My Two-Cents: Nebrasketball
For four years of my life, I spent Fall Saturday mornings waking up to watch Big 10 football. Specifically, Nebraska football. Which, if you watch BIG10 football, you know is a sad card to draw. (But a Steel Reserve at a frat tailgate often dumbed the blow a tad.) The lack of return to our 90s era torments us. It is a sad boat to row. We are, as the naysayers say, stuck in the past. In a sports world recently dominated by Cinderella stories (A program with the most losses in College Football history and their comically jovial QB winning the natty), Nebraska stays stuck in the past. So we clung to the new mantra that “We’re a volleyball school now.” Until we had a disappointing upset loss in the tournament. (My dad claims this is the only time he’s seen my mom cry over sports.) We had no light at the end of the tunnel.
Needless to say, being a Nebraska sports fan isn’t for the feeble-minded. It’s a hard job. And not for everyone. And there were few benefits to reap. Until this winter, when the best thing to happen to Nebraska sports in past years graced us in the form of Nebrasketball.
I looooove basketball. It’s the best! Football is fun, but I don’t understand the plays. I liked playing soccer, but I don’t enjoy watching it beyond the occasional Ted Lasso. (Best show ever, btw.) Baseball is fun because it makes having a beer at 2pm socially acceptable, but the sport itself is too long, even with the new pitch clock. Hockey is fun because they fight, but again, I’m not well-versed enough to lock into it. But basketball is something I feel like I know about. It’s why every March, I lock in — by playing hooky and yelling at a bar TV during the first rounds. So, a 20-0 start and the first AP top-5 ranking EVER is just the win I need after enduring a disappointing Nebraska football season in college. In fact, it’s what all Nebraska fans need. It was electric. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and this one ended in Michigan a couple of weeks ago. But everyone knows that Ann Arbor is a Whore, so that doesn’t really count. We were out our two best players, undersized, in foul trouble, getting whistle-whipped by the refs, and we still held the lead for 38 minutes of regulation. And with that loss, we further certified that Nebrasketball can play with the best of them.
In the new world of NIL money, BIG10 is here to run it. We’ve seen it the past three years with football. And now we’re going to see it with Basketball this March. Hopefully, this is the first look-up for many to come for Lincoln fans. Good things will come to those who wait. Nebraska fans will be rewarded for all those years of drinking their Saturday afternoon sorrows away with vodka Red Bulls at the Railyard! (I say afternoon because we usually sucked and got the 11 AM game…)
