Nebraska’s Cale Jacobsen Earns Minutes as First Player Off the Bench

Cale Jacobsen has worked his way into the Nebraska men’s basketball rotation using good hoops sense and a knack for making the right play at the right time.

“He’s not one of those guys that’s going to put up 20 points every night,” Huskers coach Fred Hoiberg said at a news conference after his team defeated West Georgia, 86-53 in the regular-season opener.

“You know he’s certainly capable of it but you know he just makes winning plays and that’s why he’s earned his spot in the rotation. That’s why he was the first guy in the game for us tonight off the bench.”

Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg recently won his 200th game as a collegiate coach. | Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

Jacobsen is a 6-foot-4 junior guard from Ashland, Neb. Last season, he played in 24 games — including the first three starts of his career — and averaged 1.1 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.

In words and deed, Jacobsen is the essence of a glue guy, and he is growing into that role this year through two exhibition games— wins over BYU and Midland University — and the regular-season opener. He’s the kind of player that every program can utilize.

Jacobsen is averaging about 15 minutes a game.

“I think just being a guy that stabilizes things, right?” Jacobsen said. “When we’re in a bad way or we are in a disadvantaged situation, how can I get us out of that?

“And not be a guy that causes issues but be a guy that fixes them. And that’s kind of what I’m going to pride myself on throughout the year. When we’re in tough spots how can we get out of them and get us back to being set and ultimately get a stop and get a rebound.”

Huskers on rebound

The Huskers went 21-14 (7-13 Big Ten) last season. They finished the season with the College Basketball Crown championship, defeating UCF in the final, 77-66. The Huskers next play visiting Florida International University on Saturday at noon CT.

At a recent news conference, Jacobsen talked about what kind of team the Huskers might be this season. He mentioned a focus on shooting threes and playing strong defense.

“I think the three-point shooting obviously is a huge one,” Jacobsen said. “We’ve shot — I don’t know what the number was — but 40-plus threes in the last game. And that’s not something we would do in the last couple years obviously.

“But I also think this team’s going to have to find our identity defensively. And when things, like coach has said a million times, when things don’t go in, we’re going to have to be a team that gets stops and that manufactures stops on the other end.

“Then that can lead us into transition to get us some easy baskets. So I think it all starts on the defensive side of the ball for us because we know our offense will come along at some point.”

Nebraska has shot 110 three-pointers this season -- 34 against BYU, 44 against Midland, and 32 against West Georgia. The Huskers have made 41 of the threes for a 37.2 percentage.

Milestone win for Hoiberg

The Huskers’ victory over West Georgia marked a milestone for Hoiberg, who won his 200th career game at the college level. He is 200-164. He is 85-108 as he begins his seventh year with Nebraska. He was 115-56 in five years at Iowa State, his alma mater, where he coached from 2010-15. From 2015-18, Hoiberg coached the Chicago Bulls.

“I think obviously it’s a fun group to play with and to watch,” Jacobsen said. “When we get it going, we can make a lot of shots and we can make a lot of shots in a hurry and there’s a lot of different guys that can contribute for us. So, it’s just a fun group to be a part of.”

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