1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Ugnius Jarusevicius Lands at ARIZONA?!: May 11th, 11:25am

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Ugnius Jarusevicius Lands at ARIZONA?!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 the ticket. We're back here on one-on-one on 93-7 the ticket. We said we're going to talk a little bit of Nebraska softball, and we will get to that here in just a second. Congratulations to the ladies again. Big Ten regular season and now tournament champions for the softball team. The first time that they've done that in the Big Ten era,

To go back to 2004, the last time they're able to win both regular season in tournament championship in 2004 again. Rhonda Ravel was still a little, I wouldn't say new, but newer in her reign there at Nebraska. And that was back. I mean, they had a run of, oh, let's do this. About 12 seasons where they finished in the top 25 back then from 95 to 2006. So that's it. That is incredible. yet none of those years seem to be measuring up to this year.

It seems to be the best year that Rhonda Ravel has had here at Nebraska. Dream season? Dream season, that's right. Yeah, we'll keep throwing that out. But we'll see that the dream is, is close to, we're close to waking up. And hopefully we're going to be very happy with it. But here's a surprise that just came through us. And you let me know of this during the break.

Former Nebraska basketball players, Ugi. Uginis Yerovicious has, found a landing spot in the portal. Of course, he was dealing with injuries this past year, so not able to log a whole lot of minutes for Nebraska, just one appearance. He has found a landing spot with the Arizona Wildcats. Not Arizona State and Randy Bennett,

not Arizona Tech, not Northern Arizona, actual Arizona. Actual Arizona, a blue blood among college basketball teams, obviously the team that went to the final four this past year, Ugi is, is heading there. very surprising. Obviously, they're going to have a lot of turnover themselves because they've got some guys that are going to be going in the first round of the draft. I think Braden Berries and Coe of Pete and Dayton Bradley, those type of guys will be gone. So there's going to be some new faces there. I just didn't expect Ugi to be one of them. Obviously, Arizona is, you know, everybody's looking for

bigs. It can be tough to get, you know, bigs with that level of experience in the, in the portal and Oogie before it came to Nebraska. There's a reason Nebraska fans were excited form at Central Michigan average 16.2 points per game to go along with 7.3 rebounds in 2024, 2025. But coming off just the one appearance for Nebraska in injury, obviously concerns, very surprised to see him land in Arizona. You can tell why Nebraska was high on him when they recruited him out of Central Michigan, the offensive game, the height, pretty good mobility for a big man as well. I'm stunned by this because Mattias Krivis is back for Arizona. Yeah, they lose Toby Oaxa and then also Coa Pete out the door as well in the front court. But man, this guy that

played one game, hit a three. Back injuries, you know, are not an easy thing to get through. And so good on Eugnus Rishavicious. He had back to the West Coast. Talked about him as a central Michigan Transfer actually started his career. He spent two years at Cal State Bakersfield, about a three and a half hour flights away, according to maps.govogh,com. But I did not see this one coming. The writing was really on the wall for Ugnus,

Drus Rishavish, when Nebraska signed Bowden Kapki, I think in a lot of ways because you have the Leo Curtis factor, but then you could tell it was about over for his time at Nebraska when they signed Damon Wilkinson from South Dakota State. And I get why Nebraska did. what it did because of the injury, right? They had a full year with him. You'd like to think that they have as good a grip as anybody on the medicals.

Was it a price point thing? I don't know. Could be. Probably didn't hurt anything. No, to go to a place with money like Arizona has. Let me ask you this, though, Bach. You see him go to Arizona. Does that lead you to believe Nebraska would have been better served by keeping him around,

taking a swing on the talent if he's able to stay on the court? or do you think Nebraska made the right move in cutting bait with the injury situation? Well, it's just so tough to say me because like you said, we just saw him for a blip. You know, you couldn't really take anything out of that game.

But obviously, you know, that is a big injury concern. Like you said, I think this all just probably comes down a price point type of stuff where Nebraska probably felt like they paid him something and didn't get that in return and didn't necessarily love where that was headed. And Arizona might be able to, come in and I don't know. I mean, I don't know where he lands on the NIL value there for

for Arizona, but he might be kind of just a, you know, a flyer to kind of take. And again, it's just impossible to tell with all this sort of stuff moving around. It's easier in pro sports. You can see the contracts and kind of see, okay, what kind of deal is this? But it is, it definitely turns your head because, you know, it makes you think there must be something still there left. And he did again. He was. when he came to Nebraska, I was excited about him and potentially playing a big role, obviously, for the Huskers. They were able to get by without him.

