What if......

[Hoops_Legend]

The year was 2007, we needed a coach.  Bad.  We opened the search to go far and wide, looking across the country.  But we missed one.  There was a guy that had 10 straight 20 win seasons, more NCAA tourney wins than our program, and had dominated us head-to-head.

 

We looked far and wide, but the answer may have been right under our nose.  Or maybe about 40 miles away.  

 

His name was Dana.  Dana Altman.  Hell, his dad even lived in Wilbur.

 

But did we offer him?  No.  Did we consider him?  No. 

 

Why?

 

Because we can't have a Creighton guy.  

 

Where would we be today if we had offered him what we're paying now to not even sniff the NIT?

 

I would be willing to bet that we would be dancing right now.

 

Oh well.  Maybe next year?  Or at least that's what we've been trained to say.

[throwback]

I can remember going to one of the NU-bluebird games in the mid-2000s after the new arena opened in Omaha, thinking while walking out after a loss that our next coach was sitting on the bluebird bench, once Collier was inevitably fired.

 

When the job finally did open, I'm not sure how much it was that we couldn't hire a bluebird coach as it was another couple of Fs on AD Pedey's lengthy report card.

 

Pedey of course didn't have the political capital to fire Collier when he should have at the end of the 2006 season, so he gave him another year as a complete lame duck. But Collier did the smart thing for himself and left on his own a few months later. There's no way Altman was coming to NU in August and walking into that complete mess. Pedey was lucky to find Doc, I thought.

 

But the bigger factor from what I heard at the time was that Altman wanted no part of the circus Pedey had turned NU's athletic department into, so he wasn't coming to NU at any point with Pedey in charge. 

 

NU's window to hire Altman was between Nee and Collier. Not sure why he wasn't considered more by Byrne then, as he had really just started getting things rolling in Omaha. I'd say Altman's resume at the time was comparable to Collier's resume, probably better when you include his time at K-State. I think he would've taken it if offered. Would've been interesting to see how it turned out.

[Chuck Taylor]

I can remember going to one of the NU-bluebird games in the mid-2000s after the new arena opened in Omaha, thinking while walking out after a loss that our next coach was sitting on the bluebird bench, once Collier was inevitably fired.

 

When the job should've/did open, I'm not sure how much it was that we couldn't hire a Creighton coach as it was another couple blunders on AD Pedey's report card.

 

Pedey of course didn't have the political capital to fire Collier when he should have at the end of the 2006 season, so he gave him another year as a complete lame duck. But Collier did the smart thing for himself and left on his own a few months later. There's no way Altman was coming to NU in August and walking into that complete mess. Pedey was lucky to find Doc, I thought.

 

But the bigger factor from what I heard at the time was that Altman wanted no part of the circus Pedey had turned NU's athletic department into, so he wasn't coming to NU at any point with Pedey in charge. 

 

NU's window to hire Altman was between Nee and Collier. Not sure why he wasn't considered more by Byrne at the time, as he had really just started getting things rolling in Omaha. I think he would've taken it at that time. Would've been interesting to see how it turned out.

I don't think Altman was a hot property when Danny got fired. He still would have been wearing the label "couldn't win in a bigtime conference" because of his time at K-State. (Guess that wasn't right.) You're correct that the right time would have been if Collier had been fired right after the season. But I think Pedey couldn't swing the money it would have taken and Altman probably didn't want to be part of the Pedey circus anyway. Altman can really coach, would have been a great hire, but water under the bridge.

[Huskerpapa]

Wait...just wait a second.  Hmm, didn't we hire Connie Yori, and wasn't she a Creighton coach?  I am not sure the fact that Dana coached at Creighton had much if any effect on whether we did or didn't go after him.  Maybe I am dead wrong, but that sure seems strange.

[royalfan]

It is interesting to think about.  Not a lock he could have recruited well enough to Lincoln though.  In fact, probably could not have.  I do like the style of basketball his teams play though.  I have said many times that I am a proponent of token annoyance pressure that doesn't expose you drastically on the back end.  He does that. 

