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Good evening. I’m Duke Rude and our sports tickers brought to you by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The Nebraska softball team defeated Penn State today in the quarterfinals of the Big 10 tournament and will play UCLA in the semifinals tomorrow. The Huskers posted their 23rd run rule victory of the season with a 9-1 5 ining win. Tomorrow’s game will be streamed on the Big 10 network and can be heard right here on the Huskers Radio Network. First pitch is scheduled for 400 p.m. Central time. In the MLB, the Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton today. Pirates have been off to a disappointing 12-26 start to the season and are last in the NL Central. Bench coach Don Kelly will take over for Shelton, who is the first manager fired across Major League Baseball this season. Two playoff hockey games going on tonight as the Washington Capitals host the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vegas Golden Knights take on the Edmonton Oilers. One game in the NBA tonight as the Timberwolves host the Warriors without Stephen Curry in game two as the Warriors lead one- nothing. Our sports tickers brought to you by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Call timeout. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline is there. Call, text, or chat 988. It’s free, confidential, and staff of train counselors ready to listen and provide support. Coming up next is hour one of Sports Nightly right here on the Huskers Radio Network. Coming to you live from Memorial Stadium, it’s Sports Nightly, all the Huskers all the time. Sports Nightly is presented to you by the NDOT Highway Safety Office who remind you to buckle up and put the phone down. No balls, two strikes on Bolan. All three Husker runners get their leads. Here’s the pitch. Bolan grounds one past the diving first baseman. Carrie’s going to score and the Huskers are going to win it five to four. And for Robbie Bolan, sweet redemption at Hawkfield. Swung at looping the left side overbeat. Give it a look and Found makes a terrific sliding catch and foul ground. Overbeak gets Nebraska out of jail in the eighth. What a snag by Joshua Overbeak in foul territory. Now the one two from Bucker and Cusack blasts this one deep left center and gone. A two-run home run. Ray Bakus to finish off the home season with a bowling blast and a run win for the Huskers over the Turpps. Now, here are your hosts, Jessica Cudy and Nick Hanley on the Huskers Radio Network. Welcome in to Sports Nightly on an absolutely gorgeous Thursday evening. I don’t know, Nick, if I I don’t know if it’s this might be perfect. I I don’t know if there’s any better feeling day than what we had today. Uh let’s see. We’re looking at Real Field 78 currently right now. Uh at least in the Bennington area. I don’t know. You’re You guys are a little bit more down south in Lincoln, so it’s probably three or four degrees even warmer down. Yeah, I like it just around that 80 degree, but no wind, you know, just a slight breeze. Uh I don’t know. It just pretty perfect for me. Pretty for my uh feel. I know this may be a little warm for some people, but this is pretty close to perfect as it gets for me. It was It was a good yard good yard work day. If you’re not golfing, you’re outside doing yard work. That’s what I did today. So, I I feel like I got a lot of sun today, so that was good. Are you really into the yard work? Like, are you pretty anal about what your yard looks like? 100%. I got to have the straight cut diagonal lines. I crisscross them on the next mow. We got to keep everything consistent. And you got to keep that lawn guessing a little bit so it so it’s nice and plush. I Hey, it’s it’s I I I got a lot of competition in my neighborhood too, so I I got to keep up with the Joneses on that. But yes, I am very very very meticulous like a surgeon. Yes. Uh actually my wife just put in some roses um the I think it was the week I was gone in Maryland. And then we do have hydrangeas as well. So, yeah, we’ve we’ve got a nice little like little collection of not only a very well-cut lawn, but when it comes to what my wife does with the garden around the front and even the back, you know, you got to have good curb appeal, Jessica. That’s what it’s all about. Good. I say it’s got to be both, you know. I mean, for me, the best lawns have both the the good grass and the flowers and the flower beds. So, it’s a it’s a team effort in the Hanley household. Sounds like you know what was disgusting today, though? So, I had to I I had to do it because it was it was like walking by a trash can that had two dead bodies in it or something. Our our trash bin that has the lawn clippings and it gets a little wet in there. Oh my lord, that was awful. So, I had to cave in and finally hose that thing down and and put a little solution in there to clean that up cuz I feel like I was probably offending our neighbors, too, with that stench. Well, you uh we’ve got a big show coming up tonight. We’re going to hear from the new starting pitcher tomorrow, Tucker Tim Timberman. You had a chance to chat with him. You knew this was coming all week. It wasn’t announced officially until today, but a big change up for the starting rotation going into this weekend in a big series against Michigan. Yeah, and I think this is um it’s going to be a really interesting role for Tucker Timberman because we know this is a guy and you’ll hear all about his story, but as far as getting a lot of starts in summer ball up in Alaska and so he’s got that arm conditioned, but then as we all know that devastating injury that he took in that Vanderbilt game, the second game of the season, working himself back from that, but uh how far can he go? But the thing that I’ve always talked to you about, Jessica, and everybody will talk about Tucker Timberman that are around him. This guy is, as we like to call, the dog. This is a guy who wants the ball and in any situation, whether it’s to set the tone of a game, come in with bases loaded and nobody out, and have to try to put out the flames in that situation or even if he had to close. I mean, this is a guy that just wants the baseball, wants to compete. And the good thing about him, too, is he’s got some good complimentary pitches on top of that sinker. That is really his plus pitch. So really looking forward to seeing what he can do tomorrow night in a huge huge series against Michigan. We’re going to preview that series a little bit later. Talk more baseball, hear from Tucker coming up in just a few minutes. So can’t wait to hear that conversation. But you missed it last night. A um big return coming up later on in the show. Duke’s joke of the week. We got the joke of the week segment coming back. It’s a little summer summer segment we’ve liked to do in the past. Duke’s going to take it on and so he says he’s got a good one coming up tonight. Are these like dad jokes? I We’ll see what Duke’s doing. Not saying Duke is a dad, but I mean, I feel like, you know, Duke could maybe lay out some some solid knee slappers that people, you know, my age would would really enjoy. We’ll see. I mean, he’s got his he he filled in a couple times and it was a hit. So, we’ll see if he can carry it over. But big moment tonight for for Duke Rude as he takes on Joke of the Week coming up at the end of hour two. Uh we’re also going to hear from um Ava Badwell. So, let’s talk some softball. That’s in hour two. Nate Roar had a chance to to chat with the catcher today. But big win for Husker softball taking care of business over Penn State. They’ll play UCLA who beat Indiana in walk-off fashion. Uh so a big matchup tomorrow. Huskers have already played UCLA. That was way early in the season. I think it’s going to be a much different looking game tomorrow. But uh you know is crazy. You and I were talking earlier. Jordy gave up her first earned run in the first inning against a Big 10 opponent. And in her postgame interview, she said, "Yeah, I knew what I was doing wrong and then I just had to fix it." And then she she was dealing like Jordy. Only Jordy can deal. But don’t we all wish we could do that? Uh just, "Hey, we know exactly what to fix and and go out and fix it." You had mentioned it was kind of like what you can do on the golf course. That’s right. You know, I shot a 49 in the front and I came back with a 40. So I had my inner Jordy ball in me right there. But yeah, I mean, especially when the competition is that high and the emotions are high, you know, you’re you’re in the postseason now and this isn’t the NCAA tournament, but it’s still a postseason. And you you’d love to get back in that winner circle of Big 10 tournament like they were a few years back. So to be able to maybe be on I would even say a bad trajectory, you know, you give Wow, you you give up a run. Okay, I’m not trying to dismiss that, but when you have been able to pinpoint something that maybe you’re not necessarily in sync with and then you’re able to find that and then go as far as executing that both on the physical side and the mental side, just shows you what type of all-around player she is and how big of a winner that she is, too. So, I I think that that is pretty remarkable that she can just all of a sudden snap the finger, pinpoint it, turn it around, and then she was dominant. We saw how she was in the circle after that, too. I mean, nine strikeouts, she goes all five innings. And so that was I again, I don’t want to say that was a heck of a turnaround because she was really struggling. I I wouldn’t say she was struggling, but yeah, when you maybe have that one in the armor and all of a sudden you’re giving Penn State a little bit of life where they feel like they can believe because they got an early run on the Nebraska Ace, then they’re thinking, "Okay, maybe this is going to be one of those days." You you’re able to basically take that hope and that optimism and just stomp on it with the way that she responded after that. Yeah, I love the way that the offense responded, right? And and that was one thing that Nate had talked about going into the tournament is uh we know what Jordy Ball can do when Jordy Ball is doing Jordy Ball things. But the the thing is, and you know, he pointed this out in some of the losses, the uh it’s been the um batters, it’s been at the plate that this team has struggled against really good pitching. And so the the way they responded, but I think this is to Nate’s point going to be a a big opportunity tomorrow because UCLA has a staff, a dominant staff, not just one pitcher. So they’re going to see a really good pitcher tomorrow. And as we’ve alluded to a lot this week, probably not going to hop up into the host seating, like they’re not probably going to get into the top 16 no matter what they do this weekend. But facing a good pitcher tomorrow and and being able to get those bats going against a really good pitcher and carrying that over that there’s a lot that can that they can take away from from a matchup tomorrow. And uh hopefully they they can get the bats going against UCLA. And I I think this is an important game despite maybe not being able to solidify a host position. But terms of the committee and and seeing how you can advance what you do against one of the top teams in the country in UCLA and and then then also confidence-wise, this is a big opportunity for this group. And oh, by the way, still chasing a a Big 10 trophy. So, this is just another kind of step along that way. You said something at the beginning of of that and that is this is a a different Nebraska team than the one that faced UCLA back in California. What was that? In early March, late late February I think is when that was. So, uh, this is a team that that feels they’re a lot more dialed in offensively. They’re a lot more consistent and I think lengthy in their lineup. Uh, when it does come to who you have to deal with throughout that entire lineup, there’s no real weak spot in the lineup. And I think this is a validation game. I I think for a lot of the reasons that you just bring up, but for Nebraska knowing that, yeah, okay, chances are they’re probably not going to host, but this is even though this is the Big 10 tournament, this is going to be an NCAA tournament type field. And so if you want to feel that you’re going to be able to make a run in the NCAA tournament and you feel like you’re playing your best softball at this time of the year, which I think a lot of us would say Nebraska is, I think Ronda Rell would say that this team is, tomorrow is a great opportunity to prove it. Look at how UCLA had to scratch and claw to win that game. I mean, it was a a weekly hit chopper back to the pitcher. Unfortunately, she couldn’t handle it in time and get it back to