But yeah, I mean, so that was my initial read. It was just kind of like you're saying. I mean, this is, this has got to be a price point type of disagreement. I would guess that you're right. I also wonder if it was a role type of conversation because if he's healthy, you could see an offensive-minded big man like Drew Fivicious start in the front court, alongside, you know, top five defender in the country in Matthias Krivus.

Maybe that's selling Jerusalem's defensive ability short, given that he averaged two blocks per game at Nebraska block. You know, two blocks per game. Of course, again, two blocks and 11 minutes in one game. And that's almost even more impressive. It is. 11 minutes. But Garbage's nine minutes and everything.

So, you know, if Ogunnius-Jrusius is going to average a block every five and a half minutes per game in college, he would be Lithuanian Gobert as what he would be. probably even better. But no, I still think an offensively minded guys, you can tell by his effective field goal percentage. A 1.167 effective field goal percentage, literally shooting better than 100% going one for one from three and two of two from two again in those 11 glorious minutes

that Nebraska fans may be looking back on wistfully someday. But I understand why Arizona would take the flyer, offensive-minded big man with some height, international flare, somewhat familiar with the West Coast, in that general region for a couple of years. I can get why Nebraska would pass. I saw him for a year with the injuries. You're not sure that he's going to make it back on the court.

I hope it's a win-win situation here. I hope that Nebraska found someone that's on the court more than Jerusalem. I hope for Jerusalem, he found a landing spot that can make use of his talents. He's able to stay healthy. And he's going to go to Arizona, pretty out of the way, not really bothering Nebraska at all. And you mentioned Gravas, too, also Lithuanians.

So maybe there's just kind of that connection there. I'm not sure if they know each other, but probably do it in some way. Could be. Yeah. My other theory on this, and this is completely unsubstantiated, and I haven't been able to get anyone to tell me. I'm taking the coaching staff at their word, and I think the fact that he was able to go pursue other opportunities makes this silly conspiracy theory. I just want to throw it out there, though. There was a part of me that wondered all year, though, if Nebraska was keeping Drusovicious on the shelf,

even when he was healthy to not mess with chemistry. Now, the way the front court depth got, the utter implability by the end of the time for Jared Garcia and the foul trouble toward the end of the year as well, makes me think that that's a much likely, less true story. It was probably, okay, yeah, never quite healed up the way they wanted to, never got back in rhythm,

and on top of that, didn't want it to mess up chemistry. But I think there was a world in which Nebraska was going to apply for a redshirt for Vrugnius-Jrus, Vicious, just to get him eligible and keep him on the team to be the rinkmaster replacement and have to go look for one less big man in the transfer portal, but I don't think that's true anymore. Yeah, it's so strange. You can't write a book on it, but a chapter.

I think a chapter would be good to kind of figure out what quite went down there in the different roles and possibilities that came along the way. Nevertheless, I think it is, I mean, you wish him the best, right? I mean, he's a former roster. It would be, it would be interesting. I mean, if he is somewhat successful there, you will, you'll probably kind of have to go back and circle back and wonder, well, what, you know, why didn't that play out at Nebraska?

But to your point, though, I mean, they've added enough pieces in the portal that, I mean, they've kind of made out of rotation. And it looks like, you know, Nebraska is going to be a top 25 team going in the next year. And that was going to be with Ugi or without Ugi on the roster. So not a huge deal one way or the other. as of now, but certainly could be obviously. And then you obviously, you know, you could also think of as strange as this might be like a Nate Borgator. Maybe he doesn't have the great season, but he has a great moment for Arizona, right?

Where you might be able to look back on that. Well, now, if he's Dhrushchevish, ends up in the NFL, I'd be shocked. Second one, Gregorkechard. That would be surprised. Let's go ahead and take a quick break. We've got plenty more to talk about. We'll talk a little bit of softball once we return here on one-on-one. Watch live on baseball.

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