He grew up a Husker fan in a Husker household. He knew NU coaches had inquired about him but never reached out directly. So on a cold January day he drove to Lincoln to perform at a team prospect camp.
“I said, ‘I’m just going to put myself in front of them and make them recruit me,’” Sears said. “I did well and committed.”
Coaches liked the fastball and initially saw him as a reliever. That projection became cloudier as Sears struck out 114 batters and walked just 22 with a 3.06 ERA across 85 innings at Central that spring. SEC and Big 12 schools checked in on him. Kansas State came with a strong late offer that gave the pitcher pause.
Playing for the Huskers — with his family of Big Red backers nearby across the Missouri River — was too surreal to pass up.
B1G Standings
2-1 Maryland
2-1 Iowa
2-1 Penn St
2-1 Illinois
1-2 Indiana
1-2 Purdue
1-2 Mich St
1-2 Michigan
0-0 NU
0-0 Rutgers
0-0 N'western
0-0 Ohio St
0-0 Minnesota
This week's conference games:
NU at N'western
Rutgers at Mich St
Maryland at Michigan
Minnesota at Iowa
Purdue at Ohio St
Penn St at Illinois
Indiana BYE
B1G Boyd's World RPIs (http://boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html) through 6 weeks:
10 Nebraska (17-5) (-6 spots vs last week)
36 Maryland (18-6) (3 H) (-4)
39 Rutgers (17-7) (3 A) (0)
54 N'western (10-11) (3 A) (+10)
73 Iowa (13-10) (3 H) (+18)
80 Ohio St (10-11) (3 H) (-27)
106 Indiana (12-12) (3 H) (-41)
108 Illinois (10-12)* (+32)
109 Purdue (16-9)* (-30)
136 Michigan (9-15)* (0)
139 Michigan St (9-12) (3 A) (+26)
148 Minnesota (10-10) (3 A) (+64)
215 Penn St (12-9)* (-46)
* NU doesn't play
Non-con opponents:
15 Oklahoma (14-9) -- L (1 N) (-10)
19 K-State (17-6) (1 A) (1 H) (+37)
46 bluebirds (17-3) (2 A) (1 H) (+11)
58 Wichita St (15-8) -- WL (2 A) (+13)
59 South Alabama (14-10) -- LWW (3 H) (+7)
63 Texas Tech (17-7) -- L (1 N) (+7)
72 Kansas (12-10) (1 A) (1 H) (+21)
92 Coll of Charleston (14-8) -- WWW (3 A) (+40)
97 Grand Canyon (13-10) -- WWLW (4 A) (-2)
118 North Dakota St (7-16) -- W (1 H) (+6)
125 South Dakota St (11-12) (1 H) (+2)
142 Nicholls (17-10) -- WWW (3 H) (-39)
149 Baylor (8-15) -- W (1 N) (+6)
222 New Mexico St (10-13) -- WW (2 H) (+11)
298 Omaha (4-18) -- W (1 H) (+2)
The Pac-4:
62 Oregon (15-7) (-15)
101 Washington (6-11) (+3)
166 UCLA (9-12) (+10)
181 USC (8-15) (-10)
What our quads look like right now:
Q1: 1-2 (13 total games) (+6 games from last week)
L – Oklahoma (N)
WL – Wichita St (A)
XX – bluebirds (A)
X – K-State (A)
X – K-State (H)
XXX – Northwestern (A)
XXX – Rutgers (A)
Q2: 6-2 (13 total games) (-1)
L – Texas Tech (N)
WWLW – Grand Canyon (A)
WWW – Coll of Charleston (A)
XXX – Maryland (H)
X – bluebirds (H)
X – Kansas (A)
Q3: 3-1 (17 total games) (-8)
W – Baylor (N)
LWW – South Alabama (H)
XXX – Ohio St (H)
XXX – Iowa (H)
XXX – Michigan St (A)
XXX – Minnesota (A)
X – Kansas (H)
Q4: 7-0 (11 total games) (+2)
WWW – Nicholls (H)
WW – New Mexico St (H)
W – N Dakota St (H)
W – Omaha (H)
XXX – Indiana (H)
X – S Dakota St (H)
Quad 1: Home games vs. RPI 1-25, neutral site games vs. 1-40, road games vs. 1-60
Quad 2: Home games vs. RPI 26-50, neutral site games vs. 41-80, road games vs. 61-120
Quad 3: Home games vs. RPI 51-100, neutral site games vs. 81-160, road games vs. 121-240
Quad 4: Home games vs. RPI 101+, neutral site games vs. 161+, road games vs. 241+
Big week on tap - a win at K-State would look really good on our resume by the end, as KSU (and KU) are going to continue to get a nice Big XII bump in the RPI all season. And I can't imagine NW is going to stay Q1, but they're vastly improved from a year ago, which is stunning considering the turmoil they've had in that program. Even winning Q2s at NW is helpful, thanks to it being on the road.
Big opportunity to go on the road & truly establish ourselves as a regional host contender this week.
This is a schedule to this point that gives a northern team a chance to host a regional, even if we lose a few of the projected Q1 games to Q2. Even our B1G opponents should help us in RPI, based on who we play on the road and who we miss. Huge jump by C of C the past two weeks has been a big help to our RPI.
As far as the back end, Minnesota did its part this past week to get far away from Q4, and now we need Indiana to get it's sh*t together at least a little bit to limit our Q4 games as much as possible.
We're at the point in the season where we're trying to string 3-1 weeks. If we can go 3-1 every week from here on out, we're going to be around 41 total wins and we'll be around 18 B1G wins, which often is enough to win the league. With this impressive start against a pretty salty schedule, we put ourselves in a position where we don't need a bunch of unbeaten weeks.
Stringing 3-1s isn't easy, and we'll probably have a clunker of a weekend at some point -- hopefully not this week, as this will be a tough one. But we've done a helluva job to this point to put ourselves in this spot. Most years, we're hoping to string 3-1s at the start of B1G play just to have a shot to win the league and to squeak into a regional, so this has been a tremendous start.
J-Law quickly vaulted up my list with how genuine he greeted my bro and I after such a painful defeat in Memphis. He was so kind and gracious with his time (while his own 'bro' waited...) that I leaned in for a hug. He wished us well on our journey home. Wow, that's an impressive young man. He could have been surly and sulked, he chose to be a great human being. And that means a lot to a big NU fan, I'll sing his praises as long as I live. That's a good dude, J-Law. GBR Always.
Why are we collectively so afraid to call it a great season? Yeah, we got boat raced in the tourney. One and done, I get it it. But the YEAR is on the Mount Rushmore of Husker Hoops seasons. And beyond the wins and losses, this team was a joy to cheer for.
The year was fun and exciting and full of far more ups than downs. Don't be afraid to call it what it truly was: great.
So just to summarize for everybody. We are two days away from Selection Sunday and we've been able to narrow down the potential sites we could play in to 8.