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Nate Loenser added as an assistant

hhcmatt

By hhcmatt
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hhcmatt

hhcmatt

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Turns out the rumor was true and Nebraska has landed former Bulls assistant and college basketball veteran Nate Loenser. Loenser will join the staff as a full time assistant, replacing Doc Sadler. Sadler will move into the role of Special Assistant vacated by Bobby Lutz.

 

Hoiberg on the hire: “This is the third time I had a chance to add Nate to my staff and believe that he is the best player development guy I have worked with. He was a valuable member of our staff that won a pair of Big 12 Tournament titles in Ames. In Chicago, he did a remarkable job with our G League team in its first season, as we had more than a dozen players recalled or sign with other NBA teams. He has earned the respect of players around the league because of his ability to relate with players, and to help them reach their goals. We are pleased to welcome Nate and his family to Lincoln.”

 

Loenser was immediately available for this job as he was let go by new Bulls coach Billy Donovan in October of 2020 as part of a shakeup of the staff. Prior to that time he served as an assistant under Jim Boylen and Fred Hoiberg in addition to being tabbed as the first ever coach for the Bulls expansion G League squad, the Windy City Bulls. The Iowa St grad got his start in the college ranks at Southern Miss during the Larry Eustachy era before making his way back to ISU during the Fred Hoiberg era to get his graduate degree.  Loenser played baseball for the Cyclones and was a 4 sport star in high school despite being born with a partial left arm.


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Blackshirt83

Blackshirt83

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On the one hand *pardon the pun, this looks like a phenomenal hire. He seems like all the players in Chicago raved about him and liked him and he seems like he is excellent at player development.

 

At the same time, I'm not sure how I feel about Doc not being an active coach on the bench. Our defense was really coming along despite the lack of practice time last season.

 

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hskr4life

hskr4life

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To add to that thought though... how much did they seriously monitor Lutz and coaching the players.  What's considered coaching?  Didn't Lutz sit on the bench during games?  Can they really monitor practice?  The biggest thing to me would probably be recruiting which can be monitored.

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REDitus

REDitus

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59 minutes ago, Blackshirt83 said:

On the one hand *pardon the pun, this looks like a phenomenal hire. He seems like all the players in Chicago raved about him and liked him and he seems like he is excellent at player development.

 

At the same time, I'm not sure how I feel about Doc not being an active coach on the bench. Our defense was really coming along despite the lack of practice time last season.

 

 

Agree, this is an interesting move.   Should help recruiting a little I think and I love the player development aspect but as you say who will coach the defense?    Maybe Doc enjoyed his bird's eye view of practice while guarding against covid?  He is in his 60's. 

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hhcmatt

hhcmatt

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52 minutes ago, Blackshirt83 said:

At the same time, I'm not sure how I feel about Doc not being an active coach on the bench. Our defense was really coming along despite the lack of practice time last season.

 

 

FWIW Doc didn't travel with the team during away games after the pause.

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atskooc

atskooc

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Just now, hhcmatt said:

 

I couldn't remember either. I saw a picture of him on the bench when Rutgers was here so I think he was for at least some of them.

I thought he was offset from the bench a ways, but I don't really know.

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Huskerone

Huskerone

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The simple question I ask myself is did the program get better with this hire?  I'm no expert, with the little I read, I think for sure, yes.  So another step closer to getting where we need to be.  Doc still on staff is huge too, his knowledge base will still be leveraged for game prep/planning. 👍

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tcp

tcp

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Doc has 2 strengths both of which can still be leveraged here. He's a superb teacher of defense--the one thing most of us saw improve last season during our better stretches--and he's a good game prepper and scouter. 

 

I'm thinking he might be considering retirement soon, since I was always curious about him giving up a Div 1 head coaching spot where he was having modest success to go back to being an assistant. 

 

This is probably one of those moves where everyone wins and gets what they need most. 

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colhusker

colhusker

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1 hour ago, Huskerone said:

The simple question I ask myself is did the program get better with this hire?  I'm no expert, with the little I read, I think for sure, yes.  So another step closer to getting where we need to be.  Doc still on staff is huge too, his knowledge base will still be leveraged for game prep/planning. 👍

This, this will give Doc all the time he needs to watch film and set up defenses the other guys can implement.

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