Troy Dannen’s presence in Memphis for Nebraska hoops shows his commitment

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It’s been an eventful 48 hours for Troy Dannen.

The then-Washington athletic director had been in Palm Springs when he received the offer to be Nebraska’s next athletic director — in California for a Washington donor event. He flew commercial back to Seattle on Wednesday. He then darted home to pack some clothes and flew to Lincoln, arriving at about 10 p.m.

He’s already walked around Memorial Stadium with coach Matt Rhule and toured the “Go Big” facility. He went to Thursday morning’s football practice. He met with senior staff before boarding yet another plane to fly to Memphis to watch the Nebraska men’s basketball team practice before the NCAA Tournament begins for them on Friday.

“I was filling out my paperwork for HR today and I had to look at my phone three times to check the date,” Dannen told the Journal Star while in the stands at FedExForum during Nebraska’s practice. “It’s all kind of a blur. But when you sit and when you get a chance to settle and look and just appreciate, ‘Wow. Here I am.’

“I have long held this place with such admiration for what it was when I grew up. We all have a romance and affinity for what things were when we grew up, but then to get there and actually see the culture and see the support and see that it’s all real. It’s been a pretty awesome stretch for me since I got to town 18 hours ago.

“The whirlwind won’t stop for a while.”

It will not. His introductory press conference is set to happen early next week. There are plenty of people to meet. There’s research to do. There are places to be.

This week, the place to be is Memphis. It didn’t have to be. Dannen’s first day on the job, as outlined in his contract is Friday. He, on Thursday, was technically working for free.

That, to me, says quite a bit about Dannen’s priorities. Already linked up with Rhule. Already went to football practice. Now, at the Nebraska men’s tournament?

He felt compelled to be here, knowing the historical moment that could lie ahead if the Huskers pull off the win.

“Troy wanted to be here,” interim president Chris Kabourek told the Journal Star during Nebraska’s practice. “The first thing when I talked to him after we got the deal done, he’s like, ‘I want to be in Memphis on Friday.’ Pretty simple as that.”

Dannen, in a two-minute media interview with the press corps in Memphis, said that part of his job is “to be present,” whether that’s with the student-athletes, coaches, and fans for not just the city of Lincoln or the University or the state of Nebraska, but for all of it.

“Part of my job is championing everything Husker,” Dannen said. “… It’s a celebratory time. It’s an important time to be here because everybody’s happy.

“… To make that transition and immediately be able to come here and celebrate something that’s a little bit of a rarity here, at least lately, and then perhaps could go up to Corvallis yet this weekend and see the women play, it’s a heck of an opportunity but it also speaks to the strength of the program and where things are at right now.”

The athletic department, is, in fact, in a good spot as far as Nebraska’s teams are concerned.

This weekend alone, the men’s basketball team, the women’s basketball team, the wrestling team and members of the swim and dive team are competing at their sports NCAA Championships events. And that doesn’t factor in rifle’s top-8 finish from earlier this winter and what’s yet to come for men’s and women’s gymnastics and the other sports that have yet to come to their conclusions.

With that, that could put plenty of exclamation marks on what has already been a wild eight-day span for Nebraska Athletics.

A hiring process that was so fast that Dannen quipped, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one go that fast.”

Kabourek was a little more measured.

When asked about the quick turnaround time from Trev Alberts’ departure on March 13 and Dannen’s hiring on March 20, Kabourek said, ‘I probably owe my wife and my family a little bit of an apology. I didn’t see them a lot. But when you go on a search like this, you go into the bunker. The industry’s just different. A lot of conflation between the president search, they’re two different processes.

“We had a really short amount of time to see if some of these guys were movable. Literally, we were working day and night. We found our guy and just glad we got it done.”