Omaha Men’s Basketball after winning the Summit League and punching their ticket to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament had their name revealed on CBS (KMTV Omaha). There was a watch party at UNO’s Mammel Hall to see who Omaha was playing and where. Was it Michigan State in Cleveland? Tennessee in Lexington? Houston or Texas Tach in Wichita or Denver? There were some tense moments to see exactly where and it was not until the very end of the Selection Show the last name called The Omaha Mavericks as the 15 seed against 2 seed St Johns Red Storm in Providence Rhode Island. St John’s had one of their best basketball season’s ever winning both the Big East regular season and postseason tournament. The bottom corner of the bracket where Omaha was in featured three future College Basketball Hall of Fame Head Coaches John Calipari Arkansas, Bill Self Kansas, and Rick Pitino St John’s. Then there is Chris Crutchfield and Omaha.
The game vs St Johns aired on CBS (KMTV Omaha) during the late evening round of games on Thursday March 20th. Around 50 University of Nebraska Omaha students took a bus for a 22 hour drive from Omaha to Providence to watch Omaha play in NCAA March Madness. This trip was organized by UNO Spirit and Tradition director Bill Pickett who organizes many of the trips for UNO students. This trip was very similar to one from 2015 when Omaha Hockey made it to the Frozen Four in Boston where UNO students took a bus all the way to Boston to see the hockey team skate. The band, cheer, and dance teams on the other hand flew a charter plane with the Men’s Basketball team from Omaha to Providence. It was a different travel story for St Johns. St Johns was just a three hour drive from New York City to Providence and the crowd was mostly cheering for St Johns due to the short proximity of that school.
When the game started, Omaha went out to an early 7-0 lead forcing St Johns to use an early timeout with CBS showing Omaha students cheering. St Johns would respond with a run on their own and the first half was a back and forth affair. Omaha was down only two points with a few seconds left in the first half before turning the ball over and giving up an and one opportunity. This caused Omaha to be trailing 33-28 at the half. This caused momentum to shift and St John’s has been known to have major second half comebacks as well as pulling away from other teams in the second half. In the second half, Omaha could not hit anything while St Johns was able to hit a bunch of shots and pulled away from Omaha. The final score was 83-53 St John’s ending Omaha’s historic season. JJ White led Omaha with 15 points, Marquel Sutton with 11 points, Tony Osburn nine points, Isaac Ondekane seven points, Kam Thomas five points, Josh Streit four points, and Khamani Cooper with two points.
This historic season from Omaha Men’s Basketball prompted Omaha Mavericks Athletic Director Adrian Dowell to extend Chris Crutchfield’s head coaching contract through the 2029-2030 season. Last season may have been a huge turning point for Omaha resulting in players wanting to play for Omaha out of high school and the transfer portal. The trash can celebrations could become a tradition after every Omaha victory and several assistant coaches could possibly get coaching jobs elsewhere including head coaching ones.
Omaha will have a total of six players leaving the program at the end of this season due to the transfer portal and eligibility. Earlier this season, the US Supreme Court ruled any Junior College players who transferred to the NCAA can have up four years of eligibility in the NCAA level even if they play several years in the Junior College level. Those players who were affected by this were JJ White and Marquel Sutton who both have one year left of NCAA eligibility. Both these players have decided to enter the transfer portal and explore different schools. Josh Striet will leave the program after playing one season transferring from North Dakota State due to eligibility. Sebastian Perry, Tucker Mills, and Lincoln Palbicki have also entered the transfer portal after seeing very little playing times as freshman with Omaha Men’s Basketball. The question will be who Omaha will pick up from the transfer portal and anyone else leaving the Omaha Men’s Basketball program and entering the transfer portal.