1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Weekend ahead for Nebraska Tennis: February 3rd, 2026, 11:25am

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

This weekend, Nebraska Tennis competes on Saturday and Sunday at home. 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. Welcome back. Peter Cobalt. Bach on a Tuesday, Nebraska tennis, undefeated. Going on the road, knocking off Texas Tech, and then coming home. And the one thing you know about the military academies. right these are bright intelligent discipline athletes maybe not the most athletic maybe not

they don't check boxes that you know they're not going to they're not going to have any six foot eight tennis players because if you're six eight at the academy they got they got something else for you yeah talk to me about getting the guys back in line re focused restructured to prepare for an air force academy yeah so obviously for for us it was a it was a really cool match like go up against the air force service academy obviously anytime you get to be a part of a match like that it's obviously very unique and special so the head coach there is a great guy is a friend of mine now um but uh yeah we we flew back saturday morning after texas tech we got in the omaha drove down to lincoln um we actually played

with a different ball at Texas Tech. It was the Dunlop ball. There's two different balls in college tennis. We had to switch. That was one other thing that we switched was the ball against them too. We played with the Wilson tennis ball.

So we ended up practicing a little bit longer on Saturday than we wanted to just to acclimate again. And then, yeah, I mean, against, we knew they're going to be a well-disciplined team. They had good tennis players. They had just played Creighton on Friday night, very close.

They lost a four-three match. That was four hours long. So we, you know, we weren't fresh, and I don't think they were 100% fresh either. So I think that kind of evened itself out. But they competed real well. You can tell all their guys have a lot of respect for the game. They had a lot of respect for their opponent. So as did we, it was really clean and good match.

And we were able to take care of business. But it was a unique match. I've never gone against another Surface Academy before as a player or coach. So hopefully we can do it again soon. Any desire or intention to go out to Colorado Springs and play them? No. It's beautiful, but it's like 6,000 feet of altitude, man. The ball is, it's hard to play in that stuff.

That's not what a tennis coach is looking for. What's the difference between the two balls? Why is there? So the official ball of the ITA is Dunlop, and they made a deal with Dunlop a few years ago. Before that, we had always just played with Wilson. Now there's a new rule saying, like, If you want to play with Wilson, you have to agree upon it 14 days ahead of time.

And we had agreed to do that 14 days prior. So, yeah, it was just kind of a thing. We're playing the Big Ten season, the Big Ten conference, all with Wilson. So kind of after this first stretch of it of the season, the indoor portion, all the teams kind of switch over to Wilson. So this is kind of just when we did it. But going forward, we're going to be with Wilson for the majority of the end of the year. Are there different balls that you use for indoor-outdoor?

No, it's just one ball. If you go into really high altitude, really high altitude, like Denver or, I would assume, down in Colorado Springs. Salt Lake City, you know, to University of Utah. There's a ball that has less pressure inside of it that doesn't quite fly the same way. It kind of mediates the altitude. I've never played with one, so I can't tell you exactly, honestly. But that's the goal and the premise of it.

But, but, yeah, ideally, it would be nice to take the guys out the Colorado Springs. Yeah. I mean, well, just to see all the, all the, see everything. It's beautiful out there and to get the whole experience of the, the academy would be great. It'd be nice to put them through a workout. They think I'm tough. Oh, I'm sure. Sir.

I think that would be a slightly different workout for them. But, but, but, but yeah, I mean, and just in terms of going somewhere to play, as a coach, you're not really looking for out-of-conference matches that are, six thousand feet of altitude as the high school coach has sent a lot of young people to military cadets and the one thing is explaining one what it takes to get into college two what it takes to get into college as a as an athlete so to be a student athlete requires that you do what the students do with less time to do it then take the public schools and send them to the military academy to show them the different,

the other stuff that the military academies have to do from day to day week to week. Yep. They were like, thanks, Coach Cobalt. Yeah, so. But, but yeah, I mean, you know, those are the future, uh, service members of our Air Force, you know, going forward. So it's a pretty, you sit there and you watch them play tennis and you're kind of like, a little bit taken back. You're like, wow, you know, these guys are going to be

potentially protecting the future of all the Americans going forward. So they got a lot on their plate. And again, it was an honor and a privilege to host them here in Lincoln on Sunday. Let's talk about, you know, the next step is Mississippi. It's Ole Miss. Ole Miss. And when you think of, again, you think of SEC, you and I have talked about the, the quality of play in the SEC. Talk to me about Ole Miss and how you describe them to your team. Yeah, so we had a two-year series of them away and home. This year is home. Last year, we went

down there and we actually won. That was one of our better out-of-conference wins last season. They have a new head coach. He's actually a young head coach, younger than I am. His name's Jake Chacobo. He's doing a great job. Phenomenal recruiter developer. He was at Mississippi State for a long time for a top 10 program. And I think he's cut more or less from the same cloth as me. So he's got those guys. They're 7 and 0 coming into the weekend. So an undefeated duel going on at the Dillon Tennis Center on Saturday.