home. Um, that’s that’s how UCLA won this game. give them credit for being able to, you know, really take a team’s best shot there, but it’s not like they were dominant in their effort today. So, I think Nebraska and and that could obviously wake up UCLA a lot, too. But I think the way that Nebraska has been able to hit the ball, it’s not just home runs. It’s not just doubles. They can do that. They have that in their arsenal, but this is a team that can hit behind runners. They can go to all fields. They can they can give you the death by a thousand paper cuts if need be. And I think it’s going to be that type of effort tomorrow if Nebraska wants to be in the winner circle tomorrow is going to be able to string hits together, handle the softball very well, make the fundamental plays because at some moment you’re going to have that opportunity offensively and Nebraska needs to be cashed in, needs to be dialed in to be able to take advantage. So again, coming up tomorrow, semi-final action 4:00. Um I for I should have asked, are we going to have that on the network? Anyways, Nate Roar will be on the call for us starting 3:45 at the pregame uh show and then you listen on huskers.com and the Huskers app. So, we will have that action for you here. So, big opportunity for Nebraska softball. We’ll talk more Husker softball coming up in hour number two. But for now, we’ve got to get to a break because we’ve got a great conversation coming up next with tomorrow’s starting pitcher for Nebraska baseball, Tucker Timberman. Uh Nick had a chance to to chat with him and what a story that is. So, we’re going to hear from him coming up next. Hey Husker, stop by your local Hi Ve where they’ve lowered prices on thousands of the items you use every day. Hi Ve, dedicated to making your life easier, healthier, and happier. You expect your home to protect everything you love. But you don’t expect the ways water is breaking down your crawl space and damaging your home. Musty smells, sagging floors, mold are just a few signs your crawl space is compromised. 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And it’s also part of a terrific second chance promotion. Until July 22nd, enter any non-winning $5 Monopoly 10X scratch ticket online for a chance to be one of 10 weekly winners of $1,000 or the grand prize of $10,000. Pass go and enter today. $5 Monopoly 10x top prize odds 1 in14,000. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Your next vehicle is waiting for you at Woodhouse. With over 20 locations and a variety of brands, Woodhouse offers everything from reliable trucks to family-friendly SUVs. Whether you’re looking for a Nissan, Mazda, or Infiniti, our team is here to help you find the perfect fit. Enjoy a seamless car buying experience with our expert staff and exceptional service. Visit Woodhouse today, where quality, selection, and customer satisfaction come first. Or get started online at woodhouse.com. Welcome back. Sports Nightly here on a Thursday getting ready for a big baseball weekend. In fact, it’s senior weekend at Hawkfield Hey Market Park. Three game set. It’s the last home regular se uh series for Nebraska taking on Michigan. Game one tomorrow night six o’clock. You have game two on Saturday at two and then Sunday the finale against the Wolverines will be at noon. And as many of you have seen right now and we hinted that there would be a new Friday starter. We’re happy to be joined in studio with that individual himself, Tucker Timberman, the Beatatric native and a story that has been uh very well documented this season of recovery. But Tucker Timberman will be your Friday night starter uh really two weeks after coming back from what was a pretty scary moment for him, an injury to the face that we’ll get into. But but Tuck, you get the uh you get the announcement this week that you’re going to be the Friday guy. I’m curious how that conversation went and just what were your emotions knowing that you will you’ll be the guy to try to set the tone on Friday against the Wolverines? Uh yeah. Uh, Coach, Coach Childers came up to me uh before the game on Sunday and told me that he just wants me to go out and just compete like I always do and do anything I can and get us as deep as we can into the game. And, you know, honestly, emotions right away were I was a little shocked. Wasn’t expecting that to to be honest. And, uh, I was really excited for the opportunity and just want to make the most of it and do whatever I can for the team. going back to the beginning of the season when you’re going through the the summer that you had which was real solid the fall that you had was real solid and I remember we were sitting down with coach Bolt and Coach Childris before the the season started Ben David and myself and your role seemed to be one of those high leverage guys out of the bullpen and I’m assuming that that was relayed to you as well but has there always been that goal for you to to work yourself into that weekend rotation if that opportunity presented itself? Um, quite honestly, just whatever I could do for the team. Whatever role they needed me in, if it was out of the bullpen, if it was starting, if it was to close games, if it was just come in for matchup, I was happy with whatever I could do for for the guys. And just I told that to the coaches and my fall exit meeting. I just want to do whatever I can to get on the field and help the guys out. Let’s go back to the summer because again that’s where I know Rob had really spoke highly of the work that you put in, the gains that you made both physically and mentally on the mound. Take us through your your summer experience and and when you came back to the fall where your confidence level was. Yeah. Uh I mean up in Alaska it was beautiful. Uh spent most of my time outside and it was always light so that was that was a unique experience. But other than that, it was I got to pitch every six days, I believe it was. Didn’t go much over 90 pitches, but I started most of the time up there. Um, just a great great time up there. Just competed, filled up the zone, and just let defense work. That’s what coach should say is fill up the zone, let your defense work, and it’s going to go well for you. And I know. Oh, go now. So, I say confidence uh leaving there, coming here was all right. I was able to show that I can I can start and I also came out of the pen a little bit up there too. And so just knowing that I you can do all things and the coaches and staff saw that and just as I said let them know that I can do whatever it takes for for the guys this year and I’m willing to do whatever role. We were talking I think it was before Sunday’s game you and I and and I’d asked you what you were going to be doing this summer. you mentioned when you were in Alaska last summer. Um, not only for a guy coming from the state of Nebraska, going to Alaska, experiencing that daylight with pretty much 24 hours and then also some good fishing up there. You’re a big outdoorsman. I know that’s you you’d like to do a little bit more of that this summer, but uh did you have some good opportunities up there to to to do some fishing? Yeah. Uh, I actually there was a a little river that ran uh it about a 30-minute drive from where our host family lived and I ended up catching a king salmon, a silver salmon, and a pink salmon. We went out multiple times and I only caught those three fish, which was kind of frustrating, but it was really cool. They were very, very strong, strong fish. Uh, and it was just incredible for that experience. So, you’re going to be primed this summer. I mean, this is going to be like a cakewalk compared to what you experienced out there. Uh, I’m hoping so. I got a couple farm ponds lined up in my head that I want want to go try and fish a lot this summer. Well, Tuckers, we know the the big story with you this year. We go to the the second game of the regular season. Uh, very emotional day for Husker Nation, mourning the passing of our dear friend Greg Sharp. We knew regardless of what the the external circumstances were that day that was going to be a big night for you guys taking on Vanderbilt perennial power. MLB Network has the game. You have a major role in that game and even the way that you exit just spoke in my opinion spoke volumes of the kind of guy that you are that toughness. But I I I know it was a very scary moment. uh anything 100 plus off the bat that’s coming right back at you. What do you remember about that situation and just the moments afterwards when you were struck in the face with that hard hit ball? You know, uh I remember everything. I was fully conscious through the whole process, but right away I don’t well I guess I shouldn’t say that. I don’t really remember the ball hitting my face and that happened so fast. But I can still I remember being on the ground. I couldn’t see out of either eye and I could but I could still hear. I heard Josh Overbeek was the first one I heard. He was yelling blood, blood, blood to try to get everybody out there faster and uh then I started getting see a vision in my right eye and my left eye was completely swollen shut and it at first it didn’t hurt extremely bad. It was just so much adrenaline was pumping, so many emotions were flowing. Um, luckily Kay Sanderson made the amazing play at first to finish off the inning to get us off the field. Uh, but other than that, it was just a lot of adrenaline was flowing. So, I didn’t feel a whole lot right then and there and just wanted to hype the guys up, let them know we’re going to win this ball game. You did. And you did. You hyped them up. I thought that was one of the coolest moments. We’re up in the in the broadcast booth hoping that you’re okay. When you finally are up on your feet, this is where I say in true Tucker Timberman form, you’re pumping up the crowd. There was a good crowd there to to root on Nebraska and and you were firing them up with that the big old ice pack on your face and all, but still able to to rile everybody up. I I mean, it was an uplifting moment and and it seemed like the team really fed off of it. Yeah, I would say so. But I mean, Husker fans travel in incredibly well, no matter where we are, especially in the early half of the season when we go to the warmth. It seems like Husker fans like to travel to go to the warmth as well. And just wanted to wanted to get the guys going. I mean, that was our game to win and we all know it. Uh, and it was just incredible opportunity to get the guys going. One of the coolest things, and I’m I’m assuming you probably had just I bet you were flooded with texts, the victory picture afterwards where you’ve got the the ice pack on your face, but in the initial picture, it looks like you’re missing a tooth. Did anybody ask you if you lost any teeth after that picture surfaced? I mean, I had there’s questions of where the ball actually hit me cuz I mean, I had blood everywhere. So, nobody really knew if it hit my nose, hit my eye, hit my jaw. And so I mean I had all sorts of questions and so much support behind me and grateful for everyone who reached out for sure. I couldn’t believe we were I remember uh Ben and myself with you in the elevator going up to our rooms after the game and and you still had that that ice pack on. It looked pretty gnarly, but I mean you were you seemed all there. It was it was very impressive. And I know that the the next challenge of this was being able to recover from that injury. And anytime you’re dealing with any type of facial fracture or anything that is involving the head, it’s obviously a very delicate recovery because it’s all about how you respond. What were the things that you had to go through to to get back to, you know, being where you are now to where you can play and you can put all that behind you? Yeah, the right away there’s a lot of unknowns. You don’t know when the next time you’re going to be back on the mound. At at that time in the elevator when I was going up with you guys, didn’t know exactly what happened. So, we went to the ER in Arizona until 3:00 a.m. They wanted me out to have surgery in Arizona that night. And we said, uh, we’d rather see the Nebraska doctors. So, then we flew home at 10:00 in the morning that same day and, uh, went straight to the ER, held ice over my face the whole time. So, to try to keep pain as minimal as possible, held ice over it. I went straight to the ER, was at the ER in Omaha for four, five, four hours, probably close to that, and found out I had two fractures in my face and was going to need surgery, which was not the answer that I wanted to hear at the time. I was pretty I was pretty disappointed. I was hoping it wouldn’t just be, oh, we just need a little bit of time to heal. But, you know, I was very grateful for it where it hit me