Jacobsen helps seal Husker win

Editor's note: ANR put the spotlight on Cale Jacobsen in last week's edition, and the Husker junior was basking in the limelight at PBA Sunday as he nailed two three-pointers in overtime to help propel Nebraska to a regular-season finale win over Iowa. 84-75.

Hamilton County has some skin in the game as sports fans watch the Nebraska men’s basketball team post win after win. It’s already been a record-setting season and hopes are high as the regular season winds down that the Huskers will not only go dancing, but have a significant impact on the March Madness conversation.
A key player on this year’s roster is Cale Jacobsen, an Ashland-Greenwood graduate who is part of a basketball family that has roots planted deeply in Hamilton County. 
“It seems like what’s going on in the basketball world is always the dinner table conversation in my family,” Cale said in an ANR interview after last week’s Maryland game. “It’s just something we all really enjoy.”
Cale’s father Brad is a former Hampton Hawk who coached high school basketball for many years. His mother Staci was an all-state level player in high school at Ashland-Greenwood, and brothers Tyler and Dane played college hoops, with Dane now a sophomore seeing lots of time on the court at Concordia University. 
A love of basketball, as well as other sports, grew from seeds planted by Cale’s grandfather, Steve Jacobsen, a Hamilton County native who taught and coached for many years at Marquette, Polk and Polk-Hordville. Cale and his family shared some perspective on his experience at the Division I level of college basketball, which all agree has been an incredibly exciting ride, with the best still hopefully yet to come.
“We had a good feeling about this group right away in the summer and this team just kind of gelled,” Cale said when asked if he anticipated the Huskers historic season of success. “There are a lot of really good people on this team and we had a really fun summer together, then just continued to build and grow. That just continued into the fall and once the non-conference hits you learn a lot about yourself.”
One of the first big sparks in the Big Red’s magical run was a come-from-behind win over Oklahoma Nov. 15 at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. Big wins over Creighton, Wisconsin and then a buzzer-beater thriller at No. 13 Illinois vaulted the Huskers to a top 20 ranking that still remains. That run continued until a 75-72 loss at No. 3 Michigan Jan. 27, ending a 22-game winning streak that stretched back to last season’s Crown Tournament title in Las Vegas.
“We had some tough opponents early on and really just proved that we could find a way to win a lot of different games,” he recalled. “We had a good feeling going into the year.”
Now touting a 25-4 record projected as a potential top 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Huskers expect to win every time they step on the court.
“Ultimately, we’re a pretty mature group and we’ve been through a lot of college basketball, so we’ve just got to keep finding a way to win,” he said. “A lot of us have been together for a while, so we kind of know what we need in given moments. We just have to continue to lean on each other and stay together through those moments.”
As for his role, Jacobsen said he’s content to do whatever he is asked. He is averaging 20 minutes a night, 5 points, 3 rebounds and just over an assist per game, scoring a high of 11 points twice. 
“I think my role kind of changes on a nightly basis,” he said after a Maryland game in which early foul trouble limited his playing time. “Whatever it feels like we need from night to night is how I want to impact the game, so yeah my focus is on just continuing to find ways to make an impact and winning, helping us continue to have a successful year.”

Praise for Hoiberg
Having grown up in a basketball family, Cale fell in love with the sport at an early age, though he admits that NU Coach Fred Hoiberg has taken his understanding of the game to a much higher level.
“His mind is just a little bit different than anybody else I’ve ever been around, just the way that he sees the game of basketball,” he shared. “Obviously, he played at a really high level for a long time, and then he coached at Iowa State and had a ton of success, but then he was also in the front office in the NBA so he’s seen the game from a lot of different positions,” he said. “I think it really shows just in the way he can communicate, the way that he handles game plans, X’s and O’s, and just the way that our team has kind of taken on his demeanor.”
Asked what stands out as a highlight thus far in a season of emotional wins, Cale singled out two specific games.
“The game at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls against Oklahoma was pretty awesome, and the Michigan State win here was amazing,” he said. “That was the loudest I’ve ever heard this place during the free throws.”
Playing in front of large, loud, Husker-loving crowds at Pinnacle Bank Arena is a thrill for a small-town boy who says the vibe at PBA has become a weapon for the Big Red.
“Our fans bring a lot of energy and we love it,” he said. “It’s an intimidating place to play. Nobody wants to come into PBA anymore, just because of the atmosphere that the fans create. We live off of it and just continue to get better. We want to give the fans something to cheer about.”
The Huskers will play one final home game Sunday against Iowa in the regular season finale, then it’s off to Chicago for the Big Ten tournament. All eyes will then be focused on March Madness pairings, which will be announced March 15.
“I don’t think we think of it as pressure,” Cale said when asked about the team’s mentality heading into the postseason, fully aware that Nebraska has never won a game in the NCAA tournament. “We really have to focus on one game at a time. If you take an opponent lightly, you’re going to get jumped in this league and it just doesn’t work, so we know that on a night-to-night basis we have to be ready to go and that starts on the trip to California.”
Looking a bit further down the road, Cale said he definitely plans to be back on the court next fall, as he has one year of eligibility remaining. He red-shirted his freshman year, as expected, then eventually started to get some quality time with the top unit in practice. His big breakthrough came at the Crown Tournament in Las Vegas, where an injury to a teammate opened a door of opportunity, and he jumped through it. 
“I’ll be back next year and I’m excited to work with these guys,” said the former walk-on, who received a scholarship after his performance in Las Vegas. Cale graduated from UNL last spring with a marketing degree and is now studying for a master’s of applied sciences.
“It’s a lot of business and leadership courses, so it’s not really science,” he explained of his career goals. “I think I want to get into coaching, so this has kind of given me both sides of that. It’s been a cool couple of semesters.”

