NCAA mini episode: Nebraska draws Troy in Round 1

0:00Hi, I'm Alicia, and I'm Stacey, and we make Trashy Divorce's Everybody's favorite good podcast about bad relationships. Looking for something true crimey without the gore or the body count? We've been shurning out funny, feisty, feminist episodes since 2019. So if you're looking to put some scandalous stories told well into your ears this summer, check out Trashy Divorce's, wherever you listen to podcasts. Trust us, we've covered someone you love, or someone you love to hate. All right, everybody, it's a pick six mini podcast for the World Herald. He's Sam Cuen, I'm Ben Duty, Sam Nebraska men's basketball against Troy in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Nebraska a four seed in the South region. What do you make of the matchup? I think it's about as good of a matchup as Nebraska could have hoped for. I think when you hear that name Troy, you have the opposite feeling you had a couple of years ago when you heard Texas saying him, I think when everybody heard that a couple

1:02of years ago, people are like, oh boy, not the best matchup. Now Troy does have good athletes and they can rebound that one of their best rebounders is hurt currently Theo sang and we'll see if he's back by the time the NCAA tournament game is played on Thursday morning. But this is a game Nebraska can win. This is a name that I think if they had heard Northern Iowa, if they had heard Akron, if they had heard McNeese state, by the way, those are all 12 seeds. I think the alarm bells would have been a little different because all of those teams have some experience in this thing of of winning, especially McNeese. They won last year and of course you and I went on a whole run about 10, 15 years ago. So I think if you had heard those names, it might have felt a little bit different, but you didn't hear those names. You heard Troy and Troy is the sun belt champion. They're a nice team, but they lost by four points to a team that Nebraska beat by 33. Nebraska should have as much confidence as it can have going into Thursday's game.

2:03I don't know that it's a terribly confident team right now, but they should have some confidence after learning their opponent. Were you surprised there were four rather than three? I wasn't. No, I thought it was probably going to drop a line and quite frankly, Nebraska's resume was built on stuff that it did a couple of months ago, a month ago, at least two months ago. When they beat Illinois and Wisconsin and Michigan state the way they did, it set up a really good resume, but no, I'm not terribly surprised. I think you look at, for example, two big East teams, Yukon's a number two C based on what they did three months ago and St. Johns is a number five based on losses from three months ago, which team would you rather play right now? Probably Yukon, but Yukon's a two St. Johns is a five Nebraska's a four. I think Nebraska easily could be a five or a six in terms of the way they're playing right now. And then if you look at their resume, there should be a three. So four is about where they laid. Nebraska opens is about a 13 and a half point favorite.

3:03You like that number? St. I think it's not the highest number of those four or 13 games, but it's not bad. And I think it's indicative of Nebraska's advantage in this game. Again, Nebraska should feel confident going into this game. And I'll be honest, it feels like Nebraska's been a little tight. And I think they're still a little bit tight. I think they they started 20, you know, and maybe they didn't they didn't look down. And all of a sudden they kind of looked down after they lost a Michigan and they didn't know how good they were. And then they started figuring out how good they were and what maybe some of their flaws were. And then toward the end of the stretch here, they just haven't looked like the same team that they were earlier in the season. I'm not I don't know that losing to Purdue right away was a good thing, but they lost and now they got to sit around for a couple of days and maybe rest up and we'll see. Uh, I think, you know, again, I think the number isn't bad. And I think Nebraska should feel really good about its chances. The only reason that you wouldn't feel good is because well, the pressure is to win the first NCAA tournament game in history.

4:05Otherwise, Nebraska should they should beat this team. They played this team a lot in the last three or four years and they're non-conference schedules. What are you making Nebraska's path in the South region? Pretty good. I'll take playing Vanderbilt, which is a fun team. I don't know if you've watched Vanderbilt much this year. They get up and down the floor. They score a lot of points. They create turnovers, but they're not a great rebounding team. I'll take playing Vanderbilt potentially in the second round over St. John's. I mean, I'll be candid with you there. I'll take that probably over the version of Wisconsin that Wisconsin is right now. That's another five seed Nebraska obviously wouldn't have faced another big 10 team in the second round. I think the five seed that Nebraska got even though Vanderbilt made it to the finals of the SEC tournament. I think that team's beatable. I don't think it's going to be a big crowd game. One of the things I was thinking about is it was well, it could be four seed Nebraska against five C Arkansas and then you got a whole bunch of people coming over from Arkansas

