Why i'd stick with fred.

[FredsSlacks]

simply put i like the recruiting class coming in, and college basketball is more about recruiting than coaching. there's big strong guards in this class and a talented big.

 

if we can add a couple transfer wings and another pg to this class, then you have a chance to be good right away next year. 

 

I also think doc is out which can only help the defense and recruiting. I like doc but probably time to move on there.

 

If there's no improvement next year after another revamp of the roster then i think we can be fully certain fred has to go. I think it makes sense to see what happens next year with fred.

[HB]

OMG.  Is this a troll post?    Like the end of Riley, counting on unseen recruits, and ignoring a third year of roster turnover, a system not fit for the league, a culture which involves individual play, lack of effort, fundamentals,and an absurdly low basketball IQ.   Most on here banked on that same “but recruits” concept the last 2 years.  Most have realized the folly in that.  Like a few recruits are going to change this program, and right away per your scenario.    

 

[AuroranHusker]

11 minutes ago, HB said:

OMG.  Is this a troll post?    Like the end of Riley, counting on unseen recruits, and ignoring a third year of roster turnover, a system not fit for the league, a culture which involves individual play, lack of effort, fundamentals,and an absurdly low basketball IQ.   Most on here banked on that same “but recruits” concept the last 2 years.  Most have realized the folly in that.  Like a few recruits are going to change this program, and right away per your scenario.    

 

 

Yeah, I think a lot of ppl have had high hopes for both Frosty & Freddy. Since Trev gave Scott a lifeline, it seems like Hoiberg ought to get one. I've abandoned that thought, but I can see where some might lean in that direction. Hoops with a roster of 13-15 isn't nearly as difficult to 'perfect' as on the gridiron with a team 10x as large as hoops.

 

Anyway, good thoughts on the real situation @HB that has transpired. It's a sad tale, but it has become all too real: It totally sux right now at PBA!

 

 

[HuskerFever]

Is this a copy/paste from the last 3 offseasons of Fred?

[BannedAccount]

Doc doesnt coach defense or isnt allowed to coach.  Second, coaching matters much more then recruiting.  Get the right coach and you will get the right players to develop and be successful in this league.

[Vinny]

I was sure you were going to say his slacks.

[Shawn Eichorst's Toupee]

At this point, there's like 6 different threads like this. Can we all just collectively agree to post it in one thread so I can mark it as read and save my sanity?

[cipsucks]

 

 

[Dead Dog Alley]

1 hour ago, Shawn Eichorst's Toupee said:

At this point, there's like 6 different threads like this. Can we all just collectively agree to post it in one thread so I can mark it as read and save my sanity?

 

Keeping it in different threads might keep the hot seat thread from reaching the length of the Matthew Atewe thread - which, judging by history, would likely mean that nothing happens.

[The Polish Rifle]

I realize this isn’t the best reason to fire Fred, but the fact that Creighton is tournament bound with their roster/expectations and we’re gonna win 1-2 conf games with our roster/expectations is annoying as hell. 

[Chuck Taylor]

I'd be fine with consolidating the Fire Fred threads, but for the love of God, don't touch ROCK BOTTOM. It must endure.

[BannedAccount]

41 minutes ago, The Polish Rifle said:

I realize this isn’t the best reason to fire Fred, but the fact that Creighton is tournament bound with their roster/expectations and we’re gonna win 1-2 conf games with our roster/expectations is annoying as hell. 

Coaching...

[The Polish Rifle]

16 minutes ago, coughunter said:

Coaching...

Yeah…so jealous watching them make the sweet 16 and then go dancing in a rebuild year the next season. While we’re out here shitting down our leg. 

Edited February 21, 2022 by The Polish Rifle

[Blackshirt83]

Why is it dumb to fire Hoiberg? We fired Tim Miles after 7 years despite winning 13 big ten games and making the NIT. Hoiberg was considered a homerun hire, so much so that he was given a massive buyout so nobody would steal him away. With an amazing staff and one of the best recruiters in the country and a fantastic defensive assistant. That's what we were told right?

 

(If you don't want to read this entire thing there's a short synopsis at the end. Skip to that if you want the summarized version.