[AuroranHusker]

Altman is getting plenty of higher-end talent at Oregon, perhaps that Swoosh has had a bigger impact than the 'Dana factor' could in the midwest. Altman is a very good coach, I'm looking forward to seeing the Ducks vs Sooners, i.e. Altman facing his mentor, Lon Kruger, for the right to play in the Final Four. Pretty neat for a couple of great guys.

[Dead Dog Alley]

How about 1986, when Danny Nee was hiring assistants, when a young Nebraska native was coaching at Moberly JC. We passed on him and Kansas State hired him, and he took Mitch Richmond with him from Moberly to Manhattan.

[hhcmatt]

Welcome to the offseason

[49r]

Welcome to the offseason

 

Well, you can only pore over the roster and rank them and formulate starting lineups and discuss who should transfer and who should stay and what each and every player needs to work on so many times...

[hhcmatt]

 

Welcome to the offseason

 

Well, you can only pore over the roster and rank them and formulate starting lineups and discuss who should transfer and who should stay and what each and every player needs to work on so many times...

 

 

Sure but this is yet another guy-who-only-makes-this-program-is-never-going-to-amount-to-anything posts

[Hoops_Legend]

Wait...just wait a second.  Hmm, didn't we hire Connie Yori, and wasn't she a Creighton coach?  I am not sure the fact that Dana coached at Creighton had much if any effect on whether we did or didn't go after him.  Maybe I am dead wrong, but that sure seems strange.

Man- no offense, but that is women's basketball.  I think it's safe to say that the pressure of beating Creighton doesn't quite measure up.  Stealing the coach that owned us at Creighton is what my point was.  I don't think we had the fortitude to swallow the pride and get the guy we needed.

 

So here we sit.

[hskr4life]

The year was 2007, we needed a coach.  Bad.  We opened the search to go far and wide, looking across the country.  But we missed one.  There was a guy that had 10 straight 20 win seasons, more NCAA tourney wins than our program, and had dominated us head-to-head.

 

We looked far and wide, but the answer may have been right under our nose.  Or maybe about 40 miles away.  

 

His name was Dana.  Dana Altman.  Hell, his dad even lived in Wilbur.

 

But did we offer him?  No.  Did we consider him?  No. 

 

Why?

 

Because we can't have a Creighton guy.  

 

Where would we be today if we had offered him what we're paying now to not even sniff the NIT?

 

I would be willing to bet that we would be dancing right now.

 

Oh well.  Maybe next year?  Or at least that's what we've been trained to say.

Ok?

[Huskerpapa]

 

Wait...just wait a second.  Hmm, didn't we hire Connie Yori, and wasn't she a Creighton coach?  I am not sure the fact that Dana coached at Creighton had much if any effect on whether we did or didn't go after him.  Maybe I am dead wrong, but that sure seems strange.

Man- no offense, but that is women's basketball.  I think it's safe to say that the pressure of beating Creighton doesn't quite measure up.  Stealing the coach that owned us at Creighton is what my point was.  I don't think we had the fortitude to swallow the pride and get the guy we needed.

 

So here we sit.

 

Offense taken...it is certainly relevant IF you are saying that UNL will not consider hiring a coach from Creighton.  That was not the stumbling block in hiring Dana. 

[KZRider]

What ifs are pointless exercises designed, usually, just to mock the way things are. What if ...

 

 

George Washington's boat sank crossing the Delaware

 

Lee Harvey Oswald missed.

 

The bomb killed Hitler

 

Alexander Fleming hadn't gone on holiday in 1928 allowing time for his "mold juice" to impact some of his petri dishes for longer than planned.

 

Pfizer hadn't developed the little blue UK92480 pill (a.k.a. Viagra) to help relieve coronary heart pain.

