1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Should Connor Essegian Be Inserted in the Starting Lineup?: February 12th, 12:25pm

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Should Connor Essegian Be Inserted in the Starting Lineup?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to One-on-One with D.P. Brought to by Canopy Street Market on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back to one-on-one. And again, our apologies for the tennis fans. We were expecting coach, Domalgrove, to show up. We will re-book him as well. As a matter of fact, we are in negotiation to get coaches from women's gymnastics, men's gymnastics, all of the Olympic sports

to come through and on one-on-one, whether it's players, coaches, or otherwise, to come in and kind of talk about the other Huskers who don't necessarily get all the love that they should. Again, I thank our friends over at Canopy Street Market. If you're looking for, Bach, so circle your Tuesday lunch that Canterbury Street Market does tacos, Taco Tuesday.

And it is a line. They actually make them. fresh on Tuesdays. Now, I have yet to be there on Tuesday where there is no line by like 1125. Oh, the town's starting to hear about it. Oh, there's a line. And a lot of it's like the construction workers and they'll fight you for it. Right.

Like, listen, and you got to get them in. You can custom, you put them, you know, whatever you want on it. It's the whole thing. I stopped by there yesterday to get, because of the snow. I stopped by and got some meals. They do, they make meals every day. meal prep, really good food. I got a fried chicken and mashed potato dinner.

I got a meatloaf and mashed potatoes dinner with corn. They do some, they do a really good enchilada dinner to go. You just take it home and heat it up. Or you can get the ones where they make them fresh and they're still hot. They do rotisserie chicken. They do the whole shaback. So you can go in and get drinks, get whatever you need for your groceries. I went through and got everything that, you know,

I got my checklist in case I couldn't get out today. but I feel really good about it, but we want to thank them for taking care of. They do a really good job of helping take care of the student athletes. So they do gift cards so that the student athletes can go there and shop. And they get groceries or go get snacks or whatever it is. You can go and get a nice deli. So if you want to go get your stuff, you can do that.

We had a text from the text on that, you know, was asking about Maryland basketball's attendance. And here's the thing. Before they moved, the old legendary coal fuel house, under the days of you remember Maryland basketball was different. Maryland basketball in the ACC,

it was packed every night. They did a thing called the Amen Chorus when they won games and they would just sing Amen as you left the building. Pretty cold-blooded. But it was the first time, you know, unfortunately they beat Nebraska and the

Amen chorus broke out. And I hadn't been in the building to hear the A-Men chorus in forever. So yeah, it caught me. But they asked that, you know, what's the fan base like? Well, Maryland basketball was pretty elite for a very long time. You talk about, you know, all the way back to Lefty-Drazel and the ACC and it's battled the battles with Duke, even all the way through with Gary Williams, winning a national title, the Lynn Bias years, the Tom McWill and John Lucas,

Len Elmore years, right? There's, you know, the Buck Williams years, like, they went through it. They moved to a bigger, newer arena, and it's really nice to admit. It's really nice. But it makes you appreciate how nice PBA is. PBA is a wonderful arena. They've got a really good Hall of Fame for the athletic department's Hall of Fame is there in the area where you're just kind of standing,

so you spend some time standing there. But Maryland in the bigger facility averages, just behind what Nebraska averages at PBA. And it's College Park, Maryland, it's D.C. There's a lot of stuff going on. But the numbers are good. Nebraska ranks ahead of Maryland when it comes to attendance, but not a lot in the hundreds.

So it's pretty good. But yeah, if I can get Johnny Holiday in tomorrow, if I can't get them in tonight, I'll get them in tomorrow. to get him in him to tell some stories and harass Rico along the way. Dan said this. He said, we asked about the best five. And again, you texters can text in and give me your best five. The best five Huskers on the floor.

And I think the same question would apply for women's basketball because that's really a thing. I'd like to figure out what what Amy Williams and that crew is going to do down the stretch. but Dan says this that the best five, he would have, of course, Bryce Williams, Juan Gary, Andrew Morgan, Sam Hoyberg,

and Connor. See, I like the siege and off the bench just because he can give you a whole other offense that you're struggling with. But I don't mind that lineup either. I mean,

obviously, can I say this in full? As a coach and as a player. If you are one of my best offensive weapons and you're a competent defender, right? And it's fair to say the decision is a competent defender, right? Oh, yeah. Right? Better than average rebounder, right?

