't say it'd be at Nebraska at times needed would have liked to have Conner's St. coming off the bench last year. Oh, yeah. But I don't know if Price Sanford ever gets the full gear role that he got as far as you are more of our three-point threat. Now, I think you would, I don't know if it would have been exactly the same type of

season with more shots that his decision would have taken. See, I think that this staff has thought highly enough of Price Sanford for a while that his role would have been pretty similar. In fact, I think there's an argument in a world that his, life would have been a lot easier with Conor's Sijer. Maybe it's fewer shots, but Buck, this is the same guy. You and I came on multiple post games. How did it price Sain for only get three shots and a half?

How do you only take one shot and a half? And that's without a gunner, a chucker, and Connor or Sijian even play it, right? Sometimes you need guys to take shots, I mean, just to make the defense think about something else, right? It's why only running the ball and only passing the ball doesn't work in football. It's why only swinging for the fences in baseball doesn't work. You need to have something else that you can do. And I think someone that threatens to knock down a three with that gravity that they have to pay attention to,

maybe Price St. Fort loses a shot or two a game. But I think his role in how highly Nebraska thinks of him doesn't change, where he's still the feature. And I think that a little less attention, one more little glance Conner's Seagin's way, one step closer to Conner's Seagin, you know, for someone could have opened up a lot. lot more for Price Sanford on a more consistent basis. Yeah, I mean, I definitely could be that way too. And that's why I can't wait to see, you know, we talk about different lineups. This is it going to work with Sanford and Ecession, you know,

Friger all at one time. And I think at times it can against different lineups again. And certainly when Sanford and Ecession are out there, it's going to be harder, like, to your point, to just smother Sanford because there's other spacing that you have to worry about a little bit more there. So let's go ahead and take a break. I did want to jump into something. I don't know if it matters as much to some people as it does to me,

but it would, I think, if Nebraska had had some different results in the tournament. So should postseason results, specifically the NCAA tournament, affect the final rankings as much as it did? Of course, it should at the top. I'm not arguing that. But throughout the rest of the way, I find it very interesting. I'll talk with awesome. Well, chat about that next coming up on one-on-one on 93-7, the ticket.

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