 

Year 1 he inherited a roster with 13 departures. Inheriting 2 guys. One ofwhich was a basketball player.) And though he wasn't hired until Miles coached all the way through the Big Ten Tournament and the first round of the NIT it was OK because this first class was just a stepping stone class. They were going to get plenty of time to build the team over the next few years. Right? Lol.

 

Despite the short timeframe and huge numbers that 1st class wasn't awful. Banton, Walker, Cheatham and Stevenson were all at worst decent enough transfers and at best legitimate NBA talent0. And just like that in 1 off-season this staff already brought in as many NBA draft picks as Miles did in 7 years. Getting the 52nd ranked class at Nebraska is really impressive. Expecially considering the timeframe and need to essentially recruit an entire team in a few months. At least they inherited some star power to ease the transition. I kid, Thor ended up being a legitimately solid player and great team player. But when he's the headline of your returning roster, you're not exactly being handed the keys to a Ferrari. 

 

The non transfer class, less good. Green, Mack, Arop, Oedraogo, Curtis and Cross wasn't a good class. Some were talented and some really good even but the headline was Cam Mack. Every one wanted him, none thought we would land him. Every coach in the same position would take the him. Unfortunately you can't recruit the player and opt out on the mother.

 

They won 2 conference games and we're not very good. But it wasn't all terrible. There was optimism that if they could recruit that level of talent in that situation they would do well once they got a real recruiting season and in a few years they should be pretty good.  But it was going to take a minute as they were starting from absolute zero. Returning basically nothing from the previous staff and having to borrow players from the football team to get enough healthy players for the Big Ten Tournament.

 

Then Covid hit. 

 

Burke got suspended and transferred, Green transferred, Mack, Cross, Curtis, transfered. Some were just bad fits but covid played a part.

 

McGowans and Webster transferred in, so did Lakes and Mcgraw. 50% isn't bad. Would have been nice if Lakes' shooting transferred with him.

 

A small class. Teddy Allen, Lat Mayan, Edwardo Andre, Elijah Wood. Would have been a perfectly solid class if Teddy was not Teddy. Unfortunately everyone knew what you were getting into with him. Most programs stayed away. Nebraska might have too if he wasn't a boystown kid playing with the cougars of Western Nebraska Community College and we weren't starving for a playmaker. Second time in a row rolling the dice on a talented kid with red flags. 0-2 and a team and ball killing disaster. Maybe The last one was a risk absolutely worth taking. This one? I don't know, but imagine if they passed and he figures things out and became a star point guard somewhere, say LSUwhere he leads them to an out of nowhere national championship, goes pro and ends up starting the super bo.. I mean NBA playoffs. 

 

They started with a nice 50 point win against a completely overmatched Mcneese team only to fall flat on their face losing 66-69 to a Nevada team that at year end wasn't a horrible loss but at the time it was a shot right in the solar plexus. They looked better in a pair of wins against the Dakotas. Then came the trouble. A covid cancelation of the Florida A&M game saw a schedule of losses against 

No. 9 Wisconsin 

No. 19 Michigan 

No. 25 Ohio State

No. 17 Michigan State

 

Following that the Purdue game got canceled due to Covid. This resulted in a month long shutdown of the Nebraska program. Half the team, roster and coaching staff ended up with covid.

 

They finally resumed play with a game on the road against Michigan State on 

February 6th. They would end up playing 14 games over the next month finishing March 7th at Northwestern. Somehow they ended up winning 3 games despite barely getting to practice and losing Teddy Allen in the middle of all that. Most of the time the first time they went over scouting the next team was during pregame warmup for the game against the team they were preparing for. Despite being worn out and playing an 11th ranked Penn State they nearly pulled off the upset just running out of gas in the final minutes.

 

 

*the ncaa decided that the 2020-21 season would not count towards eligibility.

 

However along with Teddy Allen leaving, Nebraska would get a big blow as Delano Banton would decide to go leave early and head to the NBA. (Can you imagine Banton as a 5th year senior on this team?)

 

Along with those two stars Nebraska also lost

Akol Arop

Bret Porter

Yvan Ouedraogo

Shamiel Stevenson

Elijah Wood

And Thorir Thorbjarnarson

 

Incoming transfers included

CJ Wilcher 

Alonzo Verge

Keon Edwards

 

They Also brought in Wilhelm Breidenbach, Oleg Kojenets, Quaran McPherson, keisei Tominaga and Bryce McGowans. 