where it did because if it was many other places, just two inches up down or to each side, it could have been a lot worse. So, doing that and then so we from that date we had surgery two weeks later and then it was uh 6 weeks recovery. So, really in the long scheme of things, it was I was very grateful and getting back to throwing. At first, I didn’t think I was going to have much of a uh, you know, PTSD type of deal, but then I was sitting in the bullpen behind some guys throwing up and the catcher just barely threw one just a little off to the side and I flinched real bad and I was like, "Wow, I didn’t like I didn’t even mean to like that was that was crazy. I wasn’t expecting it to be that bad." So, it might have taken a little bit of time to get used to ball to a baseball coming back at me. Yeah. Uh and so then to get back to able to throw, I threw with a face mask for a while. Uh my first uh live outing in practice, I threw behind a screen just to with my mask on just to kind of progress me back into throwing. And Coach Childris and Tanner did a great job of safely progressing me back with both my arm care and worrying about my face. Um, and everything we did, they were very cautious, make sure I had no pain, pressure, or any feeling in my face go bad. And so, I’m just very grateful to be where I am today. We’ve all we’ve all talked about since your return and and really, you know, since you’ve been here, you’re you’re a well put together guy. Was there any any physical um comeback that you had to make as far as just your wind and the overall cardio? I I can imagine with the layoff there’s going to be a little bit of that, but how how quickly did it take for you to feel like you were you were back to 100% both physically and mentally, you know? So, I really couldn’t do anything weightbearing for a long time really. Uh it was like 4 weeks after surgery. I couldn’t do anything the two weeks after I got hit and the four weeks. So about 6 weeks in total I could do absolutely nothing with any weights because they just didn’t want the pressure to build up and for pain to be my face and they wanted everything to heal properly. And so I mean that was hard for me because I I love being in the weight room. It just that’s something I’ve always enjoyed. And so I mean those two weeks that I was able to uh start lifting was it was huge for me. I did as much as I could without feeling any pain. And I wouldn’t say it was too bad getting back cardio-wise. Uh just trusted everything that uh Tanner and Coach Plumbley had for us and uh just was ready to go as soon as my name was called. Yeah. And and I’m glad you brought up Tanner Fowler, Garrett Plumbley. Those guys uh do incredible work with the entire squad, but especially in your case. I I know that it was a lot of comparison to injuries we see in hockey is what you experienced and I know that timeline was he could come back depending on how he responds or he might be done for the year. So, no one knew that. As we are talking to Tucker Timberman here, he will be your Friday night starter against Michigan and more than anything just excited to see Tucker back out there. So, I I want to go back to the emotions. You come back, you’re pitching on the road. We knew we were going to see at some point in that Iowa series. You finally get out there. What is what’s going through your mind when you’re finally back out there ready to put everything behind you and just compete like we know you’ve been asked to? You know, it was just it was a almost a sigh of relief just being out being able to get back out there and compete for my guys. I mean, it was a rough weekend at Iowa and I was in the bullpen for most of the time and so when it might when I got my opportunity to go out there and put it all on the line for my guys. I was I was all for it, ready to go. Do you and I know you’ll go through this tomorrow, but you had a lot of starts over the summer. You were a starter in high school as well in Beatatric. That routine that you will go through leading up to first pitch tomorrow compared to when you’re down in the bullpen, you get that quick notice, you get the stretching going, the blades and everything, and then all of a sudden you’re starting to toss. How does that change for you? And and have you have you gone through that routine in your head a little bit? Do you think it’s fresh enough to where you feel like you’ll be able to jump right into it tomorrow? I would say so. Yeah. Um really every day before throwing you do almost the same workout warm up I should say. Do almost the same warm-up. So it’s just it’s just doing that. It’s just just another day to be on out on the mound and compete. And but even before games when I know I was going to come out of the bullpen, you still do that same warm-up and then when you get hot in the pen, you just do a quick little get your heart rate going and start throwing. And so uh I’m not going not going to change anything. uh just got to stay normal and just another game to go out and go compete. Uh just a couple more minutes with you, Tuck, and again, appreciate your time. Uh busy guy, you’re getting the ball tomorrow night in a huge series. But let’s talk about the season. I I know especially with you on the sidelines for a while. You’re watching some good, some bad, some ups and downs. There’s that huge series win at home against Oregon State. some tough ones in the conference to start off, especially that California trip that you are unable to be a part of. Where where do you see especially as we get into these last couple of weekends of the regular season where this team is and and how you think just that little that little change tomorrow, what you could do to to get this team where it needs to be. Yeah. Uh some of those road road series where I wasn’t able to go were definitely tough. uh being at home and not being able to be with the guys, being able to support, be the best teammate possible for them cuz they’ve been amazing for me, always checking in during when I had surgery, always making sure if there’s anything I could they could do for me. I mean, they were there for me through it all. And so, I was very grateful for that and I wanted to do the same for them. So when we went on that rough stretch, it was it it was difficult for me to not be able to be there for them and we they were away and even when we were home, it was still still was hard for me. But I just I was at least able to be there to help in any way I could. Uh then we’re going right now. I think we got a really good shot to make a good run right now. And when the Huskers get hot, it’s it’s a lot of fun. And I think we’re hitting a good spot right now. Uh, and I see the Huskers doing some good things coming up here soon. Yeah, we definitely saw that last year. Uh, I got to ask you this one because emotions Tuesday were running high. You knew, All right, I’m going to have Tuesday off because I’m going to be the Friday night starter. I got to ask you though, be honest. How badly did you want at least one batter or two batters on Tuesday night against Kraton? Oh, you know, it was it was frustrating. didn’t didn’t get to throw against Kraton at all this year. And so I I I wanted I wanted the ball as as everyone in that bullpen in in the dugout wants the ball every game when stuff’s going bad, when stuff’s going good. I know every dude in that bullpen wanted wanted the ball in their hand. They wanted to all go compete. And so of course, yeah, want wanted to throw a little bit, but uh I know every dude out there wants it has the same feeling and every dude wants the ball and go out there and throw down. And this is this seems like the the response we’ve seen a lot this year from this team when you have a tough loss. And that one, I mean, my goodness, 90 feet away from taking or at least tying the game and possibly taking the lead uh in a good situation on Tuesday night. Obviously, that one gets to you. It’s it’s kind of a gut punch feel, but you guys have typically responded pretty well from those tough moments. I get the feeling, as I have in in previous games, you guys are probably chomping at the bit to get to tomorrow. Yeah. Um, everyone’s ready to go. Uh, practice yesterday, we had a good practice. Hitter swung it really well. And, you know, as pitchers, we played catch with intent every day. Uh, and so, everyone’s just ready to get back at it, back on the grind as as a as the season’s a grind. And so everyone’s ready to go uh ready for the next opportunity to go out and compete. It’s Tucker Timberman, Beatatric native. He is Friday night starter against Michigan coming all the way back from a really tough injury early in the season. Awesome to see him back and awesome to see him getting a chance to set the tone for a big weekend for Nebraska. Last home regular series taking place. So honor seniors this weekend as well. So, a lot of emotions this weekend and also going to be excited to see Tuck get a go at it tomorrow night against the Wol Wolverines. Tucker, again, appreciate it, man. And congratulations on just the bounceback. We we’re all so happy for you. So happy to see you back there on the mound. Can’t wait to see you uh get it again tomorrow night and and see what you can do, buddy. Yeah, thank you very much for having me. That’s Tucker Timberman, and we got more coming up here on Sports Nightly. Don’t go anywhere. Your Nebraska lottery has a monopoly on fun. 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Acres solutions for every field. Welcome back to Sports Nightly with Nick Hanley. I’m Jessica Cudney. Nick, what an incredible conversation there with Tucker. Uh what a story. And just one of the things that I really took note of when he was talking about he gets hit and he goes, "Well, thankfully um whoever it was made a great play to get us out of the inning, you know, and he’s over there. He can’t see. Don’t know if he’s going to get his vision back." And he’s like, "Well, thankfully we, you know, uh the defense behind me got us out of the uh out of the inning, but just get a sense." You guys have talked you and Ben have talked glowingly about him all year, but I think you got more of a sense of why you guys like him so much there in that conversation. And it’s it is such a remarkable story that he was able to make it all the way back. And I think a lot of that has to do with who Tucker Timberman is. That that determination, that perseverance, and just there’s a there’s not only a physical toughness that is always present when you see Tucker. I mean, the guy is he’s he is a sizable individual, especially his lower half. He’s got tree trunks for legs, but he’s one of those guys mentally as well that is an extremely tough competitor. And so I think when you put those two facets, I mean, we were talking about Jordy Ball, what she had to put herself through last year to overcome that ACL right out of the gate. And that is not only a physically demanding rehab, but you’re talking about mentally as well, especially for players that haven’t necessarily been sidelined that much to put yourself through the mental strain of rehabilitation and physical therapy when you are you want to be out there and help your team. And you know, Tucker obviously wasn’t a season ender, but for a guy that had such a big role coming into this season and really was a big had a big presence in that game up until he had to exit, uh, you know, that that was eaten away at him. So, I think that drove him a little bit more too to do the things that both again Garrett Plumbley, who is a fantastic strength and conditioning coach for this team, and also Tanner Fowler, one of the great trainers that uh, this athletic department has. uh for those guys to to have that plan and for him to follow it to a tea, but also continuing to give himself the rest when he needed to, but also be pushing as much as he could to get back for his team. Uh it it shouldn’t be surprising, but it’s still pretty remarkable given that ball hit off the bat at 108 mph for exit velocity that caught his face. I mean, thank goodness, as he said, it got him in a certain part of the face and really thank goodness it hit ground before it got his face, but uh it’s still very remarkable. I cannot wait to see what he has tomorrow against Michigan because I’m sure uh his adrenaline is going to be pumping tomorrow night. So I I’m not by any means comparing this, but I played softball for a little bit growing up and I was playing pitcher coach pitched and I got drilled in the face by a line drive and it knocked me out actually and I was never the same. I was scared of the ball ever ever since then and I ended up quitting because I was I was scared of it. And so you had mentioned just the you know the mental part of it as a pitcher and that coming back at