 

And perhaps most importantly, Nebraska doesn't beat OU in football in '78

 

 

 

The point is all those things are NOT true and can never BE true so so asking what if they COULD be true is a waste of time.

[49r]

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. 

 

This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy. 

 

And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. 

 

Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans. 

 

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, one girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything. 

 

Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, a terribly stupid catastrophe occurred, and the idea was lost forever. 

 

 

This is not her story. 

[Hoops_Legend]

 

 

Wait...just wait a second.  Hmm, didn't we hire Connie Yori, and wasn't she a Creighton coach?  I am not sure the fact that Dana coached at Creighton had much if any effect on whether we did or didn't go after him.  Maybe I am dead wrong, but that sure seems strange.

Man- no offense, but that is women's basketball.  I think it's safe to say that the pressure of beating Creighton doesn't quite measure up.  Stealing the coach that owned us at Creighton is what my point was.  I don't think we had the fortitude to swallow the pride and get the guy we needed.

 

So here we sit.

 

Offense taken...it is certainly relevant IF you are saying that UNL will not consider hiring a coach from Creighton.  That was not the stumbling block in hiring Dana. 

 

No, let me dumb this down for you.  Coni Yori posed little threat to the pride of Nebrasketball.  When hired, most didn't know who she was, and the others didn't give a damn.  Dana Altman was putting teams (that were relevant to sports in Nebraska) on the court that were better than ours.  He out coached us and won.  He has won 2 NCAA tourney games at a mid-major, while we...well never mind.

 

We would rather try to beat him than hire him.  That certainly was a poor choice (I'll refrain from citing his overall record vs. NU, definitely won't mention his record against Collier).  

 

For anyone on this board to not give Dana Altman his due props, or not lement not going after him full force, I believe is sour grapes.  We got Collier, then we got Doc, now, we're on the outside looking in again.

 

Dana has us winning in the tourney.  Guarantee it.

[bobcat402]

Tim Miles is the Head Basketball Coach of The University of Nebraska

Dana Altman is the Head Coach of The University of Oregon what if over I see no point in revisionist history, too many variables

[Hoops_Legend]

Tim Miles is the Head Basketball Coach of The University of Nebraska

Dana Altman is the Head Coach of The University of Oregon what if over I see no point in revisionist history, too many variables

Whatever makes us feel better, I guess.

[bobcat402]

It's not about feeling better, but if your constantly asking what if , it makes accepting what we have and what we can be much harder. What happened is what happened why revisit it.

[Huskerpapa]

 

 

 

Wait...just wait a second.  Hmm, didn't we hire Connie Yori, and wasn't she a Creighton coach?  I am not sure the fact that Dana coached at Creighton had much if any effect on whether we did or didn't go after him.  Maybe I am dead wrong, but that sure seems strange.

Man- no offense, but that is women's basketball.  I think it's safe to say that the pressure of beating Creighton doesn't quite measure up.  Stealing the coach that owned us at Creighton is what my point was.  I don't think we had the fortitude to swallow the pride and get the guy we needed.

 

So here we sit.

 

Offense taken...it is certainly relevant IF you are saying that UNL will not consider hiring a coach from Creighton.  That was not the stumbling block in hiring Dana. 

 

No, let me dumb this down for you.  Coni Yori posed little threat to the pride of Nebrasketball.  When hired, most didn't know who she was, and the others didn't give a damn.  Dana Altman was putting teams (that were relevant to sports in Nebraska) on the court that were better than ours.  He out coached us and won.  He has won 2 NCAA tourney games at a mid-major, while we...well never mind.

 

We would rather try to beat him than hire him.  That certainly was a poor choice (I'll refrain from citing his overall record vs. NU, definitely won't mention his record against Collier).  

 

For anyone on this board to not give Dana Altman his due props, or not lement not going after him full force, I believe is sour grapes.  We got Collier, then we got Doc, now, we're on the outside looking in again.

 

Dana has us winning in the tourney.  Guarantee it.