I mean, as a matter of fact, I think there's a couple of games where he actually, you know, was one or two in rebounding. That if you're going to play meaningful minutes in the Big Ten conference, Bach, if you are the best player, best scorer on the team, or let's say you're number four, you're the fourth best scorer. And it's going to come down to in a 40-minute game, two minutes and two minutes. Do I want you on the floor? What I hate as a coach is to leave quality production on the bench

because of some other reason. if a season is one of the best offensive players, third best offense player? Third leading score, yeah. Right? That in a matter of points coming, being a point differential per minute,

that can you afford, are you good enough, right, to have the Freddie Brown Jamal Crawford effect, right? That you just want to have the confidence because they, you know, they see things different. They make the different things happen. But I never understood why you couldn't tell me why Jamal Crawford

getting extra minutes was a bad thing. Like you're going to burn offensive possessions with one of your greatest weapons sitting in the holster? Like if you've got, if you're going to get 47 shots to take, you want Connor to get his, right? Like you, right? You don't want Connor to go, you don't want to go, okay. we ended up with our eighth best shooter taking more shots than our third best shoot.

Minut situation circumstance. All those things play into it. Defender, like whoever the defensive opposition is and what they're trying to do. Game situation. Game scenario. Is this a better team with Conner season on the floor? I think it is. But again,

I think there's just something to it like if I'm, if I'm grinding out the first six minutes and you got to deal with Juan Gary and Bryce Williams and then to a degree, I mean, it could be difficult, but to kind of just sneak contercision in at some point, and then they're like, okay, maybe somebody gets less than the scouting report, and you lose him right of the guy. I just feel like if you start him, then, you know, you put your lockdown defender on and tell him, don't get a, you know, don't let him get open and all that, you know, that there could be something to that.

But I don't, I don't disagree with it. I mean, you certainly could start him and have no problem there with him being the start. He mean, he plays starters minutes and he would. I mean, if Bryce is on the floor, you, if you're done, If you're putting defensive attention on kind of season, Bryce is going to eat. Yeah. If Bryce and Connor and Joanne are on the floor, yeah, most big 10 teams have three mid-level defenders, right? Do you have a fourth?

And this is where Raleigh and Sam and their shot attempts always comes into play. And it comes less into play late in the games because you have to foul them. Like you just have to foul them because Nebraska's. been ahead or games have been close and they've had the ball and fear factor leads you lead you to it but then it becomes a matter of well wait a minute if he's that good and has that much impact on big 10 defenders shouldn't there be more minutes and why wouldn't they be at the start of the game think about this we spent two years waiting for case A to become KSA right have a little regret that we didn't get more case A the whole time he was here.

Right? Like there's a little bit of it would have been nice, right? Because he set the crowd off every night. His first shot, there was no error in PBA because everybody inhaled and held their breath. Wouldn't that be the case with Connor or his agent? if Conner's if get the first tap Bryce penetrates kicks to Connor standing solo on the wing PBA collectively inhales fills their lungs and holds their breath because they have the expectation and hope that that shot's going to go down and the party has started but if you keep them on the bench

I just think you're doing your own thing but again Hoyberg knows so I'm I that's that's not even a Hoyberg question. That's more of a basketball philosophy question for me. That as a coach, if I had an offensive weapon like that, I wanted him on the floor, especially if I didn't have somebody better than him to start the game. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think there's plenty of teams where he'd definitely be a starter on with what he's currently producing too, you know, because you have to also factor in. And that's what I was going to ask you is, let's say he's not shooting particularly well, because that's kind of, when, we talk about the ups and downs, you know, some people say, well, if Connor can score 15 here,

then he needs the average 15 every night. And it's like, well, he's mostly a primary, a shooter, so it's going to depend on whether he's hitting or not that night. Does he do enough if he's not hitting well to say that he's getting, you know, 25, 30 minutes? Yeah, I mean, I think maybe his best performance was when he went 0 for 6, but I mean, I think he had six boards, defended well, uh, help facilitate the offense. Like, I, I don't think he is a one-trick pony. And it, in any way, shape, or form. Conner's a really good basketball player. He's a really good basketball player, and I like him on the floor.

Now, the question becomes, if you're going to ask that question about Connor's season, you have to ask about Sam Hoyberg. Can Sam score enough points? Will, not can he? Will he score enough points for the minutes that he consumes on the floor? Now, the plus minus always leans in favor of Hoyberg because of the other things that he does on the floor. But I'd be interested to find out what the Connor, what the plus minor is for Connor,

plus minor for Wooster, plus minus for Hoyberg and what those three things are. We'll find that out over the break. We'll come back, give it to you before we close out and hand it over to the captain show on a Wednesday.