you could happen at any point just and he had said when it he kind of jumped a little bit the coming back from it it it’s a lot to work through mentally. Yeah. And that was interesting, right? And I think people that have experienced something similar that you have probably very similar result where you know what, I can’t get past that. That’s that’s a little too freakish for me. Or maybe you try to go back and and you still have a little bit of that, you know, you’re seeing ghosts a little bit. And so I think that’s pretty common for for people to to get derailed a little bit from that. And I thought that was very telling. Tucker Timberman. That was the first time I heard that he had a little jumpiness and that’s to be expected, right? But I I think that that’s that’s what I really appreciated with with Tucker talking about this. This is something that you could completely want to put behind you and really not go back there. But I I really appreciated him doing that because there was a lot of a lot to that path to get back to the the pitcher mount against Iowa. For him to be cleared and ready to go and to to be okay again mentally and physically, I think is pretty remarkable. All right. Well, he’s getting the ball uh on tomorrow night in a big series. How do you like the way he matches up with the Michigan lineup? Well, and this is the thing, and we’ll talk a little bit about Michigan uh with what they do well. Michigan reminds me a lot. It’s kind of funny. We were talking about his return came in the Iowa series. They remind me of of an Iowa. Uh they’ve got good balance in their lineup, so they can hit it one through nine. It’s it’s a long lineup, but also they’ve got some guys that are going to challenge Oscar hitters. They got a couple power arm and then they got a couple more finesse guys between their starting their their staff, their rotation, and their bullpen. Uh what I think this is what goes into Tucker’s start is when you are a sinker ball guy, he’s got about a 90 mph fast ball, which is is pretty solid, but he’s got good movement sinker-wise, change up, uh good curve ball, so he can use all of those pitches. The thing I love about his ability to go to that sinker a lot, is that as Rob Childers calls it, it’s got ultra sync, it’s got turbo sync to it, and that’s going to that’s going to play into some really weak contact. If there is any contact at all, that’s going to play into some weak contact. So even if you get a guy or two on first and second situation, he’s always a pitch away with that sinker to be able to get that ground ball, get guys rolling their hands over in the batters box and being able to get himself out of some innings if they start to pile up a little bit, the base runners that is. So uh that’s what I’m hoping is if he’s able to have success with that sinker, he’s able to be able to locate those complimentary pitches. I think you could see a long stay for Tucker tomorrow night. Woodhouse has been a trusted partner in your everyday since 1975. to shop for your next vehicle with the home team at Woodhouse and the official auto dealer of Nebraska athletics. And hey Husker, stop by your local HY where they’ve lowered prices on thousands of the items you use every day. Hi Ve dedicated to making your life easier, healthier, and happier. Got to step aside for a break. We’re back to wrap up hour number one here on Sports Nightly next. Husker fans, it’s game day and Pizza Hut’s got your perfect play. Score the game day special for just $29.99. Get two medium three topping pizzas, eight boneless wings and five bread sticks. Enough to feed eight hungry fans. Pizza, wings, bread sticks, and more. It’s the ultimate lineup to fuel your game day. Check out the full menu online at pizza.com or in store because remember, no one out pizzas the Hut. Hit us up on the text line. 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Make chiropractic your first choice for better health. and find a chiropractic physician near you at nebraska chiropractic.org. Get your life back with chiropractic. Welcome back inside our Huskers radio network broadcast center which is sponsored by Acres, the Midwest premier John Deere dealer supplying the equipment and service to advance agriculture and much more. Acres solutions for every field. All right, welcome back to Sports Nightly. I uh we had just chatted during the commercial break um about uh you know just talking continuing to talk about this matchup with Michigan coming up this weekend. You had uh guest referenced this at the start of your interview with Tucker there. It’s going to be a special weekend out there. It’s senior day uh which is always emotional. You got the mom’s going to be honored uh with Mother’s Day. Uh it’s going to be a it was a fun weekend last weekend with Bowling Stadium and it’s carrying over into this weekend as the home series home stand continues with uh capping off with a Mother’s Day weekend. A lot of special special things happening this weekend. Yeah, and I I think that that’s always first and foremost where you we think about these final weekends is, you know, you’re never guaranteed I mean, first of all, Nebraska is not guaranteed to be back in the Big 10 tournament. And so all you’re guaranteed right now is these remaining six games that they have, the three against Michigan and then the three against Purdue on the road. And so you’re getting into finals. So you got a lot of the, you know, that those distractions, too. But this is a a a roster that a lot of guys decided to come back after last year. And you still had guys that were benefiting from the co year that had that extra year. So you didn’t know what who was going to stick around and who was going to, you know, maybe just go ahead and say, "All right, I’ve played enough college baseball. I’m ready to be a professional adult or maybe try my hand in in pro ball somewhere else. But, you know, I think of guys like Drew Kristo and and Jackson Brockett, Gabe Swanson who has been outstanding. Even, you know, guys that have been a little more short stint like Casey Dice has been here a couple years. Um, you know, looking at Tyler Stone and and Riley Silva, Rhett Stokes, Joshua Overbeek, who, you know, you never know about these guys if they could possibly have another year with some injuries, too. Kale Frost, another guy that came over to to finish out his college career that had such an outstanding year or time at South Dakota State as the reigning Summit League player of the year. Hogan Eligo also doing the same thing where he decided, hey, you know what? I don’t want to necessarily this isn’t a knock on Kraton, I swear. But I don’t want to finish the Kraton. I want to finish in Nebraska because that was always a dream of him of his to play at Nebraska and he had that opportunity to do so. So, I mean, there’s a lot of guys that that uh played so many different roles, whether they were, you know, a a a full-time Nebraska Corn Husker from the time their their freshman year of college started to guys that decided, hey, this is going to give me a better opportunity and I want to I want to play for this baseball program in front of these fans. Uh it’ll be great to be able to to honor them this weekend. Do you get the sense because you you just talked about this making still got to make the Big 10 tournament, the conference tournament, and that’s what we’ve been now kind of referencing these last few weekends is um as you’re fighting to get in with one of those spots. Do you think that’s something that this team is aware of that I mean, I don’t know how you’re you nature, right, uh to to this point, but um do you think they’re thinking about that? Is it something that they’re battling at this point of, hey, we got to fight for our lives even to get into the conference tournament at this point? I I think they understand if they if they win uh series, which is always their goal, um you’ll take a sweep obviously, but you always you always just go in wanting to win the series, but winning game one. And you know, that’s kind of the interesting thing, Jessica, is this team in their last handful of series wins, they have not won that Friday game. Go back to that that Northwestern game, they lose that. They come back and win it on that Saturday in in a double header. They they lose that first one to Maryland. They got kind of thumped against Maryland, too. And they came back and they put it on Maryland Saturday and Sunday. And then the same thing last weekend against Minnesota where you lose another tough one where you you were able to work it into extra innings and then you end up losing that game. So, their bounceback has been good. It’d be really interesting to see though how Nebraska, if they could set the tone going all the way back to that Ruter series when they they defeated Ruters that Friday night, if they could do something similar tomorrow night. Uh, I just think they I think they understand that there is a sense of urgency. But I I think it’s interesting too the teams they’re playing. Michigan is solidly in right now with a 14-10 conference record, but if Michigan were to slide, all of a sudden they’re, you know, they’re they’re dropping their seat a little bit, that could create some issues. And then the Purdue team that they’re going to be up against, Purdue’s trying to play their way in as well. So, I think Nebraska understands they’ve got that sense of urgency, but they’re also going up against other teams that have that desperation, too. So, it it makes for a very exciting uh time of the year. This is typically how the Big 10 goes as well. And so, I I think that they understand they got to take care of business to to feel comfortable about getting back to Omaha and being able to defend that title. All right, that’s going to do it for hour number one. Uh still got plenty to come here in hour number two. We’re going to talk more Husker softball in the Big 10 tournament as they have advanced to the semi-finals uh there at Purdue. We’ll play UCLA coming up tomorrow at 4. We’re going to hear from Ava Badwell and Nate Roar. Uh Nate had a chance to chat with Ava following the win today. So uh also maybe uh some football news uh that is developing here coming into this next week. So uh keep it here. Plenty to come on sports nightly hour number two. Woodhouse has been a trusted partner in your everyday since 1975. Shop for your next vehicle with the home team at Woodhouse and the official auto dealer of Nebraska athletics. Hit us up on the text line. Text 402413-2400 with your Husker thoughts. In the game of life, we all step up to the plate. Sometimes it feels like we’re facing a curveball with no clear path. Call, text, or chat 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline. It’s free, confidential, and staffed with trained counselors ready to listen and provide support. Don’t wait for the ninth inning. Reach out, speak up, and let’s strike out life’s challenges together. Because we’re more than players, we’re a resilient community. Remember, in times of need, call a timeout. Call, text, or chat 988. It’s okay to ask for help. We’re here for you. Every swing, every slide. Play ball. Presented by Nebraska DHS. On game day, every play counts. Now imagine having the same level of control in your field. Valley is where farming meets endzone efficiency. With ASense remote irrigation technology, farmers become the MVPs of their fields. Realtime playbyplay control means you’re always ahead of the game. Score big with simplified irrigation technology from Valley. Improving your life both on and off the field. Find your local Valley dealer at Valley Irrigation.com. It’s employee pricing with the Ford Crew. Ah, employee pricing for everyone. A great time to buy. Now everyone pays what we pay on Ford trucks. So you can tow what we tow. SUVs, carpool like we carpool and Bronco and Bronco Sport. Off-road like we off-road. But what about my parking spot? It’s just employee pricing, not parking. What a relief. I love that parking spot. Now get employee pricing available across a full lineup of Ford trucks and SUVs. Employee pricing. You pay what we pay. Only from your local Ford dealer. Oh, should I make name tags for everyone? It’s employee pricing for everyone. They don’t actually work here. Can I still make them? Sure. available on the purchase or lease of select new 2024 and 2025 Ford and Lincoln vehicles. US residents only. Prior purchases in AXZD plan ineligible. Place a retail order or take delivery from an authorized Ford or Lincoln dealer stock by 7725. Exclusions apply. See a participating dealer for details. Good evening. I’m Duke Rude and our sports ticker is brought to you by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The Nebraska softball team defeated Penn State today in the quarterfinals of the Big 10 tournament tournament and will play UCLA in the semifinals tomorrow. The Huskers posted their 23rd run rule victory of the season with a 9 to1 5ining win. Tomorrow’s game will be streamed on the Big 10 network and can be heard right here on the Huskers radio network. First pitch is scheduled for 400 p.m. Central. In the MLB, the Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton today. The Pirates have been off to a disappointing 12-26 start to the season and are last in the NL Central. Bench coach Don Kelly will take over for Shelton, who is the first manager fired across Major League Baseball this season. Two playoff hockey games going on tonight as the Washington Capitals host the Carolina Hurricanes. And the Vegas Golden Knights take on the Edmonton Oilers. One game in the NBA tonight as the Timberwolves host the Warriors without Steph Curry in game two. Our sports tick is brought to you by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Call a timeout. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline is there. Call, text, or chat 988. It’s free, confidential, and staff are trained counselors ready to listen and provide support. Coming up next is hour two of Sports Nightly right here on the Huskers Radio Network. Coming to you live from Memorial Stadium, it’s Sports Nightly, all the Huskers all the time. Sports Nightly is presented to you by the NDOT Highway Safety Office, who remind you to buckle up and put the phone down. No balls, two strikes on Bolan. All three Husker runners get their leads. Here’s the pitch. Bolan grounds one past the diving first baseman. Carrie’s going to score and the Huskers are going to win it five to four. And for Robbie Bolan, sweet redemption at Hawkfield. Swung at looping door to left side. Overbeat giving a look and foul ground makes a terrific sliding catch and foul ground. Overbeat gets Nebraska out of jail in the eighth. What a snag by Joshua Overbeek in foul territory. Now the one-two from Booker and Cusack blasts this one deep left center and gone. A two-run home run for Ava Cusack to finish off the home season with a bowling blast and a run rule win for the Huskers over the Turpps. Now, here are your hosts, Jessica Cudy and Nick Hanley on the Huskers Radio Network. Welcome back hour or two of Sports Nightly. Uh we’ve uh got a an hour coming up for you, including Duke’s joke of the week, which we announced last night is coming back here for a summer series. Maybe not every week. Uh it depends on Duke’s schedule. He is a student after all, but uh so you’ll want to stick around for that at the end of this hour to see if he can carry on it. You know, it’s funny. Greg started off this segment. It was just kind of a one-time deal and then it ended up being kind of funny and then he we kept talking about, okay, it’s going to end. It’s going to end. And then people kind of liked it and so we ended up carrying it on and so it ended up being kind of funny. So we’ll see how Duke does. If he delivers, Nick, then we’ll bring it back. If it’s a dud, then it might just be a onetime deal. I don’t know. I I have good I’ve got faith in Duke, though. I I love the fact that this originated with Greg because, as you know, Sharpie had some of the best dad joke knee slappers and was was never bashful, but they were always well placed. It wasn’t it wasn’t a situation where he went to the well one too many times with them. They were always extremely appropriate at the time that he would deliver them. So, I think it it is it is great that that originated with him. And um yeah, I I I could see just the the amount of games that Duke has been on the broadcast with us as our producer and then here in Sports Nightly. I I I have confidence that Duke will deliver and so I’m looking forward to this. He’s got kind of a dry sense of humor. He just made us laugh in the commercial break. So, I’ I’ve got a good feeling about it. So, with just a simple a simple him saying whoopsie was I mean that gave me that gave me a good Thursday night chuckle right there. I know context is important, but we’ll just leave it at that. Okay. Yes, we will. All right. Well, um we didn’t have time to get to all of it, but I did want to wrap up the the baseball talk coming in big series this weekend. You’ve talked about it uh with Michigan, I guess. What favors the Huskers in this matchup? What are you looking for? or what do we need to know uh in this three-game series against Michigan? Well, as I mentioned, the similarities between this Michigan team and Iowa were that when you look at their lineup one through nine, some pretty healthy batting averages, uh guys that have the ability to get on base, they’re on base percentage as a team is pretty solid. And so, but it’s a team that if I I’ll use this guy as an example, Benjamin Casillas, who is hitting 419. I mean, one of the higher batting averages in all of college baseball, but the guy only has one home run, but he’s driven in 31. So, this is a contact type team. This is a team that’s not going to overwhelm you with power numbers, but they are going to be able to drive the baseball through the infield, get themselves on base, and they’ve been pretty solid in clutch situations. They were swept by Iowa 3 weeks ago, right after Nebraska played them, but since then, they have beaten Michigan State. They swept Ohio State as well. So, it’s a team that’s been playing some pretty good baseball as of late. And as I mentioned in the Big 10 standings, they’re a team that is pretty solidly in at that middle part of the Big 10 tournament standings or Big 10 conference standings. But if you look at what they have in front of them and really behind them, they need to to stack some wins if they want to hold ground. I think that’s the the key right now for Michigan. If you’re looking at their postseason, uh then if you look at their rotation, again, it’s it’s pretty solid. There’s some good numbers there. It’s a It’s a squad that they The one thing that I will say that I I’m curious to see play out tomorrow, especially with what I anticipate being a tremendous crowd, is this is a staff that when you look at their strikeout to walk ratio, it’s not devastating to where it’s leaning heavily to the strikeouts and not many walks. They will have that in them where they can miss the strike zone a little bit. And this is where I think Nebraska has been much better in the box. I mean, if you look at Tuesday night, just one strikeout for Nebraska. And so, they’ve been a lot better of being disciplined in the box, not chasing as much. Um, I should say the one strikeout leading into that ninth inning because, of course, we had the back-to-back strikeouts to end it. But, I mean, it was a pretty solid showing. It’s and it’s been an area here in the last couple of weeks for Nebraska where that number has come down quite a bit. Uh, not as much swinging misses or or getting caught looking. So, if you look at Nebraska’s ability to see pitches outside the zone and lay off, I I think that that’s something that could also play into this matchup, but they do have some good arms. Make no mistake about that. This is a team that does have some some arms and some power arms. Um it’s just can they hit the strike zone and can Nebraska be on it when uh when they’re delivered, especially early in the count. All right. Uh so big series again coming up and uh Nick will be on the call all weekend long uh starting 6:02 and then the Sunday game got moved up a little bit, right? We want to make not this was announced. 11:30 now. Yes. Yes. For everybody’s Mother’s Day plans. 11:30. Yep. Okay. So, switching gears now. Just since we’ve been on the air, uh Ross Dinger has posted that the four power conference commissioners uh held an inconference meeting in New York on today uh to discuss several things but uh including a future playoff format. The Big 10 and SEC control future format and they continue to favor multiple automatic qual qualifiers for their conferences. Uh there is growing Big 10 SEC support for a 16 team bracket. Most notably four from the SEC, four from the Big 10, two from ACC, two from Big 12, uh one from G6, three at large with um season ending inner league playin games. Uh third place for sixth, fourth, first fifth. So uh that was reported back in February. But again, Ross Ellinger for Yahoo Sports. Are you a fan? Are you um supporter of the uh growing the larger playoff bracket? I am. I and I thought that this was always going to be the case when the the 12 team I think was just to roll out there to get multiple teams to go above and beyond the four that we had and I think that they this was inevitable that we would see 16. And the thing, Jessica, that I I know some people will push back on this is are you really going to get a 16 or a 15 seed, if you will, to win a national championship? Is it the same as say a wild card team in the NFL being able to, as they always say, get into the tournament and see what can happen? And we’ve seen wildcard entries uh into the NFL playoffs many, many times. that the Giants uh the two times that they won um at least one of them against the Patriots, they were a wild card team that they were able to get in there. Look, I know the NFL has a lot more parody and it is when a team gets hot, it’s probably a little bit more uh sustainable for them to roll into the playoffs and and and do that. There there’s definitely a talent disparity, I think, still in college football, at least to extent, but I think that that gap is closing. But the bottom line that the reason I like this and I will say this because it’s why I love the NFL and this is where I I’m really liking the college football playoff format and and the potential of it expanding to 16 is because I want more playoff games. I want more high leverage games. I want playoff feel. I want onampus games. I I I love that last year. I thought it was it was unbelievable to see onampus games. I just want to see as many playoff games as we can because now there’s there’s a limit and I think 16 is the limit. I don’t think I do not want to go to 64. I don’t I don’t want to go to any crazier number than that. But I think 16 is a good number because all of a sudden again you’re creating a little bit more of that postseason buildup anticipation because I just think unfortunately the bowl season has gotten a little bit stale because of the optouts because of of different players having different future plans where they may not want to participate in that bowl game for whatever reason. That’s what it was so impressive with Nebraska having uh really none to to speak of except for maybe I think one. And so I I love the fact that um you can put out these playoff games where it’s going to be that much more appetizing of the postseason in college football. This is where college football’s changed so much. But having this many playoff games in my opinion brings us back to when you didn’t have as many bowl games, but every postseason game had something. Even if you weren’t playing for a national championship, every bowl game had that big game feel to it and everybody was dialed in. This brings us a little bit closer to that because of the high leverage games that you’re now putting out there for a college football audience. Well, and I know people say, "Oh, well then it makes the regular season not matter as much." But I I disagree with that because you can maybe lose for some of those teams that maybe you drop one that you weren’t supposed to drop at the beginning of the season and then hey, you come around and and it’s you shake it up at the end and you still a lot of teams are still going to have an opportunity to punch a ticket to the playoff even despite maybe a bad loss or two at the beginning of the season. Yeah. And Jess, think about Nebraska. Think about the situation that they’re in right now when you have the Big 10 presence. the thing that Matt Rule said at the beginning of the season that Paul Finebomb crushed him on and then it turned out to be Matt Rule was right. Paul Finebomb was the guy who had egg on his face on that one. The Big 10, you’re in a great conference to where if you’re I always look at it this way. If you are in the top 25 when it comes to November, if you’re in the college football top 25 come to November, chances are you’re in the mix. You got to win out maybe in November, but if you’re in that top 25, you’re part of the college football playoff conversation. And it makes it for teams like Nebraska that are still trying to push their way more towards those successful seasons, those nine win, eight, nine win seasons. Nine wins can get you in. And so I look at where Nebraska is and I look at these types of playoff formats. Yeah, I’ll I’ll be greedy here for a moment and I’ll be biased for a moment, but this