So I expect a really good match, a clean match, really tough physical slug fest out there, teams that are going to compete really hard. And it's going to come down just like it is in every sport. in every match to the small little details and who executes and who does the things that they need to be that they need to do better so it's going to be a great match i'm curious because in this day and age with with electronics and community digital communication a lot of information is is shared so let's say it's basketball and they will tell you starting

lineups or projected starter lineups, all the stats that exist in play, and it's sent out to the media in full. For tennis, is that being done where you could say, you know what? Here's the status. Here are the players. Here's the records. Here's. Yeah, they have it.

You just have to go and find a lot of it. As a coach, you have to go and find it. There's no huddle service where you can just get the game film and break it down. Like, you have to go out and you have to. You know, maybe it's a, they played a team earlier in the year and you ask for a favor from another coach and you return to favor later on for some some handwritten notes or sometimes rarely they'll give you a match film because usually the films against their players too. So they always like to give that away. But yeah, I mean, and in tennis, there's six different players in singles and six different players and doubles. And they can more or less at this point of year move things around a spot.

And you don't you don't really know and entirely until about. an hour before the match, really. So it's a little bit harder to, you know, project who you're going to play. Sometimes it's a little bit easier, but it's tough. Like if you're a center in basketball, you know you're going to be guarding the other guy.

That's seven foot tall. But in tennis, you know, it doesn't, you know, it just depends on the day and what the coach has or if the guy's healthy or if they're trying to do this or trying to do that. So you kind of have to be ready for all the situations, which is tricky. So a lot of what I do is Can we just take care of

Can we just get better Every day? Can we keep working on our process every day? And then once the match gets started, we obviously have notes on all the guys And then we try and come up with a little plan Just before on how to maybe attack a few Things and what they might do to you. So it's not as well thought out as maybe

A football game plan or a basketball game plan where you have some more time and some more footage and things to actually sink your teeth into, but that's kind of how college tennis is, and it's the same for everybody. How does it work for you when it comes to officials, right? Because you have officials for each singles match, and there's a bit of an honor system in some cases,

but it seems to be like, I was watching Fred Hoiberg, and he's getting frustrated because he has to fight for his play. Yep. You have to fight for your players. What would cause you to fight for your player with an efficient? You know, that's a good question. I try and stay cool out there.

So if I get hot about anything, it's hard for me to simmer back down. But, yeah, I mean, a lot of times it's just you think a ball's in and the guy calls it out. And you're like, man, that was right on the line. Come on. Especially critical point. Yep, sure. you know and in tennis if the 1% of the ball hits the line it's in and there's no umpire that's seen 1% of the line so luckily next year they're introducing an electronic line calling system

and they use it for volleyball yeah so we'll be we'll be able to assist the officials with the line calling whoever's running it at home we'll conveniently find all of those shots but then there's the little things like time violations and just the controlling the emotions of the match and handling all that stuff. And the umpires usually do a pretty good job of that. But I think if they can get a little bit of help because it's really just one person monitoring all the lines on the tennis court, which, you know, a ball can be going 140 miles an hour, D.P.

I don't know how young you are. Say that again out loud. Say that again. How fast can the ball? The ball can be going almost 140 miles an hour. So it doesn't, yeah. For me, they have a hard job. and I understand that it's just the heat of the moment.

So we tell our guys like, hey, don't let it get to the, don't put yourself in that position. If you're up 40-11 a game, win that next point. Don't let it get to 40-30. Don't let to get the deuce. Sudden death. Control your tools, man. Control what you can control.

That's crazy. We'll go to break. In Super Bowl week, we're going to invite Cobelt down to Buffalo Wings and Rings. Bring the guys down, get some food. I don't know what the schedule is. In fact, we're going to be down. at 4 o'clock on Sunday watching the Super Bowl.

So if you're looking for a place to hang out, if you guys don't have a plan already, you're invited. We'll get cookies and wings, D.P. Hey, man, this is how we're living. We'll go to break when we'll come back. We'll get coaches pick. We'll get his breakdown of the Super Bowl. It is, listen, Patriots and Seahawks will get his pick.

And then I'll have him give a quick breakdown on the Australian Open because I've got questions. We'll be right back. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 937 The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com.