Nebraska men’s basketball is already deep into the work of rebuilding for another run, and Cale Jacobsen says the tone inside the gym is exactly what you’d expect this time of year: loud, crowded and fiercely competitive.
The rising senior guard spoke Thursday afternoon about a roster that now includes eight newcomers and a team still sorting out who fits where. For Jacobsen, that means more than just surviving summer workouts. It means helping steer a group that’s trying to match the urgency of last season’s best finish in program history.
“Right now, it’s just a super competitive gym,” Jacobsen said. “And everybody’s fighting for those spots.
But as we start to narrow things down, we’ll have to start to buy into the roles from 1-15. That’s super important.
It’s what allowed us to be successful last year.”
Jacobsen is heading into his fifth and final season in Lincoln after appearing in 79 games and making three starts. Along the way, he’s been part of a stretch that saw Nebraska win 20 or more games in three straight seasons for the first time ever. That kind of run has turned the former walk-on into one of the program’s most seasoned voices, and this offseason he’s being asked to use that experience in a bigger way.
The leadership shift is real. Nebraska lost five players to eligibility after the 2025-26 season and saw four others enter the transfer portal. Even with those departures, the Huskers kept several important pieces from last year’s Sweet 16 team, and Jacobsen said the newcomers have already shown the kind of traits that caught the staff’s attention in the first place.
“We’re a super fun group with a lot of good dudes,” he said. “As we continue to play more live, you start to see why the coaching staff really liked a lot of these guys. They’re super talented, and all do a lot of good things, but ultimately, everybody's pretty unselfish again, and it's been fun.”
Jacobsen also pointed to the way the roster was built this offseason. Nebraska added length, shooting and rebounding through the transfer portal, and from his view, the fit makes sense.
That was especially important after Pryce Sandfort earned All-Big Ten First-Team honors a year ago by leaning on his shot-making, particularly from deep. With four starters gone from the 2025-26 team, the staff worked to put more shooting around him.
“Our offense can be hard to stop when the ball goes in,” said Jacobsen. “That’s kind of the big thing.
If we can get shots up, we think we have a pretty good chance. So, turnovers and then giving up offensive rebounds, that hurts our offense, so we want as many bullets as we can to take shots at the rim.”
For Jacobsen, the offseason has also been about stepping into the next layer of leadership. He said the older voices are gone, but the responsibility hasn’t disappeared - it’s simply shifted to the next group.
“We lost a lot of leadership and a lot of older guys, but there’s a next group of us that are going into year four and five who have to fill in and step into that role,” Jacobsen said. “It’s been cool; it’s been fun. And I’m looking forward to seeing how it continues to grow.”
Nebraska’s first public test comes Friday, October 16, when it faces BYU in an exhibition at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. The Huskers beat the Cougars 90-89 in an exhibition at Pinnacle Bank Arena to open the 2025-26 season.
There are 14 weeks left before that unofficial start, and for now Nebraska’s focus is simple: keep competing, keep sorting out roles and keep building toward another NCAA Tournament push.
In Other News...
Jamarques Lawrence Return Hopes Just Got New Life At Nebraska
An Ohio judges injunction against the NCAA has added a fresh wrinkle to the eligibility picture for players trying to squeeze out one more season, including former Nebraska guard Jamarques Lawrence. The ruling gives 24 players a path to five seasons of competition and adds another legal precedent to a growing set of challenges around how the NCAA plans to handle its new five-year framework.
For Nebraska, the timing is notable because the NCAA is still working through how it will codify the rule and which players it intends to leave out. Lawrence does not automatically get another year out of the Ohio decision, but the case gives his side something to point to, much like the recent Douglas County District Court ruling that granted Omahas Isaac Ondekane an extra year after his own injury-related argument. [Read more 🡒]
Matt Rhule Has Nebraska Back In A Conversation Fans Missed
The old Big Eight and SEC powers that ruled the 1990s have spent much of the last decade-plus trying to reclaim that place in the national conversation, and Nebraska is once again at least part of that discussion. Tennessee has already shown under Josh Heupel that a once-proud brand can climb back into the playoff picture, while Nebraska and Virginia Tech have been working through coaching changes and the longer grind of rebuilding. For Cornhuskers fans, just hearing their program mentioned alongside those names again is a reminder of how far the conversation has shifted.
A recent prediction on a college football show pushed the idea even further, imagining Nebraska, Virginia Tech and Tennessee all reaching the College Football Playoff in the same season. It is the kind of thought experiment that says as much about where those programs have been as where they might be headed, and for Nebraska it lands in a season where Matt Rhule has at least restored some stability after years of losing. The Big Ten path is still a steep one, but the fact that the Huskers are being discussed in a playoff context at all feels like a sign of progress. [Read more 🡒]
Matt Rhule Just Got A Telling Big Ten Reality Check
Matt Rhules standing in the Big Ten took a noticeable hit in USA TODAY Sports latest coach rankings, where the Nebraska head coach dropped to No. 9 after sitting at No. 5 a year ago. The slide comes after a season that still had plenty for Nebraska to hang its hat on, including a 6-2 start and a second straight bowl appearance, but the finish left a different impression as the Huskers again spent too much time trying to patch holes up front.
USA TODAYs evaluation points straight at the trenches, where Nebraskas line play on both sides of the ball remains the clearest test of whether Rhule can push the program higher. The offense and defense both had stretches that undercut the bigger picture, even with Emmett Johnson producing a standout rushing season, and the late-season issues gave the ranking a harsher edge. Nebraska now turns the page toward Sept. 5, when it opens 2026 at Memorial Stadium against Ohio on FS1. [Read more 🡒]