 

A top 20 class and the two higest ranked recruits on record in the modern era of Nebraska Basketball. Nebraska was expected to make some noise though not as much as you would think, only because the conference was pretty deep and talented. So why did it fail so hard?

 

Well the 2nd highest rated recruit on record, Wilhelm Breidenbach got injured early and is out for the year. The two best players who score the most points and demand the most touches do not like each other and let it fracture the team. USUALLY I would say this is on the coaches for recruiting players whom didn't mesh well together. But this was a special circumstance. With covid there was far less player interaction and Verge is a guy who was only available because he got this extra year from covid and decided to transfer very late in the recruiting cycle.  There were a lot of coaching, development, recruiting and discipline issues this season. This is a bad team with a lot of issues that plays soft and way below their talent level.

 

But that's the thing. None of these past 4 years were at all typical. We landed one of the supposedly best hires in college basketball. Have the highest recruiting rankings in the modern history of the program .. and people can say they are bad fits and they star chase, but the classes don't really bear that out. There were a few big names that everyone would have signed sure, but it's mostly 3 stars who came from all over the map and a handful of transfers. We remember the failures but forget about the successes, and most of the fails were guys everyone was falling over themselves to get. With two very noticeable and big exceptions. Though even then most people are bringing at least one if not both of them in too.

 

 

Year 1

Complete roster had to be recruited in a short timeframe. Only 2 returning players and only one played basketball- Thor Thorbjarnarson. Team was not good but they played hard and there were a few bright spots.

 

Covid ended the season with no tournament. Several unexpected losses due to several factors but Covid played a part in many, just not in the biggest one.

Burke, Green, Mack, Cross, Curtis all transfered.

 

Year 2

Teddy

5 big ten games against ranked teams followed by a month off where half the team gets covid. 14 games in 4 weeks ending in a near upset of 11th ranked Penn State to end season.

 

Year 3.

Late addition of a dynamic covid year transfer derailed chemistry because of expectations changing. Leads to division of the team between the two best players who also were the two shot.callers and decision makers. Lots of errors in coaching, development, discipline, Accountability, recruiting for fit and leadership.

 

That's it. 3 years, not a single one could be considered typical. Starting with no roster the year covid hit was a huge blow, there's been several blows that set them back but despite the look of it right now there's improvement. They can build a good team around Breidenbach next year and start to get back to normal basketball. 

 

This was supposed to be a homerun hire and it's been pretty awful but it has also been 3 years of incredibly unique and difficult situations. If this is Duke or Kentucky? Fire him. He should succeed despite the incredibly crazy situation each season has had to deal with that had nothing to do with the basketball program or even the school. But at Nebraska? You can fire them and start over with a new coach and a brand new team next year...

 

Or you roll the dice on the homerun proven coach who's staff has been able to recruit the highest rated players in modern history. Give them a chance to do something for a couple years of typical basketball operations. And hope they can build on what is here and fix the issues that they have control over that have been identified the past couple of years.

 

But if you fire Hoiberg, don't expect them to spend much money on his replacement. They have to pay A hefty buyout and are going to be holding most of their hiring budget for if they need to fire Frost. Enjoy your new b tier mid major coaching staff. Because we might have a football coach to hire and that's what really matters to the guys with the checkbooks.

 

I'll be over here hoping they are smart enough to do with Hoiberg similarity what they did with Frost. Add a year on to his contract but keep the total dollar amount as is. Essentially making this season a free season and he can earn the extra year becoming equal to an extra 9M if he makes or wins a game in the ncaa tournament in the next 2 seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HuskerFever]

All 358 NCAA teams experienced COVID. That's not unusual.

 

What's unusual is losing so much that's you're literally the worst coach in Nebraska basketball history and refuse to adapt your philosophy or in-game schemes to have a fighting chance in the league.

 

Hoiberg is much like Frost where he came into the league with a vastly different philosophy than the rest of the Big Ten and thought he could come in and roll over some of these teams. You look at a guy like Painter who is adamant about recruiting true centers and refuses to run zone because that's what works in the Big Ten but zone would work better in a league like the old Big East. That's a coach who exhibits situational awareness about the league he's in and adapts.

 

Hoiberg hasn't exhibited that he can (or will) adapt. Even if we get our best recruiting classes every year, it's likely to flop until we find guys who can actually translate that into ~45% FG / ~35% 3P and can put in at least a moderate amount of defensive effort.

