How Much Does Nebraska Care About Basketball?

On the final After Nebrasketball of the season, Jack Mitchell and Jacob Bigelow try to find answers in a sea of questions.

After Nebrasketball / I-80 Club

On the final After Nebrasketball of the season, Jack Mitchell and Jacob Bigelow try to find answers in a sea of questions. In particular, how much does the athletic department care about basketball? And what do they need to hear from Troy Dannen?

Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation on the podcast. 

Jacob: Fans are gonna keep showing up here, there's gonna be support, there's gonna be people who wanna talk about it, who wanna see the program achieve things. And it's just a question of, how much does that investment, that is clear and evident from fans, from coverage, from all of that, how much can that be reciprocated?

Because you can only point to a 13-year-old practice facility and a 12-year-old arena for so long; This is our sign that we care. Because your sign of caring now in the ever changing landscape of college sports is dollars and cents. That's how you show you care. And that is the overarching question for this offseason.

Feb 13, 2025; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers fans during a timeout in the first half against the Maryland Terrapins at Pinnacle Bank Arena. / Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Jack: It's a great point. I would love to see Troy Dannen get up soon in front of the media and say, “we are intentionally changing our level of attention and investment to this program.” Because there is a fan base around this program that is unique to the point that I don't know that it exists in college sports. And you might think that's hyperbole, but like I've said before, go watch a game at any other school that has had the lack of basketball [success]. There's no other power five school that said the lack of basketball success that Nebraska has.

But go watch a game – look at when Nebraska played at Northwestern, look at when Nebraska played at Iowa this year, look at the games at USC. I can continue to name programs that would not be able to do in terms of the turnout of Nebraska basketball fans, that have 103 people watching this brand-new postgame show that I did.

And maybe they'll never piss it away, Jacob. Like, maybe they will never piss it away, and we will always keep coming. Like, I don't think I'm ever walking away. I don't know what it would take for me to walk away, but this isn't going to make me walk. I'm not protesting the season next year, because it's sort of like a part of me in a weird way. And it seems like there are a lot of people like me for whatever reason. I can't even fully explain it. Like, I know why it happens with me, but I'm not just gonna completely disconnect it and say, screw this. And I know there are some people that are, but most people aren't. And we've seen it, because they keep freaking showing up.

Remember I was at a game in one of Miles bad years toward the end. It was a freaking blizzard outside. They were out at NCAA contention and Purdue came in and pounded us. And it looked like a packed house in that place at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Whatever it is, people continue to enjoy the experience enough and savor the hope enough to come back in.

Mar 1, 2025; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers athletic director Troy Dannen watches the game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the first half at Pinnacle Bank Arena. / Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

And that's the double-edged sword of the whole thing, Jacob. I want Dannen to get up and say those things and say, “we are going to invest this.” I don't care whether he's talking about changing a coach or not. If he's not talking about changing a coach, which I think there's a financial reason not to, but talk about the investments, talk about the tell me what's changing. If you don't know what's changing, figure out what needs to change, OK? It might involve a coach change, but it also might not. There's more than that, even if they did make a coach change, that hasn't been the issue; the primary issue over there. There's something else besides who the coach is that is a problem. An Athletic Director should be going in there and figuring it the H out because I can't tell you exactly. It probably has something like you said to do with dollars and cents. But why do I have the feeling that even if they fired him this year and brought in the next guy, guess what? We would be on the same roller coaster we just went on with Fred Hoiberg and Tim Miles before him. And that means there's something else.

Jacob: You’re talking to somebody who had a front row seat to the end of the previous coaching regime here and someone who's been in the around the last four seasons of the current regime of Nebraska basketball. And the thing with coaching changes today is, you know, the money; you need that money, you need the money to buy someone out for NIL and for the players and rev share and all that.

And also, if you're a basketball program, if you want to talk about making a coaching change, you better bring in a coach that you're willing to commit to and give all the resources to succeed. And if you want to move on from a coach, you better be able to look at that coach and say, “We gave this guy all the resources necessary and all the resources needed to succeed” before you think about pulling the rug or pulling the plug. And that's reality. And you need to take a look in the mirror with what you want the expectation to be for men's basketball with this university moving forward. And it's needed to happen for a long time.

You've got people in the media who are like, “Fred shouldn't feel any pressure. There's no pressure. Results don't matter. It's Nebraska basketball. Results don't matter.” Like, come on. Give me a break. You gotta take a look in the mirror of what you want it to be, what you think it can be, and what you think the standards should be moving forward.

Watch the clip below.

To watch the entire episode, featuring more from Jack, Bigelow, as well as Kaleb Henry, watch below.

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