Nebraska Basketball Bench Celebrating Great Plays With Shakespeare Plays

Sports ‘n Snorts |

Lincoln NE (SN) – A possible trip to the NCAA tournament has got a lot people talking about the Nebraska basketball team this year. The players off the court are getting people to talk as well, but not for their basketball skills. The Husker bench has been a fan favorite all year with their crazy antics celebrating exciting plays. Their celebrations have run the gamut from pantomime to prop comedy. It has everyone thinking, “What’s next?”

“Even though we have two hours every game to think up our next kooky gimmick, we ran out of good ideas pretty quick,” said Husker Freshman guard Justin Costello. “We have a pretty good team this year so we know there is no way we are ever seeing the court. This is all we have.”

Sophomore guard Johnny Trueblood knew they needed to try something different. “So far our slapstick routines and synchronized dances have done well, but what else can we do? Then it hit me, ‘We never get to play, so let’s put on a play!’ We figure we can use this platform to showcase our real talents and work toward what we really want to do in life, perform classical Shakespearean theatre.”

What better venue to do so than a fully packed Pinnacle Arena? The bench plans to up the ante on Sunday against Penn State when they attempt to perform all five acts of “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” after big plays and during time outs. “I’m pretty excited about it,” says Senior guard Malcom Laws. “I’m going to play Puck and Tanner (Borchardt) will be Theseus. I just hope we have enough time to get to it all. I’m also a little worried about Thorir Thorbjarnarson memorizing his lines but we are still working with him. We have time.”

Husker coach Tim Miles strongly refuted the notion that a Shakespearean play might be a distraction to the team. “There is no way they are a distraction. They are just bored kids having fun. None of the players that play even know who these guys are. They can do whatever they want at the end of the bench as long as we don’t get penalized for acting out a violent sword fight or something like that.”

Star player James Palmer Jr. was asked what he thought of the new theatre troupe. “Those dudes? Oh yeah, they cool. It’s a good feeling when you take it to the rack and dunk on some chump and you look over and see Petruchio finally showing his true feelings for Kate, that gets me fired up.”

Act 1 of  “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” starts promptly at the first media timeout on Sunday, unless a monster dunk starts it earlier. The team asks that Husker fans not shower the court with roses at the curtain call, as that behavior has “deeply disappointed” the athletic department.