[jimmykc]

Blackshirt83=upvote for effort

[throwback]

1 hour ago, Blackshirt83 said:

Why is it dumb to fire Hoiberg? We fired Tim Miles after 7 years despite winning 13 big ten games and making the NIT. Hoiberg was considered a homerun hire, so much so that he was given a massive buyout so nobody would steal him away. With an amazing staff and one of the best recruiters in the country and a fantastic defensive assistant. That's what we were told right?

 

(If you don't want to read this entire thing there's a short synopsis at the end. Skip to that if you want the summarized version.

.....

I don't. And you could write another 100,000 words, and it wouldn't matter. Fred has done nothing on the floor to warrant keeping his job. He has been a complete failure, even for a program with only the most minimal goals, hopes, and dreams. 

 

(Although, kudos, you've put far more effort into your multiple "keep Fred" posts than he appears to have put into coaching, disciplining, and demanding more out of this team.)

 

Now if Trev ends up having to keep him because the payout is too great or because he is going to have to spend too much time and effort putting out fires in football and now women's basketball, then it'll happen. It won't be justified on any level, though. 

 

(And, on a side note, are we now being paid by the word around here? These recent lengthy odes to Fred are making me wonder if I missed a memo about pay by the word. If so, I certainly can become far more verbose. Far, far, far more verbose. Seriously. Far more verbose. Far. More. Verbose. You've been warned.)

 

[HuskerFever]

12 minutes ago, throwback said:

(And, on a side note, are we now being paid by the word around here? These recent lengthy odes to Fred are making me wonder if I missed a memo about pay by the word. If so, I certainly can become far more verbose. Far, far, far more verbose. Seriously. Far more verbose. Far. More. Verbose. You've been warned.)

 

Yes.

[49r]

2 hours ago, Blackshirt83 said:

but it has also been 3 years of incredibly unique and difficult situations

 

Counterpoint: Greg McDermott turned over roughly 1000% of his roster after last season (after also making a horribly racist faux pas that lost him the best recruit Creighton has ever had committed) and yet here he is sitting at 18-8 (10-5) and looking like a potential bubble team if he can pull of another couple of upsets in the last month...

[hhcmatt]

13 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

 

Yes.

[Ron Mexico]

2 hours ago, Blackshirt83 said:

Why is it dumb to fire Hoiberg? We fired Tim Miles after 7 years despite winning 13 big ten games and making the NIT. Hoiberg was considered a homerun hire, so much so that he was given a massive buyout so nobody would steal him away. With an amazing staff and one of the best recruiters in the country and a fantastic defensive assistant. That's what we were told right?

 

(If you don't want to read this entire thing there's a short synopsis at the end. Skip to that if you want the summarized version.

 

Year 1 he inherited a roster with 13 departures. Inheriting 2 guys. One ofwhich was a basketball player.) And though he wasn't hired until Miles coached all the way through the Big Ten Tournament and the first round of the NIT it was OK because this first class was just a stepping stone class. They were going to get plenty of time to build the team over the next few years. Right? Lol.

 

Despite the short timeframe and huge numbers that 1st class wasn't awful. Banton, Walker, Cheatham and Stevenson were all at worst decent enough transfers and at best legitimate NBA talent0. And just like that in 1 off-season this staff already brought in as many NBA draft picks as Miles did in 7 years. Getting the 52nd ranked class at Nebraska is really impressive. Expecially considering the timeframe and need to essentially recruit an entire team in a few months. At least they inherited some star power to ease the transition. I kid, Thor ended up being a legitimately solid player and great team player. But when he's the headline of your returning roster, you're not exactly being handed the keys to a Ferrari. 

 

The non transfer class, less good. Green, Mack, Arop, Oedraogo, Curtis and Cross wasn't a good class. Some were talented and some really good even but the headline was Cam Mack. Every one wanted him, none thought we would land him. Every coach in the same position would take the him. Unfortunately you can't recruit the player and opt out on the mother.

 

They won 2 conference games and we're not very good. But it wasn't all terrible. There was optimism that if they could recruit that level of talent in that situation they would do well once they got a real recruiting season and in a few years they should be pretty good.  But it was going to take a minute as they were starting from absolute zero. Returning basically nothing from the previous staff and having to borrow players from the football team to get enough healthy players for the Big Ten Tournament.

