1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - What to Look for in Nebraska Basketball's Mathch up with Penn State on Saturday?: February 20th, 12:25pm

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

What to Look for in Nebraska Basketball's Match up with Penn State on Saturday?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is a busy day here and Husker Athletics as softball team currently tied at nothing in the bottom of the second there with number 13 South Carolina. As we mentioned, from the beginning of the show as well, Husker baseball has a matchup with number 15 Louisville at three. Tune into the 93-7, the ticket Twitter page as well as Nick Stam's ticket page. He's live out there. But now I want to turn our attention to Husker basketball where they look to get back on track against excuse me, it gets Penn State this week. Penn State coming in to Lincoln for 1 p.m. tip on BTN tomorrow. Austin, Overn, joined me.

I'm Jake Bachman. Austin, what do you think the secondary ticket market has this game priced at? Ooh, okay. 13 bucks? Ooh, a little bit higher. A lot of it higher, in fact. I'll make you guess. 33?

Good guess, good guess. 35 bucks is where it's currently at. Of course, that's before the fees. You'll pay like 50 or something. But pretty decent deal. Go see a top 10 team while you can because Nebraska might not be a top 10 team here when the standings come out. Of course, after that loss to Iowa.

And of course, that's what I'm kind of referring to as far as Nebraska trying to bounce back here. Penn State, not a very good team. So kind of a perfect opportunity for Nebraska. They don't shoot the ball well. Also don't rebound well, but that hasn't stopped Nebraska from getting out rebounded. before Penn State averages less than 30 rebounds, but so did Iowa. But they come into this game, 2 and 14 and Big Ten play, 11 and 16 overall,

did get a win at Washington here in the last couple of games, but coming into this game, they lost at Oregon and Rutgers here most recently. You know, and there's a few players to look out for for Penn State, specifically a couple guys averaging and three guys averaging double figure. years. But the one I think a lot of people are going to be interested in is Eli Rice, former Nebraska basketball player making his way back into town. And he's basically their shooting threat. He's the only guy above 40% on the roster, had a game earlier against Ohio State where he hit six threes. So as much as we like to cheer for Eli Rice, our former player, I mean,

is he going to get the Peyton Stanford treatment here, you think? I highly doubt. Yeah. No, I think that the Sanford treatment will be reserved for Sanford's former team. It was funny though, funny that Eli Rice was the lone representative, I believe, for Penn State in media days. Was he really the only one? Yeah, I know he was there. He might not have been

the only one, but he was the only one I remember seeing on the podium and walking around. So maybe, you know, I just missed it, but I know a friend of the station, Wilson Moore was over there doing getting some quotes for an Eli Rice story. For a Penn State team and a head coach and Mike Rhodes, that is very grateful.

the James Franklin thing happened because this would be one of the probably easiest firings for an athletic director except that, oh wait, had to let James Franklin go. Didn't have to, chose to let James Franklin go. No, this is the Penn State team

that I actually kind of liked the last couple years. They were long, they were athletic, microats came from VCU, brought Ace Baldwin with him. Ace Baldwin was a stud. That's a guy that got overlooked just, I think, because of the team that he played on.

Penn State's going to want to junk it up. They're going to want to play in the muck, right? They'll slow it down just to speed you back up sort of thing. But they are not necessarily an offensively talented team. I mean, averaging just 75 points per game on the year, but even worse defensively, averaging 79.2 points per game allowed. You see why they are 2 and 14 and in the seller in the big time. And again, somewhat probably perfect time for Nebraska to get them here to try to rebound. Obviously on the loss to Iowa specifically, obviously, obviously, is going to sting more so than anything right now.

But, you know, just a couple losses here as of recent for the big four Nebraska. That's where people start to wonder, maybe did Nebraska peak too soon? I mean, that's always funny to say. I don't think so because if you've shown that you can peak, you can show that you can get back there. I think that the losing four out of six is not a great look. But I have to keep going back to this well block because Illinois started the big 10th season a little slow.

And look what they've turned into. Wisconsin started the big 10 season a little slow. Look what they've turned into. Michigan State had a rough stretch. Okay, Michigan State's either, guess what? They're right back in it. Purdue, you know, looked really shaky for, you know, a couple weeks there. We saw what they did in Lincoln and they continue to play some pretty darn good basketball.

I mean, they went on the road and smacked Iowa right before Nebraska got in town as well. So, no, I'm not worried that Nebraska men's basketball peak too soon. I don't think it's all over. and we're just waiting for the inevitable demise and collapse in March, I don't think this is even a collapse at all. You know, I think it's a team that hit a rough patch like pretty much every other top-tier contender

in the Big Ten Sons, Michigan has to this point. Now it's time to start playing their way out of it, right? All these other teams had something of a get-right game, either a key win against a ranked team or an emotionally charged game or a team that, you know, they were clearly better there, that they were able to, you know, welcome home or go on the road either way and just, you know, drop the hammer.

