UCLA is coming off a massive victory on Tuesday night. UCLA is currently on the NCAA Tournament bubble, but a win against Nebraska could boost its odds of making the tournament.
While UCLA coach Mick Cronin was happy with the victory, he came to the defense of Nebraska over the schedule, according to Riley Gates of On3.
“I know we get a lot of money for TV, but our kids go to school,” Cronin said. “And I get that there’s time slots for TV, but these kids, I don’t care if they get NIL, they go to school. (Nebraska) has been on the road since last Thursday, and now we’re playing this game at eight o’clock at night, which is 10 o’clock their time. It’s already 12:30. They got to go to class tomorrow. I just don’t understand these — I call it a ‘Get Out game.’ You know, when you’re getting out? Like, Nebraska should be playing at six o’clock this game.”
Nebraska played on Saturday at USC and remained in the Los Angeles area for their Tuesday game. Still, the game goes past midnight Central Time, making travel back and attending class difficult.
Nebraska is not the first team to have to deal with this scheduling issue this year. Rutgers played a Tuesday night game, which was a 9:30 pm ET tip-off, before returning home. Indiana also dealt with it. They played a Tuesday night game after playing UCLA on a Saturday. That game was also a 10:00 pm ET tip-off. Still, this has not been the case for everyone. When Illinois did the west coast trip, the final game of the schedule was on a Saturday, which allowed time to travel back for classes.
UCLA will finish its regular season on Saturday, visiting USC.
