Offseason

[TourneyBound]

I know the offseason always gets overblown and doesn't really mean much when you are only winning 9-12 games a year...  But I really like what Fred has done with his staff this offseason.  If he can somehow pull in Parker and maybe get Braelon Green.  That would be a pretty crazy recruiting haul considering our record over the last couple years.  That being said I'm just not very optimistic in the upcoming season.  Hard for me to get real excited about it.  Since Trev has fired Frost would he be a little more tentative to fire another coach this year or not?  What's everyone think?  Are you willing to give Fred and this staff an extra year or are ya done with Fred regardless if he isnt over .500?  Just curious everone's thoughts.

[OmahaHusker]

I agree I like what he's done with the roster and staff, but if he's not over .500 it's over. 

[cornfed24-7]

I think there's a snowballs chance in hell he's over .500 this year. And since you asked (I'm sure its obvious from my other posts on this subject) if I were Trev I'd have already shown Hoiberg the door. That said I think this year will be the most enjoyable losing season of his tenure to watch

[huskerbill85]

He's as good as gone

[HuskerFever]

1 hour ago, OmahaHusker said:

I agree I like what he's done with the roster and staff, but if he's not over .500 it's over. 

 

1 hour ago, cornfed24-7 said:

I think there's a snowballs chance in hell he's over .500 this year. And since you asked (I'm sure its obvious from my other posts on this subject) if I were Trev I'd have already shown Hoiberg the door. That said I think this year will be the most enjoyable losing season of his tenure to watch

 

38 minutes ago, huskerbill85 said:

He's as good as gone

 

"But what if Howard/Loenser/Ziegler takes the team to the NIT??"

[Cazzie22]

If the team shows progress, is competitive and has a losing season then Fred might have a chance to return.  However, if the same desultory product is displayed while losing then it’s time to make the change.

[cornfed24-7]

5 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

 

 

 

"But what if Howard/Loenser/Ziegler takes the team to the NIT??"

That would be awesome! But I suspect the battle that plays out this season is "Does this team reach the double digit win column?"

[TourneyBound]

With the schedule, I guess I just don't see anyway he is over .500 so was just curious.  I'm sure by February I will be on the "Fire Hoiberg" bus but right now I am liking what he's doing and done so far this offseason.

[kldm64]

Obviously, even is disappointed with Fred's results (just like with Frost).  However, there are some things to like such as Fred's willingness to play a touch non-conference schedule even though he knows his job is on the line.  I'd take that over watching the schedule Doc used to throw at us.  He'd schedule all cupcakes just to rack up wins whereas Fred is more about trying to get quality wins and challenge his team.  Fred is a very well respected coach and his name still carries alot of weight with recruits.  If Frost got a 5th year, then I think regardless, Fred deserves a 5th year as well (especially if he can close the deal with Parker).  That kid is a player and a difference maker.  

 

With that being said, I really think we can roll out a very solid 5 or 6 players and be competitive

CJ Wilcher = Lost weight and has a nice stroke from deep

Ramel Lloyd = Think this kid is a sleeper and will a solid guard for us this year

Juwan Gary = Very athletic and can bed streaky good when needed

Derrick Walker = Just solid and only got better as season when on

Blaise Keita = All around good low post player.  Just needs to adapt to physical play in Big 10

Emmanuel Bandoumel = Has lots of experience and 83% free throw shooter

Wilhelm Breidenbach = Was really starting to play well and be a factor when he got hurt.  Kid can really battle down low

 

[49r]

https://barttorvik.com/team.php?team=Nebraska&year=2023

[hskr4life]

Personally— I do think frosts firing has a little effect on Fred.  If we’re 13-15 win range and competitive in our losses, I think there’s a chance he comes back.  It’s a little easier to justify.

 

Now if ticket sales and concessions are awful… that 13-15 wins looks less pretty.  I’m already getting “pick 6 games for $30” offers….

[NUdiehard]

5 hours ago, OmahaHusker said:

I agree I like what he's done with the roster and staff, but if he's not over .500 it's over. 

 

That is a very high bar.  Considering NU's extremely difficult schedule, if NU finishes above .500 they almost certainly are an NCAA bubble team and possibly even in the tourney.  

[NUdiehard]

29 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

Personally— I do think frosts firing has a little effect on Fred.  If we’re 13-15 win range and competitive in our losses, I think there’s a chance he comes back.  It’s a little easier to justify.