 

Hahaha...you need not dumb anything down for me sir.  But thanks for the offer.  Any credibility you had with me just went out the door.  By the way, I have nothing but utmost respect for Dana.  I believe he is a terrific coach and perhaps an even better person.  But I also know why he is not coaching at UNL.  But thank you for playing.

 

And just to reiterate what you said in your original post:

 

"...But did we offer him?  No.  Did we consider him?  No. 

 

Why?

 

Because we can't have a Creighton guy..."  

[Hoops_Legend]

It's not about feeling better, but if your constantly asking what if , it makes accepting what we have and what we can be much harder. What happened is what happened why revisit it.

Here are a couple reasons to try to learn from the past:

1) 63-67 in 4 seasons

2) 27-45 in conference play

3) 0-13 career vs. McDermott

4) 0-4 vs. Creighton

 

Are we satisfied with the decisions we've made in Husker basketball in the past decade?

[khoock]

I am satisfied with the decisions that have been made in Husker basketball the last half decade.

[KZRider]

 

It's not about feeling better, but if your constantly asking what if , it makes accepting what we have and what we can be much harder. What happened is what happened why revisit it.

Here are a couple reasons to try to learn from the past:

1) 63-67 in 4 seasons

2) 27-45 in conference play

3) 0-13 career vs. McDermott

4) 0-4 vs. Creighton

 

Are we satisfied with the decisions we've made in Husker basketball in the past decade?

 

 

Given the circumstances we faced at the time of Sadler's hire, I would say, "Yes." No doubt you recall that we were trying to fill a vacancy that came up at a very bad time for hiring a coach and that a number of good coaching prospects were approached but declined in part because of that timing and further that Doc Sadler was a fairly "hot" coaching prospect who was eager to come. Did it work out as well as we would have liked? Clearly not. But since you have gained such wisdom from your perusal of the past perhaps you can share why the decision to hire him was not a good one as it was made at the time. Heaven forbid, though, you posit some nonsensical idea like "we should have hired Dana Altman." Why not instead say, "we should have hired Coach K or Bill Self?" I mean, if we are going to play "what if" let's at least play it right.

[Hoops_Legend]

 

 

It's not about feeling better, but if your constantly asking what if , it makes accepting what we have and what we can be much harder. What happened is what happened why revisit it.

Here are a couple reasons to try to learn from the past:

1) 63-67 in 4 seasons

2) 27-45 in conference play

3) 0-13 career vs. McDermott

4) 0-4 vs. Creighton

 

Are we satisfied with the decisions we've made in Husker basketball in the past decade?

 

 

Given the circumstances we faced at the time of Sadler's hire, I would say, "Yes." No doubt you recall that we were trying to fill a vacancy that came up at a very bad time for hiring a coach and that a number of good coaching prospects were approached but declined in part because of that timing and further that Doc Sadler was a fairly "hot" coaching prospect who was eager to come. Did it work out as well as we would have liked? Clearly not. But since you have gained such wisdom from your perusal of the past perhaps you can share why the decision to hire him was not a good one as it was made at the time. Heaven forbid, though, you posit some nonsensical idea like "we should have hired Dana Altman." Why not instead say, "we should have hired Coach K or Bill Self?" I mean, if we are going to play "what if" let's at least play it right.

 

You're right we should play it right.  To say that making a play at hiring Dana Altman in 2007 is anywhere near the chore that plucking Coach K or Bill Self is simply being defensive and unreasonable.  Dana was a mid major coach with family in Nebraska.  Yes he dominated us, but that doesn't mean that he saw us as a step lower than where he was already at, it just means that he was that good.  Remember that 3 short years after we didn't even offer the guy a job, he left for Oregon. 

 

So, I'm thinking he was at least attainable with the right deal in 2007.

 

You've probably heard the phrase "you snooze, you lose".  Well, I'd say were still snoring away.  Sometimes the record speaks for itself.

[hhcmatt]

I feel like I'm reading a poorly written Chatelain blog post