5:06and that is not a home court advantage on Saturday. If Nebraska wins, it doesn't matter whether they play McNeese State or Vanderbilt, they will pack that arena. On Saturday afternoon, they will pack it and everybody in that arena will be wearing Husker Red with they play Vanderbilt. So yeah, you kind of got you kind of got to like it. You got to like that set up. It could have been Kentucky. It's not Kentucky. It could have been Arkansas. It's not Arkansas. It's a team that does not have a big fan base, which is a good thing for Nebraska. Thursday 1140 AM projected tip on true TV is match up. We will have a small army of staffers down in OKC Sam, I think we're going to do some picks on the site in the paper this week. So you don't have to spoil your picks if you don't want to right here, but give us a little taste. How far do you think Nebraska is going? Well, I mean, I think they have an opportunity to go to the sweet 16. I think it would end there. Florida is going to be waiting and Florida is exactly the team that is the very worst kind

6:09of match up for Nebraska. Florida averages 16 offensive rebounds a game in the SEC. They could have 25 against the Nebraska. So number one rebounding team in the country. So Nebraska's journey is probably going to end in the six in the round is 16 if they get there. I will not be surprised if Nebraska gets there. I do predict that though when the first game and then you know, the second game, they just got to play loose. You don't know what's going to happen if they win that first game. They may come out in that second game and play their best basketball because the pressure is gone. Everything after that is going to be gravy. I like playing Vanderbilt in that kind of scenario. I would like playing many state in that kind of scenario. It's going to end in the sweet 16 because Florida is a really, really athletic and really hot team. So I think Florida's quite frankly is one of the two or three favorites for the national championship. I don't think Nebraska get past number one gators. I would bet Florida and that game, Sam, however, sometimes weird things happen, sometimes weird things happen, which could mean losing a 13 seed in the first round and it could

7:14mean getting hot. So we'll see. You can read all about it all week long. Obviously Omaha dot com all our digital and print platforms. Let's do it. Husker women's minute Nebraska is going to Cameron indoor Sam. They are. If I read the bracket correctly to play the spiders of Richmond in the first four, what do you think of that? I couldn't have really asked for a better first four matchup. I think there's other teams that Nebraska could have played. But in a lot of ways in Nebraska's kind of like a mid major and some of the things that they're good at and some of the things are not Richmond is a good team. They went into the season. I think in the preseason top 25, they were considered the best mid major. I think your fair field is probably the best mid major in the field. But yeah, I mean, I think I think Richmond is a beatable team. And then in the next round, they play really inconsistent Baylor now to be clear. Baylor's athleticism and the way they play defense. I think it's going to give Nebraska fits, but, but Nebraska plays teams like this.

8:16So that Baylor's not going to put anything out on the court that Nebraska didn't see when it played Maryland or when it played Oregon or when it played Michigan state. All three of the teams that I just mentioned are just as athletic as Baylor. So Nebraska's not going to be intimidated by Baylor. Duke presumably got there, which I would be surprised. But what they did, Duke is, is kind of the Florida of women's basketball. I know that there are three seed, but one point in this season, Duke was, I believe, like six and eight, they weren't very good. And then they rattled off a whole bunch in a row and they won the ACC championship. They're one of the hottest teams in the country right now, and they are a sleeper to make the final four. Now, they're not going to because they're in UCLA's region. But they were in a different region. I might pick them. Huskers in the spotlight that came Wednesday night against Richmond. Were you expecting Nebraska to be in the field, Sam? I was because everybody in the Bracketology community said they'd be.

9:17So I don't know if somebody knew something, but everybody kind of knew something because there was one holdout and all the sudden on Wednesday had flipped and Nebraska was in. So it's like, somebody knows something they're in. And I think if Nebraska had not made it, it would have been like, what's the point of the net tool in Nebraska's net is 28. What would the point of the tool be if that team doesn't get in and now mind you, the net tool is manipulatable. It's not a word, but nevertheless, you manipulate it by, by scheduling a ton of quad four games and then blowing those teams out, which Nebraska did. And then a lot of quad one games, which Nebraska got the benefit of because the big 10 was so good. And then Nebraska caught a scheduling break. They played two neutral site games, one against Virginia and one against North Dakota state. They win them both. They were both bubble teams. I think Virginia's in and I think North Dakota states out and there you go.

10:17So it was kind of a perfect storm of metrics that got the Nebraska women into the NTA tournament. All right. We wrap it there. You'll have all the content you can imagine and then some coming up this week. He's Sam. I'm Ben. We'll see you soon on the Pics six part of the world. Hey, I'm Josh Spiegel, host of the podcast, Luna Tick in the newsroom. If you enjoy journalism that drifts into mild panic, wild overthinking and a guaranteed nervous breakdown, Luna Tick in the newsroom. It's for you. It's news like you've never heard before, the only newsroom with a panic button. You'll laugh. You'll cry and gasp and horror as the show spirals completely out of control. It's not just news. It's emotionally unstable, lunatic in the newsroom. Listen today. Warning. The following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words.

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