this benefits programs like Nebraska that are hoping where they can be a regular contender of the College Playoff every year. But right now, you got to get there. And opening this thing up, it allows programs like Nebraska to be more involved. Come November, they’ve got something to play for. Imagine how magical Memorial Stadium will be when you know you’re playing some home games in November that could impact whether you’re in or out of the college football playoff. I love it. I I think we got a good taste of just the um you know the expanded playoff over this year and I think it went over well and I I’m for it too. I think it it’ll be uh it’ll make the postseason even more fun to watch. Okay, the other news that’s coming out, and again, it changes all the time, but we we’ve just talked about it at length at Nauseium over the last couple months about the uh roster limits going down to 105 and then with the NCA settlement, all of that, that verbiage is supposed to change before it will be approved, that settlement. And so hearing more and more news coming out, Notre Dame’s been the first school that has come out and said that they are going to grandfather that in and then even allow for the students that I think even enter the portal because their roster spot had been cut to even potentially come back. It sounds like they’re going to allow schools, it’s going to be up to their discretion what they want to do with it. Nebraska is over the roster limit right now and um you know there have been some guys that have entered the portal I think probably because of those conversations being had but I think as it stands right now Nebraska will if if you’re this is my opinion we heard Troy say about it talk about it the other night when he was on his show that he is for the grandfathering in and so at this point I think if that is what happens moving forward I think Nebraska is right around what 120 or so that that’s probably what that roster size will be around going into next fall. Yeah. And this always made sense to to do it this way to have a phase in policy when it comes to what you want to do with the roster. If you want to have a hard cap on 105, that’s fine. But for a lot of different programs, Nebraska being one of them, and they’re not alone. There was a lot of teams that were carrying 130, 135, and I understand that that’s a big number, and that’s probably not sustainable when you have a revshare uh model now going on. But to all of a sudden say, "All right, you got to figure out a way to essentially cut 25 or 30 or in some cases even 40 and get down to that 105." You essentially have to displace a bunch of student athletes that committed to you and that trusted you to be the place that they wanted to continue their football career and hopefully someday get to the NFL. I I think that at some point you had to look at it and say, is that is that the right thing to do or can we just start to phase it in and we get to a certain year of okay, it’s got to be at 105 in two years from now. Uh we’ll let you grandfather this part of it in or we’ll be able to phase it in. I just think that always made sense and and I I unfortunately Jessica, I don’t like that it took this long. I I think this this should always have been okay, we are going to eventually get to 105. 105 is going to be in 2027. So, you’ve got two years now to get your roster in check. It gives you some time to adjust the way you recruit, adjust the way you attack the transfer portal, and it gives you a little bit of time to do that as opposed to, okay, 105, here we go, everybody start making their their roster moves. It to me, it just seems so abrupt. Yeah. So, we’ll uh again, that’s it’s supposed to be she gave him a hard date and so it sounds like more news is going to come out. we might know more of of where that stands going into uh next week. So, uh we we have a little bit more to get to coming up over the next couple hours, but we’re going to let Nick get out of here. He’s got a big weekend uh coming up, calling all three games for us here on the network, but I’m springing this on you here as we uh before we let you go. Mother’s Day coming up this weekend. You you got some Mother’s Day shoutouts you’d like to give out? I do. Yes. Um, I’m going to be spending the the afternoon before the baseball game with my my mom, Diane. Always uh appreciate everything she’s done. She has four boys, okay? So, it’s I I’m a handful myself. I got three older brothers, too. And so, she is she has been our rock and she has done such an amazing job of taking care of not only us, but uh my father as well. And she is amazing. So, I can’t wait to to spend the day with her tomorrow before baseball. and then my wife who is the MVP of this household as well uh Jenny and I can’t wait to it it’ll be sort of a split uh uh duty on it’ll be Sunday morning then ball game and then uh after the game. So the game moving up to 11:30 gives me a little bit more the afternoon and evening to uh to spend with her as well. But for every mother out there, for yours, Jessica, for for all the ones that from our listeners to all the student athletes and the sacrifices that they’ve made to allow uh their sons and daughters to play all these sports and and to show up. I’m always amazed by that as well when we go to to different games, how many parents, especially the moms that make all these different games, especially in the Big 10 when we’re talking about a by coastal conference. Uh just amazing amazing people. Thank you all mothers, but especially my mother Diane and my wife Jenny. Yeah, my mom Sherry uh I talk a lot about her, but I I think in terms of like the sports part of it, I probably talk more about my dad’s influence, but my mom had a huge huge part in me fall in love with sports, too. She was a guard in in basketball. They played she played six on six. She can’t shoot a lick, but she could play some defense. Apparently, was a heck of a softball pitcher, too. in fact was going to play in college and got in a really bad car accident which she had to hang it up after that going into her uh right after her senior year of high school. But she is my number one fan and now she’s Nebraska’s number one fan, one of I know there’s a lot of number one Nebraska fans, but she is all in on the Huskers and uh so she’s been a big impulse big support system. I’m not going to get to spend Sunday with her, but I do think depending on where because as we’ve talked a lot about, there’s a chance that Nebraska could be playing at Oklahoma. We’re hoping that’s not the draw, but uh if they go to Oklahoma, I’m probably going to go down there next weekend. Um but if not, she’s going to come up next weekend. So, I don’t get a chance to spend this Mother’s Day with my mom, but shout out to my mom, Sherry, as well. Duke, you want to give a shout out to your mom? Of course. Shout out to my mom, Cindy. Uh she’s the best. takes care of all of us, uh, keeps us all in check. So, yeah, love you, Mom. Shout out to all the moms, uh, making all this possible. I know the athletes always talk about the mom’s role in their lives as well. So, uh, special role, special job. We We love moms. Okay. Uh, Nick, have a great call this weekend. Thanks for spending your Thursday evening with us once again here on Sports Nightly. You bet. Have a great weekend, guys. All right. And hey, Husker, stop by your local HY where they’ve lowered prices on thousands of the items you use every day. A hi ve dedicated to making your life easier, healthier, and happier. All right, coming up on the other side of this, going to talk some more Husker softball as they advance in the Big 10 tournament. Nate Roar and Ava Badwell up next here on Sports Nightly. What does it mean to be locally owned and operated? For SX, it means everything. It means that we know if you take your coffee to go or if you like to stay a while. 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Get your life back with chiropractic. And we welcome you back inside our Huskers Radio Network broadcast center which is sponsored by Acres, the Midwest premier John Deere dealer supplying the equipment and service to advance agriculture and much more. Acres solutions for every field. Hour two of Sports Nightly. and Jessica Cudy. And again, a big win for Husker softball in the Big 10 tournament this morning as they uh picked up their 23rd run victory of the season, uh beating Penn State 9 to1. And uh after the game, Nate Roar, who was on the call for us, had a chance to catch up with the catcher and senior Ava Badwell to talk about the win and preview tomorrow’s matchup. Here’s that conversation. Here in West Lafayette, Indiana’s Nebraska rules to a 9-1 Mercy rule win over the Penn State Netany Lions. One of the stars of the game today, Ava Badwell drove in three runs, had three hits to pace the Nebraska offense. And Ava, you know, you guys came out here yesterday, three upsets in the Big 10 tournament. and and so as a favorite, as a team that uh had a lot expected of them today, you guys were able to come out, take care of business. What was the mindset coming in? Uh I think just kind of going pitch to pitch with the pitcher, making sure that we’re sticking to our plan. We’ve prepared uh all week long to face both Iowa and Penn State’s pitchers, but we were just kind of honing in on just one pitch at a time and making sure that we’re stringing hits together rather than all trying to do it at once when we go up to bat. Penn State’s pitchers uh had been wild all year long, more walks than strikeouts, and and really struggled with their control. We saw that today uh with six walks. How tough is that as a hitter to balance uh the understanding that the other team’s pitcher is pretty wild with the idea that you still need to be aggressive, you still need to be ready to swing at a strike. Like I said, I think it’s just focusing on that one pitch that we’re hunting rather than um trying to like like I said, get the job done or hit a home run every single pitch. Just making sure that we’re thinking, okay, if I’m driving this high level two pitch up the middle, that’s all I’m going to hit. That’s all I’m going to swing at. I’m not going to swing at anything that’s lower down. Also, not letting the umpire stretch our zone. So, if we do get a strike called on us, that’s maybe not the pitch we want. We still just kind of stick to our plan and work work pitch to pitch. as you faced this Penn State team. They’re a really good team offensively and uh of course being a catcher. You’re front and center with Jordy in terms of making sure she’s in the zone. What were you guys trying to do on that side of the ball? Uh we’re really just trying to pound the zone. Um, obviously they’re they were swinging. So, we’re just trying to work to uh kind of miss barrel and her her I feel like I don’t know the way that she does best is she’s just focusing on one pitch at a time and she’s just spinning spinning straight through me. So, I think just kind of getting back to that simple simple approach with her. You were a part of that 2022 championship run in this tournament. Uh, you got to see what it takes to come through a tournament like this. I mean, you’ve talked a lot about staying one pitch at a time, single pitch focused. Is that really what you have to do to get through a tournament like this? And how tough is that to just stay that micro focused when you have such a big picture around you? Yeah, for sure. I think like I said, and like you just mentioned, it’s just working pitch to pitch and that’s on defense and on offense. I also think kind of leaning in to your teammates and as somebody’s up to bat, making sure that you’re taking in that information that even they’re getting while they’re um facing the other pitcher so that when you go up to bat, you’re you’re kind of storing that information and using it as the game goes on. Chatting with Nebraska softball catcher Ava Bwell, you guys win today. You’re awaiting Penn State or Indiana. Uh when you have sort of a provisional, you could face one team or the other. How does that make it a whole lot tougher or do you just delay how you prepare for that next day’s game whether it’s hitting wise, pitching wise, whatever? I think I think part of our plan is based on what the pitchers do, but really it comes down to it’s about us. So, I think just taking this time to rest, recover, and kind of turn over that clock for our 400 p.m. game tomorrow and making sure that we’re mentally checked in. We’ll obviously probably watch watch this next game and take in information from that, but other than that, it’s more focusing on our our approach at the plate. Let’s zoom out a little bit. I mean, you went through senior day weekend last weekend, the Maryland series, school record as far as series