Father’s perspective
As a former high school state champion basketball player himself, Brad Jacobsen has been around winning basketball much of his life, but watching his son have such success at the top tier of college hoops has been something special.
“I probably still watch it through a lens of how I would have watched the game as a coach, and yet at the same time the knowledge that it takes to play at that level, the understanding of the game far exceeds anything I have done just because of the complexity of the system,” he said in a phone interview from Lincoln, where he how works as an associate superintendent of civic engagement for Lincoln Public Schools. “Anytime you can watch your kids participate, or be the best they can be so to speak, in whatever they’re involved in at any level, there is certainly a sense of pride as a parent. It’s pretty amazing.”
Brad has fond memories of his own basketball glory, as he played for legendary Hampton coach Jerry Eickhoff and was part of back-to-back state championship teams in 1988-89, then started as a senior in 1990 when the Hawks finished runner-up.
“One of the many gifts of Jerry Eickhoff is just the simplicity of the way that he taught the game and his focus on the fundamentals,” he recalled. “I think even at the highest levels, at this Division I level, those fundamentals actually become more important the more athletic the people are that you play against.
“So you hear Coach Hoiberg talking about playing off two feet,” he continued. “You know, Jerry would say two-feet jump stop, and then you hear Fred talking about playing off two feet under control. They use some of the same messages, so I think the simplicity of the game doesn’t change over time. Athletes get bigger, stronger and faster, and styles can change in the way teams play, but the fundamental pieces of basketball have never changed. That’s something that I see as a carryover from what I learned from Coach Eickhoff and what I passed on to my own kids.”
Though he stopped coaching in 2010 when he took on a full-time administrative role as high school principal at Ashland-Greenwood, Brad said growing up in a gym impacted him, as well as his own sons.
“It’s certainly been part of our life for a long time,” he said. “When my dad was a coach that meant all of us after school, we went and found dad and we went to practice, whether it was football or basketball. Being in a gym and going to basketball games has always been part of how we grew up, and it’s part of what creates a little bit of that extra interest. 
“There’s something to be said for when you’re around something all the time,” Brad concluded. “The more you’re around it, you tend to have a little bit deeper understanding and I certainly think that’s definitely been a part of the growth and the interest and development of all our boys.”
Brad and Staci also have a younger son, Tate, who is a sixth grader at Ashland-Greenwood.

Grandpa Steve
Steve and Sherry Jacobsen, who live in Willow Bend north of Marquette, have spent a lot of time over the years traveling to see their 17 grandchildren participate in various sports and activities. Watching Cale find success at the DI level, for the Huskers no less, has been a special thrill.
“We love them all exactly the same and they love each other,” Steve said. “It’s fun to be a grandpa and it’s always fun when your grandkids are doing well.”
Steve and Sherry have been to all the Husker home games, as well as making a road trip to South Dakota for the Oklahoma game. Sometimes they have to split up, with one going to watch Cale play in Lincoln while the other watches Dane play for the Concordia Bulldogs in Seward.
“Basically, the defensive coach there (at NU) is the one who kept pushing for Cale to walk on, and he was really the one that kind of sold Coach Hoiberg on the fact that they ought to get him on board,” his grandfather said.
Several of the Jacobsens were in Arizona last spring during the Crown Tournament but had commitments and couldn’t get away to make the trip a few hours north to Las Vegas.
“We had two TV sets in our suite and we were yelling as loud as if we were at the game,” he recalled. “It was so much fun to see him get on the floor. Cale was always confident that he was good enough to play at that level. He was given special gifts, but he has improved because he works on them all the time. It’s just so much fun to have your grandkids competing and see how hard they work.”