 

Then Covid hit. 

 

Burke got suspended and transferred, Green transferred, Mack, Cross, Curtis, transfered. Some were just bad fits but covid played a part.

 

McGowans and Webster transferred in, so did Lakes and Mcgraw. 50% isn't bad. Would have been nice if Lakes' shooting transferred with him.

 

A small class. Teddy Allen, Lat Mayan, Edwardo Andre, Elijah Wood. Would have been a perfectly solid class if Teddy was not Teddy. Unfortunately everyone knew what you were getting into with him. Most programs stayed away. Nebraska might have too if he wasn't a boystown kid playing with the cougars of Western Nebraska Community College and we weren't starving for a playmaker. Second time in a row rolling the dice on a talented kid with red flags. 0-2 and a team and ball killing disaster. Maybe The last one was a risk absolutely worth taking. This one? I don't know, but imagine if they passed and he figures things out and became a star point guard somewhere, say LSUwhere he leads them to an out of nowhere national championship, goes pro and ends up starting the super bo.. I mean NBA playoffs. 

 

They started with a nice 50 point win against a completely overmatched Mcneese team only to fall flat on their face losing 66-69 to a Nevada team that at year end wasn't a horrible loss but at the time it was a shot right in the solar plexus. They looked better in a pair of wins against the Dakotas. Then came the trouble. A covid cancelation of the Florida A&M game saw a schedule of losses against 

No. 9 Wisconsin 

No. 19 Michigan 

No. 25 Ohio State

No. 17 Michigan State

 

Following that the Purdue game got canceled due to Covid. This resulted in a month long shutdown of the Nebraska program. Half the team, roster and coaching staff ended up with covid.

 

They finally resumed play with a game on the road against Michigan State on 

February 6th. They would end up playing 14 games over the next month finishing March 7th at Northwestern. Somehow they ended up winning 3 games despite barely getting to practice and losing Teddy Allen in the middle of all that. Most of the time the first time they went over scouting the next team was during pregame warmup for the game against the team they were preparing for. Despite being worn out and playing an 11th ranked Penn State they nearly pulled off the upset just running out of gas in the final minutes.

 

 

*the ncaa decided that the 2020-21 season would not count towards eligibility.

 

However along with Teddy Allen leaving, Nebraska would get a big blow as Delano Banton would decide to go leave early and head to the NBA. (Can you imagine Banton as a 5th year senior on this team?)

 

Along with those two stars Nebraska also lost

Akol Arop

Bret Porter

Yvan Ouedraogo

Shamiel Stevenson

Elijah Wood

And Thorir Thorbjarnarson

 

Incoming transfers included

CJ Wilcher 

Alonzo Verge

Keon Edwards

 

They Also brought in Wilhelm Breidenbach, Oleg Kojenets, Quaran McPherson, keisei Tominaga and Bryce McGowans. 

 

A top 20 class and the two higest ranked recruits on record in the modern era of Nebraska Basketball. Nebraska was expected to make some noise though not as much as you would think, only because the conference was pretty deep and talented. So why did it fail so hard?

 

Well the 2nd highest rated recruit on record, Wilhelm Breidenbach got injured early and is out for the year. The two best players who score the most points and demand the most touches do not like each other and let it fracture the team. USUALLY I would say this is on the coaches for recruiting players whom didn't mesh well together. But this was a special circumstance. With covid there was far less player interaction and Verge is a guy who was only available because he got this extra year from covid and decided to transfer very late in the recruiting cycle.  There were a lot of coaching, development, recruiting and discipline issues this season. This is a bad team with a lot of issues that plays soft and way below their talent level.

 

But that's the thing. None of these past 4 years were at all typical. We landed one of the supposedly best hires in college basketball. Have the highest recruiting rankings in the modern history of the program .. and people can say they are bad fits and they star chase, but the classes don't really bear that out. There were a few big names that everyone would have signed sure, but it's mostly 3 stars who came from all over the map and a handful of transfers. We remember the failures but forget about the successes, and most of the fails were guys everyone was falling over themselves to get. With two very noticeable and big exceptions. Though even then most people are bringing at least one if not both of them in too.