attendance, school record, single game attendance on Saturday. H how did you navigate all the emotions around that and stay stay locked in because that can be a lot to deal with with big crowds end of your tenure at Nebraska. Uh you’re coming to the end of of your academic journey as well. H how did you get through all that last week? Um it was really cool to see all those people at Bolan. I’m just feeling I was feeling last weekend very grateful and blessed to just kind of be where my feet are. And so I’m just kind of trying to take that uh take that into this week and just kind of taking the Big 10 tournament in and focusing, like I said, still continuing to be pitch to pitch with that, but just practicing gratitude through everything that I do. And you wrapped up uh your academic studies this uh this semester, didn’t you? Not yet. Next week. Yes. Okay. Close. I have a seven-page paper tonight that I need to work on. So I still have some stuff to do, but that’s after that I’m pretty much done. Well, that you know, as you come to the end and get ready to graduate, uh, you know, how much how how tough is that to keep that part of your life, you know, going and getting what you need to get done done while still getting what you need to get done on the field. I think utilizing this time in the hotel that we have today to do all of the school work. And, you know, we we’re athletes and we train to make sure that we take care of our schoolwork before we show up to practice every single day. And so just kind of practicing that same that same thing just this week and going into this week. Obviously finals week is a little bit more intense, but just trying to complete all that. So you’re not only thinking about it when you’re still on the field, but you’re not like worrying about anything you might possibly have to do that night. You’re just focusing on that game. Part of your duties as a catcher, and we’ve talked a little bit about it with Jordy, uh you know, just helping her through games, helping her through innings. What has that been like working with her? I mean, she was around last year and you caught her bullpens in the fall of last year, but but you didn’t work through competition with her like you have this year. What have you learned about her in catching her for 50 games? I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned is that keeping it simple is kind of the best way for her to work. She um wants to be on time with me. And so I’m really just trying to kind of remind her that I’m here, you stay on time, you spin it, and I’ve got you wherever it’s going. It doesn’t matter if you’re, you know, it doesn’t matter where the ball’s going. You’re just kind of, she’s trying to work her spin through me. So, that’s kind of what I’ve done to try and help her out with anything that she might be struggling with. It’s just simple is better. You move into this stage, the postseason regionals coming up after that. Uh do you have big goals as far as uh what you guys want to get done this weekend, next weekend, moving forward, or or is it just staying so locked into the micro that maybe that’s just kind of in in the background? We definitely have some big goals moving forward for the next few weeks, but for me, it’s definitely just focusing pitch to pitch. And I think that’s how the rest of the team is also kind of approaching this next these next few weeks as well. Well, hoping that approach leads to some wins and we’ve got a long road ahead of us, but terrific job today and all season long. Good luck, Ava. Thank you. There’s Ava Bredwell, Husker catcher here in West Lafayette after Nebraska wins 9 to1 over Penn State. They’ll play in the Big 10 tournament semifinals tomorrow at 4 p.m. We’ll have pregame coverage at 3:45 on the Huskers Radio Network. Thank you, Nate. Great stuff there from Ava. I cannot believe I mean, it’s just a reminder. I mean, you know, we talk about the Ming student athletes all the time, but here, Nebraska softball is advancing in the Big 10 tournament, playing in a semiinal matchup tomorrow against one of top 10 team in the country, and she’s got a sevenpage pay-per-view, uh, Ava Brebo. She’s an incredible student athlete, incredible representative of the Husker student athlete, just the overall package of being a student athlete, volunteers in the community, uh just so many, you go on and on about Ava Bradwell. And I’m glad she’s a Husker. And again, you heard Nate say it. They’ll be back on uh on the air. He will be calling the action for us at 4:00 with a 3:45 pregame show here on the Huskers Radio Network. Woodhouse has been a trusted partner in your everyday since 1975. Shop for your next vehicle with the home team at Woodhouse and the official auto dealer of Nebraska athletics. Uh should also mention too, so obviously with the 4:00 game tomorrow in semi-finals, if they win would play on in the championship game Saturday at 3:00 and we’ve talked a lot about this is a postseason team that will head to the regionals next week. So, a week from tomorrow probably or uh Friday, kicking things off that selection show, we will know where the Oscars are headed Sunday at 6:00. So, uh we’ll be able to have all the reaction from that on Monday night’s sports nightly. All right, uh we’re going to step aside for a break. We got a couple of special guests joining us on the program next. Hey Oscar, stop by your local HY where they’ve lowered prices on thousands of the items you use every day. Hi, dedicated to making your life easier, healthier, and happier. In the game of life, we all step up to the plate and sometimes it feels like we’re facing a curveball with no clear path. Call, text, or chat 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline. It’s free, confidential, and staffed with trained counselors ready to listen and provide support. Don’t wait for the ninth inning. Reach out, speak up, and let’s strike out life’s challenges together. Because we’re more than players, we’re a resilient community. Remember, in times of need, call a timeout. Call, text, or chat 988. It’s okay to ask for help. We’re here for you every swing, every slide. Play ball. Presented by Nebraska DHHS. Nebraskans are choosing chiropractic for better health. Why chiropractic? Because it’s safe, drug-free, and a cost-effective treatment option for back and joint pain. Plus, all generations can benefit from natural chiropractic care. Choose chiropractic first for pain relief or to improve your mobility, athletic performance, or overall wellness. Make chiropractic your first choice for better health. And find a chiropractic physician near you at nebraska chiropractic.org. Get your life back with chiropractic. Hit us up on the text line. Text 4024132400 with your Husker thoughts. Your Nebraska lottery has a Monopoly on fun. Actually, it’s our new $5 Monopoly 10X scratch ticket and it’s also part of a terrific second chance promotion until July 22nd. Enter any non-winning $5 Monopoly 10X scratch ticket online for a chance to be one of 10 weekly winners of $1,000 or the grand prize of $10,000. Pass go and enter today. $5 Monopoly 10x top prize odds 1 in14,000. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. What does it mean to be locally owned and operated for SinX? It means everything. It means that we know if you take your coffee to go or if you like to stay a while. It means we’ve helped little leagues get jerseys and local festivals get funding. It means we know what our communities need. So you’ll always leave SX with a full tank full of snacks or full of smiles or all of the above. And that means the world to us. Sex powered locally. Your next vehicle is waiting for you at Woodhouse. With over 20 locations and a variety of brands, Woodhouse offers everything from reliable trucks to family-friendly SUVs. 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Welcome back to Sports Nightly. I’m Jessica Cudy and joined by a couple of guests here with me in studio. a couple of very special guests, Shelley Zabarowski and Maria Mulebach, both of the alumni association. Shelley is the executive director for the alumni association and Maria the senior director for alumni outreach. Ladies, thank you so much for being here with us on Sports Nightly. Thank you. Thanks for having us, Jessica. You have so many fun and exciting things on the horizon happening for the alumni association. But I did want to go back and ask you guys about the Masters Week. I know was a a really big event for you all and and tell us a little bit about it, what it was and what were some of the highlights. Yeah, absolutely. So, alumni masters is a program that we’ve had here at the alumni association for 61 years now. Uh so, it’s a great tradition and we have the opportunity to honor outstanding alumni uh from each of the nine academic colleges at the university. Uh bring them to campus to honor them and also um put them to work a little bit. It’s a really immersive experience for these alums. We have um three days of really full programming where they get to go back into their college and talk directly with students, faculty, staff, share their expertise, um be able to share their stories, um and really share their love of UNL and how proud they are to be Huskar alums. So, it’s it’s just a really fun, uplifting um and inspiring event that we are just lucky enough to get to lead. K. You tell us uh who give a shout out to the winners this year. This year’s winners. Yeah, absolutely. Um this year’s honores were Hillary Hillary Miracle, Vanessa Shudy, John RDE, Sue Wilkinson, Kesha Radliff, Justin Valor, Don Gorder, Jay Wilkinson, and John Clifton. Awesome. great group there. I know you guys are really proud of that group. Uh let’s, you know, just overall for people that might be listening in, tell us about the mission and and what you guys hope to do with, you know, your day-to-day with the alumni association and when people decide to get involved, what what are some of the benefits of it? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so our mission at the alumni association is to um keep alumni connected at every stage of their life. Um, we like to say that we uh build meaningful connections with Huskers, past, present, and future. And uh so we’re just looking to um keep alumni engaged for the life of the university through whatever channel is meaningful to them. Um we want to find ways to do that that are actionable for the university and help support the university but are also um engaging and meaningful to the individuals too. So it’s it’s a two-way relationship and we want to help facilitate that. Why is it so important, Maria, for you guys to be able to do that? I think people want to be involved and again just like we talked about with our alumni master representatives I think there’s so much pride um behind the N and finding ways and creating avenues and opportunities for alumni all across the world to be involved to help move forward the priorities and strategic goals of the university. um and really to help current students, future students, those that come before and after us. Um as a Husker alum myself, um that’s really important to me is how can we support these students and pave a way that they can have the opportunities for success. We have coaches come in here and sit in here all the time and they talk about Husker Nations everywhere. Everywhere they play across the country now with the Big 10 going from from coast to coast, Husker Nation is everywhere. I guess you guys could probably speak to that. Husker Nation really is alumni everywhere across across the country, but even around the world. Yes, absolutely. We’ve got alumni in all 50 states and over a 100 countries. And you know, they all wear the end very proudly. Uh we do have some alumni grouped into official alumni chapters and they these are volunteer groups that work as an extension of the alumni association to rally support for the Husker teams um or new alumni who move into an area to help them get acclimated and help them build a network. Um a lot of them raise scholarship dollars to send students from their areas to the university. Um so our alumni chapters are really an integral part of of what we do and an extension of our staff. That’s great. Well, you have some exciting things planned ahead that’s uh coming up and so I guess let’s start with football uh because you have some fun things surrounding around the football season uh this upcoming fall. Yes, we are so excited uh to have the the not the home opener, the season opener at Arrowhead Stadium this fall and um we will be partnering with Blur Parties to host a pregame event uh right there um at Arrowhead and are looking forward to welcoming all Huskers in to come and celebrate with us and get ready to cheer on the team. Uh then in