Our view of The Barn from our seats in media row.
Behind the Scenes – Williams Arena (The Barn)
Hello everyone and welcome into the third installment of our Travel Journal series, where we give you a behind-the-scenes look at our experiences covering Nebraska on the road. Today, we head to one of the historic venues in the Big Ten – the Barn!
Mike and I had planned this trip since the start of the season – for those that don’t know, Mike moved to western Wisconsin before last summer, so it made perfect sense from the start.
I started the five hour trip north around noon on Friday, getting to town before the night slate of basketball games had started. I hadn’t seen Mike in person since September, so we decided to head to the local small-town bar to catch up on life over some drinks.
Mike and I stopping at the local bar on Friday night before the game.
Nebraska certainly can get cold, but I’m not sure I’ve experienced anything colder than what we experienced that night. The temperature was -3 with windchills down to -20…it was nearly unbearable. That said, the Michelob Ultra Gold more than made up for it – apparently it’s unique to the northern states!
We had a similar situation to Indiana, as the Nebraska-Minnesota game was scheduled for an 11:00am tip. That said, we headed back to Mike’s house and crashed for the big day tomorrow.
We woke up early, got ready, and hit the road to Minneapolis. There was certainly a feeling of this being a “trap game” for Nebraska, as the Gophers had played very well at home this season despite their overall record. They should’ve beaten Wisconsin and already picked off Indiana and Iowa at the Barn – what would they do when Top 10 Nebraska comes to town?
Minnesota didn’t offer parking for media, so we found a parking garage roughly three blocks away from the arena. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a big deal at all – but the wind chills were around -20. Three blocks in those temperatures were going to be a trudge like we’ve never experienced before. We bundled up, put our heads down, and completed what had to be the longest walk of our lives.
The front façade of Williams Arena, better known as “The Barn”.
The front of the Barn was very unassuming. If we weren’t paying attention, we likely would have walked right by it. We went over to the media access gate, got our credentials, and headed up to our seats.
The Barn is very unique, in more ways than one. First off, the arena is an absolute maze to navigate. When we do this, we try to figure out all the “points of interest”, such as the media room, the seating, the postgame interview room, and anything else that we’ll need to know the location of throughout the day. Normally it’s a pretty simple and seamless operation…it was anything but at Williams Arena.
We were guided by one of the game day assistants to the media room. Mike and I tried to memorize the path to get there, but we took about six turns and climbed an obscure stairwell before entering an elevator. It was the most confusing path one could’ve ever come up with.
The media room at Williams Arena.
After finding the media room, we headed up to our seats. The stairs in the arena were like climbing a mountain, but we made it up and got settled in for the game. While we were getting prepped, Robin Washut came up to us and said, “Good to see you guys!” – absolutely love that guy, can’t say enough great things about him.
Our media seats for the Minnesota-Nebraska game at The Barn!
Everything was ready and we had about 30 minutes until tip-off, so Mike and I took a lap to explore the concourse. Given how old the building is, the concourse area wasn’t too bad – spacious enough to walk through while having some good food options throughout.
The concourse of the Barn, listing historical arena moments on the walls.
We headed down to court level, or slightly beneath it technically. Minnesota has a raised court, making it a very interesting venue for college basketball. When we got down there, the first thing we talked about is how you can’t go jumping for loose balls because you could get seriously hurt. Just very interesting.
The Huskers warming up pre-game before taking on Minnesota at Williams Arena.
We watched some of the Huskers go through pre-game warmups. Mike and I were both mesmerized by the quickness of Pryce Sandfort’s shot up-close – it has to be one of the quickest releases in all of basketball. If he got a pass in the shooting pocket, the ball was airborne in a fraction of a second.
Kendall Blue was also getting heckled by what seemed to be local friends of his. The Minnesota native laughed back at them…maybe a bit of foreshadowing!
With about ten minutes left before tip-off, we headed back up to our seats. There was never a huge crowd, even moments before tip – but we still knew the horrors that this building could bring. Combine that with Braden Frager being unavailable for the Huskers, and the uneasiness began settling in.
The game began and Nebraska started hot, building a six point lead over the first eight minutes. The Huskers ended the first half flat, giving up a 12-2 run on their way to a six point deficit heading into the break. Mike and I both felt that this probably felt like the end of the streak. I mentioned to him, “We could really use a killshot right now.”
If you watched the cinematic recap, you saw the coaching staff rip the team at halftime – and it worked. Nebraska ended up finding the killshot they needed as they won the second half by a whopping TWENTY FIVE points. It may have been the best half the Huskers played all year.
As the game concluded, we first went to the media room we were initially shown after entering the building. We quickly found out that Nebraska’s media session would be taking place in a different room…all the way across the building.
Generally, you have about 15 minutes from the final buzzer to get to the post-game interviews before they start – and we had already wasted five minutes in the wrong room. We frantically navigated the labyrinth of the Barn, going through player tunnels and even stumbling into the gymnastics arena by accident before getting to the correct area.
The Minnesota locker room hallway, on our way to the postgame media room.
We were in a regular concourse hallway when we saw Shamus & the players roaming the area themselves. We asked Lawrence, “Do you know where we’re going?” and he responded, “No clue.” They eventually found their bearings and we followed them into the interview room.
Lawrence, Sandfort and Sam Hoiberg took the podium first. The Huskers had held Minnesota to 0/11 from deep in the second half, so I asked them if taking away the perimeter was a focus coming out of the break. They said it was a product of the general gameplan, they just executed much better.
Sandfort, Lawrence and Hoiberg take the podium in the postgame media session.
Fred took the podium following the players. Mike had a great question ready, but didn’t have the chance to ask it as the coach was fielding rapid-fire questions the entire session.
After interviews concluded, we headed back out to the arena floor to soak in the experience one more time. We always savor these moments, getting to do what we love – covering Nebrasketball with a passion.
An empty Williams Arena after Nebraska’s 76-57 comeback win.
After taking one more lap of the arena, we made the frigid jaunt back to our car and headed back to Mike’s place. This was our second time covering the team as a duo, and we both agreed – it was probably the best job we’ve done, especially with the in-game tweets.
We got back to town, wound down, and prepped for the next show (which we shot at his place the next day). I stayed an extra day before following the team to Ann Arbor by car.
Mike wishes me safe travels while I depart; but I had to get a local treat before the 10 hour drive – cheese curds!
And that wraps it up! We say it all the time – we’re beyond thankful for each and every one of you that’s tuned into the show. Your support has allowed us to turn our far-fetched dreams into reality. As always – thank you from the bottom of our hearts! 🫶
Thanks for tuning into this installment of our Travel Journal series – we’ll see you in the next one! 🫡