NU Notes: Huskers In Thick of Big Ten VB Race

If John Cook has said it once, he's said it a hundred times.
 
Winning the Big Ten Conference volleyball championship is arguably more difficult than winning an NCAA Tournament title.
 
The veteran Nebraska coach should know, given he's led the Huskers to championships in both. So to put the remainder of the 2019 schedule into perspective, Cook is dividing it into basically two different seasons -- win six matches for a Big Ten title, and then win six matches in the post season for a national title.
 
Until this past week, the former didn't seem possible for Nebraska (20-3, 12-2 Big Ten). Then, a funny thing happened. Wisconsin, previously unbeaten in conference play, suffered a three-set loss to unranked Ohio State. That means Nebraska, with one of its two losses to Wisconsin, can win at least a share of the Big Ten title by winning out.
 
"It's an exciting time," Cook said at Monday's weekly news conference. "A lot of big matches out there. I think that's what you want when you're in the Big Ten, for that to shake out. If you can win a championship, it really means something and is hard to do."
 
Minnesota and Wisconsin are tied atop the league standings with 13-1 records, while Nebraska and Penn State are tied for second place with 12-2 records, with the Huskers holding the head-to-head tiebreaker by having defeated the Nittany Lions in the teams' only meeting this season.
 
The top four contenders will get a healthy dose of one another over the final 3 weeks of the season.
 
Nebraska plays at Minnesota, the teams' only meeting, and at Wisconsin over a three-day stretch; Penn State hosts both Wisconsin and Minnesota; and Wisconsin plays at Minnesota on Thursday in their second meeting; Wisconsin swept the first in Madison.
 
Cook said Ohio State's upset of Wisconsin doesn't necessarily add more urgency; rather, it simply opens the door for more contenders.
 
"It's all going to shake out in the next three weeks," Cook said. "There's some huge matches coming up."
 
Nebraska plays at Michigan State on Wednesday and hosts Iowa on Saturday.


 
Huskers Energetic
 
Scott Frost liked the way his football team returned to practice Monday, full of energy and enthusiasm following its second bye week of the season. So, despite a disappointing 4-5 record overall, and 2-4 in Big Ten play, spirits remain high.
 
"I think the vast majority of our kids love the game, like what we are doing, see the direction we are going in and are really optimistic about what is going to happen," Frost said Monday. "They are enjoying being around each other. The tighter knit your team is, the better chance you have of getting through good times or bad times."
 
Nebraska faces a significant challenge Saturday when it hosts No. 15 Wisconsin (7-2, 4-2) at 11 a.m. at Memorial Stadium. The Badgers have won six straight games against the Huskers, including the last two meetings in Lincoln.
 
Wisconsin, Frost said, has been among the most consistently successful teams in the Big Ten West in large part because of its size and physical style of play. Another team the Huskers will face to close the season in Lincoln, Iowa, falls into that same category.
 
After falling to both those teams last season, Frost vowed his team would make progress in the weight room to catch up. Saturday will certainly be a big test in that regard.
 
"Our guys are stronger, and I think more capable of playing in these types of games this year than last year," Frost said, "but we've got to keep working and make sure we're a bigger team and stronger team and more physical team, too.
 
"We'll continue to do that as well as we can through strength and conditioning and through recruiting. I think our guys are more suited to it this year than we were 12 months ago."


 
Veteran's Day for Huskers
 
In honor of Veteran's Day on Monday, let's be sure to recognize a couple of students within the Nebraska Athletic Department who have served for our country.
 
First, defensive lineman Damian Jackson was among five finalists for the 2019 Armed Forces Merit Award, which Army assistant coach Mike Viti received on Monday. Jackson was the only FBS player among the finalists, which also included Air Force Head Coach Troy Calhoun.
 
Jackson is in his third year as a Husker after serving as a Navy SEAL for four years after graduating high school. Jackson, who did not play football prior to college, walked on to the Husker program and made his collegiate debut against Bethune Cookman in 2018.
 
In the classroom, he is a three-time Nebraska Scholar-Athlete Roll member and earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2018.
 
Let's also recognize Ramarro Lamar, a Chicago native who's among the new male cheerleaders on the Husker Spirit Squad. Lamar, a Naval ROTC midshipman, serves as the unit's battalion executive officer, coming second-in-charge behind Nebraska's NROTC commanding officer.
 
Upon graduation next spring, Lamar will move to Quantico, Virginia, to attend basic school for the Marine Corps. He wants to join the JAG Corps as a military lawyer.
 
I wrote in August about Lamar joining the Husker Spirit squad, which this season added male cheerleaders for the first time in more than a decade. You can read more about Lamar and his military background in this story by Lindsey Amen of University Communications.


 
Sadler Pleads Patience
 
The Fred Hoiberg era has produced the first 0-2 start to a Nebraska men's basketball season since 1987-88.
 
That's the bad news.
 
Here's the good news: This team full of newcomers can only get better.
 
"The best basketball we're going to play this year," Nebraska assistant coach Doc Sadler said, "is going to be in January and February."
 
Sadler, the former head coach at Nebraska, was the guest on the Nebraska basketball radio show Monday night on the Husker Sports Network. The gist of his message was asking for fans to remain patient during a rebuilding process.
 
"It's going to take some time," Sadler said. "You don't have one player on that court that's played with each other. You don't have very many that have played significant minutes at the DI level."
 
Nebraska opened with a decisive home loss to UC Riverside before falling in double overtime on Saturday to Southern Utah. Poor three-point shooting and lack of rebounding were issues in both defeats.
 
"It's not going to change in one day," Sadler said. "We're doing a lot of good things, but we're not doing enough of the little things that we need to get the wins right now. There's going to be some tough times. I know people don't want to hear that, don't want to hear the truth. But that's what it is."
 
Then again, Sadler wouldn't be saying these things if not for Hoiberg leading the charge.
 
"The reason I came back was because of Fred Hoiberg," Sadler said. "That's how much confidence I have in him.
 
"This season is going to get better each and every day. He's a guy that gives confidence."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.