November, we’ll be traveling to Southern California for the UCLA game. Uh the alumni association is offering a trip for people who want to get themselves to Southern California and then have all of the details taken care of. Um so we work with a trusted travel partner who puts together hotel accommodations, ground transportation, um all the Husker spirit and uh game tickets are an optional add-on. So that’s a very easy turnkey way for people to come uh and see the Huskers uh at UCLA. Details are available for that at huskerfantra.com. Uh, and then we’ll also be hosting a pregame party uh at UCLA too for people included in that trip or others who are just coming on their own or from California, which there seems to be a lot of there in California. Yes, we’ve got a lot of Huskers in Southern California. We have listeners uh that text in almost every night from from California. So, Oh, good. Uh, you know, the uh for the um season opener and the going to Arrowhead information on that if people want to be involved in that. Is this the same place or where do they get information on that? Yep. Uh, huskalum.org. Okay. Um and uh yep, navigate down to the event section. All the details are there. You guys have some summer programming though before we even get to football season coming up uh this summer. Uh Maria, I first of all wanted to ask you though before I forget about the women’s network because we do have a lot of female listeners too that I know would be excited to hear about that program. Yeah. So, we have a program um that lives within the alumni association called the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network and it is celebrating its 26th year um here on campus and really the essence of this program is to connect Husker women past and present so alumni to students to help increase personal and professional development through events, mentorship um and other opportunities that we host throughout the year on campus. And those events are some of my favorite. Just to have a a room full of Husker women together and that collective power behind it is just something that is so special. Um so we have a summer social coming up here. Uh if you’re local to Lincoln, um you may have heard of Wax Buffalo. They have a sweet little shop on 48th in Prescott and we’ll be doing candle pouring, snacks, sips, networking um with Husker women. So that’s on August 7th. Um you can find more information about the network um huskeralum.orgnwln. Um and we’d love to have more more women join us. Oh, that sounds like such a fun event. Okay. Uh family programming this summer, too. Tell us about that. Yes. Well, we have learned a great way to engage with our alumni is through their families and their children. Uh and really one of our favorite days of the year is Future Husker University. Uh so this is a program where um parents, grandparents, uh aunts, uncles can bring their littles uh ages 7 through 13 to the university for a day of age appropriate Husker programming. Um they get to spend time in classrooms and labs and kind of see how those things work. Uh they get to tour the stadium, uh Moral Hall. They usually spend a little time at Mor Moral Hall. And then um believe it or not, Jessica, a highlight for this group is lunch in the dining hall. So they get to do that as well. There’s also an option to stay overnight in one of the residence halls. U if the families want to do that as well. Wow. So you guys are getting them to commit to the Huskers early. That’s right. We want to plant those seeds while they’re young. It just, you know, again, just chatting with with you both that there’s just so many opportunities available. Whatever you might be looking for as an alum of this university, you guys seem to have it and and provide it for whoever it might be. That’s right. Well, I mean, so we serve alumni ranging in age from about 22 to 102. Um, you know, they live all around the world. Um, a wide variety of career paths and and personal interests. So, it it’s it’s challenging to find something for everyone, but that’s what we strive to do uh ourselves as well as through a lot of campus partnerships. Uh, we just want to find a way to keep everyone engaged. All right, one more time. If people want information, where do they go? huskalum.org. And, uh, I also want to put in a little plug for Husker alumni membership. Uh we invite everyone to become a member of the alumni association whether or not they graduated. It’s a great way to support the work that we’re doing uh and uh the best way to stay connected to the university. Awesome. Thank you both for being here with us on Forsightly tonight. Thank you. Thanks for having us. And Shal Zabarowski and Maria Muach of the Alumni Association here on Sports Nightly. We got to step aside for a break. More of the show coming up after this. In the heartland where ambition thrives, there are those who are made and those who are made for more. Just like the Huskers on game day, Clauss, a leading producer of a equipment, unleashes the power of ambition in the field. Discover why our cuttingedge machinery and unwavering support aren’t just a promise, they’re a commitment to your success. Because at Clauss, we know you are made for more. Visit your Clauss dealer or cla.com. Hit us up on the text line. Text 4024132400 with your Husker thoughts. They say consistency is the key to success. They weren’t wrong. So, how about grabbing a beer that’s consistently smooth, consistently refreshing, and consistently light? You might just find that the road to success can be pretty enjoyable. Nickelode Ultra, the perfect balance of taste and refreshment, and only 2.6 carbs and 95 calories. It’s only worth it if you enjoy it. Enjoy responsibly. andheiser bushel ultral light beer St. Louis Missouri. When you’re in the stands and have the ability to control your irrigation in the field, it’s a game-changing moment. Valley is where farming meets endzone efficiency. With ASense remote irrigation technology, farmers become the MVPs of their fields. Experience real time playbyplay action and control that keeps you ahead. Score big with irrigation technology from Valley. It’s technology that improves your life and lets you be at the game and in the game. Find your local Valley dealer at valley irrigation.com. Hey Husker, stop by your local HY where they’ve lowered prices on thousands of the items you use every day. Hi Ve dedicated to making your life easier, healthier, and happier. Welcome back. Final segment of Sports Nightly here on this Thursday evening. Final segment of the week as we will have baseball on the air tomorrow night. We’ll be back for a full two hours on Monday. But back by popular demand, we have the joke of the week segment and Duke Rude has um graciously decided and accepted the challenge of taking on the responsibility of delivering the joke of the week. Before we let him take it away uh in the past, if we’ll see if it continues on, you rate it, give him uh let him know how he did uh one to 10 and what you thought about his delivery, all of that, the content. Uh the guys on the chat usually are uh very much active. We have it on the text line as well. 4024132400. Let them know how he did. All right, without further ado, Duke, take it away. All right, y’all are getting a little two for one deal. Uh first one, did y’all hear about the uh academic all-American from Iowa? No. Yeah, me neither. All right, first joke or actual joke. A rough and tough cowboy finishes his drink at a bar and gets up to leave. A minute later, he comes back in saying with a mean look in his eye, "I’m going to sit down and have one more drink, and if my horse isn’t back where I left it, I’m going to have to do what I done in Texas, and I really don’t want to have to do what I done back in Texas." True to his word, he sits down, orders another drink, sits in the bar, and finishes his drink. He then gets up and walks outside, and sure enough, his horse is ti is back tied up to where he left it. As he’s just about to ride off, one of the other persons in the bar timidly asks, "Mister, what was it you had done in Texas?" The cowboy gets a faroff look in his eyes and says, "Sadly, I had to walk home." Oh, all right. So, always love when you got a shot at Texas in there. All right. So, while we’re waiting on the responses, how people feel about it, here is what’s on tap brought to you by Michelobra. It’s only worth it if you enjoy it. Okay, so again, we we’ve said it uh multiple times here tonight, 4:00 tomorrow for Husker softball in the Big 10 tournament, taking on UCLA. Nate Roar on the call with it for us at 3:45 if they were hap if they happen to win in advance. The selection show or sorry, the championship game will be Saturday 3:00. Selection show 6:00 on Sunday. baseball Friday 6 o’clock, Saturday 2 o’clock, Sunday 11:30 with the pregame show 30 minutes before all of those. Uh, so Art in Los Angeles of course is one of those. Uh, first to chime in, he said, "I was hoping Duke was going to say a bee joke." The bee jokes were pretty popular and so we had some requests for that uh last year and so he said uh so we could give you a B. How about rating the joke an A? Great job, Duke. GBR. So, that’s from Art in Los Angeles. Krypto in the chat. We got a 10 from Crypto. Hey, Krypto’s my man. Crypto gives everybody a 10, I feel like. So, I don’t know if I would hang my hat on that, but uh yes. So, Shane gives you a 10 on the first, the Iowa joke. 9.7 on the funny scale. Perfect 10 for being Oh, no, that was Duke or that was crypto. Sorry. Uh 7.7 for the second. Uh Husker and Hanover. Nine on the first, six on the second. Um, again, another 10 for the Iowa, 6.5 on the Cowboy, and Husker and Hanover also said, "Good job, Duke." But, uh, Duke or Krypto, uh, 9.5 for delivery, 9.1 for style, 9.7 on the funny scale, and a perfect 10 for being so cool. There you go. So, how about that? Uh, Duke’s, well, he’s just taking it on now, but not his first rodeo. Um, no pun intended on the cowboy joke. uh taking over joke of the week for us here on Sports Nightly. Uh thanks D. Appreciate it. Are you back again next week? That’s the plan. We’ll be back. Only getting better from here, guys. All right. Nicely done for the the first one. Uh Tim in Minnesota said seven cumulatively. I especially like the all-American intro. So there you go. Uh obviously the Iowa joke is always a hit. Thanks for listening here on Sportsly. Thanks to Duke and Josh and Nick for being here with us again. Uh we will be on the air tomorrow with softball and baseball. Back for a full two hours here on Sports Nightly on Monday. We’ll be uh previewing a regional for Husker softball. Have a great weekend. Hit us up on the text line. Text 4024132400 with your Husker thoughts. On game day, every play counts. Now imagine having the same level of control in your field. Valley is where farming meets endzone efficiency. With ASense remote irrigation technology, farmers become the MVPs of their fields. Real time playbyplay control means you’re always ahead of the game. Score big with simplified irrigation technology from Valley. Improving your life both on and off the field. Find your local Valley dealer at valley irrigation.com. Nebraskans are choosing chiropractic for better health. Why chiropractic? because it’s safe, drug-free, and a cost-effective treatment option for back and joint pain. Plus, all generations can benefit from natural chiropractic care. Choose chiropractic first for pain relief or to improve your mobility, athletic performance, or overall wellness. Make chiropractic your first choice for better health and find a chiropractic physician near you at nebraska.org. Get your life back with chiropractic. Nebraska soybeans power everyday products from Goodyear tires and Sketcher shoes to soybased turf and fire suppressants. These innovations replace petroleum and utilize other components of the soybean leading to more sustainable products worldwide. I’m Doug Sat, a farmer near Trumble, Nebraska. Thanks to cutting edge research, soybeans are now in everything from tires to turf. It’s amazing to see how these advancements are unlocking new potential for our crops. Soybeans are a win for every product and everyone. Nebraska soybeans. Feeding, fueling, and innovating for the future. In the game of life, we all step up to the plate. Sometimes it feels like we’re facing a curveball with no clear path. Call, text, or chat 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline. It’s free, confidential, and staffed with trained counselors ready to listen and provide support. Don’t wait for the ninth inning. Reach out, speak up, and let’s strike out life’s challenges together. Because we’re more than players, we’re a resilient community. Remember, in times of need, call a timeout. Call, text, or chat