 

Now if ticket sales and concessions are awful… that 13-15 wins looks less pretty.  I’m already getting “pick 6 games for $30” offers….

 

13-15 wins would be a pretty high achievement all things considered.  According to the bartorvic projections posted by 49r, NU is projected to be the #90 team in the country, and yet still is only favored to win 10 games all season.  Bartorvic averages that out to a 13-17 record.  Finishing #90 overall would mean NU should be an NIT team or at worst a bubble NIT team.  Considering the past 3 years, this would be massive progress.

 

As for 15 wins, I challenge you to list out any combination of 15 wins this season that doesn't look impressive, or are least a massive step up from the past 3 years.  If NU were to get 15 wins, with only 4 cupcakes on the schedule, this would mean 10-11 wins over power 5 schools, and probably a few nice road wins.  If they get 15 wins with this schedule, I imagine their Kenpom would be in the top 60, or close thereto.  Of course, some of this depends on how the other B1G teams shake out this year, but based on previous years and this year's projections that seems about right.  Heck, as said above, just 16 wins might even put NU on the bubble.  

 

If this team can get at least 12 wins, I think the fans will stick with them because that will mean they beat at least 8 power 5 teams with effort and scrappy play.  That is a significant step up from the last 3 years and should be more than enough for Fred to return.  

[75unlgrad]

I would like to see Fred retained for another year if we show reasonable progress (player development and 10 to 12 wins).  I agree with kldm64's post that we have five to six players that are competitive.  I would love to see our next recruiting class to be Eli Rice, Parker Friedrichsen, Braelon Green, and a power forward.  That would keep Fred around for another year.

[NUdiehard]

7 hours ago, ConkintheCorner said:

I know the offseason always gets overblown and doesn't really mean much when you are only winning 9-12 games a year...  But I really like what Fred has done with his staff this offseason.  If he can somehow pull in Parker and maybe get Braelon Green.  That would be a pretty crazy recruiting haul considering our record over the last couple years.  That being said I'm just not very optimistic in the upcoming season.  Hard for me to get real excited about it.  Since Trev has fired Frost would he be a little more tentative to fire another coach this year or not?  What's everyone think?  Are you willing to give Fred and this staff an extra year or are ya done with Fred regardless if he isnt over .500?  Just curious everone's thoughts.

 

Fred's recruiting classes appear to have improved each season.  As we all know, his first class was a disaster.  But we also know that he took over in April and had to completely revamp the entire roster.  He was left with bare cupboards and could not fill them in such short time.  Seems that should be somewhat a pass.

 

Next year's recruiting class was not much better.  But it was also during covid madness and coaches weren't even allowed to travel or bring in recruits.  And the actual covid season was also a mess with canceled games, etc.

 

His third recruiting class (last year's class) was much improved.  The (short) McGowens era certainly did not work out well, but in addition to the 5 star, that class also included Wilcher (4 star-top 150) and Wilhelm (4 star-top 150).  But as we know, Wilhelm got hurt in just his 5th game so we couldn't see him develop last year.  Also had young but potential role players in Keisei, Dawson, Oleg and McPherson.

 

This year's recruiting class looks even better.  Sure, we don't know anything until they play on the court.  But Lloyd (top 100 in 247sports composite), Keita (Rivals 4 star, top 5 juco) and Lawrence (top 200 recruit), to go along with the 3 transfers who all seem to be team-oriented hustle guys.

 

If Fred could land Parker and/or Green, that would be another step up.   We also see that Fred is scouting and offering high level recruits.   There are also a lot of reports of Fred himself being very active on the recruiting trail.  Even this seems a step up from the first few years. 

 

Does Fred now have to actually start to show improvement on the court.  Absolutely.  But rigid win/loss requirements may not tell the whole picture.  What is the young recruits--Wilcher, Lloyd, Keita, Lawrence, Wilhelm, etc., are all playing hard, together and showing a lot of promise.  Is it worth blowing everything up and starting even if the entire team is playing hard, together and as a unit, but coming up just short?  Also, it seems important to remember that a possible cancer coach was removed last year.  Maybe this is like starting over, giving this new coaching staff a chance to show what they can do.    

Edited September 17, 2022 by NUdiehard

[huskerbill85]

6 hours ago, HuskerFever said:

 

 

 

"But what if Howard/Loenser/Ziegler takes the team to the NIT??"