 

 

Year 1

Complete roster had to be recruited in a short timeframe. Only 2 returning players and only one played basketball- Thor Thorbjarnarson. Team was not good but they played hard and there were a few bright spots.

 

Covid ended the season with no tournament. Several unexpected losses due to several factors but Covid played a part in many, just not in the biggest one.

Burke, Green, Mack, Cross, Curtis all transfered.

 

Year 2

Teddy

5 big ten games against ranked teams followed by a month off where half the team gets covid. 14 games in 4 weeks ending in a near upset of 11th ranked Penn State to end season.

 

Year 3.

Late addition of a dynamic covid year transfer derailed chemistry because of expectations changing. Leads to division of the team between the two best players who also were the two shot.callers and decision makers. Lots of errors in coaching, development, discipline, Accountability, recruiting for fit and leadership.

 

That's it. 3 years, not a single one could be considered typical. Starting with no roster the year covid hit was a huge blow, there's been several blows that set them back but despite the look of it right now there's improvement. They can build a good team around Breidenbach next year and start to get back to normal basketball. 

 

This was supposed to be a homerun hire and it's been pretty awful but it has also been 3 years of incredibly unique and difficult situations. If this is Duke or Kentucky? Fire him. He should succeed despite the incredibly crazy situation each season has had to deal with that had nothing to do with the basketball program or even the school. But at Nebraska? You can fire them and start over with a new coach and a brand new team next year...

 

Or you roll the dice on the homerun proven coach who's staff has been able to recruit the highest rated players in modern history. Give them a chance to do something for a couple years of typical basketball operations. And hope they can build on what is here and fix the issues that they have control over that have been identified the past couple of years.

 

But if you fire Hoiberg, don't expect them to spend much money on his replacement. They have to pay A hefty buyout and are going to be holding most of their hiring budget for if they need to fire Frost. Enjoy your new b tier mid major coaching staff. Because we might have a football coach to hire and that's what really matters to the guys with the checkbooks.

 

I'll be over here hoping they are smart enough to do with Hoiberg similarity what they did with Frost. Add a year on to his contract but keep the total dollar amount as is. Essentially making this season a free season and he can earn the extra year becoming equal to an extra 9M if he makes or wins a game in the ncaa tournament in the next 2 seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honestly, I'll concede the bad luck with roster turnover, C19, etc. None of that explain what we are witnessing on the court. Count the number of +20pt losses, count the number of +15pt losses, and the number of +10pt losses. How many times has this team actually outrebounded our opponent? 

Throw all of that out the window, because nothing this team does on the court passes the eyeball test. We have all watched them play many games this seasons. 

We've all watched this team play many games over the last 3 seasons.

Watch how they play together. Look at their effort. Look at the team chemistry. Look at the lack of discipline and accountability. 

I'd be more than willing to give him a pass due to some "bad luck" as described in your post. What I won't give him a pass on is what I see on the court. That is all on Fred and it has been there since the 1st season. We've all ignored it because we have been giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Can you, or anyone who thinks like this, point to anything you've seen on the court that gives you hope based on what you've seen the last  3 yrs?

 

[HuskerFever]

18 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

That explains why I haven't been seeing $0.25 drop into my ebays yet.

[HB]

2 hours ago, jimmykc said:

Blackshirt83=upvote for effort

Offset by overthinking 101 and excuse making.

[hskr4life]

3 hours ago, Blackshirt83 said:

Why is it dumb to fire Hoiberg? We fired Tim Miles after 7 years despite winning 13 big ten games and making the NIT. Hoiberg was considered a homerun hire, so much so that he was given a massive buyout so nobody would steal him away. With an amazing staff and one of the best recruiters in the country and a fantastic defensive assistant. That's what we were told right?

 

(If you don't want to read this entire thing there's a short synopsis at the end. Skip to that if you want the summarized version.

 

Year 1 he inherited a roster with 13 departures. Inheriting 2 guys. One ofwhich was a basketball player.) And though he wasn't hired until Miles coached all the way through the Big Ten Tournament and the first round of the NIT it was OK because this first class was just a stepping stone class. They were going to get plenty of time to build the team over the next few years. Right? Lol.

