Picture that time when you were at the top of your game, when every move and decision you made was the right one, when it seemed like every break went your way.

— From the book “Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence” by Gary Mack

Santino Panico caught a lot of punts as a Husker freshman last year — 22 without a drop, as I recall — but he never caught much of a break from Big Red football fans.

Well, it’s time for some long-overdue positive publicity for Panico, who is doing great things for the NU Athletic Department long after his spring departure from the program.

Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook was having lunch with Panico at the training table about a year or so ago when the young man from Chicagoland mentioned his interest in sports psychology and Gary Mack’s book “Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence.”

“He was a real character,” Cook said of Panico. “Anytime he was at the training table, he was talking about something.”

Like books from his list of recommended reading. “Mind Gym,” as it turns out, has become a valuable motivational tool for Cook and the unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Husker volleyball squad.

Cook has noticed a few of the players taking the book on road trips. It might have found its way into a couple of duffel bags for Tuesday night’s flight to Waco, Texas, where NU will face Baylor tonight.

“I gave this to the players for Christmas,” Cook said. “(Mike) Krzyzewski gives his players books, and Phil Jackson, so I always try to give them a book once a year.

“It covers everything from anxiety to confidence. It’s a great book.”

Junior setter Dani Busboom, one of six Academic All-Big 12 selections on the squad, swears by the book. Her copy is full of highlighted quotes of inspiration.

“It’s all about mental preparation and confidence and focus,” she said. “One of my favorite chapters is about an athlete being in the zone, and how everything feels like slow motion. It talked about what it feels like to be in the zone.

“After I read that chapter, I was like, ‘I’m going to try to feel like that during the games.’

“I wish I would have read it when I was younger, in high school (at Freeman) and growing up.”

The mind-over-matter thing is going to come into play often if the Huskers are going to keep their run going all the way to San Antonio, site of the volleyball final four.

It came into play Sunday when NU rallied from two games down to beat Missouri at the Coliseum.

“I definitely think that that was a big part to us winning,” Busboom said. “You saw Missouri. They melted down and seemed like they gave up in the fifth game, and we were still going strong.”

Junior outside hitter Christina Houghtelling and sophomore middle blocker Tracy Stalls — also academic all-conference selections — are fascinated by sports psychology and its connection to athletic performance.

“Mental toughness is a big thing at this level,” Houghtelling said. “You get pushed to your max in practices. If you’re having a rough day, Coach is going to get on you and expect you to be better. You have to learn how you’re going to cope with that.”

Stalls said she has read several books on the topic. It’s all about gathering up your mental strength when things aren’t going well, how you have to show your aplomb, the  word of the week on the team’s weekly newsletter.

“Find a way,” Stalls said. “Maybe your hitting’s not going well, then you block better or you dig better or pass better.”

Or catch those punts better.

For all the criticism he took, Panico never dropped one, right? Must have been the book.

So whatever happened to Panico? Last we heard, he was taking up ultimate fighting.

If that doesn’t work out, he could follow in the footsteps of that famous talk-show host with Chicago ties.

The Santino Panico Book Club. They could have the first discussion group on the Riverwalk in San Antonio this December.

I’m in.

Reach John Mabry at 473-7320 or jmabry@journalstar.com.