I would love for that to happen but is this even our most talented team? On paper I would take The McGowens Brothers & Verge over this years or team or alot of Husker teams the last 15 years. Which makes it even more baffling they were THAT bad last year. I would be love to be wrong but if it's a toxic culture thing that unfortunately takes some time to cleanse. 

[huskerbill85]

59 minutes ago, NUdiehard said:

 

Fred's recruiting classes appear to have improved each season.  As we all know, his first class was a disaster.  But we also know that he took over in April and had to completely revamp the entire roster.  He was left with bare cupboards and could not fill them in such short time.  Seems that should be somewhat a pass.

 

Next year's recruiting class was not much better.  But it was also during covid madness and coaches weren't even allowed to travel or bring in recruits.  And the actual covid season was also a mess with canceled games, etc.

 

His third recruiting class (last year's class) was much improved.  The (short) McGowens era certainly did not work out well, but in addition to the 5 star, that class also included Wilcher (4 star-top 150) and Wilhelm (4 star-top 150).  But as we know, Wilhelm got hurt in just his 5th game so we couldn't see him develop last year.  Also had young but potential role players in Keisei, Dawson, Oleg and McPherson.

 

This year's recruiting class looks even better.  Sure, we don't know anything until they play on the court.  But Lloyd (top 100 in 247sports composite), Keita (Rivals 4 star, top 5 juco) and Lawrence (top 200 recruit), to go along with the 3 transfers who all seem to be team-oriented hustle guys.

 

If Fred could land Parker and/or Green, that would be another step up.   We also see that Fred is scouting and offering high level recruits.   There are also a lot of reports of Fred himself being very active on the recruiting trail.  Even this seems a step up from the first few years. 

 

Does Fred now have to actually start to show improvement on the court.  Absolutely.  But rigid win/loss requirements may not tell the whole picture.  What is the young recruits--Wilcher, Lloyd, Keita, Lawrence, Wilhelm, etc., are all playing hard, together and showing a lot of promise.  Is it worth blowing everything up and starting even if the entire team is playing hard, together and as a unit, but coming up just short?  Also, it seems important to remember that a possible cancer coach was removed last year.  Maybe this is like starting over, giving this new coaching staff a chance to show what they can do.    

Very good write up! I'm curious who was the  the cancer coach you speak of? And what were they doing?

[busticket]

12 hours ago, huskerbill85 said:

 if it's a toxic culture thing that unfortunately takes some time to cleanse. 

 

 

sincerely,

 

Scott Frost

 

[Handy Johnson]

Word on the Street is Bandoumel was tearing it up in practice yesterday. Walker/Keita still seeing a lot of floor time together. Looks like this years mantra could be Go Big, or Go Home…

[NUdiehard]

Ramel Lloyd’s dad posted a 10 second clip from Saturday’s practice. It was far away and grainy, but it looked like the red (starters?) were Griesel, Brando, Wilcher, Wilhelm and Walker. 
 

Lloyd was running PG for the whites. 

[CrazyforNUHOOPS]

15 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

Word on the Street is Bandoumel was tearing it up in practice yesterday. Walker/Keita still seeing a lot of floor time together. Looks like this years mantra could be Go Big, or Go Home…

The only time they’ve seen the floor together is when one is red and the other is white.  Your word on the street is sourced extremely poorly. 

[jimmykc]

Who is thees "Word on the Street" of whom you speak?

[Bugeaters1]

12 minutes ago, jimmykc said:

Who is thees "Word on the Street" of whom you speak?

 

[hhcmatt]

Last year was the 'greatest class of all time' or something of that nature so I'm not real sure I'm buying that this year's group of guys who wouldn't crack the top 2-3 list of recruits to places like Michigan and Ohio St is going to set the world on fire. There are always guys though and sometimes they surprise in the good way but I don't think we're going to Jimmy and Joe most of the teams we face this year.

 

We're trying to figure out if Hoiberg is the guy and part of that was cleaning house on the assistants. If we're lucky, the biggest thing holding us back was a dysfunctional and general lack of chemistry. I'd agree that in lieu of actually winning, rolling out a team like Minnesota last year where they didn't win a lot of games but they busted ass and played like a team would lead us to believe that we might actually have the right coach.

[mkroll12345]

Feels like we are going into year one in year 4, which is not where any of us had this ending up lmao, however to hhcmatts point If I see a hustle, effort, and just general teamwork like Minnesota that wasnt apparent last year especially I will feel a lot better keeping him on