 

Despite the short timeframe and huge numbers that 1st class wasn't awful. Banton, Walker, Cheatham and Stevenson were all at worst decent enough transfers and at best legitimate NBA talent0. And just like that in 1 off-season this staff already brought in as many NBA draft picks as Miles did in 7 years. Getting the 52nd ranked class at Nebraska is really impressive. Expecially considering the timeframe and need to essentially recruit an entire team in a few months. At least they inherited some star power to ease the transition. I kid, Thor ended up being a legitimately solid player and great team player. But when he's the headline of your returning roster, you're not exactly being handed the keys to a Ferrari. 

 

The non transfer class, less good. Green, Mack, Arop, Oedraogo, Curtis and Cross wasn't a good class. Some were talented and some really good even but the headline was Cam Mack. Every one wanted him, none thought we would land him. Every coach in the same position would take the him. Unfortunately you can't recruit the player and opt out on the mother.

 

They won 2 conference games and we're not very good. But it wasn't all terrible. There was optimism that if they could recruit that level of talent in that situation they would do well once they got a real recruiting season and in a few years they should be pretty good.  But it was going to take a minute as they were starting from absolute zero. Returning basically nothing from the previous staff and having to borrow players from the football team to get enough healthy players for the Big Ten Tournament.

 

Then Covid hit. 

 

Burke got suspended and transferred, Green transferred, Mack, Cross, Curtis, transfered. Some were just bad fits but covid played a part.

 

McGowans and Webster transferred in, so did Lakes and Mcgraw. 50% isn't bad. Would have been nice if Lakes' shooting transferred with him.

 

A small class. Teddy Allen, Lat Mayan, Edwardo Andre, Elijah Wood. Would have been a perfectly solid class if Teddy was not Teddy. Unfortunately everyone knew what you were getting into with him. Most programs stayed away. Nebraska might have too if he wasn't a boystown kid playing with the cougars of Western Nebraska Community College and we weren't starving for a playmaker. Second time in a row rolling the dice on a talented kid with red flags. 0-2 and a team and ball killing disaster. Maybe The last one was a risk absolutely worth taking. This one? I don't know, but imagine if they passed and he figures things out and became a star point guard somewhere, say LSUwhere he leads them to an out of nowhere national championship, goes pro and ends up starting the super bo.. I mean NBA playoffs. 

 

They started with a nice 50 point win against a completely overmatched Mcneese team only to fall flat on their face losing 66-69 to a Nevada team that at year end wasn't a horrible loss but at the time it was a shot right in the solar plexus. They looked better in a pair of wins against the Dakotas. Then came the trouble. A covid cancelation of the Florida A&M game saw a schedule of losses against 

No. 9 Wisconsin 

No. 19 Michigan 

No. 25 Ohio State

No. 17 Michigan State

 

Following that the Purdue game got canceled due to Covid. This resulted in a month long shutdown of the Nebraska program. Half the team, roster and coaching staff ended up with covid.

 

They finally resumed play with a game on the road against Michigan State on 

February 6th. They would end up playing 14 games over the next month finishing March 7th at Northwestern. Somehow they ended up winning 3 games despite barely getting to practice and losing Teddy Allen in the middle of all that. Most of the time the first time they went over scouting the next team was during pregame warmup for the game against the team they were preparing for. Despite being worn out and playing an 11th ranked Penn State they nearly pulled off the upset just running out of gas in the final minutes.

 

 

*the ncaa decided that the 2020-21 season would not count towards eligibility.

 

However along with Teddy Allen leaving, Nebraska would get a big blow as Delano Banton would decide to go leave early and head to the NBA. (Can you imagine Banton as a 5th year senior on this team?)

 

Along with those two stars Nebraska also lost

Akol Arop

Bret Porter

Yvan Ouedraogo

Shamiel Stevenson

Elijah Wood

And Thorir Thorbjarnarson

 

Incoming transfers included

CJ Wilcher 

Alonzo Verge

Keon Edwards

 

They Also brought in Wilhelm Breidenbach, Oleg Kojenets, Quaran McPherson, keisei Tominaga and Bryce McGowans. 

 

A top 20 class and the two higest ranked recruits on record in the modern era of Nebraska Basketball. Nebraska was expected to make some noise though not as much as you would think, only because the conference was pretty deep and talented. So why did it fail so hard?

