ROSEMONT, ILL. — The red brace that held Rienk Mast’s left knee together still sits in his locker.
He wore it during the 2023-24 season as he helped lead the Huskers to their first NCAA tournament appearance in a decade. Without it, his knee like it was sliding around as he played through pain and practice restrictions.
Mast hated the brace, now a relic of a past he hopes to leave behind. It will remain in his locker this season as he returns to the court for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in 2024.
The cost of no longer needing the brace was a season without basketball, a trying year in which Mast could only watch from the sideline as Nebraska pinballed its way through an up-and-down season. His world was reduced to what he called small victories: the unglamorous, incremental steps he took toward the next season as the then-current one unfolded.
“A lot of very (expletive) days in terms of just pain, rehab,” he said.
On the other side of the grueling rehab, Mast is back for his seventh year of college basketball and third at Nebraska with a new perspective. He’s practicing without any restrictions and poised to reclaim his old role as a versatile big man who stretches the floor, facilitates and serves as the team’s emotional leader.
A year in the shadows made it all possible.
“I kinda learned more about myself outside of basketball, but in that instance you also learn how much you value basketball and how much you love basketball,” Mast said. “It gave me a different perspective and a different appreciation of being healthy and being able to play basketball, and I’m just so glad and so fortunate that I’m back now and I’m healthy and ready to go.”
As he recovered during the season, Mast’s days often began like he was any other member of the team. Weightlifting sessions were normal for the first hour until the rest of the team left for practice. Mast still had another hour to go.
Beginning the previous summer, strength coach Kurt Joseph put Mast through “any upper body exercise you can think of”: shoulder raises, lat pulldowns, bench presses, lat raises, upright bench presses.
“Any upper body exercise you can think of was probably in my schedule,” Mast said.
After his workout, he joined practice and watched while pedaling on a stationary bike. Occasionally he would step into a team huddle during a scrimmage, telling the big men to watch for a particular screen or pass. The setup caused him to bulk up to 270 pounds, up 20 from his playing weight the season before. He lost it once he was able to incorporate more cardio into his routine.
As the season played out, Mast’s outlook often mirrored that of Nebraska. He joked that it was easy to sit on the sideline when the team was playing well and hard when things were going sideways, as they did on the Huskers’ separate five- and six-game losing streaks, the latter of which kept them out of the Big Ten tournament.
Mast knew frustration would be inevitable while he was unable to contribute on the court. That knowledge did little to soften them.
Throughout the process, Mast refused to look at the big picture. Each day was a step, and his analytical mind focused on only that step.
Mast has spent six years in college. He has a bachelor’s degree in physics, a master’s degree in applied science and is currently working on a second bachelor’s in finance. He appreciates the movie “Oppenheimer” because of its realism to the physics of a nuclear bomb.
His own progression displayed the expected level of patience and understanding of the greater picture.
“I think most people, by that time, they’d start shooting on their own, maybe,” Nebraska shooting guard Sam Hoiberg said. “They need to feel basketball again, but Rienk did everything they told him to do, and you can really tell by how it’s paid off now. He’s been playing through every single practice. He never has to sit out because of his knee and is playing really well.”
Even when Mast returned to the court for non-contact work, the significance was lost on him in the moment. It was just another box to check, no different from running for the first time post-surgery.
He was surprised at how natural his shot felt. He expected more rust as he jumped, released and landed on his knee for the first time since surgery. It wasn’t until he finished his workout that it hit him: it was the first time he had shot a basketball in 11 months.
His return to the floor at full-speed didn’t go as smoothly as the first shooting workout. He struggled in his first drill, which involved handling a double team. His impeccable timing that once helped thread the needle on passes to cutters moving toward the rim was gone. Waiting for it to return, along with the rhythm and pace that only comes with time, was another lesson in patience in a year that was full of them.
Other lessons of self-discovery came away from the court. Mast learned to see himself as more than an athlete and not base his identity on being a basketball player. He spent more time outdoors, picking up hiking and golfing as new hobbies once his knee allowed it.
“Sometimes as athletes we get a little too caught up in our sport being our whole personality, and just to kinda learn what type of person I am outside of basketball I think is very good for my mental health,” he said.
For Mast, the journey never truly ended. Even though he’s unrestricted at practice, NU coach Fred Hoiberg has made it clear that Mast is to let him know if he feels sore. A game in February or March is more important than a practice in October.
Nebraska hopes those late-season games will matter. The Huskers made the NCAA tournament in Mast’s most recent season on the floor and felt his absence last year. His return having a tangible effect on the team, bringing it back to March, would be a payoff to the arduous process of the past year.
“You saw how much we missed Rienk in so many different ways,” Fred Hoiberg said. “You see what he did on the court, but off the court, just what he provided from a leadership standpoint, so to get him back in that role has been awesome for us. He’s the one guy you know every day you’re gonna walk in and hear his voice.”
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