And Nebraska needs to do that. I think especially offensively. I think the defense, you know, it was pretty well maligned in the first half against Penn State, certainly the second half against Illinois. But to me, Bach, the bigger concern has been for Nebraska men's basketball offensively. When you're facing a team that's allowing 80 points per game essentially and, you know, is bottom 15 in the country and defensive rating, this is a get right game for the offense. You know, Penn State's going to up the pressure because that's bothered Nebraska. But against a team that's that poor defensively, there is really no excuse for Nebraska not to put up some style points on offense.

I think that this is a game that if Nebraska is held, you know, under 85 or so points, I'll have my eyebrows raised a little bit. Penn State has just not been good at all defensively in scheme, in personnel. They only have one guy, you know, bigger than 6'9 that plays consistently. in Ivan Jurich, who's a seven-foot freshman out of Croatia, he averages 9 and 5. But Nebraska's seen seven-footers before. They won't back down from that. This needs to be a flex your muscle kind of game.

This needs to be a get that winning feeling, get that swagger back, start acting like the bully on the block again game for Nebraska, especially because it's at home. Yeah, and of course, Nebraska coming off their season worst, 52-point output against Iowa. Again, Penn State, not a very good defensive team. mentioned in the last couple of games, Rutgers in Iowa. They give up 85 and 83 points respectively. Sit with me for a second because there's a lot of bad performances from their defense this year. They gave up

110 to Michigan at Michigan. They give up 94 to Northwestern, 84 to Ohio State, 98 to Wisconsin, 96 to Maryland, 93 at Purdue early in the season. Let's see if I can find any other good ones. 113 to Indiana to open up Big Ten play. 113. This is college basketball we're talking about, not the NBA. So certainly defensively, they have a leave a lot to be desired. Nebraska can get going.

And again, I think part of that when you talk about a perfect opponent for Nebraska to play, there's a couple guys that I think need to get back on track. Austin, who would you like to see? Obviously, I think Peyton Sanford is everybody's pick to lead Nebraska scoring or price. Excuse me, sorry, Peyton's not going to lead. But he could be in attendance. Price Stanford is, is Nebraska. is leading score and is expected to lead Nebraska and scoring every time out, I think, at this point. But specifically, Rink Mess and Braden Frager

have seemed a little off recently. Do you feel which one would you rather like to see get back into the mix here? First of all, you skipped over maybe my favorite game. They only allowed 80 points in it, but they allowed 80 points to pit. A pit team that averages less than 70 points per game, which is exceedingly difficult to do.

I know for Husker fans, it's like, what do you mean? that was just like every other year in the Sadler and Collier and Miles. But it's kind of hard to average under 70 points per game in college. Pitt is doing that. Right now, they're right on the borderline. But giving up 80 to that pit offense that I've watched in person is pretty impressive. Working a bad way for Penn State. But no, I think it's rink mass.

Because Penn State does have guys, Frager's size. I mean, we're going to get the Eli Rice-Braid and Frager matchup at some point. and that's going to be pretty fun. But Penn State will park its big man in the paint, right? Penn State is going to give rinkmasked opportunities from long range. He's got to get going, right? This is not a game where Nebraska will play through rinkmask in the post like Rutgers, right? Maybe they drop it off to him a few times if they get a switch.

But the big man is going to be in the paint. He is going to be playing drop. If he hedges or if he's, you know, icing the ball screen, Nebraska needs to take full advantage, right? Nebraska's hope is going to be to pull that guy away from the rim, right, for its back cuts like it's gotten, you know, for most of the first two and a half months of the season. But it's going to take rinkmask hitting shots, especially early to draw that seven-footer out of the paint to open up some of those lanes for Nebraska to drive and to cut. So if Rager plays well, it's a bonus.

I think that's a guy too that needs to get a little bit of his confidence swagger, whatever you want to call it back. But I think rinkmast is, you know, like so much of what Nebraska wants to do, the linchpin, I think, for unlocking pretty much everything, especially in a game like this against Penn State. And again, part of it's just his shot from deep has not been falling as much. He's still shooting on the season. Average is about five three-point shots per game.

And his percentage is right in line with where it's been in his career. Well, he's at 33%. It's a little bit lower, but yeah. But it's not out of the right. You're right. I mean, total in his career. He's actually at 33%. So we'll see.

Yeah, hopefully he can get it going. Obviously, he can get hot. would be wonderful to see him kind of get back into the mix. Again, I think it's been interesting to watch the season evolve and we kind of have these team MVP discussions. And early on, it was Rick Madison and how could you not see it?

And then as the season has kind of progressed, it's more turned to Sanford and Hoyberg type of argument. So it would be great to see him get back into it. All right, let's go ahead and take quick break. We'll wrap things up here. We want to get back here on 93-7 the ticket.