 

Well the 2nd highest rated recruit on record, Wilhelm Breidenbach got injured early and is out for the year. The two best players who score the most points and demand the most touches do not like each other and let it fracture the team. USUALLY I would say this is on the coaches for recruiting players whom didn't mesh well together. But this was a special circumstance. With covid there was far less player interaction and Verge is a guy who was only available because he got this extra year from covid and decided to transfer very late in the recruiting cycle.  There were a lot of coaching, development, recruiting and discipline issues this season. This is a bad team with a lot of issues that plays soft and way below their talent level.

 

But that's the thing. None of these past 4 years were at all typical. We landed one of the supposedly best hires in college basketball. Have the highest recruiting rankings in the modern history of the program .. and people can say they are bad fits and they star chase, but the classes don't really bear that out. There were a few big names that everyone would have signed sure, but it's mostly 3 stars who came from all over the map and a handful of transfers. We remember the failures but forget about the successes, and most of the fails were guys everyone was falling over themselves to get. With two very noticeable and big exceptions. Though even then most people are bringing at least one if not both of them in too.

 

 

Year 1

Complete roster had to be recruited in a short timeframe. Only 2 returning players and only one played basketball- Thor Thorbjarnarson. Team was not good but they played hard and there were a few bright spots.

 

Covid ended the season with no tournament. Several unexpected losses due to several factors but Covid played a part in many, just not in the biggest one.

Burke, Green, Mack, Cross, Curtis all transfered.

 

Year 2

Teddy

5 big ten games against ranked teams followed by a month off where half the team gets covid. 14 games in 4 weeks ending in a near upset of 11th ranked Penn State to end season.

 

Year 3.

Late addition of a dynamic covid year transfer derailed chemistry because of expectations changing. Leads to division of the team between the two best players who also were the two shot.callers and decision makers. Lots of errors in coaching, development, discipline, Accountability, recruiting for fit and leadership.

 

That's it. 3 years, not a single one could be considered typical. Starting with no roster the year covid hit was a huge blow, there's been several blows that set them back but despite the look of it right now there's improvement. They can build a good team around Breidenbach next year and start to get back to normal basketball. 

 

This was supposed to be a homerun hire and it's been pretty awful but it has also been 3 years of incredibly unique and difficult situations. If this is Duke or Kentucky? Fire him. He should succeed despite the incredibly crazy situation each season has had to deal with that had nothing to do with the basketball program or even the school. But at Nebraska? You can fire them and start over with a new coach and a brand new team next year...

 

Or you roll the dice on the homerun proven coach who's staff has been able to recruit the highest rated players in modern history. Give them a chance to do something for a couple years of typical basketball operations. And hope they can build on what is here and fix the issues that they have control over that have been identified the past couple of years.

 

But if you fire Hoiberg, don't expect them to spend much money on his replacement. They have to pay A hefty buyout and are going to be holding most of their hiring budget for if they need to fire Frost. Enjoy your new b tier mid major coaching staff. Because we might have a football coach to hire and that's what really matters to the guys with the checkbooks.

 

I'll be over here hoping they are smart enough to do with Hoiberg similarity what they did with Frost. Add a year on to his contract but keep the total dollar amount as is. Essentially making this season a free season and he can earn the extra year becoming equal to an extra 9M if he makes or wins a game in the ncaa tournament in the next 2 seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I appreciate the effort into this post.  I read the whole thing and you bring up some good points.  A few problems I have that is leading me more toward the getting rid of direction…

 

1.  A lot of what you mention describes wins and losses.  But for many, it goes deeper than just our W and L record.  It’s the way we are winning and losing games.  The uncompetitive, disorganized, lack of effort schlackings we are taking at the hands of Northwestern, Rutgers, and Michigan are really bad.

 

2.  Sure we’ve had roster turnover, but why improvements and changes have we truly made?  We’re stagnant.  Consistent (7 wins each year so far), but stagnant.  We have the (should be) Big 10 Frosh of the year.  We had a full team with the two highest rated recruits of all time.  And we still lost to Western Illinois.  Nothing this season so far has shown improvements unfortunately.  Tonight’s a chance to take a step in that direction.  Our shiny home win over Minnesota isn’t something to hang our hat on and it doesn’t seem to have done much to turn the tide.

Edited February 22, 2022 by hskr4life

[HB]

Build a good team around Briedenbach next season??   He looks like a decent player who actually tries and plays the game the right way, but you're not building a Big 10 winner with him as the #1 guy....I'll have what Blackshirt is smoking.