Travel Journal: The SSP Takes on the Pentagon

The view of the Pentagon court from our seats.

Behind the Scenes – The Pentagon

Welcome to the first ever Scarlet Shootaround Travel Journal! In these segments, we highlight the ins and outs of what goes into each media trip to cover #Nebrasketball from start to finish. And this was a fun one – The Pentagon in Sioux Falls!

Right away, we had some issues getting ahold of someone in the communications department at the Sanford Pentagon, but eventually got in touch with a contact on Thursday. We were making the trip either way, but this added a completely different element – access to coaches and players, the media room, and almost equally as important – consistent wifi access.

As with any trip, where you stay can make or break the trip. Myself (Blake) and Mike were always heading up to the game. Mike moved to Wisconsin this year, so it makes for a perfect halfway point between us. Three other group chat friends joined us to make it a total of five – you can already see some of the logistical issues here…

Me and the three others headed up Friday night, leaving around 7:30pm. The great thing about the Pentagon game is that Sioux Falls is only a three hour drive from Omaha! After some catching up on the car ride to town, we arrived at Grand Falls Casino & Resort around 10:30pm with the exciting weekend ahead of us.

The crew made it to Grand Falls!

The first night was filled with stories, laughs, and of course a little gambling. After staying up well into the night, we trotted off to bed to prepare for the huge day ahead. I have to say – the rooms at Grand Falls are spectacular, especially for a casino!

Due to an early sellout, we weren’t able to stay at Grand Falls on Saturday night. It was only a slight hindrance, and we collected our things for 11:00am checkout. We weren’t able to get into our next stay at the Holiday Inn Downtown until 2:00pm, so we headed over to the nearest sports bar we could find – Shenanigans, just a few blocks north of us. We watched the morning window of college football until we could migrate over to our new rooms.

After getting access to hotel #2, we changed clothes and headed over to the universal Pentagon pre-game spot, Blue Rock Bar & Grill. After running through this procedure the past two years, I knew there would be a good number of people there…but my goodness, the place was packed to the brim with anxious Husker fans.

Blue Rock Bar & Grill, roughly two hours before tip-off.

Being the guys we are, we ordered one of their special “sports pitchers” and talked shop about game plans, keys to victory, breakout players, and everything in between. While wearing our Scarlet Shootaround merch (available at our store – link here!), the magician behind Husker Hoops Central (@HuskerHC – Matt) came up and said hi! I’d met him before in Memphis for the NCAA Tournament and other Husker games, but this was the first introduction from Mike. Such a rockstar dude – he does FANTASTIC work covering the team.

The clock struck 5:15pm and we started our move over to the Pentagon. As with any fans (and hopeful journalists), the butterflies started to kick in. Between the stakes of the game, the upcoming atmosphere, and the media access – the heart was pumping. Mike and I headed over to the media gate, grabbed our credentials, and met up with the rest of our crew upstairs.

If you’ve never been before, the Pentagon can be a maze – lots of corners and stairs with courts seemingly everywhere. It took us a minute to find the media room, but eventually made our way in. We were greeted with the utmost hospitality by Terry Vandrovec, guiding us to everything we would ever need – shoutout to him!

We formulated our gameplan and headed back to the suite for the game. As we walked the concourse, we were greeted by some fans of the show. We talked strategy and thanked them for following our work – meeting listeners is the absolute best part of what we do. We love you all! 🫶

And finally, tip-off. We could talk about the game all day, but I’ll save that for Mike’s game story (you can read it here!). It was electric in every possible way, and even that might be underselling it.

Shortly after the final buzzer, Mike and I headed over to the media room to prep for the upcoming player/coach interviews. Once everyone started filing in, we exchanged a few words with Robin Washut (multiple-time guest on the show). Omaha World Herald beat writer Wilson Moore (@wilsmoore_) overheard our conversation with Robin, turning around and saying “I’ve never met the guys that run the Scarlet Shootaround” before shaking our hands and introducing himself. Total class act – and maybe future guest on the show!

Almost presser time. I’ve been lucky enough to have done it a few times, but Mike was a rookie. His nerves were off the charts, but it’s just such a unique experience that it’s hard to explain. You don’t want to ask a stupid question!

Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser at his postgame media session.

Porter Moser took the mic first, and after a few opening questions, I asked if Porter thought Nebraska’s big second half run was due to Oklahoma’s fatigue, where he responded by saying it wasn’t – but he could remember losing multiple 50/50 balls and the will of the crowd playing a factor.

Shortly after, I asked what turned out to be a gold mine of a question. He’s seen what multiple NCAA Tournament teams look like in the SEC – does Nebraska profile as one? His answer was short but sweet – “You’ll see Nebraska in March – I really believe that.” Chills!

Fred Hoiberg, Pryce Sandfort, and Reink Mast at their postgame media session.

Porter exited and in came Fred, Sandfort and Mast. Mike took control of this session, which had many more questions (mostly due to the heavy Nebraska media presence). After about nine minutes, Mike got his question in to Pryce – where does he place credit after scoring a career high in points? He thanked his teammates and shared the accolade with the rest of the team.

Coaches and players then left the media room, as the journalists started to pack up. Mike and I looked around, soaked in the moment, and headed out to our friend group that patiently waited for us to finish. After a long day, we headed back to Grand Falls for some fun before crashing for the night.

Mike and I posing for our first event of the season as credentialed media.

And that’s all she wrote! The Pentagon trip is an absolute must if you haven’t done it before. I mean this from the bottom of my heart when I say, it truly is one of the loudest environments you’ll ever be a part of. An attendance of 3,500 sounds like 35,000, and the crowd pops are like no other.

Thanks for reading along and following us at the Scarlet Shootaround for your #Nebrasketball coverage. Because of you, Mike and I are living our dreams as media members covering the team we care most about. We appreciate each and every single person that listens and reads along with us more than you’ll ever understand. Don’t let anyone tell you your dreams can’t come true!

We’ll see you again later this season for another travel blog – stay tuned! 🫡