2025 OL Brock Heath enjoys return visit to Nebraska as a recruit
2025 lineman Brock Heath loved returning to Nebraska but this time as a recruiting visitor
It is uncommon for an out-of-state recruit to visit Nebraska already well-versed in Nebraska football history or having visited every inch of Memorial Stadium, but Brock Heath, an offensive lineman from Blue Valley Northwest in the suburban Kansas City area, was one of those rare exceptions.
As the brother of former Nebraska football player Blake Lawrence, Heath is familiar with both Nebraska football and Lincoln. When he was in town to watch Lawrence play in the late 2000s, he would recall that he almost grew up playing catch under the stadium.
After big comeback to end regulation, Huskers lose heartbreaker at No. 14 Illinois
Nebraska came up just short against the Illini in overtime on Sunday night
Nebraska was nine seconds from collecting its second Quad 1 win in four days and clearing the table of one much talked about topic.
When Rienk Mast worked his way for a bucket in the closing moments of regulation, it marked 11 straight points for the Huskers. More importantly, NU was was up one. On the road. One defensive stop and …
Illinois raced the ball to the other end. A whistle was heard. A foul was called on C.J. Wilcher as Illinois’ Marcus Domask went up for a shot with three seconds left. He’d make the first, miss the second.
The drama persisted in overtime as the 14th-ranked Illini held on to an 87-84 victory over Nebraska despite many close turnovers, including one that the Husker supporters likely mistook for a jump ball rather than a foul in the final 30 seconds.
“They’re good,” mostly in relief, Illinois coach Brad Underwood remarked about the Huskers on BTN immediately following the game.
Nebraska’s fight in this one can’t be questioned. And Keisei Tominaga, who had just 14 points the last three games, got his groove back. He had 31 on 9-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-7 from behind the arc.
The result will still sting, as it dropped Nebraska to 16-7 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten. It’s now an 0-6 mark on the road for the Huskers in league play, though this was by far their best performance against a team that is now tied for second with Wisconsin in the Big Ten standings.
“I’ll say this: We showed we can do it, that’s for sure,” said Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg on the Husker Radio Network postgame show. “We always talk about those two keys: If you take care of both you’re going to win. If you lose both you’re going to get your butt kicked. If you lose one you’re going to be in a close game.”
Those two things are rebounds and turnovers.
The turnovers? Good. Nebraska had only nine and Illinois had 14, with the Huskers holding a 7-point edge in points off turnovers.
Rebounding? Not so much. Illinois led that category 50 to 33 and it was 17 to 5 on the offensive glass. Ty Rodgers was especially a menace with 14 rebounds.
“At some point in the second half we lost our physicality. I thought we played hard. We competed for the entire 45 minutes but we just lost our physicality out there and got outrebounded by 17 and still had a chance to win. Had a lead with under five seconds to go in regulation,” Hoiberg said.
“The thing I talked to the guys about in the locker room is now we know we can get it done, OK? When have a lead against the No. (14) team in the country and have a chance to win after beating the No. 6 team in the country, now we got to get over it. We’ve got to get over it quick like we did against Wisconsin.”
